GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas _ It's been a year tinged with sadness for Darwin Day _ but also one that has turned into "a complete joyride."
After his brother died of cancer earlier this year, it prompted Day to do some soul searching _ and some housecleaning. In the midst of that, the 70-year-old Grand Prairie resident and lifelong baseball fan discovered a complete collection of Topps baseball cards from 1957-58.
WIN THESE SWELL PRIZES IN THE 4TH BAZOOKA BASEBALL CONTEST, the cards read on the back.
Day noticed something in the fine print: No year was given to enter the contest.
"I was struck by the fact it didn't have a year listed on the card," he said. "It was a simpler time. You didn't need a team of lawyers to do everything back then."
So Day entered the contest and _ 59 years after it first opened to contestants _ he won it.
"What did he get, those special X-ray glasses?" asked John Gilman, a friend of Day's who joins him at Rangers games as well as at The Summit senior activity center in Grand Prairie.
"No, it's a Louisville Slugger glove," Day said, as he showed the glove to a crowd of onlookers this week at The Summit.
"In a way, I did it in memory of my brother," Day said. "His obit said he was a jokester."
When Day's younger brother died, he was tasked with cleaning out his house in Virginia.
"It was such a consuming job that it made me think that maybe I ought to clean out my own house," he said. "So I did that, and I came across these cards."
