Fork In The Road To Immortality.

       Last night, it was announced that two men had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza.  I am going to get my favorite quirky statistic about this out of the way first:  Junior is the first number one draft pick to be chosen, and as a 62nd round pick, 1390th overall, Piazza is (by far) the lowest draft pick ever granted membership to Cooperstown.


Ken Griffey Jr.


Ken Griffey Jr. set a record with 99.3% of the vote, getting named on 437 out of 440 of the ballots. Whoever the three dudes are who decided not to vote for him should be publicly shamed, stripped of their vote, and kept in the stocks on Main Street in Cooperstown during induction weekend.



I have shown my pages of Griffey before so I dove into the boxes for his inserts for this occasion.  Above you see two of my favorite food issue oddballs of all time.  Not that getting cards out of Oreos or Ritz Crackers is all that bizarre and they certainly are as plain looking as possible.  No, I am tickled every time I look at the back of the cards and see the height and weight measurements.  Every. Damn. Time. I am a simple man.



Griffey is one of the saddest "What Might Have Been" baseball stories of all time.  Yet, he is also one of the most complete and beloved figures the game has ever known.  The only people who didn't like Junior are really old curmudgeonly writers back in 1991 that hated that he smiled and wore his hat backward.  How dare a man have fun playing a child's game!  Luckily, all those men are either retired or dead now. 



It is hard to imagine that had Griffey stayed healthy in the second part of his career, we wouldn't be celebrating Bonds as the all-time home run king.  With the Reds over 8-plus years, he missed 480+ games with various injuries and given the conservative average of a homer every 4 games, that adds about 120 homers to his total.  As it is, he hit 630 dingers which is good for 6th on the all-time list.


I have collected and cherished Griffey's cards since he hit the scene in 1989.  I am not saying I was ever a supercollector or anything, but I do seem to have a lot of his cards laying around and I seem to find more every time I look.  Given his status and statistics, Ken Griffey Jr.'s election to the hall of fame is the very definition of a no-brainer.

***

Mike Piazza.


Mike Piazza was also a no-brainer choice for the Hall of Fame, alas it took the BBWAA four freaking years to find their brains.  He was elected with 83.0% of the vote, named on 365 of 440 ballots. 



I wish I could claim some kind of nonpartisan point of view when it comes to Mike Piazza, but alas I cannot. He has been my favorite player since May 22, 1998 when he was traded to the Mets.  He had been someone I admired before then but the moment I found out he was a Met, it was head-over-heels, love-at-first-sight, you-and-me-forever.  There had never really ever been a player like this in team history and unfortunately, there hasn't been one since.   



Unlike Junior, I have been a crazed Piazza Supercollector since that day.  What you are seeing right now is just the game-used and fancy encapsulated cards I own of him.  I have done huge player collection posts before, but doing ALL of my Piazza cards at once will require 102 pages and another 1800+ inserts in top loaders to be sorted and scanned - not to mention random assorted memorabilia like lunch boxes, figures, 8x10s, bobbleheads, etc.  Yeah, I should have anticipated this day and had it ready but that just didn't happen after a few years of crushing January disappointment.  You will have to wait until July and his actual enshrinement for me to tackle this massive project.  For now, you'll have to make do with the 15 scans here of some high end goodies. Like that Leather Bound card above, which is one of my whales; not only is it a rare type of relic, but it has a lace hole right in the middle of it.  Just a wonderfully neat card.



I never got into the eTopps craze much but I did snag in hand versions of Piazza's cards, some of the very few encapsulated cards I own that have stayed in capsule.



Here you see some later bat cards of him as not-a-Met.  Everyone seems to be arguing if he should go into the Hall as a Dodger or a Met - and joking that he should go in as a Marlin - yet no one has referenced his last couple years on the west coast as a Padre and Athletic.  My view is simple: he made his legend as a Dodger and cemented that legacy as a Met so it is an absolute toss up as to which is appropriate as either one could be (see Jimmie Foxx).  In a case like this, it should then come down to the player's preference and Mike has made it clear he is far more fond of his time as a Mets player and of the Mets fans and organization.  That should end the discussion right there. (Note: as I was writing this post, it was announced that he would, in fact, go in as a Met)



Mike Piazza's offensive statistics are overwhelming.  396 home runs as a catcher - most all time (427 overall).  Highest single season batting average for a catcher - .362 in 1997.  Five 100 RBI seasons in a row - 1996 to 2000 - and an average of over 100 RBIs over 10 years - 1993 to 2002.  Highest lifetime batting average in Los Angeles Dodgers history - .331.  Ten Silver Slugger awards.  Twelve time All Star. 



