(Today marks exactly one month of working from home. I have no idea why I couldn't have started doing this 10 years earlier. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 292nd in a series):
Meet my first association with Ron Santo.
This is how I came to know him. Mini-sized. The most diamond-cut of all diamond-cuts. And a member of the Chicago White Sox.
That's what I knew of this Santo fellow. He played for the Chicago White Sox. And he appeared on strange-looking cards. I pulled this card out of a pack in 1975, having no idea that he spent the vast majority of his major league career with the White Sox's city rival, the Cubs.
Eventually, probably many years later, I re-associated Santo with the Cubs. However, when his name pops in my head -- and that happens very rarely -- he is a member of the White Sox. On a crooked card. You just can't destroy the power of first associations. You can force it down, way in the subconscious. But you can never kill it.
Here's another former Cub in the 1975 Topps set, the recently departed Glenn Beckert. This is how I first got to know him, as a San Diego Padre.
I later figured out he was a key member of the Cubs' 1960s infield, just as Santo was. But, again, if I'm pulling out the first Glenn Beckert card because someone has a gun to my head with that very bizarre demand, I'm going straight for Padre Beckert.
This may enrage a Cub fan or two, but I consider it payback for all the times a Cubs fan has told me that they consider Ron Cey a Chicago Cub first.
Cey's Cubs career was a speck compared with his time with the Dodgers, where he became a multi-year All-Star and a World Series hero. No chance of the same happening with the Cubs. Even worse is when someone tells me, "I think of Ron Cey as an Oakland A!" OK, you just be quiet with your nonsense. You don't have to say EVERYTHING.
But first associations are a funny thing and a product of when someone grew up. As much as I don't think Nolan Ryan should be consider a Texas Ranger first -- his career was clearly on the downswing during those years -- that's when an awful lot of collectors came to know Ryan.
And so it goes. Wade Boggs for me is a member of the Boston Red Sox. Others say -- weirdly -- that he's a Yankee or a Devil Ray. To me, Jack Morris is a Tiger. Others say he's a Twin. Fernando Valenzuela is without a doubt a Dodger. Then some contrarian will announce cheerily, "I only remember him as an Oriole!"
Well, good for you.
But I do the same thing when I bring up Chicago White Sox Ron Santo.
One day, many years from now, people may have forgotten all about the time that Bryce Harper was a Washington National -- that is if he stays with the Phillies for the rest of his career. Perhaps no one will think of Gerrit Cole first as an Astro or a Pirate.
The only way to avoid such confusion is for a player to remain with the same team for his whole career. But there are very few Brooks Robinsons, Tony Gwynns and Stan Musials. As much as Angels fans refuse to accept it, there could very well be people, probably not even born yet, who will announce proudly: "I know Mike Trout as a Seattle Mariner!"
Anyway, this whole topic came about because the Padre Beckert was one of the cards I claimed from The Collector's free card giveaways. I received the smattering of cards just the other day.
I claimed a couple of 1975 Topps cards up for grabs. As you know I've completed this set. I did it about 15 years ago.
But I just can't bear to see '75 Topps cards go unwanted. Plus for someone who loves the set so much, I never seem to have anything to send people when they say they're trying to complete it. Shouldn't a '75 aficionado have '75 extras spilling out of every window and door?
These are about the only players that make sense in Panini's Diamond Kings series. Make them as old-timey as possible. I have so few cards of Al Simmons. This is my third. I like that better than having two.
A couple of hockey dudes to close things out.
I remember when Thomas Vanek was the best player on the Sabres. Now, people probably say, "I only know him as a Red Wing," or "a Minnesota Wild".
The Mario Lemieux is for the slow-and-casual 1991-92 Pro Set hockey pursuit. I still don't think people believe I'm serious about acquiring these cards. I expected to be buried in them by now. But that's cool. I'm totally out of binders these days.
So, thanks, Chris for the cards.
And if anybody has any team first associations that drive them crazy -- or they drive others crazy with -- feel free to mention them.
Meet my first association with Ron Santo.
