Everything But The Verlanders.

This month, I settle all draft folder business.  This week in particular, I am clearing out all the trade posts that I began but for whatever reason, did not finish. 

This one is not so much a trade post as it is a contest winning post, but hey, stuff came in the mail from someone else, so it counts.  This pile of goodness came in June of 2014 from Dennis of Too Many Verlanders (née Too Many Grandersons, who currently patrols right field for my Mets).  Thanks to the magic of randomization, I came in 6th in his spring cleaning sweepstakes and got to choose from an array of prizes.  He was also just flat out giving away stuff and I chose a couple of lots from that booty as well. 

Given that the best cards were gone, I decided to try my luck: behold a 100 card Super Value (re)Pack.  The lots I got were one of Mark McGwire (because why not) and the creative batch of "what's news" football cards: New York, New England, and New Orleans. 

Here are what I thought were the best cards from the first pocket of the repack:

Most of these speak for themselves.  There is a Met, a trade line, a nifty photo, some vague 80s Fleer, The Penguin, a 1970's Expo, and a couple of Tigers, the last no doubt chosen because of the originator of the pack. 

I remember opening this repack vividly because of the second pocket of cards:

Yup, someone down in repack central thought this collation was a good idea.  Dinged corners aside, this means some Big Topps oddballs are coming!

This repack was obviously meant for a Tigers fan because of the mass quantity of bengals there in.  There is also a nice Daniel Murphy in there too. 

 Before there was such a glut of faux-vintage nostalgia cards everywhere, there was Big Topps.  They made the cards in the slightly larger size of 1950s cards and included funny little cartoons on the back.  They were so ahead of their time.  They produced these for three years to a very bemused and uncaring public.  They should bring these back.  Oh wait, they've done Heritage for 15 years now, never mind.

The McGwire lot included some wonderful shiny stuff.

I think we all have a soft spot in our hearts for Big Mac.  I know I do.  I liked those late 80s A's teams against my better judgment and very few will say they hated the 1998 season at the time.  Unless you always hated Mark McGwire, I see very little reason hating him now.  The difference between McGwire and Barry Bonds is I always hated Barry Bonds from moment one; PEDs don't even come into either discussion.

There were some big cards in the package as well, bigger than even the Big Topps.  Dennis took special care to make sure I didn't think that sandwich of cardboard had cards in it and was not a spacer.  How nice. 

Oh yeah, and that 1978 Expo was not just an old card, it was an O-Pee-Chee.  I cannot recall ever getting vintage Canadian goodness in a repack.  Just a great package all around.

Dennis also included a nice little note congratulating me on my win:

Thank you, Dennis!  Your obsessive player collecting is an inspiration to us all.

Trade O' the Day.

       Kevin of O's Card of the Day (and about half a dozen other blogs) is my oldest online trade partner.  Way before this blog existed, my first online trade was sending him some 1965 Topps cards for his set.  After seeing that his love of the Orioles is as strong (if not stronger) for my adoration of the Mets, I started putting O's cards aside for him almost immediately.  It has now become an unbreakable habit.  If I am opening a pack or a repack or even if I am at a show, I just instinctively put aside Baltimore cards and when the pile becomes large or interesting, I send them off to Maryland.  When I am lucky, a return package arrives and a couple of weeks ago, such a package was waiting for me and boy is it a doozy.

There was some 1970's Mets goodness:

Granted I have most of these cards, but the Torre is destined for my page of 1978 Topps manager cards that is now almost complete and the Hodges will find a home on his player page, which is now finished.  That Mike Jorgensen was somehow missing in my collection.

There were some new Mets in there too...

I didn't have any of those 2012 Triple Play cards nor that Lucas Duda.  The 1993 Leaf Fernandez was also a new edition (the backs of those cards are magnificent). And speaking of the backs, that mini Strawberry's back is full of such teasing at how good he could/should have been - "After Darryl's final Mets campaign in 1990, his 252 home runs were 2 more than Willie Mays and 14 more than Babe Ruth through their age 28 seasons" *heavy sigh*.  And then there is Bobby Bonilla, the scourge of both Mets and Orioles fans.  I'll get back to that card...

Kevin also seems to mine this endless vein of oddball and vintage (and oddball vintage) football cards and sends me the Giants and Saints he finds. 

Yup, that is a 1960 Topps Frank Gifford.  Drink it in.  Next to that is a pair of 1969 Topps stamp books for the aforementioned Giants and Saints.  Simply amazing stuff.  And perhaps I can start a rumor that Gary Jeter is Derek's half brother and cause a sudden spike in the value of his cards. 

More 1990's football goodness:

I have precious few 1993 Score baseball cards and even fewer football cards.  I guess you can say I spent my senior year of high school and first year of college doing things other than collecting cards, so those are good additions to my collection.  That Stadium Club card of the Saints punter spinning the ball is great and then on the bottom far right is a Bo Jackson SI for Kids card.  That card is so perfectly early 90's, it scares me.  It will find a place of honor in my Bo collection. 

