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A Surprisingly Valuable Discovery 挖到宝

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Rare baseball card discovered in an unexpected place  在令人意想不到的地方发现稀奇的棒球卡

Bernice Gallego sat down one day last summer and began listing items on eBay. She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. “Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati,” the card said, under a sepia tone photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees.

去年夏季某一天，柏妮丝．加勒果坐下来，准备在eBay拍卖网站上架卖东西。她把手伸进一个盒子里，然后拿出一张棒球卡。卡上写着「辛辛那提市红袜队棒球俱乐部」，这些字样上方则是一张泛黄的老照片，里头有十名穿着及膝袜的男子。

As a collector and seller, it’s her job to spot old items that might have value today. It’s what Bernice, 72, and her husband Al, 80, have been doing since 1974 at their California antique store.

身为收藏家和拍卖家的柏妮丝，职业就是找出一些如今可能身价不凡的旧东西。七十二岁的柏妮丝和八十岁丈夫艾尔，打从一九七四年以来就在他们位于加州的古董店里做着相同的事。

This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay. She took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction. Later that night she got a few odd inquires – something wanting to know whether the card was authentic, someone wanting her to end the auction and sell him the card immediately.

她估计，这张卡应该很适合放到eBay上拍卖。她照了张相片，写下拍卖商品的信息，然后就上架送交拍卖。当天晚上，她接到了几个很奇怪的询问──有人想知道这张卡是否是真品，也有人要她结标，马上把卡卖给他（译注：之后柏妮丝就暂时把这张棒球卡下架停止拍卖。）。

The card is actually 139 years old. Sports card collectors call the find “extremely rare” and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction.

事实上，这张卡已有一百卅九年历史。运动卡收藏家称这次的发现「极为罕见」，而且预估这张卡可以拍卖到美金五位数、或甚至六位数的价码。

A piece of history  历史的一页

Just like that, Bernice became the least likely protagonist ever for a rare-baseball card story.

在一张稀奇棒球卡的故事里，柏妮丝就这成了最出人意外的主人翁。

“I didn’t even know baseball existed that far back,” Gallego says. “I don’t think that I’ve ever been to a baseball game.”

「我甚至不知道棒球的历史居然有那么久远，」加勒果说，「我想我应该从没去看过棒球比赛。」

When she met with card trader Rick Mirigian she found out what the card was – an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

柏妮丝和卡片交易商里克．米里吉安见面之后，才明白这张卡的来历──它是一八六九年的广告（译注：Peck & Snyder棒球配备厂商利用这张棒球卡来为自己打广告），上头的照片是首支职业棒球队：亦即辛辛那提红袜队。

“They’ve uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno,” Mirigian says. “It’s like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso.”

「他们让历史的一页重新出土，这简直超乎一般人的想象或理解，而且居然发生在弗雷斯诺（译注：老夫妇住在加州弗雷斯诺），米里吉安说道，「这就像是发掘蒙娜莉萨或毕加索的画出土。」

The theory is that the card came out of a storage space they bought a few years back. It’s not uncommon in their line of work to buy the entire contents of storage units for around $200.

据推测，这张卡可能是来自于老夫妇几年前买下一整间储藏室的物品，身为收藏家的他们，往往会以两百美元左右的价格买下整批储藏物，这算是稀松平常的事。

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sepia tone 深褐色调 the reddish brown color of photographs around 100 years ago

sepia [ˋsipɪə] n. 深褐色

inquiry [ɪnˋkwaɪrɪ] n. 询问; 打听; 质询

protagonist [proˋtægənɪst] n. 主演；主角；主唱者; 主要人物 one of the main characters in a story

comprehend [͵kɑmprɪˋhɛnd] v. 理解，了解，领会

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Since baseball cards were new to them, Mirigian laid out a plan for the Gallegos. They had to get the card authenticated, store it in something better than a plastic bag and put it in a safe place.

由于加勒果夫妇都不懂棒球卡，因此米里吉安就为老夫妇想出了一个计划。他们必须鉴定该卡的真伪，而且应存放在比塑料袋更好的容器里，而且还要放在安全的地方才行。

So the Gallegos headed south to Los Angeles, bound for the headquarters of PSA, the leading sports card grading and authenticating company, which has graded 12 million items since 1991.

