With due apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Edgar Martinez, I know who the real ancient mariner is — it’s legendary Boston Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastrzemski.

By the time I started collecting baseball cards in earnest in 1983, Yaz was in his final season with the Sawx, which was totally amazing considering that he was 71 years old at the time. So it wasn’t surprising that he was all over the place that summer, from This Week in Baseball to Baseball Cards Magazine to an intriguing 1983 Topps Super Veteran card.

As I devoured every word I could find about the hobby, it became clear that Yaz wasn’t just an elder statesman of the game — he was a future Hall of Famer and a collector favorite.

In fact,  1960 Topps Carl Yastrzemski rookie card was the first rookie card that I can remember being hyped as such. It introduced me to the concept that older cards of a player were more scarce and valuable than his later cards, and they didn’t come much older than Yaz or his horizontal first issue.

I don’t remember exactly how much the card was pulling in that summer, but I do know it was several orders of magnitude greater than any pasteboard I was even considering adding to my own collection. I think it was going for around 50 bucks at local card shows, but it could have been 20 or 100.

Anyway, the images of the hobbling old man in the Red Sox cap at the All-Star Game that summer became intertwined in my collector’s psyche with the shy-looking young man encircled in a whole lot of orange ink on the front of his 1960 rookie card. How could any one player have held on that long?

Thanks to the tens of thousands of words written about Yaz that year, I was eventually able to piece together a big hunk of his story. Born and raised in the Bridgehampton, NY, area surrounded by the sea, Yastrzemski somehow found his way to the ball field instead of a fishing vessel and then found his sweet left-handed swing.

When he was 19, the New England boy was signed by New England’s team — the Red Sox — to a minor league contract

Two years later, he made his Major League debut — and stuck. That would have been 1961 if you’re keeping score at home, which means Topps added Yaz to their set a good year before he ever stepped foot on a Big League diamond.

As it turned out, that was pretty typical of Yastrzemski: doing things that others couldn’t.

There was his ability to step into the left field shoes vacated by Red Sox legend Ted Williams.

There was the Triple Crown in 1967.

There was the 23-year career that seemed like it might never end.

And there was the funny looking rookie card that helped jump start the hobby just as our cardboard dreams were starting to heat up.

Yaz was never my favorite player, but he is forever engrained in my collecting memory, and catching a glimpse of his 1960 Topps rookie card still gives me chills.

(This is Day 10 of our response to Tony L.’s 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge. See all our posts in this series here.)

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The first set I ever put together strictly from packs that I opened myself in the year they were issued was 1984 Topps.

It was an interesting and varied issue that featured the usual stars, rookies, and special subsets, plus the addition of colorful “Active Career Leaders” cards that spotlighted many of the future Hall of Famers who were still playing as the 1980s neared their midpoint.

Topps also honored three retiring legends with a “1983 Highlight” card that featured Johnny Bench, Gaylord Perry, and Carl Yastrzemski. It was a nice sentiment, and I loved the card in some ways, but it was pretty strange in others.

Nevertheless, the card, and the research it spurred me to do, taught me some things I didn’t realize before.

For instance …

1. Topps didn’t know what “Highlight” means. The Cincinnati Reds were terrible in the early 1980s and, by the time I started following them in 1983, Johnny Bench was about the only interesting thing they had going (aside from Mario Soto). His retirement was no highlight in my book, and I suspect the same held true for Yaz and Boston Red Sox fans. And Perry’s retirement must have dinged Vaseline’s standing in the stock market.

2. Johnny Bench was gone way too soon. Bench was just 35 when he hung up his spikes, but his body was just too broken down after so many years behind the plate in Cincy. You have to think that he’d still be going if he played today, thanks to better handling of players by management, easy movement between leagues (opening up the DH), and bigger contracts. I’d have been down with that.

3. Carl Yastrzemski played until he was 71. Just look at his picture for proof.

4. Carl Yastrzemski suffered from chronic pain — again, just look at the picture. Whether his ailments stemmed from playing the game at such an advanced age, playing in Boston, or bad clam chowder is not clear.

5. Gaylord Perry played until he was 73. Rumor is that he was 40 at birth. There are some rumors that he is actually Bench’s father.

6. All three men played their final game on October 2, 1983. Also on that date, Art Monk of the NFL Washington Redskins began a streak of recording at least one pass reception in a game that would eventually extend to 183 consecutive contests.

7. Perry played for six more franchises (8) than Yaz and Bench did combined. Apparently, his pitches had a lot of *ahem* movement on them.

There is plenty more to be learned from this classic card, but I’ll leave it to you to uncover the rest of the hidden truth. After all, discovery is half the fun of knowledge, right?

But as a quick added bonus, did you know that Johnny Bench was a pitchman of some renown off the field, too? Some would even say he was perfect: no runs, no drips, no error.

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With a variety of baseball card projects underway at any given time, Sam dedicates a couple of hours each day to the hobby.

Recently, Sam took carved out some time to share his Collector Story with us. Enjoy!

How long have you been collecting?
37 years

How did you get started collecting?
I remember looking through the Sears catalog and asking for those lots of football cards they had for sale. Nothing but commons I’m sure but they were like gold to me. I also remember finding random packs of basketball cards at several convenience stores. I was also hooked on those stickers from the early 80’s.

What is the first card you can remember owning or buying?
Although I’m now a baseball-only collector, the first big card I can remember owning was the Joe Montana rookie.

Which sports do you collect?
Baseball

What other memorabilia, besides cards, do you collect?
Nothing

What is the focus of your collection?
Every collector goes for something different. I have a two pronged collection. First, I collect sets (base cards only:I’m not into the insert and special sets). I have every set from the major brands since 1972. Second, I collect star cards – mostly Hall of Famers, players that should/will be there someday, or just favorites from my childhood that I know won’t make it but that I like anyway (Dale Murphy…). In addition to the sets, I try to get one of every one of the star cards on my list and place in an album.

Who is your favorite player(s)?
Rickey Henderson.

Which is (are) your favorite team(s)?
Oakland Athletics

Do you have a favorite card or set?
I don’t have the set, but I’ve always like the 1962 Topps design.

Do you have a collecting project or goals you’re working on now?
I recently started working backwards again. I’m currently working on a 1970 Topps set.

How much time do you spend on the hobby these days?
After stepping back from cards in the early to mid 90’s, I got back into it again with the emergence of ebay/online sales in the late 90’s. I run a website and have ebay auctions so I usually spend a couple of hours a day on the hobby.

What’s your main source of hobby information?
ebay and twitter

Where do you buy most of your cards?
ebay

Which card or set have you always wanted to own but has always eluded you?
1960 Topps Carl Yastrzemski rookie card. I don’t actively pursue it but when I have, I just haven’t found the sweet spot of card condition and price I’m willing to pay.

What’s your favorite hobby memory?
Searching through Beckett magazines to find card shows in my area. Getting all my want lists together in the days before and then spending hours going from table to table finding what cards I needed.

Do you have any other funny or memorable hobby moments to share?
When I was in college I opened a card shop above my father’s business. I could only do it a couple of hours a day but it was great fun.

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Great memories that resonate with me and I’m sure many other collectors who were there for The Boom (and The Bust).

Thanks for sharing, Sam!

If you’d like to get in touch with Sam, you can follow him on Twitter (@McMillanSam) or visit hes website, CompleteYourSets.com.

(Read all of our collector stories here. Want to share your own story? Let me know!)