Good Luck Ducks, Week 5: California Crud

The Ducks try to regroup after the worst loss that anyone can ever remember. 

I don't like sports anymore. This is probably a temporary thing, but when things beyond your control suck the fun out of the things that are, well, never in your control, it's always tempting to just walk away. Even a week later, I don't remember a worse Ducks football loss, let alone something that was so gut wrenching in any other sport that I follow. After a particularly rough game, I am usually good if you give me a few minutes or few hours to reflect and calm down.

I wasn't good on Sunday. I wasn't good on Monday. In fact, I decided not to go on a full Ducks media blackout all week. I don't really know what the point of that was, but I can tell you that it made me ill-prepared to blog about anything today.

The Ducks somehow moved up one slot in the rankings after last week's debacle (okay...?) to #19 and face #24 California tonight in their first road test. From what little I've heard, it sounds like the Ducks are nursing some injuries (Tony Brooks-James, Austin Faoliu...), so this could be a bigger test than expected. The team will get an opportunity to show that the Stanford game was an extreme aberration. Let's hope they do that and get back on track.

Abbreviated links:

• So, I never read this or any other article about the game last week, but it was so bad. Worse than the historic Alamo Bowl collapse. Worse than the Cameron Colvin fumble in the end zone in 2007. It was like a scary clown ripping off your own face to reveal that you are in fact a clown, too.
• Herbert Heisman Temperature Level: FILE NOT FOUND
• Know Your Opponent: Cal is coached by former Duck Justin Wilcox. Key quote: "Force Herbert to go deep and go often and TAKERS will take care of the rest."
• The Unis!: Oregon Ducks 2.0 debut of the white uniforms with chrome helmets.

#19 (really?) vs. #24. #Pac12AfterDark - will anyone be watching?

Game time is 7:30 PM PDT on FS1. Justin Kutcher, DeMarco Murray (wasn't it only yesterday that he was playing for the Eagles?!) and Petros Papadakis will be on the call. Keep the mute button handy.

Fantasy Hoops is Back

Cards on Cards Fantasy Basketball 2018-19! 

[UPDATE: We have one open slot if anyone is interested.]

I renewed the fantasy basketball league the other day in anticipation of the NBA season beginning soon. Renewing the league means that everyone from the previous season is automatically added back. If you were part of this last season and do not wish to participate, please let me know soon.

I will be giving out a prize once again to the winner. (I completely spaced on it last season, so Brandon has a prize blaster coming to him soon.)

I am planning on setting the draft for the evening of Sunday 10/14, likely early-ish west coast time so that east coast folks aren't up too late. Of course, you don't have to be present to draft.

Changes? Should we make some? A couple of items discussed via email and the league message board include adding 2 more teams, and making it a keeper league. If you have any thoughts, feel free to comment here, email me and/or join the discussion over on the league message board. I plan on finalizing all of the rules for the league in the next week or so.

A World of Sports

A multi-sports bounty from @batcavelv includes my first head coach autograph. 

I've been trying to engage a little more with Twitter when it comes to cards lately, even though I still haven't completely figured out how to use it most effectively. People I follow post cards for sale on occasion, and one that really caught my eye was a Dana Altman autograph from the 2011 Upper Deck World of Sports set. Altman was and still is the Ducks head basketball coach, someone who has consistently found ways to maximize the talents of his roster no matter who is on the team. Tracy (of Tracy's Box Breaks, and a good Twitter follow) had the card for sale for a reasonable price.

I'm not much of an autograph person (I find the whole thing slightly weird, which is a topic for another time), but I still get roped in from time to time. It's a sticker auto (boooo!), but how many college coach autographs do you really see, especially from someone who isn't (yet?) in the Hall of Fame or anything.

I've participated in a number of Tracy's breaks this year, but this time he sent over a bunch of cards from my various collections. I had never seen anything from this playing card style set from 1990 before. It's brand new to me.

I have an uncut box from the 1984 Topps Stickers set, where these box cards are found, but I am not great with scissors and haven't hacked it to bits yet. Along with Hendrick here, I also have Lonnie Smith... as soon as I decide to take the plunge.

This is one of those cards from one of those hobby shop promotions that I never get a chance to participate in. There are no real card shops in Portland. A visit to a hobby shop means a trip to the suburbs, and basically wasting my entire day. I'm up for it, occasionally, but it's rare.

I'm getting vibes from the past two Cardinals World Series winning teams (hooray, 2011!) with this year's club. But things are also very different from those past teams, as they tend to be. This will be an interesting rest of the week.

Waino will save us!

No problem, guys!

Finally, here's what is now the oldest Yadi card in my collection. He's in his 15th major league season now, and is still running things.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 4: Defeat The Tree

Conference play begins with the biggest of games. 

This is it. Tonight, the Ducks hit the Autzen Stadium turf for arguably their biggest game since Marcus Mariota's Heisman Trophy season. After a fairly listless outing against San Jose State, Oregon remains unscathed heading into conference play where their first real test is a game against the Stanford Cardinal.

Before I get into anything about tonight's game, let's just pause for a minute and remember that The Tree is terrible. The Tree is garbage. The Tree sucks. Someone actually documented all of the names of the people have have dawned The Tree garb, and I kind of feel bad for all of them.

The Ducks have done well against the run so far this season, and will be put to the test against Bryce Love tonight. Love returned for his senior season after winning the Doak Walker Award, but has started slowly so far. They didn't look especially good or even motivated defending the pass last week, but there's hope that a top ten opponent will bring the best out of the Oregon defense.

Since the conference expanded, Stanford has been a constant thorn in the side of the Ducks, so (recent-ish) history should be a factor here as well. Oregon should want to beat Stanford. They should want to beat them badly. The talent seems to be on Oregon's side, but the biggest questions always seem to remain unanswered until a team like this faces quality competition. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but I'm hoping for an entertaining game.

