Earlier today I was standing with my fiancé in line at Target. Next to me was the store's trading card display. Behind me was another shopper, in his late 20's. He noticed as I studied a box of Topps baseball cards.
"Those used to be so much fun." he said.
"Yeah, I can't believe how many different types of cards they have nowadays. They even have Sponge Bob cards," I replied as I turned to him.
"I used to buy the complete Topps set every year...but I threw most of 'em away, they were all worthless."
He hadn't noticed the box of cards that had already been placed in our shopping cart. "Yeah, I just recently started getting back into it, in fact I'm gonna buy a box today."
He seemed surprised. "You're buying a box?"
As a kid I wasn't much of a baseball fan. I collected cards mainly because my friends did, the same reason most kids do things. My knowledge of players was limited to household names or those discussed around me at school. I soon made new friends and found my own hobbies and my meager baseball card collection found a home under my bed where it would sit collecting dust for nearly a dozen years.
Then a few years ago, I rediscovered baseball...and how! No longer was the sport tainted by the undertone of trying to fit in with a school clique that had no place for me. Baseball was no longer just a sport and soon became a passion.
In some ways I'm thankful for my nearly 12 years of baseball amnesia. My memories of the baseball strike and of the various scandals during that time are limited. Having had no real emotional investment in the sport I was fortunate to avoid much of the devastation that so many kids faced during those years. I believe I have returned to baseball just as--to borrow my friend Sid McHenry's idea--the sport has entered a "new golden age."
The cashier handed me my receipt. I was the proud owner of my first box of cards in nearly a dozen years. And, in some way, I think that the hobby missed me as much as I now realize I missed it. When I returned home I found that the box I purchased contained two relic cards: an Aaron Boone autograph and an Anthony Reyes jersey. A kind gesture.
For me, baseball card collecting isn't a business venture. I didn't make today's purchase to pay for my future children's college education. While other sports and entities begin manufacturing trading cards at the urging of their marketing departments, baseball cards will continue to transcend the sheer commercial aspect. For the true fan there's a feeling you get when you tear open that foil, a feeling that must be experienced in order to be understood.
posted at 20:17