Collector Q&A: Mookie Chillson

Mookie Chillson has been an early supporter of the Vintage Card Voyage channel, so I’m grateful for his support. He also has one of the more unique collecting styles among collectors I’m aware of on YouTube, which is alluded to in his logo, He’s uploaded videos since early 2023 with just over 100 videos on his channel, so let’s get to know him a little better with the Drawn to Cards Q&A.

What’s your card collecting story (when and why did you start, which sport(s)/card era(s), and do you consider yourself a collecting generalist or specialist)?

I remember the very first pack of baseball cards that I ever opened. It was the summer of 1985 and my mother gave a wax pack out to each of me and my brothers. I pulled a Pete Rose “record breaker” and a Dwight Gooden rookie card. This Mets fan was hooked. By 1986 I was a full-on card hound, building the Mets team set as that team went on on its magical run. In 1987, at age 12, I got my first job washing dishes for $2 an hour at my father’s restaurant. 100% of every cent I earned went to buying baseball cards. I was completely invested in the hobby, buying/selling/trading/curating until about 1991. That’s when a combination of high school distractions colluded to kick off a hobby “dark age” that lasted for decades.

I also remember the night of the hobby renaissance! I was lying in bed in the early days of the pandemic, thinking to myself: “I wonder if I could put together an autographed team set of the 1986 Mets?” That project was the start of the return … and I’ve been pot-committed to the hobby ever since. I absolutely consider myself a collecting specialist and not a generalist.

Who/what do you personally collect?

I have a handful of specific collecting focuses. First, I love vintage baseball pinhole cards. From 1880 to about 1980, collectors in the “pre-protection” era often pulled cards from packs and displayed their cherished possessions by pinning them to their wall. I consider these cards “victims of love” that deserve to be restored to their former glory, displayed on a corkboard and back up on the wall. For five years I’ve been trying to “clear the shelters” and it has been a blast.

I am also a Mets team collector, with a particular focus on the “Miracle Mets” of 1969 and the World Champion 1986 Mets. 

I have a few different non-Mets player collections, including Larry Doby, who I consider an underappreciated American hero.

And finally, I also enjoy collecting vintage non-sport cards that include the 1966 Topps Batman set and 1888 N76 Duke and Sons “Great Americans” set among others.  

What’s your favorite card you own and/or what’s your grail card? Tell us why.

I have a 1954 Topps WIllie Mays that was my first ever pinhole card. It’s not my father’s card, but it reminds me of my dad and the Giants fandom of his youth. My father died before I could really enjoy any hobby activity with him, and this card is the substitute for all the stories that died with my father. 1954 Pinhole Willie Mays is the beating heart of my pinhole “Holey Grail” wall of fame.

A grail card for me would be a 1949 Bowman Larry Doby pinhole card. I have a 1949 Bowman Jackie Robinson rookie card with a pinhole in it. The Doby and Robinson rookie cards literally integrated the card collections of every kid who pulled them out of a pack. The kid who pinned that card to their wall, whether they knew it or not, loved those cards and embraced that progress. When the 1949 Doby card was issued, Larry was a 1948 World Series hero - helping the Indians get past the Boston Braves in six games. I’m sure there’s a pinhole version of Larry’s 1949 Bowman card that I will find one day.

Who/what motivated you to start a YouTube channel?

The thing that impressed me so much about YouTube, before I began a channel, was the healthy self-expression so many collectors were exhibiting. It’s genuinely therapeutic to listen to other people working through their own feelings and problems. I love listening to fellow collectors sharing their success stories and learning from their mistakes. When I started commenting on the videos of the channels I was watching I made sure I was positive, specific and sincere. I wanted to show these people who were doing the work to share what they experienced that their signal was being received by a stranger with a goofy name who appreciated that signal on its own terms. Two years ago I decided to start sharing some of my own collecting and curating stories. It has been so rewarding to participate in that way.

What’s been the best part of your YouTube experience so far?

I’ve said this before on my channel, but I think of YouTube as an echolocation device that lets you transmit your signal around the globe so you can see what kind of signal bounces back to you. I’ve used this platform to forge so many relationships. From an incredible teacher in California, to a Whalers fan in Rhode Island, to a whale hunter in Colorado, to an Astros fan and his son in Houson, to a Vols fanatic in Tennessee, to a Kaboomie hater in LA, to a fellow Seaver lover in Manhattan, to a Clemente collector in PA, to a genius artist in Ohio, to a card farmer in Nebraska, to a centered surfer in Hawaii … I could go on and on! These people and their support and their experiences have made my world a better place and I hope it never ends. 

If you could talk to/interview any person on your channel (creator, person in sports, person in the hobby, etc.), who would it be and why?

I don’t really do interviews on my channel, but If I did I would love to talk to Mookie Wilson about his improbable career and the greatest at bat in the history of the World Series (come at me!).

Which three YouTube sports card channels do you think more people should watch?

