Category: Baseball Cards

Capitalist Reborn

Published on by @DwPolkLeave a comment

Can two San Francisco teachers (husband & wife) raise two children, pay a mortgage, property taxes, & save money for college? Um, no. Would I love to live a life of teaching, meditation, contemplation, & poetry writing? Sure. Can I afford to not be a capitalist? No. Therefore, I’ve gone back to the summer of 1991, when I was a baseball card hustler, hitting up leads, buying & selling cards wherever I could. After that humid teenage July, I never aspired to join the “rat race,” never had an interest in entrepreneurship or corporate America. My junior year of college, I even did a finance internship in Santiago, Chile, just to make sure that I truly hated international business. But the world turns, idealism dies, & it turns out that my love of baseball history & a mildly photographic memory can create profit. So Adam Smith, I’m back.

Card Stories: Al Bumbry

Published on by @DwPolkLeave a comment

1980, Memorial Park, the Orioles, my first major league baseball game, & Al Bumbry is our leadoff hitter, best base stealer, and steady center fielder. What I didn’t know is that he, like my father, was a Vietnam War veteran. Bumbry was a tank platoon leader serving his country from 1969-1971. There were 12 MLB players who were in Vietnam, including: Garry Maddox, Chuck Goggin, and Jim Bibby. Maddox served in the Army and was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, which made his skin highly sensitive. As a result, he always wore a beard to protect his face. The Philadelphia Phillies had to waive their clean-shaven rule to accommodate Maddox. –Agent Orange was used to defoliate jungle vegetation, so that it was easier for the United States military to “see the enemy,” however, it was sometimes accidentally sprayed on our own soldiers.