My Most Cherished Baseball Card and Why It's an 84-Year Old Relic of a Widely Unknown Pittsburgh

With a collection numbering more than a million cards an often asked question is: "What's your most valuable card?"

Quantity over quality has always been my passion in sports card collecting. While many Chicago Cubs collectors seek out the Ernie Banks, Ryne Sandbergs, and Kris Bryants....my Cubs-centric collection has revolved around Ty Griffin and Javier Baez. Baez, sure, but Ty who? Yes, the same Ty Griffin that was a Cubs #1 draft pick in 1988 and never surpassed Double-A ball. His rookie card, in a Georgia Tech uniform, was featured in the 1989 Topps set that kickstarted my obsession. 

Do I own valuable cards? Absolutely, but nothing that will pay for my unborn child's college education. Well, unless there's a sudden demand on 1990 Donruss. In that event I'll be a rich man. 

So you may wonder why the most prized card in my collection is that of a Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder from the 1920s and 1930s.

My wife's grandfather passed away today. He turned 99 just four days ago. A lifelong Pittsburgh resident (until this past July) he was a die-hard Pittsburgh sports fan.

When I first met him in 2015 about a year after my now wife and I met, he shared his Pittsburgh sports stories. One was that Hall of Famer Paul Waner had given him and his friend a ride from Forbes Field to Squirrel Hill after a game when they were eight or nine years old. Another when he hitchhiked from Pittsburgh to Cleveland to watch Bob Feller pitch against Ted Williams.  

After he learned of my baseball card collecting he would quiz me about old time Pirates players. One name kept resurfacing: Adam Comorosky. Sure, I knew the Pirates greats from those days, but Comorosky was a mystery. He beamed about Comorosky, the left fielder that played in Pittsburgh from 1926 to 1933. 

When we returned to visit Pittsburgh in the summer of 2016, I wanted to visit the Steel City Collectibles store. Steel City is one of three online stores I regularly buy wax boxes from. Conveniently, it's located in a mall with a Nordstrom. No arm twisting of my wife was needed. Grandpa wanted to go, too. When we walked in, the first thing he asked was if they had any Adam Comorosky cards. They did not have any Comorosky cards, but I knew then that he should be added to my collection. 

A few days and ten dollars later, I purchased a 1933 Goudey low grade Adam Comorosky card. It's the only Comorosky Pirates card I could find. There are a couple picturing him with the Cincinnati Reds. 

We shared a common bond. Baseball. And we each had a favorite player that most people wouldn't recognize.  Grandpa's Adam Comorosky is my Ty Griffin.