Good Luck Ducks, Week 4: White on White

Oregon faces their biggest road test in years.

It's back to conference play for the rest of the season as the Ducks head to Beaver Stadium to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions. Oregon played very well in the B1G Championship Game last season when they took down Penn State at a neutral site that was pretty tilted towards the team in white. That was last year's Ducks, however. I'm not sure that any of the games they have played so far this season have done much to prepare them for tonight's battle, as Oregon State served no purpose other than as a punching bag after their opening touchdown. The Northwestern crowd was certainly hostile, but small. Very small, in fact. There will something like nine times the number of people in attendance tonight.

Oregon may be getting their starting running back Noah Whittington back tonight after he missed the past two games with an injury. The Ducks have had carries from 7 different running backs (and a number of non-running backs, of course), but I'd expect them to pair their rotation down to just a few key players in such a huge game. Dante Moore has been excellent, throwing darts all over the field, but we'll see how he reacts to a wild "white out" megacrowd tonight. The odd thing about the whole "white out" concept is that it's generally the opponent that is wearing white.

Penn State has an experienced senior quarterback in Drew Allar, who threw 3 TDs (and two picks) against the Ducks last December. I imagine Allar has had this game circled on his calendar for quite awhile now. (To be fair, do any college students have paper calendars on their walls? Maybe he set a calendar reminder on his phone: "Beat the Ducks today.") While the current college football playoff format affords strong teams a loss or two against another strong team without completely removing said team from consideration, I doubt anyone on either side is thinking about anything other than winning this big game tonight. Well, and maybe the party tonight. Oh, the college parties.

Notes and miscellany:

• There's a good chance I'll be missing a large chunk of the second half of the game as I'm heading down to Providence Park later to watch the Portland Timbers play FC Dallas. I'll try to keep up with things on my phone, but you know how that goes.
• Opponent fun fact: A "nittany lion" isn't a real thing. Penn State's mascot was named after nearby Mount Nittany and the idea that mountain lions once roamed the area, supposedly. Of course, "seahawks" also aren't really a thing. Ducks, though? VERY REAL (and ferocious.)
• Opponent history: Penn State holds a 3-2 edge after their loss in the conference championship last season. The only other meeting in my lifetime happened in the Rose Bowl in 1995, where Gang Green was stymied by Ki-Jana Carter.
• Game time is 4:30 PM PDT on NBC in University Park. Go Ducks!

Free Stuff Friday: Damaged Goods 2025

It's giveaway time!

I have a bunch of cards sitting on my desk that I don't know what to do with. That's where you come in. These cards for the most part all have a flaw, but none are really what I would consider "trashed". A good chunk of these were dime box pickups at card shows over the past year where upon closer examination at home, I saw something that gave me pause about listing it for trade on TCDB. Others came out of the package in the state they're in. Most of these just have a small corner issue, but if you'd like more info about any specific card, let me know. Click an image to embiggen and all that.

[CLAIMED: Palmer, Batista, Fisk, Sutter]

These are free to anyone who is interested. I'm not looking for anything in return. I do love getting cards in the mail, but it's up to you if you'd like to send me something I might be interested in. You can always "pay it forward", as they say. (Do they still say that?) There's no limit to number of cards you can claim. Comment here, or send me an email, or reach out to me on Discord or Bluesky to claim something and I'll take into consideration timestamps and all that. I know that commenting on Blogger platforms can be a bit of a pain these days (seems to only work on Chrome browsers for most folks), so anonymous comments are also fine as long as you identify yourself in a way that allows me to get in touch with you somehow.

[CLAIMED: Alomar/Thomas, Magic, McGwire]

I actually bought an entire blaster of cheesy unlicensed college football cards that had corner damage. Fun.

[CLAIMED: Kaat, Williams, Simms, Komminsk]

[CLAIMED: LaForest, Olajuwon, Here's Bo (x2), Ripken]

The McGwire PowerDeck CD thing is cracked, so don't bother trying to watch it on your 1990's PC.

[CLAIMED: ALL but Holliday]

The Collect-A-Books are all fine if you ask me. I just don't know what a "mint" one actually would look like.

[CLAIMED: Bregman, Stanton, Piazza, Verlander, Castro, Castro, Kluber]

[CLAIMED: Freeman, Jackson, Tudor, Templeton]

[CLAIMED: Ott]

[CLAIMED: Doval, Herr, Delhanty, Rolen]

Who among us doesn't need some Cardinals fingernail stickers?

