Am I Ready For Some Football?

First off, let me apologize for the lack of cards to illustrate my point. I couldn't find a single Panthers card in my collection nor do I really have much of anything released after 1991. I could have probably filled up an entire post with Steve DeBerg and Willie "Flipper" Anderson cards (or really anything from the Tecmo Super Bowl era) but, much like those cards have negative cash value, this entire blog would probably fall into some sort of uncomfortable bizarro world where people were trading graded Pete Incaviglia and Kevin Mitchell rookie cards like hotcakes and everyone would be cursing their fate at failing to attract TTM autographs of Hall of Famer Kevin Seitzer.

Anyway, I've come to a decision regarding where my fandom and attention goes to with the NFL this year. This is edge-of-the-seat stuff, I know. For starters, I've decided I really can't root against the Eagles no matter how crappy of a decision it was to bring the felon into the fold. That being said, I also won't root for them, especially if that guy is on the field. I can root against the player, but not against the team. At least, not yet. I'll let things play themselves out and see how I feel later on in the season and in next. You will definitely not see me rooting for #7 in an Eagles jersey no matter how the season turns out, though. Besides that, I think it's a laughable idea that he will be an important piece of a playoff-bound team at all.

In more of a curiosity matter than anything else, I have also decided to endorse another team and possibly follow them instead. I'm doing this mostly because I know I will have a hard time not watching football when it's on, and at least I'll be able to pick sides when certain teams are playing rather than stare at the TV in confusion and curse the fate of the Eagles under my breath. I eliminated a lot of candidates (NFC East teams were instantly ruled out, as were the 49ers, Raiders and Patriots) before finally settling on the Carolina Panthers. I've always liked this team a little bit since they first came into the league and they currently have ex-Duck Jonathan Stewart at running back, though he tends to split time with DeAngelo Williams. I think that Stewart will eventually be a featured back and superstar, so I'm hoping he doesn't have to be in a "timeshare" situation much longer.

I also decided to adopt an AFC team just for kicks, which ended up being the Denver Broncos. I was never a John Elway fan, though I did get a little caught up in the wave of their late-'90s run for reasons I cannot even comprehend. Terrell Davis seemed to come from out of nowhere to become a bruising 2000-yard rusher, so at least there was that. This year's version of the Broncos features longtime Eagles backup RB Correll Buckhalter and the former heart and soul of Philly, Brian Dawkins. Kyle Orton stars as the quarterback that no one wanted, especially not his own former team. It could be a fun season, I suppose.

The first game is tonight and I know I won't be watching. It's Tennessee vs. Pittsburgh and it's definitely not worth taping, in my opinion. At least I'll have a couple of positive things to hold my interest should I decide to tune in on Sundays. It beats watching a game simply to root against somebody, doesn't it?

Bernie's Golden Rainbow and Two Cardinals

If you happen to have read some of my pack break posts lately, especially elsewhere, you've probably noticed that I'm on a bit of a mid-'90s kick. 1994 began my "lost era" in sports, as I had recently started college and paid little attention to anything sportswise that didn't involve the Ducks. Eventually, I returned to being a casual sports fan, but I did not return to sports cards until sometime around 2005. Hence, no matter how cruddy a set is, I'm pretty intrigued by low-priced mid-'90s stuff that probably sits around in basements and storage spaces across the country, with packs half-glued together from being exposed to too much heat at one time or another. This is when everything became glossy and every set tried to outdo the previous one.

Here's a pack of 1994 Stadium Club Series 3:

597 - Otis Nixon (Another fun thing about these packs is that I get to find out fun stuff like that Otis Nixon played for Boston.)

691 - Rick Sutcliffe (And then there's Sutcliffe, who most people probably think of as a Cub. I do it, too. I would have to say that Sutcliffe is on Erin's shortlist of broadcasters that she does not care for.)

663 - Mark Leiter

574 - Tom Glavine (This design is just... wow. The name plates look like they could be from the title sequence from an early season of The Real World.)

