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Posted By: Hal Lewis

Gil:

I hear you, brother!

I discuss my baseball collection with a lot of NON-collectors, in order to always try and determine what EVERYONE is interested in....

and the answer is ALWAYS: "The best players of all time."

The people who know NOTHING about baseball say:

Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Cy Young
Shoeless Joe Jackson
Mickey Mantle
Barry Bonds
Hank Aaron


The people who have heard a tiny little something about baseball card collecting history say:

Honus Wagner
Mickey Mantle
Ty Cobb
Shoeless Joe Jackson
Babe Ruth
Mark McGwire


The people who are true baseball fans but not card collectors say:

Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Cy Young
Shoeless Joe Jackson
Lou Gehrig
Joe DiMaggio
Mickey Mantle
Hank Aaron
Jackie Robinson
Sandy Koufax
Nolan Ryan


The people who REALLY love the vintage history of the game say:

Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Cy Young
Shoeless Joe Jackson
Walter Johnson
Christy Mathewson
Honus Wagner
Cap Anson
Lou Gehrig
Jimmy Foxx


BUT...

once I explain to ALL of them how GREAT certain players were (Lefty Grove, Rogers Hornsby, Ed Walsh, Grover Alexander, Warren Spahn, Sam Crawford, Bob Feller, Mel Ott, Tris Speaker, Eddie Mathews)...

and how their stats are so much better than modern players...

then they ALL agree that THOSE are the players whose baseball cards they would be interested in seeing.

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And if the general public is interested in seeing them...

then someone will always be interested in paying to own them.