Good Luck Ducks, Week 12: An Evening with the Sun Devils

Will Oregon avoid the Cheez-It Bowl? 

The Jekyll and Hyde act that is the 2018 Oregon Ducks football team continued last week, as they came out flat and lifeless and ultimately didn't have quite enough to finish off Utah last week. It wasn't good. This is the time of the season where injuries are felt the most, but other teams (i.e. Utah) have adjusted well. Oregon, apparently, hasn't.

Given where the Ducks are headed, a bowl game, it seems safe to say that this season has been an improvement over the Taggart Year and Mark Helfrich's disastrous final season. However, I'm not sure that they are actually better than last season. In the games Justin Herbert was able to play last season, Oregon had no trouble marching up and down the field on people, and the defense was mostly robust all season. This year's team has been maddeningly inconsistent on both sides of the ball, and with two games left, they are starting to feel like the football equivalent of cringe comedy. Only, you know, less funny.

Not all is doom and gloom, of course. There have been great individual efforts on both sides of the ball. The cohesion will need to be back for the Ducks to win in their final home game of the season. Next week will be a short week as Oregon heads to Corvallis for Civil War on Black Friday. Tonight, it's time to shine for the Autzen faithful.

Links:

• After starting the season as a national punchline, Herm Edwards has his first Arizona State team in contention for the Pac-12 South. (Utah is going to be pulling for the Quack Attack tonight.)
• It's Senior Night, which means the home crowd bids farewell to some great players like Jalen Jelks.
• Know Your Opponent: Sparky is nervous about the usual suspects.
• The Unis!: Back in black again. Disappointing. Can't we wear green sometimes?

ASU's last trip to Eugene featured plenty of scoring, starting with an emotional opening score by Pharaoh Brown.

Game time is 7:30 PST on the Pac-12 Network. Roxy Bernstein, Anthony Herron and Lewis Johnson will be on the call. Drink every time they say "Pac-12 After Dark".

More Cards From Bru!

A little big closer to Heritage goals thanks to @marcbrubaker and another envelope. 

It seemed like I was getting hit right and left with envelopes full of cards from Remember The Astrodome for awhile there. Here's some stuff I received back in September.

I was able to cross off a number of 2018 Topps Heritage needs, including this newly crowned Cy Young Award winner. Erin is still lamenting the loss of his luxurious locks, though.

Cardinals were included, because we love the Cardinals here (did you know?!) I'm not sure if the 2018 Donruss design will ever grow on me (and now it's here in basketball), but I am always a sucked for chrome'd up and shiny cards, both of which this Carlos Martinez card fits the bill.

Here's another Donruss Optic Prizm parallel. We haven't yet truly seen Tyler O'Neill's prodigious power be sustained in the majors, but some consistent playing time would help. It's nice to see the Rated Rookie logo live on for another day.

This is just a straight up base card from the same set, using the confusing Diamond Kings design. These aren't the Diamond Kings that I know. Waino is back for 2019. Have I mentioned that? Probably.

Thanks again to Bru! I have a feeling we'll be seeing more from him soon.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 11: Rice-Eccles

The Ducks head down to one of the more strangely named stadiums. 

Fresh off of a convincing win over a rebuilding UCLA team, Oregon hits the road once again to take on conference newbie Utah. The Utes joined the conference in 2012 during the Great College Football Expansion, but still have one of the smaller stadiums in the conference. While the Ducks are healthy at most of their skilled positions, Utah will be missing both their starting QB and starting RB, the latter (Zach Moss) suffering a season ending knee injury after being on pace this season to break the single season school rushing record.

All eyes are on Justin Herbert once again, as his elite skills are sure to be on display this afternoon. His primary target, Dillon Mitchell, is having a monster season that shouldn't be overlooked. It's just unfortunate that Oregon's season will largely be kept out of the national spotlight, with a won-loss record that has them likely headed to a mid-tier bowl game instead of the vaunted College Football Playoff system.

The Ducks will need to clean up some stuff on defense, undoubtedly. However, it's still a road test today, and considering the outcome in their last game away from Autzen (Arizona, yikes!), nothing should be taken for granted.

A few links:

• With the new redshirt rules this season, it's time to think about who might be held out for the rest of the season to gain an additional year of eligibility.
• Know Your Opponent: Utah is nervous about Justin Hollins, as well they should be.
• The Unis!: Back to the white with chrome helmets.

The Ducks pulled off a stunner in their last trip to Utah.

Game time is 2:30 PM PST on the Pac-12 Network. Ted Robinson, Yogi Roth and Jill Savage will be on the call.

New Hoops

A new crop of basketball cards, featuring the Portland Trail Blazers. 

I dove into the deep, shark-filled waters of eBay group breaks to get my first taste of 2018-19 NBA Hoops. My logic was sound: I can avoid buying all of the packs and boxes and just concentrate on the team that I collect. And it all would have worked out splendidly if it wasn't for that lousy collation!

There are 10 Blazers in the 300 card base set, but I didn't get a single copy of the Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum cards, while getting several copies of other cards. Fun!

The base design is, you know, fine. It's Hoops. It doesn't really change. I didn't bother scanning the backs of any of the cards, because if you've seen the back of one (Panini) Hoops card, you've seen them all.

