I owe my Chicago Cubs allegiance to my Grandma.
In 1986, the nine year old version of myself was just getting into sports. I began playing little league, and neighborhood whiffle ball games, complete with a full roster of ghost men, were a daily occurrence.
For whatever reason, I was sitting in my grandma’s living room, talking to her about baseball one day and she started telling me about the Cubs, how she’d always loved the Cubs, and how a couple years earlier they “almost” went to the World Series. That’s all it took for me to be converted. If they were good enough for her, they were good enough for me.
I was in.
A new Cubs fan was born.
At some point soon after that, I was with my mom at a local department store and on the checkout counter they had a box of 1986 Topps Cello packs. I’d heard of baseball cards before, but up to that point I didn’t have any. Well right on top of the box I saw a pack I had to have. Across the top in red letters, on that distinctive black background, was CUBS!
That was my first pack of cards, and that first Cub was none other than Thad Bosley. So yes, there’s at least one collector that can claim Thad Bosley got them hooked on cards!
That 1986 set has a special place in my heart, and so I thought I’d make my next entry on that set, some of my favorite cards in it, and even top it off by breaking a couple rack packs I just picked up from my local card shop (Busted Wax at the Collectible Corner).
Learn more about the 1986 Topps set here.