The difficulties of getting kids to collect

[stevecarlton1972]

Obviously kids have so many more things to do then we did as kids (Ipad, Phones, video games, etc). But the one thing that got me into Baseball as a kid which eventually got me into collecting Baseball Cards was reading the Sports Section everyday and being obsessed with box scores.

Statistics/Tradition was the one thing that Baseball had over the other major sports, and that is sort of lost in the internet/post-Steroid era these days. I used to love getting cards of older players who had been in the league and you could look at their 15 year career of statistics on the back of the card. I loved comparing the backs of a Nolan Ryan with Steve Carlton and Tom Seaver in the early 80's when they were approaching 3,000 Strikeouts, 300 wins, etc.

Stuff like that just doesn't appeal to kids these days like it did when we were kids, and that is probably why the NFL is so appealing to them because it's all about THE moment. Keeping score at a baseball game, reading the box scores everyday in the newspaper, and following who may break Roger Maris HR record are all just gone now as the lore of the Baseball isn't the same. The advent of the Wildcard, interleague play, etc just cemented Baseball as just another sport. I think those things reflected in card collecting too and why we love them.