Not a baseball fan - but still a collector who loves the hobby
 

I am not a baseball fan, not even close. The number of games I attend and watch in a season I can count one hand, I'm just not a fan and I have never gotten into it. Hockey is my sport of choice. I play it, watch it and I'm a Penguins season ticket holder.

But I do like the history of baseball and absolutely love collecting vintage baseball items. My collection varies including cards, memorabilia, autographs, tickets and ticket tubs.

Anyone else with as strange of a love of the history of the game, but not the game itself?

I had a bunch of Greta Garbo photos had never seen one of her movies.

I finally did see one of her movies, and liked her a lot.

One thing is if you collect Pre-War baseball, they aren't playing anymore. A question is if anyone on this board has watched an entire Pre-War game. No one here has seen King Kelly swing a bat.

Also, many fans of baseball don't collect and aren't interested in the history-- so the artifacts and historical items aspect is something that can be separated from being a fan.

Lastly, if you like hockey that makes you a sports fan. Many sports fans have an interest, if light, in various sports. It's usually a sports fan that watches the unusual and esoteric sports in the Olympics-- because they have a general interest in sports.

A friend of mine was just telling me today how much he hated watching baseball but he will sit there and play baseball video games all day, go to games once in awhile, talk baseball, wear baseball shirts/hats etc and will play baseball. He's always been a Mets fan, but I've asked him numerous times if he saw something in a game that day and he had no clue what happened. Yet we had a long discussion not long ago over whether RA Dickey would win the Cy Young award. Seemed so odd to me.

I tried to get him into collecting the C55/56 Hockey cards, since he is a huge fan but the prices were too high for him. He would've been interested at $30 each, more for stars, but not $100 for low grade commons

I love baseball, love to play softball (but used to be hard ball), and love collecting baseball.....just not anything MLB today. (or any Professional major league sports for that matter). I do enjoy watching Minor League and school sports games. We are in the minority by a long shot on this board.

I watch close to no sports these days, in part because I don't have the time-- and hate the way sports is presented on tv these days (no digital special effects and annoying announcers, please). I probably watch on television one baseball game and perhaps two football games all year. I do go to a Mariners game at Safeco field one or twice a year.

I do follow the stories and scores in the sports, though.

But, yes, I label myself as a baseball fan, as I've always liked the sport.

Another thing is I've big music fan, listen to music all the time, play in a group, am interested in the histories and personalities of composers-- yet, I've never collected music memorabilia. For whatever reason, never had an interest.

I'm definitely more a fan of baseball memorabillia than the game itself.
For me, it's probably a function of how much extra action and speed of play other sports display......I probably would have been more of a baseball fan in the 1950's and 60's when the game stood up better as a spectacle when compared to the other sports one could follow.

Though I know there has been some evolution over time of baseball player abilities - mainly strength related, I would guess the game of baseball resembles it's own early inception more than would the other big name sports. I dare say coaching and strategy have similarly played a bigger role in the variability of what you might witness in football, soccer, hockey, basketball etc., thus providing a more pleasing array of outcomes to please the eye. There's just more spice and sizzle for limited time outlay.

Still, baseball memorabillia kills all other sporting memorabillia, being such a quintessential historical game and series of sporting stories.

I love being a collector :D!

I am a baseball junkie. I have been a fan of baseball since The early '70s. I think today's game is a far superior product but the television coverage is over saturated. Nonrtheless, I watch probably 3 games weekly on television and attend 3-4 games at Safeco on a monthly basis. I also spend 7-10 days in Ariona each spring watching Cactus League games with my father. I have been collecting fairly consistently for 40 years. I turn 50 next year and have been gravitating back to collecting the players I watched as a kid in the 70's. It has been fun recapturing my youth through cards and memorabilia and a lot less expensive than collecting players from my Grandfather's youth.

I don't follow the current MLB too much either these days. I'm still a Giants fan from when I lived in CA and I'm a Yankee fan here in Jersey, but I don't have the time to watch many games. I follow them in the standings and read highlights when I can but that's about it.

