One look and it's easy to see why people are drawn to this set. Every player on the team posed with a giant raptor. This kind of oddity is right up my alley, but I've actually been looking for this set for years... and the raptor never once factored into the equation.
I only care about one card in this set:
1994 Fleer Pro Cards #3739
Who the heck is Chris Amos?
Well... he was my best friend in elementary school. Technically he was best friends with five or six of us. He was the stereotypical "cool" kid.
He moved either in 5th or 6th grade to the other side of town, but we'd hang out every now and then in middle school. I remember seeing him play baseball and football when our high schools played each other, but we didn't stay in touch.
A few years later, my parents ran into his parents at a wedding, so they invited my family to their daughter's wedding. That's the last time I talked to him. At the time he was attending and playing baseball at UOP in Stockton.
Years passed and someone told me that he had been drafted by the Cleveland Indians, but I can't find documentation of that. However I discovered he played one year of minor league ball for the Ogden Raptors... which eventually led me to the card shown above.
It'd be cool to reach out to Amos and see what he's been up to the past twenty-five years. Unfortunately... I can't find him on Facebook and none of our elementary school buddies kept in touch with him either.
Maybe one day he'll search up his baseball card, stumble across this post, and reach out to me. While we're waiting for that to happen... go ahead and answer today's question of the day:
Do you have any childhood friends who ended up playing a professional sport? If so... do they have trading cards?
By the way... a huge shoutout to The Angry Card Collector. He shared a eBay coupon code on his blog that allowed me to take $3 off any purchase of $3 or more. As I stated earlier in this post, I've been looking to purchase this card for years, but I wasn't willing to overpay for it.
I found this set for $3.50 (+ $2.96 shipping):
With the coupon, I walked away spending $3.46 which is a price I could live with. By the way, the rest of the set means nothing to me. I'm offering it up to SumoMenkoMan, since I'm forever indebted to him.
Well... that's it for today.
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
I can't recall any that went on to play professionally. I did know Jason Aldean before he got his first record deal though.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the pick up!My father was good friends with the Alomar family back In Puerto Rico.That's about as close as I come to knowing anybody who made It In pro sports.I remember my family also having ties to Luis "Mambo" De Leon ,former San Diego pitcher.Not sure how,though LOL!
ReplyDeleteI did not have any friends myself who went on to play pro ball of any kind, but a good friend of mine played football against and knew Jim Flanagan (Notre Dame and then Chicago Bears) quite well. I also had an ex-girlfriend who hooked up with one or two different Green Bay Packers, but that really doesn't count, does it? :-)
ReplyDeleteGlad you finally picked up one of those Raptors sets! Definitely one of the more fascinating items I've ever found at a card show.
ReplyDeleteI have absolutely no connections to anyone who played pro ball. The only distant ties I can think of are that my mom went high school with Jim Walewander (Tigers infielder), and my junior-year history teacher once got into a fight with the brother of Dan Wilson (Reds/Mariners catcher) during a game when he was in high school.
I'll stretch the definition of 'boyhood' andmention that a good friend from my high school days went on to play seven seasons in the Red Sox chain. He made it as far as AAA ball and played with Jim Rice there. I was close friends in college with a baseball 'lifer'. He played for a while in the minors and has since managed in the minors for 26 years and is still going strong.
ReplyDeleteI dont but i have a kind a similar story..i dont remember if i posted it on my blog..ill have to check. When I was working at my previous job my boss had mentioned he played minor league ball (i believe he was drafted be the Dodgers..but he played independent ball). He mentioned that he did indeed have a baseball card made of him while he was on the Miami Marlins (the minor league team if the 80s). After some research i actually found the team set on ebay and bought it..brought his card to work and surprised him and asked him to sign it for me. He really got a kick out of it!
ReplyDeleteOne of my classmates in high school ended up playing minor league ball for the Yankees.
ReplyDeleteThat set is awesome! If you need to offload it, I’m in! Thanks!!
I had one class with former Chargers TE Josh Norman in high school
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me that Chris Amos was so popular early in life, and yet no one kept in touch with him. (Though I give him credit for avoiding social media!) Let us know if he resurfaces.
ReplyDeleteI personally did not know anyone who went on to play pro ball, but my wife was high school acquaintances with former Bears/Jets OL Todd Burger (who has no cards) and my nephew's high school hockey team faced off against Columbus Blue Jackets star Cam Atkinson (who has several hundred cards)
yeah, I played with and know a couple of guys who made it to the bigs with a number of cards to show for it.
