Football Week 4: Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

       I had a very long, tiresome week.  It was punctuated by a Friday night so weird that I should write a screenplay about it someday.  All of this odd activity kept me from posting and for that I will apologize.  Today, Sunday, is the day of rest and it is my first day in seven to actually relax.   

To keep up with my once-a-week pigskin subject, I will post one of my favorite pages in my football books (I have several pages like this in my baseball collection).  It features famous superstar players in what can only be described in the "wrong" jersey. 

Ronnie Lott on the Jets?  John Unitas on the Chargers?  O.J. Simpson on the 49ers?  This page is like some kind of bizarro photo negative.  What's fun is, you can look at this page and quickly name the correct team right away and most of the pictures make you say "he played for that team?!? When?!?" 

I will gear up for some regular posts this week as the baseball season winds down and the playoffs rev up. 

Football Week 3: ELIte.

     I don't have a lot of time to post today, seeing how my forth coming huge breakfast of pancakes and bacon isn't going to eat itself and then I have a birthday party to go to (and god forbid I actually write these early).  But I am going to address my feelings on a player I have come around on after many years: Eli Manning.

I have always rooted for Eli; I am a younger brother myself and I know what it is like to try and live up to your older sibling.  I always wanted to see him succeed.  But his progress as a player was maddening.  He would look brilliant one game and like he had never seen a football before in another.  Even when he won the first Super Bowl, it was more because of the defense and blind luck than any extraordinary skill on his part.

Ahhhhhh, but the key word in that last sentence is "first" - it is easy to luck your way into one Super Bowl, but two?  That is highly unlikely (Jim Plunkett not withstanding).  Eli has become one of those players that makes every one around him better.  His calm demeanor makes everyone else around him relax.  And Eli is at his best when the stakes are highest, which is a trait shared by some of the truly great quarterbacks of all time (Joe Montana, Bart Starr).

Any lingering doubts anyone could have had about Eli and his skill and his place on the team and even his place in the pecking order of quarterbacks should have been put to rest on Thursday.  Without a starting RB and missing his 1st WR, he dismantled the Panthers.  He made Ramses Barden(!) look great.  Barden has been buried on the depth chart for 3 years, and when his time came, he made the most of it and Eli made him believe.  And now I believe, completely.  Eli has gone from being ridiculed by his veteran teammates to having his teammates ready to run through walls for him.  Eli is no longer compared to Peyton.  Eli is his own man with his own skill set and what is quickly developing into a Hall of Fame resume.  I don't know if he is the best quarterback in the league (Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady) and I don't know if he ever will be.  I don't think that matters.  I was wrong about Eli Manning, heck, most of us were.  His personality is "aw, shucks" and his body language is almost comatose, but on the field, he is a stone cold killer and best of all, a winner.

Trade With Stackhouse at Tim Wallach blog. aka Goals.

       You gotta have goals.  Long term, short term, midterm, it is always best to have something to aim for.  Not to get into deeper life lessons here, I will specifically apply this concept to a card collection.  Your collection can get out of hand real quick, both in terms of size and scope, if you don't know what you are trying to accomplish with it.  I have narrowed my collection in recent years to a very personal group of criteria.  But not everyone wants to narrow their collections down.  Some people want to expand and grow.  I respect that.  I envy that, in a way.

       There is one collector who has a vision I think we all should envy.  We all have favorite teams and players that we like to collect en masse.  This collector I am speaking of is a fan of Tim Wallach, former third baseman for the Expos and Dodgers.  He has a simple goal: collect all his cards.  And I don't mean one of each of his cards, I mean ALL his cards.  There is a fine line between madness and genius, I believe J Corey Stackhouse straddles this line perfectly. 

After finding his blog and immediately embracing his audacity, I sent him an email praising his insanity and promised him I would comb my collection for every Tim Wallach card I could find.  While I only found 14 of them, it was a nice mix of rookies and oddballs and Stackhouse reciprocated by sending me a nice selection of Mets and Saints cards:

I mean, how can you go wrong with a shiny David Wright and a vintage Gil Hodges?  Short answer: you can't.  And the hit parade continues with more shiny of Mike Pelfrey (that is a refractor, trust me) and Lucas Duda.  I really should collect the entire Mets set of those 2011 Topps Diamond cards.  They bring shiny to a whole new level.  Also here are some nouveau Gary Carters and Tom Seavers - a couple nice additions to two of my favorite players to collect (though I couldn't dream of collection all of their cards).   Plus, I love vague Mets stickers and that Panini is one I do not have.  Sweet.

Wait, there is more:

Stackhouse said he was going to come up with some of my Rookie Cup needs, but he only found one.  One is always enough if you don't have it.  There are a couple more oblong Mets inserts there that I am not sure if I have, but will go in the team book regardless.  Rounding out the package were some recent Saints cards that I did not yet have.  I didn't even know Topps did an Attax for football.  The caption on the Marques Colston insert is "Ringmaster of Offensive Circus" OK, sure.

