I loved baseball at ages 4 and 5, and my family always showed me off to their friends by asking me to name players and who they played for. I didn't think it was anything special, but now having a 5-year-old myself who can only name Babe Ruth, Tino Martinez, Michael Jordan, and Donald Trump, I guess it must've been pretty cool that I knew Kirby Puckett was a Twin and that Vince Coleman was a Cardinal.
For the record, I could also name all of the game show hosts and NASCAR drivers at the time too. It was like a dog trick, with my parents constantly peppering me with questions to impress onlookers.
"Hey, AJ, who is the host of Press Your Luck? Hey AJ, who drives the Folgers #6 car?"
Anyhow, Gary Ward was one of those guys I remember liking, along with Mike Easler, Jack Clark, Mel Hall, etc. Sort of randomish players, especially for a 5-year-old. I don't remember much about them, but I remember knowing of them and pretending to be them playing tee ball in the backyard.
Anyhow, Gary Ward was nice enough to sign 5 cards for me TTM. I normally don't send that many, and I actually asked him to keep a few, but he kindly signed them all.
Now I just need autos of Peter Tomarken and Mark Martin to really bring it all full circle.
Nascar is probably the perfect precursor for a kid to learn to read. You just memorize brands and all that is associated with it. Maybe this will help Nascar get popular again. "Welcome to the Brickyard 500 sponsored by ABC Mouse"
ReplyDeleteI was hanging with my buddy and we were talking GI Joe and Star Wars when his 5 year old son comes up to us. My buddy tells me to ask his son some Star Wars trivia. It was pretty crazy the things his son knew. I told him he should make a YouTube video, because he'd be famous.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Ward... I remember him from his days with the Twins, but somehow I forgot about his tenure in New York... which is totally weird since I opened up hundreds of 87, 88, and 89 packs back in the day.