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Posted By: Chuck Ross

When I was growing up (late 60's, early 70's) I was completely consumed by baseball. I knew the starting lineup of every team (as my friends and I emulated them in endless baseball and wiffle ball games), I read the Sporting News every week to see which minor league prospects I could expect to see in the next year or two and think about how they would impact their major league teams. I knew the outcome of every World Series since 1903, Hall of Famers batting averages, lists of perfect games and unassisted triple plays, who Merkle and Hoss Radbourne were, who had each hit in the A's rally against the Cubs in '29...you get the picture. But over time something happened and not just the natural change in interests that occur as one gets older. I maintained some interest through the 80's but the intensity was gone...as the 90's came I began to have even less interest in the game. A lot of changes in the game went into my personal feelings. Mainly free agency, I suppose. I certainly do not begrudge the players their cut of the proceeds, but I really miss the days when Al Kaline was a Tiger and Lou Brock a Cardinal. I didn't have to get reoriented every year as to who was where. I still watch the game out of the corner of my eye and catch most of the post-season, but it's certainly not the same.

I have kids aged 11 and 14 and they have zero interest in baseball and I don't know any of their friends who do. They don't play pickup games, they don't play Strato-matic, etc. Now I'm sure everyone on this board can list kids who are exceptions to this, but in general I just don't see the same overpowering love for the game that many kids had when I was younger. Kids of my generation didn't collect with the idea of investment, but because they loved the game and the players. I have no idea how these changes will play out in the baseball card collecting hobby, but I do know that when the majority of folks buying a class of collectibles don't really love them then the fun is over and its time for the investment counselors to take over.