Observer’s ‘American picker’ isn’t just a sports fanatic

Yeah, I know I’m the sports editor here and supposedly a sports fanatic.

Maybe by definition but not by my lifestyle, or what I’m up to when I’m not here in the office or out covering games.

Some of what I’m about to admit may surprise you: I never watch Sports Center, never watch the NBA, never watch the NHL, never watch soccer on TV and will never watch the various “sports” popping up on ESPN, among them ax throwing, bass fishing, spikeball, chase tag, cornhole … the list continues to grow.

What I like to watch on TV are shows like “Law & Order” and its offspring, “Friday Night Smackdown” and “Monday Night Raw,” ”Resident Alien,” “Pawn Stars” and “American Pickers.”
Of the latter, I fancy myself as a picker and, being an American, I guess I, too, am an American picker.

Observer Sports Editor Gary Herron

I get out to the big flea market at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds every weekend, on the prowl for “stuff” for my eclectic hobbies and collections, which include mostly baseball stuff — cards, pennants, old mitts, bobbleheads, etc. — and your basic oddball stuff.

I am also a regular on a local weekly online auction site, which is where I recently garnered one of my coolest picks — an old black and white photo of Thelma “Tiby” Eisen, standing in her All-American Girls Professional Baseball League uniform.

I’m sure you remember the 1992 movie, “A League of Their Own.” (You know, Tom Hanks repeating, “There’s no crying in baseball.’) The league was in existence from 1943, about midway through World War II, until 1954.

Eisen, it turns out, was an outfielder and quite a base-stealer, playing from 1944-52.

I never tire of that movie, especially enjoying the first half-hour or so, up to the tryouts at Wrigley Field. MLB-TV has recently released a short feature on the making of that movie, interviewing Geena Davis and Rosie O’Donnell, who was maybe the best ballplayer of all the women in that movie.

In 2014, I had a small role in bringing at annual an AAGPBL reunion that July to the Duke City, where about two-dozen or so surviving members of the league gathered to reflect on their good ol’ days and sign autographs for fans at Isotopes Park, where ”their” movie was shown.

Former player Kate Vonderau was there; I had a chance to meet and interview her previously for the Observer when she lived in Placitas. She played eight years in the league and was on the 1952 championship Ft. Wayne Daisies team. Eisen wasn’t there; she passed away May 11, 2014, 92 years to the date she was born in Los Angeles.

After I picked up my auction item — it set me back a little more than three bucks; pickers find great deals, don’t you know? — I did some research on her.

This is the black-and-white photo of AAGPBL star Thelma Eisen. From the collection of Gary Herron.

She was a great-fielding center fielder and quite the base-stealer. In 1995, Total Baseball encyclopedia named her one of the league’s 20 greatest players.

According to the Jewish Women’s Archive, she once said, “In 1940, they tried to start women’s professional football in Los Angeles. After they got a couple of teams together, city council said women could not play football in L.A. I was a fullback on one of the teams, and we traveled to Guadalajara. They filled the stadium.”

In 1944, Eisen was one of six L.A. athletes chosen to try out for the AAGPBL, and she won a spot on the Milwaukee team. In her first season, her team won the league championship. The next year the team relocated to Grand Rapids, Mich.

“When we walked down the street people would ask for our autographs, ask us where we were from. They wanted to know all about us,” she said. “It was big time in these small towns.” (How cool for the ladies, making about $400 a month.)

In one of my books about the league, I learned she “spent time experimenting with novel hairdos … (and) was also adept at jitterbugging and liked to enter competitions in the offseason.”
Nicknames were frowned upon, it seems, and although her teammates knew her as “Tiby,” it took some getting used to hearing her announced as “Thelma” Eisen on the P.A.

After her playing days, she spent 30 years working in California’s telecommunications industry, and was touted as one of the first women to work in its installation crews.