I will now implore all my readers: please check out Stackhouse's blog.  Please search your collections and help him with his goal.  His chutzpah alone should be an inspiration to us all.  You gotta have goals, even if they are crazy.  Nothing is impossible.  Thanks, Corey!

The Failure Files: Vince Young.

       Welcome to The Failure Files.  I am fascinated with players that everyone thinks will hit it big and somehow miss (and miss big).  I have more than a few pages of such players.  I keep them as a reminder of the fragility of the human condition and as a warning of the dangers of the dreaded label 'potential.'

I was all set to begin this series with an obvious choice: Ryan Leaf.  I had his page scanned and the post written in my head all ready to spill out onto the screen.  It was low hanging fruit I was ready to bite.  But then this week another player hit the headlines and has become yet another cautionary tale in the world of sports.  So I am going to shift gears and be topical and instead start off with Vince Young.

       Vince Young should need no introduction to even the most passive sports fan.  He was one of the most dynamic college football players of his, or maybe, any generation.  He had all the moves, he had style, and he had drive (at least he seemed to).  His signature moment was in 2005-06.  After the Heisman Trophy results were announced in late 2005, Young lost to Reggie Bush.  He then showed the voters what they missed.  In the 2006 Rose Bowl - the national championship game that year - he dominated a game in a way I have never seen before and we might never see again.  He accounted for 467 yards of total offense, scored three touchdowns, and scored the winning TD on a bootleg with 19 seconds to play.  It was a virtuoso performance.  Vince Young was on top of the world. He was the third pick of the 2006 draft.  He signed a contract for $26 million guaranteed.  He was handed the keys to the Tennessee Titans.  Everything should have come up roses for Vince.

But obviously, they didn't.  His low Wonderlic score (6! maybe 16, either way, pretty low) seemed to foreshadow some very poor decisions to come.  His work ethic was shaky.  He made headlines by being out on the town and missing team meetings and curfews.  He won some games, but not enough to impress his coach. He got hurt.  He did not knock anyone out with his rehab habits.  He found himself on the bench.  Did he work harder?  Nope.  More ups and downs followed him.  He eventually got released and backed up Michael Vick for a year in Philly.  Then this year, he got cut by the Buffalo Bills in the preseason.  If there is a more fitting metaphor for hitting rock bottom than "getting cut by the Bills," I don't know what it is.

Now Vince Young can't even find a job in the CFL, a league where his skills would seem to fit perfectly.  This speaks as much to his attitude as to his talent.  I was rooting for him; through all his ups and downs, I saw more than a couple glimpses of brilliance in his play.  And even through all his issues, he didn't seem like a bad guy.  I don't recall him being arrested or saying anything completely asinine and foolish.

Vince Young is not the first player to have "too much too soon" but he seems to be a prime shining example of it. And he certainly wouldn't be the first player to flame out when everyone seemed so certain he would succeed.  But there is a second layer to his failure.  His failure to himself and his family.  It also turns out Vince Young is flat broke.  How do you go through $26 million in less than 7 years?  You would have to spend $7000 a day every day and have nothing to show for it.  And this does not take in to account any endorsement deals and what not (of which there were plenty).  He trusted the wrong people.  He never thought about the future for a second.  He figured those fat NFL paychecks would roll in forever.  How can you be handed millions of dollars and not set some aside for the future?  It boggles my mind every time I see this story play itself out. 

There have been a ton of players who never amounted to much when so much was expected of them and there have probably been even more who have gone broke due to poor planning.  Very few of them combine that one-two punch of failure as spectacularly and depressingly as Vince Young.

Trade With Kevin at The Great 1965 Topps Project/Orioles Card "O" the Day.

       There was a good five years where I was obsessed with building vintage Topps sets.  Back in the late 90's, when cards were getting all shiny and game-used, I went back to the future and put 80-90% of my collection dollars towards this end.  I found the hunt to be infinitely better than the payoff, though.  Finding the right starter lot, looking at various star cards, tracking down those last few high numbers...this was the part I enjoyed.  At the end of it all, all I got was binders full of old cards - most of which I couldn't care less about.  I sold all my vintage Topps sets a few years ago and never looked back. 

