It seems like only yesterday that Scott Rolen and Fred McGriff were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Later this week McGriff will be able to add HOF ’23 to his signature at the 43rd National Sports Collectors Convention-simply known as the National.

Anyone who wants to dig into the history of the National and it’s relationship with Chicago can do so. I’m trying to avoid the specifics of the event I’ve attended (at least) twice over the years. The size of the multi-day event reflects the ups and downs of the baseball card collecting industry. During the pandemic card collecting became fashionable again.

Over the years I’ve been tempted to make the trip to the Donald Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, but the costs have scared me away. However, I’m curious to see the cards of my youth and the interesting ways fans display their memorabilia collections. The return to Chicago reminded me of how important baseball cards were to a generation of fans.

Forget about the demise of rotary phones, pet rocks, and mood rings. There was a time before 24 hour news, ESPN and streaming. Growing up in the 50’s-70’s, baseball fans were lucky to catch the Saturday game of the week. Otherwise, the only games on TV were the local telecasts. If you had more than one team in town, you were exposed to both leagues. I don’t pretend to know how many games were televised in each market back then.

Before the influx of cable television, if you didn’t have an older brother who followed the game, you relied on the daily paper or publications like Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News or Baseball Digest for your baseball info. However, none of those resources were photo driven. Obviously, we couldn’t just google a player to see what he looked like.

For a baseball crazy, 6-year-old like Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, my grand introduction to the larger world of 1971 MLB was through Topps. Baseball cards represented that first (handheld) personal connection to hundreds of ballplayers, great and mediocre. If you were like me, you got more mediocre players than stars. Without an initial trading partner, those lesser players’ value increased. And many goofy kids like me, memorized everything on the back of those cards-much to the disappointment of our families. In later years, my inability to memorize the periodic table may have been all that stood between me and a career in medicine.

Editor’s note: I had a pretty good memory for numbers and could remember atomic numbers,

Over the next few years I attended more Cubs games and became more familiar with the faces I had only previously seen on WGN. The cards however alerted me to important facts about the players-beyond the stats. To this day I recall several of the mini-cartoons on the backs of cards.

I remember watching games of the week on NBC in the early to mid 70’s without any specifics other than I don’t recall ever seeing the Cubs on a national game. In 1984 when the Cubs beat the Cardinals on the NBC game of the week-the Ryne Sandberg game-I missed the telecast because Bob Sr and I were sitting behind home plate that day.

When ABC took over the game of the week on Mondays in 1976, I recall they could pick and choose the games-as a result we never got to see the obscure matchups between the Expos and Braves or Rangers-Indians. Yet, we could see Mark Fidrych’s coming out party.

Today’s pre-teen, baseball fans can pull up any player’s picture, bio, stats and social media account with a click or two at any time of day. I’m not sure how interested they are in attending games these days. Growing up every kid didn’t have access to games and players the way they do now-for better or worse.

The National offers collectors of all means and interests the opportunity to see most every card printed, various sports memorabilia items and collecting materials. It’s grown exponentially and allows fans the opportunity meet 150 athletes and coaches. Unfortunately, some collectors think they will be able to profit financially from these purchases. Most fans don’t have the access to these stars so it’s a great option if you want to enhance your collection. I’m happy to have gotten Sandy Koufax, Brooks Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski’s autographs for $7 each (among others). Some players are notorious for never looking at the person they’re signing for, but others connect in ways that fans will never forget.

While I have enough cards from my youth to keep me busy, I wouldn’t mind thumbing through a random binder of 1971 Topps cards for a couple of hours. My history with Carmen Fanzone, Mike Sadek and John Curtis relates specifically with their baseball cards.