(First day of summer. It's in the 80s. Sunny. And I'm still working. Explain. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 146th in a series): By the time this card arrived in '84, I was a certified fan. You aren't really a fan until you know misery. Disappointment. Heartbreak. Deflated expectations. Disgust. All of it. I was fortunate in that I selected a favorite team at the same time that team was going pretty good (by coincidence, I swear). By the time I had fully invested myself into this thing called "baseball," instead of simply collecting cards, my favorite team was making regular trips to the World Series. Back-to-back trips, in fact, in 1977 and 1978. But then I began to find out exactly what being a fan was all about. It wasn't merely rooting for your team, and seeing it do exactly what you wanted it to do -- win. It was about this: Crushing World Series losses (1977 and 1978) . Disappointing seasons full of unrealized expect...
Up all hours talking baseball, cardboard & collecting