Until its closure two weeks ago, The Baseball Card Dugout was an institution in Brooklyn, gracing the borough in two locations since the late Eighties. From 1988 until 2001, the store was on Sackett and Smith, and from 2001 until 2010, the store had its proud home on Court and 4th Place. The store was run by Joe Rock, a Brooklynite with immense character, energy, and a love for his customers. His customers wouldn’t just come in for the comics, the memorabilia, or the cards; they came in for the experience of shooting the breeze with Joe, talking about everything from happenings in the hobbies, to local Brooklyn issues, to the fickleness of A-Rod’s October record.

I remember going into the store a couple years ago, and having Joe jokingly explain to me, “I’m here to give them their fix – I’m like a dealer, but for cards and comics.”   One of the staples of the owner/customer interaction was massive giving of grief on both parts; the store itself was all about the community Joe built. I visited the Dugout a couple of times during its last few days both to grab a couple boxes of cards, and talk a bit with Joe about his experience for the past two decades.

One story Joe told me was of the relationship he had with a father and son (pictured above) who had been coming to his store regularly over the past decade.  Mitch (father) and Yosef (son) had been frequenting the Baseball Card Dugout since he moved to the Court Street location.  Yosef and his dad both have a great love for sports and all things related and would come to Joe’s store to pick up some cards, or autographs and talk about how the local teams were doing. They all became such good friends that every Hanukkah, Mitch and Yosef would bring latkes and sour cream to Joe.

When it was time for Yosef to have his Bar Mitzvah, he wanted to do something to share his love of sports with other kids who might not be able to do it so easily.  As a result, he and his father worked together and created Champ2Champ, a charity that gives sports-related items and tickets to sick children.  It’s an amazingly nice program and Joe was always willing to do whatever he could to help, whether it was giving special cards, autographs, or other memorabilia to the cause.

The interesting part about the store, was that the story about Mitch and Yosef were no exception.  Pictured above is Joe with another one of his customers named George, who is a big sports fan (Go Mets!) and came in on the last day to say goodbye to the store he loved and his friend who ran it.  There were a number of other people who stopped in during the last couple of hours.  One of NYC’s bravest, a big Superman fan, double-parked a ladder truck filled with firemen outside the store so he could say goodbye.  Another person who had been seeing Joe at the store for more than half of his life told me about what an institution the store was, and how Joe would always do whatever he could to keep his long time customers happy.

While the Dugout may be no longer, Joe is not done yet.  In the true Brooklyn spirit – he’s already got a new project which you may have seen around.  He’s one of the guys behind the tasty (and local!) Powerball Energized Juice, a naturally-flavored energy drink.  So pick some up, and tip your glass to support a Brooklynite whose been spending decades making people happy.