General Forum

Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion, Barry Larkin

There have been a lot of players over time that I've enjoyed watching or reading/hearing about.  I guess it depends on the sport, but if I had to pick one player it would be Rocky Colavito.  A true Cleveland legend.

Set builder here myself but I have a soft spot for Manon Rheaume. Childhood sports crush. Kinda stuck with me into adulthood. Slowly building my collection as I go. 

Hockey is Marcel Dionne, Luc Robitaille,, Stephane Yelle, and Joe Sakic.  Marcel and Luc were my childhood heroes.  Especially Dionne, he is maybe the most underappreciated hockey player ever.

Baseball is Willie McGee.  He was a favorite of everyone in my family.

Basketball is Larry Bird.  Another one of my childhood heroes

For me, I personally enjoy basketball and racing. My favorite driver to collect is Matt Kenseth since he was the driver I started following when I was a kid. I loved how he would wait around the entirety of the race then show up right at the end to contend for the win. Started really following him when I went into my early teens and I started enjoying his races more and more. He quickly became my all-time favorite. When he retired from full-time competition in 2017, I decided to start the pursuit of all his cards ever made in honor of his great career and the first time I was a real fan of anyone in sports. Over 2,200 different cards and 49% completion later, it has become a tough chase to find ones I don't have yet to add to my collection.

Since then, I have started collecting cards of basketball players in LA Lakers and UK Wildcats uniforms. UK was always my favorite college because of the Wildcat logo and them being one of the closer colleges to me that had a reputation for basketball. LeBron is my favorite active player, but I always liked Kobe and Shaq as well. When I got my first basketball video game many years ago, the Lakers had Shaq an Kobe at the time and since LBJ wasn't on the game since it released prior to his rookie season, I always played as the Lakers. This started my love for that team since they were so fun to play as on the video game and I now collect them.

A few more players I love to collect are locals to the area. Calvin Talford (attended the same HS, just not at the same time although he was classmates with my mom and aunt), Mac McClung (who lived the next county over and was babysat by my cousin), and Keith Jennings AKA Mr. Jennings (played at a nearby college alongside Talford and was from another nearby town). Also have some interest in Heath Miller since he was in HS with my uncle and is also from my county.

It's Roberto Alomar for me. If I had to pick a player now to collect, it would probably be someone else. But alas, after 33 years, the Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose said it best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVZH3EzVZtk

Today I'd probably go with Maddux. Or Biggio, or Galarraga. Who knows. But I settled on Alomar when I was a kid, and for good reason. He was a fantastic player just coming up, and proving he belonged in the bigs at such a young age. And since he was with the Padres, he was seriously underrated by the national media. Plus those late 80's Padres teams had his big brother playing catcher, and his dad managing. How cool is that? Then back to back world series with the BJ's...

Hey abothebear - how about sharing that Johnny Grubb poem?  That is something I never knew my life was missing, but now that I know, I can't live without it!

JOSE CANSECO and Mark McGwire. Then, now and forever.

Bo Jackson and LaDanian Tomlinson 

Dominique Wilkins and Allen Iverson

Scott Stevens and Marty McSorley

There are many others but the Canseco's will be lining my coffin when I die so they may accompany me into the afterlife for my continued enjoyment, much the same way the Egyptian Pharaoh's did with their Canseco cards.