A "Barry" Uncomfortable Feeling

We card collectors are always excited by the arrival of mail. Mail time means that new cards could be sitting right in your mail box, be it from a generous fellow blogger, a massive COMC order or even a redemption from Topps (if you're REALLY patient). Thus, we may be the only sect of society that is still enthused about snail mail.

That said, sometimes life keeps you too busy to truly enjoy these sort of moments.  Recently, I ordered an ancient baseball card through eBay for just chump change that filled a vacant spot in my CATRC:

Sure, its all sorts of creased, weathered like hell, heavily trimmed and was apparently pasted into a notebook at some point in it's life (at least we can still tell it's a Piedmont back); but, who doesn't love picking up a T206 for less than you'd spend at McDonald's?

However, the day it arrived in the mail was a perfect storm of manic activity. Thus, I opened the envelope, ooo'ed at its contents, placed it back in the envelope and went back to figuring out how I could jam running errands, going to the gym, running 5 miles and making dinner in the span of 3 hours.

Well, I then completely forgot about the envelope... for two weeks.... until I was flipping through my binder and noticed that Shad was MIA. Panic set in.

After all, this is a century-plus old tobacco card; it's not something that I can run to Target and replace.  Plus, I might not find another one in my cheapskate price range for years.

I went all Scooby-Doo on my basement, trying to retrace my steps based on my faint memory. Not in my junk basket, nor the stack of papers on the table, nor my card table... I was losing hope.

On a whim, I checked on the top of my TV stand. Lo and behold, there it was - underneath some random, leftover gift bag tissue paper. Man am I going to be fun in old age.

Notice what's behind the tissue paper?  Yea, I might have needed some of that stuff if I was unable to recover my T206!

This also happens to be my cat's favorite perch. Despite his best efforts of keeping this tissue "nest" warm, my envelope did not hatch and produce more baseball cards. Damn.

He is not in the mood to have his picture taken

I'm quite content just being able to locate this Barry card though.  All I kept thinking was that this fragile, little slip of paper has survived through 8 presidencies, 2 world wars, jazz, swing, rock, disco, hip hop, grunge and Deflate-Gate and here I was going to be responsible for it's eventual demise.

Dodged a bullet there, huh?

So, absent-minded me had forgotten about Shad Barry, much like baseball history has forgotten Mr. Barry.  Playing during the Deadball era for the entirety of his career, Shad actually had a fairly potent bat - hitting a .267 over 10 years spent mostly as an extra outfielder/corner infielder.

Shad as a member of the Phillies in 1905

Courtesy of BaseballFever.com

He was a Cub for two partial seasons in 1904 and 1905, being acquired and jettisoned in mid-seasons deals both times.  But, this card depicts him as a member of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers of the old American Association, where he played from 1909-10, never again reaching the Majors.

Super vintage, minor league and a guy who played for the Cubs?  That's a trifecta of tremendous in my own, personal collecting world!

Disaster averted and Shad is currently residing in the proper pocket of my CATRC binder; but, it sure was an uncomfortable feeling for a little white there.  Has anyone else ever had an experience like this?  I can only hope your story ended happily as well!