So in 1969 I received my 8 team SOM selector set. It was a very poor offensive year. Some of the offense was so bad, I made offensive upgrades to some of the cards IN BLACK FELT INK. Ouch!
1970 was a weird year. We moved on June 19, 1970, the day after my brother graduated from high school. I did not make Little league all stars. Moving did not help. And it seemed you had to be a coaches son or P-SS to make all stars. I took some satisfaction in the SS they played at 2B, made 4 key errors in their loss to Campbell, who made it to the LL World Series that year. Also my grandmother took her first vacation in about 54 years (to Italy) and was killed in an auto accident on the night she was to fly back to America. We got our first dog and cat ever after moving, My sister got her drivers license.
Somehow in all the goings on, my SOM game got buried with my baseball cards back in the garage.
In 1970, I never ordered the 1969 teams.
In 1971, I did start with SOM again. I vividly can remember opening a game box with all 24 1970 teams and the then 28 team oldtimer set. Two of my teams came with gold cards. A casual acquaintance at school said "all the oldtimers came in gold cards". Huh? I only had 2. Many years later I did obtain all 12 original gold card oldtimer teams and the original 8 team red ink cards. MUCH later, I obtained the rare red ink 1931 A's team.
1971 was a good year for Bay Area baseball The Giants won the division, as did the A's who had a sensational young MVP, Cy Young Winner Vida Blue. When I received the cards in the spring of 1972, I can remember where I was and just gawking at them.
I continued to buy the cards for 1972-1975, then just the 1976 Reds. I skipped 1977. The reasons were so dumb. My friends finally got involved and I knew they would destroy the cards using them in a league and I liked more pristine cards. I then bought 1978 and 1979 and was able to get 1976 (several teams) and 1977 (ditto).
I played a 54 game schedule for 1975, I am sure the Royals Red Sox Phillies and Reds won the divisions. I believe the Royals upset the Red Sox and I think (?) the reds took the series. Bobby Bonds and Johnny Bench both had 3 home run games during the season. I had a lot of success with the Indians, using rookies Rick Manning and Duane Kuiper who seemed to get 2 hits every game each. Later Duane Kuiper would become a long term beloved announcer for the local Giants.
We had a 4 team league in 1978 using stock 1977 teams (with draft choices). I had the Reds. two teams finished 17-19 and 2 finished 19-17. My George Foster hit 12 home runs in 36 games. We had several rounds of tiebreakers and playoffs. I ended up in the World Series vs the Pirates. Tom Seaver and Frank Tanana pitched back to back shutouts for me in Games 1 and 2. We then started a SI football league and never finished the league. True story!
I then quit the hobby for 5 years.
I came back in 1986 ..... to be continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment