
Les Rohr
Reggie Jackson
Terry Hughes
Peter Broberg
J.R. Richard
Steve Dunning
Jay Franklin
Rick Manning
John Stearns
Tommy Boggs
Mike Lentz
Pat Underwood
Bill Gullickson
Lloyd Moseby
Tim Leary (the former Expo reliever, not the LSD guy)
Garry Harris (no relation)
Joe Carter
Augie Schmidt
Kurt Stillwell
Billy Swift
Will Clark
Greg Swindell
Mark Merchant
Mark Lewis
Tyler Houston
Tony Clark
Mike Kelly
Paul Shuey
Darren Dreifort
Ben Grieve
Ben Davis
Travis Lee
J.D. Drew
Mark Mulder
Josh Beckett
Adam Johnson
Mark Prior
B.J. Upton
Rickie Weeks
Justin Verlander
I'll give you a few seconds to figure it out.
dum-dee-dum-dee-dum
la-la-la-la-la
Give up? If you haven't figured it out, or haven't looked at the title of this entry, all the players on the list were the second player selected overall in Major League Baseball's
Looking at the list begs the question: How many of these guys are either in the Hall of Fame, or are on pace towards enshrinement? Or, to put it in Hobby terms, how many of these player's rookie cards will ever be worth anything?

Jackson, Carter, Clark, Richard, "That J.D. Guy," Mulder, Beckett, and Prior are about it. In over forty years worth of drafts, only eight #2 picks have gone on to have good-to-great Major League careers -- seven if you subtract J.R. Richards' stroke-interrupted career -- and whose rookie cards are not commons box material. 8-for-36 (excluding the four most recent #2 picks). That's barely above the Mendoza Line (8/36 = .222).
Which brings us to Olbermann. KO has got to be thinking to himself that Gordon has the potential to have a career on par with Reggie Jackson's. How else do you explain his buying spree of Alex Gordon Topps cards? (And no, I'm not buying the "I need it to fill out my set" bull crap. We know what you're up to Keith.)
Twenty-five years from now, if Alex Gordon puts up career stats comparible to Reggie Jackson's and winds up on the podium giving his acceptance speech at Cooperstown -- or at the very least, posts career numbers similar to Joe Carter's -- then Olbermann has all but cornered the market our generation's T-206 Honus Wagner. Let me repeat that: Keith Olbermann may have already cornered the market on the next T-206 Wagner. Can you imagine what the BGS 9.5 Gordon that Olbermann just paid $7500 for, or the un-opened rack pack with a Gordon clearly visible he paid $5900 for will be worth then? And am I the only one in The Hobby that is seeing the significance of this?

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