Bengie Molina is seriously whipped

Our Puerto Rican friend from San Francisco has been sued by none other than his ex-wife (link). Josefa alleges that Bengie and Merrill Lynch conspired to send funds, assets, and property to the Giants catcher’s “road beef” AKA a baseball groupie Bengie was involved with.

Bengie is currently hitting .294 with 16 home runs and 95 RBI for the Giants and is leading the National League in sacrifice flies. Keep shattering those baseball records, Bengie and as always, stay classy!

Card Spotlight - ‘98 Pacific Invincible

It’s weird how one collector can be so different from another. I have on many occasions met collectors who wish more than anything that Pacific Trading Cards, Inc. were still working in the hobby. For me, I always looked down on their products ever since their official debut in the early 90’s. By 1998, they were pulling products out of their ass left and right including Pacific Invincible, which was a neat card at the time but these days is about as forgotten as the other guy from Wham! is (link).

The card itself had lots of shine (gold all over the place) but the gimmick was that it featured a window on the card itself with a photo of your favorite player. Now, if you held it up to the sky you could actually see through the card. Oh my! Hey, it’s better than the butt plugs, err….die cuts they put out in every single release they ever came out with.

Anyway, the card below features Jose Canseco in his second, embarrassing stint with the Oakland A’s and the “Bash Brothers” reunion which ended when Mark McGwire was traded mid-season and Jose made yet another appearance on the Disabled List. Does anyone know why out of four logos of the A’s, there is one on the back of the card that is clearly airbrushed out?

As for Pacific, a company that had been making baseball cards since 1975, they were bought out by Donruss in 2004. I have no clue exactly when they lost their license or why.

The Almighty Dollar - Guest Editorial

Do you think the amount of money an athlete gets paid affects how their career will play out? Today athletes in the United States and various countries get paid an outrageous amount of money to play their sport. Not only do athletes get paid millions of dollars to play for a professional team, but they get paid sometimes even more to endorse products such as shoes, sports drinks, and cars.

The next time you’re watching a baseball game, and the batter is about to ground out, look to see if they actual run to first base. Most likely if they know their about to be thrown out they will slowly trot their way to first base instead of running. I believe many players do this so they can limit the numbers of injuries they get in a season. How can you blame them for not wanting to get injured? If an athlete gets injured, they don’t meet the requirements of their contract, which means less money. Not playing as much means that less people will recognize the player and endorsement companies usually only like to endorse players that people recognize.

One hundred years ago athletes didn’t get paid very much at all. In fact there was a time that Honus Wagner, one of baseball’s best players, only made $35.00 a month. Players of that time did little endorsements for products and if their image appeared on anything a lot of the time they received nothing for it. A century ago, sports such as baseball was a much rougher game compared to what it is today. Back then Ty Cobb would slide into base and purposely hit players with is spikes. Cy Young would pitch a lot more than any other pitcher of today too. I think it would be really interesting to see a team made up of players such as Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Cap Anson play against a team of players like Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter. If a game like that could take place, I would put my money on the team with Cobb, Wagner, and Anson. Players of that time know how to play dirty and deal with pain, unlike a lot of players of today that have to sit out of a game because they have a hurt pinky finger.

Andrew Chrisman runs Sports Card Info, A blog that provides hobby news, stories, thoughts, and fake card information.

What is your dream Cut Signature?

Collectors, it is time we face the truth about non-sports cards in your pack of baseball cards. You either love them, tolerate them, or flat out hate them but they are not going away anytime soon. Personally, being a huge movie & music buff—I absolutely love these cards! How awesome would it to pull a cut signature of one of the all-time greatest actors, Marlon Brando? Or how about one of legendary crooner, Frank Sinatra? Truth is, even if you don’t want to keep the card, odds are someone on eBay really wants it. It’s a no lose situation.

So, what is your dream Cut Signature? Oh, and please don’t go and say “Babe Ruth” as you know there are so many of those it’s hard to keep up with. Is there an entertainer, athlete, politician that you feel has been forgotten and would like to see in a 2009 product? Below is my top 3 most-wanted.