Conversely, he is known as a horrible defensive player.  This reputation is way way waaaay out of line.  Yes, it is undeniable that he did not have the best arm in the world; his career caught stealing percentage was 23% when the league average was 31%.  But remember that he played in the most drastic offensive slugging era ever so the stolen base was not the weapon it was in, say, Johnny Bench's day and therefore Piazza's arm was not a grand liability.  If his defense was truly as terrible as it is reputed, he would have been moved to 1st base in 1995 and not 2005.  Early in his career, he did lead the league in passed ball twice.  But he took great pride in and worked very hard to improve his defense.  By the year 2000, he led the league in fielding percentage for catchers - bet you didn't know that.  People somehow forget that throwing is not the only thing a catcher does.  Other than his bad arm, all he did was frame pitches well, go back on pop ups quickly and vigilantly, call a game brilliantly, and get down and block pitches in the dirt like a fiend.  And that's not me talking, that is Bobby Valentine his manager.



Enough about the player, let's focus on some of these nifty cards.  Mike's trade to the Mets coincided with the explosion of game used cards, so just about all the stuff he has is in Mets gear.  This makes me very happy (and broke).  I usually only pick up the very best or most interesting relic cards of a player to have one or two to represent him, but I have been a little more loose with that rule when it comes to Piazza.



This scan shows a rare hat patch card and a jersey card that is just filthy and I mean filthy in the true real 'dirty' meaning of the word, it is the filthiest jersey card I have ever seen.  It also shows four manufactured patch cards, including one that I gave quite a famous write up.



There are hundreds of Jersey relic cards of Mike Piazza, of that I am certain and I somehow have had the restraint to only own a couple dozen.  I try to keep it, like the above, to interesting subjects, photos, or even cut outs to showcase the swatch.  There is also a piece in this scan with a teal stripe on the piece, meaning it came from his week long side-trip as a Marlin.  One marvelous little statistical blip in his line is that he hit a triple for all five teams he suited up for, including one of the five total hits he got as a Florida Marlin.



Here are five of the most interesting die cut jersey cards and one of the most staid and plain looking one's in my collection.  The piece is even gray.  That is more than made up for by the round, square, crownish, cartoonish nature of the other cards. 



I have not one, not two, but three of his swatches from the Topps 206 sets of the early aughts.  I think there are bat cards from this set too but I like that these cards showcase the front and back of the pieces, something very few cards actually do, and that is more interesting with the jerseys.  They are color coded to each series of that vast set.  I often wonder if they would fall apart if I took them out of their plastic holders...alas, I am too chicken to test this out.



Jeez, I just realized, seeing them all laid out like this, that I might have enough jersey cards to sew together an actual patchwork Mike Piazza jersey.  But then I would have to pick up some of the rare button cards from ten years ago that were all the rage and I refuse to spend that much money on anything less than a used car. 



Now we've reached some multiple swatch cards.  Here you see him paired twice with battery mate Al Leiter, who was very excited on MLB Network about Mike's election.  There's also one with Mo Vaughn from that one year the Mets thought Mo Vaughn was going to be good for them.  There is also three cards with my all-time all time favorite player, Gary Carter.  Chances are if you play for the Mets and play catcher, you are going to get my attention/affection.  I also love the one there with Piazza, Carter, and Rickey Henderson - that is three Hall of Famers on one card.  I think that is a first for my collection.

Last but not least are a few other multiple player swatch cards below.  One of them is a Mets themed one, the others with various guys like Carlton Fisk (makes sense), Pudge Rodriguez and Jason Kendall (sure, okay), and Sammy Sosa (um, what?).  By my count, that is 73 game used cards, 4 fake manu-patch cards, and 3 magic encapsulated cards.  I am insane - and remember I sold off a lot more than I have bought in recent years.



Each year Mike did not get elected to Cooperstown, I promised to write a scathing diatribe denouncing this folly.  And every year, I got so mad trying to put together this post that I abandoned it in self-righteous frustration.  I am now so pleased with the result that I am going to forgive and forget and let it all go.  Mike Piazza has been given his rightful place in Baseball's Hall of Fame, what is there to be upset about?

A Nightmare Deferred.

