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.

I’m sure everyone reading this has gotten some great autographs, I have quite a few myself.  This post category is to glamorize the awesomely bad autographs.  I meant to put this on here yesterday, but just didn’t have the time.  Russell Sanford emailed me on Friday to send me two gems of really bad autographs.  First off we have 2000 Team Best Jeff Austin:

I bet when this was pulled in 2000 Russell had to be stoked, maybe even started watching ole Jeff do his thinkg in the minors.  Let me tell you how this one ends.  Debuted in 2001 last game was in 2003.  He was a middle reliever for the Royals and the Reds.  Actually he was drafted in 1998 as the 4th overall pick.  I would have been stoked to get this card.  The next card is Charles Peterson not sure of the year but it was from Best cards.

Charles was drafted 22nd overall in the 1993 draft.  A speedster with no pop.  His biggest problem was his batting everage hovering around 0.265 which is bad for a leadoff hitter.  Where outfielders are a dime a dozen, Charles never made it to the pros and ended up finishing his career in the independant Northwest league.  He was still playing in 2006.

This two examples just go to show you not every autograph is worth money.  These were 2 first rounders, one was a top 5 pick. Prospecting is tough, but when they falter its fun to see their autographed cards.  Please send me more of your bad autos.  My email address is chemgod1000@yahoo.com.