Saturday, October 03, 2020

Happy Bobby Thomson Home Run / Dave Winfield Birthday Day

If it's October 3rd, you know what day it is. That's right, It's Dave Winfield's birthday. The big man turns 6-9 today, so yeah, you're gonna hear from me. And we get to dust off the "Happy Birthday Dave Winfield" label. 

I thought we'd do something different this year and show off some of my Dave Winfield schwag. I finally set up my man cave/home office last winter. A key part of that was buying a display case and setting up my baseball cards in there. COVID hit before I was done, and my office became my gym. So I only got 69% of the way setting it up. But I did pull out some of my most cherished childhood memorabilia. Sorry for the poor photo quality. Annie Liebovitz was unavailable. 

Here is Winfield's 1974 Topps rookie card (middle). I have every Topps/Fleer/Donruss card of his from 1974 to 1989. As you may recall, the '89/'90 timeframe is when thoughts of boobies and beer began trumping thoughts of baseball cards and pro wrestling. One day I may get the few remaining Winfield cards ('90 to '95). But I'm gonna ignore Upper Deck. I dislike the Upper Deck brand almost as much as I dislike prime numbers. 

To the right in that trio is the "Two For the Title" 1985 Donruss card. Mattingly and Winfield went down to the wire for the 1984 batting title. Racist New Yorkers booed Winfield down the stretch. Fun times! To the left is an autographed 1984 Topps All-Star card of Winfield. I traded for this card from a kid who used to (like me) hang out at the gnarly arcade in the gnarly flea market that was next to the apartment complex where my dad lived. I regularly outmaneuvered kids there in baseball card trades. I was ruthless and wouldn't quit until I got what I wanted. I wish I had a sliver of that work ethic in college. The kid that traded me this card was Colin. He was an only child, a sad, obese boy who was an easy mark because he would cry all the time. Always attracted the wrong kind of attention. He pulled it together by high school, but it was tough going for him early on. 

Here is the biography of Dave written by him and Tom Parker. I'm gonna bet Parker did most of the heavy lifting on this. 


Here are framed SI covers I bought from SI. Was a cool offer they had about ten years ago. May still be something you all can do. I did one cover from each of my favorite pro teams. You know I was gonna go with big Dave for this. 


Happy birthday, big man. 

16 comments:

Mark said...

The framed covers are dope. We’re about to add a master suite on our house which will make one of the bedrooms an office. I was an SI subscriber since elementary school and I’d love to do something similar. I won’t do my favorite teams but I’ll probably do my favorite athletes.

zman said...

I look forward to seeing the new fratcave later today. Lawyers often hang their degrees in their offices. I think that's silly--I can't read Latin. Instead I have Mason's Sweet Sixteen SI cover framed alongside the two-page Mason spread from inside the 2006 Final Four issue. Oddly, the 2006 Final Four issue was also the baseball preview issue so Pujols was on the cover.

Dave said...

condolences dan. what a year.

Mark said...

Hear me out: Jimbo Fisher isn’t actually a good coach. He struck gold with Jameis at FSU and recruited his ass off (which isn’t hard) and won big for a short spell in the top heavy ACC but he left that program broken and he’s been average at best at A&M.

TR said...

I hear you on Jimbo. Dude got himself PAID by a panicked Aggies athletics department.

The SI covers weren’t too pricey. Only issue I’ve had is that the black frames subtly scratch the drywall w/ black lines over time.

TR said...

And Zman and Juan Carlos are mensches. I needed a hand moving some furniture and they both chipped in. I owe each of them a case of Golden Anniversary.

TR said...

Iowa State - OU is a fun one.

TR said...

My two boys lost their football games by a combined score of 60-14. No bueno.

Mark said...

Bills are legit. Fun team. I’m warming up to the Brady Bucs as well.

Mark said...

Also, my kid started playing LAX a few weeks ago. After being way too passive the first couple weeks of practice and the first game the light came on at practice this week. Way more active and aggressive. Kid followed it up with 4 goals in a 10-8 win today. It was hot as fuck here today too and she powered through. Good Dad moment.

Mark said...

Jimmy Butler is a beast. I thought he was really good. He’s much better than I’ve given him credit for.

rob said...

to your point, mark, here's a fun read: https://theathletic.com/2107706/2020/10/05/hannah-montana-country-music-and-a-bunny-suit-jimmy-butlers-college-days/

zman said...

I replaced a showerhead today. I even used teflon tape.

rootsminer said...

Zman's skills with the pipe are well known.

Whitney said...

Back from the Outer Banks where rob and Tim and other fine friends helped me turn 50 for the third or fourth time.

Not dying is my main goal today. Working my way back towards everyday tasks.

Whitney said...

But I learned something today. Col. Tom Parker wrote a book with Dave Winfield. The King woulda been proud.