So, also fancying myself as a lifelong learner, I chalked this up as a cool auction item to win, supplemented last Saturday when I found an old Rawlings “Wally Post” model baseball mitt … for $5.
Tell me I don’t know how to find a bargain. I believe I’m more than just your local sports guy.Yeah, I know I’m the sports editor here and supposedly a sports fanatic.

Maybe by definition but not by my lifestyle, or what I’m up to when I’m not here in the office or out covering games.

Some of what I’m about to admit may surprise you: I never watch Sports Center, never watch the NBA, never watch the NHL, never watch soccer on TV and will never watch the various “sports” popping up on ESPN, among them ax throwing, bass fishing, spikeball, chase tag, cornhole … the list continues to grow.

What I like to watch on TV are shows like “Law & Order” and its offspring, “Friday Night Smackdown” and “Monday Night Raw,” ”Resident Alien,” “Pawn Stars” and “American Pickers.”
Of the latter, I fancy myself as a picker and, being an American, I guess I, too, am an American picker.

I get out to the big flea market at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds every weekend, on the prowl for “stuff” for my eclectic hobbies and collections, which include mostly baseball stuff — cards, pennants, old mitts, bobbleheads, etc. — and your basic oddball stuff.

I am also a regular on a local weekly online auction site, which is where I recently garnered one of my coolest picks — an old black and white photo of Thelma “Tiby” Eisen, standing in her All-American Girls Professional Baseball League uniform.

I’m sure you remember the 1992 movie, “A League of Their Own.” (You know, Tom Hanks repeating, “There’s no crying in baseball.’) The league was in existence from 1943, about midway through World War II, until 1954.

Eisen, it turns out, was an outfielder and quite a base-stealer, playing from 1944-52.

I never tire of that movie, especially enjoying the first half-hour or so, up to the tryouts at Wrigley Field. MLB-TV has recently released a short feature on the making of that movie, interviewing Geena Davis and Rosie O’Donnell, who was maybe the best ballplayer of all the women in that movie.

In 2014, I had a small role in bringing at annual an AAGPBL reunion that July to the Duke City, where about two-dozen or so surviving members of the league gathered to reflect on their good ol’ days and sign autographs for fans at Isotopes Park, where ”their” movie was shown.

Former player Kate Vonderau was there; I had a chance to meet and interview her previously for the Observer when she lived in Placitas. She played eight years in the league and was on the 1952 championship Ft. Wayne Daisies team. Eisen wasn’t there; she passed away May 11, 2014, 92 years to the date she was born in Los Angeles.

After I picked up my auction item — it set me back a little more than three bucks; pickers find great deals, don’t you know? — I did some research on her.

She was a great-fielding center fielder and quite the base-stealer. In 1995, Total Baseball encyclopedia named her one of the league’s 20 greatest players.

According to the Jewish Women’s Archive, she once said, “In 1940, they tried to start women’s professional football in Los Angeles. After they got a couple of teams together, city council said women could not play football in L.A. I was a fullback on one of the teams, and we traveled to Guadalajara. They filled the stadium.”

In 1944, Eisen was one of six L.A. athletes chosen to try out for the AAGPBL, and she won a spot on the Milwaukee team. In her first season, her team won the league championship. The next year the team relocated to Grand Rapids, Mich.

“When we walked down the street people would ask for our autographs, ask us where we were from. They wanted to know all about us,” she said. “It was big time in these small towns.” (How cool for the ladies, making about $400 a month.)

In one of my books about the league, I learned she “spent time experimenting with novel hairdos … (and) was also adept at jitterbugging and liked to enter competitions in the offseason.”

Nicknames were frowned upon, it seems, and although her teammates knew her as “Tiby,” it took some getting used to hearing her announced as “Thelma” Eisen on the P.A.

After her playing days, she spent 30 years working in California’s telecommunications industry, and was touted as one of the first women to work in its installation crews.

So, also fancying myself as a lifelong learner, I chalked this up as a cool auction item to win, supplemented last Saturday when I found an old Rawlings “Wally Post” model baseball mitt … for $5.
Tell me I don’t know how to find a bargain. I believe I’m more than just your local sports guy.