What does your collection do for you?

[Duluth Eskimo]

I totally agree. It's like a time machine. The ability to go back in time and imagine how much different it would be than today. Football teams with 11 players, hockey the same. It's hard to imagine some, if any of this stuff still survives today.

I like paper items and I think sometimes that some of the items that I have in my collection came home from a game in a horse drawn wagon. It's amazing.

[Topnotchsy]

For me the primary factor is a way to connect to history. I love baseball and find the places where it intersects with "real" history fascinating. For example, the role baseball and Jackie Robinson played in moving towards equality for African Americans and minorities was significant enough that Martin Luther King and others pointed to his role. The role of baseball players in WWII is another area that intrigues me. Often the items I buy are either the impetus for some of my research, or the result of researching an area and finding it fascinating. Many items have related books on my shelf.

My focuses include:
1) Integration/Jackie Robinson
2) WWII-related baseball items
3) Negro-League items
4) Line-up cards
5) US Tours of Japan (although I may end up selling this off to fund other collections)

The lineup cards are simply because they are cool, a real challenge to collect (the goal is a signed lineup card from every manager who made the HOF, beginning from the era that lineup cards were used), and extremely "close" to the game.

There's also the community around baseball, the game itself (playing softball, listening to MLB games on the radio, following the stats etc.)

[btcarfagno]

For me it allows me to share my collection with my daughters, and give them a sense of the history of women playing sports. I can't say that they are super into it but they care enough about it to ask about what I get in and they have told some of their friends about some of it. This as opposed to when I have bought some items regarding major league baseball that I thought they would be somewhat interested in...nope. Bought a Jeter game used bat. Supposedly two of their favorites player. I got "oh...that's nice".

At least with the women in baseball items they show more of an interest and seem to like to learn something about the piece and the history surrounding it.

Also the challenge of collecting such "outsider baseball" items makes it more enjoyable for me.

Tom C

[yankeesjetsfan]

For me, my collection just makes me happy. I have loved the Yankees for 41 years and anytime I can add a piece to the collection, be it a baseball card, a bobblehead, an autograph or pennant, it gives me the joy I had when I first started watching the games on PIX here in NY or the excitement I had when I would go to games as a kid. This is excitement I rarely experience as an adult anymore, so when I am able to pick up a piece to add it brightens up my day. Plus, seeing all the fantastic collections here gives me something to shoot for.

Mike

[Mark]

Pop psychologists will tell you that part of what motivates baseball fans is the association of baseball with your father. You don't need to be Carl Jung to detect some truth to this in my case. I got my first pro model bat when I was about 10. My grandfather, a baseball man through and through, had died the year before, and I found an old bat in his basement. After I removed the tar that covered it, I discovered that it was a model of a fairly famous player from the deadball era. I wrote to Hillerich and Bradsby and described the bat meticulously (for a 10 year old), and they wrote back saying that the bat was made for his personal use. I didn't pick up many more old bats until the early 90's when the Louisville find made it possible for me to pick up a number of bats used by my father's favorite players from the 20's and 30's. Like my ancestors, I am a Pirates fan, so most of the bats are Pirate bats. But I also love pre-war Giants bats. I don't know why. Maybe a need to see a shrink to find out. It also occurs to me that my father inherited his father's disdain for the live ball era ("rabbit ball" he called it). In my family, the deadball era was cool. So, I really love bats from that era. They connect me to my father and to his father. Even if they didn't, they are an intimate part of the game, each one tells a story, and who doesn't admire a good baseball bat?

[MK]

My love of baseball began very early. Summer in my neighborhood meant playing the game all day long. We road our bikes to the schoolyard, picked teams and played. My first clear memory is the Mantle Maris chase for 60 home runs in 1961. Although we lived in Indiana, this was all everyone was talking about. Baseball cards were just for kids back then and we all collected and traded. My father also loved the game and we always attended several games each summer in Chicago, St Louis, Cincinnati or Detroit. I was allowed to pick one souvenir from the vendors outside the stadium. In many ways, maybe I am now buying the souvenirs I was forced to pass on all those many years ago. I like to think I am preserving history by collecting, but as the quote below says, I am also hanging on to a bit of my childhood.

[baseball tourist]

Great thread!

I echo much of the sentiment stated above (historical, connectivity, family) but for me my collection (the not-for-sale elements of it at least) bridges a physical distance from hometown city and team. I am thousands of miles away and have been for over a decade and a half now and I truly miss the excitement of being a fan of my team in their home city. The pieces I collect and display make me feel a part of that which I dearly miss.