Nice read about SI autograph collector

LA Times ran an article about a guy who has almost 3,000 autographed Sports Illustrated magazines and his search for one cover model

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sports-illustrated-autograph-20130716-dto,0,5996062.htmlstory

"Over the last 31 years, Scott Smith has snagged the signatures of 4,413 sports stars featured on 2,913 covers of Sports Illustrated magazine, tracking some down in phone books (in the pre-Google era) and slipping through a gantlet of Argentine troops guarding soccer star Diego Maradona."

 

That is a really cool story...

 

Sad side note: Houston McTear is living under a pier in Santa Monica.

 

His obsession with finding that model from 1960 is interesting, especially because in this day and age, all he'd have to do is google her and he'd have everything he ever needed to know about her.

For someone who is clearly obsessed with his hobby, he seems reasonably level-headed and normal.

 

That was cool. I have one signed SI cover and it sits in a frame over my desk: the issue from 2005 when Tom Verducci went to spring training with the Blue Jays. I have it signed by the three players on the cover, Reed Johnson, Vernon Wells and Frank Catalanotto. Just need Verducci!

 

I'm interested in just the phenomenon of collecting stuff as a hobby.
I've just never collected anything for the sake of collecting.

I have five guitars, a bass and a banjo, but none of them are real collector's pieces. I play them.
I have a dozen, maybe two dozen, sports cards that people have given me through the years.
I've got stacks of poker and guitar magazines, but that is more hoarding than it is collecting. I've fooled myself into thinking I will go back and reread informational pieces in old issues.

What is the collecting drive? How does it start?

 

I haven't read the story yet - I'm about to - but has she fallen off the grid completely or something of that nature? OTL had a similar story about the only guy who fought Ali that's unaccounted for: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=091216/JimmyRobinson

 

She was an unidentified model for a generic cover back in 1960. For all anyone knows it was a one-time modeling gig. In the article he said, "She looks like Mary Tyler Moore, but it isn't her, I asked her..." which I thought was hilarious... He sought out one of the biggest TV stars of all-time to find out if she was the model on the SI cover over 50 years ago... That's awesome...

 

Perhaps someone will recognize her from the article and step forward with her name. Other than that happening, it's likely she will remain unknown.

I'd sick that HBO RealSports kid that's finding all of those Negro League players on the case.

 

Here's the cover. I know SI was a different animal back then, but I'd love to sit in on that production meeting. "The World Series as a cover? Fuck that. Here are some kites."

 

Better view of this horrible cover:

 

Wish he had mentioned the approximate year. About 20-25 years ago, we had the dreaded 8 a.m. softball game at a local park. McTear was sleeping in our dugout when we got there.
If I remember right, I think McTear married the mother of Russ Francis, the former NFL tight end from Hawaii via Oregon.