When your favorite player leaves your favorite team

[gingi79]

I've been following sports for over 25 years. In that time, I have seen:
My first idol found with drugs and then sent to the Dodgers (Strawberry)
My second idol traded from my new favorite team only to revive his career and get a HR record! Then found to be using HGH (McGwire)
The player who revives my love of Baseball traded at the end of his career to a hated rival (Dale Murphy)
My football idol retires without a much deserved Super Bowl win (Marino)
My favorite all time NFL player's career cut short by team induced injury (McDuffie)
The heart of my favorite hockey team unceremoniously traded to Montreal because the crybaby future HOF we signed would only come if he could wear his number and be captain. The he returns during a dominant season which is undone by hellacious goaltending and never wins a Cup. (Trevor Linden)
My hockey hero destroyed by my team in the papers and shipped to Florida only to end his career playing for my least favorite franchise in pro sports (Pavel Bure)
My beloved "future All Star" RF (at the time) traded (To the damn Mets of all teams!) for a journeyman injury prone 1 season wonder whose career would obviously end at seasons end (Francoeur)

and now......

The guy who I have followed since his days at Florida State who floundered with the Devil Rays, was sent to the lowly Royals to play like 4 innings and then miraculously! comes to my beloved Braves and has moments of pure excitement. At times he looks like a future All Star if he could just nail down RH pitching like he did with LH pitching. He always seemed like a guy you'd never let go of, even if he was in a Bench or platoon role. And what team wants him? The same one that took my last Braves hero, the Phillies! (Matty Diaz)

You would think I would be used to it by now. Am I the only one who has watched every one of his favorite 3 sports without ever seeing a championship and the player not play for a hated rival or made into a cheater or scumbag? I am truly losing my interest in sports and collecting as I am so sick and tired of having my player collections ruined by disappointment.

Am I alone here or what?

[CampWest]

Sorry for your loss...

As a Royals fan, you just accept as a fact of life that players will eventually move on to "green" pastures. I'm sure someday soon Greinke will be gone, Butler will be gone, Soria will be gone. Just like David Cone, Bret Saberhagen, Willie Wilson, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, among many many others. For a Royals fan, you just hope that when they go, you get some good young prospects to replace him in your heart for 4-5 years until it happens again.

[gingi79]

Yeah Wes, you get it.

Royals fans, Pirates fans, Cubs fans. I'm sure there is some gene in these kinds of fans that makes them loyal. I bet the divorce rate in Chicago Cubs fans is lower than any other sports team because you are used to having disappointment and still have hope and love for your team.

Either that or they have the highest murder rate :p

[platinum1]

Yeah Wes, you get it.

Royals fans, Pirates fans, Cubs fans. I'm sure there is some gene in these kinds of fans that makes them loyal. I bet the divorce rate in Chicago Cubs fans is lower than any other sports team because you are used to having disappointment and still have hope and love for your team.

Either that or they have the highest murder rate :p
Now I know why the murder rate is high in Chicago :p
But only in the NorthSide of the City lol

[Fnazxc0114]

gingi if feel your pain. Im a team collector. ONce a player leaves my team they are dead to me. I might keep a bat for old memories but I generally sell everything else. I have a justing smoak first hit/hr bat that would be a prime example of something i need to get rid of. I felt the same way when the rangers let pudge go a decade ago.

[AutographAddiction]

I feel your pain! It's unbelievable how many times it happens to me as well. I absolutely idolized Franceour. As I was getting big into sports, he was the Wonder boy for my favorite team, the Braves. I met him a few times and he was always so nice, he led me to believe all players were that genuine. I loved cheering for him and he got me into collecting autographs which then led to GU collecting. And then, a bad season and he's gone.

The next nicest guy- someone who has been so consistent as long as I have watched the Braves- is now gone. So long Matt Diaz. You will be missed. He was/is the most underrated player and I hate that he's gone.

I'll continue to cheer him on but his bat I have isn't as important to me anymore.

