Dallas News — It’s been a year tinged with sadness for Darwin Day — but also one that has turned into “a complete joyride.”
After his brother died of cancer earlier this year, it prompted Day to do some soul searching — and some housecleaning. In the midst of that, the 70-year-old Grand Prairie resident and lifelong baseball fan discovered a complete collection of Topps baseball cards from 1957-58.
WIN THESE SWELL PRIZES IN THE 4TH BAZOOKA BASEBALL CONTEST, the cards read on the back.
Day noticed something in the fine print: No year was given to enter the contest.
“I was struck by the fact it didn’t have a year listed on the card,” he said. “It was a simpler time. You didn’t need a team of lawyers to do everything back then.”
So Day entered the contest…
…Tony Jacobs, global general manager of Topps Confectionery Brands, didn’t know what to expect when he saw a letter with Pls. deliver to Mr. Jacobs before July 11 written in cursive.
“It did pique my interest, this kind of mysterious letter,” said Jacobs, who joined Topps three years ago and manages the candy wing of the company, which includes Bazooka Bubble Gum.
The envelope included the contest entry with correctly filled out scores from games on July 19, 1957, between the Milwaukee Braves and the New York Giants and the Baltimore Orioles against the Kansas City Athletics.
“I thought, ‘Hopefully, this is just a guy somewhere having a little bit of fun,'” Jacobs said. “Then my other thought was, ‘What if this is someone who is kind of removed from reality and doesn’t really know what’s going on?’
“The last thought I had was, ‘Am I in an episode of Law & Order and I’m about to get in some real trouble?'”
That’s a great story. Get it to Vin Scully immediately. He’ll roll with that story.
Ironic. This is exactly how it came about that you need lawyers to do everything today.
The “in cursive” bit just slays me. I had no idea that there are young people who literally cannot read cursive. I still have trouble wrapping my mind around that there are those who can’t read a map, but I chalk it up to a cognitive deficiency..but cursive?
So which swell prize did he win?
Oops – Never mind. Just discovered the link to the story.
Silly me. I thought “Darwin Day” was a celebration over Chicago’s 3,000th murder.
“The last thought I had was, ‘Am I in an episode of Law & Order and I’m about to get in some real trouble?”
Relax. It’s not like you had to verify Obama’s BC.
Great story-who didn’t collect baseball cards? I must have had 1,000s.
@MM
How many did you chew up in the spokes of your bicycle? I’m pretty sure that I ruined a Sandy Koufax and a Mickey Mantle doing that.
Of the four teams, only the Orioles are still in the same city.
PHenry, some of my Sandy Koufax cards ended up in the spokes of my Schwinn Stingray and boy did they sound cool clack, clacking away. I wish I still had both the baseball cards and the bike, aging baby boomers pay big bucks now for them so they can relive their wasted youth.
The guy’s name threw me, thought the story might be about people doing stupid things that get them killed. Darwin-Day. Bet he gets that a lot.
“You didn’t need a team of lawyers to do everything back then.” Amen to that.