666 - Will Clark (This one is going out the door as fast as it got in my hands.)

629 - Carlos Delgado Rookie Rocker (Unfortunately, when I see "ROCKER" on a baseball card I can't help but only think of one guy.)

543 - Lee Smith Active All-Time Career Leader (Should be in the Hall. I voted for him!)

699 - Jeff Cirillo

- Stadium Club Membership Form

573 - Bernie Williams (Bernie is one of my all-time favorite Yankees, along with Don Mattingly and Reggie Jackson.)

591 - Geronimo Berroa

573 - Bernie Williams Golden Rainbow (Hey, this looks familiar. I'm not exactly sure what a golden rainbow would look like, but Topps certainly gave it a shot with these, which I'm guessing are one-per-pack inserts.)

586 - Bob Tewksbury (A very underrated pitcher when he was good.)

Allen & Ginter Blaster: Pack Wars

I'm trying to get the bitter taste out of my mouth from last night's Duck debacle. It's been the top story all over the sports world, so I won't rehash it here. Instead, I present you with another Allen & Ginter blaster that I purchased recently. Erin and I decided to play a little game of pack wars as she bought a matching blaster. I don't have her cards in front of me, so you won't see scans of her stuff, but I do have the list of what she got to compare to.

We went with a fairly arbitrary and convoluted set of rules, which weighs rarity of inserts heavily and gives some bonus to Cardinals cards, of course. It's no Gint-a-Cuffs, that's for sure.

Pack 1:

159 - Denard Span

126 - Trevor Crowe (RC)

120 - Edwin Moreno (RC) (I saw this guy make a start for the Portland Beavers this year. He pitched really well, but was removed after 5 innings or so, probably due to being on a pitch count or something.)

340 - Richard Gatling (SP)

86 - Michael Cuddyer Mini

NP60 - Stephen Drew National Pride

(Erin counters with: 300 David Ortiz, 31 Nick Markakis, 270 Josh Outman, 337 Billy Butler (SP), HHB15 - Bathtub Hoax, NP62 Ryan Braun National Pride.)

Verdict: We both get SPs and Erin gets an insert card while I don't. Erin takes the pack.

Pack 2:

179 - Trevor Hoffman

107 - Bryan Berg (Card stacker. He must have been a very bored child.)

56 - Daniel Murphy

270 - Josh Outman (RC)

269 - Brian McCann Mini

NP61 - Mark Teahen National Pride

- Crack the Ginter code ad

(Erin's pack: 217 Jorge Cantu, 190 B.J. Upton, 234 Wyatt Earp, 120 Edwin Moreno, NH31 William Tell National Heroes, NP60 Stephen Drew National Pride)

Verdict: Once again I get no non-National Pride inserts while Erin gets the William Tell card. Erin leads 2-0.

Pack 3:

150 - Prince Fielder

83 - Ludwig Van Beethoven

188 - Chris Davis

303 - Rocco Baldelli (SP)

275 - Vladimir Guerrero Mini A&G Back

NP62 - Ryan Braun National Pride

(Erin's pack: 67 Ian Kinsler, 199 James McDonald, 42 Mark Buehrle, 317 John Baker (SP), EA1 Velociraptor (!!!) Extinct Creatures, NP60 Stephen Drew National Pride)

Verdict: The velociraptor is awesome and may even be the coolest card you can get from this stuff. Erin wins again by a large margin.

Pack 4 (Mutant Pack Alert!):

16 - Josh Johnson Mini A&G Back (Bad scan by me. There was a border on the right side that got eaten up by computers.)

84 - Justin Upton

195 - Kevin Kouzmanoff (With a badly bent corner. Every mutant pack seems to have its casualty.)

