Retweet of the Day - August 28, 2012

As many of you are aware, NFL wide receiver. Terrell Owens was recently waived by the Seattle Seahawks. You are probably also aware that the Dodgers have been involved in mega deals via waiver wire trades. Today's retweet, by Faux John Madden ‏(@FauxJohnMadden) ties these current events together in a very pithy manner.

"BREAKING: Even the LA Dodgers say they will pass on claiming Terrell Owens off waivers."

If Michael Jordan could do it....

Image from www.terrellowens.com

What Ever Happened to Sara Saco-Veritz?

Remember the girl whose boyfriend jumped out of the way of a foul ball at a Houston Astros game in 2010, resulting in the girl being hit with the ball. With baseball season getting started, and the Astros being my favorite team, I thought I would share the following with The Hat Trick readers!

Scroll to 3:10. Bo Wyble (boyfriend): Complete tool! Video from YouTube.

Ms. Sara Saco-Veritz: I'm not sure if that dude messed up by letting her get hit or if he made a wise decision, hoping she'd break up with him and he could RUN! You can't take her home to Mom! 1

1) Image from www.sportsgrindent.com

Are Dominicans the Best at EVERYTHING in Baeball?

America is the greatest country in the world, but that doesn't mean we are the greatest across the board. Major League Baseball has no cheerleaders. These are baseball cheerleaders in the Dominican Republic, according to the "Cheerleaders and Sport Girls" blog.



Gotta add "Dominican baseball game" to my bucket list!

Image from http://lewisskondo.blogspot.com

Baseball is Coming!




Baseball season is just around the corner. There is nothing like the unobstructed view of the baseball field! 1

 1) Image from www.sportspickle.com

Today, we have a contribution from The Daily Hat Trick's old buddy, Tim Handorf of Best Colleges Online. Baseball season gets started next month. In spite of the explosion of social media and exchanges of information via the Internet, baseball cards still continue to be a heavily traded commodity. Some are, literally, treasure to a collector. The original article can be found at their site.

15 Baseball Cards That Could Get You Through College

Posted on Tuesday February 7, 2012

by Staff Writers


There’s no telling how many millions of dollars have been flushed down the drain by moms who threw out their kids’ baseball cards with the trash. And yet, ironically, those very same women deserve the thanks for driving up the value of the rest of the cards in circulation. If you are strapped for cash and looking for a way to pay for college, the answer could be lying in a box in your grandmother’s attic, or on sale for $1 at some garage sale. Most of these cards are quite hard to find, so the odds are against you. Still, there’s always the dream of discovering a rare card like one of these and selling it for the $80,000 you need to get a degree these days. Batter up!

1. 
   
   

   1909 Honus Wagner T206

   This is the Holy Grail of sports memorabilia. It has sold for anywhere from $200,000 to $2.35 million. Legend has it Mr. Wagner objected to smoking, and this was a tobacco card, so he had it pulled from production. Less than 60 are believed to exist. There’s no way you own this card. You don’t, right?

1. 
   
   

   1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth

   OK, permit us to mention one more ridiculously rare piece of baseball history. This 1914 rookie card of the most famous player to ever take the field is valued around $500,000. Only 10 are known to be out there, but every blue moon one is discovered, so there’s always hope.

1. 
   
   

   1888 G and B Chewing Gum Co. Albert G. Spalding E223

   Ah, yes … Albert G. Spalding. OK, we’ve never heard of him either. But he won a mind-boggling 47 games for the Chicago White Stockings in 1876, and apparently he published the first baseball rulebook. This set was the first to be included with a pack of gum, and Spalding’s card maxes out at a worth of $120,000.

1. 

   1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Peck & Snyder

   You’ve got to think anything that’s nearly 150 years old is going to be worth something. When it comes to this advertising card for the first pro baseball team ever, you’d be right. In 2009, an elderly antique dealer tried briefly to sell this card on eBay for a starting price of $9.99. When she realized what she had and sold it at auction, it brought in $75,000.

