My first baseball card experience was receiving a 1987 Topps factory set. This is really what got me started in the hobby.
My earliest memory of opening up a pack was pulling a Ken Griffey Jr. from a pack of 89 Donruss while in Myrtle Beach with my grandparents - it was traded away long ago.
A little off topic, but a friend of mine who was my father figure when I was a teenager (via the Jewish Big Brothers / Big Sisters program) took me to Cleveland Indians games back in the early 90s. During one game (April 17th, 1993 vs Blue jays) we had seats right on the first base line. A ground ball got near us and he tried hard to reach over and grab it, but toppled over into the field in the process of doing so. As the umpire got close to him, he tossed him the ball and apologized. The ump allowed him to stay in the ballpark (mind you, I was 16 at the time and terrified of the 20k+ people all staring in our direction). He ended up sending the ball to the dugout and it got autographed by the player who hit it (I believe it was Dick Schofield). Just recently, he said he wants me to have that ball. I'm very excited about this, as that day holds some incredible memories for me.
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