Wax Heaven

You wouldn’t think this has anything to do with baseball cards but legendary madman, stuntman, and superhero Evel Knievel was featured in one of the “hottest” releases of ‘07, Sport Kings. Today, Evel Knievel is going to the real Heaven, if you believe in that sort of thing. He passed away after years of failing health.

Rest in peace, Evel.

With the weekend creeping up on me I am posting the 93rd and final blog of November. Also, since the first ever Wax Heaven post came on October 30th, this is officially the belated one-month anniversary. Woo!

This weekend I am stuck going on cruise with the wife to celebrate some person’s going-away party. Also, I have Christmas decorations to put up and shopping to do so it will probably be a pretty slow two days on Wax Heaven but never fear…we will be back and better than ever before you know it. I have a good feeling I will be picking up a hobby box of Bowman Heritage and if so, you can expect a review bright and early Monday morning.

To commemorate coming so close to 100 blogs in one month I have decided to post some of the funniest stories and quotes from the legendary, mostly in his mind, Rickey Henderson. Earlier this week I asked if Rickey’s great numbers might have been helped by Steroids but today I feel that only one man was great enough to take those records and his name Ricky. So, without further ado; Rickey stories!

1. In the early 1980s, the Oakland A’s accounting department was freaking out. The books were off $1 million. After an investigation, it was determined Rickey was the reason why. The GM asked him about a $1 million bonus he had received and Rickey said instead of cashing it, he framed it and hung it on a wall at his house.

2. In 1996, Henderson’s first season with San Diego, he boarded the team bus and was looking for a seat. Steve Finley said, “You have tenure, sit wherever you want.” Henderson looked at Finley and said, “Ten years? Ricky’s been playing at least 16, 17 years.”

3. This one happened in Seattle. Rickey struck out and as the next batter was walking past him, he heard Henderson say, “Don’t worry, Rickey, you’re still the best.”

4. Rickey once asked a teammate how long it would take him to drive to the Dominican Republic.

5. Moments after breaking Lou Brock’s stolen base record, Henderson told the crowd – with Brock mere feet next to him – “Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today, I am the greatest of all-time.”

6. Henderson once fell asleep on an ice pack and got frostbite – which forced him to miss three games — in mid-August.

7. A reporter asked Henderson if Ken Caminiti’s estimate that 50 percent of Major League players were taking steroids was accurate. His response was, “Well, Rickey’s not one of them, so that’s 49 percent right there.”

8. Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s career record for runs scored with a home run. After taking his usual 45 seconds or so around the bases, Rickey slid into home plate.

9. San Diego GM Kevin Towers was trying to contact Rickey at a nearby hotel. He knew Henderson always used fake names to avoid the press, fans, etc. He was trying to think like Rickey and after several attempts; he was able to get Henderson on the phone.

Rickey had checked in under Richard Pryor.

10. The Mets were staying in a hotel less than a mile from Cinergy Field in Cincinnati. While some players walked, most took the team bus. A few minutes after they arrived — again it was less than a mile – the last players off the bus noticed a stretched limo that had just pulled up.

Of course, Rickey emerged from the back seat.

11. A reporter once asked Rickey if he talked to himself, “Do I talk to myself? No, I just remind myself of what I’m trying to do. You know, I never answer myself so how can I be talking to myself?”

12. The story went that a few weeks into Henderson’s stint with the Mariners, he walked up to Olerud at the batting cage and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field. Olerud explained that he had an aneurysm at nine years old and he wore the helmet for protection. Legend goes that Henderson said, “Yeah, I used to play with a guy that had the same thing.”

Olerud said, “That was me, Rickey.”

Henderson played with Olerud on the Blue Jays and the Mets.

13. Rickey was asked if he had the Garth Brooks album with Friends in Low Places and Henderson said, “Rickey doesn’t have albums. Rickey has CDs.”

14. During a contract holdout with Oakland in the early 1990s, Henderson said, “If they want to pay me like Mike Gallego, I’ll play like Gallego.”

15. In the late 1980s, the Yankees sent Henderson a six-figure bonus check. After a few months passed, an internal audit revealed the check had not been cashed. Current Yankees GM Brian Cashman – then a low-level nobody with the organization – called Rickey and asked if there was a problem with the check. Henderson said, “I’m just waiting for the money market rates to go up.”

16. In June 1999, when Henderson was playing with the Mets, he saw reporters running around the clubhouse before a game. He asked a teammate what was going on and he was told that Tom Robson, the team’s hitting coach, had just been fired. Henderson said, “Who’s he?”

17. This is my all-time favorite. Rickey was pulled over by a San Diego police officer for speeding. As the officer was approaching Rickey’s car, the window went down a few inches and a folded $100 bill emerged. The officer let Rickey and his money head home without a ticket.

18. When he was on the Yankees in the mid-1980s, Henderson told teammates that his condo had such a great view that he could see, “The Entire State Building.”

19. During one of his stays with Oakland, Henderson’s locker was next to Billy Beane’s. After making the team out of spring training, Beane was sent to the minors after a few months. Upon his return, about six weeks later, Henderson looked at Beane and said, “Hey, man, where have you been? Haven’t seen you in a while.”

20. To this day and dating back 25 years, before every game he plays, Henderson stands completely naked in front of a full length locker room mirror and says, “Ricky’s the best,” for several minutes.

21. In the last week of his lone season with the Red Sox, Chairman Tom Werner asked Henderson what he would like for his ‘going-away’ gift. Henderson said he wasn’t going anywhere, but he would like owner John Henry’s Mercedes. Werner said it would be tough to get the same make and model in less than a week and Henderson said, “No, I want his car.” Turns out the Sox got Henderson a Red Thunderbird and when he saw it on the field before the last game of the season, Rickey said, “Whose ugly car is on the field?”

