The importance of baseball cards and baseball blogging and a thanks.

My last post was rather... depressing so I thought I would move on to another subject that I know all of us like. Baseball cards. This is a baseball card blog after all and you are baseball bloggers with baseball blogs of your own. We all like different teams and we all have different ways of collecting, but we all love those rectangular pieces of cardboard with men on then.

A lot of people outside the hobby tend to think of baseball cards being for children, something boys grow out of, just as they grow out of wanting to play cowboys and Indians. They see cards as a waste of time and money.

They could not be more wrong. Baseball cards are more than just a way to pass the time for me; they are a way of life that has changed my life. Some people find that laughable and don’t understand how someone can grow so attached to a piece of cardboard and here is why that is. I also want to let you all know just what you all mean to me and how much you have helped me.

Before I started blogging I had no idea of the community that made up the world of baseball collecting and just how deep it ran. I had no idea of trades haggled out through blog posts and e-mails and the amount of padded brown envelops the US postal service delivered. I had no idea of all the different kinds of people that blogged and traded. Young students and grandfathers people of all jobs and ages and backgrounds and ways of life. All of them brought together because of baseball cards.

Before I started blogging I was a very lonely person. I had no friends. I never really talked to anyone all that much and nothing ever came for me in the mail besides magazines and the occasional birthday, Easter or Christmas card from family.

I don’t know if I have said it before but I have Asperger’s, a mild form of Autism which affects my social skills. Asperger’s and my anxiety has made it hard for me to do a lot.. I was an odd duck with two left feet that marched to the beat of an entirely different marching band. I just never quite fit in anywhere.

Then I found my first baseball blog. I found a place where people shared my interests. I found a place where people read and where interested in things that I had to say. I found somewhere where I fit in.

I don’t know if you people understand just how important just having you read my blog is or having us work out a trade. I have a book where I paste all the notes you guys have given me over the past year. I also keep the return addresses from every person that’s sent me something. I love seeing addresses from Ney York to to Florida to Arizona and even Canada. Sometimes when I feel bad I will look through the books at all the notes that have been written and it makes me feel better.

I get to talk to people. Sure it is through e-mail, but sometimes that is the only interaction I get with people other than my family. I learned to be a little more outgoing by posting on someone's blog and asking fora trade. Yes, for me that is a little scary. I have trouble ordering in Mcdonalds's at times. I learned to be a little more comfortavle talking to people.

As to the cards themselves, I just love them. I feel so happy when I buy a new pack or look through a album. There is a great sense of accomplishment when I fill in another slot and there is no greater feeling than seeing a new chipper card that I did not have before.


So yea, to me those cardboard men are important. So are all of you even if you don't know it. So thanks everyone, even for those that haven't posted or traded with me. you have still helped me.