This series is all about you, the readers. My opinion is mum on every subject, however, you guys have the open mic per say on here. So without further ado, here is today' topic:
Player Collectors! How do you choose which player to PC?
Are they top notch rookies? Do they have a certain appeal? Do they live by you? Went to school or to your school at some point?
I am intrigued by your responses as I am one that can't stick to just one player! I want to know how you guys do it!
I've never really been a player collector. I'm definitely a team collector and the Mets are my team. But.... (I tend to be long winded, so bear with me)
ReplyDeleteMy parents, decades ago, retired to North Carolina and my Dad always preferred college sports to the pros. One year, he calls me up and tells me how amazing the East Carolina football team is that year. Their going to be a top ten team, he tells me. He was especially heavy on the praise for the quarterback. All I knew of ECU was they were a small school that never got spoken about, let alone ranked. They weren't even in a conference at the time. I told my father he was nuts--just talking smack, you know.
That weekend, an ECU game was on ESPN and they were playing a major team--Syracuse, I think it was. What the heck, I thought, I'll watch them get crushed and then taunt my father a bit afterwards. And, as I recall, they were down early. And they were down fairly late, too. And then the quarterback started making these amazing throws and runs and son of a gun if they didn't pull it out. And I was hooked!
It was 1991 and the quarterback was Jeff Blake. They'd lost their opening game, but didn't lose another the rest of the year. They finished 11-1 and won the Peach Bowl over NC State. And my Dad was right. ECU finished at #9 in the national rankings and Jeff Blake was drafted in the sixth round (Robert Jones in the first). They were on national TV a lot after that. And every game went pretty much the same way--ECU down late and coming from behind to win. I can't even begin to tell you how intoxicating it all was.
So the only player I ever collected (the way player collectors do) was Jeff Blake. According to the Trading Card Database, there are 1388 Jeff Blake cards in circulation. I've never checked to see which ones I have or don't, but I have a full 3" binder of nothing but Blake and another binder with nothing but Blake dupes. And I have nothing like that for any other player--not even a Mets player.
Team collector that I am, I also started collecting cards of ECU grads in the pros (any sport) at that time, but I never got obsessive about that or about anyone other than Jeff Blake.
I'm a team collector as well. I just feel going after one certain player would drive me nuts because of all the parallels and hits. Collecting this way allows me to chase cards I like rather than hunting a certain card just because it features a PC guy.
ReplyDeletewell I started to PC my Favorite player of all time DEREK JETER. a life long Yankees fan my choice was easy..
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely both a team and a player collector. My team is the Packers. Any Packers cards I feel are a good deal, I'm likely to pick up. My two favorite players, though, and the ones I really focus on, are Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I also have a side PC of players from Virginia Tech, and I have a very casual PC of players who are from my area. I chase the Tech player cards, but the local cards are more of a "hey, this guy is from here in town. I'll keep this." I'm not likely to actively search for them.
All my player collections are White Sox. For my vintage guys, I am focusing on the players that were members of the '59 Go Go Sox. I started with Billy Pierce for two reasons: a) local guy (lives maybe 15 miles from me) and b) I dated a girl and he attended the church she went to. After that, I branched out to my current 59ers - Fox, Aparicio and Lollar. Bob Keegan will be next because his last name matches my son's first. For those collections, I consider them complete when I collect cards released during their playing days only. Some mostly Topps and a few Bowman.
ReplyDeleteI also have a Ted Wilks collections, because it is almost my last name.
For current-ish players, I have Konkero, cuz you should being a ChiSox fan. I have Crede and Rowand, because I liked how they played in the bigs. And I have Tadahito Iguchi, because I played 2nd base as a kid and just liked his talent.
I PC lots of guys I like for various reasons (guys who went to my high school, guys with the same first name as me, guys I'm a fan of because they're awesome, etc). This year I've adopted a "Hundred Card Club" idea where instead of driving myself crazy by trying to own EVERY card of a player I collect, I have a goal to collect 100 cards from that player, then stick a fork in that PC and move on. I'm very happy with how this method has been going, though I don't necessarily shun cards of guys who've already hit the 100 card magic number.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days I should use this topic as a blog post, but here's a quick summary:
ReplyDeleteTony Gwynn - He hit for average... and I wasn't exactly a home run hitter as a kid.
Rickey Henderson - In the early 80's, he was pretty much a god to Oakland A's fans.
Kurt Suzuki - He's Japanese-American, from Hawaii, and was drafted by my favorite team.
Steve Carlton - He was a left handed pitcher and I was a left handed pitcher.
Greg Maddux - Watched a lot of TBS in the 90's
Frank Thomas - The guy was a lot of fun to watch when he wasn't playing the A's.
Thurman Munson - Childhood memories. I remember collecting him in the 80's, because he passed away at a young age.