因此加勒果夫妇就启程前往洛杉矶，准备到棒球卡交易及鉴定的龙头企业「职业运动鉴定公司」总部。该公司从一九九一年起已鉴定过一千两百万项物品。

“It does have some pretty significant discoloration and creasing.” says Joe Orlando, the president of PSA. “But … it still presents fairly well and that’s the more important thing.”

「卡上确实有蛮显着的褪色和折痕，」「职业运动鉴定公司」总裁乔．奥兰多表示，「不过…，这张卡的整体状况还蛮不错的，这才是最重要的。」

And perhaps even more important is the story it tells. Before the Cincinnati Red Stockings, there were no professional baseball teams. Formed in 1868, the team set the foundation for what we know today as Major League Baseball.

或许更重要的就是卡上诉说的故事。在辛辛那提红袜队问世前，世上还没有职业棒球队。红袜队在一八六八年成立，并为我们今日所知的职棒大联盟奠定了基础。

“They brought in some of the best baseball players from around the country. They were kind of an all-star team before that concept really existed,” says Tim Wiles, of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Coopertown, New York. “In 1871, what the Red Stockings started would evolve into the first baseball league and the first sports league.”

「这个球队集结了来自全美各地的棒球菁英，虽然当时所谓明星球队的概念还没问世，但这个球队就像是个明星球队，」纽约州库柏镇「棒球名人堂」的提姆．伟斯表示，「在一八七一年，红袜队开启了第一个棒球联盟的滥觞，这也是第一个运动联盟。」

What next?  下一步？

Plans are to put the card back on eBay, though the auction is expected to draw a little more attention this time, thanks to Mirigian, who is already plotting marketing schemes and sales tactics. He’ll get a percentage of the sale for his part.

他们计划把棒球卡重新放到eBay上架拍卖，拜米里吉安之赐，这次拍卖预期将能吸引更大的回响，而且米里吉安已经规划了一些营销方案和销售策略。他也会从卖出所得抽取一定百分比的佣金。

“I find it so hard to believe that this little card is worth so much,” Bernice says. “Neither one of us count chickens before they hatch. We don’t want to expect the world out of this find. It’s good enough that we’ve found it, and have been able to enjoy it and share it with a few of our friends.”

「我实在很难想象，这张小卡片的价值居然会那么高，」柏妮丝说，「我们夫妻俩都不是喜欢打如意算盘的那种人。我们并不希望为了这次的发现而抱持过大的期盼。我们有发现它，可以好好欣赏它，又可以和几位朋友分享这个发现，这样就很不错了。

−by Mike Osegueda

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lay out 安排；筹划 to make a detailed plan for; to display

authenticate [ɔˋθɛntɪ͵ket] adj. 证明……是真实的

grade [gred] v. 整理; 归类; 评估

crease [kris] v. 起折缝，起折痕；起绉

bring in 带进, 领进, 引进, 引入

all-star [ˋɔl͵stɑr] adj. 由一流演员上演的；由明星选手组成的 consisting of star performers

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Vocabulary Focus

put up for auction 交付拍卖 to place an item for sale through a process, usually public, where people make higher and higher offers of money, until the item is sold to the person who will pay most

authentic [ɔˋθɛntɪk] adj. 真品的; 非假冒的 real, true or what people say something is

fetch [fɛtʃ] v. 售得，卖得 to be sold for a particular amount of money

unearth [ʌnˋɝθ] v. 发现；揭露 to discover something, especially after careful searching

line of work 行业, 职业 the kind of job someone does

discoloration [͵dɪskʌləˋreʃən] n. 变色 the process of causing something to change from its original color and therefore to look unpleasant

tactic [ˋtæktɪk] n. 策略；手法 a planned way of doing something

(don’t) count (your) chickens before they hatch (不要)过早乐观; (不要)打如意算盘 (don’t)make any plans about a good thing you are expecting (until it has really happened)

The Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1868, one year before they turned professional

Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869.