The other day I started thinking about teams that have
moved and noticed that team collectors seem more apt to continue collecting
baseball teams through their moves as compared to teams from basketball,
football and hockey that have moved.
It got my gears working and I am wondering if it has to do with the storied history of baseball and the long connection with cards. Collectors seem more willing to pick up players from each incarnation of the team especially Dodgers and Giants collectors.
Consider baseball teams that have moved:
Boston> Milwaukee> Atlanta Braves
Brooklyn> Los Angeles Dodgers
New York> San Francisco Giants
Now look at other sports teams with a long history that
have moved and to me it seems like the original locations do not get much
attention from collectors outside of maybe the Lakers and Raiders.
NBA:
Milwaukee> St. Louis> Atlanta HawksMinneapolis> Los Angeles Lakers
Rochester Royals> Cincinnati Royals> Kansas City-Omaha Kings> Sacramento Kings
NFL:
Cleveland> Los Angeles> St. Louis RamsChicago> St. Louis> Arizona Cardinals
Oakland> Los Angeles> Oakland Raiders
NHL:
Kansas City Scouts> Colorado Rockies> New Jersey Devils
Quebec Nordiques> Colorado Avalanche
Do you collect any teams that have moved and if so do you collect from before/after the move?
I collect Cleveland Browns cards. My collection is a little tricky. By that I mean that I collect cards that are labelled as Browns no matter what uniform the player is wearing, and I collect players in Browns uniforms that are identified as being on other teams. That was fine when Eric Metcalf went to the Falcons...I still wanted the cards of him in a Browns uniform.
ReplyDeleteThen came the move to Baltimore. The first thing that happened is that I stopped collecting - well, really I stopped watching football for 1.5 years until some friends needed someone to fill in for a last-minute vacancy on a sports road trip.
After the Browns came back, I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I wasn't sure if I wanted to collect those Ravens no matter that the players were wearing Browns uniforms. (And yes, I'm still very bitter.) Eventually I figured out that yes, I wanted those last cards of players I love in Browns uniforms. So I've collected them but still have a bad taste in my mouth when I look at them.
If the Browns didn't come back, I would not have followed the team and collected the Ravens.
I'll provide sort of a counterpoint to Angus. I was a Baltimore Colts fan. I collected (and still do) Colts cards up through 1983. Once they moved I was done with them. I do not collect current Colts or Ravens cards or root for them in any way.
ReplyDeleteI understand Angus' bitterness. I viewed the Ravens as another 'stolen' team. Rooting for them would have been hypocritical I believe.
I've moved on, the Texans came to Houston and so I have a 'new' team.
So I am not alone, I collect Seattle Supersonics but I will not touch anything from the team that was stolen and moved by the ass Clay Bennett. The other teams I collect (Mariners, Seahawks & Suns) haven't moved, though there have been some tense moments for both the Mariners and Seahawks, so I didn't even take it in to consideration until the Sonics left Seattle and I decided I was done collecting anything connected to ex-Sonics after the theft.
ReplyDeleteWhen there was talk of teams like the Sacramento Kings and LA Clippers moving to Seattle I felt bad for those team's fans because I know the feeling of having a team taken by theft. If the NBA returns to Seattle (now that Stern is gone it may eventually happen) I hope it is as an expansion that would be a rebirth of the Sonics similar to the Browns in Cleveland.
As a collector of two teams which both experienced moves, I'm on the same page as you Corky. I don't care about Seattle Pilots cards -- despite the glorious ugliness of their uniform and their enshrinement in baseball lore through Ball Four. It's a nice little back story, but seriously less than 50% of the Pilots roster even appeared in Milwaukee.
ReplyDeleteI also don't collect any Braves other than Milwaukee Braves. That makes things a bit frustrating when looking at online checklists at times because there are a number of inserts where people just pick whatever version of the Braves they want -- Atlanta, Boston, or Milwaukee -- without concern as to which uniform the guy is actually wearing. Trying to put a checklist together is a bear as a result.
I'm a lifelong Oakland A's fan and have no problem adding Kansas City or Philadelphia Athletics cards to my collection.
ReplyDelete