I've struggled to memorize birthdays my entire life. For the sake of this post, I sat down and listed as many as I could. Eleven. If I include myself... twelve.
Laziness is the problem. It wouldn't take much effort on my part to create some flashcards and practice them a few minutes every day. But that's not something I foresee taking place anytime soon. I mean... why should I? One of the biggest perks to owning a smartphone is the built-in calendar that reminds me when important events are coming up.
However there's a thirteenth birthday I need to memorize... and that's Tony Gwynn. The bottom line is the idea of adding birthdays of anyone outside of friends and family to my phone is silly. That being said... Gwynn isn't just anyone. He's my favorite athlete of all-time. That has to be worth something. So May 9th has been officially been entered into my memory bank.
1975-1976 Topps #180
1989-90 Topps #83
1981 Chu-Bops #4 Glass Houses
1981 Chu-Bops #52 Songs in the Attic
I guess this means I have officially memorized Calvin Murphy, Steve Yzerman, and Billy Joel's birthdays too. That doesn't mean I'll remember to post something on their birthday every year. But if you ask me for Gwynn's birthday, I'll be able to tell you the date.
By the way, I used Gwynn 1989 SI for Kids card, because it's one of two Gwynn cards from my beginning of the year COMC shipment. I'm saving the other one for an end of the school year post.
Anyways, 1989 was the inaugural year for SI for Kids and this Gwynn was part of issue #4. That year he played the St. Louis Cardinals on his birthday. He led off the 4th inning with a single off of Ken Hill and eventually scored the Padres first run of the game. Unfortunately, the Cardinals won the game.
Happy belated birthday Mr. Padre! Sorry I forgot your birthday this year. Now that I've memorized your special day, hopefully I won't need another blogger to inspire me to write a birthday post for you ever again.
What about you?
Do you rely on the help of smartphones when it comes to birthdays?
Do you have any athlete's birthdays memorized?
Happy Saturday and sayonara!