But I'm in love with the hobby and with baseball history. I'm really into the deadball era history and players. When the game was different. When a pitcher would throw a complete game and do it 30-40 times a year. The way Cobb played small ball and studied the game in order to get an advantage. And the cards and memorabilia are just awesome. There is no modern player that interests me they way Cobb and Matty and Chase do.


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If it weren't for Fenway, I'd never go to a game.

The missus cares little about vintage stuff, but loves the sox. Therefore, Of course I'll still go to games when we move south.

I love baseball, then and now. How else can you explain the fact that I would actually spend real money to go see the Royals several times a year.

Now that's love of the game. :D


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I was always a big baseball fan when I collected the modern cards. Ever since I began the pre-war collection in 2004, my interest in live baseball games has waned to almost none.

not a modern baseball fan
 

I never watch MLB. I do support our double A minor league team which serves the cincinnati reds.
I love vintage baseball cards, photos, photographers, paintings.
Lately, i've been drawn to getting photos from key photographers who took
pictures of players and managers from around the time of my youth---e.g.brock,aparicio,reese,franks,
thomson, Yankees team card,b.murphy(emmons,regan,stein,stein,brace,dorri ll,wingfield).

all the best,
barry

It's only baseball for me, and everything else is pretty much filling time between seasons. Every once in a while Basketball of Football, may take a step up from filler, but that never really last for more than a few weeks at a time, but that's only really when something of a historical nature seems to be happening..

Now regarding the OP not being a baseball fan, but loves the history. I can completely relate. That's exactly how I am with boxing. I've honestly NEVER seen a fight(not even on tv), but love the history of the sport, and love collecting vintage boxing..

Well that, and I'll play the shit out of some Golf. Like Costner said in "Tin Cup"- "Sex and golf are the two things you can enjoy even if you’re not good at them."

Baseball
 

Loved baseball as a child (rootin for hometown Astros in the '80s and 90s. Live in Boston now, so have to contend with astronomical prices to attend a game in person. I'd rather buy a $200 pre-war card over dropping that dough to go to Fenway park. That said, I watch many games on tv (mostly to keep track of my AL only fantasy baseball players).

Someone nailed it w/r/t the announcers (Esp. on FOX). The playoffs just suck b/c of joe buck and Tim mccarver. Ugh. I correct them constantly and then 5 minutes later when their statistician tells them they're wrong, they correct themselves and I have to chuckle. My wife always says that it was my calling to do their job. Oh well-- maybe in my next life.

But yeah I'm a baseball junkie, but mostly b/c I love stats (I don't have a favorite team, so it comes down to players on my fantasy roster, nothing more).

As someone who played at somewhat of a higher level, baseball scholarship to Wichita state (when they were good) and drafted by the Mets out of high school, baseball defined my childhood and into my early adult years.
Now that my oldest son is 8, he doesn't have the drive and desire to play and practice like I did but absolutely loves collecting cards and the history of the old players. It has been the best father -son bonding time we've spent together.
Try finding another 8 year old out there that can list off all the different t206 backs for you off the top of his head!

Your story is the same of mine. I am basicaly a hockey fan , but i really love the baseball history. I only watch world serie at tv and i am present at arround 2 game localy each year to see local junior game...

In hockey i collected c55 c 57

Interesting thread.

I guess I'm all baseball - history, collecting, playing (softball), and keeping up with the daily box scores (Rotisserie baseball).

Okay, so i stopped playing last year at 46 but in my mind I still play.


So when my team (Mets) let me down, I have the rest of MLB thanks to my Roball league. And when they're tanking I have my collection. And when buying and selling is slow due to being busy or low on funds, I have this awesome forum and my library of books.

It's been interesting to read about collectors who don't really follow today's game. I can understand it totally. If I didn't have to keep up with the players I would consider moving away from today's game because I am tired of seeing so many players yammering with the other team during the game. They're the enemy, why are you giggling with them down at second???

