No matter how old I get, 44 in less than a month; I learn something new all the time. Sometimes, I learn that something new because I made a mistake and had to adjust. Sometimes the mistake is so obvious, we should have been able to immediately identify it and avoid it. Other mistakes are less obvious on the surface and become more regrettable over time. Mistakes come in all shapes and sizes; but it’s important to remember that everyone makes them.
Let’s take, for instance, the time in 6th grade that I thought I was way more of a grown up than I actually was. I’ve written about it before but it deserves a re-visit with the topic at hand. I had learned a fresh new batch of dirty words and I got the chance to use them when I wrote a letter to a classmate that I thought had wronged another.
Eleven year old Dub wrote a gem of a letter, with all the choice words that an eleven year old should never say. It was sort of like the explosion that Ralphie had in “A Christmas Story”. That letter quickly made its way to the principal’s office and my mom quickly made her way to the school. My dad was a truck driver so I still had to wait for him to get home to get my third, and most feared, reprimand.
The worst part of getting in trouble was not my dad finding out; but my mom making me tell him instead of her telling him. I had to tell him exactly what I had done. That was tough. I learned a few things that day, including what my parents had always told me; they will always find out when I do something wrong. I also learned that particular course of action was most certainly not the appropriate one to take in the future.
Speaking of 6th grade, there was another big lesson waiting on me there. I am more embarrassed over this mistake than the previous one, but you live and learn. I had a “girlfriend” at the time but there was another girl I had my eye on. This already sounds bad, doesn’t it.
I picked the worst day in history to make that known. On Valentine’s Day, in an assembly, I passed a note to the “other girl” asking if she wanted to be my new girlfriend. It didn’t take long for the note to end up in my current girlfriend’s hands, unbeknownst to me. Because I didn’t get a response, I went ahead and gave my girlfriend her Valentine’s Teddy Bear. At recess, she put it in a mud puddle and then threw it at me, splattering mud on my shirt.
I deserved every bit of the anger and ridicule I got that day. I learned to always respect friends and partners at that very moment. I didn’t take into consideration the current girl’s feelings when I was pursuing the new girl. We were 11, so it had never really been an issue up to that point. We used to be boyfriend/girlfriend with everybody in the class throughout the school year. Some lessons are harder than others.
I’ve been with my current employer for 23 years but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. When I first started in 1998, I was a raw 21 year old just looking for a paycheck to fund my partying and whatnot. I never thought at the time that it could possibly turn into a long-term career. And it almost didn’t.
My buddies went to college at Valdosta State and I worked in Albany. That is about an hour and fifteen minutes in travel time. When I got off everyday, I would drive to Valdosta and hang with them. I would spend the night there and get up and drive back to work the next morning. To say I was coming in a bit disheveled would be an understatement. I was a zombie, going on about 3 hours sleep.
The President of my place of employment would eventually call me in to have a discussion. She praised my work. But she also gave me a stern ultimatum. I could “straighten up and fly right” or I could collect a paycheck until I made a mistake big enough to find another job. That is one of the biggest learning experiences of my life. I had to learn balance between working a job that would support me and galivanting with my buddies.
Twenty-three years later, I am still there and I have worked my way up to a very nice position within the organization. The job has provided me with so many benefits in life. I am where I am today (professionally) because of the blessings I have received from my job. My family is secure because of my job. And it can all be traced back to that moment I had that meeting with my boss. I will always appreciate her for that learning moment as well.
I have learned A TON from being a husband and a father. It is certainly too much to cover in a blog post but you make a lot of mistakes as a husband (less as a wife, of course) and even more as a parent. I am fortunate to have learned a lot from my own parents with how to be both a husband and father. I was taught by the best!
I still make new mistakes all the time. I am far from perfect. But I accept that and I see what can happen when you learn from them and move forward in life. It is ok sometimes to beat yourself up about a mistake in the moment. But you have to learn from it and take a step forward. Life is in front of us, not behind us. I still haven’t figured out how to go back to 1989. So until I do, I have to look forward with my life.
As usual, there is more to this than just me trying to push some life experience on you. This includes some card talk too! When it comes to mistakes, they do still occasionally happen in the sports card market; but they were certainly prevalent during the Junk Wax Era. Error cards were always more popular than their corrected counterparts. Some sets were worse than others; but you could always count on a good error card coming out that would make for a fun chase.
