Curse of the Cubs - Giants' Fred Merkle

Every baseball card we accumulate weaves a different story into the fabric of our collections. One of my favorites isn’t about a favorite player, or team, it’s about a swatch of baseball history. Fred Merkle’s 1911 T205 (gold border) tells a story unlike any other card.

Fred Merkle was yesterday's Bill Buckner long before John McNamara and Bob Stanley put on a pair of spikes. If not for Fred Merkle’s “boner play” (as it was referred to at the time) Chicago Cubs fans would be drinking to a 101 year World Series drought.

The Cubs and NY Giants were in a classic National League pennant race as the humid summer season started to cool to the fall classic. The Cubs (of Tinkers-Evers-Chance fame) had been to the last two World Series. The Giants were led by the brilliant and loud John McGraw and the calm and collected Christy Mathewson.

In a late September game at the Polo Grounds, the Giants and the visiting Cubs were tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the 9th inning. With two outs and a runner on first, rookie first basemen Fred Merkle slugged a base hit to advance the runner to 3rd base. The next batter, Al Bridwell, followed with another single that brought the winning run home and giving the NY Giants an important win late in the season.

The Polo Grounds drama that unfolded featured players racing to centerfield clubhouses, NY fans storming the baseball stage and Johnny Evers, the Cubs second basemen, standing alone at second base waiting for Fred Merkle to advance from first. However, Merkle never ran to second because the run had scored. Unfortunately for him, the baseball rules state that runners must advance to the next base when forced or any run that scores on the play does not count. It's a rule that would be forever celebrated in Chicago and forever haunt a 19 year old rookie from Toledo, Ohio.

It’s unclear how Evers collected a baseball in the sea of chaos that swirled around him. Some historians say Johnny Evers wrestled the ball from a fan, others say he grabbed a different baseball from the dugout, either way, he convinced umpire Hank O'Day that he was in possession of the baseball. O’Day, who would later manage the Cubs, ripped the hearts out of NY fans by calling Merkle out at second base and taking the game winning run off the scoreboard. While Fred Merkle and the Giants were celebrating in the Polo Grounds locker room, O’Day changed history, altered a career and ruled the game a tie.

The Cubs and Giants ended the regular season tied for first place. The Cubs won a one-game playoff and went on to defeat the Detroit Tigers in the 1908 World Series. They haven’t won since.

Is Fred Merkle the real curse of the Cubs and not the famous “Billy Goat Curse?

Was Merkle unfairly branded a scapegoat? Keith Olberman has been on a fight to restore his tarnished reputation.

My favorite reference to this event is in Frank Deford’s “The Old Ball Game.” This is a must read for anyone who enjoys baseball history. Deford feeds you the emotions and pulls you into the minds of the players as this event unfolds.

Collecting Fred Merkle cards is less about statistics and more about history. Merkle went on to have a solid baseball career playing with the Giants, Brooklyn Robins, Chicago Cubs and NY Yankees. Unfortunately he’s most known for this play and unfairly blamed by NY fans for not reaching the 1908 World Series.

You can collect these Fred Merkle cards for about the same price of some of the fancy, high-end, glossy card packs that are now on card store shelves.

• 1911 T205 (gold border)
• 1909 T206 Sweet Caporal
• 1911 T206
• 1911 T3 Turkey Red (throwing)

Shawne Merriman's Not a Warrior

Everyone wants to celebrate what a great teammate Shawne is by risking his career to play through torn knee ligaments.

Is he a great a great teammate for ignoring the Chargers' and doctors' recommendations for him to have the surgery immediately following the 2007 season? He hurt the knee in a game against Tenn. in December. It would have taken 6-7 months to recover which would have him to close to 100% healthy for the start of the 2008 season. This is all according to the ESPN story.

Was he a great teammate when he was suspended for four games due to steroid abuse in 2006?

