Four Baggers and Foreclosures

Villa Italia Mall in Lakewood, Colorado, opened in March 1967.  It closed for good on July 15th, 2001. I'm not going to get into the biography of the large shopping mall. My experiences there number a grand total of two. Once in June of 2000 (for a baseball card show), and the other in May, 2001, when I took these pictures. Since there was no emotional attachment on my behalf toward the place, I know next to nothing about it. There are a few good sites with real information and more pictures of Villa Italia. Both in it's heyday and in it's depressed run down state. I consulted these for this story. Deadmalls has a basic biography, that is a good starting point.  A link appears at the bottom of the page that takes you to another site with a nice selection of Villa Italia photos. Or you can just click here... So let me add my piece to that total! In May 2001, my mom was in town from Minnesota. She was in Denver visiting my sister (who lived in Lakewood)...

This simple unassuming vacant retail building used to be part of the dying chain known as Godfather's Pizza. Godfather's closed this location in the Summer of 2010. I lived in Denver then, but would keep an eye on it every time I came back to Minnesota. Assuming they'd leased the building, it didn't take long for it to lose the identifying features of a dead pizza place. By the time I got around to taking these pictures, all traces of Godfather's had long been removed. Here's what the sign would have looked like it I'd photographed it a decade earlier... Fun Fact: I have never eaten Godfather's Pizza... Back in 2001, the good Doktor lived in the perpetually scuzzy Northtown Apartments, across University Avenue from the then open Godfather's Pizza. His then-girlfriend worked at the Godfather's, and quite often would bring pizza home after work. From 1999 through 2002, I drove from Denver to Minneapolis around X-messtime to vis...

News of long time Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki's retirement made the rounds last week. Given his injury riddled history, it wasn't a great surprise. I watched a whole lot of Colorado Rockies baseball during Tulo’s years with them, and saw him become a much needed team leader. When he could...  I was a big Tulo fan during his Rockies years. Following his career closely, from the 7th overall pick in the 2005 MLB Draft, all the way to his shocking trade to the Toronto Blue Jays, on July 28th, 2015. Let's not get too negative right away, I want to remember the fun times watching Tulowitzki, and collecting Rockies cards of that era with positive thoughts! YAAAAAYYYYYY!!! During a visit to the LCS a few weeks ago, I was presented the following card... 2019 Topps Clear Parallel, #4/10 (Bad cell phone photo, I didn't feel like hooking up my scanner for it. But I probably should have…) He told me that he thought it would be someth...