All Out Of Bubblegum...

I wasn't go to post so soon, as I'm still thinking of Fluffy and not in the mood (and thanks for the comments by the way), but I found out a bit ago that "Rowdy" Roddy Piper passed away.  As I said on twitter, I hated Piper.  He played the heel persona so well that as a kid, I couldn't stand him.  After the demise of WCW, I realized how good he was at his job.  He played his character so well, that he literally had people hate him.  I grew to love him in later years, and this is a pretty big loss for the wrestling world.  I could go on, but pictures are worth a thousand words, so thanks to Trading Card Database, enjoy some of these cards of Piper.  I only have one Piper card, I might look for a couple of these to add.

The first card is the one I have.  The last card is from the 2015 Topps set.

Even if you didn't watch wrestling, you knew who Piper was, thanks in large part to the cult classic movie They Live.

While looking for photos from the movie, I came across this tweet he made a couple years back.

I've felt that way a lot sometimes.

What was amazing to see was while playing Saints Row 4... well, check out this screenshot-

Of course other people may remember him from a music video from The Goonies.  If you never seen the video, it's well worth watching.

It's been a long, rough week, but this didn't help at all.  Another thing I spotted when searching for pictures was this.

On that note I want to say very few wrestlers could pull off being a heel so good that you hated him.  He went in and did his job.  Watching They Live for the first time when I was adult was so great because I respected him much more and could appreciate his performance.  So now its time for somebody else to kick some ass.  Just don't run out of bubblegum.

Thanks for reading, and I might start posting again on Monday.  I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Custom Cards special

Since I had my computer problems lately and I moved files around, I found a few things I forgot about.  I found a card design I made early last year to make a custom card for me.  I never got it done, but I spotted it recently, and thought of a good picture to use for it.  So I spent a little time yesterday morning working on it and here is the result.

The photo is from the rainy game I went to earlier this year.  Besides having the Cleveland logo on the scoreboard, I love the photo.  I doubt I get that close to the field again anytime soon.  It does look like I'm on the field.

I didn't make a back for it, I might one day, but here are some stats I would have.

Okay, I was playing Home Run Derby on Candystand recently, but still 18 homers on 20 swings is one of the best ones I ever remember having.

Though once I finished making a card for me, I decided to make a card for a real player.  He's still in the minor's but I still wanted a custom card of him.

I've mentioned Chuckie on here before, and he has the honor (I guess you could call it that) of my first insert set design.  I called it Launch Code because the top photo is of him jacking a home run in one of his first games this year which was last week.  The bottom is him being greeted at the plate.  After a setback prior to the season and a demotion back to Augusta, he is still young enough to make it to the majors, and I have high hopes he does.

Another reason I made the card is because yesterday was his birthday.  I thought it would be nice to make.  I sent him a birthday greeting with the card on twitter, but he doesn't check it a lot.

Yesterday was also another birthday which is why I made more cards.

This one is more of a framed photo than a card, but I wanted to make something special.  He is standing next to my nephew in this photo.  My dad would have turned 68 yesterday, and I miss him every day.

My dad was a jack of all trades.  One of the things I loved about him was his determination.  He used to do demolition derbies a lot, and I have one of them on VHS, which was on his birthday in 1991.  I believe it was also his final demo.  After he stopped doing derbies, he started pulling lawn mowers.... sorry GARDEN TRACTORS!  He spent a lot of time on his pullers and had a nice stable.  This was one of his earlier machines he dubbed Red (sometimes Ol' Red or Lil' Red).  He did quite well on it.  He had another he called The Wizard because it was an old Wizard mower.  I liked that one a lot, but it was as slow as molasses.  It took forever for it to get up the track, but slow and steady wins the race.

After a few years, other people started to take over the pulls, and so he upgraded to a couple older Cub Cadet mowers.  While it was unofficial, Dad was a member of the PG Pulling Group.  He just kind of made the name up with other local pullers and had some hats made.  In fact I bet we still have some of them.  I thought this was a great way to honor him on his birthday.

It saddens me when I think of him but look at all the happy moments and it makes me smile.  He brought home our dog Angel, and she was always loyal to dad.  She lived for many years until she passed away on Dad's birthday.  We always felt it was her way of showing love to him.  Angel's passing also saddens me.

As I write this today on the 29th, I am saddened yet again.  My cat Fluffy has been sick since Friday, and we've been hoping she'd get better but came to the realization that she will pass away soon.  On Sunday my Mom happened to tell her "if you stick around a couple more day's it will be dad's birthday".  Fluffy never met my Dad, but I think she made it her mission to stick around for that reason.

At about 9:30 this morning (July 29th), Fluffy passed away.  I know she isn't in pain anymore, so I am happy about that, but I am still sad.  She has been by my side loyally since around Christmas of 2013, and she was everything you could dream of in a cat.  The funny thing is that, I wasn't initially going to keep her.  Her previous owner suddenly got allergic to her and had to find her a new home.  She loved Fluffy to death, but it was affecting her health.  She brought Fluffy to the local nursing home my mom works, but she was so scared of the place.  My mom said we would watch her until a new owner could be found.

