My baseball memory stash

The passing of Ernie Banks sent me back to my earliest days as a Cubs fan. I don't have a lot of specific memories of Ernie. I remember (I think) seeing him hit his 500th home run at Uncle Eds house, where I would have watched it in the TV room. I remember watching the end of games on Channel 9 there after school, where Grandma would set me up with coffee and sugar sandwiches to refresh me after a hard half day of kindergarten. Yes, Grandma was wonderful.

So I wondered what Cubs memorabilia I would find in my drawer of that sort of thing. Here's what I come up with:

The only Ernie Banks item is the 1977 scorecard from a game between the Cubs and the Giants. 1977 was the year Ernie was inducted in the hall of fame, so he was featured on the scorecard. I kept score on the scorecard. It was this game, a 1-0 pitcher's duel won by Rick Reuschel. I'm sure I took the Northwestern (now Metra) from Waukegan to Evanston, transferred at Howard and got off at Addison.  I don't remember the game, but I would go there with high school or work buddies and buy tickets there -- often very good tickets, very cheap by today's prices.

My Cubs baseball card collection from the old days is pretty lame.

Al Spangler is the only one of the three players I remember, a back-up outfielder. I can't imagine how I got doubles of Bill Faul. 

My favorite totem is this:

An autographed postcard to my 6 or 7 year old self from John Boccabella, who was a back-up catcher and first baseman. Playing behind Ernie Banks and Randy Hundley, he didn't get on the field all that much. I must have liked his name, because I remember being a big fan of his, and I apparently sent him a birthday card. He sent me this postcard back, thanking me for the card. I'm sure I didn't appreciate it then like I should have, but it was really nice of him to do that. 

He got to play more after he joined the Montreal Expos in the 1969 expansion draft, retiring from baseball in 1974 as a Giant.

So probably nothing in my memorabilia that a collector would want. There is one cultural icon in there, though:

The man is a legend.