And is his steroid use to blame for his current injury? Here's a USA Today article that highlights a case study on knee damage and steroids. The Obsessed with Sports Blog has a great post about this.

Was Shawne Merriman a great teammate when he held out of training camp his rookie year due to a contract hold-out? This delayed his amount of playing time until he became a full time starter 3 months into his rookie year.

Lets stop celebrating this steroid abuser's love of the game and warrior mentality. Shawne Merriman is doing what he's done since he came into the NFL - putting himself first.

The National vs. Football HOF Weekend controversy Over

I talked to the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH and they confirmed the induction ceremony aka "HOF Weekend" is the first FULL weekend in August.

To them, that means Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Since Friday is July 31, they moved the entire HOF weekend to August 7 - 9.

The National Sports Collectors Convention is still scheduled to begin July 29.

I'm not sure how much of a controversy it was really going to be anyway. The HOF's Mounted Memories shows seem to be going down hill and here's a list of who was at last year's National in Chicago.

Thanks to a heads-up message board posting on Signings.com for asking the question. I'm glad I called the HOF this morning!

I think it's more about the area shows in Canton than the HOF. There are a lot of great shows at local malls in Canton that have great autograph guests. Last year I was all over the highway between Cleveland and some of the Canton malls. Fortunately, I live in Ohio, so depending on the autograph guests, I can possibly make both weekends.

I wonder how back-to-back weekends in NE Ohio will affect out of town collectors and the ability to secure autograph guests.

Are ads online the new tip jar?

A few weeks ago there was a good card/memorabilia blog debate on PayPal donations. The question was, "should bloggers ask for PayPal donations because of the service they provide?"

Some bloggers proudly display the PayPal link and don't mind asking for donations. Other blogs hate the idea and say no-way to PayPal donations.

Here's a great article on the Seth Godin blog which asks if online ads are the new tip jar? What effect would that have on the virtual world if everyone clicked an ad after reading a blog article that you liked?

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2123/32529256

Jake McFarlane (Todd's son) autograph

Sure, Todd McFarlane's autograph is easy to get, but what about Jake's?!

Jake was sitting next to Todd at the autograph pavilion and offered his autograph too. I don't know if he thought I was friends of Todd since I was talking to him or what. Heck, he's the "spawn" of a great comic artist, so I wasn't going to turn it down - even if he was 9 years old (or whatever his age is).

Bud Light Spuds McKenzie commercial during the olympics

This Olympics may have had Michael Phelps, but I miss Spuds.

Brett Favre Memorabilia Up in Smoke

You're either a Brett Favre fan or a Packer fan - I guess you can't be both anymore.

This family is so disgruntled with Brett Favre they decided to burn his memorabilia! I don't remember reading about families in Baltimore doing this when Trent Dilfer left, he won a Super Bowl for his team too. Did families in S.F. burn Joe Montana collections when he went to Kansas City?

How much money went up in smoke?

Todd McFarlane Autographs

I'm not a huge Todd McFarlane sports figures collector anymore, but I still admire Todd's art and creativity.

At the Super Bowl 42 Experience Todd signed at the Topps Autograph Pavilion. Here's a picture of his autograph on one of his Spider Man comics. I think this is an awesome cover and Todd signed it with a green marker. The autograph really stands out.

Every time I've met Todd he's been really cool - - he's also been really late for his autograph time! But he's always been really nice, so you end up forgetting that he was late.

Tuff Stuff Launches New Web Site

Launch new web site by 3rd Qtr - CHECK!

Beckett launched their new site earlier this month and Tuff Stuff recently unveiled their new one recently too. (thanks to SportsLizard for the heads-up)

This version is definitely quieter than the previous, there are less animations and graphics, but there's still a lot going on with the front page. SportsLizard takes a deeper dive into their new site.

I don't see myself choosing one over the other, I'll probably be using both.

