Cursed

The Portland Trail Blazers are cursed. It's high time that I finally admit this to myself and publicly as well. My sad admission comes on the news that promising young guard Elliot Williams will likely miss the entire season with a torn Achilles tendon. This news actually made me sick to my stomach. He suffered through double knee surgery to miss his rookie season, and finally found himself on the court and making strides last season when he injured his shoulder. An Achilles injury can rob someone of their explosiveness, and is especially worrisome with a player whose best skill is his explosiveness.

Does any of this sound familiar? Greg Oden, the number one pick from now what seems like ages ago, is gone. He may or may not ever play again. He missed his rookie season with a major knee injury and would proceed to find himself on crutches more often than not for the rest of his Blazers career. He supposedly plans on sitting this upcoming season out before making another go at basketball, and if he ever wears an NBA uniform again it almost certainly won't be Portland's.

Yes, the team that drafted Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan and Oden over Durant has a curse, and I don't know what to do about it. I am stuck with this team. I root them on each season and I curse the names of the players like Bill Laimbeer, Vlade Divac, Sean Elliott and Shaquille O'Neal who have bedeviled them in various ways throughout NBA history. I should have been shocked that such a promising young player like Elliot Williams had another season end before it was even close to beginning, but I was just sad. And it's all the more strange that I actually got somewhat excited about new basketball cards hitting the shelf recently. 

I picked up a 5-card pack of 2012-13 NBA Hoops to post on APTBNL and also grabbed a jumbo pack because I figured there might be a Blazer inside. It turns out, as you can see, that I did pretty well in that department. I snagged both of the Blazers top draft picks, who up until this point remained relatively uninjured. There's actually talk that the Lillard kid may contend for Rookie of the Year, last won by a certain guy named Brandon Roy that was The Franchise until his knees turn to chalk dust. I am also going to pretend that this Roy player is still retired and never played for anyone but Portland because LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA.

I thought I'd be equitable and show off some non-Blazers cards from the jumbo pack. Here's another awkward studio pose of a rookie from draft day, presumably. The NBA is really going for the retro look this year with the caps and the novelty basketballs. These draft day caps scream 1990, which fits very well with the resuscitation of the NBA Hoops brand. Austin Rivers, I should mention, is the son of former player and current Celtics coach Doc Rivers.

I don't actually know who John Henson is, but he really wants you to know that he belongs in the draft and isn't some dude who happened to be wearing snappy clothing and sneaked in the back door.

One of the only good things about the last abomination of a season was the new Wizards uniforms. They're fantastic. I hope they never change, though I've never been sold on the Wizards name itself.

Booooooooooooo. Karl Malone is the enemy. Every NBA set seems to like to pad its numbers with past stars, but Malone was the only retired player that I got in my jumbo pack.

From one of my least favorite players of years past to one of my least favorites of present day, here's "El Heat" forward LeBron James. I won't own this card long, I can assure you.

As I mentioned last week, I received a bunch of Blazers cards recently from Life and Baseball Cards. I figured since I was already on the subject, I'd show off some of the goods from that portion of the trade.

There's going to be a lot riding on the shoulders of LaMarcus Aldridge now with the Blazers effectively in rebuilding mode. Can Aldridge withstand the possibility of some of his peak years being wasted on a team that doesn't have much hope of making noise in the playoffs, let alone making the playoffs at all? He's already tasted the playoffs twice in his career. I am fearful of him becoming the next Kevin Garnett, who couldn't ever get over the hump with a shallow supporting cast in Minnesota during his prime before moving to Boston to win in his twilight years. I am also fearful of him realizing the situation he is in and wanting out. After all, it seems to be a pretty popular sentiment in the NBA right now.

This is a great card. Rainbow lasers are shooting out of Buck. One of the unfortunate turns of events in Portland is the complete overhaul of the coaching staff, which came as a result of Nate McMillan's firing last season. One of his assistants was Buck Williams, a nice link to fond past memories. It's too bad that they aren't really keeping any of these guys around now under new head coach Terry Stotts.
  

Last season also marked the comeback and the end of Joel Przybilla's career as a Blazer. He probably doesn't have many more meaningful NBA minutes in him, which is weird thing to say about someone who is a gifted professional athlete and four (!) years younger than me. On an unrelated now, I am sad now.

Sergio Rodriguez played in the Olympics? Sergio Rodriguez played in the Olympics!

This man had his own book and movie before he ever set foot on an NBA court. His Wikipedia entry is rather fascinating. I'm not sure why the first sentence in the section on his NBA career is just some random sentence about some stats he accumulated in one game, but who am I to criticize Wikipedia editors?

I'm also fascinated by this Rookie Slam! card. Martell Webster is a good dude. I root for them, even though he plays or most recently has played for a division rival.

Lonestarr included some jersey cards in the Blazers mix, which was a really nice surprise. Here's a pensive looking Greg Oden who at the time had still yet to take the court in a NBA uniform. Yet, he has a "game used" jersey swatch somehow. I feel like Oden made this face a lot.

