Wax Heaven

Welcome to This Week In Baseball Cards (T.W.I.B.C), a new weekly feature from Wax Heaven where I will break down some of the stories that broke out of the baseball card industry and made headlines throughout the nation.

$9,000 in baseball cards stolen - I’ll give the crooks credit for the iron bar scam but I hope that this guy’s collection is returned.

Construction worker steals baseball card collection - It’s a shame when cons go after senior citizens but when baseball cards are involved, it’s even more tragic!

A story about Phil Hughes’ slightly overrated blog - Overrated or not, it’s 1,000 times better than Curt’s.

A novel about a baseball card lost and much more! -This thing is probably going to be very cool! I am picking up a copy.

A story about a collector ashamed to admit it - Damn! The author has a face made for HAM radio.

Got any more interesting stories? Let us know!

I don’t know if anyone actually reads this crap but here it is. To me, I have never been much of a fan of the Onion but I take it many are judging by how much publicity they get in the media. I don’t know, it’s too much “drunken college frat guy humor” for me and I just can’t relate to it. Still, for some reason I find any skit on Mad TV featuring Bobby Lee to be comedic genius so I have no right to speak.

You guys, expect a video box break, product review, and other surprises tonight at Wax Heaven!

A couple of months ago I asked the readers of Wax Heaven to show me their worst baseball autographs and in the end, I was certain no sport could possibly out-do us. That all came to an end after ‘bballjunky24′ of the Beckett Message Board took me to school with these ugly basketball cards!

Imagine paying ridiculous amounts of cash for a box of Bowman Sterling and pulling an autograph of “R.F.4″. I don’t know much about this guy except for the fact that he is just 24 and is in his second year in the N.B.A. I hope he isn’t bored with signing because if he blossoms into a better player, he is going to do a lot of signing in the future.

I don’t even know what the hell that thing is. Could it be a fancy “A”? Maurice Ager is a 23-year old who has played in under 50 games for his career and has an average of 1.8 P.P.G. Maybe he wore himself out signing for Upper Deck and that’s why he scores so little?

This one falls right on the verge of lazy and somewhat interesting. Leandro is actually a pretty decent player who averaged close to 20 points per game last season. At 6′3 inches…he might be the tallest South American in the history of the world. Okay, maybe not but it comes close. I think.

Do you know any other bad signers in basketball? This one gets my vote for a great-looking autograph.

Damn, this came out of left field. Scott Spiezio, former Oakland A’s and St. Louis Cardinal utility player had a warrant issued for his arrest after an incident on Dec. 30th, 2007 in which he was driving under the influence, committed a hit & run, aggravated assault, and assault & battery. Shortly after finding out, the Cards, led by another alcoholic, Tony LaRussa, released Scott.

Unfortunately, Scott doesn’t look and sound very gangsta’ so I went to the website ‘The Original Gangsta Name Generator‘ and typed in Scott Spiezio. The result speaks for itself. Yes, Scotty…you are a Stupid-ass Fool.

I prefer for Tatiana to be the face of Wax Heaven—after all, no one is going to request a lipstick kissed baseball card of Mario Alejandro, right? Well, last night the so-called Infamous Tatiana was quivering in her boots as she walked up to Ozzie Canseco. Believe me when I tell you, it wasn’t from the cold. She was terrified, and when she finally got Ozzie’s attention—completely froze up on me. As you can see/hear…I didn’t have anything planned for Ozzie but it turned out okay.

Thanks to Ozzie Canseco for being so friendly, signing two cards, and for cranking out that monster home run minutes after we met you!

It’s hard to imagine what it is like to be the twin brother of the biggest baseball star in the world. It’s even harder to imagine what it’s like trying to escape the tremendous shadow of Jose Canseco. Some might say Ozzie Canseco’s baseball career was a failure. Sure, if you are looking at nothing more than the stats, then possibly you are right. I for one think Ozzie is a warrior, who despite being a career minor leaguer, played in Japan, in independent leagues, and semi-pro leagues—never gave up, never called it quits, never stopped loving the game of baseball.

When I read this afternoon on Wikipedia of all places, that Ozzie Canseco was playing in a softball league in South Florida, I knew I had to do whatever it took to go and show my support. I had a sick son at home, and a Mustang with a flat tire, and a wife extremely sick, but I risked it (son went with grandma) and got one hell of a meeting thanks to it. For the record, immediately after our meeting, Ozzie hit a towering home run to center field, all while the Infamous Tatiana cheered on. We could only stay 6 innings but we got to see Ozzie homer, hit a single, and yes, even make two errors at third base—not to mention meet him and get two cards signed. One autograph is for my collection and the other is for Bryan, the Canseco King, who a few weeks ago sent hundreds of Jose Canseco cards out of the blue.

Below are some of the photos we took. There is a short interview/video coming in a few hours. Ozzie’s autograph may look sloppy but I believe it had something to do with the temperature that got as low as 54 degrees that evening.

we took a chance and it paid off

it was freezing and Tatiana had a cold

who’s that man on the mound?

yeah, you know who it is!

batting practice before the game

more batting practice

he still has those Canseco Guns (and the mullet)

he was awesome and even signed two cards for us (video coming soon)

the first one is for me, the second one is for Bryan, the Canseco King

While doing some research for the latest Wax Heaven article, I ran across some amazing information about former professional baseball player and Mario Alejandro teacher, Ozzie Canseco. Check out this excerpt;

“On February 20, 2008 Ozzie appeared in a Softball Game at Brian Piccolo Park in Cooper City, Florida. He was playing for American Airlines and played 3B and P in the Wed D2 League. Canseco was walked all 4 times he came to the plate. They lost the game 20-13 to the High Rollers.”

For those of you who don’t know, the Infamous Tatiana and Mario Alejandro live in Cooper City! Brian Piccolo Park is just five minutes from my home. If he supposedly plays in the Wed D2 League, then today would be his next game, right? Well, today after work I will attempt to drive my new (old) Mustang to my home to pick up my camera and some cards to get signed and then drive to the park at around 7 P.M Eastern time. The reason I say attempt is because one of my tires blew up on the way to work and I am driving on a donut that doesn’t quite fit my car, but I will risk it for a chance to meet Ozzie!

Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned for an update on this story in a few hours!