BASEBALL CARDS AND AUTOGRAPHS...EMBRACING YOUR INNER 9 YEAR OLD

It's an off day in Cardinal nation, so I decided to discuss some of my favorite things. I'm not Oprah though, so I'm not giving away new cars...



Did your dad ever tell you about how he had thousands of baseball cards when he was younger? Mantle, Gehrig, Aaron. Boxes upon boxes, all stacked and separated. You name it, he had it. And then his mom cleaned out his closet and threw them all away. When I was younger, my dad loved to tell me about how his little brother took his Stan Musial rookie card and lost it in a dramatic game of Flip Cards. I'm sure the story was exaggerated over the years though, sorry Uncle Shannon.
My dad was a smoker. He would buy his cigarettes at the courtesy counter of the local grocery store, Dierbergs, with my older brother and I in tow. Every trip to Dierbergs meant a new pack of baseball cards for Ryan and I. We were barely in the car on the way home before we ripped open the packs to see which cards were inside. Bonds, Griffey, McGwire, Sosa, Ripken. You name it, WE had it! I think Ryan enjoyed the gum more than the cards though.
At some point he stopped buying packs for us. Maybe we thought we grew out of it. The thousands of baseball cards were boxed away until one fateful hot summer day (maybe I was 11) when two of my cousins and I had the brilliant idea to separate all of the cards into teams. Our interest in this task waned, and it took all summer to finish...
Fast forward to 2007. I moved out of my mom's house, and in packing I discovered the long-forgotten boxes of baseball cards.
My mom's best friend's son used to mail cards to players houses asking them for autographs. I figured it wasn't a bad idea, so I bought Harvey Meiselman's address book and a couple hundred stamps and went to work.
I send out a couple of them every few months. As of June 2011 I have 256 autographed cards that I have received back through the mail. Sure I've sent out a lot more than that. Some guys write personal messages back, while others demand money for signing. You win some, you lose some.
Some of the better ones in my collection are Barry Larkin, John Olerud, Carlton Fisk,  Mark Whiten, Robin Ventura, Jay Bell, Mo Vaughn, Bert Blyleven, Fred McGriff, Bobby Bonilla, Gary Carter, Shawon Dunston, Don Zimmer, Mark Grace, Fernando Valenzuela, Brett Butler, Matt Williams, Raphael Belliard, Javy Lopez, Luis Gonzalez, Roger McDowell, Lonnie Smith, Josh Johnson, Bob Forsch, Chris Coughlan, and Carl Pavano. Not bad for some 44 cent stamps, a couple of envelopes, and a little bit of time on rainy afternoons. I will go into my autographed baseball collection from Spring Training another time...
I don't plan on selling the cards. It's a collection. Some people collect stamps, coins, or bottle caps. I collect baseball cards. I can pass them down to my kids one day.

Feel free to call me a nerd, or a dork. Trust me, I've been called much worse. Everyone has hobbies. Some people love to tinker with their cars, some like to paint or do arts and crafts, and still others enjoy doing absolutely nothing. I like cars, but don't know enough about them to even attempt to mess with what's under the hood. I can't draw worth a crap - even my stick people look weird. Baseball is something I know a lot about. It's a hobby, a past time, and I love every minute of it. I try to watch every Cardinals game that Direct TV's extra innings package permits. Even if I had all of the money in the world, I wouldn't spend my summer nights any other way. (Except maybe I'd buy my own team and watch from the owner's box instead of my couch).

I would think that most people out there have baseball cards stashed away somewhere: in the closet, the attic or the garage. I encourage you to get them out and flip through them - you'll be amazed at what you might find. I'm not telling you to mail them out for autographs, although I have to say that it makes going to the mailbox a lot more exciting - in between your cable and electric bills you might find an autographed rookie card. If you were planning to throw those boxes out though, I would be more than happy to take them off your hands...