The Ruth Effect

As we saw today, when people see Babe Ruth, they go fucking banana sandwich. Ruth is the most valuable player there is in this hobby, and whenever given the chance, he will be exploited for that reason. See, when Ruth is on a card that contains any type of relic - even if it is not game used - the card's value skyrockets. Obviously, Ruth cut sigs are the top of the mountain, despite being the least rare of many of that era's players.

Combine a Ruth Sig, a Ruth Relic or two, with Lou Gherig's stuff, and all of a sudden you have the approval of 95% of the hobby. The problem is that we should be voicing our opinions in opposition to horrid designs as well as cards that focus on stuffing the most possible crap into a card, that a second connected card is required.

When you talk about the Ruth effect, you also have to refer to collectors like some of the people who posted on the Triple Turds thread over on FCB. In addition to the few of us who told it like it is, there were just as many people who drool over the ugliest cards, as long as Ruth or someone similar graces the front. In fact, 08 Triple Turds cards were submitted as rebuttles to my onslaught against the product, ONLY because they had Ruth Relics in them. Fugly designs? Who fucking cares when you get six fucking bat relics that spell out "714 HRS," right? No one seems to care that the blurb on the back says they are not necessarily from any season or game, they just care that they have as many relics as possible. Fuck, I cant even call them GU's because of this. Topps has us referring to them as "relics" now.

Listen, I know I have put way too much coverage into the worst set so far this year, but sometimes you have to get rid of that vomit taste in your mouth. So dont fucking tell me that just because someone thought to combine Ruth and Gherig, I should sing the praises of the new "card of the year." It doesnt work like that for me.

I dont care about anything if it looks like poop, and these cuts, embedded in blue fucking rainbow foilboard will look like a toilet after a chipotle challenge. The fact that its just some cut out paper that happens to be numbered 1/1 by the company who ruined the best cards you can pull, does NOT mean you should break the golden rule. That also means that just because Topps can find a way to cram 24 hard to read windows onto a card, does NOT give justifacation for you to break the rule if you subscribe to it.

Stop congratulating and praising shotty work, dont let the Ruth Effect overtake you. It sets a bad precedent for everyone.