Collecting the Villains
I like to draw cards.
The last three I created display an unconventional turn on my path as a collector.
Derek Jeter, LeBron James and MF Doom. All Super Villains.
Next on my list is Peyton Manning, calling a play at the line, pointing out the Mike, "Omaha" in a word bubble.
A lifetime fan of Boston teams, I've come full circle. This summer, I've been getting a kick out of collecting players that I spent years despising.
I never would've expected to have a Joseph Addai refractor sitting on my desk. Nor go on an eBay run securing cheap cards of classic Colts - Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Edgerrin James, Bob Sanders, Dwight Freeney.
Leaving room for surprise shifts in our tastes is a fun part of the hobby.
As a Patriots fan, I watched a lot of Colts games. When the teams faced off, I'd analyze their epic clashes like a beat writer.
You really get to know the players you hate. And even back then, an appreciation for their stellar play was forming. Distraught after a crushing loss, I was starting to glimpse the sour kernel of truth baked into the cliche so commonly tossed around somber locker rooms. "You just tip your cap to them. What else can you do?"
These are iconic players and teams. I'm tipping my cap. And looking to land some of their sweet cards in that hat. Or pull them out of it.
I'm after LeBron's 7 Topps cards, all from his first run with the Cavs. Thing is, I'd rather not spend more than $10. Heck, it's uncommon I pony up $5 for any single. So rather than click 'buy' on the 2009-10 edition, a horizontal view of a patented rim run, I drew it. The photo catches a lot of court of their rival Pistons, yet the King, mid-windmill, is the only player in view. James was that far ahead of anyone else on that play, and in the league, during that era, aside from Kobe.
15 years later, LeBron is still among the top players in the game. Such longevity demands appreciation.
I started kissing the King's ring a couple weeks before he won his first title. In 2012 he reached Super Villain status in Game 6 at TD Garden. Facing elimination, James scored 45 points on 73% shooting (plus 15 rebounds), besting my hero Rajon Rondo's game 2 of the same series in Miami (44 points / 66% / 10 assists). This was the boiling point for me and a lot of Celtics fans. Not like I was about to start rocking a Heat hat. But I did tip my green C's lid, and, kinda sorta, never looked back.
The Captain took the longest for me to come around on. A lifetime Yankee, Derek Jeter became the symbol of an impossible obstacle for Red Sox fans. Whether he was digging into the batter's box in a big spot or holding up a finger after assisting on a hard hit ball, when his fresh-shaven face graced the TV, I'd just think, ah, great, we're gonna lose.
The card I drew of Jeter is based on a sweet Willie Mays from a 1959 Topps subset 'Baseball Thrills'; a three-panel freeze frame of the Say Hey Kid's World Series basket catch in that spacious Polo Grounds outfield.
Jeter's hustle play in Game 3 of the Division Series vs. Oakland - 'the flip' - is the top fielding play of my lifetime.
Friends and I could hardly believe our eyes when we watched the loveable A's surrender the inside track on upsetting the Bronx Bombers. Oakland was up 2-0 in the series. Had Jeremy Giambi been called safe, they'd have tied up that game 1-1 in the 7th. But, anticipating the throw from right field, Jeter sprinted across the infield, basketed the ball on a bounce and shoveled it to Jorge Posada, whose sweeping tag grazed Giambi's calf a split second before he cleated homeplate.
My trail to chasing Jeter's 1993 UD SP rookie was blazed then and there. The foil card of the surehanded, pin-striped shortstop flipping the ball underhand (rather than backhand) but oh so delicately, like a goose egg, conjures the play that reversed my scorn for the evil empire.
As this season's entertaining Red Sox team sits a game behind the Yankees, that Jeter card sits atop my want list.
But, similar to my hometown team who were not buying at the trade deadline, my frugal hobby budget has no room for it.
No problem, I'll just get out my colored pencils and add a version of the card to my collection. I better draw the back too. It's a sharp design featuring two neat photos of Jete - throwing with a ball in his back pocket and a GQ close-up.
Imagine if it was as easy for the Sox... To just clone Joe Ryan. Or AI up another eagle-eyed Roman Anthony.
Alas, life, and baseball (and collecting) should never get that easy.