Absent-Minded Baseball

Harper's 2013 Topps Baseball Card.

So the wife and I got our federal taxes back, pretty quickly I must say. We got hungry and we are getting some big things (bills) out of the way.

So we also got to treat ourselves and I got myself a small box (72 cards) of the new 2013 Topps Baseball Cards - great looking cards I must say. I actually landed a Roberto Clemente Die-Cut Card called "Cut to the Chase" which is cool, because he is also one of my favorite players in Major League History, and I am one of those fans that believes #21 should be retired as well.

Anyways, the theme of this year's Topps Baseball Cards is "The Chase". Young stars have a special set called "Chasing the Dream" (got a Jacob Turner & Giancarlo Stanton card of that); on the regular issue cards it would say CAREER CHASE:  under the general birth info, birth place, etc.

For example:

• R.A. Dickey - CAREER CHASE: With 61 Wins, Dickey is 450 away from Cy Young's all-time record of 511. That's all? Just 450 wins away!?
• Joe Nathan - CAREER CHASE: With 298 saves, Nathan is 310 saves away from Mariano Rivera's all-time record of 608. Too bad that he's 38!
• Denard Span - CAREER CHASE: With 260 runs, Span is 2,035 away from Rickey Henderson's all-time record of 2,295.
• Mark Teixeira - CAREER CHASE: With 338 Home Runs, Teixeira is 424 away from Barry Bond's all-time record of 762.

Believe me there is a point to all of this, the next card had me going through the roof, especially when you consider the record holder of the card (above) being held by that of a steroid head!

• Andrew McCutchen - CAREER CHASE: With 629 hits, McCutchen is 3,627 away from the all-time record of 4,256.

Really, Topps? Really Baseball? You know that Bud Selig had to have his hand in this somewhere. (By the way wasn't he supposed to have left office like 5 years ago?!) You might be thinking, 'what did I miss here? I don't get it.' Hey Topps, who has the all-time hits record in MLB history? Oh yeah, a guy that never used performance enhancing drugs, a man who should definitely be in the Hall of Fame! 

PETE ROSE

Oh man, not another guy crying about Pete Rose, you're thinking... To make sure this wasn't a misprint on the back of the card, I checked others... NOPE. He was purposely left off the card, so we have new kids being introduced to the game of baseball & collecting cards asking their dads, who is the all-time hits leader? and why was he not listed? They had no problem placing Barry Bonds' name with 762 Home Runs (with no asterisk, I may add), when we all know that Hank Aaron is still the true HR King. Rose played the game harder than anybody ever played the game, he still owns countless records -- always played aggressively, ask Ray Fosse about that -- from his All-Star experience that ruined the rest of his career. Rose played so hard, he even took out Fosse guarding home plate during an All-Star Game that was nothing more than an exhibition.

When are we going to stop punishing this guy? We don't punish Ty Cobb for being a racist, Babe Ruth for being a womanizer, or Mickey Mantle for being a drunk.

He hasn't been elected in the Hall of Fame, because no one who is eligible to place him on the ballot is allowed to do so -- I often wonder if they were at least allowed, would they vote him in?

The steroid guys are all eligible, they aren't banned from the game. So I guess we are teaching kids today:  if you want to be the next Bryce Harper or Mike Trout, that it's okay to do steroids. I'm not saying they did at all, in fact I don't think either one of them have, I'm just saying to get your feet in the door, to get a big draft signing bonus, the temptation is probably difficult to ignore -- plus it does not help that we just slap the hands of Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Manny Ramirez and say "You were bad boys, but sure... you can have some cake, and possibly some Hall of Fame Ice Cream as well"

Good News: I got my Clemente card.