Angel V. Del Rosario III

About me:

 

I grew up in Balanga, Bataan in the Islands of the Philippines, I was raised by my maternal grandparents with my two younger sisters, I left the country a few years after the People's Power Revolution (which I'm proud to say I participated in earlier demonstrations) I moved back with my mother in Jersey City, NJ, cultured shock as 2 days later I was walking the streets of New York City going for my first ever job as a teenager. Both of my grandparents lived through World War II and my grandfather was actually a prisoner of war.

 

My Favorite Sport is Baseball, my very first MLB experience was watching games televised every Sunday, like the Game of the Week back in 1983, Sunday was my favorite day growing up, I never missed a game and after watching I'm so inspired and I will go out to the field and I will play a game with my friends and then will go to church with them and play again after, I started a Baseball team back in 1983 and we called it the Zamora St. Pirates.

 

My Favorite things to do growing up are drawing and climbing trees (I was like a monkey, I love heights, I even used to jump from the roof of our house pretending I was a stunt man, btw our house is over 2 stories high) aside from playing. I will draw for hours, from cartoons to whatever, I remember when I visited my younger cousins from my dad side and they live in Manila and they knew I draw but we hardly see each other, they will gather around me, the little ones have their heads rested on my shoulders and will asked me to draw things for them from super heroes to anything they can think of and they will giggle and will be in awe and that brings happiness to me because someone is appreciating my God given talent, and for a kid growing up trying to prove yourself to people, it's always nice to have fans ;) and that's when I knew I was a Pleazar, I love pleasing people and I never get tired of doing things that makes them happy.

 

It was tough times for us  growing up without our parents, though my grandparents showered us with love it's not the same as being raised by your Mom and Dad, My Dad abandoned us when I was 8 years old and my mother was forced to work abroad so we can have a better life, so my grandparents who are retired and residing in New Jersey has to come home to the Philippines to raise us and so my mother can go to New Jersey to work... It will be 6 years before we will see my mother again and for 9 years we will be living with our grandparents.

 

Drawing, Baseball and Climbing Trees were my escape from all of my Fears, Sadness, and whatever that is making me feeling down, growing up I was bullied, it wasn't normal for 3 young children to be raised by grandparents back then so many made fun of us, I grew up trying constantly proving myself, I drew because thats when I can dream, I can draw whatever I wanted to be like, I'll draw my dream home or my dream car, I drew so much I can even do 3D models of what I drew from cardboards, those scale models like Architects do I been doing when I was 9 years old.  I will develop different skills and ways to color and draw that sometimes I get paid for drawing, I wanted to join Poster Making Contests but I was scared they will just make fun of me eventhough deep Inside I know I will win.  I play Baseball because thats what I love to do and I climb trees because up there I'm free, I'm away from everyone's critical eyes and opinions, Up there it's peaceful and quiet and of course all the fruits I ate ;).

 

The Cap Collecting started when I was 13 when I fell in love with Baseball, I wanted to own one of the caps the players are wearing, we cannot buy them in the Philippines back then and if there was anything for sale? I don't have any money, I wrote my Dad a letter who was living in Anaheim, CA back then, we haven't seen him for 5 years already and he forgot about us, I got a Birthday card from him when I turned 10 and he gave me a 5 dollar bill and that was it.

Anyways I wrote him a letter and told him I been playing baseball and I love it and I'm very good at it, and I asked him for souvenirs and I even drew the logos of the MLB teams in case he doesn't know, what I really really wanted was those Replica Plastic batting Helmets.

 

Few Months later I came home from school and my Grandpa told me one of my uncle came by and brought me stuffs that my dad bought and asked him to deliver them to me, it was a Dodgers Jacket, a Baseball Bat, balls, California Angels and Dodgers pennants, Angels T-shirt and another Jacket with like 6 patches of different MLB teams on it (Yankees, Padres, Angels, Dodgers, Giants & A's), I was so Happy, up to this day when I remember that day it never fails to make me smile. Then My Mom sent me a New York Yankees Pinstripe T-shirt, I was on a roll... But No Hats or Batting Helmet.

