Here's to the Forgotten Guys

 

Here’s to the forgotten guys in current Major League Baseball

                Pete

                Yordan

                Luis

                Vlady Jr.

                Wander

…Of course, I’m kidding. The above-mentioned guys are some of the biggest young talent in Major League Baseball. They’re certainly not being forgotten by the game. I know I enjoy watching those guys play. I guess what I’m doing in saying they’re “forgotten” is poking a little bit of fun at some segments of the collecting community on Twitter.

                Not a week goes by, okay maybe a week does go by, where I see a tweet from a fellow collector that I’m going to paraphrase as such: Whatever happened to so-and-so? Nobody in the hobby talks about him anymore. And I kind of have to laugh a little bit at that. Rookie-mania for a player and then…POOF! He’s gone! Off to trading card obscurity with the rest of dem bums.

                Obviously, that’s not true. I know that because I PC at least three of the four players that I mentioned. And as a budget (mostly) minded collector, I genuinely enjoy it that the heat is off these guys once the RC season is over and done with. I’ll gladly pay 20 cents for second year Vlady Jr. cards on SportsLots. But it is almost funny in this hobby, the way it’s rookie card this and that, and then the so-called collective amnesia that causes tweets like the one I mentioned to start making the rounds.

                I like rookie cards as much as the next collector.

                These are some of my current favorites.

                And this kid has me looking forward to 2024 Series 1…at least I hope he’s in it.

                The point is these players aren’t forgotten once they hit their second/third/fourth/etc seasons…but it does feel like it’s rookie card or bust…more so than when I was a kid. I remember rookie cards being big, but once a play was added to your cache of “that’s my guy,” all of their cards always seemed to be hot.

                Or maybe that’s just another lesson from the Junk Wax Era.

                Or maybe…maybe it’s because collecting skews older now, that card collecting isn’t what it once was. I mean, am I the only guy squirreling away all of his star player cards in a big huge mega box? Collectors I meet as an adult seem more team oriented than when we were kids. The chase card is king. The auto card. The numbered card.

                The rookie card.

                I guess there isn’t much to be excited about, about a 2^nd year Vladimir Guerrero base card.

                Unless you’re me.

                Vlady’s 2020 base is still my favorite looking of all of his base cards.

                So…I guess enjoy the current crop of big rookies while we have them.

                Adley

                Jordan

                Corbin

                Gunner

                And even Anthony too.

                By next year they’ll be in the where are they now? section of The Hobby.

                And it’ll be Elly De La Cruz all day long.

Thanks for reading! Happy collecting!

Next Friday: A trip back to 1980.