Cards recently sold at auction or private sale circa Nov/Dec 1999

[bbcard1]

Originally Posted by BBB

Cabrera will disappear from the pantheon and turn into a baseball encyclopedia foot note or an answer to a trivia question - I say this because I don't think everyone will remember which players certainly did steroid, might have, or were taking some other grey market PED. They will just get lumped into a pile. Consider the entire era a magnitude of the black sox scandal . There were 8 men out and only historians/enthusiasts understand the difference between their degree of guilt. Function of time blurring memory.


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I disagree. Winning the Triple Crown is a quite an exclusive club. Since 1900 about half as many players have won the Triple crown as have hit 500 home runs.

[Rich Klein]

I love Cabrera and Pujols as players but they do not seem to "transcend" the game the way the three players I mentioned. That's why I limited to those three.

Look -- Killebrew and F Robinson have more than 550 career homers and no hint of scandals but we don't go crazy over their cards.

I'll stay with my point, the three players I mentioned transcend the game

I do believe at least ONE of today's younger stars and Trout is certainly off to a great start, will join that group. But I would not be surprised if someone like Correa, Machado or even Bryant becomes the face of the generation. It will occur again.

Rich

[Snapolit1]

It's a tough thing to judge. Maybe, since we have a 365/24/7 media culture today, none of these guys will escape today with their reputations unsoiled. Even Jeter, who walked on water for many years in NY, has taken some hits post retirement. Mickey Mantle was a god to the guys collecting his cards today at six figures. Yes, we all know now he was no saint. Hardly. But at the time many people bonded with him he was a mythical, greater than earthy figure. Today we expose these guys as just flawed people like the rest of us. Scratch Jose Fernandez and J. Familia off the list. I don't think people today have anywhere near the same relationship with these guys. And even the good guys (like a Carlos Beltran or a Curtis Granderson) don't bond with people the way guys from our youth did.

[Snapolit1]

Jordan and Gretzky were the absolute face of their sport. People will buy their cards (rookie cards at least) regardless of what happens to them the rest of their lives.