1982 TCMA Cedar Rapids Reds Eric Davis Missed the Do-Over

ou ever see a baseball card that makes you wonder what the guy pictured was like in school?

Well …

The very first Eric Davis baseball card puts some quick ideas about that sort of thing in your head.

I mean, you remember school picture day, right?

Sure you do …

That’s when the teachers would herd us all like cattle into the gym or the lunch room or the office, or maybe the parking lot if things were tight, and we’d each get our chance to pose for the photographer’s lens.

You remember that now.

But you didn’t always remember it then … right?

Let me tell you …

The panic that creeps up in your throat when it dawns on you that you forgot to tell mom that it was picture day, and that you’re wearing your “Elvis Spelled Backwards is ‘Lives’” t-shirt instead of your good button-down, and that you have a big ol’ zit on your forehead — it’s real.

But you went through your paces, got your pic snapped, and then took your lumps when mom saw the thing.

If you were lucky, your school had a do-over day, but that usually required some special sort of permission — like you somehow didn’t show up at all for the first picture day.

Or, like you blinked during the snap or had a booger in your boy-mustache.

Even then, though, things didn’t always work out — remember the “NO PHOTO AVAILABLE” slots that showed up in the yearbook for some kids? Or the droopy eyelids that made it through the QA process.

It didn’t pay to tick off the yearbook teacher, or the kids on the yearbook staff, that’s for sure.

So, what’s all this have to do with Eric Davis?

Well, if you were a young collector dealing with the indignities of being a school kid and somehow got your hands on Davis’ 1982 Cedar Rapids Reds card, you had to figure ED was something like you.

After all, Davis was just 20, maybe even 19, when the card was issued — not much older than you were. Maybe younger if you held onto that high school dream a little longer than most.

And, well, somehow Eric missed out on the do-over photo day for his first-ever set of baseball cards.