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Youngstown State College

Check it out: The first payday during a memorable MLB journey
Dave Dravecky's tale is perhaps a somber one in MLB history, but this story isn't that ... this is one from the very beginning.
And, short of a contract signing bonus -- if there even was one -- this is about something at the absolute start of it all.
The newest piece in my collection wasn't some discovery curated and placed on the block with an auction house marketing team pumping it up to be something more, something beyond what it is. In fact, this was a random find over on eBay of all places where it had been sitting for at least months -- if not longer -- as part of a dealer run. It was simply one of many similar items bought in bulk years ago and I actually even passed over it a few times before some curiosity got me to stop and do some research. That's when I realized what I had found. Is it a monster? Probably not unless you like monster-sized trivia while digging on the cheap ... to be honest that's kinda my thing. Sure, it's not finding Earl Weaver's 1977 gamer at a thrift store or a razor-sharp Walter Payton Rookie Card for a buck at an estate sale ... but what I found seemed interesting to me and I think it might be to you, too.
Dravecky's story, to a degree, is captured on his 1990 Score baseball card above, but that's not where it all ended -- or where it began -- and that's something that got me to stop and look when it seemed unfamiliar on eBay. I first knew Dravecky as a San Francisco Giant and, of course, how his career ended, but his time in baseball didn't start around the arrival of his 1983 Fleer and 1983 Topps Rookie Cards as a San Diego Padre, either. No, no ... that's not the life of a 21st-round draft pick. It was a bit more complicated than that.
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This entry was posted in Autograph Collecting, Baseball and tagged autographs, MLB, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, 1990 Score, Cincinnati Reds, memorabilia, Ryne Sandberg, San Diego Padres, 1983 Fleer, 1983 Topps, Dave Dravecky, Otis Nixon, signed checks, Charles Kwolek, Bobby Mitchell, Youngstown State College, Charleston Pirates, Douglas McCormick on June 17, 2024 by BlowoutBuzz.

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