Willie Mays Buys Me a Camera

Willie Mays gave me many moments of pleasure during his playing career.

Now, he's given me a camera.

Allow me to explain. As a 14-year-old kid, I was lucky enough to be at Candlestick Park the day Willie got his 3,000th career hit (in case you're interested, here is the boxscore from that game). There were 28,878 others on hand, and somehow, I wound up with three ticket stubs.

In what may have been an early indication of my future career plans, I carefully noted some details of the event on the backs of two of the stubs: 2nd inning, bases empty, Mike Wegener pitching. Went home, tacked the stubs to my bulletin board full of sports memorabilia.

Fast-forward 37 years. Somehow, the stubs have survived high school, college, marriage, parenthood, and at least 15 moves. The busted water heater at home forced me to move some boxes, and there they were.

Within minutes of finding the tickets (and a bunch of other stubs, photos, and assorted tokens of a lifelong obsession with sports), a little voice began to fill my head. "eBay," it said.

Without going into all the details, I can tell you that there are people who are willing to pay for things like these tickets. I made enough to easily cover the cost of a new Nikon digital SLR kit.

Thanks, Willie.