Which player was your father a fan of?

[bn2cardz]

I know this won't be true for everyone, but I am sure there is a good number of us that got the hobby bug from our fathers.

So who was your father's collecting focus? My father stopped collecting years ago, but he collected Tony Gwynn.

He grew up in NE so he didn't really have a team. He had ball cards from prior to Tony's career, but when he was in the Navy he was stationed in San Diego. It was there he became a Padres fan. By the time I was 6 he had moved us to his home state of NE, but the fandom remained.

I remember when Gwynn came to a local signing at a supermarket in our town. My dad took all of us and it was a family outing to meet Gwynn and get his auto. My dad kept all of our (my siblings and mine) autos on display in his room and he provided them to me to hold in my late teens early 20s. I still have my siblings' items.

I never collected Gwynn purposely myself. Actually I had nearly no Gwynn items. That is because anything Gwynn I got I gave to my father for a birthday or Christmas gift. I did get into collecting Cal Ripken myself. I recall that I once took one of my "higher end" (higher end for me at that time meant it was worth $20) Ripken cards and traded it with a local dealer to get my dad a Gwynn card.

What was really great is that both of our collecting interests got inducted in the HOF together. So we took a road trip that year and visited Cooperstown for the only time in our lives that year (not actually induction weekend) and got to see all the tributes for both of our guys together.

I have most of his collection now. He does still have some in their basement, but he pretty much is done. I do see the joy of the hobby come back when I talk about my collection with him, but he doesn't do it anymore.

[jayjones82]

My dad loved Koufax and Snider. My grandpa played on some military exhibition teams with Ted Williams during WWII, so there was a little focus on him, but the Dodgers were dad’s team before the Braves moved to Atlanta in ‘66 and became the hometown team.

[Alwayslefty]

Rocky Colavito. Later Reggie Jackson.

Lefty

[bigdog2003]

Dale Murphy

[dad3309]

Jim French he was my dad's catcher in high school here in Ohio

[LVDan]

My dad was a Dodger fan and loved Don Sutton. His 67 Topps VG is the only card in my “collection” with any sentimental value. I gave it to him when I had my shop open in 2006. He lit up in a very cool way when I handed it to him. When he passed suddenly in 2012 I went back for the funeral and was given a small box of dads most prized possessions. When I opened it the card was right on top and caused a tidal wave of emotion. All the memories of him teaching me how to pitch, going to late night doubleheaders, teaching me math from the backs of 1980 Topps commons, etc.
Sports, and baseball in particular was a language we always communicated fluently in, no matter how messed up either one of our lives were.


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[bmann33]

Brooks Robinson

[SGC300ier]

My dad collected Nolan Ryan. I still have all of them. Those were good times going to shows weekly and picking up nothing but base cards.

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[tjenkins]

My Dad's favorite player was Mickey Mantle even though he grew up in South Dakota. I believe the Yankees were on TV allot when he grew up.

[BdotHobbs]

Roberto Clemente and Nolan Ryan

[Bretsky]

Mickey Mantle and the the Yankees back in the 50's

[awz50]

Yaz and Fisk

[LIONS RULE!]

Dwight Evans & Wade Boggs

[Gustomania]

My dads Favorite player was Sandy Koufax and a big reason why was he was lefty and was lighting it up when my dad was a young kid.

So I primarily collect Koufax....

[Homerun]

My dad grew up in New York in the early 70’s. All of his friends were Yankees fans, so he decided to be different and root for the Mets. Naturally his favorite player was and always will be Tom Seaver.

[smapdi]

None. My dad did not have any relation to athletics whatsoever. He enjoyed the golf class he took in high school, but never gave a thought to playing it afterwards. He could barely understand the attachment people have and the emotions you get watching other people play vicariously. And he had no comprehension how you would pay REAL MONEY for pieces of cardboard with pictures of those players on them. To him, if you weren't the one doing it, it was completely pointless. I sort of understand that, but at the same time he loved movies and books, especially scifi. I'd point out to him that he wasn't the one blowing up the Death Star, just as it wasn't me scoring the touchdown, but somehow they were different. He was right, the touchdown was real.

[Gustomania]

I must be old because this was my favorite player growing up, lol

Originally Posted by bigdog2003

Dale Murphy

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

My Dad become a Mets fan to spite my grandfather who was a Yankees fan. His favorite players were Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan.

[cardsin47]

My 81 year old father just weighed in - Frank Robinson

[slidekellyslide]

Nellie Fox and Bobby Shantz. Growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska there were no teams close by but these guys both played minor league ball in Lincoln and all the local kids loved them and followed them through their major league careers.

[hxcmilkshake]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Nellie Fox and Bobby Shantz. Growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska there were no teams close by but these guys both played minor league ball in Lincoln and all the local kids loved them and followed them through their major league careers.

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[Drew3000]

My father collected in the 60s but as with a lot of others in that era, his mother threw them out. Dad was a huge Reds fan, loved Johnny Bench. He quit watching baseball after the strike and didn’t return till I became interested (2003ish). He died in 2008 so we had 6 seasons of watching together, he liked Aaron Harang a lot. Now my mother’s dad grew up in Cleveland and was a huge Larry Doby fan. This is a great question and got me thinking about these 2 great men who are no longer with us. Merry Christmas to all

[dodgerfanjohn]

Koufax, Drysdale, and Pete Rose.

He grew up in East LA and was in high school when the Dodgers moved to LA. He went to school and was a year behind long time Dodger CF Willie Davis at Roosevelts High School in East LA. He loved Koufax and Drysdale. When I was in little league he would always talk about how Pete Rose was far from the most gifted guy physically but made up for it by working harder than anyone else and giving it his all on the field.

He did collect as a kid. Wish my grandmother had not thrown those cards out. I got him a few LL cards that had both Drysdale and Koufax on them and also a Pete Rose auto some years back. That’s all he has, so hardly worth anything but he displays them.

Was very happy we got to go to a couple Dodgers World Series games the last few years and finally got to win this year.

[Remmons22]

My father never collected cards but he was a big Yankees fan. I would say the players he was a fan of were,

Mickey Mantle
Reggie Jackson
Hideki Matsui
Masahiro Tanaka

There are plenty of others he liked and talked about but I remember he really enjoyed talking about the Mick but would probably say Reggie was his absolute favorite. I was around for Matsui and Tanaka so I know he enjoyed seeing those two play as well.

[ucLAkers]

Reggie Jackson
Mickey Mantle
Duke Snider
Roy Campanella
Don Drysdale