If anyone wants to buy a MLB Holo Matt Diaz bat, email me... :(

[dcrules01]

I guess I am a different breed lol. My favorite team is the Mets some of my favorite players are Joel Youngblood, Doug Flynn, Jason Isringhausen,Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson. I collect anything I can get my hands on that these 5 used or wore during there career. While Mets stuff of there's is always a prioritY I enjoy all of there stuff . I own Izzy's 06 Cardinals uniform his 2000 A's home gamer his home and away Louisville Bats gamers from the Reds minor league team. Just picked up Youngblood's Reds coaches cap from the 90's and his D-backs 3rd base coaches jersey. I would love an Izzy 99 A's gamer a different number in his 1st A's season. None of them are hall of famers and I never stopped following them even met Bill Pulsipher a few months ago he was playing for the Somerset Patriots in an independent league. I won the jersey he wore that night in a charity auction. Got to go on the field after the game and met him. He seemed shocked that someone actually followed him all these year. Very humble. Just something about the Generation K guys I always routed for them. Flynn and Youngblood just liked them as a kid. Have Youngbloods 78 Mets road uni and Flynn's 80 road uni both played for the Reds,Mets and Expos. I would love to find Youngblood's 94 Reds road coaches jersey or something from his Cardinals or Expos days.

[dcgreg25]

I guess I am a different breed lol.

I am with you dcrules. I grew up an Indians fan and have a few player collections including Victor Martinez and Kenny Lofton who both played for the Indians and left but I still collect their stuff from other teams. Martinez was a die-hard Indian and did not want to be traded. I still collect his items from the Red Sox and will continue with the Tigers. Lofton had some great years for the Indians and moved around a ton after that. Part of the fun in collecting Lofton items is the fact that he played just about everywhere.

I guess it would be different if my favorite player left and then completely trashed my favorite team or perhaps took their talents to South Beach...yea I am a bitter Cleveland fan. I remember when Albert Belle played for the Indians- I rooted for him. He was a jerk but he was our jerk. Once he left I could not stand him.

[obpercent1]

I am with you dcrules. I grew up an Indians fan and have a few player collections including Victor Martinez and Kenny Lofton who both played for the Indians and left but I still collect their stuff from other teams. Martinez was a die-hard Indian and did not want to be traded. I still collect his items from the Red Sox and will continue with the Tigers. Lofton had some great years for the Indians and moved around a ton after that. Part of the fun in collecting Lofton items is the fact that he played just about everywhere.

I guess it would be different if my favorite player left and then completely trashed my favorite team or perhaps took their talents to South Beach...yea I am a bitter Cleveland fan. I remember when Albert Belle played for the Indians- I rooted for him. He was a jerk but he was our jerk. Once he left I could not stand him.


Send me a pm I have a Victor autographed ball from him in 2002 when he got called up at the end of the season he put his uniform # 63 if ur interested.

[dcrules01]

Here is my Izzy collection and I am a Mets fan :D all the ones on the left are gamers and the one Louisville Bats is a gamer on the right. The other 4 are authentics bats are all game used as well as the Mets helmet and a pair of his 06 Cardinals pants that go with his 06 Cardinals road
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k195/metsjerseys/izzycollectiona.jpg

[godwulf]

I consider myself to be primarily a team collector, but there are also selected players whose careers I will continue to follow, often even after they've retired as players and have become coaches, managers, or even front office guys. The idea that any guy who belonged and contributed to my team, even if it was for only a few games, would be "dead to me" just because they (in most cases, involuntarily) left - I don't get that.

In my mind, I have a team collection, and then I have player collections that overlap with the team collection. There are players - Matt Williams, Luis Gonzalez, David Dellucci, Greg Colbrunn, Alan Zinter and a few others - whose stuff I will continue to collect, I don't care if they're playing or coaching in a beer softball league in Paducah. Everybody else - it's just the DBacks stuff I'm into, but the idea that I'd want to get rid of the DBacks stuff, just because they aren't DBacks anymore - I don't get that, either.

