I don't know how many of my readers actually stayed up last night for Game 4 of the West Finals, but the Lakers took a 3-1 lead in the series. They have to win one of the next three games, including two at home in order to advance to the finals. The reason I'm blogging about this is because if you watched the end, you saw a bunch of blown calls at the end. I'm criticize referees a lot as a fan and firmly believe the refs are the biggest reason why home teams are nearly invincible this season in the playoffs, but I've never seen that many blown calls right at the end.

Now, if you read my blog, you know that I'm a Lamar Odom fan and cheering for whoever he's playing for. I even had to cheer for the Clippers for four years. And yes, I think the final play of the game probably should have been a foul and sent Brent Barry to the line, but Barry did one of the worst jobs in NBA history at selling the foul. He also traveled before the contact so maybe that's why they didn't give him the call. Here's the clip of his feet moving all over just in case you don't believe me.

But the game should have never reached that point. First, Odom came up with an incredible block on a Tony Parker layup with about 30 seconds left and the refs called goaltending. You can see very clearly in this clip that the block was clean and Odom got it before it hit the backboard. You can also see the ball going to a Lakers player so the Spurs would have had to foul.

Then, with around six seconds left, Derek Fisher's shot HIT THE RIM (can't find a clip, but if you see the play, it's pretty obvious it hit the rim), bounced off Robert Horry's leg and out of bounce. The result should have been a reset of the 24-second shot clock and the Spurs again forced to foul. Instead, the refs missed it (although they had a full timout to review it), which left the Lakers two seconds on the shot clock and Kobe was forced to throw up an impossible fallaway instead of getting fouled and icing the game at the line. Three huge blown calls in the last 30 seconds. The Lakers get a chance to finish them off Thursday night at home.

In other news, a Goodwin & Co. auction ends tomorrow night. I don't have the energy to mention too much, but it has one of the coolest wire photos I've ever seen. The photo features Shoeless Joe Jackson holding up two trophies and it's currently up to $1,650.

There's been a very interesting thread on the PSA message boards recently so I thought I'd mention it here and get some more opinions. A collector purchased a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle that was colored/altered a long time ago and has asked for advice from the board members on what they would do with it. Here's a link to the thread: Thread.

The options appear to be: 1) Keep it as is (the collector is trying to complete a low-grade 1952 Topps set), 2) Have it restored. If it were restored, the card would then be sold and hopefully finance another low-grade Mantle along with a bunch of other singles to help complete the set.

As far as grading is concerned, PSA would grade it as "Authentic". Whether it was restored at this point or not does not influence that. The card is authentic, but has obviously been altered so it would never get a numberical grade. There is a very strong market for altered cards, especially one of this value since most collectors could never even consider owning a nice 1952 Mantle unless it were restored. Here's a couple of examples of recent altered versions of this card: Example 1, Example 2.

The board suggested several restoration experts, but the catch is you won't find one that will guarantee their work. This is completely fair since they never know completely what they are getting into and you shop according to their reputation. But looking at the closing prices of the restored cards above ($6,500 and $7,500 if you didn't click on the links above), it's worth the trouble.

My take on it: The only decision I would be making is which restoration expert to send it to. Since I talked to the owner of this card over the weekend and know what he paid for it, I'm willing to bet the cost of the card and cost of restoration aren't going to come close to the potential price once it's done. There's also no ethical issue involved here either since the only thing a collector could do with a card like this to make sure nobody ever tried to deceive anyone with it in the future would be to burn it immediately. And I don't think that's going to happen.

Did you notice the Julius Erving jersey that sold in Grey Flannel last week? Wow. It finished at $188,321, which is the highest price I've seen a basketball jersey sell for. It was directly linked to the 1976 NBA All-Star Game and Slam Dunk Contest and included the entire uniform. It also arrived with a letter of authenticity from the ballboy, as well as video and photo matching.

In the same auction, a late 1960s Oscar Robertson Cincinnati Royals game-used and autographed road jersey sold for $66,734, a 1984-85 Michael Jordan rookie Bulls home jersey (with a team LOA included) sold for $55,152 and a 1973-74 Pete Maravich Atlanta Hawks game-used home jersey with a team LOA hit $36,716.

Where do these rank in the pecking order for all-time basketball jerseys? The highest price I have seen before this was in a Sept. 2006 Grey Flannel sale with a circa 1973-74 Erving Nets home jersey selling for $141,927, followed by a 1947-48 George Mikan Lakers home jersey selling for $110,400 in Sept. 2007, also in Grey Flannel.

Beyond that, most of the next ranking jerseys come from the Sotheby's with SCP Auctions sale I attended in NYC last June. That sale included a 1969-70 Willis Reed Knicks home jersey from that historic Final Game of the Championship where he wasn't supposed to play, but did. It sold for $90,000. Also in that sale, a 1957-58 Wilt Chamberlain Kansas Jayhawks home jersey from Chamberlain's estate finished at $72,000, with a 1967 Robertson Royals home uniform ($66,000), Mikan 1947-48 Lakers road jersey ($60,000) and a 1967-68 Bill Russell Celtics home jersey ($60,000) also in that sale. It should also be noted that a 1984 Jordan Bulls road uniform sold for $70,500 in Robert Edward Auctions' 2007 sale.

