2014 Christmas Swag Part II

"Jack Frost" had this shirt under the Christmas tree for me and the wife.  Yes we are that couple who have matching shirts.  Somewhat dorky but that is what makes us who we are and Jack has been doing this for us the last couple of years.  Many might not know but this is a reference to the Overlook Hotel from the movie The Shining.  So if you aren't that familiar with the movie you might not get this reference but that is what is great about it.  The subtlety.  The Shining is one of the wife's favorite movies so this is a pretty cool gift.  I'll give props where props are do.  Our shirts came from Crazy Dog T-Shirts. 

2014 Christmas Swag Part I

Santa Clause left the Hot Wheels 75th Anniversary Batman collection under the tree for me Thursday.  It is a collection of eight vehicles from the various movies, video games, TV shows and cartoons.  I love that the set has such a variety of vehicles.  Included in the set are The Batman Batmobile, Batman Arkham Asylum Batmobile, Batman Batcopter, Batman Live Batmobile, Batman Movie Batmobile, Batman The Brave & The Bold Batmobile, The Dark Knight Rises The Bat, Batman Classic TV Series Batmobile. 

I don't think you could convince me to say the '66 Batmobile from the TV series isn't my favorite.  That said I do really like some of the other vehicles.  The best among the rest is the Arkham Asylum Batmobile.  It is a cool rugged looking version of Batman's wheels.  The Bat is also a nice looking car and from what I've read is a bit different from previous versions in that it has a blue hue.  I also really like the Batman Brave and the Bold and it's slick look.  Can't go wrong with any of these vehicles though. 

Now I have to decide what to do with them.  I normally open all my Hot Wheels because half the fun is being able to touch them and of course play with them as well.  These come in special packaging with artwork from the source Batman property.  I like the packaging as a whole.  I'm leaning towards leaving them in the package.  I'm very limited on where I could display them but I'm thinking it is worth figuring out.  Anyway I hope you all had a great Christmas and once again thank you to Santa Clause!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! Yes I'm a little late...

The holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas have been great.  I've been pretty busy this month so there have been a lack of posts.  But again I've enjoyed the holidays.  For Thanksgiving we did pizza since our oven is broken.  That was a great idea until I started checking on pizza places that may be open on Thanksgiving.  None were.  Finally I remembered Casey's General Store made pizzas and they were open.  Great pizza and we all enjoyed even if it wasn't the traditional holiday dinner.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving I ran the local 5K which is run every year just prior to the Christmas parade.  I enjoyed the run and the parade as well which we watched from our front porch.  Living on the main road in town the parade runs right in front of the house which is great.  Our neighbor came over with his mother to watch the parade with us and the youngins gathered all the candy thrown from the floats and vehicles.  We love our small town we live in and the parade is a great reflection of our cozy little city. 

We had Christmas three times this year as my youngins came from out of town on Christmas Eve to get their presents, we had the traditional Christmas morning opening of presents, and then our oldest surprised us by showing up later in the morning with her fiancé to open their gifts.  You can never celebrate Christmas too much can you?  Well you probably can but we had a great time.  Santa Claus was good to me as I picked up the Hot Wheels Batman 75th anniversary collection, a laptop lap desk which I'm using right now, and an Overlook Hotel shirt (from the movie The Shining). 

I hope everyone else's holidays were good and that your upcoming New Year is just as fun.  I'll do some further posts showing my Christmas swag. 

October Sports Collectibles Show Part III - Basketball Cards

Found some older basketball cards at the show particularly the late 60's and early 70's.  Many I really hadn't seen in such quantities but really couldn't find many that made me want to pick them up.  Still I found a few cards that caught my eye.   

My favorite card of the day hands down.  I love logos and this card from 1969 is awesome.  It has logos from the 1969 NBA teams to include some variations I've never even seen before.  A green and purple Lakers' logo?  Wow.  A great find and I paid $3 for the card which was far and away the most I paid for any card that day but I couldn't pass this up.

Players I like in Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore and Jack Sikma.  And yes that Gilmore card looks as psychedelic as the picture makes it out to be.   

Two of the greatest Atlanta Hawks and Portland Trail Blazer players ever, respectively, in Dominique Wilkins and Bill Walton.  I'll never pass up a 'Nique card and these unique cards are from a Sporting News top 50 players set. 

