A few years ago Thomas got a small pack of Pokémon cards in his Christmas stocking from Tom’s parents. This small pack was the beginning of what I foresee to be an endless fascination with cards with all the boys for years to come.
The Pokémon cards started it all. A few other boys in the cul de sac had them and our niece and nephew were also fans. So my mother in law thought Thomas would like some as well. He was small, maybe four, at the time. We’d never played the Pokémon games with them. And at the time he had zero idea what all the numbers and info on the cards meant. Basically, he knew some of the names on the cards and just traded back and forth with other friends when they played outside. His collection grew a little and to keep them together we put them in a small Ziploc bag on his bookshelf.
Then he started playing t-ball and baseball cards entered our life. As with the Pokémon cards, Tom’s parents started putting a few packs of baseball cards in both Thomas’ and Arthur’s stockings and then JL also got added in the mix. For the past few years that’s how it’s been, little packs here and there, birthday presents, in stockings at Christmas, Easter baskets, etc., and eventually it got harder to keep everyone’s small Ziploc bags of cards together.
We needed a new system. It was time for binders. I got a three-ring binder, pages with sleeves for trading cards, and some separators for Thomas, Arthur, and John Lloyd. They wish Isaac were old enough to trade cards with already! They started off with Pokémon, baseball, football, and basketball separated in each of their binders. That may change over time as they accumulate more cards, but for now it works.
As soon as we got everyone’s cards organized the card trading began with enthusiasm. We’ve had to have a few discussions about how a trade actually works, so no one gets taken advantage of! Despite a few disagreements, they are playing with their cards multiple times a day. When John Lloyd enters the trading, Thomas and Arthur have to practice much patience at this point. JL likes to take cards out of his binder and just start passing them out rather than have an actual trade. If Thomas or Arthur object to try to give him back a good card, JL is not having it!
Otherwise, having baseball cards around has turned out to be a great indoor activity during the summer while we’ve been at home more lately or when it’s 100 degrees outside. It’s been a great way to keep them occupied when I’ve needed to feed the baby during this past year as well. Sometimes, one of them will sit close to me and just ask me to look at them with them. Arthur likes to pick two and he’ll ask something like, “Which one has the most homeruns?” There’s not a day recently I haven’t heard them say to each other, “Hey, wanna have a baseball trade?”
Beyond just trading cards, they make up different ways to organize their binders daily. Some days they organize them by team, other days by position, or by league leaders, etc. My favorite one is hearing them talk about their “besties” page. And the “besties” page changes often. Sometimes it’s organized by who has the most homeruns, or which players have the highest batting averages and so on. Lately, I’ll catch them playing a matching game with their cards. They each have several cards that are the same player. They’ll spread those out face down on the floor and see who gets the most matches.
Before Arthur was able to read, lots of times we would help him with a player name or read something to him on the back of the card. He does know all the teams and knows where to look on the card to see what position each player plays. In the midst of this simple playing, they’re still learning and they don’t even realize it. They’re sorting, navigating the rows and columns on the back of the cards, reading numbers, matching, and so on.
It seems everyone has stories from their childhood about baseball cards. My dad’s own collection of cards burned in the attic of his childhood home. And there seems to be some question as to whether my father in law’s mother threw away his cards at some point in his young adult life not realizing the value of some of them. We actually have Tom’s binder of baseball and basketball cards from when he was young as well. The boys love looking through them. And they get really excited when Tom trades some with them. However, there are a few he’s unwilling to part with. They’ve decided Tom needs to get some newer packs of cards that he’ll be willing to trade with them.
Although the world of baseball cards is drastically different than it was in years past, there’s no doubt little boys still love them. And I hope our boys will look back and remember this season of brother bonding over their love of baseball.
Photos by Allison Muirhead