ReplyDeleteI moved from Cupertino, California to the East Coast when I was in Junior High School in the late 70's so I lost track of the kids I went to elementary school with but ever since Chip Hale came up with the Twins I've wondered if I went to school with him. There was a kid by that name a grade below me who was always by far the best athlete at whatever we were doing. Hale's the right age and is from the Bay Area although he didn't go to the high school I would have gone to if I'd stayed in Cupertino. Every so often I think about sending a letter to him at whatever team he's with to find out for sure but I almost prefer not knowing.
ReplyDeleteNot personally. My brother went to school with someone who played for the US national soccer team, but didn't know him, not in the same grade and our school has/had over 2000 people in each grade. He did get one card, which I have.
ReplyDeleteKevin Love of the Cavaliers is my 21st cousin, extremely distant, and I've never actually met him. My uncle briefly dated Dale Earnhardt's daughter Kelley but it didn't go anywhere.
My closest claim to fame is that a former roommate used to do radio play-by-play for the Nashville Predators.
ReplyDeleteNone of my friends made it to pro ball. But growing up I did go to the same church as Preacher Roe.
ReplyDeleteA few guys have been born in my town, but none attended school with me.
ReplyDeleteNobody I know played professionally or made it big in hollywood either. That should have been me lol
ReplyDeleteNot pro athletes but... my oldest aunt was classmates with Buddy Holly and my youngest aunt was classmates with Mac Davis. 2 country music legends 15 years apart in the same (then)small town high school 😎
ReplyDeleteRock n Roll legend in Buddy Holly’ case🤪
DeleteA look at people finder shows a Christopher J. Amos 47,living in Tampa Bay,FL.Previous places lived,San Jose,Mountain View and Foster City.Might be him.
ReplyDeleteI was employed by Steve Grogan of Patriots fame. Grogan, along with Ronnie Lippett and Mosi Tatupu owned the Bellingham Minutemen of the New England Football League. I was the scoreboard operator for all the home games and did a couple of away when called upon for two seasons. One of the coaches of another NEFL team became my boss at work. He coached the Boston Bandits. One of his players was shot and killed. The players name was Odin LLoyd. The person arrested for the murder was none other than Aaron Hernandez.
ReplyDeletejohnnys trading spot - that's pretty cool. i've never bought an album, but i do enjoy his music
ReplyDeletebig tone - dang. that's a pretty big family name in baseball. did you ever meet or hang out with any of them?
tony lehman - damn... if your ex is hooking up with packers players, than i'm gonna assume she was a looker. you lucky dog
nick - dang, you're high school teacher is pretty bad ass. he'd make a nice link in a 6 degrees of separation game
commishbob - very cool. do you keep in touch with either of those guys?
chris p - that's pretty cool. talk about a priceless piece of cardboard.
sumomenkoman - did you ever check to see if he has a baseball card? the set has your name on it.
rebel coyote - very cool. were you guys friends or just acquaintances? did you collect his cards?
chris - this was back in the early to mid 80's. there wasn't social media, cell phones, or email. the only way to keep in touch was to call using your house phone. not sure how many of the crew reached out to him after the move. plus it was a 5 to 8 mile bike ride across town just to hang out with him, so it wasn't like we hung out a lot. it was like a few times each year. does your nephew collect atkinson's cards?
gcrl - do you collect their cards? keep in touch with any of them?
npb card guy - that's pretty cool. you should totally reach out and see if it's the same guy.
billy kingsley - damn, i thought i went to a large high school we had about 500 kids in our graduating class. 2000? that's a lot of kids. that's pretty cool that you're related to kevin love. and how awesome would it have been had your uncle married into the earnhardt family.
matt - that's really cool. does he hook you up with tickets to predators games?
adame - was mr. roe a cool guy? if he attended my local church, i probably would have gone more often as a kid
collecting cutch - i'm in the same boat. there are a few big names from san jose, but i didn't know any of them.
parts of my past - the closest thing to hollywood was i knew a guy in high school who was in jurassic park 3 and a few other tv shows. and a friend of mine once dated and was really good friends with linda cardellini (freaks & geeks)
baltmoss68 - wow that's really cool. were your aunts friends with them or just classmates?
sg488 - that's him. i wonder what he's up to in tampa bay.
marc - oh man... that's a pretty dark 6 degrees of separation you have there.
I do not, however my buddy was fairly close with Adam Rosales.
ReplyDeleteThat is really cool that you know him, and that he is in this set with the Raptors. Have you ever checked out the old Spokane Indians cards? The team owner was some sort of property developer, had ownership in the local mall, so the team baseball cards were in stores like Hickory Farms. Worth checking out.
ReplyDeleteI just came across this post now. Very cool story, glad to have triggered the memory. Only similar thing I can think of is that my mother-in-law taught with the uncle of Tedy Bruschi of the NE Patriots, dating to before he played in the NFL as well as during. One of her students was drafted by the Yankees and played in the minors for a short time.
ReplyDelete