Trading Pins Are An Example Of The Best Sporting Traditions
Trading Pins Are An Example Of The Best Sporting Traditions
Trading pins have long been a symbol of friendship in the sports world. From their beginnings at the Olympic Games early in the 20th century, they have stood for camaraderie and even international cooperation through sporting competition. And nowhere are trading pins more popular today than in youth baseball.
From small beginnings, trading pins have become a huge part of youth baseball. The Little League World Series, held each year in South Williamsport, Pa., is a hotbed of pin trading activities. Every August, traders swarm to the tournament, many of them more interested in pin trading than baseball. Teams from around the world make new friends as they swap trading pins.
The popularity of trading pins is understandable. They feature attractive artwork that appeals to both children and adults. They have unique ties to events or sports they represent, giving them a tie to a specific time and place that people want to remember. And last but not least, trading pins are small and easily portable, making them easy to trade.
Pin traders typically exchange one trading pin for another. Rare and special pins, however, can command a much higher price. A select few trade one pin for up to 10 more common designs.
As a result of the popularity of trading pins in baseball and softball, other youth sports, including hockey, soccer and football have entered the hobby as well. While the trading pin frenzy is smaller in these sports, it's certainly poised to grow in the near future.
The trading pin craze is a worldwide phenomenon not limited to youth sports. The 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London will feature 2,012 distinct trading pin designs. It's a long way from trading pins' humble beginnings more than a century earlier.
Trading pins have been an Olympic tradition almost from the start of the modern Games. Pins that were the precursors of today's trading pins were worn by athletes and officials at those first Games in 1896 as a way to identify each other. A decade later, Sweden's athletes introduced pins in the national colors of blue and yellow, and the trading phenomenon began.
Pin trading remained a low-key hobby mostly of athletes and officials for many years, but by the 1980 Winter Olympics, spectators started trading pins as well. Major corporations soon jumped aboard the bandwagon too. Coca-Cola opened its own Official Olympic Pin Trading Center for the 1988 Winter Olympics The gathering spot for fans of trading pins attracted more than 17,000 visitors a day.
Today's trading pins go far beyond the Olympics. The 2010 Commonwealth Games, held in India last October proved to be a busy place for trading pins as well. Trading pins at the Games were a common souvenir, with many traders jockeying to get as many pins as they could by the end of the 12-day event.
The best thing about trading pins is that they encourage participation and involvement. They help create engagement among strangers who might not even share the same language. They can turn unknown people from different cultures into fast friends. The represent the true ideals of amateur sports fellowship, honor and worthy competition at all levels.
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