Collecting Autographs, Collecting Myself

Author

Dave Mitchner
February 13, 2025

I collect autographed baseball cards. In my mind, a baseball card is a generic term for any 2.5-inch × 3.5-inch cardstock with someone’s photograph on it. I know that is quite inaccurate, but the word “trading card” never stuck in my mind. It’s a hobby I greatly enjoy and I’ve taken part in since 1991.

I’ve a huge number of autographed cards, and I hope someday to make a run at the Guinness Book. Though that’s a long way off for me. I’ve probably around 10,000 at this point, though I’ll have a better number down the line.

That said, there have been years where I was rather embarrassed about the fact that I felt it was a juvenile hobby. I can’t explain why I felt that way, but it has been an ongoing struggle in my mind for a long time.

I was discussing it with my friend Shaun the other day, and I felt that shame about the website I was assembling regarding it. He had brought it up, based on his knowledge that I had been working on attempting to assemble the 1987 Topps set. Then it hit me. It was that old German (my dad’s not-so-endearing title for his father, Jim) poking at me from beyond the grave. Him and the church I grew up in. Jim was a hyper-conservative by the time I knew him. The church I went to wasn’t much more liberal. Dancing and drinking were both sins to give an idea.

Anytime I wanted to do something the old man felt was childish or he didn’t approve of, he would cite Paul’s First Epistle to the Church at Corinth 13:11.

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Cor 13:11 King James Version)

At first blush, it would indicate that a man should put away childish things. But if we look at the verse, the portion beyond the colon doesn’t seem to jive with the clause before. When we look at the same verse but a different translation, we get a much less “don’t do things that bring you childlike joy” verse, but more of a “think like a grown-up.”

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. (1 Cor 13:11 New International Version)

Notice the difference. This simple translation difference would have prevented me from so much scarring as a teenager and into adulthood. Even after I left the church and turned towards other spiritual practices, this verse has haunted me. I’m hoping that this concept of "Jim and the Church of your youth used a rubbish translation” will free me from this prison of feeling that things I enjoy are embarrassing.

I’m gonna keep collecting autographs of athletes, writers, businessmen, political types, etc. And I’m gonna stop being embarrassed about it! I hope you can find some way to spark joy in your life, especially in these trying times!