The three YouTube channels I think more people should watch are:

• @W238thStreet - Dean is such a creative collector whose content is mind bending and a total inspiration   

• @LowDownDirtyCardboard - Matt is a collector after my own heart who thinks outside the bun when it comes to card condition. I’m really enjoying the handful of videos he has produced 

• @JucksCollectibles - Juck is a young collector with just two videos so far (Editor’s note: He now has five), but he started off with a bang and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Finally - I think everyone should DM @Iowa_Dave_Sportscards on Instagram and beg him to keep crossing over his content to YouTube. He’s a total treasure and the YouTube world needs his gold!

What do you think the future holds for your channel and for the hobby in general?

My goal is to continue to keep expressing myself in a healthy fashion through videos, comments and livestream chats. I am 10X-ing my own hobby happiness at my current investment rate. I just want to live in this emotional money booth until the fan shuts off!

Dennis Martinez was born in 1955 in Granada, Nicaragua, the last of seven children. According to this article from SABR (the Society for American Baseball Research), an injury to one his teammates during the Federación Mundial de Béisbol Amateur World Series played a part in Martinez (at 17) being scouted in the first place:

Martinez signed with the Orioles in 1973, the same year they signed future Hall of Famer Eddie Murray. Martinez was assigned to the Single-A team in Miami in 1974 and instantly found success, a success he’d repeat at each minor league stop, as he went 15-6 in 1974, 16-5 in 1975 (with Miami, Double-A Asheville, and Triple-A Rochester), and 14-8 in 1976 with Rochester, before being called up by the Orioles in September of 1976.

His first full season with the Orioles in 1977, he won 14 games and soon became a pretty regular starting pitcher for the team, piling up 33 complete games, 77 starts and 31 wins in 1978 and 1979. In the abbreviated strike season of 1981, he led the majors in wins with 14, finishing fifth in voting for the A.L. Cy Young award. Two years later, even though he finished the regular season with a 7-16 win-loss record, the Orioles got to the World Series, which they won, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies. But it’s what happened after the World Series that helped turn his life around.

According to the SABR article, Martinez started drinking alcohol in 1972, introduced to it by a teammate in Nicaragua, and the drinking became a problem when he became a regular with the Orioles in 1977, primarily on road trips. When the 1983 playoffs rolled around, manager Joe Altobelli took Martinez out of the rotation, not playing him in either the ALCS or the World Series, and the article references the pitcher’s drinking as one of the reasons. Shortly after the Orioles wrapped up the championship, Martinez went out drinking with a friend, then as he drove home, realized he had a flat tire, but when a state trooper also pulled over and assessed the situation, Martinez was charged with intoxication.

He soon decided to enter rehab and, as of the article’s publication in 2016, it noted he had been sober for 32 years. After Martinez’s rehab, his pitching with the Orioles suffered, and he alluded to the challenge of focusing on both the game and his sobriety at the same time for his pitching struggles, as his focus was on his sobriety. In 1986, the Orioles traded him to the Montreal Expos, where he eventually turned things around. After a brief stint back in the minor leagues, Martinez returned to the Expos and went on to have seven consecutive seasons with 10 or more wins, three of those seasons being named an All-Star, and during the 1991 season when he threw a perfect game, he lead the National League in complete games while leading the Major Leagues in both ERA and shutouts. His tenure with the Expos ended in 1993, but during those seven-and-a-half seasons, he joined a select group of pitchers who won 100 games in both the American and National Leagues, including such legends as Cy Young and Nolan Ryan.

In 1994, he joined the Cleveland Indians, and over the next three seasons, he tallied his 14th and 15th season with 10 or more wins, and even went to his fourth All-Star game at 41 years old. In 1995, the Indians reached the World Series, Martinez’s first postseason appearance since 1979, and while he started two games for the Indians in the Fall Classic, it would be the Atlanta Braves winning that year. In 1997, he joined the Seattle Mariners, only to request a release early in the season. He then joined the Atlanta Braves in 1998, and while the team got to the playoffs that season, with Martinez even getting a win in the NLCS, the Braves would fall short as the Padres beat them to advance to the World Series.

1998 was Martinez’s final season, retiring at age 44 with 245 career wins. Upon his retirement, that win total was both the most for a pitcher who never recorded 20 wins in a season (a record he still holds) and the most by a Latin American pitcher, eclipsing Hall of Famer Juan Marichal’s former record of 243. That latter record would stand for 20 years until Bartolo Colon eclipsed it in 2018, finishing his career with 247 wins. After his playing days, Martinez was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame (2002), the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame (2011), and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame (2016). While he isn’t currently in Cooperstown, it’s possible he could be a consideration for future Era Committee Elections, especially as fewer and fewer pitchers finish with 200 career wins.

Martinez also continued to work sporadically in the game of baseball, as a spring training instructor for the Orioles (2005-06), a coach in the minor leagues (2007-12), a bullpen coach for the Houston Astros (2013), and a manager for the Nicaragua national baseball team (2011-13). In addition, the national ballpark in Nicaragua’s capital city of Managua was named Dennis Martinez National Stadium in his honor in 1998, only to be renamed in 2022 following his criticism of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega.

Martinez also established the Dennis Martinez Foundation in 1997, dedicated to helping poor children in Nicaragua and other parts of Latin America, but based on limited research, it may now be inactive.