A Good Name Still Outweighs A Quick Buck

I’ve never been a memorabilia aficionado. The few items I have stashed away over the years have represented cherished times - a program from a particularly thrilling Rose Bowl, a press pass from an historic evening of Lakers basketball, an unused ticket from the centennial U.S. Open.

I have a friend named Bill who has more than just a handful of artifacts. He could open a museum. Compared to him, pack rats are spendthrifts. I kid him often that his sole intent for collecting sports and rock’n’roll souvenirs is one day to hold the first million-dollar garage sale.

This, though, is said in jest, because I know the real reason he collects: He just loves all that stuff. It means something to him. Each article represents an enjoyable moment. I cannot think of one piece in his personal warehouse that he has sold for money, or has even contemplated selling.

Perhaps because of my selective instincts when it comes to my modest cache, and perhaps because I know how much Bill’s treasure trove means to him, I have always had a difficult time tolerating the widespread popularity of card shows.

I would think that, for the autograph hound with integrity, part of the excitement of gaining a John Hancock and holding it as a keepsake would be the actual challenge of acquiring it. Hanging out around the dugout when a particular team swings through town. Waving a pen and paper as a player is heading to the bus. Or best of all, just being at the right place at the right time when your hero unexpectedly steps out of a doorway and into your gawking presence.

What I find distasteful is lining up kids and adults for hours at a card show in which some overpaid athlete is seated with pen in hand, apathetically scribbling card after card while not making eye contact. At $10 to $100 a pop, it certainly is a lucrative endeavor for the athlete, his agent and the card-show promoter. But it is a lousy way to build any kind of heartfelt relationship between fans and athletes. And it might account for why people like Jack McDowell are heckled mercilessly when they perform poorly, and why McDowell feels the need to respond in kind.

I bring this up because of Duke Snider and Willie McCovey. It isn’t as though I feel they are horrible men deserving of our derision. Maybe it’s just the opposite: This idea that everything in sports has to be marketed, including a person’s signature, creates a path to greater and greater greed for more and more people - even good people.

I suppose some would say that Snider and McCovey weren’t busted for signing autographs for money. They were brought up on charges stemming from tax evasion for not reporting that income.

But doing card shows is not the most honorable way to make a living after one’s career, or to supplement one’s income during it. It cheapens the value of that person’s identity. It causes the athlete to think of his fan base in terms of how much cash he can make off it. It creates a situation in which an athlete will refuse to sign autographs at the park because, he figures, why should I give away something for free when I can make $10 a head at the next card convention?

Card shows also pose a trap, which Snider and McCovey fell into.

They can get paid in cash. Under the table. No one needs to know. A quick score. Easy money.

Except the feds aren’t stupid. Such high-profile events could not go for long without inviting governmental scrutiny. Whether or not what Snider and McCovey were doing was unseemly is secondary to the IRS to whether it was illegal.

So it isn’t enough that this era of modern ballplayer is looked upon with jaundiced eyes by the sporting public. Now the halcyon days are being soiled as well. Now people who were Dodgers and Giants fans, who remember Snider’s power and grace and McCovey’s clout, have to see them ensnared in the same dragnet that has brought dishonor to Darryl Strawberry. What a mess. Snider and McCovey in trouble with the law, and it all started because they signed autographs for money.

Who’s next? What other names will come out of this to shatter our myths? What current and former superstars will be seen trotting in suit and tie, with eyes cast downward, out of a courthouse and just ahead of a pack of reporters?

Just because the money is there doesn’t mean they have to take it. It would be nice if athletes realized that their names are more valuable than their signatures.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Michael Ventre Los Angeles Daily News