1948 Leaf #49 Del Ennis

When the news broke last Friday night that the Phillies were reuniting with Jim Thome, my immediate thought was to call my Dad to talk about it.  It was one of the moments I'm told I'll have for the rest of my life.  Dad passed away a month ago today, and I'm still dealing with the void it's left.  Strangely enough though, once I realized that it would be very difficult (logistically) to give him a call to discuss the Thome signing, the fact that I immediately thought of my Dad made my very happy, serene even.  I want to have those moments and I'm glad I'll think of him whenever there's a Phillies trade or whenever I'm opening my first pack of the year or when pitchers and catchers report in February.

I definitely thought of him when I recently won this Del Ennis card on eBay for less than it would have cost for a blaster of 2011 Topps Update from Target.  Ennis, along with Dick Sisler, were my Dad's two favorite Phillies and I've decided to try to add as many of their cards to my collection as I can.  Dad would have been only four when this card came out, so he wouldn't have had it in his baseball card shoebox* growing up.  But he would have loved the fact that I've now added it to my baseball card shoebox.

*There was an actual shoebox.  My Dad told me he once "had them all" - complete runs of Bowman sets from 1951 through 1955, early Topps cards, everything.  As was the case with so many collections stemming from that era, the shoebox found its way to the curb soon after my Dad left for college.  One of the first things I'm going to do, after inventing my time machine, is to head back to the mid-1960's and stop my Mom-Mom from tossing out Dad's shoebox.