Junk Wax Dig

Jaime Cocanower? We all have that card that got us into collecting. For some, it was their favorite player. In my childhood, guys like Don Mattingly, Kirby Puckett, Mike Schmidt and, in Milwaukee, Robin Yount. Robin Yount was a big part of my collecting days. Growing up in Wisconsin (Milwaukee since I was 4), the Brewers were kings. Robin Yount, Paul Molitor and Jim Gantner were a trio those of us in our 40s remember most.  But one player - one little-known player - holds one of my dearest collecting memories: Jaime Cocanower. I can already hear a resounding round of "who?" echoing through the Internet. To save you the hassle, here's his Baseball Reference page. For those of you who don't want to click over, here's a recap of his career: 79 games (47 starts), 16-25 record, 3.99 ERA and 139 strikeouts in four Major League seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers (1983-86). So, I am sure the next questions is, "Why him?" Well, let me tell you...

Let's start sorting! Ok, so school let out last week, and as of Thursday I am a free man (minus the million home and family things on my plate). But that gave me time to go to the basement and start a good sorting of my chaotic basement stash. While there were many places I could start, I dipped into my Goodwill find from a few weeks ago and sorted through the 1988 Topps. I forgot how fun/cumbersome sorting can be. So many names from my childhood popped up, but so many cards to sort.  I don't know how many of you sort, but here's my plan: 1. Sort them all into piles of 100s (i.e. cards 1-99, 100-199, 200-299, etc.) 2. Then go through each pile and sort by 10s (1-10, 11-20, etc.) 3. Sort them in order  It takes time. It is 792 cards to sort this way. I muddled through it and came about 250 cards short of a set. But ... I am fairly certain those are in my large pile of childhood cards. But, before I get I to those 88s, I need to sort through all my st...

What a find! As I began this blog, my intention was to share my findings as I dug through the thousands of mid-80s to early-90s junk wax I collected during my childhood. I had little to no intention of adding more junk wax - and more work - to my collection. That is, until I stopped at Goodwill last week. Being a teacher, I had months to clean my basement. With that came countless trips to Goodwill to unload our old stuff (I lost count after 15). I would often stop in and look for bobbleheads or other diamonds in the rough. Well, I had to make another trip recently and thought I'd stop in. What I found was a $10 bag containing a shoebox full of junk wax and some spilling out. A quick inspection saw some fun-looking items, so for $10 it was well worth it. Here's a look at what I found. I am still sorting through some of the stuff, but here are some highlights. It felt like an episode of Storage Wars. I could only see so much without actually getting into the bag. But...