98 - Josh Whitesell (RC)

215 - Jed Lowrie Code Parallel

333 - Nick Swisher Mini A&G Back (SP)

NP63 - Carlos Beltran National Pride

(Erin's pack: 8 Matt Cain, 197 Jhonny Peralta, 21 Robinson Cano(e), AGHS8 Derek Jeter sketch card, 75 David Wright Mini A&G Back, NP59 Miguel Cabrera National Pride)

Verdict: It's close, but I finally get on the board. It took a mutant pack to do it, though. Erin leads 3-1.

Pack 5:

288 - Joe Saunders

32 - Jeremy Bonderman

278 - Herb Simpson

339 - Jordan Schafer (RC) (SP)

NP64 - Francisco Liriano National Pride

(Erin counters with: 256 Jose Lopez, 10 Chone "Figgy" Figgins, 20 Adam Jones, 329 Carlos Gomez, 159 Denard Span Black Mini, NP58 Derek Jeter National Pride)

Verdict: Well, this one was stacked against me to begin with. The downside of getting a mutant pack is that the next pack tends to balance it out. No mini for me and a nice black bordered mini for Erin. Erin leads it 4-1 and the best I can do now is tie.

Pack 6:

144 - Joakim Soria

287 - James Shields

151 - Cole Hamels

AGHS10 - Jim Thome Baseball Highlights sketch card (Argh, I already have one of these!)

82 - Justin Verlander Black Mini

NP65 - Carlos Delgado National Pride

(Erin's: 91 Alex Gordon, 79 Electron, 292 Oliver Perez, 7 John Smoltz code parallel, 41 Victor Martinez Mini A&G Back, NP57 Victor Martinez)

Verdict: At first look this one is a toss-up. Erin got the V-Mart special and I ended up with a sketch card I already have and one of my favorite parallels, the black bordered mini. We'll leave this as a tie for now. Erin leads 4-1-1.

Pack 7:

100 - Ichiro Suzuki

108 - Alamo

247 - Jeff Clement (Erin is still waiting for his autograph to come in the mail. Still.)

309 - Kosuke Fukudome (SP)

LMT10 - Dragon (!!) Creatures of LM&T

NP66 - Joba Chamberlain National Pride (Joba is a bit of a creature in his own right.)

(Erin's pack: 242 Mark Teahen, 55 Alex Rios, 259 Napoleon Bonaparte, 321 Kelly Shoppach (SP), 144 Joakim Soria Mini, NP56 Edinson Volquez National Pride)

Veridct: My dragon conquers all. Erin's lead is cut to 4-2-1.

Pack 8:

271 - Jair Jurrjens

237 - Walton Glenn Eller

AGR-TL - Tim Lincecum Framed Relic (Jackpot! Uh oh, Erin loves this guy...)

NH12 - Alexander Nevsky National Heroes

NP67 - Adrian Gonzalez National Pride

- Ginter code ad thing

(Erin's Asian-themed pack: 268 Andy Pettitte, 169 Kazuo Matsui, 244 Carlos Beltran, 139 Daisuke Matsuzaka, 35 Geovany Soto Mini, NP55 Kosuke Fukudome National Pride)

Verdict: Unfortunately for Erin, she does not get a relic in her pack. This puts the final tally at 4-3-1, still a win for Erin. We decided to go back and review the pack that was a tie and go card by card, which also resulted in a tie.

Erin wins this edition of pack wars! It's debatable as to whether or not my box was better, but this is pack wars and not blaster wars. The sad thing is that neither of us got a single Cardinals card in our boxes. Thanks for playing... or, rather, thanks for putting up with us.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 1: Revenge

It's that time again! After listening to nearly an entire summer of college football talk, all of the endless amounts of speculation, anticipation, conjecture, rhetoric, hype, tempering of expectations, bravado, humility and borderline insanity culminate in a football game played between two teams that hate each other on a field painted in the wrong color in a state known primarily for its potato exports. Do I care to make a prediction? More than any other sport I follow closely, a team's college football season simply cannot be predicted until the team steps out on the field. There's far too much player turnover, and in Oregon's case this season, even a new head football coach.

