Michael Hirsley, Chicago Trib on Wagner card fizzle

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

I love how the people who tipped off ebay are labeled "skeptics." And how Connelly still isn't convinced.

Even if you ignore the obvious, that the card is a fake, what are the odds that, with 500+ cards in the set, plus numerous back variations, times millions of cards printed, the only real T206 of any kind ever seen without the black border and with different printing fonts would be Honus and not Heinie?

I was once asked to be a second expert witness in a plagiarism trial involving a Pepsi jingle written in the 70s by a well known and successful composer. I listened to both pieces. I looked at the material, prepared by Expert #1, which included a musical analysis of the jingle and of the piece which the plaintiff claimed had been ripped off.

The plaintiff was a banana. And so was his "expert." He had a reputation for being a couple of beers short of a six-pack.

The only thing the two pieces had in common was that they both used the twelve notes of the chromatic scale which provide the foundation for the last 600 years of western music. Tantamount to saying that both this post and the novels of John Steinbeck were both written in English, and are therefore equivalent. It was laughable to the same degree as this Wagner debacle. Plus there was no way that the real composer could have ever come in contact with the plaintiff's music.

These bozos couldn't understand why I didn't want to participate.