My reluctance was that I was still feeling sadness over a cat we use to have named Tiger passing away earlier in 2013 (he belonged to my sister, and I honestly think died of a broken heart exactly two weeks after she passed away).  After Tiger passed I vowed I didn't want another cat (the same promise I kept after Angel died).  My mom convinced me Fluffy was too scared at the nursing home, and needed a temporary place to stay.

She brought her to the house, and Fluffy went into hiding for almost three days.  Finally after I tried coaxing her out, I was on the couch one night and saw she finally came out.  She wanted to jump on me.  After that, she was by my side nonstop.  I decided she had found her new home and she was mine.

I stand by my vow this time that I won't have another cat.  With the passing of Tiger and Fluffy, both of whom I loved dearly despite completely different personalities, I can't fathom having another cat.

It's bringing tears to my eyes thinking about it.

So with the sadness I've had lately, and a few other things going on, I think I'm taking a short break for a while.  Likely a week, but maybe perhaps more.  I have plenty to show off and love to write, but my heart won't be in it, and I just want to take a break.  When I return though, I will have plenty to show.  In the meantime, I might not read all the blogs or respond to comments, but I do plan on working on my collection.  When I feel like it I will be back.  Who knows I might be back tomorrow, I just wanted to give a heads up in case you guys miss me and are curious.

Thanks everyone for reading, have a good night, and if you have a pet, hold them, pet them, hug them, play with them, and most importantly, love them.  Good night.

That Hits The Spot, Part Dos!

Since today is the second part, that indicates part one was before.  It was yesterday in case you missed it.  Sorry for no link, I don't have it handy.  Anyways, we have more cards to check out so let's take a gander at what else John from Johnny's Trading Spot sent.

CODENAME: XTRA!  I thought about using Kool-Aid, but it wasn't pictured, so since I'm cleaning up my computer, this works too.

That Hits The Spot, Part One!

Thanks everyone for the recent comments you've left on my blog.  I haven't responded to them all, but I have read them.  Also thanks for all the warnings that I indeed need to get an external hard drive.  I have about the same luck with them though, but I hope to get one soon.  I have been slowly building up gift cards on Amazon, and while I have been planning on getting a Roku, I think a hard drive would be more important.  Also thanks Billy for the Google Drive suggestion.  I had no idea about that, it is something I need to look into.

Happy Place, this exit

I am backlogged on posts, and I can't wait to show them.  However the last couple days haven't been the best.  Some things you can control and some you can't.  The faster I accept that, the happier I'll be.  Not to bog everyone else down with all that's bothering me, one I do care to mention is my computer is acting up.  Technically, both my computers have had issues lately.  The desktop wouldn't allow me to log in.  After letting it sit for a couple weeks, I tried to fix it myself.  It turns out it was a simple fix, but one I didn't want to do because I thought it would risk all the contents of my computer.

My desktop has quite a lot of stuff on it, but the only thing I cared about is the pictures on it.  Most of them were of my sister and while I have pictures of her when she was younger, I had less photos of her in the digital age except what she took.  When she passed, I got all the pictures and data that I could off her computers and such and its all on my desktop.  I have nothing real trustworthy to back it up on but hope to get an external hard drive soon.  Everything else I have on the desktop I could bear to lose (even the tons of music, which I have rebuilt many times from).

The day after I fixed the desktop with no worries, my laptop started acting up.  I still haven't figured it out yet, but it had a glitch that caused it to restart at the same time two days in a row.  After the restart it said it couldn't find the hard drive.  The first day I freaked out, and just turned it off.  I let it sit 45 minutes and turned it on again.  It worked fine after that until the next morning.  Then it did the same thing.  I turned it off again and tried it again and it worked fine.  The next day I figured I would turn it off before the restart would happen.  I had it off a few hours and turned it back on and it has been fine since.  This morning it was on at the time previous malfunctions took place, but since I wasn't using it, nothing seemed to happen.

It is still under warranty I think and from what I gathered, it could just be a wire isn't connecting right or something.  I backed all my data up (onto the desktop) so if something does happen, it won't sting as much, but I would hope for better results for a computer less than two years old.

Okay, you didn't come here to hear me whine.  I have plenty more if you do, but instead I want to go to my happy place.  It is a place where my mind is taken off of what is bothering me and onto things that... you know, make me happy.  As it turns out, I scanned stuff recently, and this gives me a chance to clean stuff up, bonus happy place!

