Christmas Gifts

Christmas Gifts I never got into baseball cards, probably a combination of not liking chewing gum and being cheap. Lately, though, I’ve taken to collecting White Sox team autographed baseballs. Not exactly cheap, but so be it. I bought the first ball, from 1966, a year before Clare was born, actually. I probably would’ve bought more, but babies have a way of soaking up your free time and spare cash. In other words, adieu, memorabilia shows. But in the last year or two, I’ve been making up for lost time. My main focus is balls from 1962-1980, or Charlie Maxwell to Bob Molinaro, if you will. Or, better yet, from most of grade school to some of grad school. You could say Santa took care of sixth and seventh grade for me with balls from 1964 and 1965. One important thing to know about collecting autographed balls is to check for signatures first; a ball could be the right year and still not have the player(s) you want. Maybe he didn’t feel like signing that day, or—and this is really worth keeping in mind—maybe he wasn’t on the team yet. So, Santa did his due diligence before buying both baseballs. The one name I wanted on the ’64 baseball belonged Jeoff Long, a 22-year old first baseman/outfielder purchased by the Sox from the Cardinals on July 7. I think I read in a program that Long was some kind of golfer, and that’s always stayed with me. In December of ’64, Long and pitcher Ray Herbert were traded to the Phillies for left fielder Danny Cater and infielder Lee Elia (yes, that Lee Elia, the Cubs’ manager who called out Cubs’ fans in a rant that has taken on a life of its own). One of the signatures I wanted on the ’65 ball was Cater, a good hitter we just couldn’t seem to find a spot for, who was then traded to the A’s on May 27, 1966, for infielder Wayne Causey. That means the 1966 ball I have, signed by both Causey and Elia, dates to sometime after May 27th. Along with Cater, the other name I wanted on the ’65 ball belonged to pitcher Greg Bollo. I admit to being intrigued by Bollo because of his name; something about the letter B, I guess. Anyway, the Sox signed Bollo in 1964 out Western Michigan University and put him on the big-league roster for all of 1965, during which he pitched just 22.2 innings. In all likelihood, that means the Sox were afraid of losing Bollo in the first-year players’ draft, as had happened with Denny McLain. For what it’s worth, that draft is long gone. Over the years, I’d wondered what happened to Bollo, until I ran across an interview Tommy John did with CNN Money in 2007. John pitched for the Sox from 1965-1971 and called Bollo someone “who could really throw the ball,” until the removal of bone chips ended his effectiveness. Now, to have the ball to go with the explanation of what happened to one of the players who signed it, that’s what I call a perfect Christmas present.