Not Enough Verlanders?

Still winding down 2019 with @forgotaboutblay and some cards from nearly all the sports. 

I haven't had a change to ask Dennis of Too Many Verlanders how he feels about his blog's namesake these days. The transgression of Verlander seems more serious than, say, becoming a Yankee, but it's more of a guilt-by-association thing. It's hard to lay much blame at the foot of a pitcher for being a team member of a team caught participating in a scheme that allowed their hitters to get immediate knowledge of what pitch was coming ahead of time. Of course, Justin Verlander is someone you'd expect to be a veteran leader in the clubhouse at this point in his career, so... probably conflicting feelings are what you're going to have?

I actually own an Astros shirt (was bought for me during the recent playoff run) and have a couple of minor personal collections of their players in my household (Erin's Altuves and my Springers.) These guys are definitely on the side of the ball that could have benefited in a scheme like this, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I didn't feel like buying any Springers or Altuves from the dime box in the card show I recently attended. I don't feel like burning their cards, either. I don't really know what I feel at the moment. I do know that the Astros aren't my team (that much is clear) and I am tired of hearing about them every time I turn on my TV in the morning.

Well, baseball is back in business, as you've most likely heard. Spring Fever! Dennis sent me a bunch of stuff late in 2019, and these cards are from the last (Christmas!) batch he sent. It's well documented that I'm a big fan of the Fleer Greats sets, and while I'm not sure that this "Rookie & Greats" set from 2003 is part of that lineage, it looks really cool.

I went to the Blazers 2000's Decades Night game last night, and it was tons of fun. Unfortunately, the team apparently wasn't extremely successful in bringing back players from those years, but it wasn't really unexpected, either. Brandon Roy is more or less estranged from the franchise over the way his career ended. The problem is, of course, that there was no way the end of Roy's career was going to be anything but awkward and sad. Rasheed Wallace wasn't likely to participate in anything cerebral, especially involving the Blazers. Scottie Pippen apparently pre-taped some stuff at the Blazers practice facility, and the recently retired Zach Randolph probably doesn't want to look back in the mirror at his career right now. That left Travis Outlaw, surprisingly-cool-about-being-fired longtime TV announcer Mike Barrett, and Damon Stoudamire to make the appearance. Stoudamire is the head coach of a college team (University of the Pacific), so it was cool that he made time to come back.

Aaron McKie was more of a '90s guy for the Blazers, although he'd pop up a lot in the 2000s, especially as a long time member of the Allen Iverson-led 76ers.

It wouldn't be a TMV trade without Oregon Ducks cards. As usual, I held most of the football cards back for future Good Luck Ducks posts. I do really like the strange stained glass pattern of Marcus Mariota's card here.

The meat of the envelope came in the form of Ducks hoops cards, however. Dillon Brooks has been huge for the Grizzlies this season after everyone probably forgot about him due to his lost 2018-19 season.

Luke Jackson is a throwback to the 2000's, as he was the one-time teammate of LeBron James when he entered the league. Let's just say that LeBron learned all of his moves from Luke, okay?

Finally, in a shocking twist, Dennis sent me a printing plate of the former Duck Joe Young. Young transferred to UO from Houston and immediately was their best player. He spent several seasons bured deep on the bench in Indiana before ending up in China. It looks like he was destroying the CBA last season, but I haven't seen much news about him this year.

Frustratingly, I wasn't able to add this to the TCDB database because it's one of those acts of Panini trickery where they inserted these in some other product (2016-17 National Treasures, I guess.) The cards these plates were made for were in most cases just as rare as the plates themselves, and Panini is famous for not publishing the actual card numbers for most of their "hits", so actually creating and maintaining a checklist for this is going to be a dreadful if not impossible task. It's a really cool card thing to own, though, so I'm very thankful for that.

Too Many Cards

Send help! 

I'm showing off another trade package courtesy of @forgotaboutblay (that's Dennis of Too Many Verlanders / Manninghams if you're not Twitter-inclined.) The note that was sent along with the cards said "Have a great summer!" which just goes to show long I've been hanging on to some of these cards.

I am buried in cards. If you get a bunch of cards from me out of the blue, it's because I'm trying to see my desk again. I forgot what it looks like.

Anyway, let's take a look at a few of the things I got back in June.

It was a bit of a surprise to me that I didn't already own this Yadi parallel from the 2011 Opening Day set, but I get these mixed up a lot with the Walmart blue parallels that debuted in the flagship set around this same time. It's always nice to get a numbered Molina card.