       I still like the idea of building vintage sets, more than the actual act, and I support anyone who enjoys this, as well.  One of the first, if not the first, card blog I stumbled upon way back in 2008 was The Great 1965 Topps Project.  I don't even remember what I was looking for when I found it, I might have followed a link from somewhere else, honestly, I don't recall.  But when I found Kevin's blog, I liked his concept - he wanted to build a vintage set (guess which one) through the kindness of online strangers and only by trades and donations.  I liked it.  At the time, he was very early in the process.  I found a few 1965s I had laying around and sent them to him.  I found his other site and sent him some Orioles cards.  He sent me some Mets cards.  We became very steady trade partners.  I also printed out his wantlist from the 1965 Topps site and when I went to shows, I would pick up cards for him.  I found the hunt again!  I enjoyed the heck out of it.  Over the last 5 years or so, I have sent tons of cards to Kevin for his 1965 set.  Recently, I noticed he as down to four, and a tough four they were - The Mantle, the Niekro, the Longborg rookie, and the Hunter rookie.  These are a formidable group to finish a set.  I had looked for off condition Mantles for the set for a while with no luck.  Then a few months ago, I found a gentleman who had these four cards at a show in White Plains.  Buying them straight out seemed to go against the spirit of Kevin's set building plan, so I worked some emails with the dealer and worked out a trade for the final four.  I then emailed Kevin that I had tracked down his white whale quad.  He was thrilled to hear I had gotten them for him.  We worked out a theoretical trade for them and I got the joy of completing a vintage set without the letdown of "the end."

Knowing my love of the Giants and Saints, Kevin sent me some:

That Andy Robustelli is a beautiful piece of well-loved vintage.  The other two are pretty nice as well, can't go wrong with Sam Huff and Charley Conerly.

The key pieces of the trade were two vintage Rookie All Stars I thought I would never get around to putting in my collection.

To me, the key to all the All Star Rookies is the Willie McCovey.  It is his rookie card and it is an iconic one at that. And now it is mine.  The Billy Williams is also a tough vintage rookie card and pretty spiffy in its own right.  Now I got one of those too.  They will both find their places of honor in my favorite nook of my collection.  Kevin has also promised me more.  The man is very generous.  Altruism is underrated to say the least.  Thanks Kevin!

Football Week 2: Target Practice.

    I am a large man.  Two main reasons have made this reality happen.  Reason number one is genetics - 23 pairs of chromosomes have conspired to make me 6'4", make my shoulders incredibly broad, and give me size 13 feet.  Sadly, those same chromosomes did not give me much speed or grace to utilize that 99th percentile size.  Reason number two is snacks.  Oh lord, I do so love junk food.  Genetics may have given me height and length, but Ben & Jerry, Hershey's, and Hostess have given me girth.  Oh sure, I have tried to give up these things and exercise and what not, but besides being a large man, I am also a lazy man with very low impulse control.  So I don't fight it much anymore.  I am content to buy 3XL shirts and 44 waist pants and be done with it.

       I consider myself a connoisseur of snacks, so much so that some of my friends call me the Snack King.  I like to be on the cutting edge of sugary confections and salty conveniences.  So when I saw this post on Buzzfeed last week combining two of my weaknesses, I made it my mission to have them in hand and report whether their Frankenstein's monster of tastes was a hit or miss.  So I have been to every Target in a 20 mile radius at least three times each in the last week and alas, no luck.  No Candy Corn Oreos for me.  It is this kind of obsession that has kept my sports card collection both a curse and a blessing.  And as you can imagine, that aforementioned lack of impulse control in Target was going to eventually lead me to buying new stuff.  So, once again, it became a "why fight it" moment and at my last stop yesterday, I gave in and bought a couple things in the trading card aisle:

On the left is a 2012 Topps Football box promising me 72 cards and 16 rookies.  On the right is a repack that caught my eye because it had Drew Brees on top.  Having just sorted out my Saints cards, I was 98% certain that I did not have that particular Brees card, and besides, I needed something to distract me from the fact that I had spent the last week searching - in vain - for friggin' cookies.  So that repack promising me "Extreme Value" an "unopened pack" and "1 Helmet Card" (whatever that is) found its way into my hands as well.

Let's look at that unopened pack first:

Oh repacks, you promise so much and deliver so little.  If you do not recognize that right away, that is 1990 Fleer, one of the most overproduced of the overproduction era.  Like every other kid back then, I opened a fuckton of this stuff (it's an industry term).  One thing I never noticed on the wrapper before is the offer for a 1990 Fleer Football Collector's Pin.  I wonder if there was a run on these things or if there is a warehouse somewhere in Philly with a million of these things still inside.

Let's do a quick Pack a Day/A Pack to Be Named Later run down of these:

The 1990 Fleer design is not too terrible.  Nice use of team colors and a mutant Lombardi Trophy-esque looking football on front.  You got a Bruce and a Bubba and a couple of Whites. 

These six round out the 15 total cards from the pack:

Here you have the wrong Eddie Murray, Sterling Sharpe (he is considered the "quiet" Sharpe brother), and a dude I never heard of before, but he is a Saint, so I will give him a shout out...Hi Buford Jordan!  I will leave that gray space there as an indicator of the small section of my soul that has been stolen by opening this pack.

