10 Things I don't like that most collectors do

Taking a queue from Dime Box Nick's recent post, I decided I would do one on 10 things that I don't care for that most collectors do.

These are in no particular order. Some have to do with collecting, some don't.

1. Mini cards.

For me, it just comes down to an issue with sorting and storage. When I pull a mini card fresh out of  a pack, it never fails to fall out of the stack as I am sorting them into teams. They are just easy to fall out of a stack because they are smaller. They are a pain to take out of a binder page. If you are putting a normal sized card in the page behind it, there is a good chance that the bigger card will be difficult to get into the spot, and many times, they fall behind the mini card and get on the wrong side of the page. Add to it the fact that mini cards have been overdone since around 2003, and you get my reasons for not caring for them. That doesn't mean don't send them to me, I will just wait until my stack is sorted before putting the minis in it, and I will take extra care when putting them into binder pages.

2. Panini Golden Age

I know I am in the minority on this one. I have just never cared for the set. Never cared for the no logos, never cared for the design of it, and just never got the big deal of it. Topps puts out Allen & Ginter every year if you want your fix of non-baseball guys. I'm sure there is some set out there every year if you want TV people/celelbrities. Plus, if that is your only reason for buying the set in the first place, why buy it and get all of the baseball cards you don't want? When the cards first came out and I saw them on blog posts, the red box logo almost looked like it was a relic. I kind of thought the set was neat if it had tons of relic cards and wasn't very expensive. When I found out it was just the logo, I thought 'what is the big deal?'. So what if it has retired players on it. That's what Topps Archives (more on that later) is aparently for. With that being said (and the same goes for all of the card things on the list), if you send them to me, I will happily add them to my collection. I just don't get the big deal.

3. Allen & Ginter

I'll admit, I purchased a pack of Allen & Ginter in 2006 when the hype behind the set started. I purchased 2 or 3 boxes of the 2011(?) set. Now, it just seems like it is the same thing over and over again. The designs are so similar, I can't tell them apart (note the '?' when I was talking about when I purchased the boxes of it). It has minis in it. It's usually a higher priced set, and just another set I don't really need to be buying packs from. Call me old and crotchety, but I'll stick with flagship Topps, a pack or 2 of Bowman, Donruss, Topps Chrome, and Update, and I'm good.

4. Pitchers hitting

I know in the couple of blogs I've seen with lists like these that most people said that everyone liked the DH, but everyone I've ever talked to is like 'wah, wah, wah, I don't like the DH!'. There is a reason why the AL adopted the DH. Nobody likes to watch a pitcher strike out or bunt. It's like being almost ready to leave work and getting stuck with a slow customer or having your idiot boss have you do some extra cleaning for half an hour. Nobody wants it. People are like 'the NL has strategy!' and 'well, Madison Bumgarner can hit good'. As for strategy, there are many ways for strategy to be in an AL game without having to see a sorry pitcher strike out. It is actually more strategic to HAVE to pitch to a DH with 2 outs and guys on base than being able to strike out the pitcher in the #9 spot for the last out. Guys will have to think on their toes instead of walking the #8 hitter to face the pitcher and escape the jam. As someone wrote in the comments of a blog I was reading, there isn't much stragegy in the NL. You know when the #9 spot is coming in the lineup, and you know the manager is going to pinch-hit. It will actually make pitchers that much better at pitching if they aren't going to have to waste 10% of their training time on hitting.

5. Low-scoring games

Speaking of pitching, I know all of these people who love low-scoring games, and I just don't get it. I love baseball, but I tell you what, it can get boring sometimes if nobody is scoring. If I wanted to watch something boring where nobody scores, I would just turn on some soccer (while muting the TV, of course, so I didn't have to hear those vuvuzela things). It's fun to see a no-hitter every now and then, but I've watched no-hitters on TV, and I've watched 24-17 games, and the latter are more fun to watch. I am always more in awe of power stats and some of the records that HR hitters have broken than pitchers and their records. Heck, even singles are kind of boring to me. Let's see some Home Runs and doubles in the gap.

6. The hit-and-run

I've never really cared for the hit-and-run in baseball. It can be effective when the batter actually hits the ball, but there are so many ways to create outs on the play. The hitter can miss the pitch altogether and the runner gets thrown out. The batter can hit a liner for a double play. The batter can pop it up or hit a fly ball, and you are back where you started, only with one more out. It can only be used with less than 2 strikes, because you have to hit whatever pitch is thrown no matter what. It can pay off if the batter does make contact, and you might even get really lucky and end up with guys on 1st and 3rd, but it's definitely playing Russian Roulette.

