THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504080376
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BRIAN L. BIGELOW, SPECIAL TO THE VP/LS
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Regular baseball, regular players, regular baseball cards.
Those who dictate the outcomes in baseball matters have arranged circumstances to provide 1995 versions of each of these quantities. Eager addicts of the game are more than ready to receive the sport in ``regular'' doses.
No one is sure about what the interruption of events in baseball has done to the card-collecting hobby. Hobbyists have retained their zeal for the summer pastime, but they may not be as anxious as before to buy every new cardboard product in mass amounts. It's to be expected that they'll be more discriminating in their purchases, and that this effect will tend to dampen the fervor that held sway before the hobby was disrupted.
The 1994-95 events did strengthen the presence of nostalgia as it applies to old-time baseball and older baseball cards. Sales of quality material in that realm have never been stronger; perhaps nostalgia is, and should always be, regarded as the prime motivator in an otherwise rational person's decision to amass card-size images of baseball players with whom only exciting or pleasant memories are associated.
A media pundit recently observed that, while football is a ``spectacle'', baseball is a ``habit.'' He speculated that America possibly was ready to modify some of its habitual behavior in regard to its national pastime. It's reasonable to assume that this will happen in baseball card collecting. The best of the new cards will still be bought, for gratification and for nostalgia. MEMO: Brian L. Bigelow is store manager and appraiser for Candl Coins &
Stamps, located on Independence Blvd. and North (Lynnhaven) Mall Drive
in Virginia Beach.
ILLUSTRATION: ``SHUT UP AND PLAY,'' says the new Mark Grace card. No
replacement cards now.
by CNB