Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Earlier this year, my friend Jesse made a comment about wanting to get more autographs of World War II veterans.  That conversation led to him remarking that he had a deck of Rosie the Riveter playing cards and wanted to get a few of them signed.  I commented that my grandmother was part of that Rosie the Riveter program during the War.  I liked the idea of getting one of the cards signed.  I took the idea a step further and found two cards showing Ebbetts Field.  I wanted them signed by Grandma since she attended Game 3 of the 1949 World Series. 

Grandma understood the request and signed cards.for Jesse and I, and included an inscription on the Ebbets ones "1949 World Series".  She signed them nicely.  I kept the cards to myself, not posting them on my Instagram, not counting them among my TTMs.  I filed them away with the thought that I'd find a good time to post them and talk some more about Grandma, who appeared on this blog a few times.  She did read it from time to time, but had over 3,000 books on her Kindle to keep her busy.  She also had her puzzles.

Grandma fell in May, not too long before the cards were signed.  She tore a muscle in her leg, and at her age (97), that was as bad as breaking a hip.  Fiercely independent up until that fall, Grandma was moved into a full-time assisted living facility.  Things went downhill from there. A bout with COVID only slowed her down, but she then contracted pneumonia.  That really beat her down ti the post where she knew the end was near.

In October, we knew time was getting short, so the family descended upon the Clemmons, NC assisted living facility, and almost all of my huge family was able to keet with Grandma and achieve some semblance of closure before the inevitable occurred.

The fear that we would lose her quickly had me drop what I was doing on a Wednesday evening in October.  I left work and headed across the state, leaving Mal and Chris at home.  Mal was able to meet me in Clemmons that Friday, but Chris was unable to come since he had school and work.  I sat with Grandma for a few hours each day from that Wednesday night, to that Sunday.  When Sunday came, I knew I had to go home, and i was afraid that would be the last time I'd see Grandma.  I had her one on one that day, so we sat and had a deep discussion about living and dying, what she felt, what she saw; things like that.  I told her that I believed that I'd still see her in my dreams long after she had gone, and she said "Well, that's possible.  I'll let you know."

One of the things I had to do before I left was move her from her wheelchair to her recliner so she could take a nap.  As I assisted her from chair to chair, she grabbed hold of me as she settled into her recliner.  She said, "Since I have you here, parting is such sweet sorrow. You've been a great grandson. I've lived a long life and did some good things and some things I regret." So, I asked her "Grandma, what do you regret?"  She mentioned how she regretted not pursuing her education further beyond some post graduate study, since back then, ordinary women didn't really go that far in education.  I told her "Grandma, you want to know something? You were far from ordinary." We hugged and cried together, and she gave me a kiss.  I had to leave, then, and turned to look at her one last time, as she wiped her eyes.

THANKFULLY, that wasn't the last time I saw Grandma.  That next weekend, Chris was off from work, so I made a point to get him up to see Grandma.  She was being served dinner, but wasn't interested in eating it.  She had her lunch that she hadn't finished, and would rather have had that.  She offered her dinner to Chris, so the two of them had an impromptu dinner date.  I tucked behind them and gave them some time together.  She and Chris had their own conversation of closure, which I was so glad Chris was able ti have.

I was asleep at my parents farm, with plans to have Thanksgiving dinner at my brother Andy's house.  My cell phone rang at 8:15 AM, which woke me up.  I looked and saw Andy was calling; I figured he needed me to pick up something for the dinner.  Instead, he told me "Grandma passed away this morning".  She had been in a lot of pain, but her paid had now been relieved. It didn't hit me for a few minutes, but when it did, I howled. She had been the matriarch of our family.  A pillar of fierce independence. A super classy woman wish a wicked sense of humor.  She did so many things in her 97 years.  She was far from ordinary.

I learned one final thing when I slept and dreamt Thursday night.  Grandma kept her promise.

Rest in peace, Grandma.  You are already missed by so many, but you will live forever in our stories, in our memories and in our dreams.

Eleanore Christine Herchet Regenthal 1/8/1927 - 11/28/2024.

TTM Success - Don Newcombe

I was watching the opening game of the NLCS and saw that Don Newcombe threw out the first pitch.  I got to thinking about it, and checked to see if he signed TTM.  I saw that he signed at $20.00/card, so I made sure to pick up this nice 1954 Bowman.

Newcombe is one of my favorite former players to listen to when he is being interviewed.  He is a huge part of baseball history, and adding his autograph to my album is great.  This is a really nice card, and looks great signed.