This is how I came to know him. Mini-sized. The most diamond-cut of all diamond-cuts. And a member of the Chicago White Sox.
That's what I knew of this Santo fellow. He played for the Chicago White Sox. And he appeared on strange-looking cards. I pulled this card out of a pack in 1975, having no idea that he spent the vast majority of his major league career with the White Sox's city rival, the Cubs.
Eventually, probably many years later, I re-associated Santo with the Cubs. However, when his name pops in my head -- and that happens very rarely -- he is a member of the White Sox. On a crooked card. You just can't destroy the power of first associations. You can force it down, way in the subconscious. But you can never kill it.
Here's another former Cub in the 1975 Topps set, the recently departed Glenn Beckert. This is how I first got to know him, as a San Diego Padre.
I later figured out he was a key member of the Cubs' 1960s infield, just as Santo was. But, again, if I'm pulling out the first Glenn Beckert card because someone has a gun to my head with that very bizarre demand, I'm going straight for Padre Beckert.
This may enrage a Cub fan or two, but I consider it payback for all the times a Cubs fan has told me that they consider Ron Cey a Chicago Cub first.
Cey's Cubs career was a speck compared with his time with the Dodgers, where he became a multi-year All-Star and a World Series hero. No chance of the same happening with the Cubs. Even worse is when someone tells me, "I think of Ron Cey as an Oakland A!" OK, you just be quiet with your nonsense. You don't have to say EVERYTHING.
But first associations are a funny thing and a product of when someone grew up. As much as I don't think Nolan Ryan should be consider a Texas Ranger first -- his career was clearly on the downswing during those years -- that's when an awful lot of collectors came to know Ryan.
And so it goes. Wade Boggs for me is a member of the Boston Red Sox. Others say -- weirdly -- that he's a Yankee or a Devil Ray. To me, Jack Morris is a Tiger. Others say he's a Twin. Fernando Valenzuela is without a doubt a Dodger. Then some contrarian will announce cheerily, "I only remember him as an Oriole!"
Well, good for you.
But I do the same thing when I bring up Chicago White Sox Ron Santo.
One day, many years from now, people may have forgotten all about the time that Bryce Harper was a Washington National -- that is if he stays with the Phillies for the rest of his career. Perhaps no one will think of Gerrit Cole first as an Astro or a Pirate.
The only way to avoid such confusion is for a player to remain with the same team for his whole career. But there are very few Brooks Robinsons, Tony Gwynns and Stan Musials. As much as Angels fans refuse to accept it, there could very well be people, probably not even born yet, who will announce proudly: "I know Mike Trout as a Seattle Mariner!"
Anyway, this whole topic came about because the Padre Beckert was one of the cards I claimed from The Collector's free card giveaways. I received the smattering of cards just the other day.
I claimed a couple of 1975 Topps cards up for grabs. As you know I've completed this set. I did it about 15 years ago.
But I just can't bear to see '75 Topps cards go unwanted. Plus for someone who loves the set so much, I never seem to have anything to send people when they say they're trying to complete it. Shouldn't a '75 aficionado have '75 extras spilling out of every window and door?
These are about the only players that make sense in Panini's Diamond Kings series. Make them as old-timey as possible. I have so few cards of Al Simmons. This is my third. I like that better than having two.
A couple of hockey dudes to close things out.
I remember when Thomas Vanek was the best player on the Sabres. Now, people probably say, "I only know him as a Red Wing," or "a Minnesota Wild".
The Mario Lemieux is for the slow-and-casual 1991-92 Pro Set hockey pursuit. I still don't think people believe I'm serious about acquiring these cards. I expected to be buried in them by now. But that's cool. I'm totally out of binders these days.
So, thanks, Chris for the cards.
And if anybody has any team first associations that drive them crazy -- or they drive others crazy with -- feel free to mention them.
Comments
Viva La Penguin!
By the way... I hope that one day we get the opportunity to hear a young baseball fan say, I know Mike Trout as an Oakland Athletic.
But in my mind, Edwin Jackson is a Cub.