       If there is something we can all agree upon, it's that Bobby Bonilla was an unmitigated disaster as a New York Met. Oh sure, his numbers weren't too bad, heck, they almost look decent in and of themselves.  Problem was, that was, quite literally, the worst team money could buy.  The real issue was Bobby Bo's attitude was, um, not good.  Yes, he was in over his head in New York.  And yes, they never should have put the burden of being the alpha dog on him when he was obviously a second fiddle.  And yes, that was certainly not the first, or last, time the Mets would make that mistake.  But when they finally traded him away in 1995 (for "5-tool" prospect Alex Ochoa - although none of those tools were baseball skills) it was a divorce of absolute relief.  A most wise mutual parting of a grand error in judgement on both parties.  The biggest problem of all is, this is not where our story ends.  In a move about as baffling as any in baseball history, the Mets inexplicably brought Bonilla back in 1999.  The Mets wanted Bonilla as a bat off the bench while Bonilla wanted to play every day.  This went as well as you could imagine and he sulked his way to a .160 average and an infamous card game.  The Mets were then ultra-desperate to unload Bonilla for a second time.  And because it's the Mets, they continued doing stupid things.  If you have been anywhere the last few July 1sts, you know exactly what I am talking about.  And yes, the whole thing is very embarrassing.  But here's the thing...

This isn't the first deferred payment contract in baseball history, and heck, it isn't even the worst deferred contract in baseball history but somehow, it is the only ever mentioned deferred contract in baseball history.  Why?  Well, the fact that the Mets are an eternal punchline doesn't help; the media have just made Bobby Bo the personification of that.  When you are paying a hated 52-year old ex-player more than your two best players, it just makes for sexier headlines.  The thing that bothers me most is that this nonsense has leaked out of the grimier blogosphere and into the mainstream media.  I have had to hear about this shit all damn day.  So let's turn this around and mock some other contracts for a change.

When the Reds traded for Ken Griffey Jr. in 2000, they deferred a portion of his salary that is now being paid to him through 2024.

At least the Mets have been to the World Series since 1990. 

Okay, if that's the measure, what about Manny Ramirez?  The Red Sox are currently paying him close to $2 million until 2026. 

The Sox will be shelling out for those 2004 and 2007 seasons until Manny is 54. 

The Rockies played the those 2007 Red Sox in the World Series.  The first baseman for that team?  Todd Helton, who the Rox deferred a boatload of salary for in 2011 and will be paying him a cool million bucks a year until 2024.

I'd just like the interest payment from that kind of money, I'm not greedy.

There are active players still getting deferred money.  Ichiro is grinding things out in Miami in his quest to get 3000 hits.  He is still a serviceable 4th outfielder, really. 

Meanwhile, the Mariners are paying him, and will keep on paying him, deferred salary until 2032.  Mr. Suzuki will be 59 years old by then and much closer to collecting social security than giving his Hall of Fame speech.

How about dudes named Ryan?  Zimmerman will be rewarded deferred money big time a good 5 years after he retires.

Ryan Zimmerman, much like David Wright, is a beloved hot corner star who has seen more of the injury rehab clinic than the batters box of late. 

If that is too cuddly, how about the opposite end of the Ryan spectrum, Ryan Braun. 

Hell, Braun isn't even getting interest on his deferment, but he will get paid 7 figures until 2031.  I wonder how many specimen jars you can buy with that kind of scratch.

Quick...guess which one of the 8 teams who Gary Sheffield played for deferred a bunch of cash in his contract and will pay him $1.9 million until 2019, which is ten years after he retired?

If you guessed the Detroit Tigers, come get your prize - a purposefully overthrown ball from third base.

Think desperate teams are the only ones that defer money as a quick fix?  Think again. 

The Cardinals will be giving Matt Holliday a nice fat check from 2020 until 2029.

But what is the grandfather and Granddaddy of all foolish deferred payments?  That begins and ends with Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter.

I am not sure how Sutter even got into Cooperstown, but perhaps he spread around some of Ted Turner's money to help him in his cause.  The Braves have paid Sutter $1.3 million a year since 1990 and will keep on paying him until 2020.  Sure, Sutter made the Hall of Fame, but he earned that status with the Cubs and the Cardinals.  The Braves have and will cough up $44 million over 36 years for 112 games pitched, 40 saves, and a 4.76 ERA.  Nice work if you can get it.  But somehow, the Mets are the ones that are held up as fools for the whole Bonilla thing. 