Newcombe (b. 1926) played in the majors from 1949 to 1951 and 1954 to 1960 for the Dodgers (Brooklyn and LA), Reds and Indians.  He had a career record of 149-90 with 1,129 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.56.  He was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1949 and the NL MVP in 1956.  Also, that season, he was the first ever Cy Young Award winner with a 27-7 record and 3.06 ERA.

He was a 4-time All Star (1949, 1950, 1951 and 1955) and won the World Series with the Dodgers in 1955.  Newcombe appeared on the NL MVP ballot 5 times.  He was a 20-game winner three times in his career.

I mailed to Newcombe on October 14 and got the card back on October 24, for a 10-day TAT.  I paid his fee of $20.00/card.  The $20.00 was actually a birthday gift from my grandma, so essentially, she got me this auto!  Thanks, Grandma!

Ebay Pickup - 1949 World Series Game 3 Ticket

Recently, I used some of the Christmas money that I got from my grandma to pick up something that she has some ties to.  I was able to find a used ticket stub to Game 3 of the 1949 World Series.  A while back, I posted on here about how Grandma had dropped a bombshell on me when she told me that she had attended a World Series game.  You can read the story here.

Since Grandma didn't keep her ticket, I figured I would see about finding one that would go with the story.  I know it's not her original ticket, but I still think it is cool to be able to have a ticket from that World Series and be able to tell folks that she was there.

This ticket stub is in pretty rough shape, but I got a nice deal on it.  I tried to get the guy who had it for sale to accept a BIN price, but even though it failed to sell at his opening bid price three times, he still re-listed it for me in auction style, for that price.  Unsurprisingly, no one but me bid on it, so I came away with the ticket at the guy's opening bid.  Oh well.  BIN would have been quicker.

I now have two World Series tickets.  This one, and the one I for from Mr. McNair for the 1930 World Series.  I don't believe I will be starting a World Series ticket collection, I just think they are cool.  I may pick up some Orioles ones, but I haven't decided yet.  I'm still excited to finally have a ticket from the World Series that Grandma attended.

Hall of Fame Signed Baseball - Ron Santo

The last of the baseballs that I picked up with my Christmas money came in the form of this Ron Santo signed baseball.  I was able to pick it up with the Christmas money that I got from my grandma, and the ball turned out to be quite a steal.  It is a William White ONL baseball with a PSA auction letter.  I got the ball from Ebay, but the seller picked it up from a frequent shopping destination of mine, Collectauctions.  I actually looked at the lot that this ball was included in, but I declined to bid on it.  I ended up with one of the balls anyway!!

Santo (b. 1940 - d. 2010) played in the majors from 1960 to 1974 for the Cubs and White Sox.  He was Chicago through and through, following up his playing career with a longtime place in the Cubs' broadcast booth.

In his playing career, he had 2,254 hits, 342 home runs and a .277 batting average.  He was on 9 All Star teams and finished as high as 4th in the NL MVP voting (1967).

Santo was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2012 (posthumously) by the Veterans Committee.  He probably should have been elected a long time ago, especially since he passed away due to diabetes complications in 2010.

Santo is the 121st Hall of Fame signed baseball in my collection.  Hopefully, based on the voting results to be announced Wednesday, I will be able to count ball number 122 soon!

Thank you for the Christmas money, Grandma!

Christmas From Grandma - 1948 Bowman Phil Rizzuto RC

She wasn't aware of it, but my grandma knocked one of the cards off of my Top 10 list with the annual cash award she gave me for Christmas.  To make things easier on her, since I have a huge family, she gives the adult grandkids cash instead of gifts.  This works out well for me, because I can take what she gives me and apply it to something I really want and wouldn't buy for myself.  So, in that vein, I went ahead and watched a few auctions on Ebay until I found two that were at reasonable prices, and were ending by last weekend.

I bid on the first of the two, and held on til the end to take home this awesome card!  This was the last big RC that I needed for my 1948 Bowman set.

Knocking card #8 off of the 1948 Bowman set checklist leaves me with 13 cards remaining out of the 48 issued for the set.

So, thanks for helping me get this awesome card, Grandma!  I always appreciate the Christmas gifts, and everything else you do, all year round.  Oh, and, just so everyone knows, it's Grandma's birthday today.  I won't reveal her age, since she is a classy lady, but I do wish her a birthday, nonetheless!

