My Opening Card from Opening Day

Opening Day has been live for about a week. When the set was released, there was one card in particular that caught my eye. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it. So it was off to eBay for me.

I won the auction on Tuesday and the card arrived on Thursday. That was the quickest I had ever received a card. This is my first Opening Day card of the season and today, I'll show it off:



It's from the Presidential First Pitch insert set, showing RR at Wrigley Field on September 30, 1988. Reagan was coasting, with less than four months left in his term. At this point, I'm sure he had a list of things he wanted to make sure he did before leaving office. Things like balancing the budget, winning the cold war, and throwing out the first pitch at Wrigley Field.

You can see from the card that the game was not well attended. Look at the empty bleachers (though part is empty because of the batters eye). Also notice that the ivy has begun to turn red.

Once the game began, Reagan spent some time in the booth with Harry Caray. This was the post-stroke Harry Caray, so what we had were a couple of goofy old guys and Steve Stone. Reagan told stories of his time doing Cubs play by play for an Iowa radio station and then did a little play by play.



The back of the card says that Reagan helped with the radio broadcast, but since Harry did the first three innings on TV, the card is wrong.