My mind has some kind of mental pecking order when posting cards of guys that are in hot water. I could care less about guys that have been in hot water about steroids. I post cards of Barry Bonds and Francisco Cervelli all the time. I probably dislike Bonds more for being an asshole than I do for using PED's.
Drugs is another thing I don't really care about in terms of posting cards. Dave Parker had huge issues with drugs during his playing days, yet he is one of my favorite 70's era Buccos to collect and post about. If I was a Giants collector I could care less that Tim Lincecum got busted for having a bunch of weed.
Alarms start going off in my head when the crime gets violent in nature. I've received a few cards of Jung Ho Kang right about the time the story broke of the investigation. He could be completely innocent, but I just have no desire to post something until his investigation is over. These kind of issues just drain whatever pleasure I get out of sharing a card.
Another good example is Ray Rice. I never collected Ray Rice, but I accumulated a fair amount of cards of his over the years because they went pro at the same time and played college ball in Big East together. Plenty of dual cards exist, many of which I own. Normally I would have shown these off, but after he was caught beating the hell out of his wife on camera I just have no desire. Those cards get relegated to a box to which it will rarely see the light of day.
Do you guys have this same mindset?
As a Chicagoan, I hear ya loud and clear, courtesy of the Patrick Kane revelations going into last season. Even though he was ultimately exonerated, that whole situation still sits in the back of my mind and makes me hesitant to wear his jersey.
ReplyDeleteIt would probably do Kane well to keep a low profile. He seemed like he was getting in trouble every offseason for a while.
DeleteI am admittedly hesitant when it comes to picking up cards of PEDers like Clemens, Bonds, etc. If the card is cool, I'll buy it, but I do often have to think twice about it. So far the only guy who I've made a conscious decision to never feature on my blog is Ryan Braun (at least after the second PED scandal).
ReplyDeleteThe PED thing just doesn't bother me. I don't think twice about showcasing them.
DeleteIt's a difficult issue. I collect a guy heavily that most people hate -- and, to be honest, I really don't care how people respond to that.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, nearly every time I get a K-Rod card on my blog, I talk about how he beat the crap out of his girlfriend in Milwaukee in 2012 and dodged the charges only because he basically shipped her back to Venezuela.
As I said, it's a tough issue.
I remember the K-rod incident. What a piece of crap he was. Braun is just an asshole. I collect lots of guys that fit that persona.
DeleteI personally don't care if a player is known for doing something stupid to themselves. Drugs/performance enhancers are a good example since all they really do is harm the player's marketability and (for all we know) their own health.
ReplyDeleteIt's when they harm others that it crosses the line with me. Whether it's homophobia from the likes of Daniel Murphy that causes emotional harm, or actual physical harm like when Josh Lueke committed rape. In those cases the stupid decisions of players had a negative and serious impact on others and it's a much more serious issue.
Drunk driving is also an issue since the drunk driver put many innocent lives at risk the moment they got behind the wheel (looking at you Yovani Gallardo!).
It's a tough issue though. As the Jose Reyes case has shown, even seemingly good people can be really dumb and do horrible things.
The standing ovation Mets fans gave Reyes was a little over the top.
DeleteI think most of us fall into the categories you lay out. Hurt yourself, don't care. Hurt someone else, you don't really deserve any good press.
Yeah, domestic abuse is definitely a collecting turn-off. Stuff like getting a DUI also hurts my desire to collect cards of the guy. PEDs used to bother me more, but less so these days.
ReplyDeleteThe PED thing was easy for me to disregard. You just don't know who was using.
DeleteTwo words.
ReplyDeleteHector Olivera.
I bought one of his autos and got it in the mail the day after he had his DV
Yeah, that was a bad one. He has a long road ahead of him.
DeleteIt's definitely a difficult choice, and from everyone's comments above it sounds like a lot of us collect or collected at least one guy who did something bad or worse. In my case I didn't hate suspected or proven PED users but lost interest in most of them, and then I collect guys like Miguel Cabrera and Steve Howe, among others, who've done bad things. I try to choose not to ignore the things they've done while continuing to collect them.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Miggy got some help with his drinking. He at least got some help. Howe was out of control.
DeleteI fall along the same lines as you. There may be a kang or two in the package I hus t.v. sent you, but hopefully there are other cards you can show off.
ReplyDeleteI'm holding out judgement on Kang until the police release the information. This story broke slow and updates have even been slower.
DeleteThis is such a touchy topic... and I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm guilty of being an ostrich and burying my head in the sand when it comes to athletes and their crimes. The perfect example would be Kirby Puckett, Kobe Bryant, and Ray Lewis. I collect all three of these guys... but the things they did outside of sports are truly unspeakable (assuming they were 100% guilty).
ReplyDeleteThose are three great examples of how difficult collecting certain guys can be. You may love what he did on the court/field but the acts outside of those makes it so hard. I think we are all guilty of burying our heads at one point or another.
DeleteYeah, Kirby. It's awful. I struggle to separate the truth of what he did off the field with the way that I remember him on the field. His last game was played before I started high school, the headlines off the field came when I was old enough to be confronted with what the allegations and charges meant. It seems almost like two different people. It's further complicated by his early death, and the way people talked about him after. Bringing up his abuse charges now is a big taboo in Minnesota, he's practically been sainted here. I collect his cards more out of an acknowledgement of what made me a baseball fan, and less a lionization of Kirby himself.
ReplyDeleteJung Ho is the first Pirate in a long time to be accused of a violent crime. Like I said before, I just have no desire to show his cards on the blog until this comes to some kind of conclusion. I don't mind getting his cards in trade, I just probably won't go out of my way to accumulate the high end stuff.
Delete