I wrote him a letter again and thanked him and again asked if he can buy me hats and Batting helmets... He never replied and I never got anything again.

 

Turns out my dad did actually bought me Hats and Batting Helmets and he sent it the next package he shipped, unfortunately someone took it and those never made it to me, I never wrote him any letters anymore because I thought he forgot about me again so he probably thought I'm one ungrateful young boy, I Didn't find this out until years later when I saw my dad for the very first time again in 1992.

 

One day I got sick and my mother called, she always calls us to ask us how we are doing, but that day I wasn't able to talk to her as I was in bed and sick, she was so sad and worried, she sent me a Get Well Soon card and the card is baseball themed and it made me so happy, She asked me what I wanted and she will buy it... I wrote her back right away and I asked her if she can buy me a NY Yankees Baseball Cap, and that Christmas her brother came home to the Philippines to celebrate the holidays with us, and he brought me the Yankees Cap my mother bought and told me she said that's the most valuable item and my uncle said that it was expensive and my mom paid over 6 bucks for it, I have tears in my eyes while I'm typing this because that was the day I died and went to heaven, definitely Top 10 Happiest moment of my life.

 

The enjoyment from having the cap was shortlived because the very first day I wore it to school one of the bigger kid from school bullied me and took it from me and I never got it back until 2 years later when finally my height caught up and I took it back and many paybacks to the bullying was settled ;), but sadly the cap was so worned out, I ended up just giving it away to someone who can really use a hat.

 

Back then I will just settle by drawing the logos and the caps on a piece of paper and sticking them to the walls of my room, I will ask Local stores for empy cigarette cartons and I will draw and make cutouts to make it shape and look like a baseball cap or batting helmet and I will be so happy, I never really got the real thing and it's a dream for me that back then seems very impossible, being young and in a country were baseball is not popular and many of the kids plays basketball or boxing and poor without any money, I did play Basketball and did Boxing and actually was good at both because of my speed but nothing like your first love.  That's when I said "someday" I will have a room with shelves full of Caps and Batting Helmets of every single MLB Team, the entire collection, "Someday" I kept telling myself.

 

In 1989 I came to New York City, got my first job and I finally started my Cap collection, everyday I will buy 1 or 2 caps and the store owner knows me after a couple of days, My boss even joked and said everytime he leaves the office he is wearing a new cap when he comes back, I was sports merchandise crazy, several years ago there was a trend of people rocking those jerseys as a fashion statement, I been wearing those back in the day, that was my style ;). I stopped doing it after 2 years and will buy some here and there few years in between, It won't be until 2004 until I really got serious again and went back to that first love that always made me happy when I was a kid, sometimes when you reached a very tough period in your life, you have to find and look back to when and where you are the happiest and go back to it and bring that same feeling back, The love and dream of mine that I abandoned and all I have left is about 200 caps remaining from my original collection, I restarted and now I'm pushing for 2,000.

 

Cap Collecting is not just a Hobby, to me its the childhood dream that finally came true, it is a simple dream... But a Simple dream that came true means a lot to me because that sums up my childhood and everything I have gone through, but in the end I got what I always wanted.

 

Many will say negative things about my collection, Many will never understand and will even make comments and say it's a waste of money, some will even tells me to just sell my caps so I have money... They never understood and they are all being insensitive, Money is not Everything, It's like telling someone to give up on their dreams and All hope is gone...

And no person should ever tell those to anyone ever! Never let anyone tells you what you can and what you can't do, because If you put your heart to it, nothing is impossible.

 

Like what Andrew Dupresne said in my favorite movie Shawshank Redemption, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things...And no good thing ever dies."

 

I Hope I can Inspire one person today, and I hope someone will have a smile on their face because they stopped by here in my little corner of the Internet... Thank You.