Baseball Cards

Does anybody out there still collect baseball cards?  My grandfather collected baseball cards for me and my cousins.  He started from our birth year until he passed away.  For me he started in 1985.  It was when baseball cards were produced like crazy.  To my knowledge there are not too many “rare” cards from the late 1980’s.  I collected cards on my own when I was a kid as well.  Every once in a while my dad would give me some money and take me to the card shop and I would buy as many packs as I could.  When you’re that young you don’t really understand collecting.  The cards would get bent up.  Occasionally end up in the spokes of my super high speed Huffy bike.  You know what I’m talking about!  I would put the cards in little plastic cases but I always pulled them out to show and trade with friends.  I had this giant poster type thing in my room that held baseball cards to display on my wall.  I put all my favorite players on there.  Cecil Fielder, Alan Trammel, Kirk Gibson, Cal Ripken Jr., Ken Griffey Jr., Bobby Higginson are the ones that instantly jump out at me when I think about this memory.  My family would also buy me special balls and card packs.  I remember I had a Cy Young gold baseball card as well as a ball with his face on it.  I remember I cherished the Babe Ruth gold card.  I didn’t really know who Babe Ruth was, like the kids from “Sandlot” I just knew that he was one of the greats.

The reason I bring this up is I recently started collecting baseball cards again.  When I came home from Afghanistan I had been working on this Road Trip for quite some time.  I was feeling a little nostalgic about my baseball past so I decided to buy a few packs.  Since then I have been buying a pack here and a pack there.  I forgot how much fun it can be to collect something.  To finally get that card that you’ve been missing.  I have collected all of the 2011 Topps Series and I am working on the 2012 series.  It’s a pretty simple thing to collect but it has brought me a lot of joy recently.  While I’m organizing a new pack of cards I imagine my grandfather sitting there organizing all the cards that he would one day give to me and my cousins.