Not Shown: Steve Young, Kevin Garnett, Rick DiPietro, Bronson Arroyo, Mario Lemieux, and most of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks.

Generations.

       Forty-five years ago today, Ken Griffey, Jr. was born in Donora PA. 


As most folks my age are wont to do, I got suckered in to loving Junior early and that adoration never really went away.  All through the early and mid 90's, my Mets really sucked and didn't have many players worth rooting for, so Griffey was an out-of-town escape from my hometown doldrums.



I always liked the way Griffey looked in a Reds uniform; oh how I wish things worked out better for him there.



Griffey has some of the most iconic cards of all-time but one that slips through the cracks is that bubble gum 1995 Pinnacle shot.  Maybe because it isn't the best bubble card of all time?  I think it deserves more love, the look on his face is priceless.



I have a bunch of Griffey inserts as well, but you will just have to be satisfied with the six(!) pages I have of him.  This was whittled down from many more years ago when I decided to not collect every single player I liked in mass quantities.  Of all the player collections I pared down, Junior's was probably the hardest one to do.  Six pages is the most I have of any player in either the retired or hall of fame binders. 



And of course, here is the obligatory page with his dad, Ken Griffey, Sr.  Did you know at one point Ken Griffey, Jr. Lee May, Jr. and Pete Rose, Jr. (and Eduardo Perez, who is a combo-breaker) all played on the same traveling team?  That seems, um, unfair.



       Ninety-four years ago today, Stan Musial was born in Donora PA. 


Opinions obviously vary wildly about who the most basebally baseball player who ever baseballed is, but gun to my head, I'd have to go with Stan.  He looked the part, he acted the part, and he was, well, The Man.


With apologies to Tom McCraw, Freddie Lindstrom, Dick Schofield, Bill Almon, Hank Blalock, Mark Eichhorn, and Tripp Cromer (amongst others) who never ever get mentioned as having a birthday today because they had the karmic misfortune to be born on the same day as two of the greatest baseball players of all time. 

Sixty-six years ago today, my mother was born in beautiful downtown Jersey City.  As far as I know, she has never been to Donora PA. 

My mom has spent the last month or so in New Orleans, going to games and following the players around.  She is sort of a stalker who doesn't "stalk" or perhaps a groupie who doesn't actually sleep with the players - she is old enough to be the grandmother of some of them, after all.   But in between drinking and eating, she loves to go see the players in public (see above) and she does make the rounds, believe me.

Since I can't be there to do it in person, here is Akiem Hicks to give you a great big hug.  Happy Birthday Mom!

Before and After.

       I have a menial part time job.  How menial? I refuse to even tell you what it is.  The good thing about this job is that I can do it with no thought or function, it is 2 miles from my house, and they pay me straight cash (attention NSA and IRS, no, they don't).  It also helps fill in the time when "real" work isn't available and keeps me out of trouble.  Well, at this particular workplace, one guy got fired and another just up and quit leaving them very short handed and since I am a little underemployed otherwise, I told them I could fill in until they found someone.  This was my first mistake.  My "part time" job has taken up 48 hours each of the last two weeks and this is a job where I am on my feet 8-12 hours at a time.  Needless to say, it has left my old body very tired and left me very little time for my favorite hobby (thus the lack of updates lately - at least I have a decent excuse for a change...).  In fact, it has left me with little time to do anything with all my incoming cards except this:

Yup, I have just been throwing them in a random pile on the floor.  So sad.  I was on a listia and ebay buying kick the last couple weeks to boot, so this pile got very large and unruly very quickly.  Lucky for me, I had a nice quiet evening tonight, leaving me with a good block of time to tidy this all up.  Let's see what happened, shall we?

A few months ago, I threatened to make a page of the 2013 Opening Day Blue Shiny parallels:

This page is the fruits of what became quite a labor.  I went on ebay and bought two lots of these, figuring I could make a page and use the rest as listia and/or trade bait.  One of the lots came right away, the other did not.  I got an email from the seller saying they got returned to him by the post office and refunded my money.  I have my suspicions he didn't like the price he got for his lot, god I hate that...but oh well, I then bought another little lot and finished off this page.  It's got a good balance of teams and players and a good contrast of photos.  I like it and the scan doesn't do it justice, it is not just shiny, it is SHINY!!!

