Celebrity Card Collectors, Vol. 1

From time to time, I will spotlight those who are far more rich and famous than us who are also among the sports card collecting community.

First up.....perhaps the greatest player of the post-Jordan NBA.

Is this what your THIRD Chance bracket looks like?

I'm not really sure what to chalk this up to.......people picking based on team loyalties, colors of the uniforms, or just pure blind luck.......but apparently 400 people have made most of us look like idiots by correctly picking the Final Four according to ESPN.com. Granted, they point out that all four teams were in the preseason Top 10 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll, but they fail to mention that North Carolina, who barely made the NIT field, was #4.

As for that kid in Illinois who allegedly was perfect through the first two rounds? Let's just say that, like the rest of us, he won't be a millionaire. Poetic justice if you ask me.

Down, but not out......

As David Letterman often says, I wouldn't give Upper Deck's troubles to a monkey on a rock. If you're an avid card collector or dealer, their troubles are well-documented. I'm just beginning to plug back into the hobby, but based on the blogs and message board posts of those who have remained close to the hobby over the past decade, I can come to two conclusions about Upper Deck.

First, most collectors seem to be pretty passionate about Upper Deck's product across multiple sports, with a few exceptions. Second, the company's CEO, Richard McWilliam, seems to be portrayed as a incurable egomaniac......a trait you rarely ever see in a big corporate CEO :-)

The past year has been brutal for the company with multiple lawsuits and ultimate settlements costing tens of millions of dollars, but a silver lining seems to be on the horizon.

Just as it appeared Upper Deck might be in danger of losing licensing for producing cards for the second major sport in as many years, the NFL Players Association's marketing arm announced yesterday that they would renew Upper Deck's license for two more years through 2011.

The loss of the Major League Baseball license and subsequent settlement with Topps over the alleged breach of the MLBPA agreement certainly knocked Upper Deck to the canvas, but the fact that football will still be part of the equation is welcome news to those in the hobby.

If this were a heavyweight fight, Upper Deck is still certainly down, but as of yesterday, any cries of "no mas" are definitely premature.

Investment advice or psychobabble?

There are two morals to this story. First and foremost, that Matthew Lesko guy (you know, the one with that stylish sport coat w/ all the question marks on it?) on the infomercials on VH1 @ 3:30 a.m. is right.....apparently the government really will shower money on people for research on anything. Literally. Second, assuming you believe what you're about to read, there's some valuable investment advice here for both card collectors and dealers. The wider the smile, the better their chances of playing long enough and well enough for Cooperstown. SO HOLD ONTO THEIR CARDS! :-) Anyone who actually follows that investment advice probably also took everything Lenny Dykstra ever said to the bank. So there's this.....

It's All in the (Baseball) Cards: The Wider the Smile, The Longer the Life

For fans in the "small markets".......

The Joe Mauer deal has changed Major League Baseball as we know it, at least for the time being. The Twins have become the first "Moneyball" team since the Rockies sprung for $141.5 million for Todd Helton in 2002 to back up the Brinks truck for a single player. The obvious question is....will the Twins be able to develop or acquire the talent around him to be competitive for the life of the contract? As with most situations in life, there are precedents here. One is a success story and one is a cautionary tale.

Let's start with the bad news.....the now infamous A-Rod deal w/ the Texas Rangers. At more than $25 million a year, or about 25% of player payroll going to a single player, owner Tom Hicks was duped by A-Rod's agent, Scott Boras, into overspending for a superstar in what Bud Selig classified as a "small market". That "small market" is, in reality, the 5th largest media market in the country, but Hicks and Selig can't be burdened with details. Coupled with a weak farm system and saddled with the inability to acquire the talent necessary to build around their franchise player, Hicks eventually cashed in his chips and made the rich Yankees richer. As an average fan, I remember wondering why Boras didn't just eliminate the middle man and have him playing in New York or Boston three years earlier. The Rangers are only now beginning to dig out from the A-Rod hole with stronger homegrown talent.

The Rockies just signed Helton to a 2-year extension through the 2013 season, and the team has successfully built around him over the past few years, culminating in that unbelievable World Series run of 2007. They've developed one of the best farm systems in baseball over the past decade, and they've kept payroll manageable in spite of Helton's hefty salary and acquired players to fill holes as needed. They also have seem to have a pretty bright foreseeable future. The difference is a stronger top-to-bottom organization, from the farm system to the front office to the big league player roster.

So which way will the Twins' movie end @ the expiration of Mauer's megadeal? Recent history seems to point more to the Rockies than the A-Rod era Rangers. The Twins have done a masterful job developing talent that has defied Bud Selig's big market mentality for the past decade. They have also locked up their core of young stars early, wisely avoiding huge arbitration deals. Ron Gardenhire is one of the best field managers in the game. The Target Center will be open for business this season, so fans should flock to a state of the art facility, especially now that their hometown hero will be playing there for years. I won't guarantee a World Series, but for now they are in pretty good shape to make a run.

Or the whole thing tanks and he ends up in pinstripes in exchange for some mid-level minor leaguers three years from now........ :-)

Masters of the King's English

Can anyone pinpoint the moment when people began to insist on inserting an extra "k", or hard "c" in some cases, in the word "escape"?

Brief English lesson.....Journey did not title their great 80's album "Ekscape", Rupert Holmes did not implore his secret lover from the personal ads (who turned out to be his wife) to "write to me and ecscape", and the SUV you drive is NOT a Ford "Eckscape".

Just trying to make a small contribution toward making the world a better place.....one grammatical correction at a time.

In our next installment, I will explain that the vehicles that drive in a continuous loop around a track are NOT "Nascars".