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| 1959 Fleer #26, Ted Williams |
That last statement is not true.
No one ever called Ted Williams "Garbage Pail Ted". But throwing baseballs into a garbage can from the outfield? At least that part of the story is plausible, isn't it?
Regardless, there is a reason I fabricated the tale.
Recently I picked up the Ted Williams card above as part of a trade. Here's the back of the card.
It's the oldest Ted Williams card I own. Along with it I received a few nice rookie cards, including 1989 Donruss Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, and Craig Biggio, and 1989 Upper Deck Gary Sheffield and John Smoltz.
And do you know what I traded away in exchange?
A stack of original Garbage Pail Kids trading cards. Seems like nonsense, right?
But still, it wasn't perfectly easy to get rid of some of those weird cards from the '80s. I remember opening packs of them with my sister and my mom back then, all of us laughing at the rhyming or alliterative names, the variations, and of course the lowbrow artwork.
The nine cards shown above—along with a handful of others—do remain in my collection, and they're enough to bring back those fond memories. As for the rest of them, well, they're in the hands of a collector who's closer to completing some sets. And I have a few great baseball cards to show for it, including a vintage Ted Williams card. Everyone wins.
So here's to Ted Williams. And here's to one of the more bizarre trades (and blog posts) I've made.
Even if it's not true, it's still kind of funny to think of Ted Williams being the original "Garbage Pail Kid".
ReplyDeleteHeh. Good one, Jon! (Let's hope we don't receive any angry letters.)
DeleteYou had me going there. Great trade - those original GPK are surprisingly valuable. Mine are long long gone though . . .
ReplyDeleteThanks Bo! And yeah, I'm glad that at least a handful of my GPKs made it through the decades. I'm sure my sister and I had a bigger stack at some point. Maybe I'll add a couple to our next trade.
DeleteI don't want to like the GPK. Catty Kathy makes it difficult. Teddy Boy, let's do call him Garbage Pail Ted. It might help me like him a bit more. Talented he was but I've never been his fan. Ok... let me have it. Trash me all you want.
ReplyDeleteSome of the GPK humor is just too wacky to suppress a good chortle, isn't it? As for Garbage Pail Ted, imagine if an old newspaper article pops up that shows a sportswriter using that moniker? Then you can call him by that name all you want.
DeleteI love Garbage Pail Kids! Almost bought a binder full of them yesterday... but we couldn't agree on a price. But I think that Ted Williams card is pretty sweet too. Love that swing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Fuji. I'm happy that I held onto a small stack of GPKs. If I start looking through the old checklists, I'm sure I'd find more cards that I'd want to add to the collection. As for the Williams card, the back of it is pretty sweet, too!
DeleteGreat Ted Williams card! I had a small stack of GPK growing up, but I have no idea what became of them. Probably got thrown out!
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt! You know, the more I think about it, the more surprised I am that some of the GPKs my sister and I had back then made it to the present day. (Am I starting to have trader's remorse?)
DeleteGarbage Pail Ted, lol. Very cool trade. I collected GPKs before I collected sports cards. Someday I'll buy back all the Series 3 and 4 stickers I used to have.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris! If not all of them, I'd say you should buy back at least a few of your favorites. The feeling of nostalgia will be worth it.
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