Speaking of shiny, I also bought a lot of these on a whim:

I wasn't even sure what they were, but I got them because the lot had a couple of Mets in it.  Then I read up and found out they were hobby shop redemption cards.  I have no doubt all those fine honest shop owners didn't open the packs and put them online for sale.  Nooooooo.....that would never happen.  Anyway, I can't decide if I like the design of them or not.  They have a bit of a Lichtenstein thing going on, but there is also a lot of odd negative space.  I cannot deny, though, that they are quite shiny.  And lord knows I have some Spring Fever because my team is not in the playoffs again for the seventh year in a row.  I am rooting for a Dodgers/Red Sox World Series if anyone cares and honestly, I am not sure I even do. 

One of my many odd Listia buys was a batch of Andres Galarraga cards:

I was at the time looking for oddball Post cards, but I ran across this lot of 10 Galarraga cards.  I didn't have a page of Big Cat cards because he always played for teams I didn't care for and he flamed out late in his career as a Mets Spring Training signee (one of many with that distinction).  But I guess time heals all wounds and for the equivalent of a dime, I added this page to my retired books.

Next is a page I am happy to add to my binders:

These are 1995 Topps Premier Hockey Special Effects cards.  Sadly, they did not scan as well as I wanted them too, but they are quite shimmery and shiny.  The "special effect" is a sheen of shininess that looks like skated-on ice and believe me, it looks quite nifty.  I learned of the existence of these cards a couple weeks ago when I wrote up this post about shiny football cards.  I was so excited to learn they existed, I went on ebay and got a big lot of them from Canada.  I even decided to let a Rangers player creep in there, a team I do not usually let onto my pages.  But I look at it as, the Rangers winning the cup was so rare and unusual I might as well throw them a bone.

One last batch of listia lot hijinx:

I was looking for Drew Brees cards and came across this insert set from this year's Topps football flagship.  They are based on those very cheesy inserts they put in rack-packs back in the late 80's and early 90's.  I thought they were die cut to have rounded corners to be all modern and classy, but it turns out that is just a trick of the light.  The seller also mailed these in a plain white envelope with no protection whatsoever. By some bit of dark magic, they made it through the postal system unscathed.  Listia is such a crapshoot; maybe that's why I like it so much...I need a little more excitement in my life.

There were so many odd cards in that pile that will eventually show up on the blog, but here is one I am not sure will ever get a chance to be featured otherwise:

I really like this insert set.  I have a few of them in my collection and if I was really feeling frisky, I could buy the 10-card set and make a page.  But right now, I am content to own the Griffey in all its teal colored jersey see thru glory.  It's even better that I grabbed it on listia for a faux fifty cents.

One last thing you may have noticed in the lower right of the pile:

My menial job does let me talk to people and we have many many regular customers.  One of them I have known for a long time and he is a real character.  He repairs pin set up machines for local bowling alleys.  This is a very specific skill and judging by this gentleman, it obviously requires eccentricity.  Anyway, he noticed I had been working everyday for 2 weeks straight rather than my usual 2-3 days a week and we got to talking.  He asked me "well, what do you do when you aren't here" and I told him my vocation and I told him I was also a writer.  "Well, what do you write about?"  I told him about my failed life as a novelist and I told him I have a blog.  "What is your blog about?"  Now, people usually ask these question about writing to be polite.  My usual answer about my blog "baseball cards" immediately makes 99% of people change the subject as they have either no interest, understanding, or patience for such things.  Not this time.  His face lit up and he said "Really?  I used to collect back in the day..."  And off we went on a 20 minute rapid-fire conversation about baseball, baseball cards, and collecting in general.  We talked about favorite players and teams and the like. What we have, used to have, going to shows, selling at shows, that I used to work at a card shop etc.  This doesn't happen to me very often outside of a card show, so it was quite a pleasant little moment.  Later in the day, the dude comes back and hands me this little pile of stuff and says "I don't collect much anymore and I thought you would like these more than I would."  I mean, look at those cards.  These aren't junk, this is a Piazza rookie card, two rare Piazza parallels, and a couple of nice 1970's vintage cards (of course, I will have to bust them out of those screwdown prisons).  I can be quite the curmudgeon when it comes to talking to people at work, especially when I am tired but in this one time, it seems hard work and being personable was more than its own reward. 

Laborious.

