OLYMPIA, Wash. — Connie Mack. Joe DiMaggio. Early Winn. Fred Hutchinson. And, on the back page, the favorite, Stan Musial.

Oscar Soule's baseball autograph book, dating back more than 60 years, is a treasure trove of clean, white, wrinkle-free pages dating back to his boyhood in St. Louis.

Recently selected as the Seattle Mariners fan of the year, Soule carefully turned the pages at his rolltop desk during an interview in which he told The Olympian newspaper about his lifelong love of baseball.

Nor does he stop at autographs. His home is filled with baseball memorabilia.

A painting of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson striking out his 17th batter in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series hangs above his desk. Nearby is a lithograph of Musial hitting his record-setting fifth home run in a doubleheader.

"I was at that game," Soule said. "I was sitting right here."

The vanity license plate on Soule's car includes 6 because it was Musial's jersey number.

Soule, 68, began collecting autographs in the summer of 1947 when his mother Selma brought him — and the autograph book — to a barbershop at the Chase Hotel where visiting players stayed when they were playing the Cardinals or the Browns.

"I was the little kid in the barbershop," he said. "The players would just be sitting there, talking. and in walked this little boy with an autograph book."

Decades later, in 1971, he moved to Olympia to teach environmental science at The Evergreen State College, and eventually his baseball loyalties moved westward, too.

He bought 10 tickets to the Mariners' inaugural season opener in 1977 and figures he has bought about 6,000 in the ensuing 31 years.

Soule also has a baseball card collection featuring past and present Mariners players ranging from the obscure, which he keeps in alphabetized stacks in cardboard boxes, to stars such as Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr., whose cards are in a safe.

At each game he attends he keeps a full scorecard.

"There are people who know more about baseball," Soule said, "but I don't know if there's anyone who enjoys it more than I do."

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Information from: The Olympian, http://www.theolympian.com