By: Neil Dengler
I grew up in a suburb roughly twenty miles south of Buffalo, NY. Contrary to popular belief, Buffalo is not just about snow and chicken wings. We’ve got great people, excellent food, culture, entertainment – and Buffalo is a HUGE sports town.
Make no bones about it, football is king in Buffalo. Hockey comes in second. Makes sense, the NFL’s Buffalo Bills came to town in 1960, the NHL’s Sabres moved in ten years later in 1970.
And then there is baseball. Buffalo has a AAA team – the Bisons, who are affiliates for the Toronto Blue Jays. I attended my first Bisons game in 1987. I was not a baseball fan when I attended that game, but things were about to change.
Back in 1987, I started buying baseball cards. I’d pick up a pack or two at the corner store. I actually think I started collecting cards before I really started following baseball. It was a casual hobby, but it was fun.
My one or two packs soon turned in to trips to card stores. And better yet – the Super Flea! The Flea was a massive indoor/outdoor flea market that sold everything imaginable. Many of the people there could have easily passed for Star Wars characters. But to a twelve-year-old kid, the opportunity to go stand to stand and browse through and barter for baseball cards was awesome.
It was a trip to a Bisons game in late summer of 1987 when I brought a few baseball cards with me to try to get autographed. I also picked up a Bisons team set that day and gathered some signatures on those cards as well. Similar to collecting cards, it started as a casual hobby and soon picked up.
In 1988, the Buffalo Bisons opened a brand new stadium – then known as Pilot Field, right in downtown Buffalo. Back then, the Bisons were on a short list of teams looking at the prospect of getting a major league franchise. Ultimately, that didn’t happen, but it was a cool time to be a baseball fan in Buffalo.
I attended a lot of games in the late 80’s in Buffalo. They played in a brand new stadium with capacity of 18,500. Weekend games regularly sold out back then. It was a cool scene for me back then. And, I stepped up my autograph game, big time.
Unlike my few trips to the old stadium in 1987, I was now “doing my homework.” I’d read Baseball America. I knew when the prospects were. I knew not to use a ballpoint pen when getting cards signed – rookie move!
Looking back, I had a lot of good times during those years – and I saw a lot of great prospects in places like Buffalo and Rochester – guys like Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, Jim Thome – and countless others. I still have quite a few cool souvenirs – mostly signed cards, programs and baseballs from that era.
I think I “retired” from being an autograph hound around 1995. Things like college, girls and the humiliation of getting kicked out of team hotels eventually wore me down.
Everything in life is cyclical. About five years ago, my oldest son Ryan, who is now 12, and I attended a Bisons game. We wandered down to my old stomping grounds – the area adjacent to the visitor’s dugout and got talking to one of the autograph collector’s – Lawnmower Dave. Shortly after conversing with Dave, I knew that it was our time to get back in the game.
And boy did we get back in! We’ve now expanded our “territory” and we’ll regularly attend both minor and major league games, spanning about a 200-mile radius around Buffalo. My nine-year-old daughter, Molly, also started to express interest in the hobby last year, so she too attends many of the local games. Tyler, my youngest, who is five, saw all the fun and he even got into the action last year. Many of our family trips are now planned around seeing a game – and hopefully nabbing some autographs.
Our journeys have been filled with some ups and downs, some rain delays, disappointments, many celebrations – but most importantly we’ve created some wonderful memories. None of this would be possible were it not for my loving and patient wife, Leah, who sweetly approves of our crazy plans more times than not – pre-game autographs, postgame autographs, going to hotels and airports for autographs, and so on. Not to mention, us bringing home baseballs, broken bats, cards, photos, hats, you get the picture! Baseball has been a fun pastime that my entire family enjoys together.