This is one of those "Super Box" box topper things that are almost impossible to keep in pristine shape because they just chuck them into the box unprotected.

This is a 1985 Topps Super card.

I actually have a bunch more of these that are in great shape if you're looking for a certain one from this 1985 Donruss Action All-Stars set.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 4: No Joy

Ducks and Beavers and point spreads, oh my!

I take no joy in the demise of the Oregon State football program, and while the Big Ten has looked like a good fit for the Ducks, it's kind of ridiculous that this latest round of conference switch-a-roos was all kicked off by the LA schools of the (old) Pac-12. UCLA finds themselves in a similar situation as the Beavers, sputtering and leaking everywhere, while USC is competent but hasn't really been a contender in 20 years. As the saying goes, you can't really put the toothpaste back in the tube here. I always keep an eye on Oregon State games, at least when my team isn't playing, and the rivalry isn't much of a rivalry when the two programs aren't really even competing at the same level. The series, now relegated to the September nonconference window, will take a pause next season for the first time in my lifetime, but there are plans to resume in 2027 for at least six more years.

Oregon was without their starting running back (Noah Whittington) against Northwestern but still dominated the game before a messy final quarter played mostly by the deep bench. Dante Moore threw some more really impressive balls as the excitement continues to grow for the young QB. It was a weird game all in all, played in front of a capacity crowd only about a fifth the size of their home stadium (and a mere drop in the bucket compared to what they'll face next week.) The Ducks committed zero penalties, the first time that has occurred in one of their games in decades -- no one can seem to even agree in exactly how long ago it last happened. The goal today in what should be their final "tune-up" game is to respect their opponent and not look past them to a lingering Penn State brawl just seven days away.

Oregon State has their work cut out for them, of course, but they've already been facing calls for the head coach's... well... head. Transfer QB Maalik Murphy has struggled along with nearly every other cog in the Beaver machine. And without the (horrible) chainsaw sounds buzzing through the PA in Corvallis that always seem to get under Oregon's skin (or at least mine) when they meet on Beaver turf, it could be a challenge just to stay within striking distance at halftime. On the other hand, well, goofy things sometimes happen in college football.

Notes and miscellany: 

• People are talking about the Platypus Trophy again, which is awarded to the winner of the Civil War (though we're not supposed to call it that anymore.) While it's supposed to resemble the places in animal kingdom(?) where Beaver and Duck, uh, meet, it kind of looks like one of those horrors people discover in the deep sea rather than an actual duck-billed platypus.
• Opponent fun fact: OSU was at one time known as Oregon Agricultural College (and later Oregon State Agricultural College to be technical), when the Aggies would commonly clash with those pesky Webfoots in games year after year that no one could watch unless they actually attended them. Is a duck a natural enemy to someone, I don't know... plowing the fields? Want another fun fact? Autzen Stadium is host to Rich Brooks Field, named as such in 1995 when the former Oregon head coach made the jump to the NFL. Brooks is famously a Beaver alum, though. Awkward...
• Opponent history: Oregon holds a decisive 69-49-10 lead in the all-time series and has won the last two meetings.
• Game time is 12:00 PM PDT on the B1G Network in Eugene. Go Ducks!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 3: Bringing the NW to Northwestern

The Fighting Ducks hit Lake Michigan for an early first road test.

Oregon hits the road for the first conference game of the year, after completely obliterating their first FBS opponent last week. Oklahoma State seems to be facing some dark times, but it was a bit of a surprise just how dark things got last Saturday, even though the Cowboys were coming off of a 3-9 season with a freshman backup QB at the helm. It's hard for me to feel completely sorry for a (*checks notes*) Big-12 school, especially from the part of the country that eats and breathes and does other unsavory things to the sport of football, but I was feeling bad for Oklahoma State late in that game, especially their overmatched quarterback.

The Ducks are up against Northwestern today with the Wildcats in a temporary home, in a very small venue with Lake Michigan right in the background. Unfortunately, since this isn't baseball, it doesn't seem likely that any balls will end up in the drink, but I suppose you never know. They once again start the day off as favorites by around four touchdowns, but playing outside of Eugene can always throw a wrench into those expectations. With FOX's "Big Noon Saturday" crew in full effect, it won't be treated like any other game, and certainly the small crowd at full tilt will provide an experience that most Ducks players aren't quite accustomed to. SMU transfer Preston Stone (what a name!) has already racked up seven touchdowns on the young season for Northwestern, so it's fair to expect a lot of balls in the air today.

