If you have read more than a couple of my entries you have probably caught the idea that I am passionate about the game of baseball.

My Dad introduced me to the game in the mid-sixties and there isn’t a seventh inning stretch that passes that I don’t think of him. Baseball is still a very strong connection between my Dad and I even though he passed away over 12 years ago.

Means to learn the game in the mid-sixties were few compared to today’s opportunities. “Back then” it was a good week if three games were available in our home. It wasn’t that Mom wouldn’t let us watch until the dishes were done. It’s just that the number of games televised were extremely limited. “These days” with my laptop and MLB.TV subscription, I have access to almost every game that will be played this season.

Without question the fastest way a ten year old kid could learn the players in the sixties was found in the collecting of baseball cards. At a nickel a pack one didn’t need to be a millionaire to build a rather large collection of cards.

But the true student of the game didn’t just collect the cards. He or she studied them. I can say it now because I don’t think the Dean will be reading this, but I confess that I studied those baseball cards with greater intensity than I ever studied any topic in all my years of higher education.

Thankfully, when I went to college my thoughtful parents took the time to carefully box my collection and store them for me. After dinner one night at their place, I ventured up into their attic and found a gold mine of cards in near perfect condition.

Long story short….I took a winter to catalog and categorize them and a couple of years later I sold a portion of my collection for a rather handsome sum of money.

When some of my buddies began to ask how ole’ Frederick was sporting new golf shoes and a snazzy new bag on opening day they were told about the night in the attic with the flickering flashlight.

One of my buddies put two and two together and when his wife got four she called me and asked if I would mind helping them understand the term “liquidation” when it came to his card collection in their attic. I agreed to look at his collection if she agreed to buy the pizza.

I had an extensive card collection, but mine paled compared to his. If he had a fraction of the cards he claimed he had then all we needed to do was shop them at shows and send his wife to the bank with an attractive deposit slip.

Well, the evening of initial appraisal game and so did the fella’ who delivered the pizza. We ate and talked and I just kept eating while they talked about all the things they were going to do with their money.

They talked about travel and paying off Sears. She squealed about new furniture and he just squealed. I reached for one more slice of pizza as she cleared the pizza boxes and he started loading the table with boxes of baseball cards.

As I was gnawing on that last stolen slice of pizza, I opened a box and started sorting through the collection. I realized very quickly if all the cards were like the ones I was holding….then his collection was going to be worthless.

Did he exaggerate the fame of his cards? Or the cards that he thought he had, but somehow were missing.

No…He told it straight….very straight.

For example, in 1991, a 1968 Nolan Ryan “rookie card” was selling for $1800 – $2000. He had three of them. But they were worthless.

“Things” are only worth what someone is willing to pay, so would the difficulty of finding a buyer make his collection worthless?

No….I knew a handful of guys who could and would pay him cash…on the spot….but his cards were worthless. All of them.

And one of the most challenging things I have ever had to do was to let them down easy. To somehow word it in a way that they would slowly realize that there wasn’t going to be any new furniture or trips or shutting up Sears. Because his collection was worthless. And the reason he had nothing more than cardboard boxes of cardboard was because his collection had been damaged by neglect.

His cards were creased and bent and torn and folded. Some had been damaged by water and that which was once very valuable was worthless…..because of neglect.

I wonder sometimes what valuable friendships have been creased or bent or torn and folded because of neglect.

Or what has neglect done to our gutters and plantations all because we fired the maintenance man and let the weeds grow to the windows.

I don’t know what valuables you have in the attic of your life that neglect has devalued, but you might want to grab a flickering flashlight and go check it out.

You are smart enough to catch my point…..

Have a great weekend!

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