Collecting Baseball Cards

When I was a child, most of us were into collecting baseball cards. We would spend much of our allowance trying to get all of the cards and since each pack that you bought had different cards, you would wind up with numerous duplicates before getting the 'star' players. Sadly for most of us, our baseball card collection went by the wayside when we became teenagers and discovered other things... like girls. However, I do have a friend who's mother was wise enough to put his cards in a green garbage bag and there they sat in the closet for many years until my friend rediscovered them years later as an adult. Several of those cards are now worth a good bit of money, like the two Pete Rose cards that he possesses.

While there will always be a market for Sports Memorabalia, mass production will most likely keep a lid on the appreciation value of most of the cards printed today. The one's that will become valuable will be the 'limited editions'(if there is such a thing)and the cards that are put out in small circulation due to errors or some other variable like the one with Billy Ripken and his baseball bat with the writing on the end referring to 'Richard Head'. The Orioles once had a player named Dick Hall but he was from the sixties so I don't believe he had that Dick in mind.

Just What Constitutes An Athlete?

I heard two friends talking the other day at the local watering
hole and one was passionately arguing that Nascar drivers aren't 'real' athletes. Now I'm not a Nascar person but I've got to say that anyone that can endure the grueling schedule of nine months of racing every weekend at speeds of 200 miles an hour for several hours at a time, has my respect and admiration and to me certainly qualifies as an athlete.

It seems that many of us have the sterotypical idea of an athlete; someone who plays a game involving a lot of physical contact and/or requires individuals to have an 'athlete's' physique. I tend to take a different approach toward what constitutes an athlete. How about jockeys, who may only weigh about 100 pounds and who race animals several times their size as fast as possible. Are NBA or NFL players really any more of an athlete than these guys and girls?

Is it simply a matter of some sports being more 'athletic' than others?

I believe that some of us need to take a broader perspective when considering what makes a sport a sport, and just who is and isn't an athlete.

The Real National Pastime?

I talked to a friend at work yesterday, and he excitedly told me that he had purchased a couple of 'PSL's' at the 'M and T Bank' Stadium, the home of the Baltimore Ravens for the tidy sum of $5,000 dollars. Then he told me that is also has to shell out another thousand or so for the privilege of being able to sit in the seats that he just purchased for 5 Grand to be able to watch the eight regular season games plus a couple of exhibition games that the team has scheduled this year.

What's amazing to me is that Jim is not some high flying businesssman, attorney or some professional who makes boatloads of money, but just a regular working class guy that probably makes about $15 bucks an hour at most. With his wife having just recently given birth to their first child, I was contemplating as to how he justify spending that kind of money on something that wasn't a necessity, and from all appearances something that he probably couldn't afford.

The thing is, there is such a demand for NFL football tickets at this time that teams like the Ravens can get away with charging these huge fees and people are standing in line waiting for someone else to sell their PSL's so that they can then see their favorite team do their thing on Sundays.

While baseball may lay claim to being the 'national pastime', with fans willing to shell out hundreds and thousands of dollars to be a part of these 'sporting' events, it's apparant that NFL football along with possibly Nascar have become the real chosen pastimes of the majority of sports fans in America today, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

Young Guns

It seems as if we're seeing 'Superstars' at younger ages in professional sports these days. In hockey, you have Sidney Crosby coming into the league and having a huge impact at the age of 18. Alexander Ovechkin was only 19 when he started with the Washington Capitals and he too had an immediate impact in the league. In fact, there are a couple of players in the NHL who are only 17! With Major League baseball, you have the same thing going on with the young Latin players coming into the league as teenagers. With professional football and basketball, you don't see many players starting at such a young age mainly I believe because of the highly profitable NCAA programs in these sports which provides a huge incentive to keep talented athletes in these schools for four years. Is it any wonder that you have athletes being bribed with all sorts of cash inducements?

The other reason that you see such young superstars playing professionally these days is because of the vast network of scouting agents that cover the entire globe and discover budding superstars when they're practically just out of diapers. They get these youngsters signed as early as they can so they can start playing and provide huge returns for the team that they represent.

