About

Me and My Blog

Having grown up on the far west side of Detroit in the 70’s, my earliest sports-related memories are of warm summer evenings playing street ball while listening to Ernie Harwell’s magical drawl announce the play-by-play as my friends and I impersonated Lance Parrish, Steve Kemp, Whitaker and Trammel.  Our parents kicked back on the porches of the neighborhood tossing back Stroh’s, shooting the bull and – a few years later – screaming at Señor Smoke for blowing another one.  Fond memories, indeed.  But as much as I love the Tigers (on 15 July 1996 I launched one of the first Tigers fan sites and I have an engraved brick at the entrance to Comerica Park), I was never into collecting baseball cards as a kid.  Sure, I had a few miscellaneous cards that I somehow acquired here and there, but I had no interest in the hobby.

That changed in 1993.  An Air Force buddy of mine was very much a collector – of the Atlanta Braves – and convinced me to hit up a LCS with him one weekend.  I think his true motive was to dump his Tigers cards on me, but off to Bosco’s we went and the rest, as they say, is history.  For a time.

I can’t remember exactly when it was, but at some point around 2007 I finally got fed up with the ever-increasing number of sets, subsets, inserts, and parallels that card makers were flooding the market with.  Not to mention the upward trend in the cost of packs - $10 for three cards?  No thanks.  And 1/1’s?  Yeah, all that does is ensure that my collection will never be complete.  So with not just a little disgust, I shut down my collecting activity.

But you know how it is.  The years went by and the collecting itch grew from a barely perceptible tingling to a downright outbreak.  Eventually, around 2012, I gave in, but this time I eschewed baseball cards and instead put all of my energy into pursuing my as-important love of the Red Wings.  I couldn’t keep my back turned on baseball cards forever, though, so very recently I began to dust off the old Tigers collection and put together my want lists.

I chose to name my blog The Roar of ’84 because, aside from being the last time the Tigers won the World Series, I actually began my baseball card collecting journey by focusing on the 1984 team sets.

So What Do I Collect Now?

Tigers, of course, though I’m not concerned much with the “high end” products and “ultra rare” chase cards.  Red Wings too, and the same rules apply.  I’ve also really gotten into the TTM scene, seeking autos of Michigan-born baseball players and American hockey players.

And, something I haven’t seen talked about much in the card-collecting blogosphere, I am and have since my earliest days been an avid collector of music – vinyl and, later, CD.  I do love music more than card collecting, I’m not ashamed to admit, so if you choose to follow my blog just be prepared for me to also show off my vinyl record acquisitions.

Trades

Yes please!  I haven’t been a prolific trader since the early oughts, but I have a crap-ton of cards that I want to offload as a means of building my Tigers and Red Wings collections.  I’m slowly building my inventory on TCDB, so be sure to check out my want and trade lists.  If you want to hit me up with a blind trade, I’m down with that too.  Just leave a comment.  But be forewarned - I am significantly set with everything I need from 1990-2000.