Hanging

I've always hated hanging picture frames.  It doesn't make sense because it's not hard to do and doesn't take long but for some reason i absolutely hate it. I think maybe I'm a little too picky about the straightness and it bothers me enough I don't want to deal with it. But on an effort to make the new house more my own I hung some stuff today. 

This is a bunch of Virdon stuff.  The autographed bat is one Virdon used for fly ball practice at spring training.  It has hung in my office for almost ten years.  Inside the bat case is an autographed ball, an autographed spring training used batting glove, and a canceled per diem check from the yankees.  On top is a 1981 Stop and Go Virdon cup (because I can't figure out anywhere else to display it) and a Springfield Cardinals minor league Bill Virdon bobblehead.  The photo on the left also hung in my office and it's a picture of him after he was presented with his 1960 World Series ring. On the right is a painting I got from someone that purchased it from the Virdon Estate auction after he passed. (I promise the two pictures are straight, it's an optical illusion from taking the picture from an angle.)

Probably eight or so years ago I bought a shadowbox with the intension of making a collage of oddball Virdon items I have picked up over the years and don't really fit in a binder. I made several attempts and gave up each time because I don't feel like I'm very artistic and a never happy with how it looked. So it sat empty behind the credenza at my office all these years. I made another attempt at it and I'm pretty happy with it this time. 

Every other time I tried to display a whole bunch of Virdon items and it would always look too busy and haphazard. This time I went for simple.  Included is the nameplate from his his 1986 home jersey when he was part of the Pirates coaching staff. The number is just an autographed number I got off of ebay. He wore 9 when he played for the Cardinals his rookie year.  At the bottom is the sign off Virdon's locker while he managed the Astros. The name was hand drawn but the logos are stamped on there with and old school hand stamper.  I had his minor league all star belt buckle in there next to the number but I couldn't find something that was about the same size to balance it out for the other side. I almost went with a card but I didn't like the horizontal buckle on one side with a vertical card on the other side so I opted to just leave it out.