So why do I keep coming back to it? I'm not good at organization. I'm not good at moderation. I guess, the only answer that makes any sense is that I love baseball and history and collecting cards gives me a sense of connection with baseball that I can't get any other way. I feel like I know the players, even players who retired before I was born. I can hold a vintage piece of cardboard and it transports me through time to when they were playing, a time when a kid might have held that same piece of cardboard and smiled at the thought of having a "piece" of his favorite player.
Cards convey a sense of:
the greatness that was
potential that was never realized
or the future of a young player who has no idea how his career will turn out.
That 1951 Bowman Roy Campanella is a classic card now, but when it came out, Roy was just three years into his Hall of Fame career. No one knew then how his career would turn out. He had been to one World Series, but he wasn't the Campy we think of today. It's like that for us when we pull a card like the Bowman's Best Jurickson Profar. Maybe in 15 years, we'll look back at his Hall of Fame career. Or maybe he'll be somewhere in between Pete Craig (5 games in 3 seasons) and Dick Nen (367 games in 6 years). We'll just have to wait and see. That's part of the attraction to cards for me.
My collecting ways may have ebbs and flows, but I'll always be a collector. It's just in my nature.
Great post as usual... thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I have the same EBDD. My hobbies and interests seem to cycle in and out of the passion glow. I can understand the apathetic side very well. Great post. I can really relate.
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