Posted By:
CS BolayInteresting point, William...that's part of the reason why I've largely lost interest in pro sports in general, as well as the current-day autograph biz.
It's hard to put into words, but it's all become so artificial, slick and corporate, the quaint old apple pie-n'-mom charm is gone for me. Teams seem to be little more than branches of some massive, nebulous corporate entity, with about as much organic 'connection' to the city as the local K-mart...
Same way with autograph collecting these days...used to be you waited outside the ballpark or sent stuff through the mail. Now you get back the 'because of ebay...' notes or go to a show and get herded through a queue by some fat Tri-Star rent-a-cop loser on an ego trip.
I still visit the occasional show or send the occasional letter, but the joy is largely gone. Old-fashioned experiences in the hobby and fandom are getting harder to come by.
That's why I mainly concentrate on the vintage stuff...guys who never charged $100 a sig or did reality shows. Yellowed index cards with pictures pasted on instead of flashy, hologrammed 8x10s. Born about a decade too early, I guess...