1990-91 Hoops Sam Vincent – While this isn’t exactly an “error” card, there is a very big problem that isn’t quite “in your face” as you might imagine. Anybody alive in the 80’s and 90’s knows the name Michael Jordan. And I would say 90% of the population knew what number he was, #23. But here, in this game against the Orlando Magic, MJ was wearing #12. To my knowledge, it is the only card he has ever appeared on without wearing #23 or #45.
Hoops would later issue another Sam Vincent dribbling with no other players in the background. You can imagine that the desire to have the one with MJ wearing #12 outweighs that of the later issue. So what’s up with Jordan in #12 you ask? Read about it here!
1985 Topps Gary Pettis – Here we have the 1985 Gary Pettis. To a non-collector, there is nothing to see here. Just a baseball player with a rather humorous pose for a baseball card. However, there is one big problem. That isn’t Gary Pettis. It is actually Gary’s 14 year old brother, who was at the park that day playing with other kids, dressed out in full gear. It is actually a pretty fun story and can be found here!
1991 Topps Wes Chamberlain – This is another case of mistaken identity. But this time, Topps caught it and corrected it in later print runs. The original release was a card with Louie Meadows pictured (left). Chamberlain (right) would eventually land on his own card and all would be well. I have actually talked about it with Wes on Twitter and had a good laugh.
1990 Donruss Mark McGwire All-Star – This one isn’t quite as noticeable. In fact, I was completely unaware of it until recent years. 1990 Donruss will have several entries here but the first is this Big Mac. The error can be found on the back. The All-Star Cards had one line of stats and was labeled “All-Star Game Performance”. The error card looks exactly the same, except it is labeled “Recent Major League Performance”; just as normal base cards do.
1990 Donruss Nolan Ryan Diamond Kings – This is another error that can be found on the back. If you are familiar with Diamond Kings, you know that the back of the card is just text about the player (like on this Ken Griffey Jr). This Nolan Ryan Diamond King has the back of his base card. I don’t know what happened with card backs in 1990 Donruss.
1990 Donruss John Smoltz Error – One of my favorite errors as a Braves fan. The John Smoltz MVP card came in two variations. The corrected card has Smoltz with a big smile on the front. The error had another Braves Hall of Famer on it, but not Smoltz. Tom Glavine made the front of the error and I will forever cherish these cards in my PC!
1990 Donruss Juan Gonzalez – This is the last 1990 Donruss, I promise. But it is likely the most famous. In 1990, Juan Gonzalez was a huge rookie card in sets. Juan Gone went on to have a tremendous career; crushing 434 home runs, while winning 2 MVP awards and going to 3 All-Star Games. But to my knowledge, he never hit a home run in the big leagues while batting left handed, which is what 1990 Donruss would have you believe. The reverse Juan Gonzalez remains one of the more popular Junk Wax Rookies and is one that I will always own.
1989 Fleer Billy Ripken – Speaking of famous errors, this one ranks right up there with the letter that I wrote in 6th Grade. The story is too long for this blog but you can read more about it here. But in 1989, Fleer sent a batch of baseball cards out to a bunch of kid collectors with the dreaded “F-Word” on it, written right on the barrel of Billy’s bat. They would scramble to correct it and did so in multiple ways. There is a white out version, a scribble version, and a black out version. The white out version has the reputation as being the toughest pull and most valuable but the actual card that has the F-Word on it is the most fun to own!
1989 Upper Deck Dale Murphy – This one is the most valuable error card I own. And it took me the longest to obtain. It is a $50+ card all day but those that have been graded and certified to be in good shape can go in excess of $100. Just like the Juan Gonzalez, it is a reverse-negative. Simply put, Murph is standing in a left handed posed and Braves is backwards on the jersey. I honestly don’t know the print run on the error but I have opened a ton of 1989 Upper Deck over the years (in search of Ken Griffey Jr.) and have never pulled one. So I suppose it can be considered awfully rare by Junk Wax print run standards.
I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one making big mistakes in 1989. Fleer may have me beat on that one. But in the grand scheme of collecting, error cards have always been sought after. The 1991 Topps Baseball set is so riddled with errors, my checklist is 16 pages long as I try to complete that set. Some errors are mere printing issues, but the errors above are clear visual errors that are made during production.
So while we all make mistakes along our life’s path, we can take solace that we are never alone in that arena. Cancel Culture doesn’t seem to take that into account anymore. I won’t get into that in this blog post because I just don’t have the energy. But sometimes, a mistake is a mistake, plain and simple. Learn from it – make amends – be better in the future. In the end, that is all we can do.
Dub