Where the Hell is My Hank Bauer?

For days I’ve been searching everywhere I could think for my Hank Bauer baseball card. The reason I wanted it is because my blogging-friend GP Cox, who publishes, ‘Pacific Paratrooper,’ posted a story about the ballplayer turned manager.

So why is this particular card so important to me? In a nutshell: Bauer is a Marine.

A month after the Japanese Imperial Navy’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Bauer enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving with the 4th Raider Battalion and G Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines. During 32-months of combat, he earned 11 campaign ribbons, two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts and the Navy Commendation Medal.

Wounded a second time during the Battle of Okinawa, Bauer was a sergeant in command of a platoon of 64 Marines. While the Japanese Imperial Army’s counter attack left Bauer so badly wounded that he had to be evacuated to the U.S., only six of the original 64 Marines in his platoon survived the battle.

Anyway, as a kid, I wasn’t very interested in collecting baseball cards. I preferred collecting comic books instead.

The same can be said now that I’m an adult. However, somewhere through the years I came into possession of a single collector’s box of baseball cards – mostly from the 1970’s.

There are only a couple of ball players that I recognize, including Tug McGraw and Rollie Fingers. Then there was the only 1960’s autographed card in the box, Hank Bauer of the Kansas City Athletics.

Since he is a Marine, I thought I had pulled the card from the box and placed it in my ‘special drawer,’ where I keep my other prized Marine Corps items. Unfortunately, the card wasn’t there and for the life of me I couldn’t begin to think where it might have gone.

Feeling down about having lost the card, I pulled the collectors box of from my closet shelf and began thumbing through them. You know, jus’ in case…

And with five cards left, near the end of the box, guess what I found? Yup, evidently, I placed it back in the box with the other cards.