The presence of performance enhancing drugs will always be center stage as long as players can still use without facing their punishments. Because these guys are as rich as they are, its possible they could use and take drugs that would never be detected by current testing. This might lead to a war on PEDs which was as unsuccessful as the war on drugs.
At no point over the last few years has this situation been more in the public eye than now. With no inductees into the HOF for baseball, and Lance Armstrong coming clean on Oprah during tomorrow’s show, we are facing some dark times. That being said, does a performance enhancing drug admission really make you as taboo in the hobby as you are in consideration for your sport. The answer may surprise you.
Lance Armstrong Signed Card – PSA DNA Slabbed
2005 Bowman’s Best Barry Bonds / Alex Rodriguez Dual Auto
2006 Allen and Ginter Barry Bonds Cabinet Auto /10
1996 Leaf Signature Roger Clemens Auto
2002 Ultimate Collection Mark McGwire Auto
Barry Bonds is arguably the best baseball player to ever play the game, but he will always have an asterisk next to his name. Same with Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire. Lance Armstrong is the greatest professional in his sport ever, as were some of the other big names. Bottom line is, they are not devalued to the point where their autographs are cheap.
The only person who has REALLY felt the boom is Alex Rodriguez, as his performance has been under a microscope since his admission. His autographs have not only dropped in quantity, but in value to the point where they no longer break the 100 dollar mark any more. McGwire, Bonds, and Clemens are all still highly collected and in most cases valuable. None of their values should surprise you as much as one player – Jose Canseco, lord of the juicers.
Canseco has earned his post-career fame through his admission of guilt, as well as his implication of other players in the scandals during the 1990s. Even though he didnt have the numbers that some people have had (like A-Rod), his value suggests that he did. This is about as surprising as it gets. People still seemingly love to collect Canseco because of his steroid use
, not despite it. That shocks me.
If this is the case in the hobby, is it any surprise that it is mirrored in public opinion? I guess not.
Great post, as a Canseco collector im well aware of how high his cards can go for. I was shocked to see the bonds sales though. I still think there is a place in the hall for some of these players but it doesn’t look like sports writers are quite there yet.