T-L Photo/J.D. LONG The collection, displayed by Virginia Etz-Lallathin, that the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown may now take a look at.

BRIDGEPORT — It is a baseball lover’s dream because, for some, the sport is still America’s Pastime.

And for the late Carl Etz, it was all consuming.

The dream referred to is the collection of all the programs from baseball games he attended since he was 15 years of age, dating back to 1940. Etz died in 1990, but his widow Virginia saved it all – stacks and stacks that covered a dining room table with more in a back room.

Carl saw all the greats and when opening up the programs, names like Joe DiMaggio, Carl Yastrzemski, Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays jump out. It is a remarkable collection preserved in near mint condition.

Virginia proudly displayed them all for The Times Leader, laid out across the table as if serving a seven-course meal. And to a baseball lover, it was.

“He just loved baseball,” Virginia said. “He would take his vacations in August and go up to New York to watch the Yankees.”

Although Carl was a Pirates backer and also rooted for the Yankees, at least until former owner George Steinbrenner took over in 1973, he was really a diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan.

“He was buried in a St. Louis hat,” she said.

Son Jim Poole remembered his stepfather coming home from work and tuning into KMOX in St. Louis, trying to listen to the Cardinals’ games through the static.

When on a road trip, he and Jim would catch the Greyhound bus from 16th Street in Wheeling up to Pittsburgh, where the trolley would take them from downtown into Oakland to the old Forbes Field location. Jim said they would get up early on Sunday, maybe 6:30 a.m., and catch that bus.

“We got there just as the gates were opening and we had to take in everything,” he said. “Batting practice, you name it. We didn’t miss anything. Carl was a dedicated lover of baseball, and when we went up he wanted to take it all in.”

Carl worked with his father at the Etz Luggage store in Wheeling, later called Etz Luggage and Gifts, according to Virginia. The store, started by his grandfather in 1890, finally closed in 1980 due to the effects of competition from places such as the Ohio Valley Mall, she said.

Carl never drove as he had very bad eyesight, which kept him out of World War II, though he did later enter the military. He relied on family members such as his children Richard and Susan and stepchildren Jim, Arless and Sharon to accompany him, and they all have fond memories of those baseball days.

Friends, too, went with Carl. Keith Wright took Carl to what was probably his last game in Pittsburgh just before he died. Virginia said Wright was sorry it wasn’t her instead of him, but she was OK with that.

“All he wanted was to get his hot dog and a drink and he was fine,” she said of her late husband when he got to the ballpark.

When Carl retired, he took things a step further by copying every bit of information onto index cards from the box scores inside those programs, duplicating the information. Virginia now has dozens of those cards in very neat, meticulous penmanship bound by rubber bands.

Carl and Virginia were married in 1961 just a year after the Bill Mazeroski home run that beat the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. They took in one of those games, too, but missed that game. Virginia was familiar with baseball before she met Carl, so she didn’t have to be educated from scratch. But the day she really fell for baseball was when she and Carl were listening to announcer Rosey Rowswell describe a Pirates’ game on the radio.

“I liked baseball ever since,” she recalled.

Asked what their first date was like and if it was mostly consumed by baseball talk, at age 94 she laughed and said, yes, the way she remembered it.

Opening some of these programs is an eye-popping experience, seeing names like DiMaggio, batting in the cleanup spot in a 1940 game against Detroit, going 2 for 4 with his famous number 5 next to his name. It’s a direct trip into the past where one can visit Ted Williams also going 2 for 4 while hitting third in the lineup for the Boston Red Sox in 1955.

When in New York, the couple took in plays held at the Winter Garden, Sam Shubert and Majestic Theaters to see “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” “My Faire Lady” and “Bye, Bye Birdie.” They also brought those programs home as part of their collection as well.

“He was an even-tempered man,” Virginia said, adding that it took a lot to reach his temper. “He was just a kind-hearted person.”

A call to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown has sparked interest in Virginia’s collection. Director of Collections Susan MacKay said officials there are interested in looking into it.