Just added to my sports memorabilia collection are two new signed baseballs.  The first is a ball autographed by Red Sox Hall of Famer and Ted Williams' teammate Bobby Doerr. The second is a ball that I'm very excited about - a beautiful white Gene Budig Official American League ball signed by both Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio.

It may seem strange for a die hard Red Sox fan to be extatic about the addition of a Mickey Mantle/Joe DiMaggio signed ball to his collection.  I confess, I fell a little conflicted about it myself.  But there can be no argument, Mantle and DiMaggio are two of the cornerstones of sports autograph collecting (along with Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, and Lou Gehrig).

Any type of collecting, whether it be baseball cards, video games, books, beanie babies, or Playboys, is always the most fun when you can share the hobby with others.  As a kid, I started collecting baseball cards because of my growing love for the sport, however I continued collecting cards because it offered a way for friends to connect.

My friends and I spent untold hours together sorting cards, trading cards, or just talking about collecting.  We even devised games where we would gamble upon our collections - some of them involved archery, some pitching contests, some video game contests, but the wager was always a given stack of cards.

One of my best friends recently discovered the hobby of memorabilia collecting.  I couldn't be happier that he has taken a liking to the hobby.  Discussing recent finds or sharing leads with one another has brought back collecting memories from childhood - the difference being back then we would ride our bikes to the store and buy copious packs of baseball cards, now we text or instant message each other with URLs.