Here's a thought experiment.
Bo Jackson
Remarkable hype, remarkable talent.
There's been a healthy resurgence in Bo cards and memorabilia the last couple years or so, as nostalgia and myth-making have kicked in.
For a couple decades however, you could have picked up all the early era Bo cards (Baseball and Football) you wanted, for very little investment. He had been essentially written off as a novelty by collectors.
Now, go back to 1990 or so. What if instead of dislocating his hip in a playoff game at the end of the football season, he had died in a plane crash or other incident, and we never saw his painful decent into irrelevancy on the baseball field?
He'd be a real life Roy Hobbs, without the comeback. The stories people would tell would be remarkable. His cards probably would be in the stratosphere right now.
|