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Just For Fun: Check out the Pittsburgh Pirates' reading habits
This new occasional department is as its title says -- it's just for fun ... a super-quick look at something found that could be new or could be old. It could be comical, it could be serious. It could be cards, it could be something else. It's perhaps collectable -- to somebody -- but there still might be a quick story in there somewhere, too.
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Buzz recently did some deep dives for odd stuff in the autograph realm and a trio of signed late-1970s Pittsburgh Pirates expense checks caught my attention. Why? Just some goofy similarities between them made me wonder what the deal was -- and, well, this isn't even all of them. Again, why? To add some weird but simple items to my autograph collection on the super-duper cheap.
The checks are from 1978 and are signed by former Pirates Treasurer Douglas McCormick -- not a big deal and really, really not as cool as a player's absolute first payday I wrote about here -- so this trio isn't about the ink. This time, it's about who's getting paid.
In the case of the Oct. 25, 1978, check above for $10.20? That's The Sporting News. The weekly sports newspaper was $1 an issue back then, so I suppose it could be for a discounted subscription based on 52 weeks a year but that still seems low. Was this for a subscription for somebody up high? Maybe one for a waiting room? Maybe it was for a bundle of copies of Dave Parker's cover a month earlier? We'll never know ...
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This entry was posted in Baseball, Just For Fun and tagged MLB, Pittsburgh Pirates, Dave Parker, The Sporting News, The Wall Street Journal, signed checks, Douglas McCormick, Pittsburgh Pirates expense checks, expense checks, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on June 19, 2025 by BlowoutBuzz.
Board Buzz: Must-read threads on Blowout Forums (May 18)
The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.
What's Buzzing Today: Inside 68 Bowman Mega Boxes, NBA breaks, The National and "When did 'prospecting' change?"
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This entry was posted in Baseball, Basketball, Board Buzz, The National and tagged MLB, NBA, Panini America, Topps, prospecting, The National, 2019 Bowman, 2019 Bowman Mega Box, The Wall Street Journal on May 18, 2019 by BlowoutBuzz.

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