I'm not much of a racing fan, but I'm a really like to collect cool, signed baseballs. Oddly enough, those two worlds collide in Press Pass Premium Racing, which hit at the end of April.

Press Pass is offering redemptions for team-signed OML baseballs from NASCAR's top drivers and team. The list is highlighed by Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Roush-Fenway Racing.

“I would venture to say that there aren’t too many NASCAR fans, or baseball fans for that matter, that have a baseball signed by Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson,” said Tom Farrell, Director of Marketing for Press Pass.

Premium also includes a baseball-themed subset, called Opening Day, featuring top drivers in baseball poses, with bats and gloves. The same can be said for the packaging of the product.

“When we had our annual photo shoot in Daytona this year, we handed the drivers a glove or a bat, and their eyes lit up.  It was a natural fit, and I think they enjoyed being ball players for a few minutes” Farrell said.

It's not often that you see one sport's products involve another sport, but this opens the door for that long-awaiting basketball-tennis release or maybe a football-figure skating subset. Joking aside, I thought it was pretty cool and done very well. I'm also interested to see what collectors are willing to pay for the signed baseballs. My guess is racing fans are going to love this.

I'm a huge basketball fan and I'm very into the playoffs at this time of year. I'm also cheering for the Lakers since my favorite player is Lamar Odom and if you know me at all, you already knew that tidbit of information. I simply shake my head in disbelief every time I read a new headline that "despite back injury, Kobe will play in Game 5." C'mon, did anyone on the planet actually think he'd miss Game 5? The series is tied 2-2. I'm not a huge Kobe fan either way, but the one thing you know about him is he could have a compound fracture with his femur sticking out and he'd still try to suit up tonight. Hopefully, he's good enough to help them win and Odom and Pau Gasol come up with big games because I really don't like the Jazz.

Is it possible to impress us more than David West and Chris Paul have in the Hornets/Spurs series? The playoff-tested, defending champs were supposed to knock the young Hornets out, but they continue to blow out the Spurs in the second half when they are in their own building. Paul is incredible every game, but West was an animal last night and just couldn't miss. I still expect it to go to Game 7 and I still expect the Spurs to win, but I'll be cheering for the Hornets.

The East is wide open too. We knew the Pistons would beat the Magic, but I didn't think it would be that easy once Chauncey Billups got hurt. Rodney Stuckey is going to be really good.

I'm also excited for Game 5 in the Celtics/Cavs series. The Celtics are tough to figure out since they play one way at home and completely different on the road and they are being coached differently with different rotations than they used in the regular season. Kevin Garnett has to step up because we know LeBron will. I'm cheering for the Celtics although I'm really enjoying watching Ray Allen look like a mediocre role player.

Every year, Upper Deck, Donruss and Topps give collectors some very cool freebies at the Hawaii Trade Conference, which was held in Phoenix this year. I wrote about what was given away in a recent blog and promised I'd update some of the values after more items hit the market.

While Topps didn't give anything away during its Meet the Industry segment, the Allen & Ginter cards given away at the Topps retailer party are arguably the hottest items from the conference. Remember, this set features Hall of Famers and the cards are sequentially numbered to just 30. A Walter Johnson sold for $132.50, while a Ty Cobb sold for $70, with Thurman Munson, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, Jackie Robinson, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Tris Speaker, Mel Ott and George Sisler and Rogers Hornsby and Roy Campanella all selling in the $40-$50 range. The only semi-duds from the set appear to be Pee Wee Reese and Johnny Mize and they are selling for $30. Not bad for something that was given out as a three-card pack just for showing up.

Donruss' Black Boxes are always one of the most sought-after items at the conference and this year is no different. The boxes have seven cards, all of which are 1-of-1 printing plates, with two autographs per box. Even several weeks after the conference, only roughly 20 of these appear in the closed auctions on eBay, which tells us how tough they are to get sealed. The bust was strong enough that most people opened their boxes to see what autographs were inside so this will be a scarce sealed box in the future. Boxes started out right around the $200 level and have settled slightly to around $175. I would expect these prices could rise a little in the near future since there will be very few available (only six currently listed in the active items). There haven't been a lot of the signed printing plates listed individually, but a Tony Romo sold for $218 a week ago.

Upper Deck gave away a ton of sealed boxes at its Retailer Reception, but that's impossible to track since they are identical to other wax boxes. The Meet the Industry boxes included three cards, including a multi–signed card in the middle. The highest signed card I've seen was a Carl Yastrzemski/Bobby Orr single, which sold for $169. There are ton of very cool combinations with these and many are selling in the $80-$100 range, including Peyton Manning/Danny Granger, Ken Griffey Jr./Chad Johnson and Kevin Durant/Felix Hernandez. I've also seen a Patrick Kane/Joakim Noah and a Al Horford/Mark Teixeira/Kovalchuk triple autograph, which both sold in the $60 range.