Why I collect Jeff Frye cards and memorabilia

Jeff Frye? Who? These aren’t uncommon responses when I tell dealers at a card show or shop who I’m looking to trade for or buy. He isn’t a well known name and he wasn’t a star. He played 8 seasons in the majors with the Rangers, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Rockies primarily as a gritty, league average or so second baseman. This isn’t exactly a profile that gets you out of the commons box at the local card shop but he is still one of my favorite players of all time.

I guess a little backstory is necessary. From the mid 80s to the mid 90s my dad and I organized card shows all over Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, and Kansas. We always tried to have some autograph guests, no matter how small the town hosting the show. We started something of a partnership with the Tulsa Drillers in 1988 or so. We were lucky enough to have Juan Gonzalez do 3 or 4 shows for us in 1989. In 1990 Monty Fariss did a few shows along with Dan Peltier. In 1991 Ivan Rodriguez was one of four players who did shows for us. The other three were Brian Romero, Frederic Sampson, and a scrappy second baseman named Jeff Frye. Fred and Brian never made it past AA. Pudge only did one show with us before he got called up, and he spoke next to no English at that point, but I’m still happy that I got to meet him. Pudge is a Hall of Famer and a legitimate star. Why don’t I collect him? I do have all his rookie cards, as well as the minor league cards he signed for me at that show, but I never really felt an urge to take that collection further. I did my best to talk him out of his catcher’s mitt that day, but it was the only one he had back then. If that had worked out this whole website and blog might have a different theme but who knows?

Why Jeff out of all the guys I sat with over the years? Simply put, Jeff stuck out to an 11 year old kid who was eaten up with playing baseball. All of the players who ‘graphed for us in those years were nice and it was a joy to sit with them and talk baseball while they signed autographs. I’ve been around lots of baseball players through the years. I’ve had the pleasure to sit and talk baseball with Johnny Bench, Brooks Robinson, Buck O’Neil, Monte Irvin, and many others. All of them love playing baseball or they wouldn’t have been grinding in the minors or had the conviction to get to the major leagues and, for some, the Hall of Fame. A few like Buck (there will definitely be more about him in another post) and Jeff stood out for their love of baseball as a whole, not just the love of playing it. This was apparent, both in my baseball talks with Jeff at shows and at the Drillers games we went to watch that he played in. My collection started with those autographed minor league cards I acquired at signings he did for us, even if I didn’t realize at the time that there would be a collection. I was enamored with collecting Ozzie Smith, then as I still am today, and seriously collecting another player wasn’t really on the radar.

The event that really cemented me as a Jeff Frye fan and made me a collector actually took place the following year in 1992 though. Our family vacation that summer was a trip to San Antonio to go to Sea World, the Zoo, and the Alamo. A Rangers game wasn’t on the itinerary, but on our way back to Oklahoma Dad happened to get a newspaper in Dallas and we found out Jeff had been called up and was starting that evening. We begged Mom to let us go and she gave in. We found some cheap seats in the right field bleachers and got to the game early. When Jeff came out on the field Dad yelled at him and he came over and talked to us for a bit catching up. During our conversation he let us know that Nolan was pitching the next night. Of course Dad and I begged to stay and Mom relented again. Chuck Finley went the distance for the Angels and beat Nolan, thanks in large part to 3 Rangers errors, but we didn’t care. Dad and I got to see Nolan Ryan pitch live and it was thanks to Jeff. He had a fan for life at that point. I probably would have been willing to root for him if he’d somehow ended up with the Cubs…maybe. A Cardinals fan has to have limits you know.

Putting together my Jeff Frye collection has been a fun journey that’s drawing to something of a close since I’m almost out of cards to acquire. I’m always going to be looking for oddball stuff, game used gear, autographs, and those elusive 1/1 printing plates from 1997 Pinnacle and 1998 Stadium Club that I’ll never see. Maybe they’ll show up in a box with that signed Pudge catcher’s mitt someday. Who knows? The hope of that big score is what keeps us going as card collectors right?

Thanks for reading. See you at a card show somewhere along the way perhaps.