Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Baseball Card of Me

Title: Scorpions Catcher/Outfielder Johnny Lamberth
Date: 1983/1984
Category: Trading Cards
Current Status: In the collectors album next to the MC Hammer rookie card

Somebody came up with the great idea to make baseball cards of kids playing in the YMCA league. Seems like a lot of fun.
I played some form of baseball for about 5 years I think. 2 years of T-ball, a year of slow pitch, and a couple of years of regular baseball. I sucked. That's why I was usually in the outfield (where most kids couldn't hit it to anyway) or catcher (nobody expects an 8 year old to do anything at catcher).
I think this was a T-ball team, but I really am not sure. I remember the Scorpions team, because it was one of my favorites, largely because we had a scorpion logo on our hats. Most teams just had a letter or nothing at all. We had actual scorpions.
The only other thing I remember was that I played on this team with the Blank twins, Matt & Jake. Matt Blank went on to kick butt at Martin and his stellar pitching, along with future American League Rookie of the Year Ben Grieve's great hitting, helped Martin win the state title my senior year. Matt ended up going pro after college and played some with the now defunct Montreal Expos. And that is as close as I ever got to anything resembling a great baseball story.
Let's see... this was before I got braces as you can see one of my Bugs Bunny like front teeth jutting out and that glove is waaaay too big for me. Meanwhile, the back of the card with the "stats" is pretty entertaining too:

I went by "Johnny." Why? I don't really know. Coach liked to link me to Johnny Bench because we were both catchers, but there really was no chance I would ever come within the same universe of Bench's ability to play the game. Meanwhile, I was a towering 4 feet tall and 53 pounds. I'm over 4 times that weight now and unfortunately, I'm nowhere near 4 times as tall.
I'll be honest... I didn't give a rip about the Texas Rangers or Buddy Bell at the time. I said they were my favorites because really, I didn't know any other teams or players. I had to put something down.

1 comment:

  1. LOL You had "actual" scorpions on your hats? It is amazing that you all survived!
    -Liesl

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