David Skeels on baseball cards

David Skeels played four seasons in the Mariners and A's organizations. After his playing career he went to Baylor Law School and is now a Partner at Friedman, Suder & Cooke in Fort Worth, TX, where he has been ranked as a Super Lawyer in Intellectual Property five of the last six years. He was recently interviewed by Texas Lawyer about his family (he is one of three brothers to play pro baseball and one of two who became an attorney). He kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"My brother Mark is the only one of the three of us that has a Big League card. Topps. It's '93 -- a "Future Prospect" with the Marlins.

I always got a kick out of an old Warren Cromartie Fleer card from '82 pulling a big chaw out of a bag of Levi Garrett. So politically incorrect . . . would never go over today. Steve Garvey was my favorite guy to collect. I have his rookie card, but I don't believe I ever got his second year card, which I recall was a bit more rare than his rookie card.

The bearded guy in the background on the Visalia card ragged me mercilessly the previous year, when I was playing for Lancaster/Mariners. Then, when I got picked up by the A's and sent to Visalia, he turned out to be a great guy. Turns out he was a junior college professor, and I used to talk to him whenever I was in the on-deck circle."

Thanks! He also had kind words about another blog he saw linked to mine, Garvey Cey Russell Lopes, which yesterday was renamed Garvey Cey Russell Sax for April Fool's Day.

"The "Garvey/Cey/Russell/Sax" blog also caught my eye. My fondest memories growing up are of Garvey, Lopes, Russell, Cey, and Yeager -- before Scioscia and Sax came along. Later, I scraped my knuckles on the ceiling jumping up and down when Gibby hit his dinger off of Eck."