2007 Upper Deck First Edition Baseball Trading Cards

36 Packs with 10 Packs Per Box. Collect All 300-Cards of 2007's First Upper Deck Set! Look For Unique Insert Cards, Falling One Per Pack, on average! Find rare 1 of 1 Printing Plates! Pull Tomorrows Superstars with First Pitch Foundation Cards! The first RCs of 2007.
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With all of the controversy surrounding Roger Clemens and his high-profile steroid case, I got to thinking about how scandals can affect athletes' chances of making it into their respective Halls of Fame. Take for instance a player like Pete Rose. He has been banned from the Hall of Fame for life. And for what? Betting on baseball as a player. Now, that sounds like a pretty bad thing, right? Well, I don't know about that. Betting on the other team and then taking a dive is one thing and is in clear violation of the unspoken moral rules in baseball. But, Rose didn't do that. Most of the time he didn't even bet on the Reds. And when he did, he bet that they would win. So, obviously he wasn't taking a dive or cheating to make some quick cash. Rather, he was supremely confident that his team would win. I do not see the wrong in that.

Now, juxtapose Pete's situation with that of Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. It has been proven that Barry Bonds did, in fact, take steroids to enhance his performance. He has not been punished, though, because no one has proven that he knowingly took steroids. But the reality of situation is that Bonds had illegal help getting to where he is today. Ask yourself whether or not Bonds will be inducted into the Hall of Fame one day. The answer is that he most likely will. Does that seem fair? Nope. Furthermore, although Bonds has faced a lot of scrutiny from the media, the league and from once adoring fans, he has not been completely cut off from the game like Rose was - and all without cheating or having some kind of outside help to bolster his game.

Roger Clemens is in a similar situation as Bonds. Though conclusive evidence has yet to surface regarding the Clemens affair, Roger has already faced the ever present gossip that has primarily centered around how this incident will affect his bid for the Hall of Fame. If we go by what the analysts and bloggers are saying, Roger Clemens may face a little bit of a tarnished reputation, but will in no way be precluded from the Hall of Fame. And obviously he has not been cut off for the baseball world as he is still pitching for the Yankees.

The banning of Pete Rose just seems a bit much in my eyes. Here is a player who played his heart out, game in and game out. Yes, he made a mistake in betting on baseball and on his team in particular. But when it came to the actual games, he never took a dive or threw a game. He always played to the best of his ability. He was the prototypical competitor. Compared to Bonds who did take steroids and Clemens who may or may not have taken steroids, Pete Rose seems like he is a lot more deserving of the Baseball Hall of Fame than either one of them.

Nishan Wilde is VP of Sales at RobbinsSports.com, an online resource for Baseball Uniforms, Portable Scoreboards and Basketball Uniforms.

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Fantasy football can fulfill your gaming and coaching fantasies without you having to break a sweat (unless you count that finger workout you have get with your computer mouse). Using statistics of real life players, along with virtual representations of these real life players, fantasy football is all about winning the game online and strategizing the draft by knowing players capabilities early on.

Just as in the real world, there are the big leagues and the little leagues, the pro leagues and the amateur leagues, the good leagues and the bad ones. You create your leagues in fantasy football, and you find your own players. You just need to know exactly how the fantasy football world works, and how you can use it to your advantage.

Your Run-of-the-Mill Leagues

First, you have to be part of a league. There are different kinds of leagues in fantasy football, with each of them comprising as few as eight, and as many as fourteen teams each. There are also three major leagues. The redraft league begins with a clean slate: that is, each owner has no players at the start of the season, and thus enlists a fantasy team to play for him or her. The keeper league is for owners with a little more experience, where the owner keeps a few players from the last season, depending on who played best and who might play well in the future.

The dynasty league is for advanced players who already have enough experience to predict player performance. In the dynasty league, owners can keep as many players as they wish from their last season, and draft rookies into a team. Drafts can happen via the serpentine method, where each player is called out to join a team; or through an auction, where owners put their bargaining powers to the test.

The salary cap leagues are part of the dynasty league type, but this time, they add the salary cap, which makes the play even more realistic. In salary cap leagues, players not only posses statistics and play integrity; they also have salaries. There is a maximum total of salaries that each team can have, and this salary cap can be carried over into the fantasy football dynasty league. This is an added challenge for owners, who want to spend a lot on good players, but who need resources for training as well.

Knowing which players to keep and which ones to trade can be complicated by the fact that some leagues also allow trading within the season. There are no real rules on how to trade and who to trade, although an important rule to follow is not to dump good players on another team forcing the other team to win. Trading can usually still happen about a third into the season, but all trades are closed after.

The New, Emerging Leagues

There are actually new leagues coming out of the fantasy football arena. The familiar survivor pool wagering style in the NFL has carried over into online football games. Offline, a member of a pool can pick a team to win every week. The team can be picked only once the entire year. Online, fantasy leagues can also allow their owners to draft new teams every week, with seven players added fresh, and with every player of the seven available for only a week out of every play year. This can pose yet another challenge for owners, as they have to match their players perfectly every time and think ahead (as well as on their toes!).

Simulation football is also gaining popularity. In old fantasy football leagues, touchdowns and passes and their like are counted, but no game actually occurs that the participants can see. In simulation football, however, a computer can actually simulate the games with players, instead of relying on statistics and offline players.

So, are you ready to get into the big fantasy football leagues? All you need is some Internet savvy, as well as some free time on your hands. Look for fantasy football sites online that you can work with and fit into your schedule. Read the rules and regulations carefully, and see that you don't break any, especially as they pertain to behavior and league creation. Lastly, play well and enjoy the game!

Regine Hehn owns and operates http://www.fun-fantasy-football.com Fun With Fantasy Football