For Dennis James: The Man With The 'fro

[Yankee4Life]

The one and only!

[dennisjames71]

HA! I love the pre-fro Cubs photo of Oscar...it looks so out of place, that it's hillarious. It's like it's really a picture of someone else. Those were the days when there was SOME possibility of the baseball cap touching the skin on his head...well and these days too since he doesn't have too much hair left. Although it must have been really easy for Oscar in the 1970s when each Spring Training and Season would roll around and he never had to worry if they had enough properly sized caps for him. He could have worn a tiny sized 6 cap or a massive Barry Bonds Roid-Cap; and it wouldn't have mattered in the least.

This might be a good time to revisit the story of why I have the 1976 Topps Traded Oscar card as my avatar. I think I mentioned it back in 2010, when I joined the site...but the story is that it was 1980 and me and my friends collected all kinds of sports cards and mostly baseball. We were really young kids and were well aware of the famously funny Oscar Gamble card and for whatever reason, we all had to have it. It's like we attached some gran intrinsic value on the card because it simply made us roar with laughter because of the ridiculous air-brush work on the card and the priceless "what am I doing here?" look on Oscar's face. Anyway, one of my friends ended up acquiring the card that summer and I wanted the card so bad, that I agreed to a trade. The infamous trade included my 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson (yes, his rookie card) and a 1978 Julius Erving card (the super-sized NBA cards from that year) for the 1976 Oscar Gamble card. Of course, years later I realized how lopsided a trade that was but really never cared much. In the mid-80s, I started putting my Oscar card in one of those protective card holders (changing it every few years) and I carry it around with me to all the places I have lived since. I don't analyze the situation too much...I don't wonder if I keep it to remind me to be careful about making deals or trying to latch onto fleeting childhood memories. The card just makes me laugh to this day and to know that the passion for the sport I love feels the same as when I was a kid.

[Yankee4Life]

HA! I love the pre-fro Cubs photo of Oscar...it looks so out of place, that it's hillarious. It's like it's really a picture of someone else. Those were the days when there was SOME possibility of the baseball cap touching the skin on his head...well and these days too since he doesn't have too much hair left. Although it must have been really easy for Oscar in the 1970s when each Spring Training and Season would roll around and he never had to worry if they had enough properly sized caps for him. He could have worn a tiny sized 6 cap or a massive Barry Bonds Roid-Cap; and it wouldn't have mattered in the least.

My favorite is the one in the middle with the small body and big head!

This might be a good time to revisit the story of why I have the 1976 Topps Traded Oscar card as my avatar. I think I mentioned it back in 2010, when I joined the site...but the story is that it was 1980 and me and my friends collected all kinds of sports cards and mostly baseball. We were really young kids and were well aware of the famously funny Oscar Gamble card and for whatever reason, we all had to have it. It's like we attached some gran intrinsic value on the card because it simply made us roar with laughter because of the ridiculous air-brush work on the card and the priceless "what am I doing here?" look on Oscar's face. Anyway, one of my friends ended up acquiring the card that summer and I wanted the card so bad, that I agreed to a trade. The infamous trade included my 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson (yes, his rookie card) and a 1978 Julius Erving card (the super-sized NBA cards from that year) for the 1976 Oscar Gamble card. Of course, years later I realized how lopsided a trade that was but really never cared much. In the mid-80s, I started putting my Oscar card in one of those protective card holders (changing it every few years) and I carry it around with me to all the places I have lived since. I don't analyze the situation too much...I don't wonder if I keep it to remind me to be careful about making deals or trying to latch onto fleeting childhood memories. The card just makes me laugh to this day and to know that the passion for the sport I love feels the same as when I was a kid.

I remember when you mentioned this before. I own this card somewhere too ('76 Topps traded set) and I remember stopping to look at this card because of the guy's hair. We got a laugh out of it too. Sorry I didn't know you back then Dennis because it was around summertime when Topps released this traded set in the baseball cards and I was almost done with my set and I had to start collecting more. I must have had six or seven of these cards within a matter of weeks. And to show you how nice a guy I would have been had we known each other I would have let you have all half dozen of these cards for a 1952 Mickey Mantle. I don't ask for much.

Nah, I'd have let you have them. I just needed one for my set.

Speaking about cards that we all had to have, for us it was the 1975 Topps Jesus Alou card when he was with Oakland. Why? Not that he was any favorite of ours. It was because none of us had his card!! We didn't even know what the hell it looked like because we never saw it. Finally after we went back to school that September we went to the drugstore were they sold baseball cards. I bought a few packs, looked through them and every card was one I already had. Last pack. I open it up and something was different. The gum was soft instead of hard. I remember that because someone took the gum out of my hands and ate it before I had a chance. So I look at the pack and I see a card that didn't look familiar. Jesus Alou! I was so worried about bending the card that I walked my bike 1/2 mile back to my house so I could protect the card. There weren't plastic card holders then so I grabbed a small box and put the card in it so I could pass it around to everyone that had to see it. That didn't work. They still picked it up.

Here he is, the SOB.

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