Baseball fan or just a collector?

[SyrNy1960]

Originally Posted by bk400

Are you a baseball fan or just a collector of baseball cards?

Diehard baseball fan and collector!

[BioCRN]

Both...also needs a 3rd option..."I sell baseball cards because people buy baseball cards."

There are some extremely knowledgeable people in the hobby that collect green pieces of paper rather than pictures of baseball dudes on paper.

Nothing wrong with that. Some of the more ambitious ones dig up cards from people that ordinarily wouldn't properly be brought to market.

[z28jd]

I feel like my answer could be different soon as I lose more interest in current baseball. Don't read any longer if you don't want to hear a rant based on inside knowledge of the game and current coaching...

I covered minor league baseball for years and talked a lot to the players throughout their career. Around 2017-18, there was a real change in the mindset of the coaching to get as much velocity as possible from the pitchers and combat it with swinging as hard as possible, setting up the game we see now, which is a game of a few high points spread throughout game and not much else. They are trending towards a nine-inning game of home run derby.

The skill level in the minors in 2024 is a far cry from how good it was in 2019 and before. I covered games in person for three levels of play (Low-A, High-A, Double-A) and you pretty much know what a normal Double-A game looks like. What to expect when you watch each level. I watched a lot of Low-A games in 2022-23 and they were worse skilled than the rookie league games just 4-5 years earlier. This year watching Double-A games felt like I was seeing Low-A players at work. This all-or-nothing approach to throwing hard and swinging hard is leading to an awful brand of baseball for the future.

I don't think anyone who has watched baseball for 20+ years thinks the MLB game you're seeing today is the best ever. It clearly isn't. That's partially due to the fact that they use so many big league players each year now (average of almost 1,500 over the last four years), coupled with the dying off of baseball as a participation sport for youth in the U.S. compared to the past. It's also the newer mindset of coaching. Sure these guys throw hard, but that makes the coaching of hitters even worse. The focus on power through swing speed and launch angle. That's going to lead to much worse contact rates than taking a direct path to the ball and shortening your swing, yet the mindset has not changed one ounce. It also won't change because MLB is completely fine with the product on the field now.

I quickly lose interest in current games if my team isn't involved, and even if they are involved, watching the lack of baseball skills and smarts is annoying to say the least. I can't see me remaining a current baseball fan for much longer.

HOWEVER, I have the same love for baseball history that I have always had since a little kid. Yesterday I was schoolgirl giddy over finding the first picture I've ever seen of a guy who played six big league games over a nine-year span. Jim Gray played three separate seasons for the Pirates franchise. I wrote about him in one of my books and spent a lot of time trying to find even a drawing of him. Happiest I've been in a long time over a piece of baseball research.

[BobbyStrawberry]

I'm still a baseball fan despite the worst atrocity ever inflicted on the game: the ZOMBIE RUNNER.

[Rhotchkiss]

I haven’t been a real baseball fan since the early 1990’s. But I am a rabid fan of baseball cards, and have been my whole life.

[mordecaibrown1]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

I haven’t been a real baseball fan since the early 1990’s. But I am a rabid fan of baseball cards, and have been my whole life.

+1

[Leon]

Originally Posted by mordecaibrown1

+1

+2...I think I was out at the 1994 strike.

Only cards for me though I like the game of baseball and might go back to softball at some point.
I figured it would be even more lopsided in the poll though.

.

[Exhibitman]

I would no longer characterize myself as an active fan. I still enjoy attending games with friends, but I haven't really sat through a game on TV since the Yankees teams of the late 1990s in the Series, except at a party. If the Dodgers can get into the Series, I would watch that; I kind of follow the team in the local news. Nothing against the players, not a slam on their skills, I've just gradually lost interest in most spectator sports and events (I don't sit through the Oscars anymore, either; it used to be a viewing party for my family). I'm more inclined to want to attend a sporting event that is also a spectacle beyond the actual contest; for example, I would love to attend the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo.

Collecting cards, on the other hand, are something I am probably going to do until I am dead.

[Eric72]

I am, and always have been, a fan of baseball.

Like nearly everything in life, the game continually goes through changes. As a result, baseball is no longer identical to the game I grew up with. However, it still strongly resembles what I played as a youngster. Similarly, my childhood game was a bit different than my father's...and his father's...and so on.

To me, that's one of baseball's most endearing attributes. No matter how much it (and the world at large) happens to change throughout the decades, baseball has an unchanged core identity. Across generations, we can discuss to game with our parents, children, grandparents, and grandchildren. We can talk about the game with friends and strangers, aged five to a hundred and five.

As silly as it may seem to include them all in the same conversation, we can discuss Ted Williams, Mitch Williams, and the San Diego Chicken. We can talk about multi-purpose stadiums, Yankee Stadium, and Sick's Stadium. We can discuss a range of topics from a minute ago to a century ago and beyond.

We can do all of this and more because of baseball.

Am I a fan? Absolutely.

[jingram058]

I collect and I am a fan. But I am a fan of the game as it was before all of the idiotic rules changes and big money ruined it. And that is why I collect old radio and TV broadcasts from the time before that happened.

[Johnny630]

Love them both!!

