We used to bike to the Denver, Iowa, Kwik Trip (before it became Kwik Star) to buy baseball cards. I'd prop my dirt bike up on its kick stand, ignore it when it fell over anyway, and scramble into the store to buy packs of Topps and Donruss baseball cards.

I didn't really know baseball at the time, so every card boasting a name I'd heard of was pure gold to me. I thought I had a pretty sweet collection going until my friends told me all I had were a bunch of commons. I couldn't even pretend like I wasn't hurt.

Last night, listening to Gleeman and the Geek's "Episode 28: My Twin the Car," my stomach flipped over with the same kind of hurt. This nausea had nothing to do with the efforts of Gleeman or Bonnes, who put together another excellent addition of their podcast. Instead, the sickness came from realizing the 2012 Minnesota Twins seem to be largely fillled with Donruss commons.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to cheer for the Donruss commons sporting a "TC" on their hat. After 2010, it just seems like there should be more to cheer for on the team.

Interesting point and very well stated. My initial thought was to try to disagree with you, but frankly, most players are "commons" at this point in the card collecting game. Mauer and Morneau likely aren't in the common bins. And guys like Benson, Parmelee, Hendriks, Gibson, Sano, Rosario... well, they likely won't start the season on the big league roster.

Thank you very much.

I hope it's clear I know being a "common" major leaguer is still being superhuman.

Maybe I need to ask myself this question: Is my desire to hero worship ballplayers going to make watching the 2012 Twins more or less enjoyable? I don't know, honestly.