I was saving these for a future Maddux Mania post, but now is a good time as any.  I've likely shown most of them off before, but they deserve more exposure.  I have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get most of Maddux's rookies.  The Fleer one I got years ago as part of the entire update set for under $5 shipping included off ebay.  The Donruss ones I got last year fairly cheap.  The Dick Perez one was another one I got last year, I had my eye on it for months when it finally got cheap enough for my liking. The Pinnacle Mint one I've had for quite a while, I forgot how I got it.  It might have been a holdover from my original collection I sold off in the early 2000's (I only kept a couple cards).  One of my favorite Maddux cards is the 300th win card.  It is one that I think every Maddux collector should get, and its fairly cheap.  The last card I only included because I wanted a card to be shown from every team he was on.

I have about 150 Maddux cards and still have a long ways to go but my future goals are a relic card, an autographed card, and something from his minor league days.  They are a little out of my price point at this time, but it is something I hope to get soon.

When I got back into collecting, I wanted anything cheap.  I found some team boxes of football cards on ebay, and bid.  I won a box of Oilers/Titans cards (which I got in hopes of Steve McNair cards) and a box of Rams cards (because hey, I live in Missouri, might as well have some Rams stuff).  Today I don't collect any Titans players (unless they have Mizzou connections), and collect very few Rams cards.  These four cards came from the Rams box though, and I was very happy with them.  That is the only Rosey Grier card I have, and its a nice one to have. The three Deacon Jones cards are also not to have too.  I forgot who it is (I didn't scan the backside) but the pinkish one has another legend on the back, possibly Joe Namath.  While I missed the glory days of both, I still see the Brady Bunch episode with Deacon Jones on it from time to time on TV.  That does put a smile on my face sometimes.

Let me start with the Rolen.  I think I got it in the 20 pack boxes found at Walmart (at least they used to have them).  It was a nice pull, but to be honest, I never was a big Rolen fan.  Nothing against him, but since I never rooted for the Cardinals, I never thought much about him.

However, I was very excited to pull the Jaime Garcia card.  It was a combination of it being a minor league card, he was doing good at the time I pulled it, and the fact that it was an actual Springfield Cardinals card made me happy.  I have always been a fan of his as a result of pulling this card, and I think the only way to convert me into a Cardinals fan is by way of the Springfield Cardinals.  It would never happen, but I've thought of moving to Springfield, and if I did, I would be a fan of their team.  I could still root for the Royals in the majors, but in the minors I tend to root for almost every team.

One of the few Cardinals I do root for currently is Kolten Wong.  I'm not real sure why, but the first time I heard of him, I liked him.  When I found this card dirt cheap on COMC last year I jumped on it.  I hope he becomes a megastar, and I think he is well on his way so far.

I always liked Chipper Jones, so when I pulled this card I was pretty excited.  He never was a PC guy for me, but I will admit I do have a relic, and also a couple of his rookies, so it would be pretty easy for me to start one of him.  Maybe one day as my collection progresses I will start one, but for now having a few of his cards will suffice.

Time for the final card now.  I admit, I feel a bit better now, but still not in the mood of doing much.  In fact besides winning a few Listia auctions earlier today, my weekend has not turned out too great.  But time to have a positive outlook, and check out this final card.

Clayton Kershaw is another guy I don't have a PC of, and I doubt I start one for him.  He's a great pitcher but I don't think I care about starting a PC for every guy that is great.  Even if I did, it would be pointless because I'd never make headway.  I pulled this in a pack of cards one day and was pretty happy.  I think I was most happy with the color of the "workout jersey".  One of my favorite colors have always been orange, so this was cool to have.  While I consider myself more of a base card collector, I will always be happy to pull a relic or insert card (unless its A.J. Pierzinski, then I might throw up uncontrollably and figure out how to write a new Happy Place post).

As I've started this blog, I've thought about maybe trading this card to someone, but I'm not quite sure if I want to part with it yet.  For now it will stay in my binder until I decide it is time to move on.

As I'm finishing this up, I'm hearing the Royals have just acquired Johnny Cuerto from the Reds.  If the rumors are true as what we gave up, I'm not real sure I'm happy with the trade.  However I also was against the Zack Greinke trade (almost to a point where I thought of ending my Royals fandom, I wised up quickly), and that turned out ok for KC.  In fact, most of Dayton Moore's trades have turned out well.  Time will tell if this was worth it, for now I will be skeptical.  The names being thrown around are John Lamb and Brandon Finnegan.  Part of me hopes Finnegan isn't included, but baseball is a business, and as sad I would be, if it makes sense, then I wish all the former Royals the best of luck.

After writing all this, I can't say I'm happy, but I have calmed down a bit, and I realize some things I can control, others I can't.  All I can do is do my best to make sure the best outcome occurs.  Sorry for making your day gloomy, but writing soothes me, and writing this helped.  For the record, my health and my family's health is all okay (except for my cat, who I'm worried about), its other things that are bothering me.

Thanks for reading, and hope everyone has a great day/night/week.

Oh Brother!

No significant post tonight, working on something else, hope to have a couple posted this weekend.

So how about a picture of someone in the news.  Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Choose your words wisely!

Papoy! Oh Joy!

How do you come up with a clever headline using the word Papoy?  That could take hours.  I decided not to be so clever and used something generic.

