Monday, December 15, 2008

behind the numbers


i received my first Sports Illustrated subscription in 1983, when i was 9 years old (featuring Dan Marino, Nov. 14, 1983). it's been 25 years and i hadn't missed an issue... until a few weeks back when i let it run out (but i'll probably renew it soon).

i had kept each issue... most in the basement... in boxes and crates and bins and whatever i could find to store them in.

this afternoon, i went down in the basement to check on something, saw all of those boxes and decided it was time to get rid of them. after probably 12 trips up the stairs from the basement, out the back door and into the back of the van... of which included 4 separate trips to the local recycling station, i hauled most of 1,300 or so issues to be recycled.

i figure that the average weight of each issue is approx. 6 oz... 6 ounces x 1,300 issues = roughly 487.5 lbs. needless to say, my back is a little sore... and since i have had some back trouble recently, my arms are really sore as i was trying not to hurt my back.

but the basement has never been cleaner. which is nice.

2 comments:

troy. said...

Ha...been there! Except mine were baseball card price guides, so there were only like 3 years worth of them. I did feel kinda bad throwing them away b/c most of the guys who made the covers of (and were featured on the "fake" cards inside) were once stars who have since fallen into the black hole of former sports players.

Anyway...did you go through them all and, if so, how many did you keep? I still have all my coveted Jordan SI covers. Remember the hologram from when he was named sportsman of the year?

Oh...and don't get me started on the numerous Clemens' covers and 1,000+ cards of his I still own -- how was a 9-year old kid in '84 supposed to know anything about baseball players testifying before Congress?!?!

Unknown said...

of course i kept every jordan cover... at one time, i had EVERY cover Jordan appeared on hanging in order on my wall.

i kept some good issues... like Steelers ones and ones that i thought might be sell-able at some point.

as far as baseball cards go, i collected George Brett, not Clemens. had my fair share of those price guides with the fake cards. i still have my baseball cards up in the attic... most are worthless now, but there was nothing like the joy of trying to collect a complete set. in '87, i did just that... packs were 35 cents... i spent most of my mowing money on cards that summer.

good times.