Last but not least, Kevin sent a little note on the best stationary possible:

He not only mocks the Yankees in it, he apologizes for putting Bobby Bo on top of the package.  Way to scare the shit out of me, Kevin.  The back of that card lists Bobby's hobby as golf and lord knows with the Mets and the Orioles, he did a lot of that after September.  I assume that card was a giveaway with a pack of Ultra Pro pages, man did anyone who bought that package get ripped off.  I will begrudgingly put it with my Mets oddballs and hopefully it won't show anyone the Bronx. 

Football Week 18: Mildcard Weekend.

       I have been working 12 hour overnights this week (yay work!) so my enthusiasm for most things is at a minimum.  I shouldn't complain too much, since it's not like I have to break rocks in the hot sun for 30 cents an hour or anything.  So when I sat down yesterday to watch the first wildcard playoff game, the Texans and the Bengals just weren't doing it for me.  I ended up switching over to Raiders of the Lost Ark and dozing off. 

In the end, without my Saints...

or the Giants in the playoffs...

I really just don't care much about these playoff games. I am currently in my pajamas watching the Colts and Ravens battle it out.  I am much more stoked for the snacks and beer on the TV tray to my right.

Wanna know what does have me excited today?


HOCKEY!!!!!!


I got home this morning and my brother texted me that there was a tentative agreement and that they were gonna play the season.  To be honest, I was so bleary and weary after working all night that I thought it was a dream (or worse, that he was fucking with me).  Turns out, it's true!!!  There is gonna be hockey!  I can finally post about hockey.  I can finally watch hockey.  I can finally stop bitching that there is no hockey.  Let me tell you, this is something to get excited about.

Football Week 17: Wintry Mix.

       It has snowed here in northern New Jersey three times this week.  This amount alone triples the snow days we had last year (i.e., the infamous Halloween storm); it was even a White Christmas around here.  It is a pity, though, that is is not supposed to snow today, because today is the final regular season Sunday and snow is football's natural habitat.

I have a niche collection of football cards featuring pictures in the snow, presented here so you can take in all the furious flurry glory:

You see here some usual suspects: New England, Buffalo, New York.  Seeing Barry Sanders in the snow is odd, since he spent his home games in a dome.  And while Brett Favre belongs in the snow, seeing Drew Brees (as a Charger no less) in the white stuff is a trip. And while I am not a card identifying sleuth like some, that 2011 Tom Brady card has a picture that is probably from the December 12, 2010 game vs. the Bears. 

I am surprised, really, that card companies don't use more snow pictures, since they look 100x more awesome than regular action pictures.

Here you have more New England (obviously another from that aforementioned Bears game), some Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and an awesome shot of a Giant stuffing a Bronco in Denver.  You also have another Brett Favre, and it makes sense that I have two of him in the snow, but I also have two cards of Steve McNair in the snow, and since he played his home games mostly in Houston and Tennessee, I find that a little weird. These are all the snow cards I own; if you have one you would like to donate or trade me, don't hesitate to let me know. 

My football watching will be slightly muted today.  The Saints have been out of it for a couple of weeks now, and seeing them beating up on a Panthers team that never cared this season is not high on my list of priorities.  It is good news that they locked up Sean Payton for the next 5 years, so we won't have another off-season soap opera.  I look forward to the Saints reloading next year for a wonderful eff-you season.

The Giants, on the other hand, have a slight chance to make the playoffs.  How slight?  Well, this slight (click on it, I'll wait).  The Giants have to win (which has been quite a trick lately) and then the Vikings, Bears, and Cowboys all have to lose.  While all of these circumstances are not impossible, all of them coming together at the same time is unlikely.  So it will likely be a very somber playoff time here.  If the Giants make the dance, I will be rooting for them, if not, I will pick a team to root for next week - yes I plan on doing this through the Super Bowl - and jump on the bandwagon with both feet.  Until then, I think I'll go outside and throw some snowballs at children and on coming cars.

Football Week 14: Role Models.

        I was a Giants fan growing up and I have become a Saints fan in my adulthood.  Today those two teams face off about 12 miles from my house.  I saw the Saints and Giants play in New Orleans last season but I am not going to East Rutherford to see them this year.  Why would I go 1300 miles to see the Saints play and not 12?  Because it is December in New Jersey and it is friggin' cold and worse, rainy.  I am not going to pay $300 to Stubhub or a scalper to freeze my ass off.  Instead, I am gonna sit here in my flannel pajamas and enjoy the hell out of this match up from my very comfortable (and warm) couch.

       The Saints have a mathematical chance to make the playoffs, but slim and none is a generous assessment of their situation.  The Giants play up and down to their competition so much, it is hard to gauge their true talent.  Since I hate the other three teams in their division so very much, I am rooting for the Giants in this one, if only to keep Dallas and Washington out of the playoffs (and all the wonderful misfortune that has befallen the Eagles makes my heart soar like, well, an eagle). 

So also when I was growing up, I chose some very interesting characters to be my favorite players.  In baseball, I liked Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry.  I thought Mike Tyson was a bad mutherfucker.  I liked all the goons in hockey (remember hockey?). And in football, I worshiped Lawrence Taylor.  It is a small wonder I didn't end up in prison.

