[Chris Counts]

My favorite hobby story is my first. Back in the days when moms could let their kids run wild through the neighborhood, mine handed me a few coins one afternoon in the spring of 1970 when I was 9, and sent me on a walk to the nearest grocery store to get her some broccoli. It was a Lucky supermarket, and just inside the door there was a counter with candy. As I walked past it, my eyes were drawn to a box of baseball cards. I have no recollection of even caring the slightest for the game at the time. My friends and I were actually more interested in bugs and astronauts than sports. But as I passed that box, I found myself drawn to it. Before I really knew what I had done, I spent all my coins on baseball cards. I'll never forget pealing open the first pack of 1970 Topps cards. I can't recall the players in the pack, but it contained a poster of Ollie Brown.

As I walked home with my cards and poster, my dad drove by in the family station wagon on his way home from work. He rolled up beside me, smiled, and asked what I was doing. I told him I was sent to the grocery store for broccoli, but spent the money on baseball cards. He didn't seem upset in the least, and drove me back to the grocery store, where he bought the broccoli — and some more baseball cards. My next pack had a Willie Davis poster in it. It took me a little while before I figured out he wasn't Willie Mays, but I didn't care. I also didn't care about bugs or astronauts anymore. Before long, I was knocking on doors in my neighborhood and asking, "Hi, do you have any old baseball cards lying around?" After picking up a 1968 Mantle at a garage sale for a penny, the chase was on — and i guess it still is.