Collecting

A little before Clare was born, I bought two White Sox autographed team balls, from 1965 and ’66.  The ’names on the ‘65 ball have faded away, but Eddie Stanky and his boys are going strong.

Clare debuted, if you will, in 1991, so I’ll get a team ball from then, too, along with some others to denote the births of siblings, self and spouse, along with the wedding year of my parents, that being 1939.  First, though, I bought an autographed ball from the 1971 Sox.  I was eighteen going on nineteen that season, and I identified with that group of young overachievers, like Terry Forster and Carlos May and Bill Melton.

You can’t be eighteen again, and it’s dangerous to try.  But you can remember things from then, courtesy of a baseball filled with autographs from once-upon-a-time heroes.  I like to think of it as therapy on cowhide.