Good Luck Ducks, Week 1: Reboot

The Quack Attack begins their second B1G season with a very remade roster. 

 

I probably say this every year, and you could certainly look at this year's calendar and see that Labor Day falls on the earliest day it possibly could, but it seems like the football season really sneaked up on us again. The Ducks begin another typically mellow nonconference schedule with a home match against an FCS opponent, but it's not just another FCS opponent. Much like the Ducks last season, the Montana State Bobcats ran the table in 2024 only to get knocked out as soon as the calendar flipped over to January. Of course, the two programs exist on entirely different planes of college football existence, but that's not to say that today's match will be a cakewalk.

There are quite a few changes on both sides of the ball for the Ducks as they head into their second season in the Big Ten. This doesn't come as a surprise in the current state of player movement across the sport, but it is the first time in several seasons that Oregon won't be quarterbacked by an accomplished multi-year starter from a major program who transferred in just in time for some potential playoff action. They will have another power school transfer at the helm, though, as Dante Moore is expected to takeover as QB1. Moore started as a freshman two years ago under Chip Kelly at UCLA before moving to Oregon to more or less apprentice under Dillon Gabriel last season. He took enough snaps to get his feet wet (ha!) with the green and yellow, but not enough to burn a redshirt year as far as I can recall, so if this all works out he could be around for a bit.

Montana State is an excellent running team who is led by Adam Jones, a back that is not quite at the level of Ashton Jeanty, but could at least give Ducks fans some uncomfortable feelings reminiscent of the game they squeaked out against Boise State early last season. A successfully running game is often an equalizer against an offense with superior talent, meaning that if Oregon can't force many fourth downs, it could make for an uncomfortable sunny afternoon in Eugene.

Notes and miscellany:

• Given how things played out last year and the current massive turnover in the roster (only three starters return), I am going to temper my expectations for the season. There's a chance this team could take a big step back, but given the talent and (presumably) cash being thrown around, it's also possible that the Ducks become one of those programs that breaks off from the rest of the bunch and ends up in some superleague tier someday. I don't really like either prospect. I know going back to the way things were (pick a year: 2015? 2010? 19-90something?) isn't ever going to be a possibility, but the upheaval in this sport (and others that I follow to be quite honest) makes me less invested than I used to be. Of course, that might be a good thing for my own personal health.
• Opponent Fun Fact: Jersey number 41 holds a particular significance for Montana State, and not just because Montana is the 41st state.
• Opponent History: Oregon won the only previous meeting, 27-14 back in 1947.
• Game time is 1:00 PM PDT on the B1G Network in Eugene.

The Baseball Project Trading Cards!

 

Baseball cards featuring a rock band that writes songs about baseball. 

 

If you're reading this and you like rock music, there's a good chance you've at least heard of The Baseball Project. Founded almost two decades ago, the band (a supergroup, if you will) celebrated their fourth album release and tour back in 2023 with a pack of cards available at their merch table which was clearly too fun for me to pass up.

Each card features one of the primary band members, and the info card that leads off the pack gives you some contact info as well as a small glimpse at the album cover of their latest release, Grand Salami Time. The title track is based on the catchphrase of Seattle Mariners legendary broadcaster Dave Niehaus and ties in a bunch of other famous announcer catchphrases.

Each card features a childhood photo of a band member, using the familiar 1987 Topps style and Future Stars logo.

On the back of the card you get each band member's "stats" (i.e. rock band resume) along with a fun fact about that member.

Did I get an all-rookie hot pack? It seems like I did!

One of the big things that put this band on my radar is that I became a huge R.E.M. fan in high school, and the band has included two core members of that group at times as well as a touring member, meaning that I first got to see 60% of this group play live together more than 30 years ago.

Is there anything better than old little league photos? I still have one or two of mine somewhere.

Peter Buck was always my favorite R.E.M. member, and he's only gotten more involved in different projects as he's gotten older, including a run of solo releases not mentioned here.

Scott McCaughey is a Bay Area native, so he may not be as enthused about wearing a Yankees shirt here as he seemed to be in the photo.

McCaughey started touring with R.E.M. in 1995 and eventually moved up here to Portland, so I see him around from time to time when I go to shows locally. The Minus 5 is always a fun time.

Steve Wynn pushes the Yankees thing further here with an actual team logo.

Wynn put out a number of acclaimed records with The Dream Syndicate in the '80s and is married to the band's drummer, Linda Pitmon. He splits lead vocal duties with McCaughey for the most part, with Mike Mills at the mic on a couple of fun tracks about Dale Murphy and doctoring baseballs.

I tend to shy away from most bands that could easily be labeled as a "gimmick band", but the first time I caught these guys live I was really into it. Their collective background in the music game certainly helps here. Check them out at their website, on Bandcamp, or YouTube or wherever you consume music.