1. 1893 Just So Cy Young

   This card features a stately-looking Cy Young, and it’s the earliest known card of the pitching legend. Apparently in the old days it was perfectly fine for tobacco companies to introduce products they knew would be collected primarily by children. This rare card made by the Just So Tobacco Company is worth up to the low six figures.

1. 
   
   

   1914 Texas Tommy Ty Cobb E224

   Ty Cobb has been called the greatest ball player who ever lived. He played his 10th season in 1914, only entering 98 games. But the season is remarkable because of his baseball card that year, made by the Cardinet Candy Company. It is consistently valued at upwards of $100,000.

1. 
   
   

   1887 Four Base Hits N-Unc. Buck Ewing #4

   True baseball fanatics will probably be the only ones who know the name Buck Ewing, but he was a star in his day and proponents call him the greatest catcher of all time. This card that captions Ewing as New York’s team captain also instructs you to “Smoke Four Base Hits.” We’ll pass on that, but we wouldn’t turn down the 100 grand this card is valued at.

1. 

   1887 Four Base Hits N-Unc. Mike King Kelly

   We’re starting to get the urge for a cigarette. Another card from this rare 1887 set, The King’s card is estimated at anywhere from $60,000 to $120,000. He was a utility guy for the Boston Beaneaters, the Cincinnati Kelly’s Killers, and the Pennsylvania Periwinkles (we only made the last one up). If you came into possession of one of these cards, you’d be laughing all the way to the bank.

2. 
   
   

   1910 Old Mill Joe Jackson T210

   “Shoeless Joe” was disgraced in the Black Sox scandal and banned from baseball in 1920, but collectors and baseball historians have been kind to him in the ensuing decades. Today he is painted as a true lover of the game who got in over his head. Whatever the truth is, he was a phenomenal player and this card from his third season recently sold for $92,800.

1. 
   
   

   1914 Boston Garter Color Joe Jackson

   Now here’s a cool-looking card. It’s got that vintage, old-timey-illustration feel, and it doubles as an advertisement for women’s underwear. A few years ago a collector paid over $86,000 for this card at auction, which would leave you $6,000 to spend on beer, pizza, and other cliché college guy stuff.

1. 
   
   

   1961 Topps Dice Game Mickey Mantle

   He may have been the greatest switch hitter ever, but boy did they make him look corny in the photo for this card. No matter; 1961 was the year of The Mick’s legendary home run race with Roger Maris. Couple that with the fact that this card is part of Topps’ bizarre Dice Game series of cards that they ultimately abandoned, and this becomes one drool-worthy item. Typical sale price: $32,000.

1. 
   
   

   1967 Topps Tom Seaver #581

   Terrific Tom stormed into the Hall of Fame by the highest vote percentage ever, which is befitting his 20-year career of striking out everyone and their mother. The year 1967 just happens to be his rookie year, and this rookie card from Topps recently pulled in $24,000. With the benefit of hindsight we (and Topps) now know Seaver merited his own card, instead of being coupled with some scrub with a career record of 1-10.

1. 
   
   

   1993 Upper Deck SP Derek Jeter #279

   With five World Series championships, including one where he was the MVP, four Golden Gloves, 3,000-plus hits, and a lifetime batting average over .300, Jeter is a sure-fire Hall of Fame first-round inductee. Right now, his ’93 SP rookie card goes for as much as $25,000 in gem mint condition. If you’ve got it and you’ve kept it in good shape, there’s money to be made.

1. 
   
   

   1994 Upper Deck SP Alex Rodriguez #15

   Another Yankee star of the current era fetches a pretty penny for his rookie card. Gem mint versions are extremely hard to find because the card is so delicate, but in perfect condition they have been offered for as much as $1.4 million. The poor economy has hurt its sales price, but $5,000 to $15,000 is not out of the bounds of reality. And you might actually own one.

1. 
   
   

   2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols

   Bowman Chrome took baseball cards to a new level. Every card felt like a special insert, but buying a pack was a splurge. If you were lucky enough to come across this rookie card of the guy many are already suggesting will go down in history as the greatest slugger in earth history, count yourself fortunate. These things go for a base of $4,000, and the dude’s not even through yet.

