I love lists

 

 

I don't think I need to tell you that I love lists. Half of my blog, probably, is some sort of list. I love making lists. I like compiling those lists into a series (a list of a list). I like organizing my cards according to lists.

 

I've been doing that since I was a relative tyke, sitting on the bedroom floor, laying out 10 cards (five on each row) in order of career batting order on the back, selecting the next card off the stack to my left, and then shifting the lined-up cards over one according to the new arrival's stats.

 

Lists are an easy way to make information digestible and entertaining. Making lists enjoyed a big boost in popularity in the early 1980s, as there seemed to be new books every week about this list or that. Lists fell into overkill, especially since the advent of the internet and a whole bunch of fly-by-night websites that want clicks. But a well-maintained, thoughtful list is always interesting to me. I gravitate toward lists: Top sitcoms of all-time, greatest 10 inventions of the 19th century, top 15 drummers you've never heard of, 10 best pizza places in whatever new place I'm visiting. Give me those lists.

 

I like lists in many different forms. A team's batting order, for example, is a fascinating list that arrives daily. It's a crime, really, that it hasn't been utilized on cards that often. Fortunately, Fleer did so in 2003 with its Platinum brand, creating an insert set called "Heart of the Order" in which it listed a batting order for 20 different MLB teams and focused on three players that make up each lineup's "heart".

 

Everywhere you turn there is an opportunity to compile a list. When it comes to my collection, I could create a new list for each day of the year. I could create a separate blog of nothing but baseball card lists. Getting up in the morning is an opportunity to see or form a new a list, a chance to learn. For example, today:

 

Today is collecting favorite Bobby Shantz's 100 birthday. He is the rare former major leaguer to reach that milestone. I've read at least once today that Shantz is now the oldest former major league player. But that is not quite true.

 

To confirm that, I consulted a list.

 

It is one of my favorite lists. I look at it all the time, probably even more now that I'm older.

 

Shantz is not the oldest. He is second on the list to Bill Greason, a former Negro League pitcher who also appeared in three games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1954. I'll go ahead and list the top 10 oldest now because I know you list-lovers are desperate to know:

 

1. Bill Greason, 101

2. Bobby Shantz, 100

3. Jim Willis, 98

4. Roy Face, 97

5. Bob Ross, 96

6. Al Worthington, 96

7. Joe Margoneri, 96

8. Vern Law, 95

9. Bob Lillis, 95

10. Joe Morgan (the former manager), 94

(Zach Monroe, Ray Crone, Chuck Essegian, Stan Pawlowski and Ken Aspromonte are all 94, too, with a fewer days on earth than Morgan).

 

So, I don't know about you, but that's an interesting little fact of the day for me. And, of course, this causes many other list spin-offs. For example, I immediately wondered how many cards of Bobby Shantz I have. I consulted Trading Card Database, which is full of lists (card collectors in general like lists, I believe). TCDB told me I have seven different Shantz cards. With that knowledge I can determine whether I need more ("probably" is usually the answer).

 

Lists on baseball cards have captured my attention since the first year I collected. One of the best places I could find lists on cards from the very beginning are league leader cards.

 

The first cards in which I found the backs as interesting as the fronts -- sometimes more interesting.

 

But Topps outdid itself the very next year that I collected with the league leader cards. The pyramid style on the front was a plus, but the back was mind-boggling.

 

 

 Every year all the way back to 1901! Some guy named Murray led the league with 7 in 1909! NOW THAT'S A LIST! And Topps did the same thing for multiple categories for both leagues.

 

 

 

In a sign that 1976 Topps may be the golden year for lists, it also created one of my immediate favorite cards with the Dave Lopes record-breaker card in which the back listed every instance of a Lopes stolen base during his streak with date, team, pitcher, inning and base!

 

Evidence that I may have studied this card back more than any other card in my life is:

1) I have brought up this card many times on this blog

2) I have known for a long time that pitcher Bruce Dal Canton is on the list more than any other with four.

 

Hey, that's another list!

  

I could go on as far as the on-card aspect for longer than all of your attention spans, but it's not the only place where lists have played a part in my life. Not only do I enjoy viewing and making lists but I have a habit of often keeping lists.

 

Staying with cards for the moment: 

  

This is a lined-loose leaf page of prices written out in way-too-neat handwriting by yours truly in 1993 (note the date) of the most expensive cards in my collection to that point.

 

I think I've shown this once before. This was in the middle of "cards are going to make us rich" era and I carefully consulted my price guide to see which cards were my "best". Needless to say, those prices have changed and a few cards I don't own anymore. Also, maybe it's not a surprise that in less than a year from when I made this, I was barely collecting. 