On to the highlights of the other cards in the repack:

I like repacks because they are all over the place.  That first card (starting in the upper left) is a Bjorn Nittmo World League card.  Wow.  Those of you who are insomniacs like me will recognize that name from Late Night with David Letterman.  Then you have two extremes in design, the 2011 Rookies and Stars, which uses white space and lines, and the 1995 Fleer, which looks like a painter's palette threw up.  After that, there is a NY Giant, a 1986 Topps Cowboy, and a TO Bowman card from 2000.  I point out that Bowman card because that red and yellow was part of the design; they did not use team colors.  But with the 49ers, that design looks sharp.  On the bottom there are two Score sets from the early 90's.  That 1992 design couldn't look more 90's unless Tiffani Amber Thiessen was on it too.  Then you have Tim Brown.  Tim Brown had a hell of a football career, but in my college circle of friends, Tim Brown has a different meaning.  We used to have Super Techmo Bowl tournaments in the dorms and my friend Kevin would take the Raiders for the "Tim Brown play" which was just him running straight down field and the quarterback would throw it up to him.   You knew Kevin was playing because he would bellow at the top of his lungs "TIM BROWN!!!" throw the ball and just put down the controller.  Years later, although he will probably make the Hall of Fame, all I ever think of when I hear his name is Super Techmo Bowl and the late night screams of my insane, deranged roommate. 

Moving on, group two includes that promised Helmet Card.  It is a card with a thick plastic helmet embedded in it.  It is neither autographed nor serial numbered.  But boy, is it thick.

Running through these.  That Neil O'Donnell Collector's Edge Card is serial numbered 048237.  I hope it's scarcity will help put my grandchildren through college.  Natrone Means is the recipient of one of the best Chris Berman nicknames of all time.  Insufferable as he is, every once in a while he drops one that never gets old and Natrone "Re-fried" Means is one of them.  In that second row, you have a 1988 Topps John Elway, a 1982 Topps Joe Theismann; a couple of near vintage cards that are nice to find in a repack.  Also in that row is Terrell Suggs, who matriculated from Ball So Hard University.  That last row has another Giant (Mark Collins), one of those despicable rookie poses of a despicable player (Desean Jackson), and last but not least, a checklist card from 1996 Pinnacle Summit.  There is no indication, front or back, of what player that is.  Anyone recognize him?  I don't.

Last page of the repack.  Promise:

I am not a Jets fan, but I think D'Brickashaw Ferguson has one of the best names ever.  I got not one but two of his prerookie cards in here.  I also got one of poor Mark Sanchez, who despite last week's fine performance, will still have Tebow breathing down his neck all season.  That second row has "Cadillac" Williams - bad player, great nickname.  Also there is Bubby Brister, who's parents must have known he would be a backup quarterback because no one has ever had a better backup quarterback name.  That last row has yet another UD fake rookie card thing, one of those fantastic old school Action Packed cards which are thick and weird, and say what you want about the 1990 Pro Set, the most über-overproduced set of all time, a lot of the photos were fantastic and that Carl Banks card is no exception.

OK, let's dive into that box of 2012 Topps Football.  Basically, that box is a jumbo pack.  It is even packed inside like one, using cellophane instead of a proper wrapper:

At least it was nested nicely inside of the box so nothing got damaged.  One thing I have noticed about recent blasters is that packs are loose inside and all sorts of dings and creases abound from that.

Let's take a look at what I got:

Right off the bat, I like the design.  It is unique to football, not a riff on the baseball design, which is always a plus.  I don't know why, but the bottom graphic looks like an outtake from a Spiderman logo design brainstorming session.  The photo is nice and big and for the most part, they are pretty sharp.  I am a huge fan of the Chargers' powder blue unis, so it is nice to see those.  It is also nice to see a kicker actually kicking on a card.  I also am glad I got a Gronk card, but it would have been more appropriate if the picture had captured him mid-spike.  Or coming out of the hotel room of a porn star.  Either one.

Let's look at some of those 16 rookies I was promised:

After one week, Robert Griffin III has been anointed.  One week.  Never mind that he was facing the Saints defense or that, you know, it is only one damn week.  OK, I am still bitter, let's move on.  I also got Russell Wilson, who shocked everybody by winning the Seattle QB battle.  Most of the rest of the guys I have barely heard of, though Brandon Boykin has a great alliterate name.  The last row has Darren Sproles, my lone Saints card in the whole pack, Jason Pierre-Paul, a name with three first names, and Cam Newton, whom the Saints take on this afternoon.  Hopefully, they will acquit themselves a little better against him than they did RG3.

