The time I lost my mail order virginity

While this hellish work week may have consumed my desire to live, it has not extinguished my desire to POST!

The frequency and quality of the posts? Well, that's another story, which by the way, I don't have time to read.

So what I have for you in this 24-hour block (half of which will be occupied working) is something called blatant blog filler ... ah, I mean, another cherished childhood collecting memory.

Back when there was no eBay or home computers or debit cards or home shopping clubs, there was something called a mail order catalog. I'll speak slowly for those of you who are currently juggling 5 electronic devices as you read this. It was printed on something called paper. You would take your fingers, place your thumb under the edge of something called a page, press a finger over the opposite end of the page, and with your thumb and finger pinched together, apply a pulling motion to perform something that was called -- now here's a darling, old-fashioned term -- "turning the page."

OK, work and exhaustion are making me pointlessly sarcastic. I'll stop now.

Anyway, mail-order catalogs were the way we discovered the great memorabilia items that were available to us in the '70s and '80s. It was either that or look at the ads in the back of Rolling Stone magazine and get freaked out.

Or you could do what I did and buy a Dodgers yearbook. I believe I bought it during one of my family's trips to Cooperstown.

The yearbook advertised some fine Dodger-related memorabilia that you could buy for low, low prices. But I couldn't. I searched and searched the available items for something, anything that I could afford that had "Dodgers" listed on it.

All I could find was a package of Dodgers Player Pictures for $1.00.

So I sent away for it. I'm sure it took three months to arrive. Everything took three months to arrive. Anything that you ordered from the back of a cereal box took even longer. I think it was first mailed to space before it was mailed to your home.

When the Player Pictures did arrive, I opened the package, and the envelope that you see at the top appeared. Trust me, it's about the best thing in the package.

The player pictures, all "autographed" were flimsy 5x7 photocopies with tiny, facsimile autos. I was pretty bummed.

But not bummed enough to get rid of them. I have them to this day.

And I'm going to show them all, because when you still have the very first thing you ordered through the mail, then you've got show it, right?

I believe these are from the 1980 season. Perhaps 1981, because Mickey Hatcher and Steve Howe are featured, but Don Sutton is nowhere to be seen.

Presenting 20 autographed individual pictures:

The Bob Welch one has always been my favorite.

Overall, that's some quality craftsmanship, huh? Well worth the buck. And the best part is the Dodgers used some of the same player pictures year after year. I'm guessing some of the photos are from back in 1978.

I should really try to send some of these through the mail and get them autographed. That would make them a little more memorable.

But anyway, that's what I bought when I first sent cash through the mail. You never forget your first.

All right. That's got to hold you for 24.

I'll be back. When I'm more exhausted.