A new direction for this blog

It's time for a new direction for Baseball Cards Come to Life. My observations about individual baseball cards are getting harder and harder to come by, as I have pretty much used up all the good ones. Also, I've pretty much run out of people to interview who either appeared on or photographed major league or prominent minor league cards. You might still see an occasional interview on this blog, and I'll still post trades and other card acquisitions, although with the new baby my time to spend on getting more cards has greatly diminished for the moment (that is why I did so many monster trades and purchases over the last few months - knew that would be the last time I had that kind of time). All in all, it is definitely time I did something new with this blog.

One type of baseball card blog concept I have enjoyed is the blog that focuses on a different card and individual each day. Usually they focus on a single set - Project Baseball 1976 and The Greatest 21 Days: 1990 CMC are two standout examples of blogs that delve into the person on each card. What I want to do is much more ambitious - highlight each player I have a card of, one a day. I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of cards I have for each individual player (I only collect 1978-present). I currently have cards of 5,657 different players. That means if I start with Don Aase on May 12, 2011, post one player a day and get no new players, I will reach Mike Zywica on November 6, 2026. Nice to have a blog concept that should get me at least fifteen years worth of new posts.

For each player profile, I will feature one randomly selected card of that player from my collection, and will note how many individual cards of that player I have. I include small sets on this list, but only base cards from small or large sets. For example, this card would count:

But this one wouldn't:

After the card, I would include a brief description of their playing career, my personal memories of them, and, where possible, any interesting stories about them, either on or off the field. I will also note for former players where they are now. I also think it would be fun to put each name into Google Autocomplete to see what comes up and where they rank, as well as who else has their name. For example, Derek Jeter first comes up when you type Der into google, while Derek Livernois doesn't come up until Derek Liv. If you google Tino Martinez, the first ten entries are all about the former Yankee. If you google Paul O'Neill, the first entry is the former Treasury Secretary.

Finally, at the end of each post, I will say who's coming up next, and encourage readers to send in their own personal memories of the player, which I will add to the post. The first post is Don Aase, so if you have any personal memories of him, leave a comment below.