When I was a kid I climbed trees, played hide-and-seek and capture the flag, scraped my knees sliding across asphalt, and chewed bubblegum like Lenny Dykstra chewed tobacco in the Phillies outfield. I had a thousand hobbies, most of which were creative endeavors that required pouring gobs of Elmer’s glue all over my hands. Peeling glue off my dirty, germ ridden palms was a rite-of-passage and I loved every minute of it.

But my single most favorite hobby was collecting baseball cards. Now, no one in my family is or ever has been an avid sports fan. We were a PBS family. My father would watch reruns of “This Old House,” and my Mother was obsessed with Burt Wolf’s “Frugal Gourmet.” To say that my parents are invested in the quality of home-life would be an understatement. So, when my Mother came home from the grocery store one summer afternoon, in this nostalgic childhood memory which exists in a synapse far, far away, she couldn’t have expected that the three twelve-packs of Diet Coke she carried under her arms would create a baseball Frankenstein. Each twelve-pack contained a small number of baseball cards commemorating a man that would later become my favorite baseball player and hero, Nolan Ryan. Of course, getting baseball cards in Coke was like getting a decoder ring in a box of Cracker Jacks or a silly straw out of a box of Fruit Loops. I relished these moments. Free toys, what kid could ask for more? But unlike the decoder ring or the silly straw, which would eventually make their way to the bottom of my closet toy box, the baseball cards found a place in my heart and a place on my book shelf. From that afternoon on, I was a baseball fan.

When I tell people that I collected baseball cards up until my senior year of high school they smile and nod approvingly. Collecting baseball cards is a hobby everyone can agree with, even if they don’t especially like baseball. But, tell someone that video gaming is your hobby and prepare for a disapproving frown and a shake of the head. The hypocrisy of this gesture is that I know these disapproving frowns will be sitting in front of their television sets in a couple of hours, watching a rerun, or God forbid, reality television. Or, this frown will put a movie in the VCR or DVD player and spend two, possibly three, hours having a story which is very unlikely to stimulate any intellectual thinking or provide any mental challenge, read to them onscreen. This is not to say that movies don’t explore important issues, but that largely our brains are tuned out while we are busy tuning in to our television sets. Yes, the hypocrisy of the video game frown is that it said, “Couldn’t you be doing better things with your time,” when clearly, I should be asking the same question.

Never mind that thousands, no billions, of people are addicted to watching CNN twenty-four hours a day, or that soap operas still exist because enough day-time television viewers are willing to watch them. (beginning sarcasm) Yes, lets blame the video game industry for depression and violence – obviously there is nothing else shown on television that would be guilty of providing negative stimulation to sad, angry people. (end sarcasm) Why is watching television socially acceptable and playing video games is not (which is usually a cinematic feature tied to intellectual activity)? That answer is simple: everyone watches television, not everyone plays video games.

Showing an autographed baseball to a friend that knows nothing about baseball is like recommending a book to a person that can’t read. How can they understand your exhilaration if they have no interest? Like collecting baseball memorabilia, playing video games is a hobby, and not everyone cares that you leveled up in the RPG you were playing or that you earned new achievements on your 360. Hobbies aren’t meant to be enjoyed by everyone. They were meant to be revered by a few, loved by some, and liked by many. I wouldn’t understand a stamp collection any more than my Mother understands what an RPG is.

As I rolled those first baseball cards over in my hands, I knew I was on to something special. It was as if I had been sent an invitation to join an elite and illustrious club and everyone else around me was simply too ignorant to have been invited. It was an honor. My fingers slid down the edge of the cards and for a moment, I felt a slight wave of apprehension. My Mother had to go by more Coke. How else would I ever collect them all?

It’s safe to say that I feel the same way about video games.

Tags: baseball, bubblegum, Burt Wolf, Coke, Frugal, game, Gourmet, Hobbies, Lenny Dykstra, memory, Nolan Ryan, Phillies, Television, video