Happy 81st Birthday Knucksie!

Phil Niekro, the famous knuckleballer, turns 81 today. When  you look at his 24 year career, he retired at the age of 48 years old, he had some wonderful highlights like a No-hitter in 1973, NL wins leader (twice), NL strikeout leader and MLB ERA leader, along with 5 All-Star appearances and 5 Gold Gloves and earned his entry in to the MLB Hall of Fame in 1997.

Toro Pride- Kurt Haws

My most recent addition to my Mountain View Toros’ collection is Kurt Haws. Kurt graduated the year before I moved to Mesa but won a AAA State Football Championship during his time playing for the Toros and Coach Parker. After his Mormon mission he went to Utah and was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the Fourth Round of the 1994 NFL Draft. He was then drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the 1995 NFL Expansion Draft.

Even though he was in the NFL for a couple of seasons he doesn’t have any cards, so my only option was this 1994 Signature Rookies Tetrad autograph from when he was at Utah.

Monday Question Day- Meet Cute?

Today is question day and since it is safer to remain indoors, lets pretend we can meet someone famous.

If you had the chance to meet someone you collect, and they signed a card for you, who would it be and which card?

I would love to meet Ken Griffey Jr. and Mark Hamill but I really don’t know what card I would want signed. For Griffey I am a bit stumped. Most people would probably go with the expected 1989 Upper Deck #1, but I would want something showing his sweet swing. In the end I think I would use the custom illustrated Griffey card from The Simpsons that I have been working on for way too many years. 

For Mark Hamill I would ask him to sign his 1977 Topps Star Wars #1 and I would beg him to sign with one of the personalized quotes that he used to sign.

The Passing of a Globetrotters Legend

This morning we lost Harlem Globetrotters’ legend Curly Neal at the age of 77 years old. I was introduced to Neal and the Globetrotters when they were on Scooby Doo, it was good to be a kid in the 1970s, and then later Gilligan’s Island. It really was a treat to watch him play the game.

RIP Fred “Curly” Neal

A Part of Me

This year you can say that I have neglected my blog with only 6 posts total. I am still active in the hobby, but besides 2 or 3 purchase I have not added much to my collection. I am on TCDB daily so that keeps me up to date on the hobby news.

This year has been a real struggle for me due to my physical and mental health and two weeks ago I was in the hospital for 5 days. I normally wouldn’t discuss this, but it was a psychiatric hospital. I was in a mentally abusive marriage for 12 of the 16 years we were together and even though we are divorced she continues. Between therapy and some other events there is an end in sight.

I hope that anyone who is considering suicide please re-consider. There may be dark days and they may last for a while, but there is help and things can change.

If you want to talk privately I will help where I can and any discussion will remain confidential.. You can email me here or catch me on Twitter

1-800-273-8255

Monday Question Day- Blogging?

Today is question day:

If you are a blogger, do you type up posts that you hold in drafts?

When I started blogging nearly 10 years ago, I would type up a new post each day. On occasion I would save one in drafts, but most were written daily. Over the years I have found that keeping ideas or even rough drafts in a Word document helped greatly for the days I had limited time or writer’s block. 

Now my posts are pretty much 50/50 with half being pre-written and half being written on the day of being posted. I have found that having posts that I do regularly like Question Day, Art Gallery and Vintage Cards of the Month pre-written and saved in drafts is a major time saver.

All That Is Left X

The Sports Cards Super Bowl prediction was correct, now 7-3 over the past 10 years. Time to share All That Is Left X.

The Prizm included 3 Blaster exclusive Lazer parallels, they are pretty cool with a gold/orange color background. Along with the Butker card I showed yesterday, the other two are #68 Willie Snead IV and #362 Lil'Jordan Humphrey. The included relic is a Premier Jersey Riley Ridley. 

The Donruss Elite blaster had a cool Star Stratus Green parallel Patrick Mahomes II, it was in the OT pack so that is why it wasn’t included yesterday, 3 Green base parallels (Mahomes yesterday plus Luke Kuechly and Rodney Anderson). The relic is a Craftsman Sterling Shepard. 

The Prestige hanger box had 60 cards, with 3 Hanger Box exclusive Green Xtra Points. Former University of Arizona QB Nick Foles, Jordan Howard and Evan Engram. Prestigious Pros Green Carson Wentz and the relic was a Gridiron Heritage Alvin Kamara.

The only Seahawk out of all of the packs is this Chris Carson from the Prestige hanger box.

Sports Card Super Bowl X

It is Super Bowl Sunday and once again the cards are going to make their prediction. Surprisingly the cards are 6-3 predicting the winner of the last 9 Super Bowls, 67% isn’t bad as a win ratio based on cardboard.

This year I selected 2 blasters (2019 Prizm & 2019 Donruss Elite) and a hanger box of 2019 Prestige.

Like before, if a player is in a Chiefs or 49ers uniform the card is still considered a score even if that player has been traded or cut. 

