Why do you collect?

[gingi79]

I think we all have friends or family members who see our collections and ask, "Wow, that's cool." or "Why would you own this?" I have friends who follow the same teams I do but have no interest in collecting game worn jerseys, hats, bats, sticks, helmets, etc. So when I started to get the question from people in my life, I compiled a list of reasons and I wanted to know the opinions of the board members here as well.

1) My campers and students think I'm awesome not only because I show them real game used material but because I show them how to figure out if something is real or not based upon tagging, lettering, font etc. The highlight of my summer was when my camper Adam asked a seller at a mall how he could sell fake jerseys and claim they were real. The shop owner became all indignant and asked me to remove the "unruly brat" but not before Adam showed a handful of customers why the "authentic" Tom Brady Patriots jersey was just a sweatshop knockoff using a real Dolphins jersey I helped him purchase the day before. In fact, his dad now collects Kansas City Royals stuff and asks me all the time how to get bats.

2) My dad is currently battling Mesothelioma. I collect jerseys from people I associate with him. When he made me read Dave Barry's article from Tropic when it was reprinted in The Best Sports Writing of 1992 and then discussed why Grant Long was a throwback to the better, less selfish days of the NBA I became a huge fan. One of the last nights out I had with my dad was to meet Bill Russell. You better believe I have a Grant Long Game Worn jersey hanging next to my Russell Mitchell and Ness jersey right now. Next up, Harry Carson. (Know where I can get a gamer?)

3) My wife caught the bug so collecting for us is now a couples hobby. Now when I hear about a Shawn Camp or a Sami Salo or a Matt Diaz item, she gets just as excited as I do. She is also helping in the planning of the basement of our first house to best display our collection.

These are just 3 of the reasons I answer Why do you collect?

For those of you who collect bats or helmets, I'd love to hear your reasons. If you read mine and shook your head or have your own about any game used stuff, my wife and I would love to hear about it. You can post here for all to share or email me at gingi79@aol.com to share privately. Either way, thanks for your input and good luck with you collections. May you enjoy them as much as we enjoy ours.

Matt and Jennie Nachamkin

[NYCrulesU]

For the love of the game.

[suicide_squeeze]

2) My dad is currently battling Mesothelioma.

Matt and Jennie Nachamkin

Matt (and Jennie),

I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear this. Mesothelioma seems to be coming alarmingly more prevalent in todays world.....the result of many years of exposure to a products that destroy the inner workings of our bodies, and cause cancer.

My wife's best friends mother has had radical surgery to fight off this horrible infliction that caused her to have an intestinal blockage (she has it in her pleural cavity, not the lungs). Her husband spent many years as a plumber before running his own very large and successful plumbing company, and she apparently was exposed to it by doing his laundry every day.

I have had two friends who have died from it.....one was only 43 years old.

I wish you and your father the best of luck in his fight. My heart and thoughts are with you.

When I have a bit more time, I will revisit this post to tell you two why I collect.

My best wishes,

Steve

[gingi79]

Matt (and Jennie),

I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear this. Mesothelioma seems to be coming alarmingly more prevalent in todays world.....the result of many years of exposure to a products that destroy the inner workings of our bodies, and cause cancer.

My best wishes,

Steve

(Not to hijack my own thread but it was on top)

Steve,

Jen and I thank you for your well wishes. My dad has good days and bad with this disease and the worst part has been the ebb and flow. He too has a pleural catheter which needs to be drained daily. It awful to see the strongest person in my life brought low by this disease. Thank god for my wife. Knowing he may only have a few days left on this earth, she gave up every little girls dream of a big wedding. Her family lives like 8 hours away and they gave their blessing for her to do something small without them.

In short, she gave up the catering hall, her bridesmaids, all of her friends, her grandparents, her sister even her mom and dad, the dress, and the honeymoon (we're still saving) to get married in the den of my parents house just so my father could see his oldest son get married. More than 50% of weddings result in divorce in this country. Maybe if couples were half as unselfish as my wife, that statistic wouldn't exist. When she says she loves me, she shows it. I'd continue this post but I can't see with these watery eyes.

