Another post about this guy

One of my favorite base cards of A-Roid early in his MLB career was his 1997 Upper Deck - part of me still likes the idea that this guy put up the numbers and was the best baseball player in the planet at one point, but then the other stuff is just too much.

Maybe a part of me wished he was A-Rod at some time in his life, but he's exposed himself as a sham and a bum - it's hard to consider anything positive without thinking about the supposedly unsavory things he's been involved with like performance enhancing drugs.

The sad thing is I'm probably looking forward to see if he has any juice left - see if he can prolong his career and past all the drama, can step up to the plate in an actual MLB game in 2015.

Collecting A-Fraud

I sort of miss the mid 2000's when this guy was the best player in the game and trying to flag him down to get something signed meant all the world - even if he'd be rather oblivious when walking through the crowd of fans like he was some kind of deity, there was a few opportunities where he would sign at the ballpark.

Of course, A-Rod is still a big deal these days but for all the wrong reasons - I don't think anyone is shedding a tear because he might be on the brink on being suspended through his age 40 season.

I will give A-Rod all the credit in the world if he can play a full MLB season in 2014 or after when he serves an apparent suspension, how ever long that will be - I still want to see what he can still do as a player and see this latest mess he's put himself through as just one hurdle he has to get through with the world against him.

Over the last decade, I've picked up assorted base and cheap insert cards over the years featuring A-Rod - I've also got a couple of signed baseballs [one he signed in-person and one bought from eBay], his 1994 Upper Deck SP rookie card and a couple of certified autograph cards I paid some good money for.

I'm not going to go out and burn what I've picked up, though I have long stopped caring about actively collecting anything of his - since in a superficial way, it's all relatively worthless now.

A-Rod's road to irrelevance

With his latest hip surgery, I thought Alex Rodriguez's career was probably over - in a sense where he's not going to have anymore full seasons as a dominant player [this has probably been the case for the last three or four years] and even if he came back some time in 2013, it's going to take a long, painful process to get things going again just to have him playing well.

Then a new set of PED allegations came out this past week and it's ugly to read about and think A-Rod's career has been a sham - as an admitted frontrunner who 'rooted' for A-Rod since he was the best MLB player at points of his playing career, I don't know if he is someone to still believe in as a ballplayer.

Other players have been suspected of being PED cheats and others have failed tests but with his career winding down - it seems like A-Rod is more like Jose Canseco than an active or former player with PED baggage you can still judge on some sort of merit like a Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens.

Edit [2/1/13] - and the details keep getting ickier and ickier.

Card show finds Part I - personal favorites who happen to be superstars

At a card show I frequent, I dug through a stack of cards that were a quarter each - I ended up getting 20 cards and was charged $4.

I am apathetic to base cards of superstars because they are not worth much and seem redundant, but for around a quarter each - there were some allure to jumping in and picking up the following cards because I've 'tagged' the players as 'personal favorites.'

Albert Pujols
2005 Bowman's Best #28
2008 Upper Deck Sweet Spot #83
2010 Bowman #185 - x2

Ichiro
2008 Upper Deck Sweet Spot #47 - not shown 
2010 Bowman #172 - obscured by the flash on my camera 

Ken Griffey Jr.
2010 Bowman #40

Collecting Vlad

Finding a way to add new cards to the teams/types/players [I'm currently collecting] was one of my collecting goals at the beginning of the 2009 - however, I kind of tend to lose track or neglect what types of cards are out there.

I'd probably annointed Vladimir Guerrero my favorite player to collect for the last five or six years - even though I'd conceded he had a personality of a rock when it came to dealing with most fans off-the-field.

However, there will always be mad respect to the guy who has a wacky strike zone and the innate ability to cream the ball a long way - for my home team.

I just don't know if the enthusiasm to collect has stagnated to the point I really don't care anymore if I pick up one more card picturing him - that seems a little odd, but I dodn't have enough interest his in base cards or low-budget [$1-$5] parallels/inserts/GU.

However, I'm less enamored by seeking particular cards out, if I have to pay more than I am willing to spend - that may mean not anymore than $20 on any single card purchase.

I've always wanted one 'nice' Vlad but didn't pick one up in 2009 - maybe a button, superpatch or unique auto card.

I didn't end up finding 25 Vlad inserts/parallels/patches in 2009 - cards picturing him on the Halos.

With Vlad likely leaving the Angels, I wonder if my interest in collecting 'his stuff' will continue - but I guess now, there will be a time period to focus on, as far as collecting Vlad's cards related to the time when he was a Halo.

Maybe I just need to flip through the Vlad cards I have in my collection - just to remind me the moments he had as Angel.

Ode to Vlad

This is the body of a 'fan-letter' I wrote to Vladimir Guerrero when he was still signing autographs through the mail back in 2000 - you can run, hit and hit a ton. You have one of the best swings in baseball, but it is frustrating as one of your fans to watch you struggle in the field as one of the worst outfielders in baseball, execution wise. With your quick wrists, it is easy to see why you are a great young player of the game. But even with a strong and deadly cannon for an arm, your instincts in the outfield are something to look with intent to improve. Hopefully you can develop better instincts in the outfield. You are too great of a young player to let that part of your game slip.

I found a bunch of saved Word documents on Yahoo! Briefcase, I quickly went over and promptly deleted - I saved a few 'examples' for my archives, but looking back at the letter I sent to Vlad, I don't know if what I wrote to him was entirely accurate - or even if it made sense. I had asked for my two cards to be signed, though I don't know if I got particular cards from this request back.

