Like William over at Foul Bunt, I had something of a run-in with Tommy Lasorda at the show (although my encounter wasn’t as exciting as his)… I was taking photos of a jersey in an auction house’s display case when someone near me said “It’s Tommy Lasorda!” I thought there was a Lasorda jersey in the case, but I quickly realized that he was talking about Tommy Lasorda himself. I looked around just in time to see Lasorda walking right past me… Could’ve reached out and touched him. By the time I’d gathered my wits enough to remember that I was holding a camera, he’d gone well past me, but I caught up with him enough to take this picture.
Later on I also saw Don Larsen walk past; again, I was tipped off by someone saying “Hey, It’s Don Larsen!” I’m normally too oblivious to notice people passing by.
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Naturally, I went to look at the Black Swamp find. C’mon, you HAVE to see the Black Swamp Find, even if only so you can say you saw them.
You know what’s really odd about these cards? If I didn’t know better, I would think they were reprints. They are THAT pristine. Bright white card stock, sharp corners, it’s really odd to look at them and think that they’re 100 years old.
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This is as close as I got to the autograph pavilion.
I’m not much of an autograph collector, and most of the players who I would like to meet are ones who wouldn’t be at the National to start with (and would generally not have long pavilion lines either.)
I did hear some people on the floor using their cell phones to coordinate their pavilion activities with people in line… which reminds me of a public service announcement I’d like to make: If you’re at a show and get a call on your phone, please be considerate and find a corner to move into, don’t just wander slowly and haphazardly through the narrow aisles and get in everybody’s way.
Thank you.
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This is my confession: I’m amused whenever I see anything referring to “Iron Joe” McGinnity, because it makes me think of “Iron Balls McGinnity”, a throwaway joke in the Steve Martin movie “The Jerk”. You know how a joke is sometimes funnier when you feel like you’re one of the few people in on it? That’s how I felt about “Iron Balls”. Oh, sure, everybody got the part about it being a bad idea to kick a guy named “Iron Balls” in the groin, but I don’t know how many people get the “McGinnity” part.
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After seeing countless Topps versions of Turkey Red, it was cool to see a real Turkey Red cabinet card.
I really need to come up with better adjectives than “cool”, “neat” and “awesome”.
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That about covers the National experience in the abstract… I’ve got more posts about specific things I saw and/or bought, but they’ll have to wait for another post.
The Shlabotnik Report 