3. Carl Wilson - Musician

Carl, along with his two brothers, cousin, and friend formed the Beach Boys in the early 60’s as teenagers. The group went on to have the greatest music career next to the Beatles but Mr. Wilson lost his battle with Cancer in 1996. Still, even while being deathly ill many fans remember going to concerts in the mid-90’s where Carl was propped on a stool singing with the aid of an oxygen tank. He loved performing all the way up until the very end.

2. Steve Clark - Musician

An amazing guitar player who was very underrated in the 80’s and early 90’s for Def Leppard, before they began to suck severely. Steve died from an overdose of pain killers, anti-depressants, and alcohol in 1991 at the age of 30. The video below is from his guitar solo ‘Switch 625′ which Def Leppard still plays in his memory to this day.

1. Eazy-E - Hip Hop Artist

The legend goes that Eric Wright, who stood just 5 feet 3 inches began Ruthless Records with money he made selling drugs. Whatever the case, his company put out the infamous N.W.A of the early 90’s and chart-topping, Platinum-selling Bone Thugs N’ Harmony in the mid-90’s. Eazy passed away in 1995 at the age of 31. You can see a very rare photo of his signature by clicking HERE.

Does anyone like Hockey?

Well, if you are not a fan of the sport but have lots of money to drop than maybe 2008 Upper Deck Black Hockey has something right up your alley. Aside from the many players with names I could never pronounce (what the hell is a Wayne Gretzky?), they have included a series of cut signatures called ‘Cuts from the Modern Era’ which features celebrities, most who died tragically and at an early death.

Bob Marley, a Reggae legend, died of Cancer in 1981 at the young age of 36.

Frank Sinatra, lived a long 82 years but proved the old saying, “it’s better to burn out, than fade away” might actually be true.

Johnny Cash, “The Man in Black”, lived a long, hard life and passed away not too long after his true love did. Only after his death did he receive the kind of recognition he deserved. If this video doesn’t give you chills, maybe you should delete Wax Heaven from your favorites.

Marvin Gaye, one of the greatest of all-time among the elite Motown artists, died at the age of 44 after he was killed by his own father.

Steve McQueen, a legendary Hollywood actor who died at the age of 50 after suffering two heart attacks.

Please don’t “K.O” Ichiro…

Well, it looks like the worst team in baseball, the Seattle Mariners, had a player who was mighty jealous of one of the greatest hitters in our generation, Ichiro Suzuki. In this article (link), someone interviewed an “anonymous source” who said one of the Mariners players wanted to “knock out” Ichiro and accused him of caring only about his numbers.

The crazy thing is that Ichiro has 200 hits for the 8th straight time in his career. How in the world is getting hits hurting any team? It’s not like he was swinging for the fences and striking out or playing hurt to keep playing for numbers. The man is a hit machine for crying out loud! Ichiro has never gotten less than 200 hits, 100 runs, 30 stolen bases, or hit below .300 in any of the eight seasons he has played in.

I wonder if the man who’s upset is none other than Richie Sexon…?

Beckett CEO to step down Oct. 1st

I know it’s “in” to bash Beckett Media these days but the truth is despite how much I am against “book value”, their magazine holds a special place in my collecting heart and the news that their CEO stepped down makes me worry about their future.

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“Peter Gudmundsson will step down as CEO and president of Beckett Media, effective Oct. 1. Gudmundsson joined Beckett in 2005 after company founder Jim Beckett sold to New York-based Apprise Media. Gudmundsson said he had been asked by APG Media, parent company of Apprise, to move to APG’s California headquarters but declined the opportunity. He said he plans on starting a new company “unrelated to sports collecting and entertainment publishing” after his departure from Beckett.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my almost four years at Beckett,” Gudmundsson said. “I am proud of the degree to which we were able to transition from one-man ownership to a more team-oriented operating structure. The company is in much better shape today than it was in 2005.”

Published reports earlier this year indicated that Apprise Media is looking to sell Beckett.”

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What’s crazy is that my first goal when I created Wax Heaven was to get Beckett’s attention and then one day out of the blue I get a comment of approval from none other than Mr. Gudmundsson himself. You can read the comment he left HERE. It’s the second one down and it was written way back in November of 2007. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was that someone from Beckett, let alone their C.E.O, left me a comment.