What a great blog post and collection of responses!
I was born in the 70s and didn't really get into baseball until the mid-late 80s, so I only have the vicariously imagined stories that my grandfather told me about his depression-era neighbor baseball experiences in St. Charles, MO.
Some of the best ones ...
A kid in his neighborhood had the last name Klutz, and he was the best infielder of any of the kids.
He sparingly collected Goudy (sp?) baseball cards that came with gum, and he was "lucky" to get a few Dizzy Dean cards. Everybody in the neighborhood was a Dizzy Dean fan, so he was able to trade the doubles in 2 and 3 for 1 trades for other player cards he wanted like Frank Frisch, Rogers Hornsby and others.
His sister married a ball player named Ken Heintzelman, and he ended up living with them out in Pittsburgh for a couple summers while Kenny played for the Pirates. He even got to bat boy several times. The Waner brothers were both on those Pirate teams.
He came back from the war in the mid-40s, and his sister had thrown out all his baseball cards during a family move.
Goldmine in the garbage. 😄