He just happens to be my favorite player [if nothing else, just to watch] today - back in 2000, he was probably just one of these rising stars who still signed through-the-mail on a somewhat regular basis. He probably stopped in 2001 or 2002 and is virtually impossible to get in-person unless it is an organized event where he is mandated to sign.

Why we care about performance enhancing drugs

I got around to seeing A-Rod's press conference later in the day - apparently there is a 'phantom' cousin who introduced him to some stuff. Only they knew about it and conspired to experiment on their own, for a prolonged period of time [2001-2003].

I don't think anybody missed much if they didn't see A-Rod's press conference on Tuesday - I honestly think he is telling us to read between the lines and make up our own minds. That maybe even more dangerous to the perception of his damaged legacy, but the fact it has come to this point should be something of a revelation. People want him to be implicate others, name substances he took and say he shot himself with all sorts of cringe-worthy stuff.

He has told us what he taken, but we are resigned to the fact he is not going to get himself into more hot water and he can only go so far - he shouldn't be so naive to think, 'I'm young and I was stupid' is going to cut it with those who have an interest as fans of the game or someone who looked at him to endorse a product.

With all this fuss about A-Rod, I've come to the realization baseball may get tedious and boring as far as the day-to-day things going on in a game played in 30 cities, 162 games a year - but it is still the pasttime of guys who can identify with strong, valiant icons of the past.

Baseball fans can rattle off the legends/icons associated with history of the game - whether they saw them play or not.

The game has its faults, but its foundation isn't strife with 'thugs' and 'black eyes' but stoic pioneers [like Jackie Robinson] who played the game right and with integrity - baseball is built upon its history and people are always looking to size up any modern marvel and judge whether an iconic modern player of today passes muster with the likes Babe Ruth or Ted Williams.

If someone like Barry Bonds or A-Rod comes along - there is a self-fulfilling prophecy to tear down and dissect their numbers because it just doesn't add up, when there can be no player as great as Ruth or Williams.

There probably is a sentiment of 'I told ya' running around - in a way the icons of the past are validated for their accomplishments once again as the true torch bearers of the game.

Collecting personal favorites: Alex Rodriguez

You make up a list and follow your favorite players by collecting their cards because you like watching them play - or they present a particular image you can identify with in some way. However why chase after someone's cards when you feel like if they appear unreasonable or merely unaccessible?

I was on the Alex Rodriguez bandwagon because he is either the best and most identifiable baseball player in Major League Baseball or at least he is 1A to a guy in St. Louis named Albert Pujols - I found it disappointing for A-Rod to become the most prominent face of the Steroid Era in baseball when he was outed with his positive steroids test.

I was eager to see if he would react by admitting fault or taking the road to denial - he ended up taking the initiative and apologized during an interview with Peter Gammons of ESPN.

During the interview on Monday, it wasn't a surprise A-Rod didn't really answer the pointed questions about the 'who, what, where,' of his PED use specifically - Gammons would ask a question and A-Rod would take a bird walk and call himself out as 'stupid or naive.' Sometimes he'd cite the culture of the era. It seemed like he was more clear about lying about his use [with an interview with Katie Couric in 60 Minutes in 2007]

However, what was surprising is he established a definite time period of his use [2001-03] and if he really couldn't be any more clear about what he took for whatever reason - he did admit to taking PEDS.

Come to think of it, as a guy on the A-Rod bandwagon, I didn't know what to make of his Texas Rangers' years after signing a $252 million contract - he was supposed to be the man down there, but even as he juiced up and put up monster numbers, his teams went nowhere. It was kind of a joke as far as being the best baseball player in the world playing on some garbage teams that weren't able to win. If we are to believe A-Rod's word, his PED use in 2001-03 really is the nail in the coffin to invalidate whatever he did as a Texas Rangers' player.

In the end, some guy named Jose Canseco was again proven right - I snickered when snippets of Canseco's book were starting to come out and he was accusing A-Rod of:

*Being a scumbag for ogling and showing an unhealthy obsession for Canseco's wife.

*A-Rod not being the guy who we thought he is and he may have partaken in some steroid delights.

I can just laugh now because it is all true - and also kind of disappointing.

All the controversy swelling up with tabloid pictures of him with strippers on the road, cheating on his wife, getting a divorce and hooking up with Madonna pissed me off because he was the face of the game - if for nothing else, at least show some class, though he was no different than a Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, who were no saints, but at least have bounced back from their personal problems.

I thought about being petty and in my mind, leaping off the bandwagon - in recent months, things were relatively quiet and I thought it was the end of it. Maybe A-Rod's ability to hit 40 home runs and stink it up when it counts in October was something to watch again as far as drama playing out in Major League Baseball was concerned. I kind of enjoyed the drama of a guy making so much money making the game so simple, yet struggling in the key moments during the postseason.

We thought Joe Torre's [with Tom Verducci] book was the start of a new controversy, but with I don't know what to say - I think people are more disappointed than angry. As much as people don't like A-Rod, he was a golden child compared to Barry Bonds.

Now there will always be doubt and silent critics - no matter what A-Rod does.

Here are my personal favorites - who knows if any of these guys are 'pure,' but certainly there hasn't been anyone outed for PEDs except for A-Rod, right?

Vladimir Guerrero
Tim Salmon
Jim Edmonds
Cal Ripken Jr.
Alex Rodriguez ?
Derek Jeter
Ken Griffey Jr.
Rotating interests [non player specific] - maybe Manny Ramirez, Ichiro, Albert Pujols