[HOF_Forever]

I'm a huge fan of the game. I still play in a men's league. Playing will always be most important to me, followed by researching the history of the game and following the Cleveland baseball team. Cards bridge the gap across generations of the game and intersect nicely with collecting. I mostly stick with cards because I don't have the money or space for an extensive game used memorabilia collection.

[mortimer brewster]

Originally Posted by jingram058

I collect and I am a fan. But I am a fan of the game as it was before all of the idiotic rules changes and big money ruined it. And that is why I collect old radio and TV broadcasts from the time before that happened.

Same here. I traded old broadcasts with people all over the country before Youtube killed the hobby.

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I am, and always have been, a fan of baseball.

Like nearly everything in life, the game continually goes through changes. As a result, baseball is no longer identical to the game I grew up with. However, it still strongly resembles what I played as a youngster. Similarly, my childhood game was a bit different than my father's...and his father's...and so on.

To me, that's one of baseball's most endearing attributes. No matter how much it (and the world at large) happens to change throughout the decades, baseball has an unchanged core identity. Across generations, we can discuss to game with our parents, children, grandparents, and grandchildren. We can talk about the game with friends and strangers, aged five to a hundred and five.

As silly as it may seem to include them all in the same conversation, we can discuss Ted Williams, Mitch Williams, and the San Diego Chicken. We can talk about multi-purpose stadiums, Yankee Stadium, and Sick's Stadium. We can discuss a range of topics from a minute ago to a century ago and beyond.

We can do all of this and more because of baseball.

Am I a fan? Absolutely.

Did you try out for the James Earl Jones role in 'Field of Dreams'?

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

I'm still a baseball fan despite the worst atrocity ever inflicted on the game: the ZOMBIE RUNNER.

You're very wrong. It's the DH that's the worst atrocity because it flies in the face of the underlying premise of the game.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

You're very wrong. It's the DH that's the worst atrocity because it flies in the face of the underlying premise of the game.

And the zombie runner doesn't? One of the premises of baseball is that you have to reach base before you can score...(and that when you are out, you don't get magically brought back from the dead in the next inning.)

[Balticfox]

The DH is still worse because it's a travesty that starts in the very first inning so we're subjected to it in every game. Plus the DH has been around for several decades now so the total annoyance factor has had the time to really accumulate.

But in no way am I in favour of the abomination of zombie runners. MLB and TV executives may be opposed to twenty inning games but I'm not. I rather like seeing players have to earn their salaries.

And of course I despise shoot outs being used to decide hockey games. That's just not real hockey.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by z28jd

Around 2017-18, there was a real change in the mindset of the coaching to get as much velocity as possible from the pitchers and combat it with swinging as hard as possible, setting up the game we see now, which is a game of a few high points spread throughout game and not much else. They are trending towards a nine-inning game of home run derby.

Meanwhile my interests have evolved in completely the opposite direction. I've acquired an increasing fascination/interest since the turn of the century in knuckleball pitchers and base stealers. Therefore I fully share your distaste and antipathy for how the game has evolved.

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by z28jd

I feel like my answer could be different soon as I lose more interest in current baseball. Don't read any longer if you don't want to hear a rant based on inside knowledge of the game and current coaching...

I covered minor league baseball for years and talked a lot to the players throughout their career. Around 2017-18, there was a real change in the mindset of the coaching to get as much velocity as possible from the pitchers and combat it with swinging as hard as possible, setting up the game we see now, which is a game of a few high points spread throughout game and not much else. They are trending towards a nine-inning game of home run derby.

The skill level in the minors in 2024 is a far cry from how good it was in 2019 and before. I covered games in person for three levels of play (Low-A, High-A, Double-A) and you pretty much know what a normal Double-A game looks like. What to expect when you watch each level. I watched a lot of Low-A games in 2022-23 and they were worse skilled than the rookie league games just 4-5 years earlier. This year watching Double-A games felt like I was seeing Low-A players at work. This all-or-nothing approach to throwing hard and swinging hard is leading to an awful brand of baseball for the future.

I don't think anyone who has watched baseball for 20+ years thinks the MLB game you're seeing today is the best ever. It clearly isn't. That's partially due to the fact that they use so many big league players each year now (average of almost 1,500 over the last four years), coupled with the dying off of baseball as a participation sport for youth in the U.S. compared to the past. It's also the newer mindset of coaching. Sure these guys throw hard, but that makes the coaching of hitters even worse. The focus on power through swing speed and launch angle. That's going to lead to much worse contact rates than taking a direct path to the ball and shortening your swing, yet the mindset has not changed one ounce. It also won't change because MLB is completely fine with the product on the field now.

I quickly lose interest in current games if my team isn't involved, and even if they are involved, watching the lack of baseball skills and smarts is annoying to say the least. I can't see me remaining a current baseball fan for much longer.

HOWEVER, I have the same love for baseball history that I have always had since a little kid. Yesterday I was schoolgirl giddy over finding the first picture I've ever seen of a guy who played six big league games over a nine-year span. Jim Gray played three separate seasons for the Pirates franchise. I wrote about him in one of my books and spent a lot of time trying to find even a drawing of him. Happiest I've been in a long time over a piece of baseball research.

I think these sentiments just about describe EXACTLY how I feel. I am losing my love for the current game and solidify my love for the games history and more specifically, the time frame in which i grew up watching and falling in love with the game.