I was at a Catholic Grade School in my youth and during recess, I would be flipping cards, calling out heads or tails to win more of those collectables from my fellow classmates.
You see, two people would flip at the same time. With the winner of the previous contest, or the owner of the most cards, which usually meant me, yelling out if the cards needed to flip up heads together, tails together, or land opposite of each other.
Of course the side, of one of these cards, with a face on it, was heads. And all of the stats and accomplishments of the player on that card would be considered tails.
So, instead of waiting for my monthly allowance of five-dollars, where I could go to the local candy store and purchase a pack of five cards with a large stick of gum inside for only fifty cents, I became a catholic school boy hustler.
I wanted them all. These collectable cards represented to me, the finest human beings this world had to offer. All Heroes in the Major Leagues. The best of the best.
That school yard hustle couldn't last forever though. I got older.
I started using the duplicates I collected over the years to swap out for cards I didn't own. Because, even though I had over a thousand cards by the time I was fifteen years old, the games of the Major Leagues never stopped being played.
There was always more games to be won, by new players all the time.
The cards I collected as a kid were worth a lot today, especially to a rich collector. Because, just like in all walks of life, some players died young, some were released because of a scandal, and the lucky ones got old enough to retire. So, once you are out of the Major Leagues, they no longer print up any more cards with your face on it.
And everyone likes to collect players from the past over today's players because they still need to prove their greatness.
Oh, sure. Once in awhile, one of the big printing companies will come out with an anniversary pack, of some of the major players of a historical event. But, having an original card, of any of those players being repackaged, in today's market, could be worth millions of dollars if you were lucky enough to have the right one.
As it turns out, that by my mid twenties, I had a few lucky ones. Duplicates. Nothing in the million dollar range. Just appraised high enough that I was able to have extra cash and go to a few Collector Conventions. Haggling my way into swapping or buying, at a discount, a few cards not in my personal collection.
When I became a businessman I made my fortune in real estate by the time I was fifty years old. Then, buying the most hard to find cards became my obsession.
But that leads me to today. Why we are all gathered here.
I am announcing, that I will be donating my entire collection to the Smithsonian Institution. All one hundred thousands cards in my collection.
Even the last remaining card of Sargent Alvin York from World War One. One of the three remaining cards of First Lieutenant Audie Murphy from World War Two. Cards of General John Joseph Pershing, General Douglas MacArthur, General William Westmoreland, General H Norman Schwarzkopf, and so on.
Cards of every President running our Major League Clubs to victory and the only President to lose a War to a Minor League Club. President Nixon and Vietnam.
I hope generations of children will come to the Smithsonian, to be witness, to some of the greatest players to play in our five major league clubs. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and the Coast Guard!
This is,
Saying In A Parallel Universe
Children Collect Cards Of War Heroes
Not Baseball Players
Jim Hauenstein
And
- Ronald Reagan -
That is my story and I am sticking to it!
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