I mentioned a lack of a Lillard card, but Dame actually has two cards in the set for whatever reason. The final 20 cards in the set are part of a "Tribute" subset, and have a different design. Mostly, these are retired players, but there are a few current ones sprinkled in for some reason.

Nurk!

Rookies are shown in one of their media day poses over a dark wooden backdrop. Pretty standard stuff.

Trent was a one-and-done Duke star, and is the son of former Blazers draft pick... you guessed it... Gary Trent!

Big Z is having a big year already. This is exciting.

Ah, but there were inserts, too. Amplifiers crank up the volume in the crowd, apparently. I can't complain about an insert concept I haven't seen before, though.

Two of the Amplifiers out of a ten card set are Blazers, so CJ joins Dame here. He shoots threes at a high volume, but so does everyone these days.

Damian Lillard stars here on another insert design that I'm not as much of a fan of. We really don't need the same photo twice.

The draft picks that they got to pose for these photos are going to probably have a good laugh at these in a few years. Or, at least, we all will. Anfernee (yes, he was named after Penny Hardaway) skipped college altogether, playing out a year in purgatory at a prep school. He looks all of 13. The Blazers are playing the long game with him. It would be cool to see it pay off.

Lest ye accuse an eBay seller of messing with the base cards (why would they?), you can see (ye can see?) that I didn't get stiffed on a hit. Everything is a sticker auto in this low end product, but I was happy to get a brand spanking new Blazers autograph.

Good stuff all around. I just need to find the rest of the team set.

Actual Baseball Cards

Getting back to baseball posts thanks to @marcbrubaker and some Cardinals goodies. 

I'm not sure I can handle the long four months before Spring Training, but it's not like I have a choice. I still have a ton of baseball cards lined up to post about, including this bunch from Remember The Astrodome. I actually received these back in late August, when there was still lots of hope for the Cardinals season.

I bought a lot of cards this summer, but I don't feel like I actually took down any team sets. A Pujols Cardinals card in 2018 is a nice sight, however. This is one of the so-called short prints from the Topps Archives set. I'm only skeptical about calling these short prints, because there are so few of them and the odds don't make them a tough pull. If you do the math on these, I'm not sure that they are any tougher to get. This reminds me of some of the questionable math on Allen & Ginter's SPs over the years.

Here's a terrific shot of the newly crowned Gold Glove Award winner (9th time!) I'm bummed that Kolten Wong didn't win one, and that Harrison Bader wasn't even nominated.

Here's a shiny Waino refractor from a couple of years ago. Wainwright just signed a heavily incentive-laden deal to return for another season. I'm hoping it works out for him and the team, because he's always been fun to watch when things are working right.

Finally, it's a full-sized white jersey swatch from this year's Allen & Ginter set. Marcell Ozuna struggled with shoulder issues virtually all season long. As with all things baseball, let's hope for better fortunes next year!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 10: Chip Kelly Returns

The prodigal coach returns to Autzen Stadium.

Chip Kelly captained the Oregon Ducks football ship in its peak years (2009-2012), after a successful run as Mike Bellotti's offensive coordinator. He championed an increased pace of play, took advantage of inefficiencies, and was generally an agent of chaos. He is and was sorely missed, but has struggled mightily in all of his pursuits since he left Eugene.

Speaking of struggling... what is up with the Ducks right now? They were straight up awful last week, a disturbing trend considering their comatose first half performance the previous week against the superior Washington State Cougars. This most recent Ducks team looked a lot more like the team that Mario Cristobal coached in the bowl game last year, or even one of the Herbert-less games last year coached by the huckster that is screwing up Florida State right now. With Oregon back at home, the hope is for a return to form as they try to position themselves for a quality bowl game.

OregonLive-free links to check out:

• Both teams are coming off of ugly losses, but Oregon is still looking at a likely bowl berth while UCLA is struggling to keep fans in seats.
• Oregon's Calvin Throckmorton, he of the huge last name, has been rock solid on the offensive line.
• Justin Herbert "Don't Be a Fool, Stay In School" Meter: Medium Level. I am starting to suspect someone at CBS is working with UO to put this kind of info out there, though.
• Know Your Opponent: Bruins fans are banking on Justin Herbert being too concussed to go today. Let's hope that's not the case.
• The Unis!: All black in some new Jumpman uniforms. So much for the mundane. Hopefully, the Ducks will slam a few dunks tonight.

Going old school didn't work so well last week, so let's check out UCLA's last visit to Eugene.

Game time is 4:30 PM PDT on FOX. Tim Brando, Spencer Tillman and Holly Sonders are on the call. Go Ducks!

Ginter Duplicity

Allen & Ginter jersey cards on offer. 

I still need tons and tons of cards from this set, but I've had a bit of a run with pulling jersey cards from retail packs in 2018 Topps Allen & Ginter. Is anyone interested in one of these cards of the nearly-World Series MVP, the second of which I pulled from a blaster I bought myself for my birthday.

The Price(s) joined these two speedy fellows, also up for grabs. Let me know if you're interested in any of this stuff. I have plenty of want lists of all sorts of things at this point!