Finally, we have the inserts:

A Dan Marino rookie reprint; I always liked that 1984 Topps design.  A few different full bleed shiny cards of Joe Flacco, Dan Fouts and the Patriots receivers that I couldn't care less about (anyone who does, lemme know).  A code card for the latest one of Topps giveaways, that one is available if you want to trade for it as well.  Lastly, there are the Tallboy inserts.  I do not get these at all.  They are based on the 1965 Topps design, which was not the standard 2 ½" x 3 ½" but 2 ½" across and a bizarre 4 11/16 inches tall.  It is one of the all time odd looking sets of all time.  It is a cool design, but the size makes them hard to display and they damage easy.  These inserts are made to the same dimensions as the '65 Topps, but obviously not 4 11/16th inches tall but a little less than 3 ½" and thus much narrower than 2 ½".  All that makes them sort of mini-ish but I wouldn't exactly call them minis.  I cannot decide if I like these or not, but they are certainly different.

Me and My Mini.

Me and my mini,
Strolling down the avenue,
Me and my mini,
Not a soul to tell our troubles to . . .



And when it’s twelve o’clock,
We climb the stair,
We never knock,
For nobody’s there . . .



Just me and my mini,
All alone and feelin’ blue . . .



And when it’s twelve o’clock,
We climb the stair,
We never knock,
For nobody’s there . . .



Just me and my mini,
All alone and feelin’ blue . . .






***

Also acceptable, though slightly more obscure.

Loyalty.

       I am going to judge you...not as a person, mind you, but as a fan.  I am not big on those insipid "rules for fans" articles you will get from hack sportswriters from time to time.  I find there are no "rules" per se for being a sports fan.  You can do what you want; sports is supposed to be a pastime, after all.  But, and we are talking a J-Lo sized but here, the fact that there are no rules does not mean I won't draw opinions from your choices as a fan and then apply them further upon you as a human being. 

       If you have been paying attention at all, you will know that I am a New York Mets fan.  Being a Mets fan is, um, difficult at times.  But they are my team, through (the rarely) thick and (very very) thin.  Liking the Mets is not always easy, but it shows a tremendous amount of patience and fortitude if you are a true Mets fan.  On the other hand, being a Yankees fan requires very little, other than the lack of a soul and a self important attitude based upon entitlement.  The two do not mesh.  If you say you are a Mets fan, I know you aren't a Yankees fan.  If you say you are a Yankees fan, I know that you are both a jerk and that you pity the Mets, and really, that's fine.  But if you say you are a Yankees fan who roots for the Mets, I know you are a milquetoast (at best) and if you say you are a Mets fan who roots for the Yankees, I question your entire understanding of how life works.

       There is a radio talk show host who does AM drive in New York on WFAN, so as not to give him too much exposure, let's just call him Graig Garton.  For full disclosure, I have listened to this blowhard for about a dozen years and know him from back in his 101.5 days, and he was unmistakeably awful then.  But after the Don Imus fiasco five years ago, WFAN made the unfathomable choice of giving this jackass a bigger audience.  While his grating voice and sub-moronic IQ are obvious drawbacks to his job, the worst thing he does is around this time of year is he switches his allegiances from the Mets to the Yankees, opening what he calls the Church of Mets Fans for Yankees. This makes as much sense as "Jews for Jesus" - there is a word for that, we call it "Christians."  There is also a word for Mets Fans for Yankees, and that word is "Yankees Fan."  Packers fans don't root for the Bears, Bruins fans don't root for the Canadiens, Dodgers fans don't root for the Giants, Celtics fans do not root for the Lakers, and Mets fans do not root for the Yankees.  Period.  It is not a law or a rule, it is just the way it is.  Period.

       OK, I am on a complete ranting tangent here and I need to focus back to the point at hand.  Yes, I am a Mets fan and a baseball fan.  No, I will never root for the Yankees, ever.  Even in 2001, I was not rooting for the Yankees and was quite thrilled when they lost.  But, once playoff time comes around, when the Mets are out of it (which has been often in the last five years), I do take temporary rooting interest in a team, usually the one playing against the Yankees or, more recently, the Phillies (and when the Yankees and Phillies played each other?  I rooted for mother nature and football season).  This year I am rooting openly - and a little early this year, as well - for the Orioles.

The Orioles and their fans deserve better than they have gotten the last 15 years or so.  Peter Angelos is a carpetbagging bastard of the highest order.  He took what was once one of the gems of the American League and polished it into a turd.

There was once a concept of "The Oriole Way" which shows how seriously they took fine baseball in Baltimore and that they have gotten away from that shows how low they have sunk.

I have never had a beef with the Orioles or their fans.  I am too young to remember 1969 and since we beat them that year, really, what kind of grudge could I hold anyway?  Even when I was at Camden Yards and some drunk lady practically accosted me when the Mets lost to the Orioles, I didn't use that incident against their fans.  This was a few years ago when the O's were losing 90-100 games a year, why kick someone when they are down?  Besides, I understand - being drunk at a Mets game is pretty much required. 
 