Major League Baseball HOF Needs Web 2.0

I'll admit, I'm a huge baseball fan. I love the game and love the history. Sure there was a time (mid '90s) where I didn't watch or didn't follow it. I lost interest and lost faith in the sport following the strike.

Since then, I can't stop watching, following, and learning more about the game and the history.

This is why I want the Baseball Hall of Fame to get introduced to Web 2.0.

I subscribe to the Baseball HOF email distribution and received one yesterday about the 34th anniversary of Nolan Ryan's 19 strikeout, 11 inning performance with the California Angles. I really like this kind of baseball history, but the email from the Baseball HOF doesn't offer me anything more than what I could find on wikipedia.

Instead of just an email, the baseball HOF should take it a step further.

• Give me a link to Nolan Ryan's induction speech.
• Link me to a Baseball HOF blog posting about Ryan's 19K performance where I can discuss it, if I think this will happen again and which pitcher is mostly likely to do it.
• Provide some videos of his uniform number being retired with California, Texas, and Houston.
• Give the reader excerpts, podcast, or video links to an interview with Nolan about his career or this particular game.
• Provide some memorabilia pictures, Nolan Ryan's cards, the newspapers that recorded his accomplishment, and the box score of the game.

If I dive into all of this, I'm much more likely to visit, buy a jersey, and get a membership to the HOF.

So much more can be done. Again, I'm a big baseball fan, I'm pretty sure that I'm the not the only one, and I want the best hall of fame (IMO) to provide the best communication.

So who could do this today? I'm not sure it will ever happen again, but if I had to choose someone, I'd say CC Sabathia.

No Billy Mays at Cowboys Pawn Shop Show

Unfortunately Billy Mays was NOT pawning the Dallas Cowboys apparel during Monday Night's QVC event.

The show was basically an infomercial for Cowboys close that have the "Farewell Texas Stadium" logo.

I was a little disappointed. I was hoping they'd have items that you can't buy off the Cowboys.com site, but it was the same stuff, maybe a few dollars cheaper.

Texas Stadium Farewell on QVC

Monday Night's QVC line up has the Dallas Cowboys pawning Texas Stadium Farewell memorabilia.

The QVC program line up doesn't exactly say what is being sold but I've read that Jerry Jones will be on the program. Texas Stadium Farewell pieces could be anything with shirts that mention the stadium is closing (with the logo) or anything that isn't nailed down when the season ends.

But if Billy Mays is selling this stuff, I'm all over it!

Shut the Kornheiser Hole - My Plan to Improve Monday Night Football

Monday Night Football is a shell of its former self: the franchise hasn't reacted well to the increased viewer programming choices and there have been failed experiments in recent years (like Dennis Miller and Tony Kornheiser) which were supposed to attract new viewers.

Last year's Falcons/Giants match-up proves that the MNF series is destined to be aired on the Versus channel with the Tour de France in favor of more poker games from your uncle's basement on ESPN.

ESPN/MNF should stop trying to attract everyone and start trying to keep the die-hard football fans. Stop programming for the non football fans by adding comedians to the broadcast booth and start keeping the grid-iron fanatics.

The plan to improve MNF should involve the Tony Kornheiser role (sans Tony).I love the idea of having someone from the newspaper medium in the booth. I think it offers a different perspective, but lets take that role another step further.

Instead of having a national columnist who's more (in)famous for saying "Good Night Canada" on an ESPN show, MNF should fill the Kornheiser hole with a local newspaper sports writer from the home team's city.

Instead of listening to awful jokes that Ron Jaworski won't even laugh at and a review of the morning's "The View" program, a local newspaper reporter who covers team will bring football fans an in-depth team analysis and an expert understanding of the team and the their divisional race. Who would know more about the team? Of course a writer who has covered the team for years, lives in the city, attends all the games, interviews the players, and travels to the team's training camps.

By having the home town sports columnist, you'd also gain a better understanding of what the city's atmosphere is like, what the fans are screaming on the talk radio, and get a fan's perspective of the current state of affairs.

