What defines your collection? Why is baseball different?

[raulus]

#2 is easy if you ask me. A long and storied history that is celebrated from here to next Tuesday. Lots of documentaries, books, movies, etc. Plus for the better part of a century, baseball was it. Every other sport was a silent fart compared to baseball. Not the same story today, of course, but that dominant history leads to a lot more cherishing, curating, and narrating the history of the sport.

#1 is really personal for all of us, as it's a reflection of what we're into. For me, I mostly collect the all-time greats from my favorite team. I tiptoe a little into a player, then dig in a bit, and finally I go nuts trying to find every possible issue available during their playing days.

I have a hard time trying to moralize very much about athletes, although my general rule is that I won't touch any player from my team's arch-rivals, with two exceptions. Multi-player cards that include my boys plus one of the hated ones. Or in the rare cases where I decide to collect a set, and those losers are required to complete the set. But I do it grudgingly, and every time I see my cards with those losers, I give them a big glare and question whether they really have any place in my collection.

[G1911]

1) What I liked as a kid and a teen, adjusted for cost effectiveness. I pick up 1971 Topps football lots whenever I see them cheap because I loved that set as a kid and it was the first one I built to completion. I focus on T/E boxing because that was what I decided to focus on in my teens since I could afford to build a nice collection of them but I couldn't baseball. I pick up as many poor grade T206's and T205's as I can find cheaply because those were exciting in my childhood. Topps/Bowman run for the same reasons.

2) Baseball celebrates its past beyond living memory whereas no other sport really does. Football, Basketball, Boxing, none of these make any real effort to promote their history and celebrate their lineage outside of an occasional trivia question or when politically convenient. Only Baseball has really built a culture of history, where players you or your dad don't remember seeing are held up as important and worth the knowing. Baseball makes it easy, other sports tend to require one to specifically choose to do research and educate oneself.

[jacksons]

Great post, thanks!

Lifelong baseball fan but have always been drawn more to early 1900s NY players. My Dad used to tell me stories about growing up in NYC. He used to track down players at train stations and get their autograph, back when there were three teams to follow. A train schedule was his ticket to go and see every player that came into NY to play ball. When my Dad told me about his own father who used to watch Christy Mathewson pitch, I felt a strong connection to that era through those stories. And since I never met my grandfather, who passed before I was born, I suppose I consciously started collecting photos and cards of players of his day as a way to learn as much as I could about the game then, and to see it through his eyes.

[Rhotchkiss]

First, I LOVE Harry Carson. My whole family met Harry, while dressed head to toe in Broncos stuff waiting to get John Elway’s autograph. He was so cool and friendly. What a class act

I will answer both questions together - my entire collection is old and generally rare, mostly from 1903-1927. I collect this era because of the history and Americana. These cards are antiques as much as cards. I love the add backs (crofts cocoa is my favorite add back), I love the true rarity of the cards, I love that baseball was spread during the civil war and grew into America’s pastime during this era. I love the old-time stories of these players and the game. I love the personalities and funny stories - Jennings used to bring toys and shiny things to the game to distract Waddell. I think baseball has a magic and mystique that other sports don’t have and that’s why people love these players. To me, it was just a magical time in America, and owning cards from it makes me feel a little bit apart of it.

But I collect for investment. Everything I buy is to one day sell, I expect at a good profit. For this reason I focus on specific iconic players (Cobb, Wagner, Ruth, Jackson, Young, Mathewson, Thorpe) and/or iconic sets (t206, 1914 CJ, T3, E107, D304).

Great post/query BTW

[wagnerj03]

I collect cards that have historical significance and remind me of events. So, I’ll collect all the 1919 White Sox banned players, but I’ll also get a 1974 Tommy John because that’s the year of the first surgery. I want my cards to remind me of some event, or make me lookup why I have a 1969 Curt Flood.

