The Little Things In Life, Baseball Card Edition

Someone once said that it's the little things in life that matter.  I don't know who it was, but it makes sense to me.  One of the little things that I get to enjoy in my life are baseball cards.  Like most men, I used to collect baseball cards when I was a kid.  I still have a binder in my garage with several pages of cards of my favorite player of all time, Ken Griffey Jr.  Like most men, I also lost interest in cards when I discovered girls, cars and beer.  Of course, at that time, which was the mid-Nineties, the card business was getting overwhelmed by serious collectors and a ton of product.  Baseball cards have been around since the turn of the century, but by then baseball cards were followed by basketball cards, football cards, hockey cards, Star Wars cards and Garbage Pail Kids cards.  Topps no longer had the monopoly either, they faced competition from Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck, SkyBox, Pinnacle, Peak, Bowman, Pro Set and more.  It became unbelievably expensive for someone to keep up with their favorite teams, favorite players and forget about complete sets.  And finally, like most men, as I near 30, I'm looking for some things that make me feel young again.  A few weeks ago, one a whim, I bought a pack of cards with my favorite play on them, Dustin Pedroia.

I forgot the feeling of opening a new pack, flipping through the cards, pulling the ones you like, while shuffling through the ones you didn't.  There was nothing extraordinary in the pack, no autographs cards, no special chrome or throwback cards.  Just a feeling.  I had to chase that feeling.  I went and bought a few more backs, racing home to open them again.  As I wondered whether this might be some kind of addiction and if I should stop, I came across my favorite player Dustin Pedroia.

There was Pedey, looking right at me.  A lopsided grin came across my face, with quickly vanished when I got to the next card and I can shamelessly tell you right now, I screamed.

Ken Griffey Jr.  My favorite player of all time.  And not just any Ken Griffey Jr. but the LAST Ken Griffey Jr. Topps card there will ever be.  Sure, Griffey will sign autographs for Topps and in 20 years, you might a reproduction of his rookie card, but this is the last regular card for Griffey, who retired midway through the season.  I took it as a sign from the baseball gods, an invitation to come back to the world of baseball cards, plastic sleeves, cardboard boxes and Beckett magazines.  

I buy cards pretty regularly now.  And while I am not as obsessed as some might be with a collection of cards worth millions, I have a few goals in mind.  I'd like a complete 1989 Upper Deck set, the modern day standard for cards, I think.  A complete 1981 Topps set, (the year I was born), every Red Sox player from 2004 and 2007, Topps, I think would work.  It gives me something to stay interested in, away from those girls, cars and beer.  And maybe someday, I can give them to my kids and hopefully, keep his focus there, instead of the extracurriculars.