Also when I was a kid at a show and the dealer didn't know much about the player I was buying a card of, I thought that was weird. "You've got all these cards, I'm buying your Chuck Klein but you didn't know about his awesome 1930 season?" But I was young then.

But hey - it's sport. And it's a hobby. So enjoy it however you would like.

peter

I love baseball for several reasons. I think the history of the game is very interesting as evidenced by my longtime membership in SABR. I find the deadball era very interesting because of the individuals that played the game.

I love the 50s & 60s because I grew up with those guys in the newspaper every day. Baseball gave my Dad and I something to talk about every day until his passing a at 93 a few months ago.

With all that said I almost never attend games anymore. I find the games pretty boring even at the ballpark. I do attend anywhere from 5-10 college football games each year and love every minute of it.

I can't get excited about collecting football anymore though because of several disturbing factors. The quality of individual that plays the game is highly suspect and the injuries related to the game are horrendous. I think that is the reason the NFL promotes Peyton and Rogers so much.

I have also come to think of college football as paid fun for alumni like a rock concert is paid entertainment for the student. I think that there at very few actual students making up the rosters of most Division I teams and yes that goes for Notre Dame too (great article on their program in the new SI.)

I thin for the most part baseball players were just regular guys that found that they had a gift, this has changed in the last 30 years or so but the game and it's people are still interesting to me.

I do think if I lived up north I could have been a big hockey fan. I have always heard that the players are some of the nicest people in sports. Fun discussion!

My first baseball game as a kid was in a back lot in El Centro, CA in 1957. I've loved the game ever since. Collected cards into the mid '60's and played until I blew out knees in High School. Began collecting cards again in the '80's with my boys and sold to pay a divorce attorney.:(, but I kept 3 T206 which have expanded to a collecton of over 245 cards this year.

My wife and I have moved to the Eastern Sierras where I feed my passion for fly fishing and building bamboo rods. I must admit I miss sitting at Dodger Stadium although prices have kept me down to an occasional game now and then. My favorite in-person sport is hockey (how about them Kings, ey?) but there is nothing like a weekend game at the park. Oh yeah, played a father-son tournament this fall in Phoenix, faced live pitching for the first time in 43 Years. What a gas.

My passion for the game and collecting is as strong as it's ever been. Collecting tobacco cards takes me to a place and time with a different flavor, a different fervor, when the entire country was absorbed with baseball. It's also a reminder that a large number of fantastic athletes were segregated, so we will never know how much better the competition could have been, who could rival and add to the deadball HOF, etc. So much history in cardboard...

im a huge baseball (football, hockey and basketball as well) fan love the game, used to play, love to watch it on tv and go to games. Also love collecting.:D

I don't follow any sports. I collect baseball cards for something to do in my limited spare time. The only thing I've ever sold was a 1986 Topps wax box. Now with a good paying job. I can buy some of the cards I've watched pass me by.

Through and through, I'm a baseball fan. That can be especially tough here in Canada where sports stations spend ten minutes having hockey analysis break down the umpteenth straight day of the NHL lockout before spending 3 minutes flashing random tweets on the screen to report a 12-player trade involving the Blue Jays.

As a previous poster said, other sports are filler between seasons. Because I have limited time to watch games (live or on tv) like I used to, I do find myself doing a lot more reading in my down time (just to be away from a tv or computer screen) which is making me more of a fan of the history of the game.

And as much as I'd love to actually be playing the game, too, I tend to gravitate towards volleyball and basketball as it seems to be easier to trick people into thinking you've still got it after all these years... ;)


Regards,

Richard.

That is a little humorous, as I mentioned in my OP I am a pretty big hockey fan, and here in the states hockey gets next to no coverage at all from the major sports networks. ESPN is more concerned about what Lebron James ate for lunch and what time Alex Rodriguez plans to take a nap this afternoon, than anything remotely resemlbing coverage of hockey or the NHL, even when there is no lockout.