For example, last year's biggest story was Michael Vick and the Atlanta Falcons. Who could have a painted a more descriptive scene of the Falcons mess, someone from MNF, or someone from the Atlanta Journal Constitution like Tony Barnhart, Terence Moore, or Jeff Schultz? Either one of the AJC writers could have taken a more accurate pulse of the city and franchise than someone from the MNF crew who stays at the Marriott for a few days after their Delta flight
arrives in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport.

When you look at the Monday Football Schedule this year, I think I'd take any columnist from these home cities before putting up with Tony Kornheiser or another stand-up comedian. It's time for Monday Football to start embracing the football fans and stop targeting the TV fans.

My Brett Favre's Back...

Frank Caliendo singing John Madden's Brett Favre's song.

Will Ohman as Harry Caray

This is the best intro I've ever seen on Fox. The Mark Texeria intro is classic. Thanks to AwfulAnnouncing Blog for pointing this out. Classic!

New Beckett Site or Free AOL Internet Hours?

I received my Beckett Sports Cards Monthly magazine yesterday and it came with a Beckett CD. It reminds me of the days when you'd receive AOL 1,000 Free Hour CDs with magazine purchases.

Do you remember when those CDs were everywhere? I think they even came in those ValuePack coupon booklets!

Anyway, the CD is to introduce readers to the Beckett.com. I think it's good timing considering the problems they've had and now that features are being worked into the environment.

I'll check it out this weekend - I was too busy last night celebrating the week-long Madden Football holiday.

Update: I took a look inside the CD. It's basically a collection of links to their new site. Clicking on one of the buttons brings you to that page on the site. I was hoping there would be the tutorials on how to use different sections on the site since that seems to be a problem for many collectors. The CD also has wallpaper, cover art, and a blooper-esque video.

I do like the magazine though - McFadden's a good choice for the cover, the error card section is a great read, and there are some other good articles.

Is This What the Olympics Are About?

This is a picture of the Spanish Olympic Basketball team posing for a picture with "slant eyes." Unbelievable.

An event that is supposed to bring the world closer together, promote racial and cultural harmony has a basketball team full adults, demonstrating immature child-like behavior that elementary school parents would be ashamed to see.

But it didn't happen in someone's house. It happened on the world's biggest sporting stage and one of Spain's greatest actors (in this case), Paul Gasol, also happens to play for the NBA's marquee team, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Here's a link to the Yahoo Sports article which has links to a Spanish Newspaper which is actually debating if the ad is offensive.

Nice job guys, if you think this behavior is acceptable, then you are missing the point of the Olympics.

MAB Celebrity Hears Your Opinions

The internet (in particular web 2.0 technologies) can bring corporations
closer to customers. It can propell them into the heart and the passion of
the customers.

Some sports memorabilia and card companies get that - others, not so much.

MAB's launch of an updated web site, new bulletin board and blog prove to the community that they want to hear us.

Since I've been a Signings Hotline member, I've always been impressed with MAB's responses and the response time to Signings Hotline bulletin board topics. Whether they are getting ripped apart for guests canceling appearances at autograph shows or they are receiving praises for organizing shows that collectors enjoy, MAB always seemted to be direct, open and honest.

This transparency, quick response time, and ability to react has earned them the trust of collectors throughout the community.

MAB's new bulletin board and blog is another attempt to bring them closer to their customer - the autograph and memorabilia collectors.

The Bulletin Board has a topic for each of their upcoming shows and general discussion. Collector's use this area to request guests for future shows. Imagine that - a company that solicts feedback from customers about a product they will pay for!

The blog seems pretty new and it seems like there is some indecision on what it's purpose will be. Will it be a forum to discuss autograph show ideas, future products, or MAB's recap from previous shows?

If you're an autograph collector, then I'd recommend checking out MAB's discussion board, web site, and blog. The area is fairly new and it isn't loaded with discussions and topics. You can expect your opinion and voice will be heard.

