My How (My Collecting)Times Have Changed

I began collecting baseball cards when I was 11 or so.  For some reason I had this affinity for the A's back then. Seems crazy to say that now.  I don't know why, but I do know there are pictures of the time my dad took me to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and I'm wearing this awesome A's hat that looked like this:

 

I used to like the Mets too for some reason, but we won't talk about that (makes me nauseous now).  

Part of the reason I liked the A's is because I was a big fan of one of the sluggers on their team. Can you guess who? It wasn't Mark McGwire or Rickey Henderson. It wasn't Dave Parker or Walt Weiss.  It was none other than "Juiced" author, whistle-blower, and one time 40/40 man Jose Canseco.

Love him, hate him, or fall somewhere in between, Canseco arguably has had one of the biggest impacts on the game in recent history.   It was partly his candid confessions that spawned the beginning of the end of the steroid era in baseball, which ultimately brought some integrity back to the game, and at the same time tainted some careers. 

Canseco was an accomplished player. He was the only player I collected as a kid.  I was going through some cards and came across a pile of his. Why not blog about it?

Exhibit 1: 1987 Topps Rookie. A classic card.  A card that whoever I bought it from thought it would be majorly valuable in the future, so he convinced me to buy a screw down case for it. We all know how that turned out. If I determine I need a screw down for another card, Jose will get the binder.

Exhibit 2: A 1989 Card that Shall Remain Nameless. That's right, there are no markings or any branding at all on this card, front or back.  Makes me think it might have come from a cereal box or something. Any guesses?

Exhibit 3:  Oddball Cansecos.  Back when I was a kid I thought I was cool, so I decided to try to collect all these oddball Jose cards.  One interesting thing is to look at the price tags on the toploaders.  That's what I paid all those years ago.  Four bucks for a MooTown Snackers card.  Check out Jose's forearms in that picture.  He must have lifted a lot and ate some spinach. 

Just a few examples of the Jose cards I came across.  Always fun to take a walk down memory lane, although this lane is riddled with steroids.