Mementoes

LOL Fungo! When I see people discussing this topic, I always feel a bit paranoid! I'm a huge collector of "things" from my kid's youth and activities.

When it comes to baseball..... I've got soil, special HR balls, newspaper clippings, jewelry, shirts, photos, handmade things from parents, videos....

This past summer the guys all traded their hats around for hats from the other colleges. My son knew what to say to me before I even opened my mouth.... "Mom, don't worry, I've saved one of mine because I know you want it". He was soooo right!

What will happen with all my "stuff" when I'm a 100 and die, I can't imagine!!!

Go to www.allaboutbaseball.com,..and see why I have a problem.
Yep,...I'm the mom with the Rawlings leather backpack purse ( nope,..no Coach or Louie Vitton or Prada for me, no sireee BOB!)
Got the baseballmom earrings on,..with color coordinated baseball vest & tournament t-shirt on,..topped off by baseball shoe strings in my sneakers,
( did you know Keds makes leatherbaseball looking tennis shoes? I kid you not! ) baseball mom hat in team colors of course,... I (heart) baseball necklace around the ol' neck,..& baseball stickers all over the car. They go wherever I go. One slogan says,
" will brake for coffee and baseball only!",....just a few things I keep around YEARLY to keep our memories alive. Kinda superstistious too, I suppose. Too afraid to change. Don't have the heart to take them off either to tell ya the truth!
Oh and last but not least, newspaper action photos/clippings of my son's playing this wonderful game called baseball,...all over the frig and framed throughout the house. Nope,..no fancy museum art pieces for meeeee,..just sentimental stuff,....monetary value? Priceless.

FUNGO,..have I told you, you're too cool for school? I so always enjoy your writing and ideas for new posts! Makes me HaPpY!! Don't ever go away,..ok?

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I've got soil,

Lafmom,.....you're killin' me!!!
LOL,..ohhh THATS toooooooooooooo funny!!!!!!
( what a GREEEAT idea!! Gotta remember that!!!)
I could put my collection in cute multi shaped glass jars, up on the firplace. Who needs that expensive overpriced mantel centerpiece from Home Interiors R Us???
I'm thinkin' they would make a good conversation piece too!!!

Hey I think my son still has the zip loc bag with centerfield grass from Shea Stadium when the Mets invited him down for a work out

How is that for a keepsake!!!!

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Hey I think my son still has the zip loc bag with centerfield grass from Shea Stadium when the Mets invited him down for a work out

Oh, so that's what he told you it was.

Just kidding Tom, I couldn't pass that one up.

As I've said before in a similar thread...my keepsakes?...MasterCard statements! Ahh...the memories!

SSMom - I don't display it or anything! However, in 20 years from now when he begins to share stories with his wife and children (hopefully), I'll run to some drawer, pull out the dirt and share some memories of my own!

I am a packrat when it comes to these types of things... however, our family history will always be documented in some box or drawer!

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What do you keep around that keeps those memories alive?
Fungo

Lots and lots of mementos at this house that we just can't part with. On of my favorites is the big basket of dated home run balls ... hit by my "Pitcher-Only"!

I guess one of my favorites is a small keychain shaped and colored like home plate with the school logo in the center. I am reminded of the games each time I get my keys. I have a 36" X 24" photo of him in his catching equipment hanging in the computer room. The football uprights remain in our yard from the days of being a placekicker and punter for the HS football team. I just can't bring myself to take 'em down. A '06 calendar from his short season "A" team hangs forever stuck on December --- showing him applying a tag at the plate. The team's "player" calendar was mailed to me and as I anxiously looked at all the pictures I was a little dissapointed when I had made it through November and he was missing from the calendar and then --- there he was in December.
His college jersey is framed and hangs in the den and the batting net still hangs in the basement waiting on another round of soft toss that may never happen. It's things like those little reminders ---- and ---- people like shortstopmom that will keep me in the game!
Fungo

Son collects balls with conference logos where he's played.

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Son collects balls with conference logos where he's played.

Ditto.

Also has hats from all the teams he's been on.

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Originally posted by FrankF:

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Hey I think my son still has the zip loc bag with centerfield grass from Shea Stadium when the Mets invited him down for a work out

Oh, so that's what he told you it was.

Just kidding Tom, I couldn't pass that one up.

Have kept every jersey, every hat son ever played on. Not to mention a few other things that fill 2 pre college scapebooks.

Last year we put away most of everything that was not college related. His room is now called the orange room. Lots of special things hanging on the wall and on shelves that have been added since last season.

