Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday to sit back and reflect on this great hobby of ours because, you know, Turkey Red baseball cards.

And also … collectors have a lot of cool stuff to be grateful for.

Like what?

Glad you asked, because I just happen to have 101 reasons to be thankful for baseball cards right here for your perusal.

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• They show little pictures of your favorite baseball players.
• You can collect them with your son.
• You can collect them with your dad.
• They sound better in your bicycle spokes than ebooks do.
• They flip better than pet rocks do.
• They fit better in your shirt pocket than comic books do.
• Two words for winter: “commons-bin kindling”.
• They’re high in fiber (at least the old Topps mushy ones).
• They’re high in ink.
• They smell good.
• They have gum stains, at least sometimes.
• They have wax stains, at least sometimes.
• You can always hope and pray for that rare gum-and-wax-stain double-shot on one card.
• You can get them cheap … sometimes.
• You can get them free … other times.
• You can spend a lot to get them — GOALS.

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• You can collect all the cards of guys with green eyes who once saw a traveling show in Terre Haute, Indiana. #TypeSets
• They are mobile friendly (see #6 above).
• They fit really well in those nine-pocket plastic sheets. Almost like they were made for each other. Weird.
• They fit really well in 800-count boxes.
• They fit really well in monster boxes.
• They fit really well in shoe boxes.
• When someone knows you collect them, those someones give you lots of opportunities to get more. “Say, wanna buy some baseball cards?”
• The Jose Uribe thing is too silly not to enjoy.
• You can cut pumpkin pie with a baseball card … 1984 Topps Supers and 1985 Topps 3Ds are good for this. Those Perma-Graphics credit card deals, too.
• They don’t melt when it gets hot.
• They don’t freeze over.
• They remind you what real sideburns look like. (Talking to you, 1977 Topps Chuck Hartenstein).
• They were Sabermetricians before Sabermetricians became GMs in their 20s.
• They show things you forgot about, like Keith Hernandez without a mustache.
• They show things you wish you could forget about, like Pete Rose with the Montreal Expos.
• The Montreal Expos still exist on baseball cards.

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• You can scrape your Thanksgiving plates clean with them. Early Upper Deck cards work well here.
• “Baseball Cards” can also be used as a differentiator between the St. Louis Cardinals and the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.
• You can turn your space heater on high and pretend you’re right there next to Don Baylor on his 1983 Fleer card.
• Lyman Bostock is still alive on his baseball cards.
• Sandy Koufax still has a left elbow on his baseball cards.
• Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Brien Taylor, Cory Snyder, Jose Canseco — all of them are the greatest ever, just waiting to happen, on their rookie cards.
• Roy Campanella can run and bat and do everything on his baseball cards.
• 1982 Topps Kmart.
• 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly.
• 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr.
• 1981 Fleer C. Nettles.
• Kirby Puckett and Tony Gwynn are living, breathing spark plugs on cardboard.
• 1983 Fleer team logos on player cards.
• 1973 Topps player statuettes at the bottom of cards.

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• 1976 Topps player statuettes at the bottom of cards.
• 1975 Topps minis.
• Orange O-Pee-Chee gum.
• Empty RC cans with black-and-white player pictures on them.
• Full RC cans with black-and-white player pictures on them.
• There’s always room for J-E-L-L-O hand-cut cards from the 1960s.
• Burger Chef baseball discs are proof that Burger Chef once existed and might one day return to this earth.
• You made friends trading cards on the playground.
• You made enemies trading cards on the playground, but some of them became friends.
• The cards you traded for always smelled funny, but at least it got your imagination humming along — what happened to those things over there in that other house, anyway?
• Fresh wax after a long winter still makes your saliva glands hum. Digestive health is very important.
• Parallel universes … in one hand, you can hold a Los Angeles Dodgers card, while the other caresses a Brooklyn Dodgers cards.
• Lou Piniella was a Topps rookie star for about a decade straight. #perseverance
• You can survive the apocalypse with all the food issues you have stashed away. That 1987 Mac N’ Cheese is going to rock the rapture someday.
• 1951 Bowman Larry Doby.

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• 1957 Junior Gilliam.
• 1983 Topps Foldouts.
• Baseball cards — at least the ones issued before 1990 or so — are low-EMF propositions.
• You can carry a baseball card in your wallet and your mom won’t get mad when it falls on the floor at a family gathering.
• Team sets in little baggies.
• Cello packs with Dan Spillner on top.
• Rack packs with Mario Mendoza and Bruce Bochte on front.
• Rubber band marks.
• Pin holes.
• Commons boxes from 1986 that might have Cecil Fielder rookies in them now.
• “Prospect” boxes from 1985 that might have Tom Niedenfuer in them.
• Finding a stack of unscratched 1983 Topps game cards. Still time to win a trip to see the Orioles trounce the Phillies in the World Series!
• Donruss puzzle pieces in every junk drawer and jewelry box.
• Washington Nat’l Lea.
• Fleer stamps that, you know, sort of gave you a buzz when you licked them.
• Topps stickers that were shaped like the players when you unstuck them.
• Topps stickers stuck to your mom and dad’s TV … still.
• Your dad’s smug look when he tells you — again — how he used to throw away his 1950s cards because all he wanted was the gum. It’s good to indulge the old dude once in awhile.
• Thanks to the bust, you can buy all those 1980s cards you coveted but could never afford.

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• You can use those old Topps Tiffany cards as mirrors.
• You can use those old 1981 Donruss cards as toilet paper.
• You can use those old Fleer logo sticker cards as … well, as logo stickers.
• You can stop your collection at 1972 and pretend there is no DH.
• The Cubs and Red Sox are not nearly so obnoxious on your old baseball cards.
• Figuring out which set has Ted Williams in any given year is a cool scavenger hunt.
• All Hrabosky stands just 5’1″ tall.
• Floyd Bannister is Tom Seaver.
• Johnny Ray is Barry Bonds.
• The bat boy is Aurelio Rodriguez.
• Billy Martin sneaking the bird.
• Photos on the back of 1983 Fleer cards. Say what?
• Comic book borders on 1990 Topps cards.
• Fleer Super Star Specials. Great, great fodder for dad jokes.

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• Old copies of Sports Collectors Digest.
• Finding a stack of cards at a flea market in the middle of nowhere.
• Finding a stack of cards at a garage sale otherwise filled with toddler toys and racks and racks of clothes.
• Finding that beat up, folded up, dirty, beloved Mitchel Page rookie card under a pile of your son’s Legos when you thought it was lost forever.
• The mystery of how the Page card got under those Legos.
• The smell of fresh gum … or stickers … or puzzle pieces … on a Saturday morning.
• Childhood memories at your fingertips.

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