Hey everybody, I hope everyone’s doing well. Since this is the month we celebrate love, I’m gonna share with you one of my passions from over the years.

I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved baseball cards, football cards and basketball cards. I guess because I was not an athlete I could live through my favorite athletes. One way of showing my love for the game or a particular athlete was buying their sports card.

I would ride my bike down to Frank’s IGA at the corner of Minerva Drive and Bradyville Pike or to Town & Country Market right across the street and buy 50-cent packs of cards hoping to score an Aaron, Mays, Rose or Carlton. Sometimes I would go to Tolliver’s Pawn Shop or the Bellwood Market on Broad Street.

I also remember as a kid my father would take my younger brother and me and go to the Great Escape in Nashville. He would give us $100 and, instead of buying the new cards of the 1970s, we bought up a lot of the older cards like the Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron cards, just to name a few.

I had the opportunity to sit down with John McGill, who actually started one of the first baseball card shows in Tennessee. John has lived in Murfreesboro all his life. He started his card shows in 1987 at the Ramada Inn on South Church Street, where they are still held to this day. McGill got the idea from Ed Gaddy, who had a sports card shop called E. Gad’s at Harding Mall in Nashville. Jay Deaton (of Bellwood lore) helped John promote the first show.

Someone selling cards at the card shows could price their cards by looking at the “CCP,” which stands for current card prices. Collectors would use Beckett, a magazine for pricing sports cards. John told me back in the day you could buy a whole box of cards for $8; today, that same box of cards could cost $1,000 or more.

I asked John what was his key to success of his card shows for the last 38 years, held at a single place, the Ramada Inn. He let me know the main source of promotion is the Ramada Inn’s marquee sign out front on the busy street.

The card shows are still held the first and third Saturday of each month. So, for many years all John had to do was change the dates.

I asked John to tell me some interesting stories from over the years. He said one time he had set up at the Madison Flea Market and this fellow came in and tried to sell him some baseball cards . . . but it so happened that they were John’s baseball cards! The guy had stolen them at the Ramada Inn show. John assured me no one was arrested and that this thief was not a resident of Murfreesboro.

I know Murfreesboro had several professional athletes who hailed from here, all featured on their own cards. We all likely know of Major League Baseball pitcher David Price. Kenny Gerhart played at Oakland High School and at MTSU and played for the Baltimore Orioles. Before that, Chuck Taylor played on several teams in the Majors.

Murfreesboro native Robert James played for the Buffalo Bills, following his time at Holloway High School and Fisk University.

If you’re wanting to buy cards or to have your collection evaluated, stop by the show at the Murfreesboro Ramada Inn (1855 S. Church St.) the first or third Saturday of each month to find out.

Sports-card trading is a billion-dollar industry, and the value still appears to be going up. The key to these cards’ value are condition and scarcity.

For more information or to display and sell your card collection, call John McGill at 615-893-1140.

Now, go out and do something nice for somebody, and remember to get your sweetie some chocolate and tell them how much you love them.