Source: Forbes- World’s Most Expensive Baseball Cards


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To advertise with The Daily Hat Trick, or to submit a guest column, please contact the editor at eric@thedailyhattrick.info.

The Daily Hat Trick is sponsored by Sports N Stuff. For great deals on jerseys, shirts, cologne, and other guy stuff, visit http://www.sportsnstuff.biz/.

History – Written by the Baseball Writers Association of America

Baseball's Steroid Spiral

As Barry Bonds’ perjury trial enters its second week, the talk among sports media members about players from the steroid era whose Hall of Fame inductions will be delayed or denied has again resumed. Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, Andy Pettitte and other great players from the era may never see their busts in Cooperstown because of the rampant (alleged) use of steroids throughout baseball during their playing days and their rumored/alleged used of steroids and/or other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

The same circular arguments have been used against several great players from the 1990s and early 2000s. The numbers are inflated. However, players throughout generations have utilized means of gaining an unfair advantage on the baseball diamond. They had an unfair advantage over those who were not associated with PEDs. However, players felt they had to use the juice to keep up with the other players who were already doing it. I hear every argument under the sun except for arguments related to the actual performance of alleged PED users on the field.

Here is a novel concept (ahem). Major League Baseball, like every other sport, has rules. Each year, the game has an opportunity to, and often does, change the rules. Those situations not adequately covered by existing rules can be addressed in the future. Since, prior to 2003, baseball had neither rules against the use of steroids nor any screening methods in place to identify players using steroids, would it not be a good idea to evaluate the performance of all players and their achievements under the rules of baseball at the time that the players played? GASP! How revolutionary!


Why Were Steroids Allowed to Flourish?
Many a baseball fan, me included, is of the opinion that baseball knowingly turned a blind eye to the use of steroids in the 1990s. Players were blasting home runs out of the park at a record pace and baseball benefited handsomely from the increased interest in the game. This was especially important in the wake of the 1994 player strike, which ended, what was shaping into, a compelling season in the middle of the summer and robbed fans of a postseason and a World Series. Baseball desperately needed to regain its goodwill with its fans.

I didn't hear many complaints or demands for an investigation from baseball writers in 1998. Did you? Bud Selig didn't seem very concerned about the integrity of the game, either. Oh, wait...he still doesn't. 1

To reevaluate the performance of players that recorded their performances within the context of the rules of baseball, at those times, is an attempt to rewrite history. MLB certainly is not going to refund ticket money to the fans or refund broadcasting rights revenues to the dozens of local and national television networks covering the games during those years. Perhaps a rewrite of the record books would be more suitable under those circumstances.

Likewise, I have never heard about the Baseball Hall of Fame reevaluating the enshrinement of players from the Dead Ball Era. I have witnessed no attempts to discount the strikeouts thrown by pitchers before the pitching mound was lowered in the late 1960s or reevaluate the play of American League players prior to the adoption of the designated hitter. Players were judged based upon the rules that baseball had in place at the time they were playing.

Writers Had Their Cake. Now They Want to Eat It!

Voters control who gets into the Hall of Fame, in spite of the opinions of the fans that invested their money and time into the game to make it profitable and meaningful. They choose to either not acknowledge or marginalize with an asterisk the greatness of the accomplishments of players that were alleged to have used steroids prior to baseball ever having a rule against steroids. None of these players had any positive drug tests, administered by Major League Baseball, prior to 2003 and I am unaware of any players that tested positive in the “anonymous” 2003 tests (which had a few dozen names leak to the public) having any repeat positive tests, going forward. Their contributions may be ignored, in spite of playing and achieving within the rules.

Okay...even SHE can't have her cake and eat it too! And I doubt she resembles anyone in the BBWAA. 

The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) conducts the vote to select players to the Hall of Fame. I cannot help but wonder how history books would look if these wizards of time and space, with the ability to give history a make over, had written them. I also cannot help but wonder if each of them owns a DeLorean with a Flux Capacitor.


Making History...Literally
On the death of Christ….

