Passing on Refractors

Why would I pass on free refractors?  I, the chaser of all things refractory, for the last year?

I, the man who still finds himself 198 refractors short of his goal for the year?

Actually, its pretty simple.  The Triple Crown.

I consider myself a baseball history buff.  I enjoy the nostalgia of it.  I also love how baseball numbers and feats seem to mean more than in other sports.  Numbers like .400, 3000, 56 and even broken numbers like 4191, 755 and 2130 all mean something to me.  Not just the records themselves, but the stories and triumphs behind them.

One feat that lives in baseball lore is the triple crown.  Every player ever to accomplish it is a Hall of Famer.  It implies a skill level so far above average that its been done a total of 14 times since 1900.  And only 4 since 1950.  And until this year, not since 1967, 45 years ago.

I remember as a kid, watching the stats accumulating through the year.  I had to read the newspaper to get the stats, and there were not nearly as many as today.  I remember honing my math skills by extrapolating the league leaders current totals to what they might have over 162 games.  I'm still pretty slick at arithmetic today, mostly because of baseball statistics.

The 2 most important things I watched were first, home runs.  The single season homer record was often 'challenged' early in the season, but as the summer wore on, nobody could keep it up.  The other was the triple crown.  This was even more hallowed in my mind, since even early in the season, very few had a real shot at it.

Yaz has grown in stature in my mind and collecting habits specifically because he won the crown.  And now, the newest crown winner has cost me refractors!  You see, I recently won a contest over at Arpsmiths Sportscard Obsession, and one of the possible prizes was 3 refractors.  Gold mine for me!!

But also offered was this:

Done deal.