I like what Buck Showalter has done with this ragtag bunch. I like that he got screwed over by the Yankees and has a chance to stick it to them. It would make for a good story if he is able to win the AL East with this team and a great story if he can not only win the East, but keep the Yankees out of the playoffs all together.  He'll need help from the Rays and the A's for that.

I wish I had a page of some contemporary Orioles to show you, but most of my modern O's go to Kevin at Orioles Card "O" the Day.  You'll have to go there to see Adam Jones or Nick Markakis cards.

So while my Mets sputter down the stretch to the tune of a 4-21 post All Star Break home record, I will continue to watch the games.  I will continue to wear my Mets hat - even in public.  I will root for David Wright to post great numbers and for R.A. Dickey to win 20.  But I will also be rooting for the Orioles to dethrone the Yankees.  I will be rooting for more Yankees injuries.  I will be rooting for the Rays and A's to keep up their end of the bargain and shut the Yanks out of even a Wild Card.  And any Mets fan who roots for the Yankees?  Shame on you.

Football Week 1: Praise Breesus.

       My autumn Sundays are a marvelous blur of pajamas, fried food, and football.  This morning, practically on cue, the morning was crisp and leaves were on the ground.  It was beautiful.  I have a pot of homemade chili all ready to go and a sixer of Sam Adams Octoberfest to wash it down.  My last post about football was a little, um, harsh, so I will try and keep it a little more positive this time around.  As most of you who read this blog may know, I am a New Orleans Saints fan - if you did not know that or are wondering how someone from New Jersey who lived in Boston for a dozen years becomes a Saints fan, click here.  The player that makes the Saints go is a man by the name of Drew Brees.


       I have a hard time throwing the word "hero" around when talking about sports stars.  Not to sound overly cliche here, but people who run into burning buildings are heroes, not quarterbacks.  But some men ingrain themselves into the community with such altruism and grace that you could consider them at least good role models and one of those rare players is Drew Brees.  The Saints took a chance on him in 2005 when no other team did and Brees has returned the favor by not only doing so much for the city after Hurricane Katrina but also leading the team to a Super Bowl title when most people never thought the team would return to New Orleans, much less succeed. Plus he is a decent fellow, a family man, and even my mom has a crush on him.



I thought about doing 11 cards for football, rather than nine, but it didn't look right, so at least for now, I am doing eight to break it up a little.  This also might be because I haven't organized all my football cards yet and put them into pages.  I'll let you sort that out for yourselves.  These last two scans feature all my shiny inserts and such of Drew Brees.  I especially like the 2007 X-fractor up top, the run of three different 2009 Topps cards, and the mini Allen and Ginter mini with his son.  If you're gonna have your infant on a card, it makes sense to have it on a mini.



And finally, to cover the concept of "team" let's look at one of my favorite Saints cards.  It features the aforementioned Mr. Brees with two of his favorite weapons, the gone-but-not-forgotten Reggie Bush and the velcro-handed Marques Colston. (and just for Night Owl, look at how crooked the back is scanned - the horror!) I do like cards that incorporate different players and game used jerseys, which explains why I love this card so much, but also, take a good look at those jersey pieces.  I think they were going for the shape of a fleur de lis.  I think.  I do like cards that make me laugh, too.

Are You Ready For Some, Well, You Know...

       Football!!!

       OK, I got that out of my system.  The answer is yes, I am more than ready for some.  The Mets season fell apart sometime around the all-star break, so it has been a long seven weeks or so.  Just as baseball opening day brings springtime and hope, the kickoff of football brings autumn and despair.  It is fall and everything is dying (to paraphrase a prophet).  Tonight specifically matches up the team of my childhood - the New York Giants - verses a team I might hate more than the Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys. 

One might wonder why I hate the Cowboys more than the Yankees...the short answer is the fans.  Now, if you are specifically from Dallas or even just from Texas, this does not apply to you.  But, and whoa is it a big but, lemme address this to all the other Cowboys fans, the bandwagon jumping, carpetbagging, intolerable jerk-offs who I wouldn't cross the street to piss on if they were on fire: you are not special.  You are not "America's Team."  You are the most insufferable human beings who ever existed and that includes the Klan and the Nazis.  You deserve Tony Romo as a quarterback. You deserve Jerry Jones as an owner and god willing, he will live to the age of 100 and make Al Davis look like Wellington Mara and Art Rooney's love child in the meantime.

This is the only page of Cowboys I have in my binders and I am not even sure how this one got in.