History writers: Jesus Christ was crucified in the fourth decade of the first century, A.D., charged with sedition against the Roman Empire, under the orders of Pontius Pilate. His hands and feet were nailed to a wooden cross. He suffered excruciating pain before dying.

Baseball writers: The death penalty has been a part of civilization since the dawn of man. The Romans conducted executions, such as that of Jesus*, through crucifixion. Crucifixion involved no poisonous gasses, electrocution, strangling, firing squads, or injection of lethal poison.

* Jesus Christ was crucified in the fourth decade of the first century, A.D., charged with sedition against the Roman Empire, under the orders of Pontius Pilate. His hands and feet were nailed to a wooden cross. He suffered excruciating pain before dying.


On the Black Plague….

History writers: The Bubonic plague was a disease that killed over 100 million people, slowly and painfully, in the 14th century. Most of Europe’s population, and over 20% of the world’s population, were killed by the plague. It is possibly the most devastating pandemic in the recorded history of man.

Baseball writers: Before the development of modern science and medicine, pandemics were difficult to combat. The Black Plague* was particularly challenging. It eventually subsided.

* The Bubonic plague was a disease that killed over 100 million people, slowly and painfully, in the 14th century. Most of Europe’s population, and over 20% of the world’s population, were killed by the plague. It is possibly the most devastating pandemic in the recorded history of man.

Baseball writers would have you think that THIS was a typical scene for a Black Plague patient. 3

On the Civil War….

History writers: The American Civil War (1861-1865) was the deadliest war in American history, with well over 600,000 people killed in action and countless more wounded. The central issue, which led to the succession of Southern states that prompted the war, was slavery. Long reaching political, social, economic, and cultural effects of the war, from the assassination of President Lincoln to often painful challenges related to race relations, persisted in the U.S. after the war and can still be observed today, over 150 years later.

Baseball writers: Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States of America from 1861 until his death in 1865 from cranial trauma. Lincoln oversaw many victories in military conflicts during his time in office*. He also took steps to dramatically improve the pay and working conditions of African-Americans in the South, albeit with a sharp rise in the black unemployment rate.

* The American Civil War (1861-1865) was the deadliest war in American history, with well over 100,000 people killed in action and countless more wounded. The central issue, which led to the succession of Southern states that prompted the war, was slavery. Long reaching political, social, economic, and cultural effects of the war, from the assassination of President Lincoln to often painful challenges related to race relations, persisted in the U.S. after the war and can still be observed today, over 150 years later.

John Sherman must have been making his pitch to join the BBWAA. 4

On Nazi Germany….

History writers: Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany during World War II. Considered, possibly, the most evil regime in modern history, Hitler and his lieutenants were responsible for the Holocaust, a mass genocide resulting in the deaths of 6,000,000 Jews. Allied forces, consisting largely of the United States, Britain, and Russia, were able to defeat Hitler and his Axis, including Italy and Japan.

Baseball writers: Adolf Hitler* was a very naughty man. His interests often conflicted with those of Jewish people living in Europe during his reign. He was eventually removed from power.

* Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany during World War II. Considered, possibly, the most evil regime in modern history, Hitler and his lieutenants were responsible for the Holocaust, a mass genocide resulting in the deaths of 6,000,000 Jews. Allied forces, consisting largely of the United States, Britain, and Russia, were able to defeat Hitler and his Axis, including Italy and Japan.

BBWAA headlines, circa 1945. 5

On the Kennedy Assassination….

History writers: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Video footage shows Kennedy enduring multiple gunshots before (what was likely) a fatal shot struck him in the head. The final shot was particularly graphic, showing the leakage of a substantial amount of tissue, likely blood, skull, and brain matter.

Baseball writers: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917-1963*

* President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Video footage shows Kennedy enduring multiple gunshots before (what was likely) a fatal shot struck him in the head. The final shot was particularly graphic, showing the leakage of a substantial amount of tissue, likely blood, skull, and brain matter.

Baseball writers' caption: "President Kennedy on his final day in office." 6

Baseball writers have a God given gift. With a few strokes of a pen or taps on a keyboard, they can make life’s events more palatable and acceptable. We should all aspire to emulate their version of reality!