I prefer to focus on Lawrence Taylor the football player, since as a football player, he is second to none.  Very few players have redefined their positions the way he did.  He was a monster. 

The real problem with LT is that he was/is a monster off the field as well.  He's not a murderer like OJ or Ray Lewis or anything, but as a human being, he is very hard to root for.

I own a #56 Giants jersey, and it sits in the back of my closet, no doubt never to be worn again, because while overlooking someone's flaws can be divine, when someone refuses to even address their flaws, like LT does, you have to question whether that person is worth rooting for.  I can look past all the drug issues, because I understand that disease, but when you pay for a 16 year old prostitute, get busted for it, and then see nothing wrong with what you did.  Yeah, well, yeah.  Thanks, but no thanks, Lawrence. 

Like a lot of players, I prefer to remember LT on the field - the ultimate disruptive force lining up all over the place and making quarterbacks tremble with fear. 

Luckily, the next Giants linebacker I deemed my favorite was a little better citizen, Jessie Armstead.

I watched Armstead, as an unknown rookie, pull off the jump into the endzone and throw the ball back to the 1 yard line move on a punt.  I had seen a lot of players try to do it, but he was the first one I saw do it perfectly.  I instantly always kept an eye on #98, who was an 8th round draft pick.  He showed hustle all the time and worked himself into a Pro Bowl player.  I have his jersey in my closet too and I am much more likely to wear that one again than the Taylor.

Also on my list of players I liked was Phil Simms.

People remember how good Simms was, but they forget that early in his career, he was benched for Scott Brunner(!).  I am not sure who should be more ashamed of that fact, him or Bill Parcells.  Anyway, Simms won one Super Bowl and won 10 games on another Super Bowl winner.  I also have met him a couple times because his son Chris went to the same high school as my cousin.  Phil would go to all the football games to watch his kid and he was a pretty down to earth guy.  Also nice was the fact that most people didn't hassle him when he was there.  I actually met him by accident the first time, bumping into him by the ladies selling baked goods in the parking lot.  His kid also had his head screwed on right and didn't seem to have much diva in him.  Chris Simms deserved a better fate in his NFL career, as injuries and bad teams derailed it. 

And just for kicks, here is a page of random Giants inserts:

At one point during the 1990 NFC Championship game, I believe I promised to name my first born son after Matt Bahr if he made the game winning kick.  While the situation hasn't come up yet, and I doubt it will, it will be difficult to explain to the mother why we have to name our child Matt Bahr.  Does anyone know the statute of limitations on such promises?

***

This evening is the first night of Hanukkah, so a chag sameach to my chosen readers - enjoy your dreidel and latkes.  I am not Jewish myself, but I do have a small tradition for the first night: I watch the Hebrew Hammer.  If you have never seen this film, it is amateurish and insulting and brilliant and hilarious.  I suggest it highly to everyone. 

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 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!

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?

Trade with Mark of The Chronicles of Fuji.

        I have a soft spot for player collectors.  I know from the madness they suffer.  I have dozens of player collections, in various shapes and sizes, and they are the last thing I have pared from my collection (the ones I am permanently and  psychotically attached to are listed in my Gotlist, take a look and let me know of there is anything you have I might want).

       When I see someone who has a white whale they are looking for and I can fill that need in my other areas of downsizing, it makes me very happy (ask Night Owl).  So, I came across the blog The Chronicles of Fuji about a year ago and recently saw that he had just three Steve Carlton cards he needed for The "Lefty" Project.  One of the cards was his 1965 rookie card and wouldn't you know it, I had recently come across a slightly off condition Carlton rookie in my piles of piles.  So, I scanned it and emailed him and we hammered out a deal.  I picked some cards from a list he maintains of trade bait (he is very organized; I am, um, not...) and we came to a fast understanding.  The following pictures shows the bounty I harvested:

The Nomar goes immediately into my player collection.  The Dewey Evans joins a page of Red Sox game used cards.  The Eli and Janssen will find nice spots in their respective team collections.  And the Mets, oh, those Mets.  I have a black Ventura from that Pacific set and now it has a dance partner.  And finally, with that Dotel Auto, I now only need the Piazza to have all the Mets from the 1999 SP Signature Edition - a seminal set if there ever was one.  That Piazza, however, is probably the highest priced of all his rare certified autographs and will remain in my white whale dreamland probably forever.

Oh, but Mark wasn't done.  He noticed my love of food issues and the Mets and included some awesome oddballs as well:


For working blind, he only got one card I already had (the Bobby Bo Hostess) and found one (the Hojo) I didn't even know existed.  Those Texas League minor league all star cards are a wonderful epitaph for the once mighty mid 80's Mets. That game used card in the corner? It was part of the original trade, it is of Max Sapp.  Yes, on top of all this, I am a Max collector as well. 

Like I said before, Mark is very well organized.  Our trade got a coversheet, for crying outloud:

and look at that...he has his own personalized baseball card! Let's see it up close:
Wow.  Pretty frickin' sweet. I will certainly find a place of honor for that badboy.

Thanks Mark!