My Last Card Show

I just got back from my last card show . . . not for ever but for the season. You see, down here in Sarasota Florida, cards shows are small and mostly organized by "northerners". They are all returning to PA, IL, NY, IN, OH or even the great country due north of us called Canada.

So the show I have attended each month since January will be taking a six month hiatus . . . my opportunity to "indulge" myself as fellow blogger Mark of Marks Ephemera likes to put it. I did just that and stayed away from the bargain bins and only bought a few "pricier" cards I really "needed" and stayed "vintage". My scanner is not working (which only compounds some other issues I have been having these past few weeks) but I did find a camera to take a photo of my finds.

top row: 1960 Chicago Cubs: Dick Gernert, Richie Ashburn and Dale Long (I now have 25 of 33 to complete my team set)

second row: ToppsAll-Star Rookie Cards: 1964 Gary Peters and Al Weis of the Chicago White Sox; 1966 Ron Swoboda N Y Mets, 1967 Dave(y) Johnson Baltimore Orioles and 1978 Gary Alexander of the S F Giants

third row: 1970 California Angels team card # 522 (being my 685th card of the set, missing only 35 now); 1972 Chicago Cub Glenn Beckert "in action" and a 1963 Fleer Clay Dalrymple (my real only big $$ card and I am still a long way from completing this set but getting closer by one is always nice)

bottom row: 1974 Chicago Cubs Pina, Mitterwald, Aker and Hiser . . . just because I they were there.

All in all I kept to my "want" list (mostly) and am very happy. Now I am off to a pre-Mom's Day celebration which gives me the opportunity to say Happy Mothers Day to all you Mom's out there !

While today was my last "traditional" card show for the season, I shall still search out for cards I like or need via more modern methods (ie blogger generosity and ebay). Now I hope to get my life in order and my scanner working again !

Happy Birthday Dale Long

I know . . . I know . . . most of you dont even know who Dale Long is and could care less that today, February 6, 2009 would have been his 83rd birthday (he died in 1991). Today is also Babe Ruth's birthday (he passed on in 1948) and is certainly more "popular". "Celebrating" somebodies birthday when they have passed away is more of celebrating and remembering their life . . . so today is a day to remember Dale Long, a Chicago Cub for the better part of three years (1957-59).

The year prior to coming to the Cubs, 1956, Long posted career highs in HR's and RBI's (27 and 91), was elected to his only all-star game and put his name in the record books for this feat: between May 19 and May 28 Long hit a homerun in eight consecutive games. Since then this has been matched yet never broken, twice Don Mattingly (1987) and Ken Griffey Jr (1993); however both were in the American League.


Long was traded to the Cubs in 1957 and hit 55 home runs in his two plus years at Wrigley. In 1959, Long put himself in the record books again by tying another home run record, hitting back to back pitch hit homeruns.

In his ten year career, Long hit 132 HR's, had 467 RBI's and hit .267 in just over 1000 games.

So . . . Happy Birthday Dale Long . . . you were a powerful force in the NL and for the Cubs and deserve to be remembered.