Finding Out Something About Grandma

Since it appears that the Kansas City Royals have magic horseshoes rammed up their asses, it is looking like I will be denied a lifelong dream to attend a World Series game this year.  Down 0-2, the Orioles are pitching poorly and not looking like a worthy World Series contender.  I almost didn't write a blog post, but I thought better of it and decided to write about something that I learned a couple weeks ago that I thought was really cool.

I went back to my hometown for my birthday because my mom had bought tickets for the Panther game.  Since the game was on a Sunday, of course, and that being my actual birthday, I figured spending the weekend back home would be nice.  That Saturday evening, when dinner plans were being discussed, my mom suggested that we invite my grandmother to dinner. I gave Grandma a call and asked her what her plans were she said "Oh, I just bought a rotisserie chicken from the store, I might heat that up."  So I asked her if she would like to go to dinner with us and she jumped at the chance.

At dinner, we chatted away, and I learned a few things about Grandma that I didn't really know, like that she did some post graduate study at Columbia University and that she did some substitute teaching at Princeton.  What I found out when my wife and I dropped her off at her house blew all of that other stuff out of the water, though (for me at least).  We had decided to hang around and visit for a while and the subject of sports came up.  Grandma likes to joke that she has no idea which team I follow, because it is painfully obvious to anyone who knows me that I follow the Orioles.  I made a comment that it would be really nice if the Orioles would make it to the World Series, because it has been a dream of mine to attend one.  That's when Grandma dropped a little nugget of information on me that I never even thought of before.  She said "Oh, I've been to a World Series game."

"What?  Really?" I said as my wife laughs at the sight of my with my jaw on the floor.  "Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the 1949 World Series.  I was working on Wall Street and my boss had extra tickets he wasn't going to use, so he gave them to a girlfriend and I."

I thought this was so cool, I asked her about the game, but she said that she wasn't really into baseball, so she and her friend chatted the whole time.  She didn't remember the players she saw, but she did remember that it was the Yankees vs. Dodgers and she remembers that she saw the game in Brooklyn.

Wow, Ebbetts Field!!  I asked Grandma if she still had the ticket from the game, which made her laugh (because she knew why I had asked).  She said "Oh, of course not, it's long gone!"  Dang!

When I got back home, I did a little research, and sent a couple emails back and forth to Grandma, trying to pin down the game she saw, if I could.  From what she remembers, she was let out of work to see the game and she didn't usually work on the weekends, so based on how the World Series played out, she must have seen the Friday, October 7, 1949 game (Game 3 of that World Series).  The first two games were played in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium with the series moving to legendary Ebbetts Field for the Friday game.  The series was tied 1-1 with the Yankees winning Game 1, 1-0 and the Dodgers winning Game 2, 1-0.

Grandma got to see a thrilling Game 3 where the game was tied going into the 9th inning, 1-1, and the Yankees would score 3 runs in the top of the inning to make it 4-1.  The Dodgers would score 2 runs in the bottom half to make it interesting, but the Yankees wound up winning 4-3.  Sounds like a really cool game to see.

With Grandma saying that she didn't remember which players she had seen, I took the liberty of checking the box score on baseball-reference and just chuckled when I went through the roll-call in my head of the Hall of Famers that she got to see play.  They are as follows:

Yankees
- Phil Rizzuto
- Yogi Berra
- Joe DiMaggio
- Johnny Mize
- Casey Stengel

Dodgers
- Pee Wee Reese
- Jackie Robinson
- Duke Snider
- Roy Campanella

The Yankees would go on to win that World Series 4-1.

I thought it was so cool that my grandma had been to a World Series game, and a historic one, at that.  I'm no Yankees fan, but I wouldn't mind a trip back in time in the DeLorean to see one of those games.  That would be pretty awesome.

I'm really glad that I sat down to write this out, because years from now, I'll be able to look back at this post and remember this baseball conversation I had with my grandmother that was completely out of the blue.  I really never even had thought to ask her about any sports experiences that she had in her life, which, looking back, I wish I had done sooner.  It really never even occurred to me to ask. I wish more people would take the time to just sit down and listen to the stories that their elders had to say, because you might be surprised at what you might find out.  I was!

Mail Day - Johnny Mize Autographed Baseball

My grandma gave me some money for Christmas. As fun as it would have been to take the money and pay bills with it, I really wanted to get myself something that I would hold onto instead. Yeah, I know, I'm practical, haha. I'm very satisfied with my choice. I picked up this authenticated (by an auction house) Johnny Mize autographed ball off of ebay. The signature is beautiful, as you can see above. Oh yeah, did anyone notice that I finally figured out how to take better pictures of autos with my camera? Looks amazing, right? Thanks Grandma!!