This year I have decided to break down the packs instead of boxes for quarters. With 10 regular packs and 1 2019 Prestige megapack I am going with 3 packs of Prizm for 1^st Quarter, 3 packs of Elite for 2^nd Quarter, 3 packs of Prizm for 3^rd Quarter and the Prestige megapack for the 4^th Quarter. The final Elite pack will be used in case of a OT. This year the scoring is:

Field Goal (3 pt.) For random cards that could be a sign or superstitious

Touchdown (7 pts.) For any player from the Chiefs or 49ers

TD w/ 2pt Conversion (8 puts.) For any Chiefs or 49ers hits

If the game goes to OT, the final pack break down will be 1 point for a team based on each Conference card. So, if I pull 3 players from NFC teams, the 49ers get 3 points and vice-versa.

Quarter 1: Prizm
Chiefs - 7 pts
#215 Harrison Butker (Lazer Prizm)

49ers - 0 pts

Quarter 2: Elite
Chiefs - 17 pts (Includes 3 superstition points for the Green Mahomes being "Money")
#14 Patrick Mahomes II (Green) & Sammy Watkins

49ers - 7 pts
#86 Richard Sherman

--HALFTIME--
Chiefs 24
49ers 7

Quarter 3: Prizm
Chiefs - 0 pts

49ers - 0 pts

Quarter 4: Prestige
Chiefs - 7 pts

#2 Travis Kelce

49ers - 21 pts
#3 Matt Breida, #119 Marquise Goodwin & #166 Dante Pettis

--FINAL SCORE--
Chiefs 31
49ers 28

The cards have the Kansas City Chiefs winning by a field goal (the Green Mahomes) after a late scoring flurry by the San Francisco 49ers. I had a dream that the 49ers sold their soul to win the Super Bowl so I am going with them for the win.

The Art Gallery- 2010 Breygent Classic Vintage Movie Posters Planet Of The Apes

This month’s Art Gallery display comes from Scott D.M. Simmons and is an oversized 3x5 sketch card from the 2010 Breygent Classic Vintage Movie Posters release. The subject is from the cult classic 1968 movie Planet of the Apes and isn’t a move poster but a scene late in the movie when Lucius is tying up Dr. Zaius near the cave in the Forbidden Zone.

The original 5 Planet of the Apes movies; Planet of the Apes (1968), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Escape the Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquer the Planet of the Apes (1972) & Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)  I find enjoyable, especially the first movie. The reboot and remake films are pretty good but they rely on CGI and I am an old-fashion actor in a rubber monkey mask type of guy.

2019 Deleted Scenes

Shoebox Legends started a cool blog around idea of "Deleted Scenes", scans that have been sitting in a scan folder and never used. I had over a dozen images saved in my scan folder, images I had planned to post on the blog or add to TCDB in 2019. Many of these came from previous COMC orders. Here we go, in chronological order of release.

1985 Prism Jewel Julius Erving

This one was a huge find. It was on COMC at $19 WTF? The same day I purchased this one on COMC, somebody paid $67 for one on eBay. 

1987-88 Compeonata Converse Merchante (Spain) Larry Bird and Magig Jhonson

Johnson’s name was not misspelled just on the front, but the back too. At least the printers were consistent. 

1994 Finest Peel Sample Edgar Martinez

These were sent with boxes of 1994 Finest Baseball to card shops so they could show their customers how the peel-off film worked. Seems self-explanatory. The card is a bit sturdier than the base 1994 Finest cards because they were meant to be used as a display. Unfortunately the peel-off film was not attached.

2008 Rafo Wrestling Keceri WWE sticker Yakozuna

Yakozuna, real name Rodney Anoa’i, was never a sumo wrestler but I really liked the image. The set is a neat WWF set, they have both photos and animated cartoon cards. I may pick up a couple more cards (Stone Cold, Undertaker, Macho Man, Hulk Hogan)

Some 2016 CJ Prosise cards

He hasn’t panned out as much as hoped, 4 seasons in Seattle and 4 season ending injuries.

2016 Immaculate Kyle Seager button card

This is my first button card. A bummer that it is obvious that all of the logos/names have been removed so the card seems a bit bland.

 

2018 Black Panther Vibranium Shuri

I have a crush on Letitia Wright and she was awesome as Shuri in Black Panther so any time I can get a metal card of Shuri I am getting that card. I’ve got a couple of Shuri relic cards too.

2018 Leaf Pop Century Signatures Rose McIver

iZombie is a great show that I enjoyed, the series ended this past August after 5 seasons, and Rose McIver is such a cutie. I was not going to let this card get past me.

2019 Leaf Best of Baseball Proof Ken Girffey Jr.

This is one of those cards that Leaf sells through their eBay store and is similar to Topps Vault. The card is blank back and encased.

2019 Upper Deck Marvel Premier Color Box Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange is a cool character and I really like the shadow box cards. It is 4 layers with the top level being the character in full color and then the lower layers showing the character in cyan, magenta and yellow.