7. Relic card hate

I love relic cards. They came out in '97, and I was just getting old enough to buy packs with my own money. I never hit one until 2002, but that didn't sour me against them. I think it's insane that you can own a piece of a jersey worn by your favorite player, a Hall of Famer, or just anyone who is a star in MLB. relic cards have opened up a myriad of different game-used things on cards, like cleats, hats, dirt, different parts of stadium, things from historical people, documents, grass, tickets, things flown in space, the list goes on. Give me all of your unwanted relics. I'll even take ones of the Yankee$. Just don't mention to me that they might not be real.

8. Derek Jeter

I got this picture from the Wikipedia page of an Error in baseball. Kind of funny. I've never got why everyone loves Jeter. He only got his shot in 1996 because Tony Fernandez went down with a season-ending injury. For all of the times he made a great play in the postseason, I can name you 2 where he struck out or hit into a double play. How did the Yankees make it to the postseason so many times from 2001-2010 and only end up with 1 title? Jeter. I can remember listening the the 2006 ALCS, and there were 2 times in the final game where Jeter could've pulled them ahead of the Indians, and he struck out and hit into a DP. Nobody talked about it. Everyone wants to talk about that catch where he went into the stands against Boston. Brandon Inge made an even better catch. Go ahead and watch it. I'll wait.

It was even put on a card.

Why didn't Inge get all of the publicity that Jeter got? Because Jeter is in New York and his highlights get played daily, even if they aren't good, and Inge is in Detroit, and only people in Detroit know about the Tigers. Sure, Jeter has got a lot of hits and made the 1 play against Oakland, but other than that, if you take a good look at his defense (not being able to make plays to his right), make park adjustments on power for playing in a bandbox like Old Yankee Stadium, and maybe take his highlights with a grain of salt since he played in New York and they are constantly put on the news, then maybe the crap comes out from underneath the rug and you realize that he was a decent player, maybe a borderline Hall of Famer, but certainly not as good as the analysts want you to think he is.

9. Mike Trout

Kind of similar to Jeter, Trout's name is mentioned on all of the talk shows and highlight shows. He is good, but he was NOT good enough to win an MVP award away from Miguel Cabrera in a Triple Crown season. I don't care if the Tigers would've lost 100 games, you give the MVP to the guy who wins the Triple Crown! I think Trout is just like Jeter where if his name would be mentioned a little less, maybe like an Alex Bregman or Acuna or Javy Baez, then maybe I would like him more. Kind of like that Counting Crows song that you liked at first, but now it's been played a zillion times and you can't stand it (Wait. That's all of their songs). I guess I'm defensive because I'm a Tigers fan and I'm sick of people saying he should've won all of these MVP awards. I really think Bregman should've won it last year, but you don't see me and all of the people in Houston whining about it. Trout can take his stolen MVP awards and put them on his mantle at home, but that's going to be the only thing you see on it until the Angels get some better players. If Trout was so good, why doesn't he hit 4 HRs every game and make it so the Angels don't have to worry about pitching or scoring runs. I like how he plays baseball at 100% but you have to wonder if he would've legitimized all of the talk about him if he could actually play a full season. I believe it was this season where he was leading the AL in HRs that I was starting to perhaps come around on him, but then he got injured again, and his quest for 50 HRs went bye bye. Time will tell, but for now, it just seems like he's MLB.com's golden child and he can do no wrong, but I get sick of hearing about him 24/7.

10. Not getting Rays hits (or Rays cards at all, for that matter)

There is nothing better to me than buying a pack of baseball cards, and getting some Rays in them. Well, one thing is better: getting a Rays hit. It doesn't happen very often for me. I believe the last one I pulled was a 2017 Evan Longoria Blue parallel from 2017 Topps. Other than that, it's been a few parallel cards, and maybe a jersey card. Everyone who pulls Rays hits complains, but I feel the same way when I pull Yankees, Rangers, Twins, Indians, Giants, etc. hits (I would like to note that although it is in the picture, I don't consider manufactured-whatever cards as 'hits'). I think that's why trading is so important to these blogs. I pull a Dodger hit and send it over to Night Owl. I pull a Brian Giles parallel, but know that Gavin collects him, so off to Portland. No matter what hit or base card I pull, there is a good chance that someone on the blogosphere could use it. I have been doing a lot of trading lately, and it's alwasy surprising to look on someones want list and see that you had random cards they could use just sitting away in a binder. Cards that you could really live without. So you pull them and turn them into cards you could use. Like Rays guys.

I hope this post wasn't negative and didn't turn you off to me as a person. It is kind of interesting to me to read what other people don't care for and then reading some of the comments posted. I think my biggest fear is that I wrote some of this stuff out of ignorance and then someone is going to blow me away and make Jeter look even better, but I guess I'll take that risk. Thanks to Nick for getting this whole thing started.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay inside when all possible.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy