Dallas-Fort Worth radio personality "Hawkeye" is ready to part ways with his treasured collection of baseball cards. He's selling them at auction to support another passion: Helping sick kids get better.
"So this is kind of a meeting of two of my passions, actually, three, you know, being on the air in New Country, 96 3 and also Cook Children's and then a boyhood obsession of mine collecting baseball cards that the collection just got so ridiculously huge," said Mark "Hawkeye" Louis, host of the morning show at New Country 96.3 for 35 years.
Louis was in the fourth grade when he started collecting baseball cards. He kept it up through high school and into adulthood, never realizing what he had.
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"I thought I had about 10,000 cards. When we got together with Heritage Auction, we found out I had over 17,000 cards. I had no idea I had that many cards," Louis said.
Boxes and boxes of cards are now at Heritage Auction in Dallas where they will be sold to the highest bidders.
His collection includes a trio of Mickey Mantle cards, partial sets and Hall of Famers from the 1960s and early 70s.
Rookie cards are in there, too.
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"I have cards from early years of Nolan Ryan, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, I've got rookie cards from folks like Cal Ripken Junior. Those cards are very valuable. George Brett rookie cards from those players like that," Louis said.
He will sell all of them to benefit the life-saving work at Cook Children's Medical Center where he's volunteered the past two decades as a counselor at a summer camp for kids who have cancer.
"For a long time, I was wondering, 'What am I gonna do with these cards?' Because the collection got so vast and I thought, You know, one day it just clicked. It's like, well, why not take something from my childhood that brought me so much pleasure and so much enjoyment and use that to spread joy among children and sell, sell these cards with the proceeds going to Cook Children's who really are giving children their, their childhood back. And it just seemed like a perfect fit and I was so excited to do this," Louis said.
The online auction ends at 10:00 Friday night. Louis hopes to raise at least $10,000.
