This blog entry is going to be short and sweet, as I saw this in one of the sports headlines for the day. It went something like this: Reds Look at Sheffield for Limited Role.

Huh? First, Gary Sheffield is like Allen Iverson - he wants to play whenever he can. He's too proud to sit the bench. He needs to be on the field so he can be seen on camera and still be a star.

My distaste for Sheffield goes all the way back to his first few seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers - a place he didn't want to be. You see, he freely admitted that he purposely booted ground balls at third base so the team would trade him. What a great teammate, eh?

But the Reds looking at Sheffield has me even more perplexed. This is a team that is now ready for the youngsters to take control of the team and call it theirs. With the departure of Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn, this is now a club led by Jay Bruce, Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips. Why would you want a malcontent like Sheffield on your team with those stars ready to take center stage? And there is no DH in the National League.

Don't let Sheffield come in, get his 500 HRs (unless the club wants him just for that reason to draw more fans?) and then piss away the rest of the year. It's a bad move and the Reds should look at other options (aside from ridding themselves of Dusty Baker).

Can you tell baseball season starts this weekend?

When it comes to Bernie Madoff, one of the last things I would have associated him with is baseball cards. Unless, of course, he managed to steal those, too and sell them for his own gain.

But then comes this subject line in my e-mail: "Topps Issues a Trading Card of the Swindler as Part of the New 2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Product Out in June"

I get the whole social scene inclusion in Allen & Ginter but the only thing I want to do with a Madoff card is burn it.
       
The Madoff card will be a part of Topps' Allen & Ginter inserts of cards that feature the "world's biggest hoaxes, hoodwinks and bamboozles," including disgraced ponzi schemer Madoff. The cards feature 20 perpetrators of some of the most notorious pranks, dubious claims and outright frauds of the last two centuries. Other notables in the set will include: Charles Ponzi, Enron, D.B. Cooper and The Run Away Bride, found in 1:12 packs.
 
According to the release, Topps originally developed the idea of "world's biggest hoaxes, hoodwinks and bamboozles," inserts earlier this year prior to the Madoff scandal.

And I suppose he's the icing on that cake.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter includes a 350-card set featuring Major League Baseball players and champions from other sports. Along with the "Hoaxes, Hoodwinks and Bamboozles" insert set, collectors can also find subsets featuring "Creatures of Legend, Myth and Terror" and "National Heroes" from around the world.
 
So who do you want in your first pack of Allen & Ginter – Madoff or David Ortiz?

I talked will Billy Bahnsen at Steiner Sports yesterday about a big singing they are conducting and the related collectibles that go along with it.

Steiner has an exclusive signing with goaltender Martin Brodeur, who just set the victories mark for a goalie with 552 wins. Brodeur’s 552nd win on March 17 came in the 987th game of his career, 42 games less than it took former record holder Patrick Roy.  Along with the all-time wins record and three Stanley Cups, Brodeur is at or near the top of most major goalie career statistics.
 
The record-breaking collection from Steiner will feature autographed hockey pucks, goalie sticks, a 16-by-20 signed commemorative collage as well as an 11-by-14 unsigned version and 8-by-10 and 16-by-20 photos that capture the historic nature of Tuesday night.  Fans can visit www.steinersports.com for further detail and a complete list of the record-breaking collection.

So this got me thinking - of all the record sporting achievements, which one would you like to obtain collectibles based on? Would you want Hank Aaron's bat from the home run that broke Ruth's record? Barry Bonds bat that beat Aaron? How about the goggles from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring record night?

I know I'm missing a lot of important events in a lot of sports, but that's where you come in when sharing your ultimate collectibles prizes.
 

Fresh back from the Windy City after a three-day Fantasy Baseball bender. No, I wasn't taking part in the drafts, just monitoring those in attendance from around the Midwest. I placed a lot of stickers on boards and watched some interesting draft strategy.

In one baseball draft of 15 teams (and 30 rounds!), Miguel Cabrera lasted until the 12th pick. Needless to say, that guys was really happy. I also realized that no matter how bad a player does (Rickie Weeks) the year before, people still believe in potential, even three years later.

Also, a lot of the possible rookies studs we hear about (with the exception of catcher Matt Wieters) were not taken for a long time in the draft. Participants selected the known production numbers versus the unknown. And I guess if I was paying $650 or more, I would, too.

Finally, this is a short one blog because missing work means more work, if you ever want to kill about 6-7 hours in a day, participate in a baseball draft that uses an auction format. Imagine the bidding process for 450 players, most starting at $1.

And when does the baseball season actually start?

Well, I made it through day one of the NCAA tournament and managed to not spend so much time checking scores as to jeopardize my job. However, being in the sports department, I can just say I'm doing research on the next big basketball star and projecting the value of his future collectibles. Or something like that.