Let's see some Listia

I touched a bit on some Listia cards yesterday, so I might as well show them off today.

A Brilliant couple contest wins

A couple months ago I joined up with one of those sites that promise more followers (it was a free site, I'm never paying for twitter followers, that's a joke).  After a few days, I got quite a few new followers.  Since then I've been growing my followers quite nicely.  Part of the reason I did it was to get more exposure for my blog, and part of it was really because I was around 150 or so followers and was tired of having so few when I see so many others have more and don't say crap.

Anyways, as my followers started to rise, so did the people I followed.  I also started to follow other bloggers and in turn found other cool people to follow.  Some of them even hold contests and twitter sales.  That is the reason for this post today.

Recently I was lucky enough to win TWO twitter contests in the same week from one person.  Brilliant Cards holds almost nightly contests and I usually enter.  The first one I won was a pretty nice haul.

We'll start with the Jackie Robinson card.  I believe it is from the 1997 Upper Deck set.  I've never had one from the set, but this is a nice card.  I never even seen it, but I might go after some more.  My collection is seriously lacking cards of Jackie's to be honest.  At some point I will get more.

Next to it is a 1992 Will Clark card.  I do know I have this card and had it the first time I collected.  I don't actively collect Will Clark but one thing I am actively searching for is a Will Clark folder.  I remember growing up I had one.  It was based on the Topps cards of the time.  The problem is that I can't remember if it was the 1989 or 1990 card.  I think it was the 1989 card, but can't rule either out.  I have seen some on ebay, but they usually run pretty high, so my best bet is finding it locally for cheap.  It's a longshot, but its not like I'm not spending sleepless nights because I don't have it.  I'll be fine if I never have one again.

Next I'll mention the Jim Edmonds card.  I never seen it, but its shiny so its cool.  I always liked Jim Edmonds especially when he was with the Angels.  I also liked their uniforms at this time too.  The logo was pretty cool too.  In fact I prefer it over what they currently have.

Finally is Brooks Robinson.  This card was really the reason I RT'd to win the contest.  I liked the Cooperstown cards, and thought this would be a good way to get a couple.  The other cards in the bunch was just bonus to me.  At some point I might get serious collecting this set.  For now its on the backburner until I finish a few other goals firsts.

There was also more cards (as seen by the scan above).  Here are the rest.

For the record, I like when the packages I get have notes and messages included, I actually keep them.

If you ever follow Brilliant Cards you will notice most of his auctions include a playing card he signed.  Its a nice touch and I already put it in my binder.  It's pretty cool to have.

Okay, The Tommy Lee card would be one I would have loved about a decade ago, today its still cool to have, but I don't follow his adventures much these days.  Among the many complaints I have against A&G is that with all that white space, the least they could do is put the person's full name on the front of the card.  Still, I also put this card in my binder.

Finally is another Cooperstown card, this one of Roy Campanella.  This was actually the first card I saw when I opened the package.  I already knew what was included, but I forgot, so it was cool to see this as the top card.

I mentioned I won 2 contests.  Well a few days later, BC held another kind of contest he likes to run.  It was a mystery envelope contest.  He has 3-5 envelopes, and he picks a winner and they choose which envelope they want, then does another contest, until all the envelopes are gone.  I think this one was a three envelope contest.  I was the second winner.  I didn't know which envelope to pick.

Since Gold is one of Mizzou's colors (at last check officially it is Old Gold), I chose the Gold envelope.  Good thing I did.

I won the best one!

I have never owned a Cal Ripken Jr. rookie card.  This was awesome.  1982 was also the year I was born, so it worked out kind of cool.  My mom isn't the biggest baseball fan, but she really likes Cal Ripken Jr.  When I showed it to her she said "he looks so young".  It's his rookie card mom!

I wasn't expecting something like this to be honest.  BC usually has a lot of San Francisco Giants cards to win, so I figured it would be related to the Giants or something, but this blew me away.  Cal is a guy that I have a few of his cards, so adding this to my collection could jump start a PC for him sooner than later.

What a way to start a week of great mail days.  I also got the Ripken a couple days after another 1982 Topps cards came in the mail that I won.  I might show that one next time.

That wraps it up for today, thanks for reading and have a great day.

Back to your Regularly Scheduled Program!

After a week of comic book scans, its back to doing what I created this blog for- talk about my cards.  Before I can do that though, I have a few notes to pass along.  First off- I picked the worst week ever to have Comic Book week.  Sure the turnout was amazing and I loved all the feedback, but the timing was horrible.

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue."

Next year I need to plan it better.  It ran up against one of the biggest deals of the year.  I mean that in all sincerity.  For those of you who missed it, last week was the week after Shark Week, which means one thing- Pull Tab Awareness Week!  If you have no idea what that is, then head over there now.  Seriously, click that link above (it opens a new page), read it then come back here to finish reading this.

Now if you read that you may say "You only posted that because you entered the contest".  Well, I later disqualified myself and the contest is over, so I didn't win, no big deal.