Son was given his home jersey to keep with the CWS patch. Am awaiting arrival to frame and hang.

My favorite momento, pair of ripped pants, I think he was 12 or 13. Took over as catcher for a season, in a game got slammed as runner was coming to home plate, but never let go of the ball. We won that game, but the pitcher decided his catching days were over!

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Originally posted by Fungo:
The football uprights remain in our yard from the days of being a placekicker and punter for the HS football team.

Fungo - Someday we have GOT to get together and compare the parallel-ness of our lives. Un-*******-believable!

We've collected just about everything...jerseys , jackets, bats, caps. Some are hanging/displayed in the game-room, some in the computer room.

My favorites are the baseballs from sort-of milestone events...the grandslam against the rival HS, no-hitters, first college strikeout, first college win, etc... I was careful to mark each ball with its significance which I think our boys will greatly appreciate having 20 years from now.

But my all time favorites I just uncovered in the last few days...cleaning out my old office while moving to a new job...I found notes/letters, artwork, storybooks and photos written to me, made or drawn for me when they were little. Some are baseball photos, some are not. Some are baseball momentos, some were other momentos. I forgot I had them...but WOW has it been fun to find them and read them and look at them all over again.

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But my all time favorites I just uncovered in the last few days...cleaning out my old office while moving to a new job...I found notes/letters, artwork, storybooks and photos written to me, made or drawn for me when they were little. Some are baseball photos, some are not. Some are baseball momentos, some were other momentos. I forgot I had them...but WOW has it been fun to find them and read them and look at them all over again.

JustBB - I actually have some writings and drawings framed in my home. I have an area in my bedroom with pics on the wall... included in that is a "report" my then eight year old son wrote on "respect" after being mean to his sister, a drawing of him as superman, painted hands of my daughter's with "I love you" that she did in daycare when she was two or three. I can tell ya that to look at any of those things will bring a smile to my face on the worst of days! Oh, my kid's bathroom has a large watercolor my daughter did in elementary school with flowers! Love it!!!

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The football uprights remain in our yard from the days of being a placekicker and punter for the HS football team. I just can't bring myself to take 'em down.

Are you sure it's so you don't have to worry about the Oakland Raiders trespassing?

I was cleaning out a drawer today and found a couple of letters to santa... I smiled just reading them and thinking back...

Are you going to fill us in 08dad? Just what was it that you had on your Santa wish list?

A new mitt?

A bike with hand brakes?

"Six Finger, Six Finger, man alive, how'd I ever get along with five?" Imagine the curveball possibilities using that!

Revell's plastic model...Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Rat Fink hot-rod?

Your other front tooth?

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I was cleaning out a drawer today and found a couple of letters to santa.

I remember my son putting those letters in the mailbox and the look on his face when he got one back with an "address unknown" message written on it........He was 15 bat the time and I thought it was time he learned the truth that Santa only takes requests in web form.

Not my list - my kids lists...

My Son's (Spelling is his)

Dear Santa,

I wound like
1) a bike - free stile mountain bike
2) Baseball cards
3) Nintendo 64

Love

08 Son

My Daughter's

Dear Santas
1) Magic Attic Club Heather
2) Beanie Baby
3) Bones
4) Echo
5) Floppity
6) Gracie
7) Nuts
8) Scottie
9) Snip

Love

08 Daughter

It loses a lot when you don't see the original font - and the hotel notepad that it was written on...

In the garage and in his room we must have 8 or 9 large plastic storage tubs filled with memorabilia and every time we attempt to cull it down to a more reasonable amount of stuff we get so involved remembering what each thing is we never get anything else done.

My favorite though is the very first baseball we ever played catch with. We lived in Maryland at the time so it is orange and white with a faded Orioles logo on it. The seams are ripped the cover scuffed and it is about to fall apart.It now sits on my dresser in a plastic case designed for autographed balls. I look at it every day and it reminds of how much I loved playing catch with him.

I have several but some of my favorites are just looking at my girl's room. She has a display of pictures of herself, teammates, and the U.S.A. Olympic Softball Team. I stop by there and just look in. "The Dream" is the title of her display. We have a display and on that is a picture of me when I coached baseball in the former Soviet Union. I look terrible in that picture. However, my kid purchased a frame that says, "World's Greatest Dad" and so I cherish that. From my baseball and basketball kids, in the back room or "my room," I have pictues, quotes, displays from every team. We are redoing our house and my Wife doesn't want me to put that stuff back up after we paint the walls. Gosh, just looking at those pictures makes me smile and laugh. One in particular is the "Mud Day" when the '98 that went 40-0 started practice and it started raining. We took rubber balls and still practiced. Somehow, the press found out and took a picture. I love looking at that picture. We were all covered in mud and in 4 days, we would be State Champs.

