Former GATOR Players

Congratulations Harrison Bader on winning a gold glove:

5 Cardinals snag Gold Glove awards to set record

 

From the tweet, I didn't initially see the Cardinals were announcing that Harrison Bader won a gold glove (my bad). Hence my post above.

 

Funny thing is I always thought Bader was kind of stretched in center at UF. I thought of him more as a really good corner outfielder who could handle center when the need arose.

 

Bader is having the MLB career that I thought Buddy Reed would have.

 

When Reed was drafted I was worried he wouldn't be able to hit professional pitching. That's mostly panned out, unfortunately, but he has reached AAA, at least.

 

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And India could easily join the group next year.

 

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Let’s keep the good news coming…

MLB Star Fills in as PE Teacher for St. Louis Elementary School Facing Staff Shortage

 

Greg—

This is a really good read-too bad in the comments that you’ve got the ignorant haters gonna hate. I know that element will always be there but when someone steps up, geez, tip your cap and move on.

 

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Current baseball cards are collectible? I only thought that cards from the old days where mothers threw them out were valuable.

Don't ask about the Clemente rookie card I traded for when I was in first grade. I had a good eye for talent even at that young age. He was my non-pitching baseball hero. Nor the Sandy Koufax autograph on a White Sox program. A bit of a story on that one. He emerged from the visitors dugout at the old Comiskey Park and I was about 20 rows away and rushed down to hopefully get one. He signed four or five and left. I was in the presence of greatness. Both thrown out by my mother along with countless Mickey Mantle cards. I liked the Mick, but I think Mays was a better ball player. Mays' cards were easier to get. I don't want to get political here.

And before my mother died she asked me if I had the Babe Ruth autographed picture that was in my grandmother's bar. I was like "What?". For some reason she thought that I had it. I wish that I did. I would hang it next to the Warhol print I have in my house. Both guys (Ruth and Warhol) were bigger than life and both the best of the best at what they did.

Why I have a Warhol hanging in my house is another story.

 

I’m still sick that I had a chest full of baseball cards from the ‘30’s thru 1970 collected by my Dad and myself—I left home for college in August of 1970 and only have gone back home for visits. When Mama and Dad moved across town from the home my sister and I grew up in to be closer to their business that chest evidently didn’t make the trip—hate to accuse someone without proof—so I won’t accuse the movers.

I do remember that it was a 500+ card collection including countless rookie cards of top name players.

 

My collection was four shoeboxes full. It was a lot.