Strasburg Madness, Full Update Tonight

Yesterday I wrote about the Stephen Strasburg 1/1 Autographed Rookie Card selling on eBay for about the price of a decent car. Well the stakes have been raised.

That is not a joke. The card has seriously been bid up over $100,000. And it still has five days left. This is getting insane quickly.

Full update on this and other things tonight. Just wanted to pass along the craziness

The Return of Cookie Monster, Heath Miller Needs a Bodyguard

Matt Cooke has just signed a three year deal worth about $2 million per year (According to the Post-Gazette, a cap hit of $1.8 million/year) to stay with the Pens. Cooke, who had a career high in goals last year, potentially took a bit of a hometown discount, as his value would have likely been higher on the open market after July 1. The decision is not that surprising either way. Shero and the Pens needed Cooke’s grittiness and penalty killing ability, and Cooke, a player that has done his fair share of bouncing from team to team, has settled with his family in Pittsburgh, and wanted very much to stay. Pens faithful, rejoice!

Finally some humor arose out of the Ben Roethlisberger saga. Roethlisberger’s football camp for kids has been taken over by Mike Tomlin in the wake of the Roethlisberger accusations, and during a Q and A, Steelers tight end Heath Miller was asked if he too, had a bodyguard.



Miller’s response?

“No, but are you looking to help me out?”

Solid response from a classy human being.

In other crazy news, a Stephen Strasburg rookie card can be all yours!...For the low, low price of $36,000. That’s right, a Stephen Strasburg Bowman 1/1 Rookie Autograph is currently selling on eBay, with the bidding up to over $36K with nearly a week left. I’m a card collector, always have been, always will be, but I could buy a Lexus for that much. Absolutely incredible stuff.

To make this rainy, gray Tuesday a little better, Part 2 of the Pittsburgh Sports-gasm:



It's been 18 years, and I still can't figure out how they left him that open.

Super Mario Golf and the Stephen Strasburg Phenomenon

Mario Lemieux continued his domination of all things sports this past weekend by nailing a hole-in-one at Oakmont Country Club. The guys from The Pensblog will probably make some “66 Buries It” joke that will be funnier than anything I’d come up with.



The big news around Pittsburgh sports tonight truly has very little to do with Pittsburgh sports, and that is the MLB debut of Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg against the Pirates. Strasburg is the most hyped pitching prospect of the last decade (maybe longer), and recently made news by having a rookie card of his sell for over $16,000.

There is an inherent danger in this amount of hype for a youngster: he may believe it. If Strasburg has a level head, which most around him say he does, he’ll simply think of himself as another guy trying to make it in the major leagues. All Strasburg would need to do to gain perspective is to call guys like Ben McDonald and Todd Van Poppel. Guys who were “can’t miss prospects” who, well, missed. It’s no accident that they’re letting him debut against the Pirates, who don’t exactly have the most intimidating lineup.

Tonight will be a very interesting game, and will garner the most viewers of any Pirate game this year. Let’s hope the Buccos can rattle him early and often.



In universal sports news, the World Cup begins on Friday in South Africa, amid much fanfare. I don’t fashion myself as any kind of soccer aficionado, but I do watch the World Cup matches. It’s undoubtedly the biggest sporting event in the world, and its intensity is infectious. It’ll be a lot of fun, and certain to have matches that are just full of drama. Gotta love it.

Go USA.