Oregon's opening game against Michigan State 11 seasons ago, to me, was one of the biggest turning points in their program. Many point to the unlikely Rose Bowl appearance in 1994, followed up by a (better) Cotton Bowl team in 1995, but those teams couldn't score. Without having any real expectations or any idea of how this team was going to perform, Ruben Droughns and Akili Smith flattened a highly touted Michigan State team at Autzen Stadium in 1998 and have been known for their offensive prowess ever since. It was a jaw-dropping game to me, seeing a junior college transfer run around like they were playing 11-on-6. Droughns suffered a major injury later that season, but rebounded for a solid senior season and has hung around the NFL ever since.

Tonight's game is a bit of a revenge game. Boise State took a couple of cheap shots at the Ducks, giving QB Jeremiah Masoli a concussion in the process and generally smacked the team around on their own field. Hopefully the Ducks will get their revenge on the scoreboard, and not in the dirty tactics that the Broncos use (though I wouldn't mind seeing these guys get hit a bit.) The game will be on national TV tonight (ESPN) at 7:15 PDT. And, yes, I actually took a vacation day to watch this as I normally work nights.

And thus begins another season of Good Luck Ducks. Admit it: you missed it, didn't you?

Cards on Cards 250th Post Spectacular

I couldn't think of a good title for this post, so I was just going to go with whatever post number this was supposed to be and call it good. It would have been a lot funnier if this was, let's say, my 257th post. I had no idea that the number I chose would seem somewhat significant. I've never really been one to talk about personal blogging milestones or anything like that. (Incidentally, I don't count my want list posts as real posts, so if you're doing the math and you actually come up with 257, that's what happened here.)

If this blog was a TV sitcom, this would be a clip show. Instead, you get to see some cards I picked up at the old hobby shop the other day when I should have been shopping for supplies.

First up is my first ever 2002 Bowman Heritage card. I have no special affinity for Tino Martinez. I just wanted a card from this set. It looks like he signs his name Constable Hertz.

I guess Topps D3 is their answer to Sportflics, except that nothing "moves" on these cards. They're hard to understand. After scanning the image, it looks like the quality of an early-'90s GIF image file.

I really like the 1973 Topps design. It just looks exactly like the era it represents to me. And I like the little player symbols in the corner. I've seen others who are less than glowing about this set. This one was only a quarter and was in pretty good shape.

These Upper Deck "retro" cards that failed to actually use old-style cardboard stock are not very interesting to me. I felt compelled to buy it, however, because it seems like the retired Cardinals players that you can get in current sets are mostly limited to Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, with perhaps the occasional Hornsby or Ozzie card.

Here's an extremely flimsy Donruss insert that was marked down from $4 to $1. It's probably worth far less than that. I was always a big Matt Morris fan.

I picked up 4 Pujols cards for $1 a piece that I'm pretty sure I don't own already. I don't understand an "update" set that looks nothing like the set it's supposedly trying to update.

This is not my favorite photo, but it's a pretty decent looking card if you can overlook the fact that his legs fade away just below the knees.

Here's Pujols from the 2006 Topps Heritage set. He looks pretty ghostly.

If Donruss and Upper Deck ever collaborated on a card design, do you think the universe would eventually implode on itself? There would be lines and mirrors everywhere, and eventually the ball players would fall into some sort of baseball card black hole. I'm not way off base here, am I?

Finally, there were a couple of Ozzie Smith cards to add to the Ozzie binder.

Ozzie is attempting the rare behind-the-back no-look low five.

I've got some more trades in the offing that I'll post about in the coming days. Thanks to everyone who has contacted me recently about sending me/trading me cards.

Ordinary Average Trade

One thing I have to continuously tell myself is that, no matter how starved for blogging ideas I seem to be, I really do not (and should not) have to write about every single pack I purchase. For example, last Saturday I picked up a solo 2009 Heritage pack to go along with my requisite Allen & Ginter blaster at a local Fred Meyer's. The pack ended up being extremely unnoteworthy, falling into that rare range of suck where you do not get an insert nor a short printed card. I do not need to write about that pack! I believe I got at least a couple of cards I need for the set, but since it is not February and no one is eager to see what these cards look like anymore, I feel like I can safely file the cards into the rest of my collection.

