TTM Triumph #8: Cazzie Russell

Here's one that I was surprised to get back so quickly, especially after reading of the mixed success that other's have had.

Mr. Russell seems be very busy with multiple projects, so you apparently have to get him at just the right time, which I guess I did.

A few career highlights: Led Michigan to three straight Big Ten titles and two NCAA title game appearances, averaged almost 31 points a game his senior season (1966) and was named college player of the year, was the #1 pick in the 1966 NBA draft, won an NBA title with the Knicks in 1970, was an All-Star in 1972, played a total of 12 seasons in the NBA, and has coached for a number of teams at many different levels.

As always, I would like to send out a big thank you to Mr. Russell.

A final bucket for "The Clown Prince"

This post will be my small way of paying tribute to Meadowlark Lemon, who passed away yesterday at the age of 83.

I am certainly no wordsmith so I won't even try to tell his life story through my words, so here is a link to the best current article in regards to his life. Hopefully in coming days there will be some more in depth pieces available.

The Harlem Globetrotters don't get a lot of attention these days, but in decades past they were one of the most popular acts going. It's amazing to think about how many people (especially kids) over multiple generations that they have brought joy to. Not to mention of course how many sick children whose day's were brightened, if only briefly, by the Globetrotters charitable events and trips to hospitals. I think it's especially important to remember that a part of Mr. Lemon's and the Globetrotters legacy.

I thought too, that I would share a few cards featuring Mr. Lemon from my collection to end this post.

First up is a 2012 Panini Golden Age autograph that I was fortunate enough to pull from a box earlier this year:

Next up are two card from the 1971 Cocoa Puffs set:

And one of the backs:

Here's four cards featuring Meadowlark from the 1972 Fleer Globetrotters set:

One of the backs:

Two from the same set with the "Clown Prince" and a couple teammates doing what they do:

I would also like to note the passing of Dave Henderson who also passed away yesterday at the way too young age of 57. I listened to he and Dave Niehaus call Mariners games for a number of years and always enjoyed their camaraderie. It's hard to believe they are both gone now, especially considering how they both left in such a sudden manner. I figured more bloggers would cover Mr. Henderson's death in more detail so I decided to just do a post on Meadowlark Lemon instead.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

An overdue thank you

About a month ago Adam from Infield Fly Rule was celebrating his 100th post with a contest. And I was fortunate enough to win said contest. The prize was a team bag full of checklists and a few extra non checklist cards that you will see at the end of this post. I know some of you might be wondering about the tie-in between one's 100th post and checklists. Well, you can read the logic behind it here.

So let's get this scanshow on the way:

These didn't scan particularly well, but I figure most people will recognize them. But on the off chance you don't, there is 1 from 1987 Topps, 1 from 1989 Donruss, 6 from 1989 Upper Deck, and 1 rookie checklist from 1990 Upper Deck.

Here's another batch from 1990 Upper Deck:

I really miss these art card checklists that Upper Deck did for all their sports products in the early 90's. This was an idea that really should come back, especially since the card companies are now reusing older designs on a regular basis.

On to the next group:

In here we have 6 from 1992 Upper Deck and 2 from 1993 Stadium Club.

Here's three from 1993 Leaf:

These were rather different, as far as checklists go, for their time. I wouldn't mind if they brought this style back as wel

The last batch here are the more contemporary of the bunch:

In here there are various Topps sets between 2010-14, the mini being from 2014. The real treat of the whole package for me was the three checklists from 2011 Topps Lineage that are going across the middle of the picture. I really like that set and didn't have those checklists, and as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I hardly ever come across cards from this set so these were really neat to get.

The last two scans here are the extras that were added from 2005 Topps Update:

It took me a little while to get them shown, but it wasn't because of a lack of appreciation (just procrastination). So thank you again, Adam. These cards really made for a nice contest to win!

Soggy weather and gifts

Hopefully everyone had an enjoyable Christmas. Hopefully too, wherever you are it was drier than it was here today. The good news was that it was right around 70 degrees, the bad news was it has been thunderstorming and torrential down pouring all day. And of course this has caused flooding, again. I imagine it is pretty bad all over the south right now. Here is a picture I took from the front porch (I didn't want to get drenched) after about seven hours of this soaking:

There's are normally four feet across creek now at least fifty feet across in the middle. That is a lot of water to show up in less than half a day. It will be interesting to see how much higher it is in the morning. It's suppose to continue through the night before ending sometime tomorrow. I think it's going to take a little longer for the water to go down this time.

Ok let's move on to more joyous things.

I don't usually get cards for Christmas, so I was somewhat surprised to get some this year:

That is two basketball repacks, two baseball repacks, and two blaster boxes of this year's Allen & Ginter. I have never opened up a blaster box before so I don't really know what to expect. No matter how they turn out I'm still very grateful to have received them. And here was probably the most unexpected thing of the day (except maybe for the very old Zippo):

Even though you can't tell from the scale of the picture, that is one of the 2014 Panini Golden Age jumbo box toppers. Like I said I really wasn't expecting this.

Now onto the sort of things I usually get:

I know the pictures aren't very good but it has been pretty dark all day. The package condition on all these is irrelevant since they will all be opened. Even though I'm big into action figures I only ever get them as presents these days. Although this year I have gotten about half the DC Multiverse line as I really dig these figures.