Oregon's incredibly deep looking roster should be up for the challenge, but it will be interesting to see how all the playing time shakes out as you would figure that touches will be more proportionately distributed among top performers and the season moves along. The Ducks had 10 non-QB players carry the ball last week and 10 different players caught passes (9 in the first half alone if I'm not mistaken), but that kind of distribution isn't expected nor necessarily sustainable. Still, it was fun to watch, and the hope is that the fun can continue on today as Oregon inches closer and closer to the massive game against Penn State later this month.

Notes and miscellany:

• Northwestern, of course, is in the midwestern United States, and I've never in my life mistaken their geography for being located somewhere closer to my territory in the Pacific Northwest. However, outside of vaguely knowing they were a school located in the Midwest and probably not far from one of the Great Lakes, I couldn't have spotted them on a map. Such are the things you need to learn when joining another big conference. I doubt many Big Ten diehards could have pinned the tail on the Eugene donkey at most times in their lives.
• Opponent fun fact: As alluded to, Northwestern is in the process of renovating Ryan Field, their home in Evanston for nearly a century. It honestly looks pretty cool from the project renderings, and they purport to be doing it without taxpayer money.
• Opponent history: Their last meeting was in 1974, before I was born, with the Wildcats taking down the Ducks 14-10 in a season where both schools combined to win a total of 5 games. Yikes.
• Game time is 9:00 AM PDT on FOX in Evanston. Go Ducks!

Cardinals, Heritage and Sometimes Both

 

A late spring trade package with some of the usual suspects and a couple of nice surprises.

Since I don't really do many prearranged trades outside of TCDB anymore, it's always nice to find a surprise bubble mailer in or near my mailbox. Make that doubly so if it's from Night Owl Cards, since we've been sending stuff back and forth from coast to coast for many years now. Right around the end of spring one such package landed in my lap and I'm finally ready to show off some of its contents today.

I won't get into my rant about what Fanatics did to my beloved Topps Heritage again, and I genuinely like some of the colored parallels, but the sheer quantity of them is too much. (If it's negative, everyone is blaming Fanatics now, aren't they?) I'd much rather get one of the traditional inserts or, gods forbid, a short printed base card than a parallel in every pack.

I was excited about Matt Carpenter returning to the team last year in part because I knew it could potentially mean more Matt Carpenter Cardinals cards, and I wasn't totally disappointed. I knew it might be a struggle for him at the plate, but he was deployed sparingly. Lance Lynn also returned to St. Louis to finish his career last year and ended up with more Cards cards, while Tommy Pham's brief reappearance last summer also netted him new Cardinals offerings. I was a bit less excited about Pham.

A former Cardinal who hasn't returned is the power hitting and oft-injured Tyler O'Neill, although he's only in his 8th big league season. He's got time yet. This aqua Donruss Optic parallel from his rookie year is numbered to 299. One of these days I have a huge rant brewing about the whole rookie card thing -- and it's not going to be pretty -- but for now I am just calling everything a "card from his rookie year" and leaving it at that.

Here's big surprise number one: my first ever Stan the Man card from his playing days! And it doesn't even look like it was fished out of a latrine or rolled up to smoke something. There are some visible scratches and a small crease, but it looks really nice to my standards. My scanner did not like the lower border for some reason.

There was a pretty decent pile of Heritage for the set build in the pack. I'll let the Christopher Sanchez SP represent the lot as you've likely seen all of these base cards numerous times by now.

The second nice surprise is this Dakota Hudson Allen & Ginter jersey card from 2020. It's not quite on the same level as the Musial card, of course, but it's not like people are backing up truckloads of these to my house every week.

If you do want to back up a truckload of cards to my house someday, make it full of Ozzie Smith cards, like this 2024 Donruss Optic Blue Velocity parallel. I'll never run out of these kinds of parallels to collect, but I'll also probably never stop wanting them.

Thanks again to Night Owl and everyone who has sent little and big surprises in the mail over the years!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 2: Yo Soy Un Pistolero

The Ducks tangle with their first FBS opponent of the season.

