juan,

sounds crazy. who knows what to make of it. i've encountered less than a handful of jerseys that i simply couldn't figure out. i guess all you can do in such a situation is walk away and let someone else deal with the mess.

i'll make a general comment though without any sort of inference to arod or any specific person. part of me can well imagine the sorts of "associates" that someone making 25 million a year will attract. some ballplayers who strike it rich have come from meager backgrounds, especially those from some of the island nations. everyone remembers pedro talking about how "15 years ago, [he] was sitting under a mango tree without 50 cents to pay for a bus". all of a sudden some of these guys are sitting on 20 or 25 million and they're still surrounded by the same friends they had as youths. it's gotta be a little difficult in some situations to watch your acquaintance make that sort of money while you're wondering how to pay the electric bill. money does funny things to some people. all of a sudden some of these guys are seeing that people will pay thousands in cash for jerseys and there's an endless supply of product. all you've got to do is call up majestic, place an order, and watch 3 boxes of jerseys show up in a couple of days. is it hard to imagine some of them are cutting corners? maybe some of them have been cut loose from the entourage and are taking matters into their own hands? it's not like they know anything about game-issued vs game used.

as we speak, asi has an ortiz jersey on ebay that they say was "sourced from one of ortiz's friends". that's some business those guys have.

rudy.