Letter to the Editor: When it comes to baseball cards, someone’s trash can be another’s treasure

Even as the Cardinals and the Cubs failed to make the playoffs, I still am an avid fan and baseball card collector. I still have my card collection.

Unfortunately, I never saw my dad’s collection. He told me he found a cigar box down by the railroad tracks full of Honus Wagner and other player cards from 1910s and 1920s. However, his mother threw them away when he moved out of the house.  What would they be worth!

My collection was from the golden era of the 50s. I have cards for Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, two of the greatest of the era. Mickey Mantle was in the wrong league. His card was only trade bait. I also have a rookie Roberto Clemente, which collectors say is very rare, but mine is not in great condition. I also have a Roger Maris when he was with the Kansas City Athletics. When I was young, I never liked the Cardinals-Cub rivalry. Just to be different, I traded for all of the Cincinnati Reds. Remember Ted “Big Klu” Kluszewski?

One oddity is that I have some cards from 1953 and 1954 when I was too young to buy them. This part of the story again involves my neighbor and high school teacher, Joe Bocke. The Bockes had a nice basketball court behind their house on 18th and Cherry.  Since they were the only ones with a court, boys tended to flock to their house when they could.

I was playing basketball at the Bocke house and decided to go home for lunch.  I started to cut down their driveway, which was only about 25 feet from my house.  I noticed that Mrs. Bocke had thrown a bunch of old baseball cards in the trash. I knocked on their back door and asked her whether I could have the cards. She said sure. She was a nice lady. I guess I had enough sense to not ask Joe.  He probably was not home anyway.

That trash can yielded many old names and teams, like the Kansas City Athletics, the Boston Braves, the Milwaukee Braves, the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Browns (before they moved to become the Baltimore Orioles). They also include the great Whitey Ford. I was thrilled to have them, and I kept them all for 60-plus years.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bocke and my sister Connie were former classmates and friends at Notre Dame, and he found out that I had some of his former baseball cards. This was about 20 years after I had already acquired them. Certainly, the statute of limitations had passed by that time. However, he then began a campaign for decades of writing me to get back “his” cards.

Now I do not really have any plans for the cards, either mine or the ones that Mrs. Bocke threw away.  My kids do not seem interested. I might just keep them or hold on to them to see if my grandchildren are interested.  It is the sentimental value, not the financial worth.

While not a Hall of Famer, Jim Finigan was from Quincy and played in the major leagues as well as South America.  His wife taught us Spanish at Christian Brothers while Joe Bocke was there.  Small world!

There are still a few “modern” baseball cards of some value. However the thrill of opening the pack, smelling that gum and searching for your heroes has been replaced by parents who buy their kids a box of the entire roster without gum to rot your teeth.

P.S. I received a nice card from Joe Bocke thanking me for recalling the memories of our youth in my last letter to Muddy River.  It’s nice to know that someone still sends cards and letters.

Kenneth J. Heinz
Clayton, Missouri