[Exhibitman]

This sums it up pretty well



Terence Mann: The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.

https://youtu.be/Xq3hEMUeBGQ?feature=shared

Well, I beat the drum and hold the phone
The sun came out today
We're born again, there's new grass on the field
A-roundin' third and headed for home
It's a brown-eyed handsome man
Anyone can understand the way I feel

Oh, put me in, coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in, coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield

Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine
Watching it from the bench
You know I took some lumps
When the Mighty Casey struck out
So say, "Hey Willie, tell Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio"
Don't say it ain't so you, know the time is now

Oh, put me in, coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in, coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield

You got a beat up glove, a homemade bat
And a brand new pair of shoes
You know I think it's time to give this game a ride
Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all, a moment in the sun
It's a-gone and you can tell that one goodbye

Oh, put me in, coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in, coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield (yeah)

Oh, put me in, coach
I'm ready to play today
Put me in, coach
I'm ready to play today
Look at me, gotta be centerfield

Or as the great Vin Scully said:

“There’s a high drive into deep left-center field, Buckner goes back… it is gone!”

“What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol.

“And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly for Henry Aaron, who was met at home plate, not only by every member of the Braves, but by his father and mother. He threw his arms around his father, and as he left the home plate area, his mother came running across the grass, threw her arms around his neck, kissed him for all she was worth.

“As Aaron circled the bases, the Dodgers on the infield shook his hand, and that was a memorable moment. Aaron is being mobbed by photographers, he is holding his right hand high in the air, and for the first time in a long time, that poker face of Aaron’s shows the tremendous strain and relief of what it must have been like to live with for the last several months. It is over. At 10 minutes after nine in Atlanta, Georgia, Henry Aaron has eclipsed the mark set by Babe Ruth."

[Luke]

For me I'm not sure I have a lot of principles involved. It's just that I fell in love with the history of the game at a young age. Field of Dreams and then Eight Men Out and then my parents took me to Cooperstown and bought me an old Encyclopedia of Baseball (I didn't care that it was 10 years old because I just wanted to memorize all the stats of the Hall of Famers.

I fell in love with the T206 set and it's just been a lifelong fascination with it. I'm sure the players I collect come in a wide range of good and not-so-good men, but it's really just about the baseball history part for me. Although I did recently realize that I didn't enjoy it when I bought a Cap Anson card. The stories of him walking off the field and refusing to play a game of baseball against a team with black players on them are just too sad to me. I also wish it was easier to collect cards of Negro Leaguers. I'd love to own an Oscar Charleston card but I'd have to sell half my collection to afford one.

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

First, I LOVE Harry Carson. My whole family met Harry, while dressed head to toe in Broncos stuff waiting to get John Elway’s autograph. He was so cool and friendly. What a class act

I will answer both questions together - my entire collection is old and generally rare, mostly from 1903-1927. I collect this era because of the history and Americana. These cards are antiques as much as cards. I love the add backs (crofts cocoa is my favorite add back), I love the true rarity of the cards, I love that baseball was spread during the civil war and grew into America’s pastime during this era. I love the old-time stories of these players and the game. I love the personalities and funny stories - Jennings used to bring toys and shiny things to the game to distract Waddell. I think baseball has a magic and mystique that other sports don’t have and that’s why people love these players. To me, it was just a magical time in America, and owning cards from it makes me feel a little bit apart of it.

But I collect for investment. Everything I buy is to one day sell, I expect at a good profit. For this reason I focus on specific iconic players (Cobb, Wagner, Ruth, Jackson, Young, Mathewson, Thorpe) and/or iconic sets (t206, 1914 CJ, T3, E107, D304).

Great post/query BTW

Amen on Harry Carson. I played golf with him at a fundraiser years ago and he was a really nice guy and a pretty good golfer too(low to
mid-80s).

[BobbyStrawberry]

To answer both questions together, for me it's the intersection of three different things that interest me: 1) the game itself, 2) baseball history (and American history generally), and 3) old, cool stuff.

For collecting purposes I now seem to care more about players who died before I was born than even my favorite players growing up! Or maybe I just find their cards and stories more captivating.

[nat]

1) I'm completing my childhood collection. When I was about 10 I set out to get one card of each hall of famer. Much easier now that I'm not funding it by shoveling snow and mowing lawns.

Lots of people buy whatever seems cool to them. I couldn't do this. A card needs to check off a box on the list. I've already got a Babe Ruth card, and so have zero interest in getting another.

2) Most people who like baseball, I've found, also like other sports. Not me. I doubt I could even name more than half a dozen current NFL players. So, I don't know that I have an answer to this question - I've got nothing to compare it to.