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By Scott Mims | Community Columnist

Football might be king nowadays, but growing up I always heard and believed that baseball was America’s pastime. And one of the things that cemented that idea in our minds was the hobby of baseball card collecting.

I can’t begin to tell you how many sports memorabilia shops and events that my Dad and I attended throughout the ’90s. It became one of my core memories that I look back upon to this day.

There was something thrilling about buying a pack of baseball cards and trying to find a rare card that was worth a lot of money. There was also the stick of chewing gum included in certain brands that was so hard it nearly pulled your teeth out.

For a short time, Chilton County had its own baseball card shop, which was based in a couple of different locations on the north side of town. You could also find cards at convenience stores and some major retailers. If someone pulled a rare card, the news spread amongst our friends and it quickly became a modern-day legend.

Another factor that contributed to the idea of baseball as America’s pastime was the Atlanta Braves’ run of postseason victories that culminated with their World Series win over the (then) Cleveland Indians in 1995. The pitching rotation of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Steve Avery was legendary, and anytime my cousins and I gathered to play backyard baseball we pretended to be our heroes on the mound.

My generation also grew up with movies that highlighted baseball’s American heritage such as “A League of Their Own” and one that especially rang true among small-town youth dreaming to someday make it big in the majors, “The Sandlot.”

As an adult, I must say the focus has shifted quite a bit away from baseball, and I think part of it has to do with people’s shortening attention spans in the age of social media. While the sport has made some changes to try to adapt, it has largely come up short as football continues to be the most popular sport to watch.

But there are always reminders of America’s true pastime. I once had the privilege of interviewing Ron Adair, a well-known baseball card artist who lives in Helena, Alabama. I also sometimes pull my collection out of safekeeping to look through it, and to remember how great we had it back then.