The Heist

When I was 5 or maybe even 6 years old my Aunt and Uncle’s house was robbed. The burglars took their television set, VCR, a bunch of jewelry and some other family stuff that meant a lot to them. Shortly after the theft, my mom and dad took us over to their house and while they discussed grown up things my brother and I got to play with our older cousins Jason and Alan. It was really the first time I remember spending a lot of time with them. They had the coolest toys, had cool posters in their rooms, were allowed to watch TV shows my brother and I were forbidden to see, and listened to cool music. Also, they knew so much about baseball players and baseball cards. They had binders of them, complete sets, even cards in 4 screw down holders! They were way ahead of my brother and I. At that time, our collection was located in shoe boxes under our beds, and each team stack was wrapped with colorful rubber bands. 

When my mom and dad decided it was time to leave, we said our goodbyes to everyone and headed back home. On the way back, my mom and dad had explained to us that our Aunt and Uncle were soon going to be our neighbors. My dad and his other brothers decided to sell off a portion of land they owned so my Aunt and Uncle could live about 900 feet away. You can imagine our excitement at the news! 

While their house was being built, they all were staying right next door at my grandparents' house (most of my neighbors growing up were family from my dad’s side). It was great! After a year or so, their house was built and my brother and I would frequently stop over and listen to music we weren’t allowed to listen to, trade baseball cards, read Cracked magazine, watch shows we weren’t supposed to watch like In Living Color or Married with Children. I loved these cousins. They even had TV’s in their rooms! It was pretty cool. 

A year later, my mom finally nailed down a decent job and my dad had received a little bit of inheritance from a family member passing away and my parents decided to put in a swimming pool! 

Our swimming pool became a hit that summer. My cousins were always over swimming with us. One particular afternoon, my oldest cousin Jason bet me I couldn’t throw our pool basketball from one end of the pool and sink it in the pool basketball hoop all the way at the end of the pool (40 feet away) in 1 try. He said if I made it a I could pick any baseball card of his that I wanted. I chucked that ball with perfect accuracy and “swish!” Nothing but net!

My cousins were flabbergasted that I just made that shot! So, Jason and I dried off and headed over to his house. When we got there, he told me to sit in the kitchen and enjoy a peanut butter cookie. So, I did. A few minutes later he came out with a few sets that were in the boxes and said for me to pick from these sets. I tried to tell him that wasn’t our deal, but I noticed he had a 1989 Topps set out and the card I was after was in that set, so in the end I was ok with it. The seal on the set was already broken meaning he had gone through it, but the card I wanted was still in there. He put it in a toploader for me and we headed back to my house and kept enjoying the pool for the rest of that afternoon. 

A few weeks had passed, and my mom received a phone call from my Aunt. When they hung up, my mom stormed to my room and just started yelling at me telling me, and I was in big trouble. I had no idea what I did, so finally she told me that I stole a baseball card from my cousin Alan. I tried to tell her I had no clue what she was talking about, but she said Alan was coming by to get it and to lay out all of my cards until he got to our house, so I did. Once he got there, he immediately found the card and said, “This is it!” He looked at me with a mean glare and left in disgust. All I could do was cry because I didn’t think I had done anything wrong. When my dad got home, my mom told him what had happened and well, it wasn’t a good night for me. I should have just told them what Jason did, but I looked up to both of them so much, so I just took the punishment.

1989 Topps Sandy Alomar Jr. Future Stars RC #648

I was so confused and upset that my cousin Jason would do this to me, and I was even more upset that Alan was furious at me. My mom ended up grounding me for the last 3 weeks of summer which meant no TV and certainly no swimming. One day while my parents were at work and my older brother was watching me, the doorbell rang, and it was Jason. He apologized for throwing me under the bus. I stayed calm and asked him to tell Alan everything so he wouldn’t be mad at me anymore. Eventually, he did. Alan came by my house and apologized for being mad at me, and also for his brother being a jerk. In the end it all got squared away with my parents because Alan told them what had happened, and I was no longer grounded. 

Three years ago, I saw my cousin Jason for the first time in 11 years. We were both at the sandwich shop near my house. He had stopped talking to his parents, his brother, and basically everyone in the family. I’m not sure what exactly the circumstances are behind it, and I’d much rather stay out of family drama because that is who I am. It was weird seeing him though. However, he did talk to me. We sat down together and had lunch and reminisced about all the fun things we used to do like sled riding, throwing the baseball around, camping out in tents in each other's yards in the summers, playing street hockey, flashlight tag, you name it. He stopped for a minute and gave me a look and said, “I still feel awful about that Alomar Jr card you know.” I honestly hadn’t thought about that in years and assured him there was no hard feelings and that it was in the past. Before leaving, I told him that I missed him being around and I gave him a hug. After all, he is family. I haven’t talked or seen him since; of course, I didn’t expect to either. 

For my entire childhood any time I saw that card, I would stay away from it. I actually pulled it one time when my dad took me to the general store near our house, and I gave it to my brother. I didn’t want anything to do with it, even though I collected Alomar Jr back then. Last Saturday after my sons t-ball game, I picked up a Fairfield re-pack at Rite Aid along with some Nerds gummies for my son (if you have read my blog recently, you would see that I have grabbed a few of these re-packs lately). In that re-pack log jammed in a bunch of ‘89 Topps cards was the Alomar Jr Future Stars Rookie Card. I made a weird shriek in the car while I was opening the box. My son asked, “Daddy, are you ok?” I said, “Yeah bud, I’ll be ok. Do you want another baseball card for your collection?” I turned around in the driver's seat to see my son eating his Nerds gummies and him staring at the card. He took a few seconds looking at it and looked at my face and simply said, “No daddy, I think you should have that one.” I gave him a smile to let him know I was ok and said, “Ok bud, I think I’ll keep it. Let’s go home.”