It’s Gitz, Not Getz

What you see above is the new starting second baseman for the southsiders.  If you did not know, my name happens to be Chris Gitz.  As you can imagine, these two names can sound an awful lot alike.  My biggest pet peeve has always been when someone mispronounces my name as Getz.  There is definitely a difference between the two and for some reason people love to muck it up.  It got worse about five years ago when I started a new job with a coworker who actually has the last name Getz.  For some reason people thought we were brothers and my last name might as well have been Getz.  They even issued me a badge with my last name as Getz.

I know it looks like it’s been through hell and back and that’s because it has been, five times a week for eight hours a day for five years.  Notice that I even made a sticker to correct the error.  Over the last five years I’ve managed to set most people straight, there will always be those few who will never get it, but for the most part people got it right.  That is until the Sox decided to make Mr. Getz an everyday starting second basemen.  This takes my hatred for the Sox to a whole new level.  You can’t imagine the annoyance I have when I listen to a game or turn on the TV to watch the highlights and I hear my name being mispronounced time after time.  And why, of all teams, did it have to be the Sox?  I now have to put up with all the Sox fans, who I can’t stand to begin with, making jokes about how I finally picked the right team blah blah blah.  Every goddamn day now I have to listen to this.  To make things worse, this kid seems to be pretty damn good.   I can’t stop hearing his name on the radio.  My kids even asked me the other day why they were talking about me on the radio.  I suppose I should embrace it and roll with the punches and maybe even start to collect his cards, but for as long as he plays for the Sox I just can’t find a way to do it.  With the way my beloved Cubbies have been playing and my new found annoyance on the south side, it’s gonna be a long 2009 season.

1955 Topps Doubleheaders

Since returning to the hobby I’ve been able to buy several items that I have only seen in books and old Becketts.  This card would fall into that category.  It is a 1955 Topps Doubleheader of Steve Bilko and Bob Millken.  This set is made up of 66 cards featuring 2 players each.  The checklist is full of Hall Of Famers but unfortunately this card is not one of them.  I paid $8 for it off thE bay and going by what I could find else where, I got a pretty good deal.  I bid on this card for the simple reason of it having a Cub on the front.  Bilko only played 47 games for the Cubs and from what I can tell he didn’t do so well.  The giant crease in the middle is a perforation where you can fold over the card, the top of the back fits on the bottom of the front.  Brilliant!!  It reminds me of the back of a MAD Magazine.  This card is in pretty damn good condition considering it was meant to be bent in half.  I almost attempted to fold it just to get the whole effect, but it felt like it was going to break, so I stopped.  It was shipped in a tall card saver sleeve.  I’d like to find an Ultra Pro case for it but I’m not sure if they make one in this size.  I know my local shop won’t have any if they even make such a thing.  I’m almost considering getting it graded just to have a nice case for it.  I’m completely against sending cards to get graded, but if I can’t find a case for it soon I may just break down and put it in the mail.

This card was bought with some of my birthday cash.  I was also able to score 126 more cards for my ’62 set.  I won a lot a week ago of 166 cards and needed 126 of them.  This nearly doubled my collection.  I landed all of this for just over $50.    I still have $42 left to blow on some nice vintage cards and I am expecting a few more to trickle in this week.  Stay tuned.