Bill Russell once said something to the effect of, regarding autographs, that those get these autographs now think they know you or have a piece of you when they get the autograph. He felt it was quite impersonal, which probably led to his stance against autographs for so many years.

I'm not of the opinion that getting an autograph means you own a piece of the person or "know" them. I think it's a memento from them and nothing more. It's different if you can have a lengthy conversation with an athlete to get a true sense of the person – then you might be able to say you know of them based on your experience.

Russell said he'd prefer a handshake and to look in someone's eye than scribble a signature and hand it over. Heck, I think collectors would like that, too. Too often you hear about athletes who don't look up when signing, refuse to sign or are surly when doing anything with the public. If people had the choice, I think they'd prefer to have a conversation with a favorite athlete than simply be shuffled through a line like cattle.

Of course, the problem is that you rarely get that opportunity, and that is why people go the autograph route instead.

If I had the chance to talk to an athlete for a length of time, I'd choose Hank Aaron first. He trials on and off the field and experiences playing the game would be a true treat to listen.

Anyone else have a favorite athlete they'd just like to talk to?   
 

It's amazing how the baseball season just started and already people are writing off certain players or teams. Did I mention the season is barely a week old?

Here in Wisconsin, where the Brewers usually only have a window from April until July to impress the faithful because of the lore of the Green Bay Packers, some radio announcers are already saying something to the effect of, "When does football start?" This, of course, after the Crew has started out with a 2-6 record and looking pretty poor in those outings.

I am curious if this is happening in other cities where the hometown nine has started on fire. Where is the patience in a 162-game season?

And then there are some teams pushing the panic buttons themselves on certain players. The Washington Nationals, for instance, have demoted their leadoff hitter, Lastings Milledge, to the minors. Now I perhaps could see that with a young prospect who is clearly over his head, but Milledge has played on the big stage and has proven he belongs.

I know everyone wants to start out doing well, but this early in the season, some guys are still finding their way around the clubhouse. For those in the Tuff Stuff Fantasy Baseball League, I hope you're not making extreme moves like dumping Ryan Braun to tossing Dice-K to the waiver-wire wolves.

It's a long and beautiful season folks. No need to get too high or too low after one week.

if anyone has any other examples of someone you know getting all jacked up or way too depressed this early, share with the rest of us.   

I managed to attend my first MLB game of the year last night, a poorly pitched affair between the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Brewers. It was cold, rainy – but that's why there is a roof in Wisconsin. There's a game played no matter what it's doing outside.

While I walked around some of the new features, which included a new fan store, I was struck by how much I was seeing Topps and Upper Deck in and around the stadium. It started with racks of packs in the team store, and another box of Topps Attax by the checkout counter.

Before the game started, there was an announcement that if a certain player got a hit or home run (I don't remember which) a section in the stands would receive a pack of cards from Upper Deck.

When the lineup was introduced, it was "brought to you by Topps." Each time a player came to bat during the game, a digital card was displayed on the outfield wall with the Topps name prominently displayed.

Perhaps I'm more aware of the names and the trading card angle in this profession, but if anyone says the card companies are non-existent at ballparks, they're wrong – at least in Milwaukee.

Now did this translate into sales? I can't say for certain, and I didn't see any kids flashing the cards around in the stands or the concourses, but the option is there, which is a good thing.

I remember going to Single-A games as a kid and visiting the "fan shop," which consisted if a small booth with glass taller than me so that I would smudge the glass with my nose. I would get some mini helmets and a few packs of cards, which were always right in front to entice me.

Kids can't smudge their faces staring at cards at Miller Park, but at least they can get some cards.  

The NFL Draft is approaching next weekend, and all of the mock drafts are running in full swing prior to the big event. Card manufacturers are starting to gear up, as well. After all, I contend the NFL Draft is the most important draft of all of the major sports for sports card manufacturers and collectors.

The baseball draft might be the biggest in the long run, in terms of possible future stars and their long-term collectibility, but it takes a few years before you see them play, which except for a select few, means they have dropped from the public's eye in that time - if they even make it to the bigs.

The NBA Draft is a pretty big deal because a lot of those players make an immediate impact, but then then you're only talking about maybe 10 immediate impact guys. And the draft itself is only 60 players or so.

But the NFL draft offers the best of all worlds – plenty of talent in terms of sheer quantity and the fact that a good number can make immediate impacts with their respective teams. Just look at the players last year off the top of your head – Forte, Chris Johnson, Eddie Royal, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, DeSean Jackson, Darren McFadden – and those are just some of the offensive players.

