Greek Gods, Rock Gods and Garden Tools

You never know what you'll find in storage.

The other day, I recovered some pieces of my collection which I had long forgotten about.  I guess that's what happens when you put a large chunk of your belongings in the shed - out of sight, out of mind and all that.

Good thing I get bored pretty easily and rummaging is one of my favorite hobbies!

While waiting on my girlfriend to get home from work, I decided that I was going to look for some stuff that I had packed away way back when I moved to my college apartment in twenty aught nine.  While I didn't find most of that stuff (more on that later), I did find some other cool, lost trinkets:

For instance, this TCMA reprint of a 19th century tobacco card was nestled in a box where I had emptied my old junk drawer.  As I recall, I received this oddball as part of a larger Christmas gift of baseball cards; but, at that time, I had no use for over-sized inconveniences like this and proceeded to stash it away in the same place I kept my electrical tape and pens.

I was such a grateful teenager.

It's a shame too, because William "Adonis" Terry is a guy I've long been trying to locate for my CATRC - his unique nickname caught my attention while perusing the all-time roster and that's really all it takes.  Little did I know, I already had him hidden away; all because I couldn't be bothered with anything that didn't fit in a nine-pocket page.

Short-sighted me should not have limited myself because until I rediscovered this gem, I was aware of only two modern cards of the man: this Target Dodger piece from GCRL's Sunday spotlight and an Ars Longa art card.

Not a lot of wiggle room there.  Also, neither is standard size.  Stupid younger Tony.

As you can see, the back features a detailed biographical write-up and one can infer that this came from a tribute set to the 1890 Brooklyn Bridegrooms; a significant team for being the first NL entry for what would become the Dodgers.  As you can see, they wont he pennant right away.

Terry had been with the club since their very first campaign (1884), when they were known as the Atlantics of the American Association.  Most of his tenure was spent as the second or third starting pitcher; but after their championship in 1890, he was running out of steam.

After a few seasons with the NL Orioles and Pirates, Terry closed out his career with four mediocre to disastrous seasons for the Chicago Colts.  In one 1896 contest, Terry gave up FOUR homers to Ed Delahanty; remember, this is the Deadball era!  By 1897, he had pitched his last big league game.

Typical Cubs.

That said, his peers must have thought William was a pretty damn good looking chap, seeing as Adonis, in Greek mythology, is a Phoenician demi-god of beauty and desire.

Do you see the resemblance?

Image courtesy of George Kibler on Pinterest

Meanwhile, Terry wasn't the only Cubs-related baseball card I found stashed away.  These guys were tucked in the corner of the same box, amongst some old junk wax:

Excepting Kieschnick, none of these guys had anything to do with Chicago when I put them away. Now, they can all find spots in my Cubs player collections.

Although, the only one the elicits any positive memories is Manny Ramirez for the wonderful job he has done as a mentor for the young Wrigley talent.  Just saying Edwin Jackson's name makes me want to cuss out the nearest TV set out of habit.

It wasn't just Cubs stuff that I found though:

A couple of old, stadium give-away team sets for the local minor league baseball team.  I've been working on acquiring a complete run of these, so they fill some gaps in that collection; which I'll have to spotlight on this blog at some point.

The Windy City Thunderbolts are based out of Crestwood, IL and have been around since 2004 and play in the independent Frontier League.  Some notable names for the franchise have been then-future White Sox Dylan Axelrod, former Cub Billy Petrick and former Cub prospect Bo Flowers.

One quick note about Mr. Crosland there on the left (2005 team set).  I always remember this guy because during one game that I attended, he missed a pitch on a Ruthian homerun cut and the bat went flying into the crowd on the third base side, where it cracked a friend of mine's father in the face.  It did some pretty heavy damage and he had to spend some time in the hospital.

Im fairly certain that is not what Jason wanted to be the lasting memory of his baseball career.

The weather here in the Chicago area has been pretty bipolar; but, I certainly wasn't expecting any snow when I started exploring the shed!

This Diamonds in the Rough insert was a card that I begged my grandfather to buy me during a foray to our LCS.  Since this was in the mid-90s, this was one of the fancy, expensive cards on display for a stupid amount of money.  But, what kid doesn't love shiny things, especially when they have the cool hologram thing going on too.

I eventually won out, but if I just waited 20 years, I could have bought it myself for spare change.  I was an impatient little bugger.

That was it for baseball goodies in the box, but that doesn't mean there weren't more cards:

I literally have no clue where these came from; I have no recollection of buying/trading/conjuring them up with sorcery whatsoever.  They must have come with some repack that I bought way back when.

However, I thoroughly enjoy most of Kiss' body of work and these are some pretty nifty cards.  I especially love the poster design featuring the art from their debut album on the top left.  I've always thought about starting a music based card collection; so, if I do, these will certainly be a part of it.

Favorite Kiss song?  I think it has to be Plaster Caster - a deep track from 1977's Love Gun:

If you are unfamiliar with the Plaster Casters, they're an interesting bunch alright.

Speaking of music though, I also recovered this masterpiece from the "lost forever" shed:

An immaculate, vinyl copy of the legendary Simon & Garfunkel's comeback concert!  I grew up with a heavy dose of Paul Simon's solo work and discovered his work with Art when I was in college.  I had no idea that this was in there.

This has made for a fine addition to my record collection and I've already spun it at least 5 times.

This particular cut will always bring me goosebumps:

Oh, one more thing - the whole reason I was even in the shed to begin with was to try and locate my old auto racing card collection.  NASCAR used to be my sport of choice during my junior high years and the Indy 500 an event that is near and dear to my heart.  So, I thought maybe I should resurrect that collection.

I was unable to find most of them, except for this tiny snap case:

As you can see, I re-purposed the case.  The card on top is for a local weekend warrior who raced for a long time in the short track levels of the sport; a cool little rarity.

After all of that, I was able to locate most of the cards in the closet under my stairs the next day.

I would have been mad; but, as you can plainly see, the foray through the shed was immensely rewarding for me.  On another day, I plan to showoff this grouping of cards on the blog.  Much like my CATRC, my collecting goal is to get as many cards of different racers as I can.

I mean - because the massive piles of boxes with forgotten memorabilia already hidden in the shed weren't evidence enough that I need to bring in MORE stuff.

Anybody else uncover any forgotten treasures in their shed/attic/basement/buried pirate treasure chest?