There Are Just Somethings You Just Don't Do...

Sometimes I just don't get us as humans. We say stupid things, we don't care about each other as a whole and we act like we are better than everyone else. Why? I understand that if we don't look out for ourselves, who will but there has to come a point when we need to step back and think about what we are doing.

Case in point. During last night Yankees/Red Sox game (and I don't mean the Michael Pineda incident. I have been hearing about it all day), Xander Bogaerts of the Red Sox flipped a ball toward a young man in the stands. Check out what happens.

Really? Really? Dude, you couldn't let the kid have the ball? That gesture would have meant the world to the boy and your selfishness ruined the experience for him. Oh, you wanted a baseball that you could have gotten at a sporting goods store for 15.00? Well, why didn't you say so? That makes all the difference then.

And this isn't the first time I have seen such lousy behavior from adults at a baseball game either. Check out the behavior of these fine upstanding citizens:

It's things like this that make me pray that they trip over the steps on the way out of the stadium.

 I don't understand it. You have to know that there is a young kid right next to you that the ball was obviously tossed to. I understand that you might have lost your manners in the thrill of seeing that baseball come toward you, but if you see a sad kid next to you, just be a sport and make the kid happy. There is nothing special about a foul ball or a ball that was tossed in the stands by a coach, bat boy, the 3rd short stop or umpire.

In the video from last night's ball game, you clearly see the guy who stole that baseball look in the kids direction after he caught the ball, so you have to figure he knew what he did. The couple in Texas that claim they knew nothing, I'm not buying it. The kid is crying right next to them. And that dude in Florida ran away as soon as he caught the ball.

I'm not going to sit here and say I never got in a shoving match for a ball. But that's with adults who tried to push me out of the way when a ball came near me. Your competitive juices start to flow and it's on like Donkey Kong and I usually win those shoving matches.

However, I always look around to see if there was a kid in the scrum. I would much rather hand off the ball to a kid that tried to get the ball than keep it myself. I know when I was at a young age, catching a ball meant everything to me. It never happened, but if I could make a child's visit to a baseball park memorable and all it took was to give up the baseball, then I'm all for it. I've done it before and will always do it. It's just the right thing to do. Especially if you caught multiple balls. Keeping one is fine, but do you really need 3 or 4? Make believe you're the Santa Claus of baseball and start handing baseballs off.

But, for every overbearing adult I see that tries to get a ball, I see things like this that make me reaffirm my belief in mankind.

Too bad some adults just don't have the manners that Ian obviously has.

This One Bleeds In From The House Of Swag

A couple of days ago, I posted on the Sports Room's brother blog, The Sexy Geek's House Of Swag, about an item I had been long interested in starting a collection of. If you can't what that is by the picture above, that item is lunch boxes.

While writing about them, I started thinking if there has been any sports lunch boxes I have come across in my youth and it triggered some memories that I had buried in the deepest regions of my brain. I HAD come across not one sports lunch box, but two of them in my days.

At the school I attended as a youngster, there was this MLB lunch box just lying around somewhere. The counselor who was assigned to my group either felt bad for me or got sick of my constant yapping about these cursed things and would let me play with this lunch box. I say play because if you look on the back of it...

There is a picture of an infield, a scoreboard and one lonely outfielder. I used to take this lunch box and play an actual 9 inning game with a spitball and a pencil. I recorded the outs, hits, strikeouts, walks and everything in between. I even had my own team, the Bronx Bombers. Yeah, not very original, I know. The team was made up of my friends and I and I would keep stats for each one of us and pad my own stats. I think I had 100 home runs one year. I even designed uniforms for us.

I would love to grab this lunch box. Obviously, the memories of the hours of joy playing the game in the back has something to do with it, but I just love the lithography on it. On the front, you have an obvious picture of a Red Sox player sliding into third base while a Yankee player is administering the tag (He was out, ump!). The side panel on one side has a Baltimore Oriole swinging a bat (Frank Robinson, maybe?) and the top has a pitcher at the tail end of making a pitch. If I had to guess what team he could be from, I'm guessing he's a Cardinal.

Great looking lunch box.

Moving on to a different sport, I also seem to recall a buddy of mine, a Steelers fan, if I remember, having this awesome lunch box.

 
This is really cool. What it has that the baseball one doesn't have is official logos, or helmet logos in this case, of all the teams that were in the National Football League. I had fun looking at the helmets on this lunch box, trying to count how many teams still were using the same helmets that was on this 1970's lunch box. On this side, The Cowboys, Saints, Bears, 'Skins, Lions, Cardinals, Vikings, Packers and Niners all have just about the same helmets.

These football lunch boxes must have sold well because during the 1960's and 70's there has been numerous NFL lunch boxes offered for the fans to pick up.

Here's one from 1978. I love the painted action shots n the front of the lunch box.  The Cowboys, Steelers, Rams, Raiders and Broncos are all represented here. Where is my team?

Right under the Houston Oilers helmet. 1978 was the year of this lunch box as well as the first year the Jets wore those helmets. I wish they would wear them again as alternates instead of the Titan unis.

This lunch box is from the early 70's, 1975, I think. Again, I love the classic helmets on this lunch box, 10 of which are not in full time use.