Did I mention I am not fond of the Cowboys or their fans?  How did this happen?  Well, growing up in New Jersey in the early to mid 80's, you were surrounded by "Cowboys fans" - basically soulless, loser fans who jumped ship on the Giants or Jets because they sucked during the 70's and early 80's.  I find these kinds of "fans" to be just awful people.  It says a lot about someone when they do this.  Oh, and did I also mention there is a lot of overlap between these "Cowboys fans" and Yankees fans.  Yeah, despicable doesn't even begin to describe that phenomenon.

Those folks who jumped missed a hell of a ride in the late 80's and early 90's.  And when they were winning their Super Bowls in the mid 90's...dear lord...you would think they had been Cowboys fans their whole damn lives.  Ugh.  Just thinking about it makes me physically ill.  Let's see some more Giants cards to cleanse the palate. 

So what do I predict for tonight?  I hope the Giants defense terrorizes Tony Romo and maybe get a solid deja vu killer hit that breaks a bone or two and knocks him out of the game.

I hope the offense dominates the Cowboys piss-poor secondary and runs up the score. 

I hope the Giants unleash a new hero or two like they seem to do every year.

Ok, I admit, that page is a bit of a mess, but hey, my football pages are still in flux...

And finally, I hope Eli Manning delivers on the proverbial six touchdowns and that the Giants win this game something like 77-0 to set the standard for shutout domination. In the end, I hope the Giants dominate this division and make the playoffs, only to lose in the Superdome for the right to go to the Super Bowl, but that my friends is another post (come back Sunday...).

Wow, football kinda brings out the anger in my blogging, huh?

Mancrush.

From the lovely folks at the urban dictionary:

Man·crush
noun   \manˈkrəsh\

1.  When a straight man has a "crush" on another man, not sexual but kind of idolizing him.

          Many straight men end up having man crushes on Johnny Depp (I don't blame them).

2.  A man having extreme admiration for another man, as though he wants to be him.

          "I've got one hell of a man crush on Hugh Hefner. He's made all the right moves."

       There are a dozen other definitions, but they all say about the same thing.  I am not ashamed to say that I officially have a mancrush on Matt Harvey.  I wrote about him in July during the occasion of his major league debut.  I wasn't 100% sure at the time if I was going to give over my heart to him.  Well, six gutty grand innings later, he had struck out 11 and looked like an absolute horse on the mound.  This wasn't Bill Pulsipher or Paul Wilson fools gold - no way - you could see right away that this kid is a stud: great mechanics, explosive fastball, bulldog attitude.  I lamented not having received a redemption autograph in that other post.  Well, I have since augmented my Matt Harvey collection:

Those bottom three Bowman platinum cards are refractors.  I wouldn't mind picking up a couple more of the 2010 Bowman rookie rainbow now before the cards get to be way too expensive.  Otherwise, I think this is a pretty nice beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.  If it weren't for my policy of not giving the Wilpons any of my money this year, I would have already headed over to Citifield to see him in person.  For now, I will be content to watch him from my living room, as I will be tonight against the Cardinals.

You should know, my first mancrush came to be on May, 22, 1998.  That was the day the Mets traded for Mike Piazza:

This is a page of his first 1998 cards as a Met, it is one of my favorite pages in all my collection.  I had always admired Piazza from afar.  His 1997 season was one for the ages: .362 40 HR 124 RBI as a catcher.  How could you not respect numbers like that from a man wearing the tools of ignorance?  Then early in 1998, the rumblings came that the Dodgers did not want to sign Piazza to a long term contract for the money he wanted.  Next thing you know, he was shipped off to the Marlins and the baseball world was abuzz.  The Mets (back when the Mets actually traded for good players) got him a week later.  I still remember where I was when I heard them announce the trade, it was that big a deal for me.  And let me tell you, it was mancrush at first sight.  He looked so good in that Mets uniform.  He brought credibility to a team that had been trying to find some, much the same way that Gary Carter had 13 years earlier.  Yes, I idolized Gary Carter, but that is because I was a kid when he was playing.  I was a week short of being 23 years old on that day in 1998, so officially a man, thus Mike Piazza will always be my first mancrush.  Oddly enough, on top of all that, today is his 44th birthday.  Happy Birthday Mike!
 
There have been others in between then and now (Prince Fielder, Nomar Garciaparra, Torii Hunter to name a few) but there is one other player to keep an eye on for my baseball admiration, Mike Trout:

My Trout collection is small, obviously, just as my infatuation for him is still growing.  But this kid is unbelievable.  I don't think I have ever sought out an Angel game in my life, but now, as long as this kid is playing, if they are on MLB network or ESPN, I won't miss one.  Plus, he is a Jersey Boy, so that might add to the allure.

***

While I was looking for that Matt Harvey jersey card I thought I had (and I did) I found this card:

This is a 2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Team Trios card.  It features bat pieces and uniform swatches of Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and Dwight Gooden and is numbered to /100.   I had completely forgotten that I owned this awesome card.  Yet there it was, misfiled in my Mets box with some rookies and right next to Matt Harvey jersey card.  Is that an omen?  A coincidence?  I will not speculate.  I will say this card easily fits into my favorites category.  Hopefully, Matt Harvey will fit in nicely with these pitchers in Mets history.