[Birdbats]

Yesterday, I experienced the other side of the coin... one of my favorite players, Lance Berkman, signed with my favorite team, the Cardinals. Now I can replace that Houston bat with a St. Louis bat, and maybe by this time next year, the bat will be hanging next to one of Puma's Cardinals jerseys.

[AWA85]

This is one of the biggest difficulties I look at when adding to my collection. I would love to grab game used stuff from some of the young starting pitchers like Cueto, Wood and Leake but there are constant whispers about packaging one or two of these guys into trades. Hate to have a bunch of stuff of a guy who only played a short time with my team (Reds).

Now when some of my past favorites move on such as Adam Dunn, I still collect his Reds gear but pretty safe to say I would never a Nats jersey hanging on my wall. This topic makes my appreciation and desire to collect Barry Larkin even more. 19 seasons with one team, makes him a Red and nothing else.

Not as cool as Birdbats Big Puma story, but I have always been a huge D Train fan and now hoping he finds a little something left in the tank and can add to the Reds bullpen. Would make me feel a little better about all of his autograph stuff I have sitting around.

[godwulf]

After the end of the one season - 2008 - that Adam Dunn played for the Diamondbacks, he was doing a signing, and I got to shake his hand and say, "Wherever you are in the future, we'll always appreciate the time you spent here, and we'll always be fans." He looked me in the eye and said, "Thanks, I appreciate that", and he seemed very sincere.

Here's something ironic, considering the subject of this thread, having to do with Dunn: the only bats that he used when he was here were bats he brought from Cincinnatti...so my Dunn "Diamondbacks" bat says "Cincinnatti Reds" on it. He had DBacks bats made up, but never got around to using any of them. Naturally, I'd like to have one of the DBacks bats, just because they exist, but having the Reds bat that he actually used here is much more important to me.

Over the years, I've also collected bats from other players, that were used here, but are inscribed with another team name. A Johnny Estrada bat from Atlanta, a Craig Counsell bat from Milwaukee, a Shea Hillenbrand bat from Boston - even a rare Randy Johnson Houston bat that the Unit brought to DBacks ST in '99. Should I consider those bats to be somehow less desirable because they've got another team's name on them?

[CampWest]

Yesterday, I experienced the other side of the coin... one of my favorite players, Lance Berkman, signed with my favorite team, the Cardinals. Now I can replace that Houston bat with a St. Louis bat, and maybe by this time next year, the bat will be hanging next to one of Puma's Cardinals jerseys.

I havent had time to look into that, I'm a huge Berkman fan too... Whats the playing time going to be like for Lance next year? Initially seems like he doesnt have much of a full time position, with Albert playing 158 games at first. I thought he might go AL to DH/1B platoon for a year or two. Are they planning on starting him in the outfield? Pujols, Holliday, Berkman... good middle of the lineup.

[Birdbats]

I havent had time to look into that, I'm a huge Berkman fan too... Whats the playing time going to be like for Lance next year? Initially seems like he doesnt have much of a full time position, with Albert playing 158 games at first. I thought he might go AL to DH/1B platoon for a year or two. Are they planning on starting him in the outfield? Pujols, Holliday, Berkman... good middle of the lineup.

Right now, the plan seems to be playing Berkman in left, moving Holliday to right, and batting Berkman second, after Theriot and in front of Pujols (where he should see good pitches to hit) and then Holliday. Berkman can give Pujols the occasional day off, and I'm sure Berkman will get plenty of rest as LaRussa loves to rotate his bench players to keep his regulars fresh.

[AWA85]

As a Reds fan I love the idea of the Big Puma roaming LF for the Cards! :D

[LastingsMilledge85]

This is why I am a player fan first before a team. Especially when a guy like Lastings is on a new team every season and it doesn't help that the Pirates just released him.