San Clemente Man Strikes Gold With His Baseball Cards

During his college days in the 1960s, Ric G. Gorno yearned for a career in major league baseball as a coach or a general manager since he didn’t have the talent as a ballplayer, he says.

“The message from my professors was there wasn’t much money or future in it,” said Gorno, 45. “That discouraged me. I was steered away from baseball.”

So he became a college business professor and as a sideline, started collecting baseball cards for his investment portfolio.

He has 100,000 baseball cards, most of them on newer players, but he keeps some older cards of his favorite players, partly out of nostalgia.

“I used to watch some of the really great baseball players when I lived in Detroit,” said the San Clemente resident who still follows the Detroit Tigers. “It’s my team.”

But despite his fondness for such players as Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Ted Williams, Gorno looks at cards as a way to advance his economic well-being.

“Today’s cards are like a chess game,” said Gorno, who played high school baseball but failed to get an offer from the pros. “You have to understand the game a great deal and analyze and look at the little things to see which player will be popular.”

Last season Gorno predicted that Ruben Sierra of the Texas Rangers would hit 30 home runs and drive in 100 runs.

“It turned out he hit 29 home runs and had 119 RBIs, but more important, the value of his baseball card went from about $1.75 to $8 or $9,” said the Cypress College instructor. “A lot of people thought he would be good, but didn’t think he would get there that fast. I did.”

He passes on that type of baseball information in a quarterly investment newsletter he publishes called 21st Century Gold.

“I do think the ability to invest and invest wisely is all the same whether it’s in baseball cards, stocks, art or real estate,” he said. “It’s a good feeling and a good hobby to collect baseball cards, but why not make it a good investment, too.”

Besides saving cards as an investment, Gorno said he’s one of those “faceless people who want to feel we are stars in one way or another.”

He wants that feeling from his predictions on future baseball stars and the subsequent increase in value of their cards.

“I validate the fact I know a lot about baseball, and that’s an exhilarating feeling,” he continued. “Here I am, someone not in the field of baseball, and I’m able to judge players through the future worth of their cards.”

In effect, Gorno “scouts” cards much the same as baseball scouts look for a blossoming star.

He points out that the rookie card of Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics cost 50 cents in 1986 and today is worth about $55.

“There’s really not many experts out there,” he said. ‘I’m not knocking people who have an opinion, but it’s a great challenge to predict who will do well.”

Recently married, Gorno said his wife, Angie, is an ardent baseball fan.

“One time she drove from San Clemente and almost got to Dodger Stadium before she found out she didn’t take her tickets, which were for terrific seats,” he said. “She turned around, drove back to San Clemente and returned to the ballpark.”

Added Gorno: “Now that’s a die-hard baseball fan.”

Just ask Annette and Ron Fallaita of Brea if last is best.

They were attending the Brea Basketball Spaghetti Fund-Raiser where loads of door prizes--90 to be exact--were being handed out to lucky ticket holders.

Well, the Fallaitas had a good dinner, but none of the prizes were coming their way so they went home.

And wouldn’t you know they got a phone call at home telling them they won the grand prize of $1,000, the last prize given at the dinner.

Brea High School basketball coach Rick Jones, who hosted the dinner, said the basketball program was the real winner.

The spaghetti feed raised $6,000.