The Year was 1990

I was 3. The store was K-Mart. Within the next 5 years both K-Mart and I would be going through dramatic changes. K-Mart would eventually move out of my area and into a "nicer" suburb; change it's name to Super K-Mart and start selling groceries. I would continue to collect cards but instead of being excited about all the players, I only wanted Indians (Lofton) and Ken Griffey Jr. cards.

Anyways, I recently found a bunch of 1990 K-Mart Super Stars cards. For some odd reason, I love when baseball cards are technically made by a company (in this case Topps), but branded by someone else (K-Mart). Hell, 2 years ago I bought 40 Duracell battery cards from a shop in Canton...until the owner wanted $30. I offered $5, which even then was pretty generous.

The set itself has 33 cards. I currently have found 11 and am going to search for the remaining 22. It's a free and easy way to collect a set and not having a lot of money, I like it.

Now onto the cards:



Tony Gwynn. I loved these San Diego uniforms. Miss u Tony :(



Doc Gooden. I'd write something here but I'm high as hell on coke.



Glenn Davis. A DH/PH...in the National League? He never played in the American League at this point in his career, so I don't get the DH bit. Either way, nice mustache.



Jose Canseco. Bash Brother. Excellent Mullet. The most honest man in baseball. This one's for you Mario.



Craig Biggio, the catcher. Also about to strike out in this photo.



Ryne Sandberg. I loved watching Ryno play. The best memories of my childhood were spent watching day games on WGN with Harry broadcasting. I miss 1990.



Don Mattingly. For some real odd reason, I was a big fan of Mattingly also. Had a huge bat coin bank of him in my room. Even though I knew who he was and what team he played for, I still got him confused with Wade Boggs all the time.



Tony LaRussa and Roger Craig. I know nothing of Roger except that he looks like a very nice man. Tony is Satan. I'm convinced. I will gladly explain to you why and how I have come to my conclusions. (Please don't sue me for slander/libel Tony)



Howard Johnson. Your hotels suck, dogg. For a second I thought David Wright was hitting in this photo what with that big goofy ass helmet.



Jay Howell. Back of card reads "Jay pitched scoreless inning in 1989 All Star Game". Great Job! Any relation to J. P. Howell?



DAN F'N PLESAC. Yes, I saved the best for last. I felt like a little kid when I found this card. Card of the year material right here. Dan should be in the Hall of Fame.

Final note, I don't know if it's telling or not in the photos, but these cards are beyond bent to hell, which makes them that much more awesome. It adds way more character to the cards.

Champions League Draw

Group A: Inter, Werder Bremen, Tottenham Hotspur, Twente
Group B: Lyon, Benfica, Schalke, Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Group C: Man Utd, Valencia, Rangers, Bursaspor
Group D: Barcelona, Panathinaikos, Copenhagen, Rubin
Group E: Bayern Munich, Roma, Basel, CFR Cluj
Group F: Chelsea, Marseille, Spartak Moscow, Zilina
Group G: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax, Auxerre
Group H: Arsenal, Shakhtar, SC Braga, Partizan

Bolded teams are the ones I think will go through to the knock outs. What do you think?

Spurs v Young Boys Champs League Leg 2

Tonight is the night many Spurs fans have been looking forward too for years. Last time we've been in Europe? 1960-61. Every Spurs fans knows (or should know) their history.

But everything we and the club have fought and cheered for over the course of the last 122 years is just that, history. Tonight is arguably the biggest game in Tottenham's history.

And we play a team named Young Boys. Fantastic.

They took it to us early last week. Did Harry and Co. (and everyone else) underestimate them? Of course. Within 30 minutes we were down 3-0. Young Boys are a decent side, shit, they beat Fenerbache just to get this far.

There's one gigantic difference tonight. We are at the Lane. 36,000 screaming fans are going to let our boys that we are behind them, no matter what. I really wish I didn't have to work tonight. To hear the singing from the terraces will be amazing. Watching our lilywhites play the most beautiful football (hopefully) and stick a few early goals against Young Boys will be immense. I could only imagine what Seven Sisters will look like after our secure place in Champions League Group Stages. Downloading of the game will suffice for me tonight I guess.

