OT Avatar User ID genisis of your collection

[Lordstan]

Mike,
Great story. It's the type of emotional connection we all have to this stuff. Those are the memories we all cherish.

Many think my name is Stan, but my screen name comes from the Stanley Cup. "Lord Stan" When I grew up my connection to sports was forged, like most I assume, through my father. He was a NY Giants fan that became a Mets Fan in 1962. He was an equally passionate NY football Giants and NY Knicks fan, but I think deep down, the thing that really got him going was the Rangers. He was at one of the Sc final games in 1940(the last time they won the cup prior to 1994) In a sports sense seeing them win the cup in 1994 made his life complete. Later that year, my wife and I got our first dog together. I named him, in keeping with all the fru-fru hoidy-toidy purebread German Shepherd naming tradition, Lord Stanley of The Rangers. Ever since then my internet screen name on every board has been Lordstan. Unfortunately, my father passed away in 1995 and Stanley, as we called him, passed away in 2004. In a sense the name keeps me connected with both.

My avatar is my daughter. It shows her doing a dance/gymnastics move called a ring leap.

Interestingly, neither my screen name nor my avatar connect directly to what I collect. I collect Lou Gehrig items mostly. I connected with him as a young man because he seemed like someone who really lived up to what a hero should be, professionally and personally.

Mark

[mcgwirecom]

My avatar is obviously Joe DiMaggio and I.

I started collecting after my first divorce in 1993. I always wanted to get a DiMaggio autograph, but at that time the price was $300+ for a real one. I found out Joe was signing in AC for $350. So I made the trip so I could meet him. At that time he was the connection between the old days and modern baseball. He played with Gehrig and Mantle both.

At the show I was near the end of the line and I watched as person after person would take a photo of Joe as he signed their items. People were talking about how you had to watch what you say to him and that he wouldn't sign this or that. It seemed like everyone was afraid of him, or that they were meeting God himself. I wanted to be in the photo with him so I asked the guy behind me to wait until I got to lean across the table so I could get in the picture with him. After he signed my ball I said "hey Joe, can I get a picture with you?" He stopped signing, looked up at me and kind of gave me a once over look. Then he said " sure, come around." I didn't even know what to do. The table was set up so it was really long, but I found my way around it finally and got this picture. I think I may have been the only one to get to pose with him. It's not that I collect DiMaggio, I actually collect McGwire mostly, but he was one of the few living legends I got to meet.

[parker1b2]

My Avatar is a lithograph of Crosley Field.

I collect a broad range of Baseball Memorabilia, with no real true focus. The main part of the auto side is around HOFers, but try to collect a little of everything. Thanks to this board, I have been really getting into a lot more of the earlier stuff then I have in the past.

The reason I chose my avatar was to in a way honor my grandfather and father, who really got me into collecting. I grew up in NJ and a Yankees fan, while my father grew up in Indiana and him and my grandfather were huge Reds fans. This lithograph used to hang in my grandfathers house, and we would visit him every summer and I remember just always looking at it as he would tell me stories about Crosley field and the old days of baseball and the players. When he passed in 1994, my father took it off his wall and said that my grandfather wanted me to have it. So that is why I chose it.

[Leon]

I moved this thread to the front page to get some more views as it's an interesting topic for everyone. My avatar changes over time and is solely cards I like. No rhyme or reason.

[kmac32]

My avitar is actually my great great uncle Elmer Miller. Played for the 1921 Yankees and was the first yankee to ever get a hit in a World Series and he later scored that inning becoming the first Yankee to ever score a run in a World Series. This lead to my E 121 yankees and giants collection

As to the name, at Cubs camp, they started calling me Kenny Mac or shortened to Kmac and the 32 was my jersey number which was the same as Rich Nye's jersey number who was a left handed pitcher for the 1969 Cubs who later went on to become a veterinarian. I am a veterinarinan, left handed, and went on to become a catcher. Kind of Rich Nye in reverse.

[Jeffrompa]

Great idea for a thread !

Mine is a RPPC someone made from a Billy Sunday Cabinet card . I am not really sure of the age but it combines the two things I really like . The 1880's baseball players and Postcards .

[itjclarke]

Great story '71 Buc. My favorite vintage/past player to collect as a kid was Roberto Clemente. I'm not old enough to have seen them play, but those Pirates teams ('79 too) seem like they really appealing and easy to root for.

My username is pretty self explanatory (initials and last name). My avatar is photo I took 7-8 years ago of my safe deposit box (visible- a couple Goudey Ruths, '54 Aaron, Cobb bat off, '53 Mantle, etc). At that time my collection was 99% raw and everything fit pretty easily in top loaders. My pick ups since then have been been about 80-90% graded, so I've had to do a lot of swapping within that box. Also have now have many cards locked away elsewhere in a couple safe places.

[almostdone]

Great idea for a thread. I often wonder some of the stories behind names as well as aviators.

A while ago I was completing a near ten year journey to have a card of every Hall Of Famer from the 1909 on. I did this by wheeling and dealing on an extremly tight budget. I was down to one player left, Honus Wagner. I did most of my findings on eBay but couldn't come up with a card in my budget. Finally one popped up, a 1914 Polo Grounds. I contacted the seller to get some more info about the card. Through our messaging he mentioned he had tried for a month to "sell on Net54" but had no takers. I had never heard of this site so while the auction was still on I checked out the site, was blown away and joined. When I needed a user name I sat in front of my computer and all I could think of was "I'm almost done". I used it, won the card and completed my quest.

My aviator is of a display case I made to house part of my HOF collection. Making custom cases is another of my hobbies.

Btw, last year I sold all of my prewar HOFers except 7 to surprise my wife on her 40th birthday with a second honeymoon trip which we took about two months ago. I had realized that the journey to completion was much more fun than actually being completed. I still have the Wagner though as well as Ruth, Gerhig, Cobb, Speaker, Young and Johnson.

Great thread. Hope this catches on. I'd love to hear more.

Drew