I posted it because of the amount of items I get from Listia that should heed this advice.  Whenever I open a package with a terribly shipped card I feel like Mr. Jackson.

Dang, such a harsh feeling for my first gif.

Anyways, Gavin provides a great public service with Pull Tab Awareness Week, and it should be taken seriously and promoted as much as possible.

Moving on, I also wanted to mention The Raz Blog is currently running a cool contest, and the disclaimer here is that I am gaining an extra entry by pimping the contest.  The contest is for some female Japanese wrestling cards.  If that sounds cool or are intrigued by that, then click the link (again, I can wait, the link opens in a new window).  The contest ends later this week, so act now!

I also picked a bad week for comic book week because I had no tie ins to Comic Con (besides not knowing when it began), and no tie in to Ant Man (which I like Paul Rudd, but have ZERO interest in seeing that).  So next time I'll find a way to tie it into something.

Another reason I picked a bad week was because it was the biggest weeks in terms of mail days that I've had in a while.  The good news is that I have many new posts to make this week and probably the rest of the month.  I won a couple contests on twitter, and some gracious bloggers sent some cards my way (one of which was also part of a contest win).  Throw in some Listia wins, and all I can say is that I've been busy.

So busy in fact that I didn't have a lot of time to read a lot of blogs this week.  I'm sorry about that, and will be catching up again soon.  Though I did make a dent in organizing my cards some, and things are looking better.  I had a computer issue so that gave me some time to work on it.  I even managed to fix the computer problem too, so things are really looking up.

Since I don't want to make a long intro then bury some card scans here, I think I will have a new post later today.  It might be real late tonight/early AM because of my sleep pattern, but I'll have a new post later.

I guess that will wrap it up for now, thanks for reading and have a great day.

"Crap, I forgot to show baseball cards." (I paraphrased that, enjoy!)

Comic Book Week- Day 7 (Final Day!)

Unlike the previous days, I am writing this one not in advance.  It might explain if there is a delay in posting it (as I've tried to post around 8PM Eastern every night).  I have been very happy and surprised with the feedback and comments I've read, thanks to all the fans who give me further insight on comic books.  I did find a few more the other day, but I will hold off showing those until later, I might do another week next year.  As for now, I fell a bit behind on cards, so I need to get back to posting those.

That doesn't mean we can't have one more day of comics though.  Today is a debuting comic for the site- The Silver Surfer! (I'm not sure if that causes excitement or not, but it sounds cool).

Comic Book Week- Day 6

We are closing in on the finish of the week now and today we have a comic I haven't shown yet.

Comic Book Week- Day 5

We are almost done with Comic Book Week and I admit it has been fun so far.  Since writing these in advance, I can't tell if this was a hit or a flop, but if it is a hit, I seriously might look for more comics and this could be a yearly event.

Anyways, lets get to today's scans.

Comic Book Week- Day 4

After a successful day 3, let's see how day 4 compares.

Today will be a good day if you like Wolverine, two different comics featuring him.  I don't follow him much, and I'm okay to freely admit I never seen the movies.

Comic Book Week- Day 3

Hopefully we can rebound from whatever yesterday was and find something of worth today.

Comic Book Week- Day 2

After a great start yesterday, let's see if today's comic book can match it?

Comic Book Week- Day 1

Today begins the first day of Comic Book Week.  The following are scans from some comics I had lying around.

Picture Pages- Nick Magazine

I recently did some cleaning and came across an old magazine.  I don't mean like 1950's old, but still a few years old.  Since I like looking at the ads, I thought I would show them off.  Nothing super impressive, but it is fun to look back and see what the flavor of the week or month was at that time.

Book It!

Growing up, millions of kids got free pizza for reading books.  In a crafty marketing ploy, Pizza Hut gave kids a free personal pan pizza for reading a few books.  The pizza's were small, but they weren't meant to feed a family.  The idea was likely to get the kids to read, they give them a free small pizza and the family can go to 'The Hut and order food for the rest of the family while the royal reader ate his free pie.  It was effective, and its still going today.  Maybe I'm cynical for thinking like that, but it was mainly to get families to eat out at their store.  Whatever the reason, at least it worked and it gave kids a reason to read.  Some even began a love affair with reading.  Yours truly didn't fall into that category, as I'm not much of a book fan, unless its a short book or contains short stories.  Maybe that's why I like reading blogs so much (which I admit I've been slacking off a bit on that too).

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state...

If you know what that is from than congratulations.  If you don't, that is the first line of the theme song to the Big Bang Theory (I looked it up).  The theme song is sung by the Barenaked Ladies, which I like a few of their songs.  As for the show, I will stop it there sometimes, but I can't say I'm a fan or that I go out of my way to watch it.  Jim Parsons annoys me, I know that his character is meant to, but it goes beyond a character and takes away from the show to me.  Even in interviews, he seems to act and talk like Sheldon.  I do like Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki, and they have good guest stars, so I can see why its popular.

