Happy New Year, everyone!
I’m not here to urge you to make an impossible resolution. Other people will coax pledges out of you. Promise to exercise four hours a day? We know those lists — and how they turn out.
Here’s an easy victory for you.
Scour the couch cushions. Give up one can of pop a week. Me? It’s COFFEE! Don’t buy that Powerball ticket. Find a way to shave just a dollar off your weekly habits.
Buy two stamps. One letter. One SASE. Once weekly.
You don’t have to give up sleep or miss your favorite TV show.
Check back in just one short year. Or, even three months. See how your collection grows. Instead of writing to every player in history, you’re choosing the teams and eras that matter most to YOU. Take your time. Write one personal request. Flush the form letter. Don’t be the hobbyist who says, “I sent out 100 letters the first week in January, then got sick of the whole thing.”
Forget the lottery. For a buck a week, I’m going to win my share of baseball history in 2011.
Tomorrow: meet a collector who’s the offspring of one of the 1930s Boston Red Sox.