The tournament is just fun to watch - just like the College Baseball World Series. There's something about college athletics that seems so much more fun. There isn't the me-first attitude that exists in pro sports - at least not as much. That makes me wonder why there's isn't more collegiate material in the collectibles market. This is when the "stars" are first coming on the scene. These would be even better than minor league collectibles in baseball.

If the NCAA is concerned about money – and the NCAA tournament is a perfect example of yes, indeed, they are – then why not? While some college stuff is available, why couldn't the NCAA control the content and offer it through its own store. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Blake Griffin game-used jersey or some autographed shoes?

It's an option - something I was thinking about while "working" this afternoon.   

I'm off to a fantasy baseball event run by our company this weekend to run draft boards and other duties. If you think you're into fantasy sports, then why not join sometime? The average entry fee, I believe, is $650, with some drafts $1,250. Of course the rewards (up to $100,000) are pretty nice, too.

I don't know about anyone else, but if I'm paying that kind of scratch, I don't think I could watch baseball during the season. Baseball is one fantasy sport where you can be out in a hurry, so the first few months would be brutal. It would ruin the great game of baseball for me.

What would be better is a fantasy league based on the World Baseball Classic. The games don't count if you're a fan of a particular MLB team and then you can enjoy the rest of the season when the real games start. Plus, it lasts only three weeks, so it's quick and easy.

Taking some of the major league studs who are batting .500 right now with four home runs would be fun as they hit against some of these countries that are trotting out Double AA pitchers or those who haven' even made it that far. One team had a 19-year-old that played with Ivan Rodiguez's kid in a Miami high school game last year. He was pretty good, but he's no Johan Santana.

And even though I can't stand how Japanese players hit (bailing out of the box with every pitch), when they do make contact, it usually works out. I'd have a few of those players on my team.

Pitching would be difficult with the pitch count limits, but you could just expand the rosters a bit.

It's a perfect way to get the fantasy juices rolling before the MLB season begins. Now would I pay $1,250 for a WBC fantasy season? Nah....  

I know this is a sports card focused website, but I did some writing about Americana last week for the sister magazine, Sports Collectors Digest. I spoke with Larry Rosenbaum at EAC Gallery about presidential collectibles and other historic and political items that have been popping up with more frequency in sports auctions. And I'm not talking about the 1-of-1 cut sig presidential cards or the other inserts found in packs today.

I'm talking about real documents with the presidents' signatures. Can you guess who the top three are in the category. Good ahead and think about it.

Got it?

It's Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson.

OK, now how about the rarest signatures as president? Think it's the top three mentioned above? Nope.

The two rarest signatures as president are William Harrison and James Garfield. Why you ask? Well, Harrison caught pneumonia at his inauguration (hey, someone get him a coat!)  and he died 30 days later. That doesn't leave a lot of time to have documents signed by Harrison as president, much less have enough available today in decent condition.

Garfield was assassinated while in office, not long after he took the oath, so the same scenario exists for him as to the rarity of documents with his signature as president.

I had never thought of it in this fashion. I just assumed that the holy trinity of presidents were the most coveted and that was that. If you take a step back and realize the facts behind the history, it makes sense. Rosenbaum said a Garfield signature as president can run into $15,000. That's quite the jump from a Garfield signature while he was in the Army that brings $500-$600.

Just some food for thought before all my attention turns to my bracket this week. Happy selecting everyone.      

I'll kick this blog off with a note from Topps regarding its eTopps cards:

With the start of the 2009 World Baseball Classic, eTopps is excited to offer cards featuring players taking part in this year’s WBC tournament.  eTopps is issuing a special limited 12-card collection of cards featuring the biggest stars from some of the participating countries.  
 
Collectors who acquire the complete 12-card set of eTopps 2009 World Baseball Classic cards will receive a free patch card. This card will highlight a patch commemorating the winning country, and will be featured in eTopps technology.  For each 12-card eTopps 2009 WBC set in your online portfolio as of 10:59 PM (EDT) on Monday, March 30, you will be guaranteed one free patch card in your portfolio as well (at $0 value).
 
The first eTopps World Baseball Classic cards are available for purchase via online offering. Each card will be available for seven days, and will be sequentially numbered to limited quantities.

Next Monday (March 16), additional eTopps World Baseball Classic cards will be offered as the tournament kicks into high gear. Like the first one, this IPO will begin at 1:00 PM (EDT) on Monday, and will remain open for one week, closing at 3:00 AM (EDT) on the following Monday.


That's not a bad deal for folks into the eTopps line. But I'm curious - is this appealing to collectors or is this mostly geared toward younger collectors?

I never really caught on to this branding of collecting or trading, but I guess it's another option, especially in this online world.