Mickey Mantle Cards

Mickey Mantle baseball cards are a symbol of the '50s, '60s, and some say the foundation of the hobby.

Mantle's cards helped lead the hobby out of the shoe boxes of little kids and in to the hearts of adults.

Mantle was also one of the first to understand the true value of his autograph on baseballs and bats. At the time, he became a punching bag for collector's because of his "outrageous" prices at shows - $50 on a baseball. Seems like a good deal to me!

The Mickey Mantle baseball card site is a great collection of Mantle's cards. I really like the Mantle era cards. It captures more than the player, it also reflects the players' era.

HOF Weekend or The National?

Which do you choose?

Next year, the National is going back to Cleveland, OH. This is also the same weekend the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducts the Class of 2009.

Who will get your autograph dollar?

Unless MountedMemories improves on their guest list next year, my money is heading to Cleveland. A couple of years ago, MountedMemories made the HOF weekend an incredible 3-day event with plenty of autograph sessions. The guest list was great.

Prior to that, the Hall of Fame had their very popular "tent sessions" where you could get all the autographs you wanted in a tent for a flat fee.

This month, MountedMemories had one day of autographs with a small players list:

• Fred Biletnikoff
• Len Dawson (at CSA Show the previous month)
• Dick Butkus
• Tony Dorsett (at CSA Show the previous month)
• Jim Kelly
• Deacon Jones
• Gayle Sayers

Unless something changes at the Hall of Fame, I'll probably keep driving past Canton on my way to the National in Cleveland.

T.O. Tees - From the Original 81

Direct from HBO's Hard Knocks Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys, Terrell Owens has his own line of t-shirts.

The HBO show served as an infomercial for T.O.'s new business venture and provided ringing endorsements from T.O., Tank Johnson, and Adam Jones.

His web site, http://www.totees.com/ has a pretty huge discussion board with contests to win autograph game used footballs, and thousands of message board replies about several NFL topics. I was actually pretty surprised to see how many people were on the message board.

The site also has links to his foundation and everything T.O. does from workout videos to T.O. being T.O. commercials.

So T.O.'s tees all have this, iPractice, iCowboy, iBlock type of themes. Here are some that I came up with and who could wear them:

• iRetire - Brett Favre
• iSmoke - Ricky Williams
• iFumble - Kurt Warner
• iInterception - Brett Favre
• iHorsecollar - Roy Williams
• iUnemployed - Chad Pennington
• iServedTime - Jamal Lewis
• iCry - Dick Vermeil
• iSpy - Bill Belichek

Did Beckett Beta Testers Fail?

Beckett's new web site continues to have technical difficulties and I'm sure many are tired of discussing it (Eric on the Beckett blog is ready for a vacation I'm sure), but like the Brett Favvvvrreeee soap opera, this story keeps going.

Did the Beckett Beta Testers fail Beckett? I think so. Yesterday I finally found some blogs discussing their experiences as a new Beckett site beta tester. And like all Monday armchair quarterbacks, they are now saying what they should have said. This is a failure of the beta tester.

Note to any and all beta testers: your role as a beta tester is (and was with Beckett's site) to use the product as you would in real life (thus, the beta) and take notes on everything! You check if:

• the site is slow
• the performance support help systems add value,
• the number of steps required to complete your task is too long,
• process flow your routine has redundancy, and you check everything in between.

To sit at your PC now and write about the site struggles and what you should of said during the beta is your failure, not Beckett's. The only mistake Beckett made was asking those type of people to be beta testers in the first place.

I'm sure there will be a great deal of fall-out and lessons learned at the Beckett HQ. We'll hear some of the stories, but most will probably be contained to the Dallas HQ walls. Their review will cover everything from technical requirements to the evaluation of the testing region. I hope this review also includes the collectors who were external beta testers - not that anything will happen to them, but they should be on the list of "who not to ask" next time.