New Cardinals and an Old Friend

New (to me) Cardinals cards and a fun surprise.

 

Earlier this year, Padrographs opened some new card packages and was kind enough to send some of the Cardinals spoils my way. We once again had a couple of major Topps releases from 2024 bleed into the 2025 calendar, including this fun "rookie year" insert of Masyn Winn that's a throw back to a mid-90s insert design.

From the 2025 Topps Series 1 set came a few Nolan Arenado inserts, as he is one of the lone players still with the Cardinals that could be considered a star these days.

Arenado did not get traded in the offseason despite at least one serious attempt, and did not get traded at this year's trade deadline. I imagine the market for him had shrunk even further, as his production at the plate has fallen off dramatically (and he is currently injured.)

Topps swiped a few insert concepts from canceled sets like Big League and Opening Day recently to assimilate them into the main flagship set. I think these must have only been available in some special retail configuration or another.

Stan the Man gets in on the 2025 Series 1 fun.

I assure you this is a rainbow foil parallel, one of the only shiny parallels that exists these days that doesn't throw a bunch of weird glittery patterns at you. Of course, it scans just like a base card.

The 2024 Topps Heritage High Numbers product was the other carryover from last year. From left to right, top to bottom, we have a guy in a City Connect jersey who was recently dealt ahead of the trade deadline, a Rule 5 pick from last year who recently rejoined the active roster, a speed demon who is still developing at the plate (or so they tell me), a "sunset card" of sorts of one of my favorites, and a guy who was recently DFA'd twice and is currently in the minors for another unmentionable team.

The big fun surprise, of course, is this Paul DeJong signed card of his "Bowman 1st" Chrome card. DeJong is with the Nationals right now and has recently smacked a couple of homers. Good for him!

A Holiday Weekend PWE Round-Up

 

Fun things come in small envelopes.

 

It's time for another round of small trade envelopes and things of that nature. This bunch is pretty baseball (and Cardinals) heavy, which is just about perfect for this time of year.

First up is the first of two envelopes from gcrl (cards as i see them). This one has been sitting on my shelf since February according to the postmark. A pair of obscure Cardinals pandemic relievers still look good in red, even with the blue background design that accompanies the red bordered parallel card from 2021 Topps Heritage.

Panini's Donruss product sprang forth this strange little die-cut card with a giant Rated Rookie logo on it in 2016. The nostalgia for the Rated Rookie logo supersedes what little Panini actually does with its Donruss brand, which is typically underwhelming if not just outright boring.

I think at this point I have more Tim Cooney signed cards than the total number of times I can recall seeing him actually pitch, but that's fairly typical for certain players who get featured in Bowman. I didn't have this blue parallel, of course!

This Career Year insert is apparently from the 2022 Topps flagship set. I don't really remember it at all, and I bought a decent amount of this Topps stuff that year. Pujols certainly looks much younger here in his 2009 state than he did during his memorable 2022 Cardinals comeback.

Ah, who doesn't love a good Stadium Club photo? When do we get Stadium Club this year? This month? September? December? Never?

Until they also lost the Players Association license, Panini continued their tradition of numbering all of their inserts to 999 copies, like this one. You could still find unnumbered parallels in their various retail configurations, though.

I kind of miss the dumb fake relic cards that they put in Topps blasters for many years. I believe this year (2023) was the last year that they did something like this. The rubbery hockey puck-shaped thing in the middle of the card is certainly memorable. It almost totally obscures the player.

Further cementing gcrl's status as Hamm King were this pair of inserts from the 2015 Topps set. I now own 17 of these by my count, and others will have their work cut out for them if they want to catch the leader.

Next up is a very coveted card from noted author and Brewers fan (and the two do intersect) Matthew Prigge. I did not know that a Jim Edmonds Brewers card existed until recently, which made me highly interested in obtaining a copy. After Edmonds was traded to San Diego (for future World Series hero David Freese), he went on a whirlwind tour though the NL Central, playing for every team in the division aside from Pittsburgh before winding up his career. Cubs and Reds Edmonds cards are readily available in some major sets, but the existence of a Brewers card was news to me.

I had to scan the back because I'm highly interested in police/team issued cards and wanted to check this out. I believe there are actually a bunch of different versions of this set, at least according to TCDB. I'm assuming that the main different is the presenting sponsor on the back.

Matthew also included a few shiny bonus cards that I had been hesitant to write about for some time now. I believe he was the first person that I knew of to discover this weird bootleggy looking set/box thing that was briefly available on Amazon. I was hoping someone else would discover more info about this set and maybe even put a checklist together for TCDB, but as far as I know no one has bothered to undertake this.

