It's All in the Cards

I finally got around to organizing all the baseball cards I’ve amassed over the years. It’s not like I’ve been actively collecting cards. For the most part my “collection” method is to attend the CFCL banquet each year for the past 10 years or so and receive the cards from the excessively generous David Mahlan. Each year as an added perk to coming to the banquet, David would pass out a couple of packets of cards to each attendee. The cards typically were from ten to twenty years ago, things that David would snag as he was out buying other things. We would then tear into the packs to walk down memory lane. We all enjoyed the thrill of seeing who we would get and if our name was Paul Zeledon we would enjoy eating 10-20 year old gum.

So I finally got the card sleeve protectors, pulled all the cards together from the various drawers where I had them stashed and put the beauties in first, team order, then alphabetical order. I didn’t remember having all that impressive of a collection considering the random way the cards came to be. But as I was putting the cards in their protective homes I started to see some interesting themes.

HALL OF FAMERS: Tony Gwynn, Ricky Henderson, Nolan Ryan, Ozzie Smith (and his trade counterpart – Garry Templeton), Eddie Murray, Sparky Anderson, Tommy Lasorda, Gary Carter, Whitey Herzog

FORMER BELOVED REBELS: Tim Wallach, Lance Parrish, Roger McDowell

FORMER HATED COPPERFIELDS: Kevin Bass, Glenn Davis, Kevin McReynolds, Andy Van Slyke

CFCL LEGENDS: Pedro Guerrero, Dale Murphy (all I need now is a Lenny Dykstra card), Vince Coleman

FATHERS: Cecil Fielder

WORLD SERIES HEROS: Kirk Gibson, Orel Hershiser, Jermaine Dye, Billy Hatcher, Graig Nettles

FALLEN IDOLS: Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Pete Rose, Roger Clemens

OLD-TIME GREATS: Maury Wills, Tony Oliva, Reggie Jackson, Orlando Cepeda

BALLPLAYERS TURNED BROADCASTERS: Mitch Williams, Joe Magrane, Mike Krukow, Billy Sample, John Kruk

TRAGIC PAIRS: Steve Olin, Bob Ojeda, Tim Crews

FUTURE HALL OF FAMERS: Tony LaRussa, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Jim Thome, Bert Blyleven, Randy Johnson, Omar Vizquel

GUYS BEFORE THEY WERE WHO THEY ARE: Terry Francona, John Hart, Billy Beane

PLAYERS THAT ALMOST PLAYED FOR EVERY TEAM AND/OR FOREVER: Mike Morgan, Julio Franco

FUTURE STARS THAT NEVER STARRED: Ben McDonald, Drew Hall, Rick Ankiel

I even have a Washington National (Jason Bergman ).

And so I found yet another fantastic aspect about baseball. The average person walking down the street could look at these cards, roll their eyes and think “what a waste of cardboard.” But I look at the names and see years of memories as a child watching baseball games in my living room and years of memories with friends in our fantasy league. Baseball has the unbelievable ability to grab you in numerous ways, comfort you, take you down memory lane and build even more for the future.