May 2, 2020: The Lost Hobby

posted in: Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox | 0

Man, I used to love collecting baseball cards. I remember the first cards that I had; it was back in 1982. I don’t exactly recall my first pack, but I do remember playing with these cards upstairs where my grandmother lived. We would tape them on to her walls; I’m sure she was thrilled with that. A simple piece of scotch tape on the back, and bam, there they were… all lined up next to each other. Part of that collection was the Cal Ripken Jr rookie card… if I knew then, what I knew now…

That wasn’t the end of it. My dad showed us how to play a game with them. You each pick your lineup. On defense, you align your cards on the floor or table in the regular fielding positions. On offense, you would hold your arm outstretched, approximately so that the card that you are “flipping” is right above the pitcher. You flip it, and see where it lands. If it lands on a card, then you’re out. If it doesn’t land on another card, depending on where it lands determines the type of hit you just got. It was fun, but it certainly didn’t help keep any of those cards in “mint” condition. Many, many games of this were played; hours of fun were had. So I guess it was worth it…

1985 was the first year I got serious. I completed the entire set of 1985 Topps Baseball Cards; my favorite card was the Roger Clemens rookie. I remember going to a coin store, Family Coin on the south side to be specific, to purchase this card for $10; that was a lot of money back then, especially for a 9 year old using weeks of allowance money. I proceeded to complete the 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, and finally 1990 sets as well; all the years that ain’t worth shit right about now… haha. Packs were generally 40 cents; loved that stick of gum too. Collecting these cards was a ton of fun.

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I remember one time in Venture, somebody had opened up packs and packs of cards; there was a mountain of 1989 Donruss cards sitting there in the aisle. My brother and I started going through them frantically, looking for good players. When we found 15 of them, or whatever that number of cards in a pack was, we took the pack and wrapped it backup, gladly paying for the pack full of stars. It was in 1989 that I bought my first Upper Deck cards too. We were out of town and stopped in I believe it was an antique store in Southwestern Michigan. I opened that $1.50 pack and remember the excitement when I saw that Ken Griffey Jr rookie card. Zoo Wee Mama!!!

Yeah, we’d play with these cards all the time. Sorting them different ways was fun. We’d pay my sister to do it for us… haha. We had boxes and boxes of cards. We had our nicer ones in plastic sleeves in binders. We had some hard plastic single cases. All of this is still at my parents’ house, which I haven’t been inside for weeks because of this COVID BS… Yeah, now that we have more room, I’ll definitely help clean some of that up for my parents… haha.

It feels like a lost hobby nowadays, with so many other things to keep kids’ attention. Yet, my son is getting into it now, with some influence from his dad of course. It feels like the perfect time to grab all these old cards and look through them. I’ve actually been on a bit of a spending spree on eBay (under $100 OK), buying some old packs of cards. My son and I opened 9 packs of 1989 NBA Hoops cards the other day. It’s still a lot of fun. Will they ever be worth anything again? Who knows. Sure, I’d like to make some bucks off them, but the collecting part, having those cards of the players and teams you love, is the best part. Time to make a trip to my parents’ house…

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