Haste Makes Waste

My entire life... I've been one of those people who tend to rush through things.  When I was little... my parents told me to slow down on a regular basis.  Slow down and chew your food.  Slow down and wash the car carefully, otherwise you'll need to do it again.  Slow down on the slopes or you'll hurt yourself.

Well... I'm sure my mom got a nice chuckle looking down on me over the weekend.

That's when I was searching for a creative way to honor her birthday which happens to be today.  I looked to see if there were any cool sports events that took place on March 1st, but nothing really stood out.  I headed over to Baseball Reference and used their "born on this day" feature to see who shared my mom's birthday.  After a few clicks of the mouse, I discovered that Paul Blair was born on March 1st.  There were a few other notable names on the list like Sean Manea and Kent Mercker, but Blair was the most intriguing.

I knew I had at least one autographed card of his, so I started digging through my boxes of autographs.  Here's what I found:

2013 Topps Archives Fan Favorites #FFA-PB

I briefly skimmed the card back and noticed he once scored 51 points in a basketball game and that he hit three home runs on 4-29-70, but didn't bother to look at when he was born.  I mean, why would I?  He shares the same birthday as my mom, right?

1999 Fleer SI Greats of the Game Autographs #NNO

Nothing too noteworthy on the back of this card other than Fleer pointing out the fact that "this item was signed under the supervision of Fleer/Skybox and has been embossed with the Fleer Mark of Authenticity".

I thought I had one more autograph of his that was sitting in a box that houses a bunch of unsorted cards.  That box was buried under a few other boxes, but I eventually dug it out and discovered I was wrong:

2000 UD Yankee Legends Legendary Lumber #PB-LL

This card isn't signed by Blair.  It does however contain a piece (according to Upper Deck) of a bat that Blair used "in an official MLB game".  Outside of that... the only other thing that really caught my eye (and brief attention) was the other Yankee who photo bombed Blair's card.  Could that be Sweet Lou?  Don't have the attention span to care... I've gotta start flipping through my box and binders of vintage to see if I have any other cards of Blair...

1976 Topps #473

Topps didn't have a lot of room to post highlights from Blair's career, but I did notice that he hit two inside-the-park home runs in 1973.  Speaking of 1973...

1973 Topps #528

This is the only other Paul Blair card I found.  I know I have a few more (1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980) of his cards sitting in my Topps sets, but it wasn't worth spending the extra time digging around trying to locate each one.

You might be wondering, why not?  It's your mom.  But after looking a little bit more carefully at the back of his 1973 card, it quickly hit me.  Paul Blair was born on 2/1/44.  February 1st.  Not March 1st.  Ugh.

I should have listened to my parents... and slowed down.  Anyways... there was no way I was going to let a few hours of digging through boxes and scanning cards on my precious Saturday go to waste.

Happy belated birthday to anyone out there who shares a birthday with Paul Blair!

1995 Upper Deck #200

By the way... I did discover two notables who actually share a birthday with my mom:  Wander Franco and Harry Caray.  Sorry... I don't have Wander's 2022 Topps rookie card yet and I'm not going to rush out and buy one when it's on everyone's hot list.  Mama Fuji would understand.  This time I'm going to be patient... and slow down.

Happy birthday Mom!  I love you and miss you.

Everyone else... happy Tuesday and sayonara!