 

Lists have come up in my job many times. They often appear in graphic boxes, sometimes entire stories are nothing but lists (thinking of the year-end packages).

 

A list of state girls basketball finalists from our area by year through 2004, which was a watershed year for the region. The list is much longer now. We run it just about every year -- at least for those years when one of our teams reaches that far.

 

 

 A list that ran the story about thoroughbred race horse Funny Cide winning the Preakness in 2003. The horse had local connections and I compiled the box. Often list information isn't provided for you the way stories or photos are from a wire service. I had to search out the information and then pull it together in something digestible. All that time creating lists in notebooks at my bedroom desk paid off!

 

 

Here is the newspaper section I produced when Cal Ripken Jr. took his first break after 2,632 straight games played (I also produced the one in which Ripken broke Gehrig's record but no longer have it).

 

You can see there are TWO lists with this package. One is a photo of the lineup with Ripken's name missing. The other is a graphic box with info gathered by me.

 

(Man, typesetting was a pain back then).

 

Again, there are too many other examples of list-making and publishing to provide here.

 

Now that I'm approaching general retirement age, lists come in handy from a practical standpoint. I sometimes create lists on my phone but more often it's on a scrap of paper. There are a few in my pocket right now and a couple others to the left of my laptop. They're list reminders mostly, because the brain isn't as air-tight as it once was. And all card collectors know how important lists are when going to card shows. "Bring your lists!" we say, because we know -- if you don't have a list, you're going to buy some cards you already have, guaranteed.

 

Also, are you even a collector if you don't have a want list? 

 

Lists, in general, I try to keep fun as much as possible. It counters the "to-do" lists.

 

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I compile weekly lists of my favorite current songs. I do it every Friday and I always look forward to it. It's a way to relax and help me keep up on the music scene in the genres that I like. It's also nostalgic, as it's the format I first learned when listening to the old top 40 Casey Kaseem show (and other countdown shows -- because that also burst into popularity in the early '80s). During the year-end show, I'd dutifully write down every one of the top 100 songs.

 

And then, as I said, I'd begin to create my own weekly lists and did that through much of the 1980s. I then restarted it in the mid-1990s, I'm not sure why. It was probably something I found comforting.

 

Here is the first list marking my music-ranking return. Yeah, I still have it. Yeah, it's rather pop-oriented but has a bit of a '90s alt edge. I've kept this notebook, which runs from 1996-2000, it's a good time capsule and helps me recall moments from that period when everything was very rushed. I wish I had continued it through, say 2000-2010, it probably wouldn't be such a blank spot for memories if I had.

 

But that's enough babbling about lists. Before I leave, I'll put my most recent Top 30 music favorites for the week here. I mentioned the last time that I'd do this about every two months. Again, maybe you find a new favorite, maybe you lose the last shred of respect you had for me.

 

"My top 30" (week of Sept. 21-27) 

 

1. davina mccall - Wet Leg

2. You Got Me - Kristina Murray

3. Sing in Your Sleep - Tristan Armstrong

4. There's a Part I Can't Get Back - Sunflower Bean

5. Ghost Ship - Lilly Hiatt

6. Summer Sweat - Hannah Cohen

7. Old Tape - Lucius

8. Bread Butter Tea Sugar - Wolf Alice

9. Kill Me - Hayley Williams

10. #1 - Laura Stevenson

11. Zarigani - Mei Semones

12. Back at the Start - Patty Griffin

13. Old Oregon - Alexandra Savior

14. Don't Wake Me Up - Margo Price, Jesse Wells

15. The Itch - Arcy Drive

16. First it was a movie, then it was a book - Florry

17. Feisty - Smerz

18. Enough Is Enough - The Hives

19. Lover Girl - Laufey

20. Tiny Threads - Deep Sea Diver

21. Words - Big Thief

22. Depression - Ben Kwellar, Coconut Records

23. Disintegrate - Suede

24. There She Goes - Curtis Harding

25. Wheel of Change - Hand Habits

26. You N33d Me - Viagra Boys

27. Lost & Found - Free Range

28 Autumn - Tobacco City

29. Life Signs - Water From Your Eyes

30. Allbarone - Baxter Dury, JGrrey

 

I think from this point on, I'll be posting this on my sidebar and updating it weekly. I don't know how often people check blog sidebars anymore, I do sometimes. But that's probably a better place for it and the 2 people who are looking for it can check it out there instead of being surprised when I randomly publish it here.

 

Anyway, that was a lot of lists. Expect more!