Don’t forget to vote in the fan polls!

To advertise with The Daily Hat Trick, or to submit a guest column, please contact the editor at eric@thedailyhattrick.info.

1) Image from clubhousecancer.com

2) Image from flickr.com

3) Image from zimbio.com

4) Image from civilwarlibrarian.blogspot.com

5) Image from littlemissjournalist.wordpress.com

6) Image from prisonplanet.com

Major League Baseball is in the Stone Ages

1, 2

If you have ever taken college level business classes, you learn some very basic premises about business that lend themselves to common sense. Companies selling stock want to offer investors an opportunity to earn a return on the investment. The companies want to demonstrate that they are going to offer a product with value, with a demand. Companies want to show that they will innovate and be better than the competition. How else can you get someone to put his money into your company?



The gramophone was good enough in my day!



If I have to explain to you why you
should want to buy from me instead of
"Black & White Guy" on the left, you should
jump in front of a bus right now because your
DNA should not remain in the gene pool.

3, 4

So, what would you think of a company that clings to century old technology? A firm that does not bend to the whims of fancy, Johnny-come-lately trends just because every other competitor is using it and its customers love it…. A firm that believes its shortcomings are part of its charm…. A firm that would not want to deprive its customers of its failures because its customers would be deprived of the human element that makes the product so great…even when it is not great.



Sounds like an insane proposition, does it not? That is what Bud Selig and Major League Baseball put forward to the public. In contrast, the National Football League has utilized and fine tuned its use of instant replay for the past 15 years. It has expanded its brand to play regular season games in Europe. It has marketed itself to the point where the NFL is in the sporting news every day of the year – preseason, regular season, post season, offseason. If the NFL is the equivalent of the Jetsons in the sporting world, Major League Baseball is the Flintsones.



STRIKE THREE! YOU'RE OUT!!!

 5

George Jetson flies around through skyways in his vehicle. Fred Flintstone has a bunch of logs and branches with an animal skin for a roof and two cylindrical stones for wheels, attached to the chassis. They both make the best use of the resources available to them. So lets take a look at how George Jetson’s counterpart, Roger Goodell, handles situations in comparison to Fred Flintsone’s counterpart, Bud Selig.

6

Situation – officials make egregious calls that alter the outcomes of games.



Roger Goodell thinks, “This is unacceptable! We have 20 high def cameras covering every angle of the field at all times. We are going to make the officials take one more look at the play, from every angle imaginable (in 90 seconds or less), and have an opportunity to correct any mistakes they may have made.



Bud Selig thinks, “The human element is part of the charm of the game. It’s what people pay for! The ’27 Yankees didn’t need instant replay. We didn’t need any fancy, high definition nonsense to know that something was wrong with the 1919 Black Sox! The original call was good enough for Johnny Mize; it’s good enough for Johnny Damon! YABBA DABBA DOOOOOO!”



Situation – after looking at the impact of a rule on the game, it is clear that the rule is a stupid one. It’s bad for the game and the fans dislike it.



Roger Goodell thinks, “This is unacceptable! Our fans have a voice and if we ignore that voice, they will start doing their talking with their wallets and remote controls. Jane, we’re going to stop this crazy thing! The tuck rule, as it was, was stupid and the better team did not win. That was changed. Calvin Johnson caught, what any normal, rational person, would think is a touchdown. The rule is stupid. We're changing that next year."



What’d you say, fans? You know what, it IS bad for the fans when two teams that play an entire season are in a game to decide one of our participants in our signature event, the Super Bowl, and a coin flip heavily influences the outcome in overtime. Let’s FIX that next year so that a team doesn’t win a coin toss, get a good kickoff return, one good passing play, and a field goal to advance in the playoffs.”



Bud Selig thinks, “The show must go on! I don’t care if game 5, a potential closeout game, of our signature event, the World Series, has to be played in a maelstrom and we might not be able to finish the game. People want baseball and, gosh darnit, I’m gonna give it to them! If we have to call it after 5 innings, I’m in charge, we’ll pick it up where we left off. I’m not going to let some stupid RULES mess up the flow of the game! (This is contradictory on so many levels.)



