Memorabilia Monday: Back in My Day, Sonny....

I do not believe that people have a genetic predisposition toward hoarding.  Hoarding is a learned trait that is passed down from generation to generation like some weird milk jug or, in my wife's case, an Old Cabin Bitters Bottle from 1863 similar to one that seriously was sold for over $4,000 at an auction:

That's not my memorabilia for Monday, though.  MY Monday memorabilia is much more akin to my inherited tendencies that I fight regularly to keep everything that might have value of over $1 one day. These pieces of memorabilia, though, should bring back some memories for all of us over the age of about 35:

That's right -- All-Star ballots.  Back in the old days -- read as, the 1980s and 1990s -- the most advanced computers that anyone in baseball felt comfortable having around were the old punch card computers from about 1968:

Photo source: Michigan Tech "Origins of the Computer" Blog

In fact, rumor has it that this photo shows Bud Selig in 1971 trying to figure out how to avoid free agency ever coming about through the use of sophisticated express keypunch computation.

In seriousness, I have never understood why the fans could be entrusted to select the players to start in the field but not be allowed to vote for any pitchers.  Was Major League Baseball afraid that people would try to select their rival's best starter for the All-Star game in hopes that he would get hurt? Or that he would be unavailable for his team's next game against their team?  In the days of the four-man rotation, that usually would not have been a problem with a Tuesday All-Star game and the next series being a three- or four-game series starting on Thursday or Friday. Even in the worst case scenario, that pitcher would be ready by Sunday's game.

Anyway, it's odd that the 1986 ballot was not sponsored by anyone.  1983 (below) and 1985 were sponsored by Gillette:

Instead, in 1986, Commissioner Peter Ueberroth either suddenly felt bad for turning the Los Angeles Olympics into "the Los Angeles Olympics brought to you by McDonald's" or he just couldn't find anyone to sponsor it.  So, baseball asked fans to provide their demographic information:

Where's the line asking for your Social Security Number?

Thankfully for baseball, by the time 1987 rolled around, the All-Star Ballot became the All-Star booklet sponsored by USA Today and Chevrolet!

Ueberroth must have seen this ballot and said to himself, "Now, that's more like it!"

But, these are cool reminders of the mid-1980s for me.  I mean, where else can you find reminders of players like Enos Cabell, David Green, Ozzie Virgil, Ron Kittle, Lee Lacy, Claudell Washington, and Mike Easler?  What's that you say, on baseball cards?  Oh.  Right.

That's your memorabilia Monday.  Now I need to repack my 80 pounds of all-star ballots.  

Cataloguing

I've slowed down on my spending spree a ton lately because of a few things, but mostly because of increasing my patience and realizing I don't need to buy everything and specifically I don't need to buy everything now.

Instead, I'm working more on getting my checklists/want lists put together as well as figuring out what Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Gary Carter, Ryan Braun, and all the other Brewers cards I have.

In that process, I was trying to find the photo I used for my Yount-centric background.  It's a 5" x 7" photo that was a giveaway by a local frozen pizza company called Mr. Z's Pizza.

Mr. Z's was a Wisconsin institution when it came to fundraising.  Everyone else might have their Girl Scout Cookies -- and trust me, Wisconsin does too -- but if the local marching band, chorus, baseball league, or kids MMA league needed to raise money for operations, Mr. Z's Pizzas were the likely means to do it.  As an aside, it was bought up by a Minnesota firm in 2012 rather abruptly when Mr. Z's was about to fold.

At any rate, in the mid-1980s, Mr. Z's had acquired the license to use the Milwaukee Brewer name and logo to market Brewer Pizza, Brewer Peanut Butter, Brewer Jelly, Brewer Catsup (as opposed to ketchup), Brewer Charcoal, and Brewer Mustard.  To try to market these products -- which weren't bad, but they weren't great either -- they used the usual tie in: free stuff.

I couldn't tell you how many labels it took to get any of these items, because we never bought enough Brewer Pizza to find out (but don't those Brewers shoelaces look sweet?).

Sometimes, it's fun to have been an accumulator -- though, in fairness, I was a Brewers "accumulator" in the 1980s.  It was just that baseball cards came with people from other teams included with the Brewers cards!