Hey Chris Wade!

[Buffalosix]

Just want to tell you, I think your homepage rocks. Great PRSi wallpapers - did you do those yourself? If so, I'd love to get you to do a couple of special requests (like my PRSi models!). And you page on 70s baseball stars, well lets just say, I can wax similar nostalgic on a lot of those guys - especially the late great Tug McGraw (who I finally met two years ago at a Bowie Baysoc AA game!). Most of my nostalgia would revolve around the 70s Mets (Seaver, Koos, Matlack, McGraw, Milner, Staub, Harrelson, etc. ad nauseum!)...

Anyway, thanks for the link on your messages. Great homepage.

[Christopher Wade]

Hey thanks! I often wonder if anyone really looks.

As to the wallpapers, I do them myself. I also do take requests and I do them when I have some time, or need to decompress. Photoshop can be a great relaxer. All I need is a decent size overhead shot of the guitar. You can get the idea form the WP's on the page. Basically, I need it shot the way PRS would shoot a guitar for their site. Email it to me (make sure the size is reasonable - around 100-150K) as a jpg and I'll see what I can do.

I'm planning on doing a Modern Eagle and one of my BLE #282.

Thanks again.

[Tom Gross]

Yeah, it really is cool.

That Soldano of yours rocks!

I also love that Phillies page. I grew up a Cub fan - Ron Santo, etc. It is way cool you having pictures with all those greats. Lotta great memories stirred. Poor JR Richard.

My friend as a kid was visiting clubhouse boy for the White Sox, so I got to spend a little time around the game. A very different and cool atmosphere.I was visiting once and I had kinda long hair, and Eddie Stanky got in my face and started screaming at me for having long hair & being a hippie and the whole team was laughing their buts off.

[Christopher Wade]

Poor JR Richard..Yeah. :(

I never understood how someone could do that to themselves. When that picture was taken was the only time I met J.R..

He was signing autographs over the railing, and I didn't want to bother him, but he was my "new" favorite player at the time. My uncle was with the Astros and so my loyalties were divided. I remember loving watching him pitch, total dominance. When Shaq came on the scene was the first time I remember seeing an athlete look as dominant as James Rodney did - at least to pre-teen me.

So I snuck away from my dad with the Polaroid. I was too nervous to say anything to J.R., I just wanted a picture of his back. That would have been enough - I would have known it was his back.

I'm almost sneaking up on him, not because I was so much scared of him, but I didn't want to bother him - almost an 'I'm not worthy to be within 10 feet of J.R."

As I'm about to snap, he wheels around and sticks one hand out and says "arrgh", with a smile on his face. I about pooped myself, and it must've shown, because he apologizes. He asked me what I wanted and I said "just a picture, sir". So he stood there and posed.

After, he saw me with my uncle - who was only the Assistant PR Director at the time - in the clubhouse and he called me over. He wanted to give me something. but he was so big, nothign would fit. I couldn't wear his hat, I swam in his t-shirt. So he gave me a wrist band with that old space-themed Astros logo on it.

I had and have lots of baseball memorabilia. Pops Stargell gave me one of his stars that he awarded players with (the Pirates used to wear them on their flat-topped hats in the late 70's, like Ohio State's football program). I have Larry Bowa's game-used bat. I have a ceremonial bat that was to be presented to Willie Mays. He never showed and I somehow ended up with it. all that stuff was put away and never touched. But I wore that wristband until it was shreds.

And then, just a year or two later, I remember getting ready to watch the Game of the Week on NBC, back when it was an event like the NFL is now (and I still cared about baseball), and NBC's camera went live to the Astrodome with that picture of J.R. slumped on the mound.....

man...... it crushed me.

And then to later find out it wasn't a stroke. Or at least, a natural stroke. And then to find out 2 or 3 years ago that he had been found living under a bridge. I felt guilty. Truly guilty, that in some way I felt I had let one of my childhood heroes fade from my memory and end up there.

What a shame.

It was such a different era then. The players were mostly great guys, with the exception of Pete Rose. Willie Stargell was amazing. Standing next to him waslike standing next to Moses. He just projected strength beyond mere muscle and wisdom and a kind of righteous power.

Nolan Ryan was like talking to the guy next door. Except the guy next door couldn't throw 101 mph.Tugger was great. In that photo, behind my back, Tug is holding his dip that he was preparing. He used to take 12 to 15 pieces of Bazooka Joe and chew them up. Then he'd take them out of his mouth and wrap a half a pack of chaw inside the bubble gum casing. Disgusting. But he didn't want that in the picture and I remember being aware that that disgusting mess was 2 inches from running down my legs.

Schmidt was pretty aloof, but decent. Bowa was, as usual, 100 miles an hour. He arranged us, gave us all directions, told my dad how to shoot it. He did everything but take the picture. He managed the whole thing.

I didn't understand a word Cheo Cruz said.

And if Stargell was like standing next to Moses, standing with Bull Luzinski was like standing next to John Henry and his hammer. Luzinski was larger than life. Where Scmidt was lithe and graceful, Luzinski was just raw power.

My favorite story from those days was when I was a little older. We were in Philly when my uncle was with the Pirates. They had wrapped up a 3 game series and it was getaway day. I'm sitting in the lobby with my dad and he wants to go talk to one of the players. He didn't want me to be by myself, and one of the Pirates coaches says "go ahead, Frank, I'll sit with him."

So I turn and look, and its Harvey Haddix. (for those who don't know who Haddix is, he holds a distinctive record - the only man to pitch a perfect 9-inning game and lose. He threw 12 perfect innings and gave up a run in the 13th inning)

I was a baseball nut at the time, and I knew JUST who Harvey Haddix was. In fact, I had his baseball card with me. I had found it years before for a dime in a card store, and I had it with me. So I pulled it out and asked him to sign. (I got Bob Lemon the same day - nice score)

I got my nerve up and said "Mr. Haddix, I've read lots of old articles with you about that perfect game, and you say you never think about it, that it doesn't bother you. But I have to ask - REALLY? Not even a little? Don't you ever think about it?"

He smiles, looks around to make sure no one is listening and says "Only every goddamn morning when I'm shaving in the mirror."

:D

[Buffalosix]

Thanks Chris, I'm going to surf around a little bit to find similar models to mine (Black McSoapy Std, Rosewood, Moons) and (SC Trem Artist Pkg, Grey-Black) and see if any of the other sites have some good overhead porn shots, because my photography options here are currently limited. If not, if you have any "stock" shots of those models that would be great when and if you get the chance.

JR Richard was definitely in a class of greats. I remember he used to share those Topps "ERA Leaders" and "Wins Leaders" and "Strikeout Leaders" cards with the likes of Andy Messersmith, Lefty Carlton, and Tom Seaver. Seaver was a hero to me... I'd say one of the first "end of innocence" experiences to happen to me was the Mets trading away Tom Seaver in the "Midnight Massacre" in early '77. I pretty much lost interest in baseball for 5 years after that - until the Mets got him back in late '82 from the Reds. Remained faithful to the game (more or less) ever since - even after the Mets left Seaver unprotected after the '83 season and lost him to the CHISOX.

Cheers.

[Michael Nolan]

Chris those are great stories, thanks so much for sharing.

I'm looking over your lessons now as well. Great site!!