Here's one from 1973. Love the blue Oilers helmet on this lunch box.

There was one other from the early 1960's that I couldn't locate a picture of, unfortunately. I have seen it before. What I remember of it, it had a drawn action shot of a QB from the Bears dropping into the pocket while his offensive linemen tried to stop the blitz from the Green Bay Packers.

How about Hockey?

There are the generic ones like these from the 60's and 70's

Borrowed that one from Kovels's site.

NHLPA had lunch boxes of their own

And the players had lunch boxes of their own. Bobby Orr had a few all to himself.

Not an official player lunch box, but you can clearly tell that's Phil Esposito.

Of course, Wayne Gretzky has to have a lunch box of his own.

I'm not sure, but I am willing to bet the majority of those lunch boxes were Canadian. Maybe the Boston Bruin lunch boxes were made here in the good ole US of A, but I can't be too sure.

Shockingly, I could not find any examples of any vintage NBA lunch boxes. I would have thought with popularity in the NBA growing during the 60's and 70's, there would have been some lunch boxes produced, even if it was of players like Wilt Chamberlin, Jerry West, Walt Frazier, or Oscar Robertson. Aside from a Harlem Globetrotter one, there was nothing from basketball.

I did find one for you soccer fans.

I remember when Pele came to New York to play for the Cosmos. It was huge. I knew absolutely nothing about soccer, but when Pele played, I would watch the games. That's when I realized that soccer was not for me. I would give the sport a few more shots during various World Cups, but it just doesn't tickle my fancy.

So, as you can see, if you're a collector of a sport, team or player, chances are there was a lunch box produced that would nicely into your collection. The prices on these vary. They depend of if there is a thermos and condition, but most could be had for around the $50.00 mark. If you have the means, I would definitely suggest grabbing a few to add diversity to your collection.  

Time To Go Old School

As a bobblehead collector, I am always looking for items to add to my collection that will make it stand out. Due to my current financial situation, I cannot get some of the older bobbleheads I'd like to add, but every now and then I came across something that just makes me want to have it.

Not too long ago, I came across a bobblehead on mlb.com that I had never seen before. Forever came out with bobbleheads of various teams in their classic treads. Now, as a Yankees fan, I know our uniforms have pretty much stayed the same since 1936 when the classic combination of pinstripes and interlocking NY came together for good. So, whatever classic uniform Forever used would have to come before then or not use any at all.

That's why I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only did Forever come out with a Yankees bobblehead in classic duds, but, technically, it isn't a Yankees bobblehead.

Forever released a bobblehead of a generic player in a 1904 New York Highlanders road uniform. To my knowledge, it's the first time a Highlanders bobblehead has been released. As you can see from the our model, Highlanders pitcher Jack Chesboro, the uniform is very different from the ones the Yankees would ultimately wear. There's no road greys, no navy blue lettering or even numbers. Back in 1904, the Highlanders sported a blue collared shirt (yes, I did say collared) with buttons that ran halfway down and the sleeves were half sleeves.

 In 1904, the Highlanders were in their second of existence were managed by Clark Griffith, who would go on to manage, then own the Washington Senators until his death in 1955. That year, the team featured players like Wee Willie Keller, who hit .343, Jack Powell, who went 23-19 with a 2.44 ERA and struck out 22 batters and Jack Chesboro who went an amazing 41-12 with a 1.82 ERA and struck out 239 batters. Chesboro's 41 records is still an American League record for wins in a single season by a starting pitcher. The Highlanders were in the pennant race all season, but lost the race on the final game of the season when Chesboro threw a wild pitch allowing the winning run to score and giving the pennant to the Boston Americans, who would later go on to become the Red Sox. The Highlanders would finish in second with a record of 92-59.

Enough of the history lesson. Let's check out the bobblehead.

When I got the package from mlb.com, the bobblehead came in a package that had a clear front with Retro Bobble on the front and a baseball and bat in the background.

On either side of the package is a clear window showing the side of the bobblehead.

The back of the package just gave you information on Forever and MLB trademark rights.

Here's the bobblehead out of the package. As you can see, it's in the dark blue Highlander colors. The lettering, belt and socks are not white, but a sepia color to give it an old style look to the bobblehead. The bobblehead is made of a hard plastic that almost has a rubbery feel to it. I bought a Mr. Met bobblehead at Citi Field a couple of seasons ago and that bobblehead felt exactly the same. At the time, I was expecting the bobblehead to be made of plaster but I knew what to expect this time around. I'm still not 100% sure if I like that.

The back of the bobble has no numbers as no team had them back then. The Yankees wouldn't have numbers on the back of their uniforms until 1929 and were the first team in the majors to have them. The paint job on the back here is pretty good, except for the back of the base where it looks it was painted over the base lines. That doesn't matter much to me because I don't display the back, just the front.

Overall, I do really like this bobbehead. The hard plastic is growing on me although I would rather it be made of plaster like most bobbleheads are. Making a Highlander bobblehead is a great idea, one I'm surprised the Yankees haven't done as a SGA yet. I hope to see a bobblehead in a 1927 uniform at some point as well as a 1912 uni. But I am thrilled that I am able to add this bobblehead decked out in the 1904 Highlanders road uniform to my Yankees collection and hope to add more this upcoming season.