The holy Grail of your collection

[frankbmd]

The old Autograph Book contains over one hundred autos obtained in 1957 by yours truly at Phillies' spring training games.

No parents, no fees, just a pudgy 9 y/o kid with a green book and a cheap fountain pen, who knew how to say please and thank you.

Signed by my buddies Ashburn, Campanella, Furillo, Doby, Minoso, Alston, Killebrew, Kuenn, Herzog, Stengel, Branca, etc, etc, etc.

I wonder how long they remembered me. Priceless.

[Runscott]

Frank, that's great. My memorabilia holy grail is a no-brainer: a ball I had signed by the '72 Giants and '73 Phillies. It's nothing special to anyone but me, but was the first time I met major leaguers.

[terjung]

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[dacubfan]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

The old Autograph Book contains over one hundred autos obtained in 1957 by yours truly at Phillies' spring training games.

No parents, no fees, just a pudgy 9 y/o kid with a green book and a cheap fountain pen, who knew how to say please and thank you.

Signed by my buddies Ashburn, Campanella, Furillo, Doby, Minoso, Alston, Killebrew, Kuenn, Herzog, Stengel, Branca, etc, etc, etc.

I wonder how long they remembered me. Priceless.

Great memories Frank!! Here are mine from that same season 1957 with Pee Wee and the Duke in the bowels of Ebbets Field just a few short weeks before it was shut down. You can't put a price on memories.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by dacubfan

Great memories Frank!! Here are mine from that same season 1957 with Pee Wee and the Duke in the bowels of Ebbets Field just a few short weeks before it was shut down. You can't put a price on memories.

Ed,

Duke is in my book. Pee Wee is not. I remember the game with the Dodgers in 1957 well. They came to Clearwater from Vero Beach and had the best bus. After the game I used to wait at the gate between the dressing room and the bus for my autographs. The Dodgers initially all refused to sign. But before the bus left, I was standing beside the bus looking like the kid in the Mean Joe Greene Coke commercial, when a window of the bus opened. One of da bums asked for the book and pen that I reluctantly surrended it to him. I waited a long time, fearing the bus would pull away with my book. Finally the book came back out the window with about 15 autographs. A shut out was turned into a grand slam in a few very long minutes.
Priceless memories indeed.

Frank

[rainier2004]

Ed and Frank - Those are great stories and what wonderful pictures. I love how bb keeps our hearts young...you 2 take the cake on this thread!

[scmavl]

Yep, Ed and Frank win hands down. Love stories like that!

Frank, can you show us some of your favorite autos from that book?

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by scmavl

Yep, Ed and Frank win hands down. Love stories like that!

Frank, can you show us some of your favorite autos from that book?

Find the "Killer" Jarrod. Amazing how much more legible they are compared to the current crop. Only a few guys who never made the bigs were difficult to ID.

[bbcard1]

I have a lot of cards that have value. But I guess the holy grail is my T206 Honus Wagner.

About 30 years ago I met an old collector who had a small box of T206s he had gotten as a kid. We looked though his collection and he enjoyed talking to me about the old days when men would come out of the duckpin bowling alleys in Roanoke (which were on the second floor) and would throw their empty packs in the gutters and the boys would scramble after him. He said even in those days he had heard of Honus Wagner but none of the boys had ever seen one. One day, this guy had found a picture of Honus Wagner in a magazine, pasted it on a cigarette card back and traded it to one of his buddies for a bunch of cards he needed.

Fast forward about 15 years, I consigned a collection out of a neighboring town about 50 miles away from a guy whose grandfather had passed them along to him. Among the cards was this card....I wonder and suspect it may have been the same card that the old man had made eight decades before and it had changed hands from farmboy to farm boy and made its way from Western Virginia to Central Virginia.

Although it is unlikely I will ever own a real T206 Wagner, I am proud for this one to stand in (but I don't count it toward my monster number).

[scmavl]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Find the "Killer" Jarrod. Amazing how much more legible they are compared to the current crop. Only a few guys who never made the bigs were difficult to ID.

Wow, Frank. That is GREAT. Love the vintage Killer signature. What a special piece.