A Unique Autograph Collection

I'd like to tell about a friend of mine who had a very unique autograph collection. He would send out either cards or flash cards to coaches to get their autographs. He would have pitching coaches, third base coaches and first base coaches. I've never run into anyone who did that. Usually people go for players. Many people hang outside the stadium or send to players like my friend did.

He died a year ago and I don't know what his family did with his collection but it was something special. He had coaches going back to the Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Yankees of Mantle and he had coaches from the New York Mets such as Joe Pignatano and Rube Walker.

If your starting a new collection or looking for an idea on something unique to collect remember my friend.

Aaron Boone To Have Valve Replacement Surgery

It was announced this past week that Aaron Boone famous for his playoff home run with the New York Yankees was going to have open heart surgery for an aortic valve replacement. Here is a link to the report http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090321&content_id=4041246&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

I mention it rather than cards or comics the subject of my blog because I had the same surgery at NYU hospital in New York 5 years ago. I want to thank Dr. Galloway and all of his staff for doing a great job and I want to wish Aaron Boone the best and let him know that its nothing to be afraid of and he will feel better than he's been feeling in no time.

Rooting for Sports Teams or Corporations?

I've begun to wonder why we root for sports teams. There was a time when it was about the game and hero worship. Now its all about money and corporations. When you root for the New York Yankees or the Pittsburgh Pirates you are rooting for a company. The players even the ones that play poorly are paid 6 - 7 figure salaries. I read an article today that said Manny Ramirez is getting ONLY 42 million a year instead of 45 million. People are going hungry around the country and Manny is only getting 42 million. Poor guy. How much do the owners make per year? What no one discusses is how over paid Bud Selig the commissioner of baseball who makes in the millions per year. Under his watch we have witnessed the steroid boom.
Why do we stay fans when the people who run sports are abusing us?
Another example would be the NBA giving the contract for basketball card to Pannini and Italian company rather than an American company. Its a game created in the US. The commissioner of basketball David Stern can only think of the European market and the money that draws rather than the fan who comes to the games in the US. Something is very wrong with the picture.
The prices for tickets to a game are out of reach for most people now as are the concessions. The only ones going to games now are the wealthy. Less and less kids are fans of sports everyday and the reason is they don't get to see any games in person anymore. They can't afford a pack of cards anymore either. The system is money driven now and not for the fan.
Even the players make you sad to be a fan. Pedro Martinez said, that he would not play for $1 million a year. He would rather go fishing. Pedro says he has enough money to be happy. Then why play for a million or more? He doesn't care about playing but about money.
The system is broken.