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Originally Posted by steve B
The cards do seem to lose a lot of value if the player turns out to be that bad. Oddly some stuff that's also bad but more common mostly gets a pass.
I think the market for sports cards is different enough from the market for memorabilia from other lousy people that there's not much overlap. The fascination with Capone and maybe some others is that they got where they did by being pretty bad people. So I think there's a bit of fascination with their badness and luck at not getting taken out by another pretty bad person on their way to the top. (Maybe why Dexter was a popular show?)
But sports figures are generally fascinating because of amazing natural talent and often a lot of hard work and overcoming something to get to where they're admired for their talent. When they prove to be bad people who just happened to get lucky in the DNA lottery we're all disappointed more than we'd be at someone like Capone (who didn't seem to get much of anything in the DNA lottery)
Interesting story that's a bit of crossover. I met someone who interviewed a lot of the six day bike racers from the 30's, and he said they had a love/hate relationship with Capone. He was a huge cycling fan, and would show up to the Chicago six days after his clubs closed. Of course, there were hardly any fans in the early morning hours so the riders usually took that as riding but not racing downtime. Then Capone would show up. And he wanted to see racing. And nobody wanted to disappoint him. So they'd race, and if they slowed down he'd put up prizes for sprints. Like hundreds of dollars every few laps. So they hated that he wouldn't just let them loaf and rest, but loved the prize money. They also arranged that the prizes were "won" somewhat evenly. They assumed Capone knew but was ok with the rigged sprints as long as the show looked real.
Steve B
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I think your thoughts are right on. It's like, "you were a real lucky sob and I only wish I had the opportunity you did to be a star athlete . . ." And you blew it.
And that's a great story.