Baseball cards kept me company as a kid. We lived in the country, fairly isolated, when I first began collecting cards. I spent hours hanging out with them - studying the photos, memorizing the backs, making up stat-driven games.
Nowadays, I'm building on that old collection discovered, yes, in my mom's basement. I'm trying to complete old sets, I'm snagging some new cards and I'm getting great joy from picking up vintage cards predating my collecting heyday of 1978-83.
Cardboard Heroes will mostly showcase favorite cards I owned as a youngster. But, every so often, I'll likely highlight cards that I've added since those days.
Joe Morgan 1981, Feb. 3, 2012
Excerpt: I loved that card. You can tell I'm not exaggerating. That wear and tear across the front ... At 12, I was crazy for Joe Morgan and the way he played the game. I didn't even mind that he had left my beloved Reds.
Mean Joe Greene 1979, April 3, 2012
Excerpt: Mean Joe Greene was the Steelers to me. He was the icon. Sure, others thought that way about Terry Bradshaw - and I liked him, too - but it was Mr. Greene who was the face of the franchise.