[MattyC]

Love him or hate him, he's part of the game's history. If one collected anywhere during his playing days, the images-- the cards themselves-- are iconic and take you back to youth. Whether his cards go up or down in monetary value, I'll leave that to the flippers, investors, and clairvoyants.

I remember the fanfare around his pursuit of Cobb, and as a boy who got into cards in 1986, that Topps Rose Subset is such a vivid memory now. The cards depicted four at a time in that subset seemed ancient to a ten year old.

If one collects to have his collection tell the story of the game, as well as to be something of a time portal, Rose cards will always be desired pieces for the collection. Same as Shoeless and other stained names whose on field achievements electrified at the time.

A fall from grace makes for as much of an entertaining story, albeit a tragic one, as does a tale with an inspirational, upbeat tone. Both can be useful to share with our kids as well-- cautionary figures and role models of work ethic, class, humanity, and courage (like Gehrig, Clemente, or Mattingly) are both valuable.

What I also like about early cards of tragic figures-- Shoeless, even Mantle, Doc and Darryl, Bonds-- is that many of these men had such prodigious talent, and early pictures of them, at the dawn of their careers, make us remember there are always multiple paths we can choose in life. Early cards of these players make me pause and wonder what could have been.