Laborious.

       It's funny, sometimes I sit down at the keyboard to do a post and the words flow like endless rain into a paper cup (to steal a line).  For example, I did the walk off one from the other day in no time - I had a "moment" watching baseball highlights on TV, and I sat down and wrote about it.  Also, the other night I had one idea, switched gears midway, and it all came out no problem...this post has been sadly underread, go look at it, I'll wait... Did I mention it's a drunk post? (I cannot become one of those people who can only write when he drinks).  Even some of the longer, more specific and involved posts that took a week or more to write came pretty easy.  But right now, I have been sitting here for half an hour looking at a blank screen and you know what?  I got nothing.  I understand that no one really wants to read about the writing process and even fewer want to indulge an author trying to work through writer's block by writing about it, so I am gonna shut the hell up about it and just grab a few random scans out of the 'unused' folder.  Maybe the muses will conspire for me better tomorrow.

This is a very recent scan.  I promised to show this page when I wrote a trade post after my near month long hiatus.   I simply adore the 1994 Fleer design, so simple, so effective.  And like most simple, effective designs, it works both horizontally and vertically.  I can't decide which I like more.  In fact, I might have to make two pages of these, one for each.  Looks like I gotta update the wantlist again.

I am not sure why I scanned this page, but damn is it cool.  Upper Deck loved their multi-exposure photos in the early 90's.  The Canseco and Valenzuela work best, I think, but the Griffey is probably the most famous one, that or the 1989 Nolan Ryan (not shown on this page).  The other thing that this page reminds me of is the recent State Farm commercial with Kerry Wood.  If you have seen it, you should know what I am talking about; if you haven't, go watch it, it's damn amusing. 

I also could not for the life of me tell you why I scanned this page of John Olerud cards.  I have two pages of Olerud in my retired stars book and I only scanned this one for some reason.  Very odd.  I recently got into a big argument with my brother about John Olerud.  It would help you to know that my brother's favorite baseball player of all time is Keith Hernandez and he will rant to whomever will listen how Hernandez belongs in the Hall of Fame.  My argument was that Olerud was a superior player to Hernandez and no one of sound mind can make a strong, legitimate case that he belongs in Cooperstown, so how could Hernandez belong?  Now, I am not even sure I believe this, but the argument really drove my brother crazy.  My instincts as the younger brother to constantly tweak and antagonize my older brother have not dulled with age. 

 I do know why I scanned this page of J.R. Richard.  I have been kicking around the idea of doing a series of posts about players who were either complete failures, or players who didn't live up to their potential due to unfortunate circumstances, or some combination of the two.  James Rodney here would obviously fall into the latter category.  If you look at his statistics, if he didn't have that stroke, he probably would have had a career along the lines of Bob Gibson or Jim Palmer.  He was that good.

Whoa, I actually know why I scanned this page as well.  When I was writing my opening day post, I wanted to use the word "moments" so I scanned both pages of Milestones and Moments that I have and chose one and threw the other into the 'unused' folder hoping to find another use for it.  I am racking my brain here and I can't figure out any reason I would use this page unless I wrote a post about "crappy overpriced crappity crap crap."  Hey!  Maybe I should write that one down, it sounds like a good idea.

This page was also scanned for the aforementioned opening day post.  I scanned two pages of Play Ball and used the faux vintage one rather than this page of straight reprints.  I wouldn't have wanted anyone to get the idea that I was hoarding a page of near mint cards from 1941 and just casually using it in a post without paying it any mind.  A while back, I went through a brief (and expensive) infatuation with vintage Play Ball cards.  Looking back, like any lost love, it was worth it, even though almost all of those cards I had are now gone. 

Last but certainly not least is this page of 1999 SP Signature Edition autographs.  At the same time I went through my vintage Play Ball phase, I also became enamored of this set.  It was brand new at the time and, being an autograph-in-every-pack type product, it was very expensive.  I probably bought the equivalent of a case of this stuff.  I would sell the really good hits to fund my purchase of more packs and boxes; it was a vicious cycle.  And while I pulled a lot of the high end cards, I never did get my white whale.  I don't own a Mike Piazza autograph at all (they are quite rare) and I think this is the nicest one of the few that are out there.  Once every couple of months, I still get (and try to resist) the urge to blow $100-$150 on this Piazza.  Until I do finally give in, I have this page of lesser stars and rookies to keep me satisfied.  You will probably see this page again since I am sure I could easily do a whole post out of it, but for now, showing it here means my 'unused' folder is empty and I have no more "writer's block" crutches to fall back on.