Do you collect players you don't like?

[scmavl]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

That level of hate is quite impressive!

I was discussing a sizable trade with a N54 member a couple of months ago, and I offered up my '39 PB Williams rookie as part of it. He said "I have no interest in having a Red Sox card in my collection."

[Seven]

Originally Posted by scmavl

I was discussing a sizable trade with a N54 member a couple of months ago, and I offered up my '39 PB Williams rookie as part of it. He said "I have no interest in having a Red Sox card in my collection."

I hate the Sox with a Passion, but I do own a couple of ted's and Yaz's. I won't buy a Fisk card, though. I draw the line there!

[Frankish]

These Red Sox comments are too funny. Although the only real hate/frustration I understand is from people who grew up Sox fans. Why do so many other people hate them?

[packs]

Even the Joe Wood card I have is from when he was with Cleveland:

[metroac]

Here are a couple more examples of '58 Topps Ed Bouchee fantasy cards. As a ten-year-old in 1958, I rode my bike all over town to trade cards with kids that I'd met in Little League who didn't go to my elementary school, looking for that last card I needed to complete my set. I thought of that elusive Ed Bouchee card as one of the great (if ultimately minor) frustrations of my life. When I got out of college in 1970 and got my first job, the first thing I bought with my first paycheck was a Wilson A2000, the ultimate baseball glove. About a year later, I saw an ad in the Street and Smith's Baseball Yearbook (or possibly the Sporting News) from Stan Martucci. I bought a '55 set for $35, and '58 and '60 Topps sets for less. I remember not buying the '57's for $55 because that seemed too expensive. Eek! (The '55 Koufax had his rookie stats written in ink on the back. I later bought a replacement Koufax (raw) that, when graded, turned out to be a PSA 7. That card cost me as much as the whole set -- $35. At any rate, thirteen years of frustration came to an end when I learned that card #145 Ed Bouchee was never issued. Only much later did I learn the details.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by Frankish

These Red Sox comments are too funny. Although the only real hate/frustration I understand is from people who grew up Sox fans. Why do so many other people hate them?

As a Yankee fan, I never hated the Red Sox or any other team. I think the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry - although, real - has been hyped by media in recent years looking for an angle. When I was a kid, during the Orioles heyday in the late 60's and early 70's, they used to beat the Yankees with their formidable team. But I never hated them. I had a grudging respect for them. They were a great team. The Yankees had a great season in 1970 winning over 90 games, and the Orioles still won the division.

As far as rivalries go, one of the most intense was back in the mid-90's, the real rivalry the Yankees were a part of was between them and the Mariners. Those games were really something. The fans at the Kingdome were really part of the game.

[packs]

I think the rivalry has died down but I mostly blame the new Yankee Stadium for it. I find the new stadium to be sterile and dull in how it's laid out. Old Yankee Stadium shook and you were hung over the field in the upper deck. Everyone on top of each other. The old no man's land that the bleachers used to be for visiting fans. One time I saw a guy get his hat set on fire out there during a play off game.

But new Yankee stadium feels like you're sitting in a mall. Makes it hard to get fired up.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by packs

I think the rivalry has died down but I mostly blame the new Yankee Stadium for it. I find the new stadium to be sterile and dull in how it's laid out. Old Yankee Stadium shook and you were hung over the field in the upper deck. Everyone on top of each other. The old no man's land that the bleachers used to be for visiting fans. One time I saw a guy get his hat set on fire out there during a play off game.

But new Yankee stadium feels like you're sitting in a mall. Makes it hard to get fired up.

That could have something to do with it. I've never been to the new Yankee Stadium. I've been to Citifield, though. That has a mall feeling to it.

[packs]

I think the Rays and Astros have calmed things down for Boston too. There are probably more rivalries now than ever for the Yankees but I guess it kind of takes the steam out of any one of them.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by packs

I think the rivalry has died down but I mostly blame the new Yankee Stadium for it. I find the new stadium to be sterile and dull in how it's laid out. Old Yankee Stadium shook and you were hung over the field in the upper deck. Everyone on top of each other. The old no man's land that the bleachers used to be for visiting fans. One time I saw a guy get his hat set on fire out there during a play off game.

But new Yankee stadium feels like you're sitting in a mall. Makes it hard to get fired up.

Interesting take on things.

Another part of it may be the teams being more aggressive about keeping the fans in line. Not that that's bad, things are more family friendly, and more welcoming to people who paid up for a ticket instead of some people who only had a buck or two into a bleacher seat. Things could get "interesting" back in the late 70's early 80's at Fenway.
Like someone threatening a guy with a Mets hat.. (Pre-86)
Take that thing off or else!
But it's the Mets?!
I don't care, it says NY so lose it!

Or a couple people carrying a Yankees sign painted on a sheet around the aisle between what was then the upper box seats and grandstand. Someone while still seated, reached up with both hands, grabbed the top and yanked down tearing it in to three parts.

Today, both would be ejections, the last for sure, the hat one maybe just a stern warning.

And I've seen pics of the bleachers in the 60's, a crazy anything goes party like scene. One showed a guy who brought a cooler full of spaghetti and was giving it out.

A local rivalry, made a bit wilder, by some angst. The Sox weren't a bad team in the 50's, but weren't good enough. That lasted till 67, and since then both teams were contenders. A couple decades of coming in just behind the rival team will always heat things up a bit.
And some of the players did stuff that added fuel to that. Like Mickey Rivers hitting Bill Lee from behind... Made it easy to dislike "them"

2004 changed a lot. No longer second, and no team simply forgetting to play in August...
That calmed things down a lot.

But historically, the two teams are so intertwined with each other it's hard to really hate them.

[Kutcher55]

The rivalry peaked in 2003/04 (with the late 1970s being a close secondary peak) and there's no chance of it ever getting back to those heights again due to the Red Sox having gotten the monkey off their backs in dramatic fashion.

As a Red Sox fan, I love having Yankee cards in my collection and it kinda feels like if you're a Yankee fan who refuses to own Red Sox cards then you yourself are effectively being owned by the Red Sox.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by steve B

Interesting take on things.

Another part of it may be the teams being more aggressive about keeping the fans in line. Not that that's bad, things are more family friendly, and more welcoming to people who paid up for a ticket instead of some people who only had a buck or two into a bleacher seat.

I think the nadir was the series of incidents here in Los Angeles with fans of rival teams being beaten nearly to death. I read one article where the police likened the scene in the bleachers at Dodger Stadium to a prison yard. To avoid getting sued the Dodgers really stepped up security and safety policies w/r/t beer sales.