Here's a couple more. I have a whole stack of these that I also purchased from Amazon a year or two ago, but I don't know if what I ended up with was a complete set. I ended up throwing a few of these into envelopes for others myself, so I wouldn't even be able to attempt a checklist anymore. I'll probably toss the rest of these up on the blog as a giveaway at some point this summer because they've been sitting on my desk far too long. The set is full of weird errors and has a strange checklist, but the Cardinals were more than fairly represented.

Here's what all of the card backs look like. Ah yes, it's the Patriotic Baseball Eagle. The cards are are extremely thin and sharped like playing cards/TCG cards, except that they're all shiny gold... and probably very toxic. Don't eat these. I believe they're Korean in origin, from what little research could be done from when they were available for sale.

The third envelope comes from gcrl once again, who comes out swinging with this amazing autograph of one of my all-time favorite college football players. LaMichael James' Press Pass autograph card is numbered to just 99 copies, and I don't even mind that he's been cut off at the shoulders here.

From Duck to Duck, this is a pro rookie card of another Oregon running back who had a pretty solid run with the Seahawks in the '00s. I've never been one to root a ton for the NFL team up north of here in Seattle, but Mo Morris gave me a reason to check in on them from time to time.

The bulk of the envelope was comprised of a bunch of 2025 Topps Heritage needs. I'm pretty close to being done with the (non-SP, non-insert) set now, but there's a few stragglers as usual.

Last up is this single card from Damon Holtz, a great Bluesky follow who gives away cards on his feed there pretty frequently. This is one of the "silver pack" box topper insert cards from the recently released Series 2 set and also shows Pujols in his original run with the Cardinals. This is actually the second card I've snagged from the very generous Damon, but I think I ended up only posting on Bluesky about the other one. I'm not going to try to convince anyone of the merits of Bluesky (or any social media in general), but if you're over there, feel free to give me a follow!

It's Inevitable

Cards from buckstorecards turn the heat up!

We're passed the point of no return and there's no coming back. Summer is inevitable. It's busy. It's impossible to stop. There's a lot going on right now, both in and out of the sports realm. Baseball arms are falling off, as they are wont to do. Video game consoles are being cranked out to the masses. Rock bands are doing their band things. While I have a minute to stop and take a breath, let's check out another bundle o' cards from the Dollar Store (note: not actually a dollar store.)

It's a side-by-side look at a pair of Victor Scott Stadium Club rookie cards. On the left is the sepia parallel and on the right is the base card. I'm not totally sold on Scott as being a future cornerstone of the franchise out in CF yet, but he's swiped enough bases to stick around my fantasy team's lineup at least.

Here's another pair of Cardinals cards, this time from different eras. I was surprised to learn that I didn't yet own this Co-Signers Chris Carpenter card. Cards from the '00s are starting to become tougher to come by these days.

I also landed a copy of one of these wacky Topps Tek cards. It's some sort of "blue rainbow diffractor" parallel (whatever that means) with a print run of just 75 copies.

Kwame Evans Jr. kicks off the duck-billed portion of the trade package. Evans carved out a nice role as a sixth man type last season and is expected to be back with the team's second season in the Big 10 after making it to the round of 32 in March Madness.

I also got hit up with this two-packs of Oregon autos from the 2023 Topps Chrome McDonald's All-American set. I don't have a formal collection of Oregon women's basketball player cards (yet!) aside from a very tiny amount of Sabrina Ionescu cards, but I will definitely start looking for more and more of these especially with the WNBA set to return to Portland very soon.

A 20+ CFL card?! Yes, please! McCullough took over as the lead back at Oregon towards the end of my time in Eugene, and he doesn't have many cards, so this is a treat.

Of course, this is a much newer CFL card (check the date!) of another Ducks alum. Upper Deck started "game dating" their photos in some sets back in the latter half of the '90s, and I really wish that this had become more of a common practice over the years as it's always nice to know what specific game a given photo comes from. Of course, with most of the stuff that Topps puts out these days, they've completely washed out or cropped out the backgrounds so as to make the event they came from fairly meaningless.

(New) Leaf puts out some weird stuff, but here's a perfectly colored autograph that goes quite well with the green on Breeland's uniform here.

I just discovered recently that Panini put out an "Unparalleled" brand NFL set for a number of years that closely mirrors the Revolution brand they use for basketball. I'm not sure why they chose different brand names here, but it's always tough to figure out what Panini is doing.

Speaking of which, Chris Boucher seems to be standing in front of some sort of planet-shaped energy orb here on this parallel Recon card numbered to 199.

It's a token Blues card! Shattenkirk was with the Blues during a good chunk of time in the 2010's and just announced his retirement late last year.

The last card up is one of the best, with a nice addition to my Randall Cunningham PC. This one is from 2012, but I've noticed he's found his way to some more recent checklists, which is always a nice thing.