Trading Traditions

Baseball cards are valuable entities to many collectors. The memorabilia and sports trading card business is big. My own baseball card collection is a special, sentimental set of timepieces. They are like memorable songs. Each one has its own story behind it and brings me back to a certain time and place. I cherish each card individually and would have a hard time parting with any. I was never taken with trading them. But I was all for admiring them. It was my own tradition after opening each pack as a kid to write down the names and numbers of every card. A notebook paper database was my baseball card Bible. Even if I couldn’t pronounce the name Pete Incaviglia or had no idea who the Indian’s rookie, Mark Lewis, would become, I kept the cards safe and secure in plastic binding. I did have a tradition of putting baseball cards in my bike spokes like other kids. If the cards were shredded, I threw them out. I kept the ones that simply had creases.
The majority of my cards are from the years 1987-1995. My favorite card as a kid was a 1989 Topps Kevin Elster card with the Mets’ shortstop kneeling on the grass with his bat before him. He has on blue Franklin batting gloves and is squinting at something in the field. I think I must have had a crush on Elster because there are more #21 Kevin Elster cards in my collection than any child should have. He wasn’t that good. Nolan Ryan was my favorite pitcher and I am proud of all my Ryan cards. I managed to accumulate 33 total. I have some rare Yankee cards in a Deion Sanders and Bucky Dent manager card. Neither last long in pinstripes. My favorite cards series is probably the 1992 Fleer one. The eye-catching, shiny teal frame and yellow type somehow sparked my interest and I kept every one of those. I am not sure of its value, but another cool card in my binder is a Topps 1987 Athletics Leaders card with Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco standing tall in green and gold with their bats in their right hands. I think that card is the reason I started rooting for the Oakland A’s. I seem to have many Mookie Wilson cards because he was my sister’s favorite player. She liked his name and somehow was able to collect a small amount of trading cards. A Wade Boggs ’88 Record Breaker is one I acquired via trade with a neighbor. I didn’t know better back then to not collect Red Sox players. I just wanted the card because I felt it was worth something. Finally, I have a Gregg Jefferies Future Star card with the terrible third baseman in ready position next to the blue and orange Shea seats. The reason I love this card so much is because someone once stole it from me and I had to beg to get it back. It did happen to adore Gregg. That smile was hard to resist.

Parting points: Missouri’s Chase Daniel deserves some Heisman consideration. He threw for his 20th straight completion and set a Big 12 record last weekend.
Happy Birthday to Jaba Chamberlain too.