No Mas!

Every card blogger is known for at least one thing, right? I mean I could throw out any random blogger's name, and most of the people reading this would immediately associate them with some particular player/team/collection, yes? For example, and this is just an example (wink wink, nod nod), if I mentioned, Kerry, aka madding, the longtime proprietor of Cards on Cards, what would you think of first; Cardinals? Trail Blazers? Oregon Ducks? For what it's worth, I think all of the above, but after last year, I'd also add sender of crazy generous bubble mailers to the list as well. 

I received two from Kerry last year, both completely unexpected. The first was shown many moons ago, and the second, well, that one has been languishing in a scan folder for quite a few months now, BUT only because I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of cards that were sent, which had to be well over a hundred.

I had claimed that nifty Lou Gehrig insert, and this SI for Kids sheet (which despite excellent packing, the PO tried to destroy, see the bottom right corner for evidence of that) from one of Kerry's free stuff posts, which ended up being accompanied by what could be called an instant basketball card collection. With so many cards included, I had a hard time trying to figure out which ones to include, and of course, how many to include? Too little would be an insult, and too many might make some folks regret clicking on the post, it really is a fine line. Out of respect for Kerry, and his kind gesture, I ended up settling somewhere near the halfway point, so if you've got a minute...

This package arrived a week or two before Cliff's untimely passing, and must've had close to 40 cards of his in it, about half of which I did need.

1991-92 Skybox sure has gotten popular all of sudden, has anyone else seen what those boxes have been selling for? They're now going for more then they were when they were new, never thought I'd see that!

I didn't much care for Upper Deck's Special Edition (bottom right) when it came out back in '93, but it's grown quite a bit on me over the years (one would've thought that daily showers would've prevented such a thing, but apparently they weren't enough).

It seems like a lifetime ago, but I can recall that during the 1991 playoffs, most of the kids in my 4th grade class were allowed, and encouraged, to support the Blazers by making signs and hanging them on the sides of our desks. There were a couple of oft repeated slogans, but the one that comes to mind first was "Buck [Buck Williams] and Duck [Kevin Duckworth] say yuck to Magic [Magic Johnson]", which was used during the western conference finals. As it turned out, the support from 30+ nine year-olds wasn't enough though, as the Blazers fell to the Lakers in six games that year (at least the Lakers went on to lose in the finals).

Ask any Blazers fan about what if's, and they'll probably be able to rattle a handful off before you can even finish your sentence. Taking Sam Bowie ahead of Michael Jordan in the 1984 draft is often mentioned first (and it doesn't help that it was rehashed in that garbage "documentary" last year), why I don't know, as far as what if's go, that one's pretty simple to answer; if Jordan had gone to the Blazers, he never would've got Scottie, and therefor never won a ring, see? Simple! For me though, the biggest Blazers what if, will always be what if Arvydas had been allowed by the Soviets to come over right after he was drafted in'86? [Hawks fans can wonder the same thing, as he was drafted by them a year earlier] Many a expert considered him to be the best player in the world at the time (which was warranted by the way), I have no doubts that had he come before his knees were shot, the Blazers would've been the dominant team of the late 80's/early 90's, winning multiple rings, and completely rewriting the history that is currently known.

Have you noticed a theme yet? I'm thinking that Kerry cleared out some of his dupes box for me. It's nice to know another Blazers fan in the blogging world.

It wasn't all Blazers though. Dan was top 5 player for me as a kid. No one's asking, but the other four were Cliff Robinson, Jerome Kersey, Larry Johnson, and Shawn Kemp. Larry Bird and John Stockton would be #'s 6 and 7, and the only reason that Larry isn't in the top 5, is because I didn't get to see him play enough at the time, and didn't see any of his prime years until much later on video, and then eventually, the internet.

Here's where I really had to limit what to show, and what not to, as a lot of player collections were touched on, just about all of them actually. I can't remember if I ever had the Mitchell Wiggins/Otis Thorpe error card before, so that made for quite the surprise.

The Fleer Metal sets really got popular there for a bit earlier this year, but have since come back to earth, save for the Jordan's of course.

It's impossible to tell from the scan, but Cedric is one of those Reebok Metal's, and Shaq is a Prizm Prizm Silver. 

After Brando Roy, Wesley Matthews is my favorite modern Blazer, but after being a Buck last year, and signing with the Lakers this season, I find it really difficult to want to collect him anymore.

I already two copies of Bill's '77-78 Topps (white back), but would never have turned down another. This one came with a fairly hellacious wax stain (you can see it in the scan), but even so, it was no match for the all-powerful pantyhose! And I did have the Jerome as well, but this one was in better shape than mine.

Many thanks (over a hundred I suppose) to Kerry for this overly generous mailing, it truly was another great one.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.