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
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
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!
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!
15 comments:
Blair was a good defensive player. He's also mentioned prominently in a novel I read a few years ago. Some kind of murder mystery with a side of feminism.
i enjoyed this post more than, say, a post about 3/1 bday boy johnny ray. so a happy mistake!
Happy birthday to Mom! She must have been a great Mom if you are any indication.
Happy Heavenly birthday to Mama Fuji! I think we've all mistakenly started collecting someone for some reason or another.
Happy birthday Mama Fuji! When you see mark going to fast....make it rain on him, lol. (it's one of my sisters birthday today too.
Paul Blair 8 golden gloves ,March 1st birthday I like is Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach).
What a great post! It didn’t go to waste that is for sure!
Mama Fuji sure knows how to send you a reminder of that little life lesson! The Paul Blair cards must have been fun to look through regardless of his birthday. The SI Auto is a sharp looking card. I didn't know much about him until I researched All-Time Teams a couple years ago. Terrific defensive outfielder.
p.s. Secret Base posted part one of a 4-part series on Dave Stieb yesterday. I don't think they mentioned his birthday :D
I have a decent Paul Blair player collection I could post if you'd like to see the rest of them...
Yes, that's Lou Piniella on the Yankee card. Blair was a key veteran presence on the '77-'78 champs.
Happy Birthday to her. I don't know Blair...
This is such a lovely post, Fuji. A really nice tribute honouring your mom.
I have fond memories of getting that Jordan/Carey card, fun post!
elliptical man - cool piece of trivia. i wonder if he knew he was in a murder mystery novel.
gcrl - thanks. spent way too much time digging for his cards to just toss the scans aside ;D
the diamond king - she was pretty awesome. i'm definitely part of the "she's the best mom ever" club
dennis - thanks. i wonder if this is a sign for me to become a blair super-collector
johnnys trading spot - happy birthday to your sister! btw... it rained on my way to work this morning. but i wasn't driving my new car ;D
sg488 - dang. 8 golden gloves? that's pretty impressive. okay... looks like i'll have to track down a daisy duke card.
cardboard jones - i didn't realize how much i'd miss her until she was gone. but even though she lived hundreds of miles away, we were very close.
sumomenkoman - thanks buddy. i'm sure she got a chuckle
chris - i actually stumbled across some cards i forgot i had while looking for those blairs. thanks for the link. big fan of stieb. for a second i thought he shared his birthday with my mom and i was pumped. regardless... it was an interesting episode. didn't realize some of his teammates didn't like him
gca - lol. i'd love to see them. even if he doesn't share a birthday with my mom
bo - thanks for the clarification. piniella was my best guess.
matt - thanks. i didn't know a lot about blair, but i've seen several blog posts that featured him, so i was familiar
jongudmund - thanks jon. appreciate the kind words
jafronius - yeah, it's such a cool card. harry is so happy!
I wish I had seen this earlier. I have a fairly extensive Paul Blair player collection. A while back I went through and attempted to identify all the possible Blair cards. I identified 209 unique cards and I have 154 of them.
Post a Comment