Fishheads

Sports apparel is a multi-billion dollar business. From shoes, jerseys, jackets, banners, etc.; people are willing to spend 'mucho dinaro' to show their support for the team. Nike for instance sells shoes that start at $90 and ranges up close to $300? For tennis shoes? Back in my day, the 'cool' thing was wearing a pair of 'Jack Purcell' tenna shoes. White was ok, but if you had purple, you were really cool. I usually wore 'fishheads' which was a cheap version of J.P.'s. I usually tried to customize them to make them look like Jack Purcell's but it didn't take long for a kid to holler, "Bill's wearing fishheads". This ignominy was perhaps the origin of my childhood inferiority complex. By the way, J.P.'s sold for $9.95.

Tennis Babes

I see where Sports commentator Roger Rasheed got himself in trouble for making some flattering comments about Venus William's butt. What is it today with people getting offended over anything and everything? It's not like he said she had a fat nasty butt, he was complimenting her. There's just too many people waiting to excoriate someone else for every comment that they think is 'out of line'. The fact is, Venus is put together very well. In fact, most of the women on the Professional Tennis circuit are hot. It's not like they try to hide it. In fact, some like Anna Kournikova have cashed in on her physical attributes. I say admire beauty in all its shapes and forms, and if that happens to be the recognition of a beautiful posterior, what's the problem?



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Letting the Captains Off the Hook

I watched some clips of testimony of Selig and Fehr at the ongoing Mitchell Steroid investigation and it's insightful how the individuals who are ultimately responsible for the conduct of its employee's; that being Selig, Fehr and the owners, are let off the hook relatively unscathed while the players are being held to the fire. While I don't have a lot of sympathy for the players who have been using the Performance Enhancing drugs and lying about it, shouldn't the Commissioner of Baseball and the Executive Director of the Players Association be held to account as well? At the least, one would think that the owners would demand the resignation of Selig to give the appearance of caring about the business that they are involved with.

Perhaps it's just the reflection of society at large that the individuals who are at the top of the food chain seldom get punished for their laspes but pass the responsiblity on to the people who are further down on the totem pole. As the saying goes, 'it rolls downhill'. It reminds me of a company I once worked for that was fined a couple of hundred million dollars for Medicare reimbursement violations. As part of the settlement with the government, the company agreed to have ALL of it's employees sit through numerous meetings and discussions about ethics and proper conduct of it's employees; never mind the fact that the drivers, janitors and other lowly employees had no access or means to bring about violations of the law, it was the 'We're Guilty, So We Are Going to Make YOU Pay' mentality.

Peyton Manning...Sports Advertising Icon?

I saw Peyton and his brother's new commercial on T.V. during the playoffs Sunday. Peyton has been all over the T.V. this football season. To the victors go the spoils, and lots of advertising money. It seems that winning the big game is just the beginning of the payoff for some athletes. Usually, the athlete's popularity lasts about as long as it takes to crown a new champion. However, there are a few athletes who are able to maintain their advertising viability long past their career. In Baltimore, Cal Ripken Jr. is seen and heard everywhere. During baseball season, you'll find him pitching everything from Comcast High Speed Internet to Esskay Hot Dogs. Cal is a Sports legend, and has the rare ingredients that give him long term viability and appeal for advertisers. I believe Peyton has the same qualities as well. What these rare individuals bring to the world of Sports is a sense of wholesomeness and integrity. In short, advertisers aren't likely to regret spending millions of dollars branding an athlete to their product; unlike a couple of Michael's we're all aware of.


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The Thug Mentality

One of the biggest changes that I've observed in Sports is the thug mentality that permeates much of the Sports world today. The N.F.L., commonly referred to by many as the National Felony League, usually contributes a couple of its finest to the American Penal System each year. The N.B.A. is another sport that counts several offenders among its roster. However, it's not just the Pro's; you see the same types of behavior occuring in College Sports and at other levels as well. Some of what you see going on can possibly be attributed to the fact that the behavior of athletes is just a reflection of the degrading of the American culture. However, I would contend that another aspect that contributes to the crimimal element in Sports is that many of the rosters of teams today consist of individuals that come from a background of thuggery. It's likely that if not for their exceptional athletic ability, many of the athletes playing sports would be in jail or worse.