[Swoboda4]

Good question. For me, its part love of the game and part..I guess psychological. The psych is a two part answer. (1) In 1968 my father decided to take me to batting helmet day at Shea. In the car we go. What's better than that? Only problem was he hears on the radio the game is sold out and turns around and goes home. (2) Being athletic but never having played little league ,I decided to make my H.S. baseball team cold from a tryout. Made the J.V. and only 1 game in varsity. Always wanted to wear the H.S. baseball jacket (with the uniform number on the sleeve)in school but didn't get to. Flash foward 30 years to 2009.For purely clinical reasons I put on my David West Met jacket (w/#46 on the sleeve) and recently took a walk around the old H.S. field. It felt good.

Overall this is a great question and one that many have asked me.




Oh,..and I finally got a helmet-a real one:

[bucephalus]

Game used football helmets

Love of the sport. Searching for a significant piece is part of the fun. Finding and buying something worth-while is rewarding. It's hopefully a terrific investment. It's a tangible investment, which provides enjoyment by possessing a piece of sports history, that can either be be passed on to the next generation, or sold for a sustantial profit. Unlike something like comic books or stamps ... imperfections are deemed part of the value. The hobby looks great if properly displayed. And on and on ...

Sorry for your Father's malady.

Colin

[shoremen44]

I have alwasy loved baseball... it is something my father and his father before him shared...

I collect because every bat is literally a piece of history, it is the connection to the game I love

[suicide_squeeze]

(Not to hijack my own thread but it was on top)

Steve,

Jen and I thank you for your well wishes. My dad has good days and bad with this disease and the worst part has been the ebb and flow. He too has a pleural catheter which needs to be drained daily. It awful to see the strongest person in my life brought low by this disease. Thank god for my wife. Knowing he may only have a few days left on this earth, she gave up every little girls dream of a big wedding. Her family lives like 8 hours away and they gave their blessing for her to do something small without them.

In short, she gave up the catering hall, her bridesmaids, all of her friends, her grandparents, her sister even her mom and dad, the dress, and the honeymoon (we're still saving) to get married in the den of my parents house just so my father could see his oldest son get married. More than 50% of weddings result in divorce in this country. Maybe if couples were half as unselfish as my wife, that statistic wouldn't exist. When she says she loves me, she shows it. I'd continue this post but I can't see with these watery eyes.

I wish you two a wonderful life together. You have someone special there, and your post says it all.....you already know that.

My prayers to your father....God bless him.

[frikativ54]

I collect purely out of wanting to be closer to the action. The bats, the gloves, and the jerseys bring me closer to a game where I have never been able to dream of reaching Big Leagues.

Sadly, despite my collection, people constantly remind me - whether they mean to or not - that I am a second-class citizen and that I am inferior, because I am female.

This makes collecting a double-edged sword. I love to collect, but I constantly ask myself "why". Why not find a pastime where women are equals, where sexism isn't so rampant, and where I actually can dream?

Even though baseball seems like a dead end, I still collect out of a love of a sport where I am never truly an equal participant. I try to stop collecting baseball, but I still do love the game.

[suicide_squeeze]

I have alwasy loved baseball... it is something my father and his father before him shared...

I collect because every bat is literally a piece of history, it is the connection to the game I love

That about sums it up for me, too.

You guys see "Field of Dreams"? There is a part where James Earl Jones gives a little speech.

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America is ruled by it like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will come most definitely come."

Baseball, to me, represents the pure and good in our lives. Ithelps us bond as human beings, ties our generations together with something that represents a wholsomeness that we can't find in other facits of life.

That, to me, is what drives me to collect little pieces of the actual history of the game. I like to surround myself by it. It makes me feel good about this often difficult life we all share.