Bill Syken, who blogs for Sports Illustrated‘s Web site, discusses The Card: 
Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History’s Most Desired Baseball Card. a fascinating and disturbing look at the decline of the baseball card industry, by Michael O’Keefe and Teri Thompson. For those of us of a “certain age,” card collecting was a fun hobby, not an investment opportunity.
I started collecting in earnest in 1967, when a pack of cards was only a nickel and most of the players sported crew cuts. Of particular interest were the inserts that came with the regular cards. One year it was mini-posters; another it was peel-and-stick team logos. And while I can’t use the excuse that my mother threw out my collection, they did get lost somewhere along the way.
I no longer have most of the cards. In their stead is one of my most treasured books is the Topps Baseball Cards: The Complete Collection, a 35 Year History 1951-1985. (I dislike the overuse of the word “complete” in a title, unless it’s something that will absolutely not be added to, such as The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Obviously, Topps has continued to print cards, rendering the use of the word incorrect and misleading.) Even now, it’s a source of nostalgia to look through the old cardboards.
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It’s bad enough having to have books by marginal and not-so marginal players, but to have their “associates” feel the necessity to tell their own story? Jose Canseco’s wife, Jessica, writes her answer to his tell-all Juiced with Juicy: which TheBookStandard.com wesbite calls a “concoction of sex, drugs and money.”
Confessions of a Former Baseball Wife,
I have little patience for hangers-on (though I hate using that term when speaking of someone’s spouse, although in the case of some celebrity unions it seems apt enough) who try to make a buck off their association with celebrities:
But Jessica Canseco sees her story as one of transformation. So transformative, in fact, that the innocent little country girl with the generous endowments would grow up to be this month’s Playboy covergirl, as sport-sexy on the cover as she can be…
The article also includes an interview with Jessica. Asked how her family reacted to the book, she replied:
My family is very small and very supportive. It’s a pretty amazing story, and shocking, and they’re fine about it.
Especially the parts about her three-somes, no doubt.
This example of several exchanges in the brief interview, makes me wonder if Mrs. Canseco ever read a book, let alone wrote this one herself.
Q: In this month’s issue of Playboy, you appear in Oakland A’s gear [the team for which Canseco helped take to the World Series in 1988 and again in 1989]. Where did that idea come from?
A: Just because that’s how people know Jose—from the A’s. That was their idea. It’s pretty clever, I guess.
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Other items of note:
An article on Jonathan Eig’s latest biography on Jackie Robinson‘s Opening Day from the Boston Herald Web site.
Peter Golenbock’s 7 finally gets reviewed by The New York Times.
is available on Amazon.com,
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