So how are we going to do it? Our forwards have been banged up lately. Defoe, who will go under the knife by weeks end can only play 45 minutes. BBC Sport right now is saying Defoe will start up top with Crouch. When Defoe comes off, I think Gio should come on for him. If that link up isn't working, Keane should come on to play the 9 role and hopefully those two up top can link. Then, bring on Pavy if all else fails.

Mids should be Palacios and Huddlestone in the middle. Shame about Luka. He cannot stay healthy. As much as we need Luka as the playmaker, THudds is turning into the quarterback of the field. Palacios needs to demolish every midfielder in challenges. Let Bale and Lennon run wild on the wings, terrorizing their wing backs. If we need to bring others on, Niko should get a go. If Harry does want to try and run a 4-5-1, let Jenas come out (shudder) and play an attacking front in the middle of the park. Now that I think about it, how ironic would it be if Jenas gets our lone goal to put us through to the Groups? For as much shit and flack JJ takes from all Spurs fans, I wouldn't care if he never did anything else for us, so as long as he scores.

I'm not worried about our defense. Bassong and Dawson looked lost last week. SeBass will be on the bench for this one to start. Daws and our King will be the two in the middle. Ledley King, Champions League match, at the Lane. He has deserved this for years.

To dare is to do. Ping that ball, play total football, put a bunch past them and move on with it. No hiccups on defense, no stupid giveaways.

Tonight is what every Spurs fan has waited for, and I for one, am not ready to quit hearing the Champions League anthem.



COYFS

2/93....2.15% Done

As I've mentioned before (nearly a year ago) I wanted to try and collect the whole 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game Autographs. Figuring that I'd continue my card quest and nothing would happen to side track me I would have a decent collection going a year later. In that time, I've purchased ZERO of the autographs. My count still stood at 1, a lonely Harmon Killebrew that I've owned for 9 years.

Harmon as of two days ago has a new pal. Paul Blair. Paul only cost $6.49, shipping included. Having wanted to get back into my quest, he was the first (and cheapest) autograph to purchase. In all honesty, I had no idea who the hell this dude was until I Wiki'd him. Blair spent 17 years in the majors, 4x World Series Champ, dominated on Defense with 8 Gold Glove Awards (had a solid run of consecutive GG's from 1969-1975), and also works out at Triangle Fitness is Eldersburg, Maryland. Paul also bowls at Kings Point Lanes in Reisterstown, Maryland. FUN FACTS!!!



So there you have it, number 2 on my quest to 93. After reading Guy's Basketball Blog and seeing his Murad chase slowly but surely happen, I wanted to try something that is a bit easier than finding the 2002 MLB Showdown DCI Promos....and I'm not sure I picked the right thing. It's a chase, but it will be worth it. And sorry for the bad picture, the auto isn't cut off, I just took a bad photo. Kill me.

Stuff My Dad Collects: Pt. 2

I was going through a drawer yesterday and found an old shoe box. Not too sure as to why or when the box was put in here I decided I'd pull it out and take a peek.



It turned out pretty quick that the contents were going to be baseball cards. On top were some 1970 Topps cards. The dead give away: 1969 World Champion Mets card.



I know my city is championship deprived but any Mets fans that read this blog, you can get a second look at this card...since ya know, your team hasn't been worthwhile since then aside from '86.



There were a few other 1970's strewn about in the box, however most of the box was from the 1960's era. Overall I'd say there are about 150 cards in this small box.



Why have one Boog when you can pick 3 Boog's?



A little Braves love in with Hoyt and Phil. I wish Phil got a MLB Showdown card.



This is one of my favorite cards of the box by far. I'm a huge Ernie fan and him with the All Time Homer Champ makes this card awesome. Not pristine mint, but who cares it's not going to be sold.



Legend. If I could go back in time to watch one person play baseball, he is almost at the top of my list....Pete Incaviglia is number 1.



Dear Topps,

Fleer doesn't exist anymore, I suggest you steal this deign and then make a set with on card autos. It'd look fantastic.

Love,
Attic Insulation.



This is Joe Pettini. He played baseball in 1981. I don't know what else to say other than this is the best card I have ever seen in my life.



....and then I see this card. Sorry Joe, but Darrell is pulling the hipster look back in the 80's. Goofy black rimmed glasses, v-neck shirt. All while hitting .246 in 118 games, no big deal.



Pfister? I barely know her.



Nice mug Yogi. I was never a fan of close up face photos. I also am not a fan of Yogi, the only redeeming part of him is his first name.




