Underappreciated Art

When I first decided that tackling a blog about baseball cards sounded like a good idea, I knew that I had assigned a task unto myself that would require a great deal of tending and attention, in order for it to be worthwhile for others to spend their valuable time reading. Another daunting task I had assigned myself was to bring my collection of cards out of storage, catalogue and sort it and eventually scan most if not all of them for purposes yet undetermined. (Not to mention catching up on some heavily negelected Battlestar Galactica DVD's)

Needless to so both of these undertakings have proven themselves worthy adversaries.

While reading through some of the daily enjoyments I have bookmarked, two topics relating to the same subject caught my eye. Years and years ago at a card show I was discussing with some fellow collectors what we did to pass the time between releases and the conversation came around to personal sub-sets. Kind of a "what do you do with your doubles?", "What do you do to pass the time and keep the hobby interesting?" sort of deal. I was amazed at the number of unique and creative collections people had come up with. At the time I had never really given any thought towards what I would choose for such a collection. It had to be something I would find interesting enough to build and continue to add to. I had never really decided upon something and put the idea in my back pocket.

It was while building the 1991 Topps Baseball set that I discovered what my personal sub-set would be. One of the greatest and most magical plays in all of Baseball is the suicide-squeeze. For my money it is the definition of what Baseball is. I have been raised a Toronto Blue Jays fan since they were born but I have always enjoyed National League ball just a bit more. Pete Rose and the Cincinnati Reds were my "other" team until 1989 when, due to circumstances, I was "forced" to change. My local cable company started offering WGN and I got to watch a great second-baseman play. But, I digress......

When I started to go through prior Topps sets I noticed that there was a regularly occurring collection of players attempting the art of "the bunt". I knew THIS was my set. It HAD to be. It was PERFECT!! I decided from that day forward I would collect every Topps baseball card that had a player attempting to bunt. This would satisfy my craving indeed. Of course, as all of you know, once you start something it rarely stays what it is. Soon I began noticing more and more companies releases and began scouring their sets for singles that could join my personal sub-set.

As I go through what I have pulled out of storage I will eventually scan my entire personal sub-set and include newly discovered candidates as well. This set is what kept me collecting back then and I am going to use it to help spark the fire in me again.

This passed Sunday I began what will hopefully be another weekend tradition and drove around discovering new Card Collecting stores around my home town. I want to say a quick "Thanks!" to Ron.
Ron was patient enough to indulge me with his take on the hobby, both where it has been and where he sees it going, while letting me search through boxes of singles to add to my collection. I came away with 3 new Cubs additions including an auto, a wax box of Topps for $25 and nine new additions to my personal sub-set.










As I work through scanning my other singles is there anywhere anyone would recommend I could store them online to use as a slide show on my blog? I will be uploading them to Zistle when done but I am not sure I can use them like that from there. Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,