Take A Seat

I was at my local Casey's store yesterday and paid for my stuff and the clerk said "Hmm, I've never seen that before, you have a baseball card in your wallet."  The clerk is a guy I get along with, he's pretty laid back.  In fact he is interested in some of my cards if I ever sell them.  He is looking for some Frank Thomas cards.

It was a little slow, so it gave me the opportunity to mention my blog, but also gave me a change to discuss #WalletCard.  I admit, it hasn't taken off for me like other bloggers, but I never planned it to.  I think its a great idea, and I will do it next year, and maybe then I will take more pictures of it.

Anyways, that was just a little story I wanted to mention before diving into today's post.

A Little Bit of Everything

So a while back I took a little break from Listia.  It lasted about a week or two, but then I made up for lost time.  Here is some recent wins.

Cover of the Rolling Stone

My mind flutters to obscure places as you realized by now.  As I was preparing for this blog, I wanted a semi-relevant title, so I thought of Cover of The Rolling Stone.  I like music a lot, and am fascinated when bloggers mix cards and music, so I wanted to try my hand at this.  Now of course Cover of The Rolling Stone was done by Dr. Hook, and I like that version.  I like the one in the scene from Almost Famous too.  One version blows all of them out of the water to me.  That version is from Jackyl.

I didn't grow up a Jackyl fan.  I wasn't even a fan until about 4-5 years ago.  My sister had a treatment in St. Louis and on this day, her sons and my mom also went.  I was going to go with them while she had treatment and I think go around St. Louis, but I got sick upon arriving at the hotel.  So I spent the day in bed.  I was flipping through channels mainly to find something to fall asleep to and found a show on TRU TV called "Full Throttle Saloon".  It didn't sound too interesting, but it was noise and thats all I needed.  It was a reality show about a biker bar in Sturgis, SD during rally week.

Monday Evening Commentary

This is going to be a rant with no pictures.  As I write this, I have no scans so I needed something to write and wanted to get some things off my chest.  Not all is sports related, and some might offend people.  I'm sorry if you are offended, but these are my thoughts.

First off, let me say I am happy that the United States Women's Soccer Team won yesterday.  It sounded like almost complete dominance.  I said "sounded" because I didn't watch it.  I didn't watch any of the games, U.S. or otherwise in the tournament.  While some of it is my lack of passion for soccer, and I really have to be in the mood to watch unlike other sports, the main reason I skipped it was because I was boycotting the U.S. team. Specifically I was boycotting Hope Solo.  We may never know what really happened the night she got into a fight with her nephew, but the fact is many people let it slide so our team had a better chance to win.  As I've stated on here many times before, I view most sports as entertainment.  However I feel when competing in International competitions (World Cup, Olympics, World Baseball Classic) you should have athletes representing your country with integrity.  I've never shown Hope Solo show remorse for her actions.  In fact I've seen the opposite, she claimed to be the victim, and when evidence showed that may not have been the case, Hope and here supporters played it off as "they are trying to cash in on Hope Solo's name". 

At first I thought maybe I was being harsh.  Maybe people were right, I was bashing her because she was a woman and it gave me a chance to say "women athletes never get punished for stuff like this".  But that isn't the case.  I tend to hold grudges.  I was a fan of Larry Johnson when he was on the Chiefs.  He was a good player.  As time went on, I heard more and more stories about him.  Assaulting women, spitting on people, throwing drinks at them.  He lost my respect, and to this day I get a look of disgust on my face when I see his name.  (As a note, if you send my Chiefs cards, which I'm not asking for, just saying, please refrain from sending cards of him).  There have been others too that I've stopped collecting for what they do outside of their sports.  My point is, is that I can't separate the athlete on the field from their off the field antics.  Sure I can look past people having a bad day and yelling at a fan (unless you do it quite often), but I still think of athletes, and famous people in general as role-models.  To be honest I think all adults should be role-models.  I can't sit and root for somebody (male or female) if they do something violent or wrong that has a lasting effect on another human.

Some may ask me why I don't oppose steroids as much as others.  The truth is that ideally I think they shouldn't be in sports.  I think they cause false hopes and dreams for kids looking up to their favorite star then realize he used a banned substance to achieve their greatness.  However, I don't think it really causes a lot of harm beyond the person using that substance.  Steroids aren't always evil.  They can actually help you positively if you don't abuse it or take it for prolonged periods.  If an athlete wants to take it to recover, I have no problem at all with it.  If they take it beyond that, again, I don't think they should, but they should understand the consequences from their peers, fans, the media, but most importantly how it could affect their health.

Okay, I'll move on.  I didn't want to talk about steroids, I wanted to discuss why I abstained from the Women's World Cup.  Which is a shame because the rest of the team deserves a lot of kudos today.

A couple events I did watch this weekend many people don't consider sports.  I disagree with them, but I also find these events entertaining and that's why I watched.  First up was the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.  Sure watching 20 guys dunks hot dog buns in water then down their throats for 10 minutes is disgusting, but I think of it much like the Kentucky Derby.  Stay with me here.