I do, however, want to write about every package I receive from those that I trade with and those that just send something to me just for kicks. I recently got a package from The Average Joe, containing my first ever Ring of Honor insert card as well as a handful of 2008 and 2009 Heritage cards from my want lists.

Among the few 2008 needs was this Matt Morris black back card. I'm doing pretty well on the regular set all of a sudden (and thanks to many traders, of course) but I'm now realizing that I have some serious holes in the High Series department. I'm thinking of actually buying a hobby box when I can afford it again since apparently they're in the $40 range.

Johan Santana joined the other 34 Mets this year that are injured and have probably convened on the Empire State's biggest all-summer-long pool party by now instead of playing baseball.

It's official! The Youth of America love Evan Longoria. He even has an antiquated trophy to prove it.

Thanks again to The Average Joe, who by now should have received a heaping helping of Topps base cards from his want lists.

A Staggering Mess of Cardinals

It was about a month ago that I read that one of the finer sports card blogs out there was going on hiatus for awhile. I later came home from work that very same night to find a very large and very generous package from the blog's proprietor, Matt of Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius. Matt also runs the very excellent A Pack to be Named Later, to which I am one of the many contributors. The sheer quantity and quality of the cards that I received made writing this post very intimidating, which has a lot to do with why it took me more than a month to write about it. I could probably break this up into about 7 posts, but then I wouldn't finish this off until sometime next March and I really need to get these cards organized and placed into the rest of my collection.

I am sorely lacking in early-to-mid '80s traded set cards, which makes this John Tudor extra special to me. When I first started collecting, the Vince Coleman rookies from the '85 traded sets were pretty much unbuyable in my budget, but now the most difficult thing for me would be tracking down people who have broken up factory sets of this stuff. (Which reminds me... I need to keep working on my want lists.)

This card is refractor-like when shown in the light, which of course isn't captured by my scanner. But it looks really cool nonetheless. These were apparently random inserts in hobby 2004 Topps packs.

This is great. An Allen & Ginter short printed mini from a year where A&G cards are difficult (for me) to get.

This one is a borderless die cut parallel from 2007 Fleer. I wonder how Matt Holliday sleeps at night knowing he is wearing Jimmy's #15.

Once again, '90s baseball card hilarity has left me speechless!

I really like getting minor league cards, and there's an extremely low chance that I actually have them already. It's even better when it's a player I've actually heard of.

This set wastes entire too much card surface on something other than the photo. Motte has really struggled this year and looks nothing like the crazed fireballer that he did late last season and even the beginning of this one.

Here's a Yadi chrome card that I needed for my collection. I bet Erin steals it.

Matt sent along some Ozzie cards, including three that I did not have. O-Pee-Chee had distanced themselves from the copycat Topps design by this point in 1994.

This is an amazing looking card. The dark blue goes great with Ozzie's road uniform. These are numbered to 125. I already own a red framed Chris Carpenter Masterpieces card, so this will go great with it.

Even more generosity! This is a framed Scott Rolen jersey relic type thing from the 2007 Allen & Ginter set. I'm starting to really like these. They're kind of weird, but they're very beautiful (if sports cards can be beautiful.)

And here's a bat card of my favorite Cardinal of this decade. I'm not sure what I did exactly to deserve all of this, but I'm definitely not going to complain. I don't have a lot of bat cards, so they're always appreciated.

I probably should have gone out on that high note with the Edmonds card, but here's an always appeciated autograph of someone I've never heard of. He's wearing the Birds on the Bat, though, so that's good enough for me. Apparently he never made it past AA while the DNA tests are still under wraps to determine whether or not he's related to Kyle Farnsworth.

Thanks again to Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius! I will have to put together another package to send over soon.