The first Oregon game of the year went about as well as anyone could have hoped for. In stark contrast to the consternation that loomed over the first couple of games in the 2024 season, which of course eventually resulted in the Ducks taking the Big Ten title, last Saturday's win over Montana State was quite the cake walk. Of course (of course!) the Bobcats are an FCS team, but if there was ever a time for an FCS team to strike, it's going to be at the start of a season.

Next up on the docket is an appointment with Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are somewhat of a rarity these days, a team that actually stayed with their conference (Big 12!) amongst so much maneuvering and money grabbing. Another sign of surprising stability is that their head coach (Mike Gundy) has been leading the program for a couple of decades, which is something like several eternities by 2025 standards. They're also coming off of a dreadful 3-9 season, although they started things off this year on a positive note with a win over an FCS program.

That's probably where the similarities end with these two schools. Oregon's Dante Moore era got off to a nice start, with the redshirt sophomore looking pretty impressive, albeit against noticeably inferior competition. Moore seemingly has a million different people to throw to on the field even after some significant injuries to the receiver core along with a couple of big departures due to graduation. Their backfield is so stacked that prized transfer Makhi Hughes barely touched the ball, although in the Dan Lanning era it's always been difficult to evaluate what the team is going to look like in the long run as Lanning seems to treat most of these nonconference games like an NFL preseason.

Notes and miscellany:

• This will be the second time in three days that one of my football teams is facing a Cowboys team. Of course, the rivalry between Oregon and Oklahoma State doesn't really exist (unlike Dallas vs. Philly), but it will always make me recall Dez Bryant (boooo!) and the 2008 Holiday Bowl.
• Opponent fun fact: Oklahoma State's mascot for more than 100 years is Pistol Pete, someone who doesn't have the look of someone you'd want to mess with, even if he's a bit bow-legged.
• Opponent history: Oregon won their only meeting, the aforementioned 2008 Holiday Bowl. I do miss those occasional Pac-12(10) / Big 12 games and I would have guessed that they played the Cowboys more than just the one time.
• Game time is 12:30 PM PDT on CBS in Eugene. Go Ducks!

Still Group Breakin'

Checking out another batch of Cardinals cards from spring's group breaks.

While I'm not participating in card breaks at the level I once was, I still have a regular thing going on with a few low cost breakers. Tonight we'll take a look at some stuff I got earlier this year from the Nachos Grande breaks.

A good chunk of the cards that hit my mailbox this time around were from the then-new Topps Heritage set. As of this writing it looks like I may have finally finished off the non-SP base set, but Topps made it extremely annoying to collect the inserts this time around, getting rid of all of the usual concepts like Flashbacks and New Age Performers, sets that were small enough to complete in a reasonable amount of time. In their place are much larger insert checklists which are not commonly even found in packs. Annoying. They also spammed the whole product with Chrome and color parallels, when in the past one or two of these would suffice.

One of the boxes in these past breaks was something called Historic Autograph Company. It's a 2024 set featuring players from a long bygone era.

I had never heard of these things and they have a strange look to them: glittery and shiny but still trying to look "old" in a way.

They don't even put the player names on the front, but many of these guys are famous enough that you might recognize them anyway.

Speaking of a ridiculous number of parallels, well, that just seems to be Topps in the Fanatics era now. They decided to streamline by significantly cutting down on the number of releases per year but decided to cram even more, ahem, "value" into their core products that they kept around. That's how you get a special Miles Mikolas parallel card adorned with a whole mess of Topps logos.

This 2022 Topps Museum Collection card was a really nice surprise, as you usually don't see high end cards in these breaks. This one is numbered to just 99 copies.

A box of 2004 Bazooka was part of the fun, and among other things I ended up with a chunky red parallel of a Yadi rookie card. Nice!

These 1997 Pacific Prism Gems of the Diamond cards are really not very attractive looking. It's always nice to add another card of The Wizard to my collection, though, especially an older one.

Here's one of those new Topps Heritage inserts. We shall see if I ever track down a second copy of this.

To repeat myself for the billionth time: I miss Topps Total. And I don't mean that on-demand stuff that they put out several years ago. Nobody liked Topps Total because of the design, and that was really the only thing connecting the 2020 era cards with the 2000s product. (This one is a silver parallel.)

Will we see a tribute to the 1991 set in next year's Topps flagship products? Well, it's not like Topps is exactly known for innovation these days, so I'm going to assume yes.