Traveling through time to get an incredible card

As any reader of this blog can tell, in addition to baseball cards, I have a deep interest in local history (NYC and Long Island). I was born in 1977, so my own personal memories only go as far back as the mid-1980s. I am always fascinated by pictures and videos of familiar places as they looked decades ago. I particularly love the era of the 1950s to the 1970s, when everything was similar enough to be recognizable, but different enough to be interesting. My favorite video on YouTube is A Walk Through New York City in 1968, which is a simple walk up Broadway and then Sixth Avenue. It is not at all artistically done, just the camera going up the streets, which creates the feeling that you really are walking through Manhattan in 1968.

Watching a video like that, or looking at old pictures, I often imagine myself being transported back to those times, and being in the scene shown in the photo or movie. Overtime, such daydreams have evolved into kind of a time travel fantasy, as my musings on old photos led into a train of thought as to how I could conceivably end up in the 1960s, and what I would do if I actually find myself there. Because of the level of immersion in the 1968 video, that is the year my thoughts often wander to. It's easy to forget that in that year of unprecedented social upheaval, there were still lazy Sunday mornings, breakfasts at diners, trips to the park. Daily life in the late 1960s has kind of been overshadowed by the major historical events of the time.

When Daniel of It's like having my own Card Shop announced his Tenth Anniversary Contest, with some amazing prizes for the best-written post, I admired the prizes but didn't even consider entering, as free-form writing is not my strength. That is why most of my posts are highly structured like the 1981 Topps series.

However, one day, I believe on the train ride coming home from a Yankee game, I was mentally in 1968, and my thoughts turned to baseball cards. Imagine being transported back to 1968 and being able to open a pack of cards! I remembered that one of the categories in Daniel's contest was a story about time travel and baseball cards, and for the first time I considered entering the contest.

About half of the story had been in my head in some way for a long time. For example, landing on top of Stern's at night, and then slipping through the building to the street had been an early part of my fantasy. Then one day I read about guard dogs in Macy's and I realized that it wouldn't be as easy as I thought. (I've spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about how I would survive in the 1960s). Other parts of the story, like the secret society of time travelers, I made up in order to stitch together the pieces of the story that were in my head.

My favorite part of the story is trading through time with other bloggers. I tried to include most of the people I trade with most frequently, and a few prominent bloggers from past and present (Night Owl, Dime Boxes, Tribecards) got a bit more of a substantial role in the story. If you haven't read the story yet and are curious, you can find it here.

I haven't written creatively since high school, maybe college. At the moment I don't plan to do more, but I did have fun writing this story, so I wouldn't completely rule out more. There are some people who find writing this way very easily; I am not one of them, though, so I would need to really be inspired as I was here. Maybe more adventures in 1968? Or perhaps different years - I realized later on that if I had gone a few years further back, I could have incorporated Jefferson Burdick into my story.

Anyway, I was quite surprised that my little story not only won a prize, but won first place! I own a bat card of Joe DiMaggio, autographed cards of Don Mattingly and Aaron Judge, but this card has to be the best card in my collection, by far. Right?

It's a beautiful card, an iconic subject, and considering the age of the card, in really good shape. I don't have many '56es, and most of the ones I do have are heavily trimmed and/or you can't read the card number on the back. This card is simply fantastic.

Daniel's generosity didn't stop there. He included a few semi-high number 1970 Topps cards I needed, including the iconic "Chevy Pickup" Jim Fregosi card.

Thanks for the contest and the amazing prizes, Daniel!