All of those players had an immediate impact on the football card market, which also happens to be the second most popular card segment in the hobby, for those who want to argue that the basketball draft has a bigger impact on the sports hobby as a whole.

So it will be fun to see the tops picks in next weekend's draft and then watch as the card companies announce how those picks will be presented in upcoming products.

Let the countdown begin.  

  

As I sit here in the afternoon on Good Friday, while also checking in on the tailgate festivities at the Brewers' Miller Park for Opening Day that I am missing, we decided to open a box of Topps T-51 Murad Basketball.

When it comes to trading cards, I think there are some basics that should be followed. One of those is having the player's name who is featured on the card mentioned somewhere on the front. With a classic style of card that is more art than a photo, you can't always tell who the player is, especially when the uniform number is obscured.

My second rule is when showcasing statistics on the backside, have numbers that are easy to read (and in my opinion, they should have career stats, not just the last year).

Needless to say by that intro, Murad falls flat on both of those. There is no mention of the player on the front. The Middle Eastern art influence is fine, but it doesn't work if I don't know who the player is.

And the stats on the back look like they were printed with a 1985 word processors and all of the "numbers" are spelled out. As in, if the player had 933 assists in his career, it reads, "nine hundred thirty-three assists." Please.

We also received a fancy mini card that is clearly a special insert, as it's housed in a plastic sleeve, but we still don't know who the player is because it doesn't say anywhere on the card.

Again, the look of the cards is great, but to the average collector, the omissions mentioned above will immediately turn them off. This set is for a select group, that's for sure.   

I'm thinking of doing what I consider to be something evil. I'm considering canceling my subscription to my daily newspaper. Now, that's a tough call to make when you work for a publishing company that has been ravaged by people who have gone online to do, well, everything. It's one of the reasons why the magazines you read aren't the 200 pages they used to be. But back to the newspaper. the baseball season kicked off, and I like to read the box scores in the morning while I eat breakfast. Except, my newspaper has decided to run about two box scores and give summaries for the rest. What?! I like to see who is doing well, and not just the guys on my fantasy team. So now I have to log onto my computer and get the results. Perhaps this is only natural, since that's where I get most of my news, too. It seems that whatever I read in the newspaper, I've already read it online. Perhaps it's because I sit in front of a computer all day long as part of my job and then I log in at night to see how those fantasy teams are doing, among other things. Am I addicted? Probably not, but it seems after a weekend of being away from the computer, I want to log on and see my mail and anything exciting going on. And I'm not even of the generation that can't be connected to something electronically 24 hours a day.

I'm not one of those collectors who is into set building. I think it takes up too much time and money to accomplish. If they has everything in one single box, then I'd buy it. All of those doubles and other "advertising" cards for websites and special offers would drive me crazy.

And if collecting a full set of a particular card series would be too much for me, then trying to secure one of the Legacy Sets from Upper Deck might send me over the top of the crazy hill. It started with the Yankee Stadium set, which consisted of more than 6,600 cards. Thus far, two people have accomplished that feat (kudos - that couldn't have been easy).

And then there was the Documentary series, which chronicled each MLB team's 2008 season - that's 162 cards for each team.

However, there is one Legacy Collection that I know collectors will eat up – and it will be a lot of collectors, not just one or two die-hards. Upper Deck announced that longtime company spokesman Michael Jordan is being honored with a 1,170-card tribute insert set chronicling every single Chicago Bulls game he played in from his NBA debut on October 26, 1984 through his game-clinching heroics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on June 14, 1998.

The 1,170-card set will pack out inside four Upper Deck basketball products during the course of 2009: Lineage (April 1); Radiance (April 29); Upper Deck (Sept. 22); and First Edition (Sept. 29). Each of the cards includes MJ’s specific box score stats from the game in question, giving every card some historical significance as the overall set captures every game Jordan ever played with the Bulls, regular-season and playoff battles included. The cards will be at a ratio of 1:4 packs.

Plus, there will be another 100 gaem-used memorabilia cards in the set.

While this is still a LOT of cards, you must admit that when it comes to collecting, Jordan, like on the basketball court, is way above the others. To have a complete sets of these cards is not only a unique Jordan set, but it relives his career that would be hard to do otherwise.

With his announcement into the HOF today, this will just add to the momentum that is Jordan, even if we were all just waiting got this day anyway.   

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?