Pack of Cards‪.‬

In 1960, for the first time in my life, I had managed to own every Bowman, Fleer, and Topps playing card, as well as the entire Kahn's Franks ("The Weiner the World Awaited") series, that had come out that year. Except for one. I needed one lousy card to round out my complete collection of 1,324 mint condition baseball cards, arranged numerically and stacked in several vertical rows in the two small compartments of the headboard of my twin-sized bed. A different colored tabbed index card marked off the particular issues, including the 18 oversized Hall O'Fame All Stars I'd cut from the back of boxes of Pep cereal. Only one card was missing--Ray Narleski, who wasn't even on a major league roster (4-12 with a 5.78 ERA the year before) but was the final item, #587, on the final checklist card, #450, in the Topps series.