Both the Kentucky Derby and the Hot Dog Contest last only a few minutes.  However, the hoopla and the excitement surrounding it builds it up so much that you can't resist.  To me, this is the best year for the Hot Dog contest in many years.  First and foremost, we have a new champion.  Joey Chestnut lost, and I was happy Matt Stonie unseated him.  I'm not much of a fan of dynasties, and I was tired of Joey winning.  I had a good feeling going into the day Stonie could win.  I follow Major League Eating somewhat and I remembered he almost won last year.  Before Saturday, Stonie had beaten Joey 6 times already in head to head competition this year (they eat more than just hot dogs).

The actual contest is somewhat of an afterthought in a way.  You also almost feel sorry for the announcers who have to build the event up ("Chestnut is one of the best dynasties in sports", they compared him to the 1990's Bulls), but maybe Paul Page deserved it.  Much like boxing where all the hoopla is sometimes better than the match, you really need to see the introductions of these competitors.  Some wear facepaint (Tim "Eater X" Janus), one wears a Viking Helmet (Erick "The Red"), one has a bio which read "he has no emotion, he broke up with his girlfriend 3 days ago and euthanized his dog to stay focused" (I hope he was joking).  They understand this is a spectacle but they also realize they can make money and gain endorsements and popularity.

Major League Eating isn't just stuffing food down your throat.  Many people think its wrong and its just a bunch of fat guys eating fast.  They are so wrong.  Most of the competitors train a variety of ways and Chestnut himself has gone over how he prepares.  You don't train by eating hot dogs, in fact most don't eat most of the food they compete in.  Oddly enough some competitors are vegan! HOW?  One competitor on Saturday runs in marathons, and if you saw the stage, only a couple were really big guys.  Some have regular jobs, one's a teacher.  They do it because they enjoy doing it.  Isn't that what sports should be about?

Another event I watched (when it finally stopped raining) was NASCAR.  People think they sit in a car and go in circles 500 times.  Again, people are crazy if they think that.  You need to be in shape to compete, many lost double digit pounds racing each week.  Some people think fans only enjoy racing to see crashes.  While some may, I don't.  Sure, I admit it catches my eye, but being a fan of a guy who never cracks the top 20 each week, you actually hope for less crashes.  NASCAR uses a lot of strategy, and timing.

Last nights race saw a few crashes (I admit I was tired and fell asleep for a while, not from boredom, but when you find a chance to sleep you take it), the biggest being the final lap.  I awoke as it was ending and I saw scores of pit crewmen rushing to a car.  Then I realized it was upside down and half of it was missing.  Then I saw his engine just lying in the grass in flames.  WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? His car hit the safety fence (which was shredded) and he flipped a few times.  Its a video worth seeing.  The amazing thing was he was okay.  It brought relief to me to see because he was driving the #3 car, the same as Dale Earnhardt, who died at that exact track 14 years ago.  The kid is the first driver to use the #3 in the series since Dale.  It isn't very fun to see crashes like this to be honest, luckily nobody died.  Some of the debris did go into the crowd and injured some fans, but I hear they are all okay.

I guess thats enough stuff to rant and rave about for now.  If nothing else it allowed me to let some stuff out and I feel a bit better.  As I am finishing this, the mail is here, and I got some stuff to write about.  I guess I need to get the scanner out and start working on future blogs.  Thanks for bearing with me for tonight, and sorry if it didn't make a lot of sense.  I hope everyone has a great night.

Holiday....Celebrate

As the Fourth of July approaches, I'm thinking of taking it easy for a few days.  I don't plan on blogging much for the next few days, and if I do they might be light.  Part of the reason is obviously the holiday, and part of it is because I will be busy with a new blog I'm working on, more on that in a bit.

The 4th of July holiday has been an odd one for me.  To be honest I'm not a big fan of fireworks.  I'm not much of a fan of fire, so fireworks don't interest me as much as others.  When I was a kid, I enjoyed seeing them but I liked the food and the atmosphere surrounding the day more than the nightfall.  As I got older, it pretty much stayed that way for me.  I think one thing that turned me off from fireworks, specifically bottle rockets and such that don't really do anything is an event when I was a teenager.  We had moved into town and lived next to a parking lot, the main city parking lot in the middle of town.  It was where the kids would party on the weekends (I have no idea why, there were plenty of cornfields where they could go), and during the week or two before the 4th, they would have bottle rocket wars.  Simply put for those smart enough to never have participated in them- they would shoot bottle rockets at each other.  One guy I heard a rumor about had a bottle rocket in his back pocket, and someone snuck up behind him and lit it.  Anyways, calls to the mayor and the town cop didn't accomplish anything, so we basically had to deal with it.