Rooting for the Underdog

Watching the NFL playoffs today, I saw my favorite team; the Indianapolis Colts get upset by the San Diego Chargers. Later on, the Cowboys were also upset by the underdog N.Y. Giants. In sports, I believe there's a natural tendency to root for the 'underdog', except perhaps when it's your team playing the underdog. Even though I was rooting for the Colts, I wasn't terribly upset about the Chargers winning. They were expected to lose, and after they lost both their star running back and starting quarterback during the game, it was a foregone conclusion that their chances of winning went from slim to none. Amazingly, the backup quarterback for the Chargers engineered a drive and they hung on to win the game.

Many of us can relate to the underdog. Whether it's the U.S. Hockey Team at Lake Placid, the New York Jets upsetting the Baltimore Colts or Rocky Balboa beating Apollo Creed, it's hard not to cheer for the underdog.

NCAA Football..Why the Same Teams Win Every Year

Ultimate Fighting

Flipping through the channels yesterday, I came upon a station that had a show on called 'Ultimate Fighting'. Billed as an exhibition of mixed martial arts, it consists of people who willingly get into a ring and proceed to beat the living crap out of each other. Unlike some other 'sports' such as Professional Wrestling, this stuff is for real. While most fighters display a level of expertise with the various martial arts, some of the matches amount to a regulated street fight where anything goes except for a few things like biting, eye gouging,and head butting. The fight only ends when one person gets knocked out, submits, or the two fighters manage to go the distance. While this type of sport isn't for everyone, it has amassed a rather large following, with numerous Pay Per View events, and seems like it will continue to grow.


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Playing Football With Crazy Albert

Thinking of football today reminds me of a guy in the neighborhood named Albert Eye. Albert was, as they say, a 'mentally challenged' fellow that lived with his grandparents. There were all sorts of rumors as to why he was a bit slow, with the prevailing one being that when he was a child his mother had overdosed him on some kind of medication. Whatever the case, Albert had his strange ways including settting up plastic soldiers in his yard and having battles with the two armies by throwing dirtballs and things at the plastic figures. This wouldn't have been unusual for those times but Albert was about 20 or so when he was doing this.



Every so often we would get together and play tackle football up at Holy Cross Church yard. Every once in a while Albert would tag along with his next door neighborhood Stu and would get drafted by one of the sides whenever we were a man short. Albert was a strong young man, and had one arm that was useless and would hang by his side in a twisted position. His other arm however was like the arm of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime.

The thing about Albert was he didn't really understand the rules. Whenever they would hand him the ball, he would run and several of us would pile on him and tackle him, but he would get up and start running again. We had to keep telling him to stop, that the play was over.

There was a particular pattern to games involving Albert. While we would start off playing a normal game of tackle football, before long we would be shoving Albert into the Holly bushes, and tackling him even when he didn't have the ball. Before long, Albert would sort of figure out what was going on, and get angry and would challenge someone to a different kind of game. Fortunately, his neighbor Stu was there to calm him down and take him home with him.

The thing I remember about Albert is that he didn't hold a grudge. This was probably because like a goldfish he had a memory span of about 3 seconds. Whatever the case, we were glad that Albert didn't remember the football games when we would run into him alone.

Sports...Losing the Big One

Watching Ohio State lose for the second year in a row in a NCAA Championship Football game brings to mind the sad legacy that teams that lose the big one leave behind. The accomplishment of having made it to the championship game two years in a row is soon forgotton, and what's remembered instead is the fact that they couldn't get it done, that they 'choked' and were losers. The truth is that teams such as Ohio State had to win many 'big' games to put themselves in a postion to win it all. Unfortunately, what is often remembered is not the victories leading to the big game, but the sting of the loss instead.

