Recently, someone paid $2.8 million for a baseball card.

That's right, someone actually opted for a piece cardboard with a baseball player's picture on it over any number of palatial pieces of real estate.  And that's not even the most absurd part of it.  

Somehow, a true baseball legend has been reduced from icon to oddity with every wild appraisal of that tiny piece of cardboard.  And make no mistake about it, the player on that card was a true icon of the game.  His name, of course, was John Peter "Honus" Wagner, and he may have been one of the greatest players ever to take the field.

He once said, and it's one of my favorite quotes about baseball, that there wasn't much to being a ballplayer...if you're a ballplayer.  And Wagner knew a thing or two about being a ballplayer.  The man they called "The Flying Dutchman" was an exceptional combination of power, speed and defensive quickness in measures few had ever seen before and, some might argue, have rarely been seen since.  In 21 big league seasons, Wagner collected 3,415 hits (still good for 8th place All-time), stole 722 bases (still 10th All-time), and won 8 batting titles (tied with Tony Gwynn for most ever by an NL hitter), despite not looking the part at all.  Brawny and bold-legged with impossibly long arms, he appeared to have no grace whatsoever, yet once he took the field his agility looked effortless.  Perhaps, he was right all along.  There wasn't much to it for him...because he was most definitely a ballplayer, and a great one at that.  

With Wagner leading the way, the Pittsburgh Pirates captured four pennants and a World Series title.  In Pittsburgh's World Series triumph in 1909, Wagner squared off against Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers and outplayed Cobb, hitting .333 with 6 steals to Cobb's .231 average and 2 steals.  And the Pirates took the Series in seven.  

And Wagner was the antithesis of Cobb in lot of ways.  Where Cobb was mostly disliked and avoided by teammates and opponents alike, the easy-going Wagner was admired by his peers.  While Cobb took a twisted sort of pride in his open racism, Wagner considered a comparison of equivalent baseball skills to Negro League star John Henry "Pop" Lloyd a compliment.  Cobb raged while playing the game; Wagner played with the ease and demeanor of someone relaxing in his favorite chair.  However, both achieved a level of greatness and proficiency in the sport that few others can claim.  It's just that Wagner seemed to enjoy that journey.  Cobb, by most accounts, did not.

Though, that's how the Dutchman appeared to take life, with an ease and grace that belied his exceptional skill on a ballfield.  Perhaps, he saw baseball merely as a diversion, a reprieve from the coal mines and steel mills of his hometown of Chartiers in Western Pennsylvania.  Whatever the reason, his ability on a baseball diamond was as natural as the grass and dirt on which he played.  There was something organic about his game, something innate and symbiotic.  How else could one explain how he was able to play at least 50 games at every position on the field except pitcher and catcher during his career and handle the defensive chores at each with as much skill as nearly all of his contemporaries?  Speaking of pitching, he did throw 8 1/3 innings in his MLB career without yielding an earned run, almost as if to say, "Yeah, I can do that, too."

Yet, Honus Wagner - the Flying Dutchman, one of the first five men ever inducted into the Hall of Fame, beloved Pittsburgh Pirate icon - is now mostly known for the absurd price of a baseball card.  

However, Wagner likely wouldn't understand what all of the fuss was about.  After all, to him, there wasn't much to what he did in etching one of the great careers in the game.  Though, to the rest of us, there was a whole lot to it.  In fact, most of us can hardly fathom what the view must have been like from that pinnacle.  I'd imagine it was pretty spectacular, certainly much more so than the flat sound of an auctioneer's gavel.  

So, if you hear Honus Wagner's name, think of the ballplayer first and the circus surrounding his baseball card second.  If anything, one of the game's true legends deserves at least that much.  Even if he didn't think so.

Stats:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/wagneho01.shtml

Other:

http://www.mlb.com/mlb/history/mlb_negro_leagues_profile.jsp?player=lloyd_john

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-wagnercard