PLAY BALL!!!

7

WILLLL-MAAAA! Why are people belly aching about the All-Star Game? The better league should host the World Series and the All-Star game is a gallant effort from the greatest ballplayers in world, played to the finish, to decide league supremacy! Nobody cares about trivial things like win-loss records. Those all star players break their neck to prepare for the All Star Game and we are going to honor that warrior-like commitment by deciding who gets to host the World Series! They're a team! And they're in it together! Those fans just don’t understand what they would really like better. YABBA DABBA DOOOO!”



Situation – The final month of the regular season approaches.



Roger Goodell thinks, “We have 32 teams. With 12 playoff participants, all but the worst of the worst teams have a chance at the playoffs in December. Most fans are going to be engaged with their teams until the end. People are buying tickets and watching on television. People are talking about all of the games. Even the worst teams could play “spoiler”. It’s a good thing Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue added wild card teams so that games not involving division leaders actually MEAN something.”



Bud Selig thinks (in 1993), “Well, we have 28 teams now. We’ll have 30 in a few years. (sigh) Well I…guess it can’t hurt to add a divisional round to the playoffs. It’s just…two more teams in each league. Someone will like it…I guess.”



There is no better way to spend a Sunday than at the oooold ballpark!

 8

(in 2010) “No, damnit! We have 8 teams going to the playoffs already! I don’t care about empty stadiums in August and September. I’ve broken tradition enough as it is! I don’t care if we have more than double the teams we had 50 years ago. That means better competition. If Pittsburgh Pirate fans are REAL fans, they’ll stop wasting their money on Steelers tickets in the fall and watch all of the young prospects…the ‘Pirates of tomorrow’ grow before their very eyes. We are NOT going to become the NBA!! (Isn’t that the truth!) I’ve listened to the fans, and people do not want MORE playoffs. They want to hurry up and get the season over with! (And at the rate he’s going, everyone will share that sentiment soon) YABBA DABBA DOOOOO!"



So which company do you want to invest your money in? One that is a pioneer for sports technology? Or the one that is too rich in tradition to bend to the whims of its customers and make all kinds of stupid improvements and useless changes that make the product better? I know where my money is going. And here’s a hint: I think the Flintstones' descendants made the right choice to reinvent the wheel.




Only this dude would invest in MLB with a plan to make money.
And we all know where Gordon Gecko ended up.

 9
 
 
1) Image from wordpress.com
2) Image from insidesocial.com
3) Image from answers.com
4) Image from indiatimes.com
5) Imnage from mtcave.blogspot.com
6) Image from animationartgallery.com
7) Image from sportsillustrated.cnn.com
8) Image from xmmlbchat.blogspot.com
9) Image from guardian.co.uk

Alex Rodriguez's 600th HR IS a Big Deal

And...for the second day in a row I am cornered into defending a sports personality that I am not too crazy about. Alex Rodriguez is about to join the 600 HR club and now the same tired old arguments are being brought up that since he came up positive on the "secret" and "random" steroids screening that took place in 2003.

1) Steroids were not against the rules of baseball until the 2003 season (after the "random" testing. Baseball is complicit because it wanted super-players.

2) There are only six men in that club, in this order - Bonds, Ruth, Aaron, Mays, Griffey, Jr., and Sosa - of the (soon to be) four men to enter that club in the last 10 years, three have the cloud of steroids and A-Rod has been confirmed. You might me able to draw dividing lines within the club, but baseball has had over 17,000 players in its history and 141 seasons of history. And there are only 7 men, ever, in that club.

3) Anyone who has ever played the game at any level knows that steroids aren't going to help you hit a baseball. It might help bat speed, it might give you some strength, and it might make you come back from injury more quickly, but it will not help you size up the pitcher, identify the pitch, and put a round bat to a round ball. That's talent. Steroids (or anything else) didn't do much to help the other 17,000 people hit the ball like that.

So is A-Ro(i)d on the level of Griffey, Mays, Aaron, or Ruth? You could argue that he isn't. It's still an amazing accomplishment worthy of recognition.