The Buffalo Bills were in the Super Bowl 4 years in a row in the early 90's; an amazing accomplishment. However, because they lost all 4 Super Bowls, they are hardly mentioned when people talk about the greatest teams of all time. If they had instead won a couple of those games they would have no doubt been considered one of the greatest NFL football teams of all time. The Minnesota Vikings are another team that made it to the Super Bowl 4 times, and lost all 4. In baseball, you have the Atlanta Braves, a team that won the division ten years in a row! Sadly for their legacy, they only managed to win the World Series one time, and their accomplishment is overshadowed by their failures.

It's ironic how a 'winner' quickly becomes a 'loser' if they don't win the big one. These teams deserve a better fate, but to the winners go the spoils, and to the other team ignominy.

Nascar Culture and Sports

If you think NFL football fans are fanatics, you should go to one of the Nascar circuit races. There you'll find tens of thousands of people sitting in the stands getting tanked while cheering, cussing, screaming and hollering as 'their' man races around the track at about 200 miles an hour trying to outslick the others.

I read recently that Nascar has the second largest number of viewers behind NFL football. It might have even surpassed it by now. It has become as much as a ritual as Sunday football. On race day, you will find them glued to their T.V. sets for hours on end. A short while back, I went along with a friend up to see one of his buddies in West Virginia. Went I got there, they were all sitting on the couch drinking Bud, and cheering as loudly as if they were at the race themselves. You couldn't begin to carry a conversation until the race was over, and then they were the nicest people you could want to be meet. To be honest, I just don't get the attraction. The only reason I watch car races from time to time would be to see a crash. I guess you have to understand the culture of Nascar to get it.


In any event, Nascar has come quite a ways since the days of Moonshine runners.

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Ovechkin...Hockey's $124 Million Dollar Man

As reported yesterday, the Washington Capitals agreed to terms with Alex Ovechkin to the tune of $124 million over 13 years. Being a Washington Capitals fan and seeing him play night after night, he is in my opinion a once in a generation player that if he says healthy will prove to be worth the huge investment.


What this also shows me as a Caps fan is that Caps Management is willing to spend the money to build a Stanley Cup caliber team. Just wonder if the Cap fans will be willing to shell out the extra ducats needed to pay for this prize.

Celebrating Moments of Minutia

Why is it that every NFL football player today feels the necessity to celebrate a tackle as if he had just made the game winning play? I've seen untold number of games where a team is losing by a bunch and yet the player on the short end of the score feels like he's entitled to flex his muscles, dance or go through some other display of aggrandizement because he make one rountine tackle. In my opinion, their timing sucks; they should look at the scoreboard every once in a while.

A Real Sports Hero

Clemens 60 Minutes Interview

I just finished watching Roger Clemens plead his case on 60 minutes. The first thing that struck me was Roger and his persecution complex. It seemed to me that as much as anything else, he was angry that people would even consider that he would involve himself with steroids. Isn't Roger aware that several players have recently claimed with as much sincerity as he, that they were innoncent and had never taken steroids...does the name Rafael Palmero ring a bell Roger? Only Roger and people around him know for sure at this time whether or not he was injected with performance enhancing drugs, but after his appearance on 60 minutes and vehement denials of steroid use, I hope for his sake and his reputation that he is indeed telling the truth because if it turns out that he has indeed used these substances, than his spectacular career and reputation will get hammered like a Texas Tornado.

A Real Sports Hero

Not Your Grandfather's Sport

With the recent Mitchell report about the use of 'performance enhancing' drugs by a list of professional baseball players, it's obvious that sports today aren't quite what they were a couple of generations ago. Today, there is so much money in it that the pressures to gain an advantage which allows you to do on the field things that you couldn't possibly do without the juice or maybe allows you to play a few more years at several million a year are for many irresistible. There really is no way to compare professional sports of a couple of generations ago with it today. It's all become big business, big money, and ego.