Maybe it is all Washington Post columnist Tom Boswell’s fault. From a chat of his right after the HOF election.
“Footnote: In '90, when my mom passed away, I found my old '50's and early '60's baseball cards in the back of a closet in my parents home. So, for a couple of years, I got the baseball card collecting bug. I'm pretty sure that any shrink would say this had something to do with associating those cards with my happy youth, my parents young and healthy, etc. It was a little weird. But, intuitively, I think people who knew me, and friends, "got it," even though I didn't for a couple of years: it's just a reaction to one parent dying and the other being old and sick. Anyway, my No. 1 card-collecting nuttiness was trying to find Lee Smith Rookie Cards. On the road, and this was during the baseball card craze, I'd go to shops and ask if they had any of those cards. At that time, every rookie card of every Hall of Famer was worth close to $100-a-card. When I'd ask for Lee Smith's cards, the owners would look at me like I was a crazy lost soul. They'd find a dozen of them, or sometimes a lot more, and sell them to me for one or two CENTS each. One guy just gave me a whole stack, just saying, "He has no chance. He's a reliever."
I kept them in the back of the back of the attic for years, my little defiant stand on Lee Smith DESERVES to Be in Cooperstown. Somewhere along the way, maybe after he got so little support in the BBWAA voting, I just laughed at myself, I do a lot more of that than you might suppose, and threw them in the trash. These days, baseball cards, except for the pre-'70's ones, are so hated (glutted market) that you couldn't sell 100 Smith RC's for $1.”
Somebody should send him these auction results!
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