Eric from the Beckett blog and some of the other blog and message board moderators have done a good job with their site triage communication considering the volume they've had to do. Sure, things could have been structured better and written more clear (I don't think they'll argue with that), but 96 Beckett blog messages later - I think they are doing a fine job just staying alive.

Beckett Launches New Site . . . With Spin?

From what I've gathered on the message boards and on the Beckett blog, the new site debut hasn't been the smoothest launch. I'm not on the inside, so I really have no idea. Converting web sites are tough and there's always room for improvement. Plenty of sites get rebranded all the time and plenty have issues. It's not uncommon or unique to Beckett. I'm making the not-so-smooth assumption based on the collateral damage I'm reading about on their blog.

And this brings me to my biggest issue: How is Beckett using the blog? Should it be used as a spin machine? Of course not, but just a few sentences into their first web site issues explanation, readers catch this line: "To spin this as positive as possible" and later, "I told you I am spinning it."

The readers of the message boards and blogs don't want spin. They want answers and they want transparency.

The blog needs to be independent of the corporate communications environment. The person needs to be transparent with the information and needs to understand the concerns of the on-line community.

I'm not saying that Beckett's blog doesn't understand or isn't trying to answer every question, but credibility is lost when people feel like they are getting the spin routine or the press release from corporate communications.

People who read the blogs don't want to be one step closer to corporate communications. They want to feel a part of a community that has the same passion as they do.

Action Plan:

• Set up one post on the blog for each issue. (price guides, fees or no fees, navigation and lost/found). Right now, one entry for all issues is too confusing and too big.


• Establish one online host for each issue.


• Have one evangelist answer questions on the other blogs that are questioning the new site. Don't engage the readers and say, "you're wrong." Understand their concerns, take the feedback, and get back to them with answers.

I haven't used the site enough to really say if I like it or not. Since there appears to be problems, I'll probably wait a bit before I do more than dip my toe into the pool. I imagine the site will take some getting used to, old habits will need to be broken for new habits to form. And in a month or so the sun will rise and set just like it did before and everyone will get used to a new normal.

I know none of this easy and there are always issues, some you anticipate and some you don't. But they can help keep the community together by following that three step action plan.

Update: Gazza on the Beckett blog made some awesome points and feedback on web 2.0 technology... he's right on about the fees too. Companies make the money on the sticky products, not the ticket that gets them in. Example: movie theaters don't make too much on the ticket, they make it on the $20 popcorn and junior mints.

Where is Gene Upshaw? Brett Favre Needs You!

Aug. 21 Update: My prayers are with Gene Upshaw and his family. He passed away this morning. 8/21.

Gene Upshaw is supposed to be representing all of the NFL Players' best interests including one of the game's biggest stars.

So where is Gene while Green Bay does everything in it's power to keep Brett Favre off of an NFL field?

Here are the facts:

1. Brett wants to play
2. Green Bay doesn't want him as their QB
3. Green Bay doesn't want him to play for anyone else

The Packers don't even want him on the practice field because they say he would be a distraction. Would someone tell me how you can compete for starting QB job without being on the field?

I'm not a Favre fan, I think it's ironic that his biggest problem on the field is his biggest problem off the field: Decision Making. But I'm really not in favor of indentured servitude and that's what this amounts too.

I know, you say, "hey he retired." Yes, that was yesterday and today he wants to play. So if Green Bay doesn't want him, they need to let him go.

I did a google search on these key words in the search "Gene Upshaw Brett Favre." I could not find one entry that has Gene commenting on the Brett Favre ordeal. Do you think Donald Fehr head of the MLBPA would sit back and watch if Derek Jeter wanted to play baseball and the Yankees wouldn't let him play anywhere?

Its' time for Gene Upshaw and the Players Union to get off their rear and get to Green Bay. One of their biggest stars is getting pushed and bullied around.