If you are talking mementoes from pro athletes, my girl has been so lucky to get autographs from most of the Cardinals. This year, I was able to get her inside the New Busch Stadium where the Cardinals park their cars and enter. She was able to get autographs and talk to the Cardinals. Just thinking about all of this once again demonstrates just how blessed I've been.

So far... the best memento’s for Jerseyson has been when his old travel coach in California had his uniform jersey framed and gave it to him as a going away present when we moved. There was a little plaque on it saying they were retiring his number. (At age 12 ) It was hard enough to move him from Cali to Jersey but that one put tears in everyone’s eyes.

Also the collection of team pins that he picked up while playing at Cooperstown Dreams Park is still pretty special. There must be over 80 pins in his collection that is still displayed on his wall.

As for the dirt. My guy grabbed a scoop as well from the pitching mound at Citizen Bank Park. (Philly Stadium) He picked it up when he got a chance to pitch in a game there last year.

Oh, I almost forgot my personal favorite mementoe.

I have my dad’s baseball mitt (old style glove that looks like a flattened pancake), my first glove and my two son's first gloves stowed away. I thought it would be cool to put them in one of those Lucite boxes to display the three generations of baseball in the family.

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Also the collection of team pins that he picked up while playing at Cooperstown Dreams Park is still pretty special. There must be over 80 pins in his collection that is still displayed on his wall.

Same here Jerseydad

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It loses a lot when you don't see the original font - and the hotel notepad that it was written on...

Not at all,..I can picture it in my head to a
" T ".
I think all of us, who have graciously been blessed to own this title called "parent" can all picture exactly what it looks like!

.....Ohhh those were the good ol' days.
I started to resemble the Grinch in a big way, the year that I suddenly realized there was nothing to actually put together late Christmas Eve night.
Whatttt I shreiked??? It cant be, it cant be!!!
I took a second look under the tree and realized that everything was either the size of a cell phone, mp3 player, cash/gift certificate card, or a CD holder. Shoulda' just put everything in the ol'stocking, put the electric train around the tree, & called it a night. No wrapping necessary! Bahh humbug!
Funny though,..it didn't look like alot physically,..but monetarily, it was probably the most expensive Christmas ever.
Funny how times/things change.

Whatttt??? No more red wagons to put together? No GI Joe fortresses that needed to be set up?? Didn't anyone get a new bike or Barbie/Brat fashion mall this year??? Humpf,....no fair no fair. I LOOVED the days when my livingroom looked like a Tiny Tyke outlet and we played Nerf baseball in the house!!! Ahhh,..such fun fun memories!!!

How did we get talkin about Christmas all of a sudden?

shortstopmom:

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Originally posted by shortstopmom:
How did we get talkin about Christmas all of a sudden?

Must have been that dusting of the white stuff we got last week...our ground was almost entirely white.

Ahhh its the Woodsman ( can I be so bold to call you that?? Please excuse my lack of manners!),.....I feel a little more easy talkin' to ya in here as opposed to when I am on shakey ground in the Men's forum! ( kinda like a mouse making a dash for the cheese!!! ha!)

Cold here too,.. but no white stuff yet.
FYI: The extra fleece blankets are located on the third shelf down the hall, folded ever so neatly. Mittens in the second drawer.
( stay warm & don't get a cold,...wouldn't want ya to get sick & have it affect your typin' fingers!! )

AKA: Toto

newspaper clipping from a high school game. oldest son a senior youngest a freshman.last high school game of reg. season.if we win home field for playoffs. 1-0 us top of 7th 2 outs.oldest pitching,single up the middle youngest in center throws the runner out at the plate to end the game.i have had many proud moment's as a dad but that comes to mind .looking back i have some great memories from baseball.alot of momentoes,but i think the memories are the best momentoes.

Jeez, me and the wife have just about everything from our sons playing days. Have every press clipping, picture, uniform, hat, even kept old gloves. Can't get rid of anything. These will be the things that keep me young forever. I also have every single score book, and recorded every single game my son has played in, to include showcases, etc. Am I sick or what? Take care all, and we will see you on down the road.