It’s funny how no one I traded with in 1996 knew what the hell Emotion E-XL was. I would pull out all the big stars; Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and they still didn’t want anything to do with me. This is what is known as the, “Oddball-Effect”, which is similar to prejudice. Collectors who own name brands like Upper Deck and Topps will laugh in your face (or worse) if you try to make a trade with your K-Mart All-Stars Nolan Ryan or Sears Home Run King Jose Canseco. In the real world it would be like if I were the owner of the Marlins and offered up Dan Uggla for Albert Pujols in a trade. Sure, both are ball players, but….well you know where I am going with this. Sadly, Emotion E-XL was faced with the “Oddball-Effect” up until they came out and killed the competition with this.

What can I say about this card that doesn’t speak for itself? The cards were the thickest of 1996, that includes Finest. It was like driving a Mercedes, and come to think of it, maybe my trading buddies were just jealous cause all they had were cheap Topps and Upper Deck and I had my beautiful ‘96 Emotion. Another thing that added to the greatness of these cards are that each and every player had their own adjective next to their photo. Eventually, that would be repeated by other releases but this was the first and it worked cause it made every card fun to look at….even Edgar Martinez!

There are a couple of boxes on eBay for this great product, one is retail and going for $24.99 and the same exact box for $60 but something is fishy about the auction so no link. I don’t want any Wax Heaven readers getting scammed. Best thing to do is wait around and eventually someone reputable will put it up for sale and when they do—good luck trying to outbid me!

Maybe it’s just me but when I talk to collectors about their favorite brands from the 90’s many will list ‘90 Leaf, ‘92 Bowman, ‘98 Flair Showcase, and ‘97 Bowman Chrome. All those are great brands and ‘98 Flair might just be the most beautiful cards ever made but there is always one release that never gets the respect it deserves and that is 1997 Topps Finest.

I mean, sure, no Finest release will ever top it’s ‘93 debut as far as rarity, innovation, and collector’s respect is concerned, but 1997 finally made Topps’ most luxurious brand available to almost anyone. At an average of $5 a pack you could not only get yourself baseball cards almost twice as thick as the regular brands but prettier than almost anything out in ‘97.

Today, collectors can find complete sets of ‘97 Finest for less than $20 but that is not an insult to the beauty of the cards but to the players featured. Canseco, Bonds, Caminiti, McGwire, & others won’t exactly fill Cooperstown anytime soon and their rookie selection left a lotto be desired but aside from that, it is definitely a set to pick up if you appreciate beautiful baseball cards.

It’s been seven long years since my last purchase on eBay and just as long since I have been able to update my personal Jose Canseco baseball card collection. Yesterday, these two beauties found their way into my mail box.

Check out the design on this g/u bat card of Jose from 2002 Playoff. Most cards released after Jose’s retirement only hurt the baseball card world but this one finally gets it right. Thank you, Mr. Elite.

When I scanned this 1993 Topps Finest I made sure not to shrink it down too much in Photoshop. I wanted this beauty to be seen in its full glory. Sad to say but up until a month ago I had no idea this Canseco card even existed. That is because Finest was so rare that I didn’t think they made a Canseco card, something that is not un-common post-1993 for Jose. The refractor of this card books for $80 which pretty means I will never get one, not because I can’t afford it but because in 2007 there should be no card of Jose Canseco that sells for more than $30. Thank you, EJS Cards.

With the amount of coverage Rick Ankiel was getting from ESPN you’d think he had discovered a cure for Cancer, or at the very least Barry Bonds’ back pimples. Nope. All he did was come back to the majors as a power-hitting outfielder after failing miserably as a pitcher. The story was great and even I was getting excited but when he kept hitting one home run after another I began to wonder how in the world could he possibly be doing this?  Well, cheating, that’s how.

This is a pretty big blow to LaRussa, who since coming to St. Louis has led a monster Juicer to a home run crown, has seen one of his players die due to stupidity, has himself been popped for D.U.I, and finally been connected to another big story turned sour with Ankiel. It’s no wonder that Jose Canseco absolutely hates this guy. There is nothing worse than a hypocrite.

Rick, sorry I got distracted. Welcome to the Wax Heaven Blacklist.

You didn’t think I’d leave out our favorite all-American cheater off the blacklist, now did you? The thing that really confuses me about Big Mac is that when he came up he was a wimpy-looking kid that couldn’t have weighed more than 200 lbs. and he went on to set the rookie home run record with 49. I don’t believe he was on Steroids when he came up specially when you look at his numbers from ‘86 to ‘94 in which he was a full-fledged power hitter but only reached 40+ home runs just once in those 8 years. Something happened to Big Mac in 1995 because when spring training began he looked like the incredible hulk, only with a goatee and blond mullet. He now weighed 250+ lbs. and was destroying the baseball at an alarming rate. The next season, his 11th in the majors he finally hit 50+ home runs. The year after that he barely missed 60. The next? He shattered Roger Maris’ single-season record which stood 30 years with 70 home runs.

Mark would go on to have 3 more productive seasons before retiring, somewhat abruptly, in 2001, the very same year his record was surpassed by #1 cheater Barry Bonds. Mark walked off into the sunset and was remembered as a hero up until Jose Canseco’s book came out and accused Mark of cheating. Jose was the most hated man in baseball and no one believed him, specially not king of drunks, Tony LaRussa. It wasn’t until his testimony in front of congress that we learned the truth about our all-American hero. Turns out, Big Mac has some pretty big skeletons in his closet. Perhaps they took something a little stronger than Creatine.

Big Mac really disappointed me. I was once a big fan of him but I decided to put my money where my mouth is the other weekend. Mark, you liar, welcome to the Wax Heaven Blacklist.