One morning I woke up about 4 AM or so and my room was lit up like I had a disco ball.  I looked out the window and the road was blocked off and a couple firetrucks and lots of first responders all had lights flashing.  It turns out the local flower shop had caught on fire, and the cause was because of fireworks.  The shop was totaled.  A short time later, the building was torn down (along with a bunch of the city block which I have a youtube video posted of), and since I just don't care about fireworks.

There was one time I went to a house near Kansas City (a friend of my dads), and again enjoyed the atmosphere more than the fireworks, but did enjoy M-80's being blown up inside buckets of water.  Anyways,  these days, my enjoyment of fireworks is mostly seeing some on TV or if I go to some event that has music and entertainment (I wonder whatever happened to the Banana Oil Pan Band, they were good).  I have some friends playing the local show in Columbia called Fire In The Sky, which would be kind of fun since I haven't seen them play in a while.

Might as well show a card or two.  This is from 1991 Score.

Pretty nice card to have.  Maybe I should have showcased the Topps Desert Storm cards I have.  Oh well.

So what will I be doing this weekend?  Well, I have no real plans to be honest.  The last few years I have watched some movies and enjoyed the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (reminds me I need to see who is entered this year).  One year I was do a show on Blog Talk Radio and my friend and I was going to talk about hot dogs and the contest.  It never happened as people called in and we got way sidetracked (not hard for me to do).  One movie I think I'll watch this year is Napolean Dynamite.  I haven't watched it in a while and it reminds me of the first time I saw it.  I was a staff member at church camp (I was night watchmen), and as the campers left I was waiting on the people I rode with to square things away.  A few of the other people was watching the movie, so I sat down to watch it to waste time.  At first I thought it was stupid.  Then a crazy thing happened.  I had just finished the scene where Napolean was paid in change and someone told me that I was owed money in the Snack Shack.  So I went there and they told me that after paying everyone they didn't have any bills left, so all they had was change.  I think it was close to about $10 or so, but might have been less.  I started busting up laughing and they wondered what was funny, so I told them I was watching the movie, and they started laughing too.  The reason I think of the 4th is because even though it didn't happen in July (first week of June at the time), they since moved camp to the week of the 4th and they are there now.  I haven't worked there in a few years but thought about showing up and seeing some of them.

Anyways to make this relevant to something, I happen to have a couple Napolean Dynamite trading cards.

I got them at Hot Topic I believe when they were on clearance.  I wish I bought more.  The fronts are pretty nice I think, though some sort of border would be better.

The back leaves a lot to be desired.  No story about the scene, no border, nothing but a quote and the same background photo on every back.  I guess they tried for the money grab, and since I found them on clearance, it backfired.

Since I've ranted longer than I thought, I wanted to mention my new site.  Likely by the time you are done reading this (congrats if you managed to), I will also have posted my first meaningful post on my new blog. I decided to go with the name of Missouri Sports History.  As evidenced in this post and many others, I tend to veer in many different directions on the new blog, but the idea to to give a history on people, places, teams, events, and anything to do with Sports for the state of Missouri.  My first post will be on the 1940 MLB All Star Game held in St. Louis.  Though the finished product isn't what I intended, I still like how it turned out, and I gave enough info that if more is to be desired I could do a future post on it or you can simply seek it out.  When I'm not busy this weekend, I will probably do research for future posts.  Don't worry I'm not planning on slowing down on posts on here, the Missouri Sports History blog won't have daily content, it will likely have 2-3 posts a week at most, with about 10 or so posts a month.  I don't want to run out of ideas so quick, neither do I want to do all the big names and events first.  I have my second post ready too, but I'll probably wait until Monday or so to post it.  Some of you may have looked at it already but for those who haven't here is a picture of the background photo for the new site:

I wanted to represent as many teams and logos as I could.  I am still finding new teams, and once I find even more, I will likely update it.  I like how I designed it, but the spacing is off on a lot of it, so it will be something I will work on in the coming months.  Some of the logos are obvious, but other may make you curious.  That is part of the reason I designed it, to draw people in to see what they are.

Are there any teams or logos you can think of that I missed?  I know I missed a few and not many colleges are represented, but I do hope to improve it down the road.  Are there any logos you like that you maybe haven't seen before?  Leave a comment and I might do a team history on them sooner.  I can't wait to delve into some of the older teams specifically the pre-1950's teams.  I just hope I can find enough info on them.  As I work on these, my goal will also be to find a card of someone (or the team) representing that team.  I have started to do that a little, and as I progress, I hope to find more.  Some like the Sedalia Bombers will likely be impossible, but it will be fun to see how many I can get.

Thanks everyone for reading, and I hope everyone has a fun and exciting weekend.  It should be interesting in Mid-Missouri especially if the Lake of the Ozarks has to keep the no-wake on the lake throughout the weekend.

Here is a link to that post on the 1940 All-Star Game- Missouri Sports History

ORDER IN THE COURT!

Thanks to Angels In Order for the cards you are about to see.  I need to see what I can give him in return.  Check out his blog if you haven't yet.