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 2nd 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.
Carrol and Rutchman have captured my attention. Like em both a lot. And Hayes seems like he could be a Beltre, Rolen type with a long career.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment about collectors being more team-focused now than when we were kids. I don't think that you're wrong here. When I was a kid set building was very much king.
ReplyDeleteBut I also know that when I came back to the hobby and looked at all my childhood cards, in the midst of the supposed set building I had made sure to have all the Giants cards for a few seasons. I don't even remember doing this but the evidence was undeniable.
Yeah, rookie chasing is a strange world and I'll leave others to it.
ReplyDeleteI remember trying to collect my team starting in '76, which was my second year of collecting. Completing the set was the overall goal but I was perhaps realistic at a young age and knew that wasn't possible, so I focused on my team.
When it comes to collecting rookie cards... my interest comes in waves. There are times where I'll actively seek rookie cards for specific guys... and other times I'll just collect them when I come across them in packs or in dime/quarter boxes. I'd say right now... I'm leaning more towards the latter.
ReplyDelete