Bad Wax

Name: Richard Hidalgo

Position: OF/1B

Team: Mets (Currently retired, 2006)

Set it’s from: 2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot

What I like about the card: This was one of the first Sweet Spot cards I ever got.  Hidalgo was one of those almost made it guys.  His stats definitely suggest that he had some help from steroids, but he was a fun player to watch in the late 90s and early 00’s.  Most people remember his 2000 season when he went 0.314/44/122.  He was only 25 and I don’t know about you, but I thought that his potential was endless.  Little did I know then, that he would never even come close to those numbers again.  He would never even get close to 30 homers again.  He’ll never be remembered as a Brady Anderson kind of guy, although he should be.  It was the kind of career he had.  This card was of him as a Met.  A team he would only be with for 86 games.  So I like the card, because with a change of scenery, there is always renewed hope.

What I don’t like about the card: Although his name never appears on a report, he probably was a juicer.  It’s hard to not look at players from that era, who had one monstrous season and never anything else and think anything buy steroids.  I bought this card because he goes on my famous, but never made the leap tier of players.  This would be the same tier as Jose Cruz Jr (sorry Mario), and a current player Alex Rios.  Everyone knows of them, feels the talent was always there, but for whatever reason, never made that leap from great season to superstar.  For example guys I can think of that made the leap are Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.  Another guy might be Dan Uggla but let’s hold judgment until next season.

Beckett Card Value: $8.00

Price paid on eBay: $1.05

Price it could end up being: Worthless, as the year pass on Hidalgo’s name will be one that will be forgotten by most. I’ll always remember 2000 and what it could have been, but I don’t think many other people will.