When your favorite player leaves your favorite team

[godwulf]

I consider myself to be primarily a team collector, but there are also selected players whose careers I will continue to follow, often even after they've retired as players and have become coaches, managers, or even front office guys. The idea that any guy who belonged and contributed to my team, even if it was for only a few games, would be "dead to me" just because they (in most cases, involuntarily) left - I don't get that.

In my mind, I have a team collection, and then I have player collections that overlap with the team collection. There are players - Matt Williams, Luis Gonzalez, David Dellucci, Greg Colbrunn, Alan Zinter and a few others - whose stuff I will continue to collect, I don't care if they're playing or coaching in a beer softball league in Paducah. Everybody else - it's just the DBacks stuff I'm into, but the idea that I'd want to get rid of the DBacks stuff, just because they aren't DBacks anymore - I don't get that, either.

[Birdbats]

Yesterday, I experienced the other side of the coin... one of my favorite players, Lance Berkman, signed with my favorite team, the Cardinals. Now I can replace that Houston bat with a St. Louis bat, and maybe by this time next year, the bat will be hanging next to one of Puma's Cardinals jerseys.

[AWA85]

This is one of the biggest difficulties I look at when adding to my collection. I would love to grab game used stuff from some of the young starting pitchers like Cueto, Wood and Leake but there are constant whispers about packaging one or two of these guys into trades. Hate to have a bunch of stuff of a guy who only played a short time with my team (Reds).

Now when some of my past favorites move on such as Adam Dunn, I still collect his Reds gear but pretty safe to say I would never a Nats jersey hanging on my wall. This topic makes my appreciation and desire to collect Barry Larkin even more. 19 seasons with one team, makes him a Red and nothing else.

Not as cool as Birdbats Big Puma story, but I have always been a huge D Train fan and now hoping he finds a little something left in the tank and can add to the Reds bullpen. Would make me feel a little better about all of his autograph stuff I have sitting around.

[godwulf]

After the end of the one season - 2008 - that Adam Dunn played for the Diamondbacks, he was doing a signing, and I got to shake his hand and say, "Wherever you are in the future, we'll always appreciate the time you spent here, and we'll always be fans." He looked me in the eye and said, "Thanks, I appreciate that", and he seemed very sincere.

Here's something ironic, considering the subject of this thread, having to do with Dunn: the only bats that he used when he was here were bats he brought from Cincinnatti...so my Dunn "Diamondbacks" bat says "Cincinnatti Reds" on it. He had DBacks bats made up, but never got around to using any of them. Naturally, I'd like to have one of the DBacks bats, just because they exist, but having the Reds bat that he actually used here is much more important to me.

Over the years, I've also collected bats from other players, that were used here, but are inscribed with another team name. A Johnny Estrada bat from Atlanta, a Craig Counsell bat from Milwaukee, a Shea Hillenbrand bat from Boston - even a rare Randy Johnson Houston bat that the Unit brought to DBacks ST in '99. Should I consider those bats to be somehow less desirable because they've got another team's name on them?

[CampWest]

Yesterday, I experienced the other side of the coin... one of my favorite players, Lance Berkman, signed with my favorite team, the Cardinals. Now I can replace that Houston bat with a St. Louis bat, and maybe by this time next year, the bat will be hanging next to one of Puma's Cardinals jerseys.

I havent had time to look into that, I'm a huge Berkman fan too... Whats the playing time going to be like for Lance next year? Initially seems like he doesnt have much of a full time position, with Albert playing 158 games at first. I thought he might go AL to DH/1B platoon for a year or two. Are they planning on starting him in the outfield? Pujols, Holliday, Berkman... good middle of the lineup.

[Birdbats]

I havent had time to look into that, I'm a huge Berkman fan too... Whats the playing time going to be like for Lance next year? Initially seems like he doesnt have much of a full time position, with Albert playing 158 games at first. I thought he might go AL to DH/1B platoon for a year or two. Are they planning on starting him in the outfield? Pujols, Holliday, Berkman... good middle of the lineup.

Right now, the plan seems to be playing Berkman in left, moving Holliday to right, and batting Berkman second, after Theriot and in front of Pujols (where he should see good pitches to hit) and then Holliday. Berkman can give Pujols the occasional day off, and I'm sure Berkman will get plenty of rest as LaRussa loves to rotate his bench players to keep his regulars fresh.

[AWA85]

As a Reds fan I love the idea of the Big Puma roaming LF for the Cards!

[LastingsMilledge85]

This is why I am a player fan first before a team. Especially when a guy like Lastings is on a new team every season and it doesn't help that the Pirates just released him.