My Halloween costume, 1985

In keeping with the baseball card theme of this week's postings, I just thought I'd share the fact that, in 1985, at the tender age of 9, I was as a Dwight Gooden baseball card for Halloween. My parents labored for what I'm sure was many hours creating a huge, replica card for me to stick my head through. It was awesome.

Of course, you'll note that Dwight Gooden is black. To compensate for that problem, my parents also dressed me in blackface. Swear to God. Parents, feel free to chime in in the comments section about the reactions of the neighbors to my creative-but-vaguely-racist costume!

****UPDATE****

My dad just wrote me an email -- subject line: "Dwight was white" -- wherein he claims the following:

Hey, as best I recall, there was no blackface. I'm not being defensive, since it would have been more how "into" Dwight you were at the time.

I have pretty strong memories of that Halloween since it was a pretty cool (and original) costume at the time and I've never pictured it with you in blackface (nor do I know how we would have done it).

First, let me say, my Dad is correct: I was really, really "into" Dwight Gooden that year. Hell, the whole country was -- Gooden actually made the cover of Time magazine, so thrilling was he every time he took the mound. I also shared the same birthday as Gooden -- November 16 -- a fact that, when I discovered it while reading the statistics on the back of Gooden's 7-11 Magic Motion Slurpee Coin, nearly made orgasm and die at the same time.

Which is why, I must confess, I demanded that I be painted in blackface that year. I'm sure Dad resisted this ludicrous idea for awhile, but as some of you know, I can be a tad, er, headstrong, and I remember vividly that I couldn't imagine going as Dwight Gooden unless I looked like Dwight Gooden.

As to the logistics of the blackface: let's just say that I've always associated the smell of shoe polish with Mets pitching. Enough said.