A pile of stuff. Including a Gatorade award, a BA award, a jersey when he signed his pro contract. The only thing he cares about is his first glove. In fact when he came home this year him and his brother had a catch in the back yard and they both had their first gloves on. They barely fit. Also not designed for 70mph+ fastballs but they had a blast. It is like they put them on and the stories come alive. How long until spring?

I have my first glove, my glove I used my HS Senior year to help win state with, home plate soil from the HS field, a decorative baseball from HS coach as a senior gift with the words "you'll always be safe at home" incribed on it. Hats from HS and both colleges I've been at, and of course pictures.

shortstopmom:

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Originally posted by shortstopmom:
...wouldn't want ya to get sick & have it affect your typin' fingers!! )

AKA: Toto

Don't worry too much about the health and safety of my typing fingers. I've still got eight of them along with my two thumbs and since I literally only type with one at a time I can stand to lose quite a few before it has any real impact on my ability to communicate here.

Of course if that day should ever come that my fingers and thumbs can not help fulfill my need to litter the HSBBW with arcane and stupid observations...yes, yes...I can hear the chorus of thuderous applause at that prospect...then I can always enlist my nose. I've certainly poked it into many other places in my lifetime with the result not being what was intended...can not imagine that it would be any different here.

I kept alot of stuff over the years.

My favorites:

Dad's MVP Award - 1947.

My 2 hats from the 1975 and 1976 Babe Ruth World Series.

My eldest - A picture of him hitting a home run in a 2003 High School State Championship game.

My Youngest - Picture of him and his brother walking into Shea Stadium for Older's guy game there in 2002.

Gotwood4sale

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I've still got eight of them along with my two thumbs

....& don't forget, if it really gets down to the nitty gritty, you can always use the ol' earlobes! Then after over-usage,... and the swelling sets in, they can be hidden with earmuffs. Unlike the nose,..once that's red and blistery,....its just plain out there in the wide open for public viewing until healed! I guess there's a solution for everything,..thats why they make nose mittens,..but as I hear from my almost 13 year old daughter,..those are sooo " last year " and totally OUT in the fashion world scene.
I'd believe her,...she's up on all that mumbo-jumbo stuff.
Like I always say,....( well, truthfully it just came to me about 2 seconds ago, but I've decided to adopt it as one of my mottos,..because I have enjoyed our postings greatly and because your poster/photo icon shows such a handsome tree! )...
" Gotta keep the Gotwood4sale looking sharp and dapper & trimmed just right, at all times! "!!!

Toto:

Don't you go ruining my fantasy. Please, please tell me that you're not a tree hugger...at least not in the Save the Whales sense!

That stately tree happens to be a beautiful Ponderosa pine living a very sheltered and overly protected life in some government reserve (read National Forest) in the Rocky Mountain region.

Nope,..no tree hugger here,..although I must say, they make beautiful models when covered in snow & shot in black/white film! ...and they're not too shabby on the ol' eyes either when smaller versions are dressed in multicolored christmas lights & adorned with the old-fashion-type aluminum tinsel! Admitingly, I always feel a little twinge of gratitude when sitting around a warm fireplace set a blaze and the wood is poppin'.

As far as I know, this shortstopmom has never found herself tied to a tree by chains carrying a protest sign,...ummmm,...well, not that I can admit recall.

Perhaps I did in another lifetime??? ( hmmm, having a slight identity crisis here. )
I do appreciate nature and wide open spaces though. There's just something about waken' up in the morning and smelling the aroma of those fresh pines!
Doesn't matter if its just walking downstairs to the smell of the holiday tree in the familyroom corner, or walking out the front door of the winter cabin,...ahhhh,..just somethin' about it!! That and hot coffee,..two very good things! ( How I related the two I will never know! My brain has lost control! I must get some sleep. )

Nope,..not a tree hugger,..just a " tree- appreciator " I suppose.

( Especially when it comes to the writings of a particularly wise, single finger typin', and quick witted one!!)
back at aya!

Well that's a relief to know.

If I get out of line you won't have any guilt or remorse when you give me the axe!.

My momentoes are the MULTITUDE of memories I have locked away

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Doesn't matter if its just walking downstairs to the smell of the holiday tree in the familyroom corner

shortstopmom,

We had this discussion a year or two ago. No one smells that tree during the 4th of July, or Easter, or Memorial Day.

It's there because of CHRISTMAS! It's a CHRISTMAS Tree! If it weren't for CHRISTMAS, people wouldn't decorate those trees.

Happy Holidays