I did get few other things as well, but I figured these were the most relevant to this type of blog. Now I will look forward to seeing what everyone else got.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

TTM Triumph #7: Tom Van Arsdale

First off, I wanted to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas. In case you haven't heard, it is the best time of the year (and no, I'm not being facetious).

Even though my TTM posts aren't getting a lot of views and I really wouldn't expect very many today or tomorrow. But since I primarily do these for myself it doesn't bother me to much. Plus I'm really trying to get into a regular blogging schedule, so here is another recent return:

I found an interview with Tom and his brother Dick that you can read here, if you're so inclined.

As usual I would like to send out a big thank you to Mr. Van Arsdale.

Are you ready for some football?

Hopefully you answered yes. If not, you might want to skip this post. I figured this would be a timely piece, especially with the NFL season winding town and the college football bowl games starting up.

I must admit my football watching is way down this year, although my sports watching in general has decreased quite a bit. The reason being is the same across the board, that being I just don't like how the each sport is evolving.

With baseball: The home plate collision rule, hitters stepping out of the batter's box to adjust their batting gloves after every single pitch even if they didn't swing, pitchers taking 1-2 minutes between pitch's, pitchers not being able to hit a ball to save their life (except for select few), instant replay, juicers not being banned after their first offense, and all the ridiculous contracts.

With basketball: Kids coming into the league after only one year of college even though 99% of them aren't ready, lack of fundamentals, defense being outlawed, whiny "superstars", foul calls every other play, almost as many 3's being taken as there are 2 point shots, and the negative impact AAU has had on all of basketball.

With football: Not being able to even look at the quarterback without a penalty being called, flags being thrown every other play, fantasy sites influencing rule changes, and guys off the field crimes that should have them in jail but instead are given more chances to play than they deserve. Oh, and the high usage of HGH and no one seeming to care.

There are probably more reasons for my lowered interest in current sports that I can think of at the moment. But another big one is the fact that I loathe ESPN and since they seem to have their greasy fingers in everyone's pie, it makes viewing games for me much more difficult.

Okay my ranting is over for now. On with the cards we go!

All these cards in this post came from the second to last show I went to, and once again they were all 10 cents each. With football I primarily collect pre 1970, but will still pick up newer stuff if the price is right.

First up is a group of 1981 Topps:

I really do like a lot of the photos they used for this set. A few of these are going to be used for TTM requests and the rest will be set aside as a "someday I might work on the set" group.

Next up we have seven 1983 Topps and a 1976 Wonder Bread Franco Harris:

Here's a mixed bag of late 70's and early 80's Topps:

The next two sets of scans are a mixture that spans many years and many set:

I'm always a sucker when it comes to the various Fleer greats, UD legends, etc. sets for both baseball and football, I just wish they would do some for basketball as well. The 1985 Topps sticker of Joe Montana was kind of neat to find too.

And finally two sets of pictures from the 2010 Topps Magic set:

These didn't scan very well. This was the first time I had seen this set. The top six are base cards and the bottom four are made up of three inserts and a black mini. This might be another set I slowly work on, but I don't know for sure yet.

I thought too, that since this a post dedicated to football cards that I would add the only three that I got from my COMC stash.

1961 Fleer #87 Darris McCord:

Here is another one that didn't scan very well. This might be my favorite of the vintage football sets. Don't ask me why, cause I don't really know why I like it so. Unfortunately this is the first new card I've added to the set build in almost a year.

1962 Post #166 Lamar Lundy

I have added about 25 cards to this set over the course of the year.

And I will end it with a 1968 Topps #162 Mike Ditka:

I don't have a lot to say about this one, other than the fact that I think I got it for a steal right after the seller started a sell a couple of months ago.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

TTM Triumph #6: Jim Fox

The cold weather over the last couple of days is making me feel achy and lazy, so this will be a very quick post showing another neat recent return.

Also for anyone interested, I found this short interview with Jim Fox from last year that I thought was worth reading.

As always I would like to send a big thank you out to Mr. Fox.

Baseball cards from an antique mall: a follow-up

About a month ago I did a post talking about my trip to a somewhat local antique mall and showed off some of the surprising bounty that was to be had. Not having a scanner at the time made it difficult to try and show everything, so I left a few cards out hoping to get to them after a new scanner was acquired. So now the time has come to get to the remaining cards.

First up: three 1965 Topps Embossed cards

I don't know what the going rate on these is, but $1 a piece seemed like good deal considering the condition. I rarely see cards from this set at shows so to find them here was a quite a treat for me. There was also a Boog Powell in really sad shape for $3 that I passed on.

Next we have a 1987 Hills Nashville Sounds 26 card team set:

I already had about half of these, but I'm not going to walk away from the whole set for $1. It's kind of funny the fact that while living my whole life in and around Portland I never came across minor league cards, and now after moving to Tennessee I find them everywhere. I have no complaints about that, although I would like to find some older stuff someday.

And finally 1989 Baseball's Best One 21 card set:

And one of the backs:

This is somewhat of a mystery set to me. Google searches haven't provided any useful information pertaining to these cards. I have only found singles for sale on Ebay. These cards remind me of the Mother's Cookies sets that used to be put out, especially the glossy finish (it doesn't come across in the scans at all) and the no borders. They are also printed on a slightly thinner card stock. These were originally priced at $2, but had been marked down to $1. If anyone has any info on these I would love to know more about them.

That completes the purchases from that day. I hope to go back in another month or two and see if the seller has added anything new or marked anything else down.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.