Back to School

I collect sports memorabilia for a variety of reasons.  It's a way to show my fandom for certain players and franchises.  It gives me an opportunity to let my OCD run wild with a variety of ways to sort, organize, and repeat if necessary.  It allows me to own pieces of sports history.  And it gives me an opportunity to relive childhood memories.

Two weeks ago, I received a package from Brett over at Cooperstown Exit 3:16 and it contained a variety of items that were bits and pieces of my life.

Tonight... I share them with you.

Let's start things off with this book:

When I was in elementary school, I loved taking the weekly class trips to the school library and picking out two new books to read.  One of my favorite things to check out were sports books like this one you see above.  It even has that unique library binding and the special hard cover you typically find in school libraries.

I never actually read this book, because it was published in 1991 and by that time I was a freshman in college.  However I read it from cover to cover last night and enjoyed the photos and oversized font.

By the time I was in the 3rd grade, I had moved on to chapter books like Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing and Charley and the Chocolate Factory.  These days kids are blessed with great sports authors like Matt Christopher, Gail Herman, and Dan Gutman who write stories like this:

I haven't read this book yet... but I'm looking forward to reading it in the near future.  After that... it will be added to my classroom library next year so my middle schoolers can enjoy it as well.

Up next is this Brett Favre pencil bag:

One of my favorite parts of the school year is at the start.  I loved going school supply shopping with my mom and my list always included one of these.  I'd shove pencils, pens, erasers, protractors, and hand held pencil sharpeners into them.  It was kind of like my very own man-purse.

I don't remember them making ones of football players when I was in school, but if they did I would have purchased one with Lynn Dickey or Dave Krieg on it.

Taking a break from sports for a moment, let's check out this classic 45 from former Commodores lead singer... Lionel Richie:

My mom loved this song and there's a good chance that my family own this 45 back in the day.  For those who aren't familiar with Lionel... here's his #1 hit, All Night Long:

Right around this time that the United States Football League was founded and the Bay Area was represented by the Oakland Invaders:

I don't remember actually cheering or supporting the franchise, but this disc Brett sent is now on display in my office.

Let's keep moving along my personal timeline.  When 1987 Donruss baseball was released, I had entered my freshman year of high school.  That's really when I made the transition from off and on collector... to full-time baseball card investor.  I spent most of my allowance on busting boxes of 1987 Topps.

But every now and then, I'd splurge and buy some Donruss.  Brett sent me an empty box of the product.  Normally I wouldn't be interested in an empty box, but back in the mid 80's they included cards on the box bottoms.  Here's who appeared on the 1987 boxes:

High school seemed to fly by and in the spring of 1990, I graduated.  A few months earlier, MC Hammer released his third album... Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em:

I was a huge fan of this album and it wouldn't surprise me if I owned this cassette tape as well as the CD.  In fact, I still have one of his songs on my iTunes playlists:

Rounding out Brett's package were a few Oakland Athletics baseball cards.  One of them brought back some great memories.  On September 22, 2013... the Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins at home to become the AL West Division Champions:

Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers would eventually end their celebration, but I still wear my WE OWN THE WEST shirt from time to time.

Thank you Brett for this generous and unique package of stuff!  It brought back a lot of fine memories.  Happy Saturday and sayonara!