The foilboard era cards usually don't scan very well, but I think this made it through okay. I should see what other scanner options are out there, now that I've been doing this for more than a decade. I just loathe shopping for hardware for some reason.

Here's another numbered card (are you sensing a theme here?) Kolten Wong didn't have the best playoff run, but he certainly wasn't alone among Redbirds in this area. He was announced as a finalist (i.e. finished in the top 3 at his position) for a Gold Glove Award today along with several of his teammates. Hopefully he can build on what he did this season and bring it up yet another level next season.

Dennis likes to send me Ducks cards (yes!) but I'll often save them for game days. One of the ones he sent with this package is on deck for this Saturday's post. Instead, let's check out this crazy huge jumbo swatch card of Joe Young, who starred with the Ducks hoops team earlier this decade and played a few seasons for the Pacers before heading to China to play professionally. I like that there's a a bit of a wrinkle in the uniform. The more that I stare about something like this, however, the weirder it gets to think about how I'm admiring some random chunk of some dude's work clothes.

Sports cards are weird. Help me get rid of some of them if you've got some time.

Mighty Oregon

Ducks on cards in blaster form. College Week continues. 

I know that there have been institution-specific sets for some of the bigger schools out there, but I never dreamed that Oregon would get the their own card set from a major manufacturer. Oregon's athletic program has been on the rise in recent years and they make waves nationally from time to time with their silly uniform designs and ties to Nike, but I still see this having limited appeal outside of a Bi-Mart store in Willamette Valley... which happens to be where I found this blaster. I almost went for just a single pack, but they hooked me with a guaranteed ("on average") hit in each box. Also, at just 49 base cards in the set and 80 cards in the box, I figured I might be able to knock out a complete set if I was lucky.

Mariota is probably half the reason this thing even exists. I don't think his cards have been on fire exactly, considering his pro team is the football equivalent of an open sewer line, but I think he showed enough in his rookie season to still be excited about him.

In addition to the base cards, there are also inserts and parallels (and parallels of inserts), because when are there not inserts and parallels?

For such a small base set, there are a lot of filler cards. This one is takes the cake.

The set does provide a look back at some of the uniforms of the past, including the much derided diamond plate look. I was personally a fan. I never did get completely behind the silver wings, even if they were at least some what bird themed.

Hoopsters are also included, although Panini's pool of them is limited to who they currently have under the NBA license. There are only a few active NBA players who came out of Oregon, including Pacers rookie Joe Young. Speaking of Ducks basketball, don't forget to sign up for the contest!

Long time pro QB Kellen Clemens goes way back to the days when Oregon had completely sane uniforms.

Before LGB became best known in his Duck days for The Punch, he was one of my favorite players - a tall back with power and incredible leaping ability.

Oregon's got a (somewhat) new basketball arena, folks! 9 of the first 10 cards of the set do not feature any player.

It seems odd to feature Luke Ridnour in a set without his counterpart Luke Jackson, but Jackson couldn't quite stick in the NBA due mostly to injuries. He coached Northwest Christian University to a conference title this season, earning his team a bid in the NAIA Division II national tournament.

Ridnour spent 12 seasons in the NBA but opted to sit out this season and may be mulling retirement.

Just to show what a strange set this truly is, Will Murphy was a former walk-on at UO and played sparingly. His time spent on NFL practice squads in two recent seasons meant that he is part of the NFLPA and therefore gets to be included in the set. This makes it hard to claim this set as a comprehensive look at the stars of Oregon athletics over the years. No retired greats or recent stars who didn't get a look at the pros, but we get Will Murphy. Cool, though. I now have a Will Murphy card for my Ducks collection, and the guy did get to play a lot more Ducks football than I ever did.

Here's the hit of the box, and it's the star of last year's Ducks basketball team (and current Pacers rookie) Joe Young. Oh yes, we already saw him above. The jersey cards and autographs also have parallel versions, and this is apparently the gold version since it's numbered to 25.

I didn't end up with the full base set, but I am going to throw up a want list, mostly to keep track of for myself. I may just snag another blaster just to see what I can get for a hit next time.

I also scooped up this Ridnour autograph from his Timberwolves days, courtesy of a Listia auction. I don't often post about Ducks (or pro Ducks) basketball, so I didn't know where else to put this. Even if Ridnour never plays another game, he and Aaron Brooks can hold their heads up high as the premier members of an era of excellent Ducks point guards.