Robert J. Elisberg

Far too many young men have returned home to get their childhood collection of baseball cards, only to find that their mother threw them out years earlier.  (Or worse, months earlier.) 

Happily, I come from good stock, and my mother always kept them.  And I still have them--all 1,333.  They’re not as valuable as they could be –not in pristine condition. But that’s because I actually played with them.  (What a concept, I know.)  Mainly, I invented a game called Dice Baseball, for which the stats on the back were integral.

There’s definitely some value to the collection-- especially my most valuable, a 1960 rookie card for Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox.  Though the one that makes me most wistful is pitcher Tom Qualters – I have eight cards for him!  If he had been in the Hall of Fame, as well, I could have retired decades ago.  Alas, his 3-year record was 0-0 with a 5.64 ERA.  According to Wikipedia, “He is the only pitcher to appear on a Topps baseball card four times without ever recording a win or loss.”

But then there are my two most memorable cards.

“Brock for Broglio” is a cry Cubs fans have bemoaned since the middle of 1964.  That’s when the team traded their young, promising outfielder to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ernie Broglio, a journeyman pitcher. Broglio played only two seasons after that, winning just 12 games for the Cubs.  That young outfielder, Lou Brock, went on to a Hall of Fame career and retired with the most stolen bases in major league history.

Not only do I have a card for both players – I have Ernie Broglio gratefully back on the Cardinals, and Lou Brock still blessedly on the Cubs.  Where he has remained in my heart.