Rookie Cards of My Youth
I grew up in Seattle, which is a fantastic sports town. I know we lost the Sonics, but the people adore the Seahawks, Mariners, and Sounders. Sure, there are a lot of boutique coffee-drinking microsoft yuppies and boeing engineering nerds, but there are a lot of beer-drinking down to earth lumberjacks as well. My Dad loved baseball, and I loved my Dad. Eventually, I began to love baseball too. It was something that really brought us together, and our many pilgrimages to the Kingdome are among my very favorite memories from growing up.
The Mariners were so bad that you could often get cheap or even free tickets for most games. The only team that really sold well was the Toronto Bluejays, and that was because all the Canadians would come down and attend the game. Once, we were trying to get scalped tickets (always less than face value) on the street outside the Kingdome. We ran into a group of older Bluejays fans from a retirement community that had two extra tickets since they had some members of their group that couldn't come. My Dad thought they were pretty safe since they were all fairly elderly, and we happily accepted their generous offer to take their extra seats (for free!). Those guys were totally amazing, and they drank more beer than I had ever seen in my young life. I swear the air smelled like cheap beer. It was great. We ended up getting them some hotdogs and beer as a thanks for the tickets, but it was a trade and memory I would do a million more times.
In the late 1980's, the Mariners featured an offense that featured a bunch of great but not spectacular players. From Jay "Bone" Buhner, to Alvin Davis, and later even Edgar Martinez, they were a joy to watch. On a side note, they need to put Edgar Martinez in the Hall of Fame already. Just listen to Junior Griffey or Alex Rodriguez talk about what he meant to those Mariner teams. With the rise of graded cards and the increased availability on the internet, I was able to pick up gem mint graded copies of the heroes of my youth for pennies on the dollar. These cards were worth every penny.
The Mariners were so bad that you could often get cheap or even free tickets for most games. The only team that really sold well was the Toronto Bluejays, and that was because all the Canadians would come down and attend the game. Once, we were trying to get scalped tickets (always less than face value) on the street outside the Kingdome. We ran into a group of older Bluejays fans from a retirement community that had two extra tickets since they had some members of their group that couldn't come. My Dad thought they were pretty safe since they were all fairly elderly, and we happily accepted their generous offer to take their extra seats (for free!). Those guys were totally amazing, and they drank more beer than I had ever seen in my young life. I swear the air smelled like cheap beer. It was great. We ended up getting them some hotdogs and beer as a thanks for the tickets, but it was a trade and memory I would do a million more times.
In the late 1980's, the Mariners featured an offense that featured a bunch of great but not spectacular players. From Jay "Bone" Buhner, to Alvin Davis, and later even Edgar Martinez, they were a joy to watch. On a side note, they need to put Edgar Martinez in the Hall of Fame already. Just listen to Junior Griffey or Alex Rodriguez talk about what he meant to those Mariner teams. With the rise of graded cards and the increased availability on the internet, I was able to pick up gem mint graded copies of the heroes of my youth for pennies on the dollar. These cards were worth every penny.
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