Yesterday, Shohei Ohtani hit his 30th home run of the season, and became the seventh Dodger to hit 30 home runs in three straight seasons. There was some online fanfare for the feat, but it's more muted these days for Ohtani, not like his first few years in the league when Ohtani hysteria was high and I almost had to cover my ears with all the yelling. Ohtani has been in the majors for nearly 10 years now and that'll happen. He's not the new thing anymore, even while he continues to do new things. But I think along with that, ever since he came to the Dodgers, people are more reluctant to sing his praises. There may be more Ohtani fans than ever, but there are an awful lot of brain-dead gambling jokes from Barstool acolytes and grumbling about deferred money to go along with it. I seem to read about that more on social media than any cool thing Ohtani has done. It causes me to wonder where all the Ohtani fans went -- I'm still seeing his cards sell for ...
I could cite several factors that led to my beginnings as a card collector. - In the summer of 1974, I was playing baseball in the backyard with my brother and a couple of boys in the neighborhood. We played with a tennis ball because regular baseballs broke windows and dented siding (or so we were told). It's possible we were playing ball the previous summer but I'm not sure. - I was a reader. Loved books and magazines and those Peanuts comic books you could get on loan from the library. I liked stories. I don't recall reading specifically about baseball at that time, I think that came later. - The 1974 Topps design is ideal for a young collector for focusing on the individual photos. It's not loud like 1972 or 1975. It's not dull like 1970 or 1973. It has fun flags and cartoons on the back. But those are secondary reasons. The main reason I became a card collector is because of two people. My mom and Tommy John are where it all started. ...