I was very fortunate when I was growing up that I had several cousins that were around my same age. In fact, two of them were the exact same age; Corey and Jared. We were in the same grade, played on the same ball teams, and enjoyed most of the same hobbies. We all have to have friends growing up, but when those friends are also family, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Even though we were huge friends, we were ultra-competitive with each other as well. That was never more apparent than on Christmas night, after we opened presents at my grandmother’s house. For the hour or so that followed the gift exchange, we became bitter rivals on a small 15 yard piece of real estate and battled in what would now be the 30th Annual Football Clash, if we were still playing.
That 15 yard long field was only about 10 yards wide, but when we were 12, it felt like a much bigger plot. A 6 play drive when we were kids could now be covered in one short screen pass in 2019. I looked out across that field just a couple of days ago and realized that if 6 or 7 people walked there now, it would look like a mad rush at Wal-Mart on Black Friday. It is tiny.
Corey and Jared were always teammates. They were step-brothers, though much more like real brothers. So even though we were all close, they actually lived together and were two peas in a pod for the most part. My teammate was their older brother (by 2 years or so), my cousin Dusty. Dusty and I had to overcome the familiarity Corey and Jared had with each other to try and outmatch them every year.
Corey and Jared would start practicing plays around Thanksgiving, and the rumor was that they would even practice right before they came over to Granny’s on Christmas. That rumor was propagated by Dusty, who also lived with them. But it never translated into victories. If they ever beat us, I don’t remember it. The running theme as we got older was that Dusty and I were undefeated and to this day, that is the story as I tell it on Christmas.
We are too old to play these days and we all have jobs and family we have to take care of. I don’t think I’m ready to explain an absence at work because Jared tackled me in a wiregrass bush and I threw my back out. Or that I tackled Corey on top of the water meter cover and bruised his shoulder. We are too big not to get hurt these days.
But our competitions stretched far beyond that small field on Christmas night. One of the most memorable times of my childhood was playing RBI Baseball “tournaments” at their house. My Uncle Speedy was an RBI legend and made a point of not taking it easy on us when we played. For some reason, I remember him always playing with the Angels. I don’t know why but I just remember Tony Armas and Doug DeCinces beating me all the time.
Then there were the ping pong tournaments we held during sleepovers. Corey’s mom had a ping pong table set up in her dining room and there was barely enough room to walk around each side when it was set up. We would play almost until morning. Imagine trying to sleep in a house with 14 year olds playing ping pong all night. The sound of the ball hitting the paddles was maddening enough; but because we had no room, we constantly smacked our paddles on the wall of that dining room trying to get to balls that were just out of our reach.
Because Uncle Speedy was our baseball coach, we always had access to the team bat bag and would play baseball in their yard all the time. Jared was the catcher and had all of his equipment; and our pitcher, Jason Lee, lived across the highway from them. We would gather up and Jason would pitch to us while Jared would catch. It was sort of frightening because Jason was the hardest pitcher in our county at that age. I should have been a much better hitter when I got older just because I faced him all summer when we were kids. But it wasn’t so.
There were Tecmo Bowl tournaments, basketball games, bicycle races, make-shift baseball games in my aunt’s living room, and wrestling matches on the trampoline. Everything was a competition. I think that it made me tougher and more of a competitor over the years. And for that I’m thankful. But in general, I am just thankful for those years of growing up with those guys. I am fortunate that my family (on both sides) has always been close and we all grew up hanging out.
Of course, now that the competition is gone, there is still something that I do every day that we all did as kids; collect sports cards. We used to sit in our rooms together and just sort cards and look at pictures and names that we thought were funny. We would rarely trade but we did help each other out sometimes when we had extras. We all had binders of modern (Junk Wax) cards but they always had some vintage laying around because of Uncle Speedy.
I was always in awe of the vintage cards because they were “so old” and rare. They were sometimes in rough condition but it was really cool to see them. My uncle still collects today and we talk often about the hobby and new pick-ups we make. Though I started picking up cards thanks to my mom and dad helping me get started, I also owe a lot to the times when I would hang out with them and further my knowledge on cards. It was truly a family affair.
There are some cards that I still see today that make me think about those days. It is weird that certain cards can take me back to completely different places in my youth. These cards in particular take me back to hanging out with Corey, Jared, and Uncle Speedy.
One of the first cards that comes to mind for me when I think about the old days with Corey and Jared is this Dick Hughes. For some reason, we thought the glasses were hilarious. We were dumb kids but we thought this card was something else.
Then there was this Clay Carroll. I remember thinking that if this was a major league pitcher, maybe I had a chance too!
The first time I ever saw the Mattingly rookie was in their collection. I didn’t own one until I grew up but as a kid, this card always stuck out to me as one of the big ones they owned.
This card was actually mine. This was the first card on the first page of my binder in 7th grade. I remember this card because we would always sit in the floor and reorganize the binder based on how valuable the cards were in Beckett. No matter what, this one always stayed at #1 for me. I didn’t own the ’86 Donruss so this was the next best thing.
This George Brett reminds me of Jared reenacting the “Home Run for George Brett” pine tar incident. He would do the announcers voice perfectly and we would always laugh!
This was the only Tony Armas card I ever remember owning and it makes me think of RBI Baseball every time I see it. Those dadgum Angels!
Uncle Speedy was always a Pete Rose guy if my memory is correct. He always talked to us about hustle as our coach and nobody was a better representative than “Charlie Hustle”. Because of that, we all wanted to get dirty and slide at every base, whether it was needed or not. If we went home with a dirty uniform, we could say we played hard.
Finally, we all idolized Nolan Ryan. I can’t imagine any 12 year old in 1989 who was a baseball fan not being a Nolan Ryan guy. The only one of us who ever came close to Nolan Ryan was Jason Lee but we all still loved him. Nobody would ever be able to pitch like him again in our lifetime. That may still be true!
There are a lot of cards that bring back memories for me. If you have ever read any other blog post on this website, you will know that to be true. But these are memories that always come flooding back at Christmas time. We all gather at my Granny’s and talk about the “30th Annual” and ultimately, that leads to more memories of growing up.
The very best part of collecting sports cards is that each small 2.5×3.5 piece of cardboard has a memory that can be unlocked when I see it. They keep me from forgetting the past. We all have those prompts in our lives. For me, it is a picture of a baseball player from 1987 that takes me back to watching Creepshow 2 at my Uncle Speedy’s house. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
J-Dub