Tom Seaver

Topps Heritage New Age “Enhancement” Performers

Baseball card price

Topps Heritage New Age “Enhancement” Performers

, , ,

12 MLB Players Accept Their Punishment!

So I am awaiting the next shock-wave sent by Major League Baseball for the suspension of it’s players for the use of performance enhancing drugs. Just like everyone else, I began to go through some of the closet space and filled rooms I have with sports cards along with the many boxes of Beckett graded cards that I own, and I am trying to remember how many Alex Rodriguez 1994 SP graded cards I own. I know that they will be bonfire for my next cook-out! As I am going through these graded cards, I also find many Mark McGwire 1985 Topps rookie cards which also are graded and a few Fleer Tiffany Barry Bonds rookie cards as well. That is when it hit me, like a ton of bricks!!! What a farce my collection is.

Why Ryan Braun, Why???

True enough, we all know that this cheating which has been excessive and highly publicized since the 1990’s has hurt the game back then and continues to do so, in addition to the marred stats of MLB, but have we really sat down and noticed how this also has destroyed our dear sports card collections. I am telling you right now, my collection and I have been in denial mode, naive I know. We just refuse to believe that all those years chasing perfect cards to send to Beckett grading, and all those countless shows the walking, wheeling and dealing for this card and that one, it just cannot be. Our collections cannot be so deflating to us now! I want to personally thank A-Rod, Barry, Mark, and now Braun.

So I am scouring my collection trying to find something I love in my graded card sets, that can take some of the sting off those I mentioned above, and I have them. Just like you do in your collection. My 1969 Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Mickey Mantle. But did we ever collect these cards and think that this day would come? How about the countless people that are holding 20, 30, even 100 graded 1994 SP Alex Rodriguez cards? A card that I might add was fetching $10,000 for a gem mint copy. I can remember even more. I guess those people hung their hats on the belief that the home-run record was as easy as a bag of shells, like Jackie Gleason used to say. I can’t even imagine the pain.

While going through my collection, I stumbled across a couple of boxes of inserts. The Topps Heritage New Age Performers. Remember those beauty’s? Anyway, I took the liberty of scanning mine, and giving them the proper heading (see picture above). If only Topps knew back then what they now know. This set for sure would have been called “Topps Heritage New Age Enhancement Performers”. Anyway, there has to be a silver lining in these collections that we all have. I believe in my collection, and I know you believe in yours, the sacrifices made to have them. So stories will be told, and maybe just maybe their value will be in some other form of conversation in your home, even if you use yours as coasters, like I will use mine. Below is a list of the latest 12 suspended today without appeal. Keep collecting those rookie baseball cards, just dump them as soon as the players begin to look like the Hulk and can hit 90 home-runs a year!!!

Here are the players confirmed by FoxSports.com which are said to have agreed to the suspensions without the right to an appeal so sad, they are:

• Nelson Cruz, Rangers outfielder.

• Everth Cabrera, Padres shortstop.

• Jhonny Peralta, Tigers shortstop.

• Antonio Bastardo, Phillies reliever.

• Jordany Valdespin, Mets outfielder.

• Francisco Cervelli, Yankees catcher.

• Jesus Montero, Mariners catcher.

• Cesar Puello, Mets outfield prospect.

• Sergio Escalona, Houston Astros pitching prospect.

• Fernando Martinez, Yankees outfield prospect.

• Fautino De Los Santos, free-agent pitcher.

• Jordan Norberto, free-agent pitcher

Gary Carter The Kid Lives On With The Miracle Mets

Baseball card price

Gary Carter The Kid Lives On With The Miracle Mets

, , ,

The Topps NY Super teams baseball cards were put out in 2002, many fond memories came with the sport cards. Truly a collectors dream set, if you love NY. As a former New Yorker born in raised in Brooklyn and nephew to many uncles and cousins that routed for the hated New York Yankee fans, I was a Met. So on or about the 1969 World Series birth, I am proud to announce with only my mom being the other target in the family, I had no choice but to officially become a New York Mets fan!

I can clearly say now with the signing of Jose Reyes to the dreaded Miami Marlins it is official! I have more heartache memories of my beloved Mets then I do joyous times in flushing, Queens. The first sign of heartburn in my 11 year old body at the time came with the parting of ways with Tom Terrific Seaver, his heartfelt letter after getting traded just pushed the dagger that much further through my metropolitan, bleed orange and blue heart. If you never read it before I recommend you go out and find it. This trade was known to many reporters as the “Midnight Massacre”. The only good thing that came out of this trade was that the trader, and main reason for the trade was fired the year after. None other than Mr. Donald Grant, a Mets killer amongst the ranks.

Next heartache, came with the free agent signing by the Los Angeles Dodgers of Darryl Strawberry. I knew in the 1990’s that free agent market was wilder then say in the 1970’s when George Steinbrenner started the craze, with Catfish Hunter. But still I hoped that this crazy talk about Strawberry leaving would have subdued. I mean this was the home grown kid, with the greatest baseball name ever, and he was a Met it just couldn’t be true. I didn’t care if he wanted to team up with best friend since childhood, Eric Davis.

It’s been tough to see the passing of Gary Carter. A part of my memories of the 1986 World Series, that was already dimming, just got cloudier. It is really important to remember the things in life that brought you happiness, and try to bring them to the forefront on days when things get sad, as with the passing of the Kid, Gary Carter.

My dad always told me that fans were suckers, that we set ourselves up for heart failure as a roller coaster of emotions and heartbreak takes every fan by storm at some time or another. Never has this been more visible to me, then with my two sons this past Super bowl. One routes for the NY Giants, and the other for the New England Patriots. I was able to observe what my father always told me, heartache.

I come to terms with the passing of Gary Carter, because I believe my father is wrong. You sometimes have to put yourself out on the ledge, and take a chance that your team is going to come through this time, this time your team will win, and win big. You have to put your trust into your team, and the players that you always route for. Like I did Gary Carter. After all a huge part of the NY Mets history was riding on it. The World Series was close and we could all feel it. We just didn’t want seven games, not with that team. But hey they struggled and there was another teams force pulling the trophy away because they wanted the trophy too.

Somewhere filed in the back of our memory, I can’t believe it’s been 26 years since that World Series between the Red Sox and the Mets. Sports cards are always been a big part of my life and now I share them with my sons, but more for than just the obvious reasons as to why people collect cards, their attempt to make a quick buck here and there. I collect to assure these players that at the very least their memories will always live with me, and my collections and all whom I choose to share them with. It is the best tribute I can give Gary Carter.

In my sports card collection Gary Carter is cancer free, and he is dancing around behind the plate or taking a bat to some pitchers fast ball taking him downtown in the distant but all too clear memories of Shea Stadium. I owe him that much, for a single season he united me with my mother on one hell of a journey. After all he gave my family and me so much. Sharing collections with your family boys or girls is a healthy and important thing, Gary Carter and the 86 Mets made history and memories that year, they should live on for more than one generation of fans. Help the Gary Carter Foundation with a purchase to last a lifetime, just follow the link. Thanks for reading.