"It ain't over till it's over."

I've gone through a lot of self-reflection over the last couple of months. I nearly called it quits on this blog and on collecting in general, but as the late, great Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over till it's over."

With my mom passing away unexpectedly and then my grandpa passing away a month later and having to go through my parents things, it really put things into perspective for me. I'm going to make some changes to how I collect and what I collect, but I'm still collecting and I'm still blogging.

I saw these two Bowman Yogi Berra cards at my LCS and I just couldn't decide which one to buy, so I ended up getting both. Truth be told, if I could only have one, I would have picked the 1951, but I used the "If I buy both, will you cut me a deal?" card and it worked, so I'm now the proud owner of both a 1951 and 1952 Bowman Yogi Berra card.

The backs tell an interesting story.

From the 1951 card we learn about Yogi's tremendous 1950 season. He batted .322 with 28 home runs and 124 RBI. He lost out on MVP to his teammate Phil Rizzuto and Boston Red Sox infielder Billy Goodman. Goodman won the A.L. batting title with a .354 average. Rizzuto batted .324 with 7 home runs, and 66 RBI. I realize there is more to MVP than just the big three, but I would love to hear someone rationalize Rizzuto over Berra in 1950.

The 1952 card tells us that he won the 1951 A.L. MVP award with a .294 average, 27 homers, and 88 RBI. Seems to me that him missing out on the 1950 award may have had something to do with his winning the 1951 MVP.

Yogi, an 18 time All-Star and winner of 10 World Championships as a player, would win three MVP awards (1951, 1954, and 1955).

Like I said before , my collecting habits are going to change going forward. I've got to focus on quality over quantity. I've got to reduce the overall size of my collection. Now I've just got to figure out how to do that. if you have any ideas, let me know.