This jersey design from Panini is kind of a cool concept. It's supposedly an actual piece of the uniform Webster wore during the Blazers Christmas Day game in 2009, when the Blazers beat the Nuggets on national TV. I probably should have saved it for the holiday, though.

And finally, here's a non-Blazer card. Aaron Brooks is a former Oregon Duck, one of the few that is still active (along with Luke Ridnour and Ivan Johnson - I guess?)

The Daily Dimwit August Group Break Results Extravaganza

Now that the Cardinals have regressed beyond Limp to the Finest Line Mode to something resembling more like Get Dragged Behind a Bus For Hundreds of Miles Before Anyone Notices mode, the usual suspects are starting to question some of the decision making surrounding the team that has gotten praise all year. Specifically, the claws finally came out over the Carlos Beltran offseason signing. Beltran has struggled mightily in baseball's second half after an MVP caliber first half. To second guess the team now, with just a few weeks left in the season is pretty easy. These same people will be singing the praises of everyone with pulse on this roster if the team manages to put together a few wins and make some noise in the playoffs. I'm fully prepared to call this season a wash, and without Berkman, (Chris) Carpenter or Kyle McClellan most of the season and no Rafael Furcal down the stretch, it's easy to see why there have been some gaping holes. It's still a tad bit premature to call the Beltran thing a failure or write this team off completely, however, especially in the day of watered down playoff competition.

Basically, I just want the Cardinals to win some games, and soon. Today's cards are from The Daily Dimwit's group break held last month. The new Topps Finest, something I would never buy for myself, drew me in and I stayed for the 2012 Topps Series 2 base cards to bolster my team set needs. I will update my list soon as I'm badly behind in adding my needs from Series 2. The 2007 Artifacts set was also in the mix, but I have all of the Cardinals base cards and only received a Jim Edmonds card anyway.

Speaking of Topps Finest, I guess I'm not sure what to make of this year's design. I generally enjoy the Finest cards I do own, but this concept is so metallic that it reminds me of one of those late '90s Metal sets.

I like the left half of this card, but that green Tic-Tac-Toe board with the logo in the middle just looks strange.

These are great inserts. It's amazing what a little die cutting will do to an otherwise unremarkable insert design.

Any time I can add another Ozzie Smith card to my collection is a good time for me.

I also was awarded the Pirates as my random selection in the group break. It's been a little while since I've made a Pirates trade with anyone, so if there are any Pirates collectors out there, drop me a line. I am sure I have a few piles of cards to push out the door.

Team Swapping Hijinks

I find this card fascinating. I originally was baffled that Troy Glaus's 2009 Spectrum card showed him in a Blue Jays uniform when he had been with the Cardinals for more than a year's time when this product hit the shelves, but I assumed it had something to do with Upper Deck having a surplus of Glaus Jays "authentic material" and figured they were being lazy. It's easier to make a relic card that looks exactly like the base card with a spot for the swatch, after all, so the helper monkeys that design card products don't have to think too hard in between banana breaks. However, I won the jersey version on Listia (it's great, seriously) and now I don't even know what to think. Here's a different design and a completely different photo of Glaus also appearing in a Toronto uni with the jersey piece. Glaus played for the Cards for the entire 2008 season and the card makes prominent mention of his being a member of that team.

I foolishly looked to the back of the card for clues that this card at least contained a piece of Canadian stitching, but alas, that's not the case. It very well might. In fact, it probably does. However, Upper Deck will take it to their graves (and they have at least one foot in it at this point) that this card contains official game-used memorabilia of some sort. Whether or not this is Cardinal road grey or Blue Jay road grey is insignificant. When I first saw the card on Listia, however, I knew I had to own it.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 2: Bulldogs on Parade

It really says something about the Ducks when they get off to a 50-3 start, it's only the middle of the second quarter, and no one is really all that surprised. The only suspense that was removed last week was about how well freshman quarterback Marcus Mariota would perform, which turned out to be very well.

Oregon's second and third string players still have something to prove. After the fast start, the reserves put up little fight against an otherwise outmatched Arkansas St. team and will have their work cut out for them again today. If they get into the game early as they did last week, the hope is that they will not surrender more than 30 points this time around.

Fresno State is a team very familiar to Ducks fans, if not the team itself. Oregon is 6-2 lifetime against the Bulldogs, winning the last 6 straight dating back to the '90s. Longtime Fresno State coach Pat Hill is out, replaced by Tim DeRuyter. The Bulldogs beat an FCS team last week in DeRuyter's debut, so it's hard to know much about this year's team at this point. I would expect another Ducks victory in front of the home crowd this week, but I anticipate a few more bumps in the road than last week.


The first overtime in college football history! Fresno State at Oregon, back in 1996.

Game time is 3:30 PDT with "national coverage" on the Pac-12 Network. Go Ducks!

