Back to Base(ics)

I have a nephew who is 8-years old, soon-to-be 9 years-old.

He is a huge sports fan, plays baseball (I coach his team, in fact), basketball and flag football.

His dad, my brother, and I use to travel all over the midwest doing card shows way back in the day, and only recently has my nephew discovered the wonderful world of sports cards. 

And I absolutely love it. 

I was about his age when I really started to get into the hobby, and it changed my life.

Of course, times were way different back then — you basically bought Topps or you bought nothing. Today, there are literally dozens of choices for young collectors to chose from, with price points all over the map.

If I remember, packs were less than $1 each back then, and getting a couple every time mom went to the drugstore was a huge deal.

I wasn’t looking for autos or numbered cards or any other short print — I was looking for Orioles and Tigers and relishing what is still, in my mind, even today, the best tasting gum on the planet. 

But those days are gone — long gone.

Nowadays, thanks to social media influencers, kids such as my nephew know way more about the hobby than I ever could at their age. That isn’t always a good thing, though.

He knows about pack odds and case hits and short prints and different colored prism cards. 

He knows about flipping cards as well as grading cards and cracking them as well. 

Although I am impressed with his ability to grasp some of these concepts, I find it kinda sad, too.

For example, he’s a huge Ronald Acuna Jr. fan, so whenever we pull him from a pack, it’s very cool. However, pulling an auto or a numbered Acuna is even cooler — and he knows it. 

So a base Acuna Jr. often gets stacked up to the side with all the other base cards, despite it being his favorite player.

I suppose it’s indicative of the world in general, but it seems the hobby has lost its innocence as well. 

I don’t see any scenario where that returns, either. 

That’s too bad.