Found In My Basement: 1980s Pirates

It’s a long story, but we had a leak in our home over the summer, and as a result, we need to replace our hardwood floor. My home currently looks like a scene from the TV show Dexter without the blood. Anyway, before the floor people arrived, we needed to move the smaller items. This included so many books and toys. As part of this process, I also came across my scrapbook from growing up and wanted to share this page today.

Autographed pictures from Pittsburgh Pirate greats! Or at least Pittsburgh Pirate goods! I have no idea how I acquired these pictures. It's likely that my dad took my brother and me to some type of appearance featuring John Smiley and Jim Gott. I wonder if they discussed writing "Best Wishes" on all of the pictures before the appearance. Bill Madlock must have been in such a charitable mood that he autographed the picture twice. My favorite of this group is probably catcher Junior Ortiz. It's not autographed or even in color. Was he just somewhere passing them out like ads for a new club opening?


Please click here for more Found in My Basement blog posts.

Update: My first Found In My Basement blog post was published on August 16, 2010. Why am I mentioning this today? It's because I included this exact same picture in that blog post. Apparently, I've run out of blog ideas and am recycling content from several months before the first episode of Game of Thrones aired!

Found In My Basement

I am proud to introduce a new feature at Sean’s Ramblings. All this week (with the exception of tomorrow for Trivia Tuesday), I am sharing items found in my basement. I realize that this title could be a bit disturbing, so let me explain. My parents recently moved from my childhood home, so I inherited many items from my younger days. I thought I would share some of these items here.

The first items are autographed pictures of former Pittsburgh Pirates John Smiley, Jim Gott and Bill Madlock.



For some reason, I have what looks to be a photocopied picture of Junior Ortiz as well. Since there’s no autograph on the Junior Ortiz picture, I feel comfortable cutting part of his face out of the post. Anyway, if you can’t read the writing, John Smiley wrote “To Sean Best Wishes” while Jim Gott wrote “Sean Best Wishes.” There may be a theme to their messages. Bill Madlock just signed his name.

I wish that I had a great story about meeting these Pirates, but I don’t remember meeting them at all. I feel like I probably got these autographs from Smiley and Gott at some Giant Eagle grocery store appearance.

Tune in on Wednesday for the next edition of "Found In My Basement." Oh, you would be correct if you thought that this is a bit of a rip-off of PSAMP’s Great Moments In Unlicensed Pittsburgh Sports Merchandise.