Airbrushed Fridays: 2012 Topps #476

There's just a few more weeks left in this baseball season. I'm still feeling relatively good about the Cardinals chances this year, but I really wish there was only one wild card spot available as in years past. I can't stand the thought of an entire six month's seasons worth of games played nearly every day coming down to some arbitrary 9 inning affair. If you are a wild card play-in game loser, do you even consider yourself a playoff team? Will you remember that your team made it ten years down the road? Will there be baseball cards featuring photos of your team in the playoffs under the lights? Will Joe Buck care? (Probably not.)

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? Ramon Hernandez is an offense-first catcher who has bounced around the league a bit and is currently at the twilight of his career. He was an all-star in his final season with Oakland, the team that drafted him.

Why does this card exist? After several successful seasons with the Reds, Hernandez was signed by the Rockies this past offseason. He has floundered in Colorado while threatening to set career lows in nearly every category while being used sparingly. This card continues the trend of Topps using Photoshopped images liberally in its Series 2 product. Let's hope they change this next year, although seeing that they're rehashing some of the same design concepts for their base set next year that they've used going on some six years now, I have my doubts.

Airbrushed Fridays is a weekly feature as the name seems to imply. If you know of a card with an altered photograph that you'd like to see featured, please contact me. You probably won't win anything other than a hyperlink and the orange dust from the bottom of a Doritos bag, but you never know!

Another JABO's Group Break

I participated in yet another group break this summer. This one, like a few others that I've been involved in, was put on by Juuust a Bit Outside or JABO's for short. Included in the break were cards from 2004 SP Prospects, notable for its inclusion of a Yadier Molina rookie card, 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen and 2012 Bowman Platinum. I already snagged myself a copy of the Yadi rookie card and some of the other Cardinal prospects in the set, but I didn't yet have the Jim Edmonds card. My extra Yadi card is still up for grabs in my Rummage Sale.

Bowman Platinum is something I simply will never buy as its beyond my price point. Its idea of fun is to make every card shiny in some way, which also reduces its appeal to me. I don't mind shiny things, but I don't like to be hit over the head with it on every card. Still, I need the Cardinals in this set as I do with just about everything.

Jordan Swagerty was a second round pick in 2010 but is currently rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. The Cardinals saw their top pick from the 2009 draft promoted today (Shelby Miller) with somewhat little fanfare as his role is a bit uncertain with the Cardinals making their playoff push.

Kyle4KC was kind enough to toss in some extra Cardinals, as he often does, and that included this nice Matt Holliday gold parallel card featuring the slugger wearing his old (2009) number.

I also took the opportunity to buy up this Jaime Garcia 2012 Allen & Ginter jersey card. I'm a big fan of the framed card design this year.

Posting may be limited for the rest of the week, depending on how things go. Musicfest NW is going on here in Portland this week and I will be attending, so my regular schedule will be all out of whack.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 1: Marcus in the Middle

Well, well, well. It's our old friend, college football. This marks the fifth (!) season of Good Lucks Ducks at Cards on Cards, where I take a momentary break to babble on about young dudes in pads at the place where I went to school for awhile. Since I rarely post on Saturdays, anyway, you baseball card fans can rest assured knowing that this isn't taking up any of your precious take-me-out-to-the-ballgame time. For now, it's time to put away the redundantly sung peanuts and Cracker Jack and reach into the fridge for a cold, I don't know, Bud Light Ultra Mega Platinum, or whatever it is football fans drink.

Oregon had an amazing season last year, once again, which makes me sound like a broken record. The Ducks are 44-9 since I started writing these missives back in 2008. They overcame a opening game loss to the eventual BCS runner-up LSU, survived a bitter November defeat at the hands of the cheating Trojans and ended up with their first Rose Bowl win since they beat Penn way back when people were still navigating the Oregon Trail, getting dysentary and such. LaMichael James is gone. Darron Thomas is gone (presumed to be working as a teller at Wells Fargo, I guess?) The Ducks take the field for the first time in a season with a starting quarterback (Marcus Mariota) who has not taken a snap under center in a real game for the first time since Akili Smith shared duties with Jason Maas back in 1997. Some guys have transferred. There's a lot of talent left, however, and a #5 ranking to live up to.

Arkansas State is a Sun Belt conference school. I would normally be completely dismissive of them, but they did finish 10-3 last year (and win their conference) and this year see Gus Malzahn taking over as head coach for the first time. Malzahn was the offensive coordinator at Auburn when the Tigers beat the Ducks in the BCS title game less than two years ago, so there's little doubt that he knows a thing or two about Oregon. This is the year the Ducks went full-on SEC with their non-conference scheduling, with three home games against vastly inferior schools. Tonight's game is the most worrisome of the three. Let's hope the Ducks are ready. We know their uniforms will be.

I'm not a big fan of fan-made compilation videos, especially ones with music, but this one was especially well done (aside from the use of Eminem.)

Game time is 7:30 pm PDT with national coverage on ESPN. Go Ducks!