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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

At the risk of opening up the dreaded "collector vs. investor" controversy again, I can truly say it was solely with a collector's eye that I approached my list. If I was an investor, I'd be consigning Mr. McPhee to a major auction house and then trying to decide where I would be spending my windfall.

It was after reading Nemec's books on the early game that I decided to get heavily into the 19th century cards. Sure, Bid McPhee was touted as one of the better fielders and possibly HOF material, but the prospect that he might be a HOFer and his card worth a lot of money later on had nothing to do with it.

Bid was on my list for the same reason as players like Paul Hines (first triple crown winner), Bobby Lowe (first player to hit four home runs in a game) and even John Coleman (single season record holder for most pitching losses) - the fact that Old Judges were real pictures and sort of brought the game to life for me.

John - I can't believe you let the Judge off so easily!