Do biographies or historical books enhance your card collecting enjoyment?

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by thatkidfromjerrymaguire

I recently finished reading "Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend" by James Hirsch. And while I wasn't surprised that I liked the book, I WAS surprised how it made me enjoy thumbing through my 1952 Bowman collection even more. It seemed like flipping through my card album, many of the cards I own had a new meaning to me. Obviously my Mays card takes a new meaning as I learned about some of the hardships he had to overcome, but learning more about Monte Irvin, Leo Durocher, Al Dark, Don Newcombe, etc., etc. It's almost like my baseball card album was an illustrated companion to the biography. Pretty cool.

Obviously, Willie's bio is a post-war book, but my guess is that when I read "The First World Series and the Fanatics of 1903" by Roger Abrams, I would have found an ever deeper enjoyment of the book (and my cards) if I could review a bunch of pre-war cards of players in that game (Wagner, Cy Young, Patsy Dougherty, Bill DeNeen, etc.). I don't really have many pre-war cards (and certainly no Wagners or Youngs)...but should I ever decide to wade deeper into that side of the hobby, I'll be sure to grab some biographies to go with it.

Next on my list is likely a bio of Mantle or Clemente.

Has anyone else experienced the enhanced enjoyment of our hobby due to good biography?

With vintage card collecting, you literally have the history of the game right there in your hands. As one of my collecting friends and I agreed in the early '90's, "the card connects you to the player, and takes you back to the time!" IMHO, the reason that is true is that while non-collectors may scoff, the vintage card (at least one with a photo-derived image) is essentially a two-dimensional slice of a 3 dimensional moment in the player's life and career, taken and preserved virtually contemporaneously with the time. Reading about significant times in the game's history serves to enhance both the reading of the book and your appreciation of the cards from the time. You literally have a "piece of the action!"

May your collecting continue to bring you joy,

Larry

[BosseFieldBoy]

I would say that reading biographies has been the biggest influence on my card collecting. About 12 years ago I read Stump's hatchet job on Cobb and I was obsessed. I've read about every Cobb biography out there and my collections has grown over time.

I've noticed that my collecting preferences only really change when the book has a huge influence on my opinion (one way or the other) about the player. For example, I read biographies on Walter Johnson, Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams and I've been obsessed ever since. The Glory of Their Times was an enormous influence - read the sections about Sam Crawford, Hans Lobert, Specs Toporcer and Chief Meyers and try pass over a good deal on one of their cards.

On the hand, I've read biographies about Joe Jackson and Babe Ruth and really wasn't that influenced. Both were well-written; I just didn't find myself intrigued by the players. More than anything, they just confirmed things I always suspected.