Biddlecomb Column: Card deal is just not the Topps

Do kids still collect baseball cards?

Maybe I should rephrase that question. Do kids still follow big league baseball?

Major League Baseball is not the most kid-friendly sport these days with World Series games that run past midnight and feature a long line of commercials endorsing beer and erectile dysfunctional
remedies.

To make matters worse, it’s almost impossible to go to the ballpark to see the Nationals or Orioles on a Saturday afternoon. I took full advantage of Saturday afternoon baseball as a kid. It was a long
drive to Baltimore, so daytime baseball made the experience bearable. Today, unless the Nats or Os are playing in a nationally televised game (a rare occurrence considering their dismal records), Major
League Baseball requires they play their Saturday games at night.

This reliance on prime time baseball is ruining the game for a generation of fans born after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Pro football and basketball thrive during the day, yet baseball hides under a cover of
darkness.

Ignoring the young generation of fans has perhaps revealed itself in the struggling baseball card industry. As recently as 10 or 15 years ago, there were nearly a dozen baseball card companies churning
out cards that were traded by kids and bought and sold at premium prices by “older” kids.

I saw more proof of the demise of baseball cards and baseball’s younger fan base this week when Topps Company was signed to be the exclusive card producer of Major League Baseball.

I grew up on Topps baseball cards with its stale stick of gum hidden among a pack of 20 trading cards. But among the hundreds of cards I collected as a kid, there were also cards produced by
companies such as Fleer, Donruss, Bowman and Upper Deck. Heck, even Hostess had trading cards you could cut out from the back of a Twinkies box (a Baltimore Orioles Reggie Jackson card comes
to mind).

Trading cards represented free advertising for big league baseball as kids scanned each pack for their favorite players while trading unwanted cards with their friends.

I began collecting cards in the mid-1970s filling every empty shoebox I could find. My collection still exists today in an assortment of shoeboxes (for the rank and file players) and glossy albums for my
cards that are actually worth something.

The pride of my collection is a 1982 Cal Ripken Jr. rookie card produced by Donruss. I also have a Topps version of the card where Ripken is listed as one of the “Orioles Future Stars” along with Bob
Bonner and Jeff Schneider. I also have a Ricky Henderson rookie card and a Nolan Ryan card when he started out with the New York Mets.

The Nolan Ryan card came to me from my uncle who decided to get rid of his card collection — a move he still regrets.

For many kids my age, baseball cards represented our first lesson in investment and commodities trading. Paying 25 cents for a pack of baseball cards had the potential of earning much more if any of
the players eventually made the Hall of Fame. If you wanted your favorite player, you had to trade three or four cards to get him. Then there were speculators who paid big bucks for dozens of Todd Van
Poppel or Brien Taylor rookie cards. Those two players (both busts) represent the Enron of the baseball card community.

Baseball cards reached their peak in the early 1990s. I know that because my Cal Ripken rookie cards were worth hundreds of dollars in those days. Today, they’re worth less than $50. So much for my
son’s college education.

As much as the baseball card industry has struggled this decade, I hate to see it turned over to a single company. In a way, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has taken another step
toward alienating younger fans.

Baseball cards represented the free market. More companies competing meant more cards for kids to collect. It made finding that one great card that much more satisfying.

Now baseball cards are simply another exclusive commodity, not much better than the $6 hot dog and 7$ soda on sale at ballparks across America.

Alfred Biddlecomb is the former editorial page editor for the Potomac News and the Manassas Journal Messenger.