If a player wants to play, but his contracted team doesn't want him, does that team have the right to stop him from playing for anyone?

Operation Foul Ball Strikes PSA

The FBI is investigating the sports card and memorabilia hobby and PSA could be standing in the batters' box.

The NY Daily News reports that the FBI swarmed the PSA booths at this year's National to investigate card doctoring.

The article in the NY Daily News doesn't say whether the FBI was talking to PSA about their involvement in card doctoring or if they were leveraging resources. I hope they just wanted to learn more about it from one of the leading card experts. But lets be honest, police officers don't pull you over on the highway because they want to learn how you were driving so fast . . . they pull you over because you were driving fast.

This investigation could strike at the very heart and core of the PSA business. PSA was founded to protect collectors from card doctors and frauds, now the FBI could be investigating if they are part of the problem.

The FBI investigation is terrible news for the hobby. It's the equivalent of a DARE officer being accused of selling drugs inside a junior high school. I hope it's not true.

If the investigation goes forward, and charges are filed, then what? What do collector's do if they have PSA graded cards? Does this affect the PSA/DNA autograph authentication program?

The PSA site doesn't mention the investigation or the NY Daily News article that came out on Saturday. PSA needs to stay ahead of this story and issue a statement to explain what's going on to calm the nerves of collectors.

Look for other authentication companies to take advantage of this PSA bad press. I think we can expect other grading companies (like Beckett) to offer discounts to PSA card holder for getting their card re-graded through them.

I'm anxious to hear PSA's side on this and if the investigation goes deeper than card doctoring. And is PSA the only company the Feds have talked to so far?

A couple of sites/blogs that are doing a good job of coverage include:

• Gavel Chat
• Sports Collectors Digest
• Sports Card Info
  

Next Generation of Pro Football Hall of Famers

I only listened to part of the HOF speeches this weekend, but I heard an interesting section of Darrel Green's son's speech. In it, he said that there were only two current NFL Players that would make the Hall of Fame.

What? Just two? I'm not here to judge speeches, but I do think this is an incorrect statement. Heck, I can think of two middle-linebackers playing today that should be in.

Here's a list of active players that I think would either get into the HOF or would be on the bubble. My scientific (yeah right) formula is: if the player stopped playing today, would he get in. Sure, Antonio Gates and Adrian Peterson are on there way, but if they retired today, they wouldn't make it.

AFC

• Baltimore: Ray Lewis
• Cleveland: Willie McGinnest
• Denver: Champ Baily, John Lynch
• Indianapolis: Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Adam Vineterri
• Jacksonville: Fred Taylor
• K.C.: Tony Gonzalez,
• New England: Junior Seau, Rodney Harrison, Randy Moss, Tom Brady
• San Diego: LT

NFC

• Arizona: Kurt Warner, Edgerrin James
• Atlanta: Morten Anderson
• Chicago: Brian Urlacher
• Dallas: T.O., Zach Thomas
• Green Bay: Brett Favre
• Philadelphia: Donovan McNabb
• S.F.: Larry Allen
• Seattle: Walter Jones, Steve Hutchinson
• St. Louis: Isaac Bruce, Tory Holt
• T.B.: Derrick Brooks
• Washington D.C.: Jason Taylor

That's 30 current players that will be considered on the bubble if they stopped playing today. And that's a conservative number - I'm sure I missed some lineman.

I don't know what criteria the Green son used, but I don't know how he can say there are only two future NFL HOFers playing today.

Honus Wagner Card Sells for $1.62 Million

Honus Wagner cards are still making news. Saturday a 1909 T206 Wagner, "the holy grail of baseball cards" according to the buyer, was bought in Chicago for $1.62 million. More. . .

Hey, this is cheap compared to the $2.8 Million paid in 2007 for a NM Wagner card.

During Friday night's auction, buyers bought Ken Griffey Jr.'s 600th home run baseball for $42K.

The Official Honus Wagner Site has some good stats, links, and quotes.