Obligatory Cookie Rojas shout out. What a good looking man. Great pair of glasses. A++


I hope you enjoyed Part 2 of Stuff My Dad Collects. I hope to do these more often, especially considering I have a whole mess of 1980's cards waiting to be posted with goofy looking dudes.

FIBA

The World Basketball Championships are starting soon and there's no better way to get excited about International Hoops than by checking out Guy's The Basketball Card Blog. He's having a contest for an autographed Alonzo Mourning Box Topper. All you have to do is guess the correct amount of overall points in the US-France game on the 15th.

I've been checking out the site daily for a few months and it's a great read.

2010-2011 English Premier League

Tomorrow morning starts the best time of the year, soccer season...7:30am to be exact. Spurs v City. Would love to see Spurs trounce City 3-0. And in a few weeks, Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga will be in full swing. However, this post is going to be dedicated to my predictions of what the final table EPL will look like come May. I along with Paul the Octopus predicted the winner of the World Cup...although that wasn't really hard to do considering they've been the best team since 2008.

Anyways, here goes:

1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool
5. Spurs
6. Man City
7. Everton
8. Aston Villa
9. Bolton
10. Fulham
11. Blackburn
11. Birmingham
13. Stoke
14. Wolves
15. Newcastle
16. Sunderland
17. Wigan
18. West Ham
19. West Bromwich
20. Blackpool


Post your predictions. At the end of the year the person with the most correct guesses can win a prize. Most likely, it will be some soccer cards.

Unique...Sort of.

I had to run a few errands back to my old University so I made the decision to stop by the old card store I used to frequent back in 2008, All Pro Sports Cards. I browsed the shop for nearly 30 minutes not really saying anything to the owner. Not to sound rude, but I really didn't have anything to say to him past the "Hello" phrase. Although I did try to make small talk about how I used to come to his store years ago while at University, but he wasn't really having it...whatever.

Like I said, I was walking about the store looking at all the game used cards, regular filler cards, and miscellaneous sports memorabilia. All of the prices were a bit inflated, but you'll have that with the overhead cost associated with having to rent a building and pay utilities. Then I started looking at the filler cards. The guy had TONS of baseball, but limited quantities of every other sport. No luck finding Drazen here, which honestly, was the reason I went.

Back to the baseball cards....the guy had 1954 Topps for sale. Not many were available and none were in very good condition. However, the first one I saw was former Pirate pitcher John Hetki. John wasn't a stellar player, however the desire to purchase the card was very high. Main reason: John is the grandfather of my best friend. He used to come to our little league games and cheer us on all the time. I haven't seen him in a few years, but would have loved to purchase the card and get him to sign it. The only problem: The owner wanted $60 dollars citing Book Value!! Sorry bud, but I'll go to Ebay and pay $10.

Instead my purchase consisted of 2 packs of 2009 Topps Unique. Having never seen or heard of the product I figured at $5.00 a pack, it was worth a go. Card Shop Owner showed me the sell sheet, saw some awesome looking cards that I was not about to get, so I took the bait.

Pack 1:


Akinori Iwamura
Joe Saunders
Clayton Kershaw
Jermaine Dye
Kenshin Kawakami /2699
Jose Lopez /1199 RED
Braden Looper

WHATTTTTT BRADEN LOOPER IS STILL ALIVE???



Yes, apparently he is. It's been a long time since I've last actually paid attention to him. In fact the only card I can think of is his 2000 MLB Showdown Marlins card. His little blurb on the back mentions how he finally started a game in 2007 after having 572 trips from the bullpen. That's good for third all time behind Todd Jones (racist), and Chuck McElroy. Braden, you'll always be a Control 4 1-15 no double in my heart.

Second Pack:


Andre Ethier
Russell Martin
Aaron Cook
Dan Uggla
Alfonso Soriano /1199 RED
Victor Martinez
Willy Taveras Alone At the Top Insert

All but one in this pack come from the NL. The Taveras insert is 1:12 packs...not bad.



Still real weird seeing this guy not in a Tribe uniform. Speaking of the uniforms, this Red Sox shirt sucks.

Overall, Unique isn't that bad of a product, neat design overall. Reminds me of the Impact cards from earlier in this decade. On a random note, that was the first bunch of 2009 cards I bought....apparently I skipped all last year.