Some links:

• Oregon has a new backup QB, but it's mostly because their old backup QB got hurt. Justin Herbert is not allowed to get hurt.
• A history of ESPN's College GameDay in Eugene begs the question - will Corso don the Duck head?!
• Herbert Heisman Temperature Level: Lukewarm. Check back next week.
• Know Your Opponent: Stanford is ready for Autzen madness and is using jet engine noise to simulate the anticipated crowd noise.
• The Unis!: Green! The best.

#20 hosts #7, with ESPN's College GameDay in town for the 11th time in Eugene history. This should be fun!


Game time is 5:00 PM PDT on ABC. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Maria Taylor are on the call. Go Ducks!

A Big Box of Bo Cards

 
@BoRosny, not Bo Jackson. 

Right before the big blog anniversary group break, long time blogger Bo of Baseball Cards Come To Life! contacted me about trade involving a vintage project he had going. I cobbled together what I could, vintage-wise, and made sure Bo had a sizable package coming back in the group break. The sheer volume of what I got back was crazy, though!

Check these stacks of (mostly) '00s set building fodder! Great stuff. I don't see a lot of cards from these sets in trade packages anymore, now that there's more than a decade between these sets and the present day.

Let's look back into the past at some of these.

Ooh, a Bowman exclusive rookie card? What does that even mean? Tell me, Omar Infante!

Here's Jason Isringhausen, not long before he became the Cardinals closer for the mid-'00s years.

It's FOX broadcaster Eric Karros. Karros was coming up right when my interest in cards was dying out.

It's Tim Raines... Jr? Huh.

Besides the wonderfully black & white 2001 Bowman Heritage set, there were cards from other sets. Like this guy. Bear Bay is the name. Baseball on the sun is his game.

2002 Bowman Heritage brought us the weird signature box, but The Big Hurt isn't fazed about it.

1953 Topps is such a nice design.

Hey, it's the recently deposed Cardinals skipper in a Giants uniform!

Speaking of Cardinals, Bo included a healthy share of Cardinals for my team collecting needs (aka the biggest needs). It doesn't appear that I had a first year (2006) Allen Craig card in my collection, so this is certainly cool.

Speaking of cool, I am always pleased to add another Jim Edmonds card to my collection. And yet, I need so much more!

I always thought @ithrow88 was one of the best Twitter names.

One thing I have discovered in trying to figure out what was going on with cards in the long period of time where I didn't care about cards is that Tino Martinez had a lot of Cardinals cards. That surprises me, for some reason.

We end with a Finest card, which was in its 9th year at this point. Did they still have the protective coating for this set? I always want to peel that stuff off, but I don't for some reason.

Pure Something

Well, it's clear! 

Here's something I paid way too much virtual money for on Listia. As much as I complain about Panini baseball and their lack of logos and such, at least they are able to identify the team that you are supposed to imagine the player is playing for. Leaf and other unlicensed companies of their ilk can only say, "Hey, here's a guy we hope you recognize! Cool?"

This is one of those thick clear acetate cards that I am a sucker for, so I finally took the bait after it had been listed on the site for months. Flaherty has been an exciting player to watch in his first full season in the Cardinals rotation, though it's a little odd to see him here in a nondescript uniform swinging a bat. Hopefully this is the right Jack Flaherty.

Officially official. And authentic. Because they said so.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 3: The Other Spartans

Oregon has a final non-conference tune-up before the big prime time ABC game. 

As discussed last week, the Ducks non-conference schedule was less than stellar this year. On the other hand, it is probably ideal for this year's team, considering their coaching situation and need to show some significant improvement in order to get back to their status of perennial favorites that they enjoyed earlier in the decade. I'm heading down to Eugene in person to see Oregon play the San Jose State Spartans today, because tickets for these sorts of games are pretty affordable.

The (other) Spartans were shut out by fellow Pac-12 North school Washington State last week, which doesn't bode well for their chances here. The Ducks offense seems to be returning to juggernaut status under the guidance of suddenly top something NFL pick Justin Herbert, and there's been bright spots on D as well. I wouldn't expect a shutout again today (who actually expects a shutout in any football game?), but I do think Oregon will outpace the Cougars 31 from last week.

Things are nice now. The only real drama in Oregon football are the grumblings about backup quarterback Braxton Burmeister, who had limited action in the first two games despite the lopsided scores. Most fans are concerned that the team is a Herbert injury away from utter doom, because... well, last year? It's a concern. The hope is that the Ducks can put away San Jose State early, and (again) see what they may have in Burmeister. It definitely seems hard to throw a backup QB into the kind of situation where you don't really want to pass the ball, and actually be able to understand what they could do in a close game situation.

In other news, here are some links:

• A Reno newspaper/website isn't too thrilled about San Jose State continuing to be in the Mountain West. They were part of the big college conference migration earlier in the decade, moving over from the WAC.
• Ugo is the guy to watch for me, and also Ken Goe, one of our state newspaper/website's long tenured guys. Is there a better term for "newspaper/website" these days?
• He's only seventeeeeeeeen! [insert guitar riff]
• Know Your Opponent: "Emo Night brings rager to SJ" - sometimes the headline says it all.
• The Unis!: Not officially announced yet (as of "press time"), but this is a "Wear Black" game so I would expect black, since the unis matched the fan commandment the past two weeks. [Update: Yep, black.]

The Ducks smashed their last Mountain West opponent, last season, and were ranked in the Top 25 and then... things got dark. Let's hope for a better end result this season.

Game time is 2:00 PM PDT on the Pac-12 Network. Roxy Bernstein, Anthony Herron and Lewis Johnson probably have their own barstools at Rennie's by this point.