       It's funny, sometimes I sit down at the keyboard to do a post and the words flow like endless rain into a paper cup (to steal a line).  For example, I did the walk off one from the other day in no time - I had a "moment" watching baseball highlights on TV, and I sat down and wrote about it.  Also, the other night I had one idea, switched gears midway, and it all came out no problem...this post has been sadly underread, go look at it, I'll wait... Did I mention it's a drunk post? (I cannot become one of those people who can only write when he drinks).  Even some of the longer, more specific and involved posts that took a week or more to write came pretty easy.  But right now, I have been sitting here for half an hour looking at a blank screen and you know what?  I got nothing.  I understand that no one really wants to read about the writing process and even fewer want to indulge an author trying to work through writer's block by writing about it, so I am gonna shut the hell up about it and just grab a few random scans out of the 'unused' folder.  Maybe the muses will conspire for me better tomorrow.

This is a very recent scan.  I promised to show this page when I wrote a trade post after my near month long hiatus.   I simply adore the 1994 Fleer design, so simple, so effective.  And like most simple, effective designs, it works both horizontally and vertically.  I can't decide which I like more.  In fact, I might have to make two pages of these, one for each.  Looks like I gotta update the wantlist again.

I am not sure why I scanned this page, but damn is it cool.  Upper Deck loved their multi-exposure photos in the early 90's.  The Canseco and Valenzuela work best, I think, but the Griffey is probably the most famous one, that or the 1989 Nolan Ryan (not shown on this page).  The other thing that this page reminds me of is the recent State Farm commercial with Kerry Wood.  If you have seen it, you should know what I am talking about; if you haven't, go watch it, it's damn amusing. 

I also could not for the life of me tell you why I scanned this page of John Olerud cards.  I have two pages of Olerud in my retired stars book and I only scanned this one for some reason.  Very odd.  I recently got into a big argument with my brother about John Olerud.  It would help you to know that my brother's favorite baseball player of all time is Keith Hernandez and he will rant to whomever will listen how Hernandez belongs in the Hall of Fame.  My argument was that Olerud was a superior player to Hernandez and no one of sound mind can make a strong, legitimate case that he belongs in Cooperstown, so how could Hernandez belong?  Now, I am not even sure I believe this, but the argument really drove my brother crazy.  My instincts as the younger brother to constantly tweak and antagonize my older brother have not dulled with age. 

 I do know why I scanned this page of J.R. Richard.  I have been kicking around the idea of doing a series of posts about players who were either complete failures, or players who didn't live up to their potential due to unfortunate circumstances, or some combination of the two.  James Rodney here would obviously fall into the latter category.  If you look at his statistics, if he didn't have that stroke, he probably would have had a career along the lines of Bob Gibson or Jim Palmer.  He was that good.

Whoa, I actually know why I scanned this page as well.  When I was writing my opening day post, I wanted to use the word "moments" so I scanned both pages of Milestones and Moments that I have and chose one and threw the other into the 'unused' folder hoping to find another use for it.  I am racking my brain here and I can't figure out any reason I would use this page unless I wrote a post about "crappy overpriced crappity crap crap."  Hey!  Maybe I should write that one down, it sounds like a good idea.

This page was also scanned for the aforementioned opening day post.  I scanned two pages of Play Ball and used the faux vintage one rather than this page of straight reprints.  I wouldn't have wanted anyone to get the idea that I was hoarding a page of near mint cards from 1941 and just casually using it in a post without paying it any mind.  A while back, I went through a brief (and expensive) infatuation with vintage Play Ball cards.  Looking back, like any lost love, it was worth it, even though almost all of those cards I had are now gone. 

Last but certainly not least is this page of 1999 SP Signature Edition autographs.  At the same time I went through my vintage Play Ball phase, I also became enamored of this set.  It was brand new at the time and, being an autograph-in-every-pack type product, it was very expensive.  I probably bought the equivalent of a case of this stuff.  I would sell the really good hits to fund my purchase of more packs and boxes; it was a vicious cycle.  And while I pulled a lot of the high end cards, I never did get my white whale.  I don't own a Mike Piazza autograph at all (they are quite rare) and I think this is the nicest one of the few that are out there.  Once every couple of months, I still get (and try to resist) the urge to blow $100-$150 on this Piazza.  Until I do finally give in, I have this page of lesser stars and rookies to keep me satisfied.  You will probably see this page again since I am sure I could easily do a whole post out of it, but for now, showing it here means my 'unused' folder is empty and I have no more "writer's block" crutches to fall back on.