General Forum

I'm with you. Super Collected Jeff Cirillo for years but then he started retweeting Trump and James Woods nonsense. I can't abide that. Sold a bunch off and moved the reminders into my Brewers collection. Never meet your heroes (or follow them on social media) 

I collect only Red Sox players and they are always perfect individuals.  Haha...I am not a homer.  Some of them are just scumbags, however that being said they are still part of the team, no matter how good or bad they play or what they have done on or off the field.  So the answer is yes I do collect them,  but those individuals will never be my favorites.  

Trade On!

This thread has me thinking I'm going to put together some Pirates sets from their drug trial years.  The uniforms alone are some of the best, the fact they are all wired is a bonus.

Depends on the behavior.  I definately tossed the Felipe Vazquez cards I pulled this year.  Conversly I player collect Rod Beck because he lived in a RV behind the outfield wall when he was on the Iowa Cubs.

I thought for sure this was going to be about Omar Vizquel due to the lastest news. I will still collect him. I enjoyed him while he was on the field. I probably wouldn't go to an in person signing or ever pay for an auto from him now. But, my childhood memories weren't ruined the moment he (supposedly) smacked his wife. 

I haven't stopped collecting anyone because of beliefs or behavior, but if the heat ever goes out this winter, Curt Schilling and Mike Stenhouse will be the first to go.

Some of these names I'm seeing, I have no idea what they ever did.  I think I prefer it that way.

I was a sports journo here in New Zealand for several years and it certainly gave me a different perspective on sports.

I was lucky(?) enough to meet many sportsmen and women I guess people would see as their "heroes" though even before I was a journalist that term baffled me in relation to sportspeople.

What I very quickly learnt is that they are just people. Some will pleasantly surprise you though most will disappoint you if you have elevated them to some form of pedestal. Some are just outright a**holes. Just like all groups of people.

Interacting for years with high-level sports people certainly taught me to take sport and the people who play it less seriously and a lot less personally. I still love to watch sport but I would not say I have been a "fan" of any players/teams for over a decade. Sure I would like the Rockets to win the NBA title but I don't get worked up when they don't because I see a guy like Harden as the self-centred, self-serving human being he is rather than some bucket-getting demigod that is worthy of any emotional investment from me. That's not a personal attack on Harden as by the same token all other athletes have their warts as well.

I think that is why I PC a guy from the 80s and 90s and when I do chase other cards it is guys from that same era when I was a little less cynical.

To paraphrase Seinfeld I essentially acknowledge sports is just supporting laundry.

So, long story short, I collect the "laundry" that interests me and I don't get too worked up by expecting the players themselves to be anything other than normal flawed humans.

I really focus on rookie card collecting for players who were important in the history of various baseball franchises. My collection of Jose Canseco rookies is no less valuable to me because of his association with PED's. He was an important part of the A's organization in the 80's and early 90's. His conduct is part of baseball history that must be recognized to help prevent a repeat of those days.

It's like when I read the biographies of Lou Abbott, Curly Howard, and Neil Young. Huge disappointments all. I'd rather not know. 

By the way, David, I started getting away from the NFL when they began expressing anti-police sentiments and Kaepernick sealed it for me. Stopped watching sports altogether this year for the same reasons.