I pick up LeBron cards when I can and Damian Lillard is of course a Trail Blazer and a stud. 

 

October Sports Collectibles Show Part II - Football Cards

Here are the football cards I found.  No huge finds but I did find some I hadn't seen in a long time.  There was one dealer who had plenty I would have picked up had I had the means but the money just wasn't there.  I know, because I kept looking in my wallet hoping it had shown up since the last time I checked...

I loved receivers in the 80's.  Art Monk and James Lofton are right up there with the greats.  Kellen Winslow is a tight end I love and know he could put up numbers close to those of Tony Gonzalez if not surpass him if he played in the pass happy league we know and love today.
 

Two of the all-time greats.  Brady is a Michigan guy I've always followed and it is fitting that he'll play fellow great Peyton Manning today. 

Finding my Falcons players is always fun and I picked up another receiver I like in Vincent Jackson.

Who doesn't love the Creamsicle uniforms...

 

Huge Dickerson fan and even have his jersey.  Lee Roy Selmon was probably the greatest of those early Buccaneers teams. 
 

October Sports Collectibles Show Part I - Baseball Cards

I attended the October Westport Sports Collectible and Autograph Convention in St. Louis.  I also went to one earlier this year and blogged about that experience as well.  As always I went with my buddy and we had a good time.  I'll post about the different cards I picked up starting with baseball today.  First though I have to mention the school girl moment we had.  They had a pretty impressive lineup of stars doing autographs to include Bo Jackson, Robin Yount, Bob Gibson and other local sports heroes.  So my buddy and I are leaving the hotel for lunch when none other than Bo Jackson is getting out of the SUV that brought him to and we walked right by him.  [cue school girls giggling] We didn't say anything to him but it was quite the thrill.  That may sound weird coming from a forty-five year old man but the sports nerd in both of us was very excited.  And yes I've told the story to anyone who would listen whether or not they cared or even knows who Bo Jackson is.  Now that I've got that out of the way on to the cards. 

I had heard or read about the Kevin Smith card above and couldn't pass it up when I saw it.  I enjoy his TV show Comic Book Men and some of the podcasts he and his crew do which you can find here.  Combined with it being an Allen & Ginter card it was a win-win. 

My favorite cards from the day.  The Rickey Henderson card is just a really cool card to me.  Nice Pedro card as well.

More Allen & Ginter combined with my Red Sox.  Love finding Jim Rice cards. 

Yes more Allen & Ginter.  Will it ever end!?  Well these are the last for today.  Craig Kimbrel is probably my favorite Brave at the moment and I like Jose Altuve of the Astros.  Paul Molitor is one of my all-time favorite players. 

Big Papi in triplicate. 

Some Braves pitching studs. 

Big Papi again and two of my favorite current players in Andrew McCutchen and Yoenis Céspedes. 

 

2014 NFL Hall of Fame Class Announced

Front row (from left): Ray Guy and Claude Humphrey and Derrick Brooks. Back row: Aeneas Williams and Andre Reed and Walter Jones.

The NFL Hall of Fame class of 2014 was announced this weekend.  I love the hall of fame's of each sport and Saturday's announcement was very fun.  While I was excited for the entire class (Claude Humphrey, Michael Strahan, Derrick Brooks, Walter Jones, Aeneas Williams, Andre Reed and Ray Guy) there are always those whom I'm especially happy for.  Ray Guy, Claude Humphrey and Andre Reed fall in to that category that this year. 

I grew up watching Ray Guy kicking the ball.  He was the best there was and was widely recognized as the best of the best punters when he retired.  I don't know why Guy, a punter, resonated with me.  Maybe because punting is something as a kid I always thought I could do since I didn't have the arm to be a good quarterback.  I was one of the thousands of kids who competed in the Punt, Pass and Kick competition in the 70's.  I didn't win but it was fun.  I'm sure part of my love of Guy was his being a part of the Raiders and the mystique that came with being one of the black and silver.  No matter why, I'm very happy to see him finally get in.  Not sure the reason voters have such a hard time voting kickers and punters in but hopefully this will help open the door to future inductions. 

Being a Buffalo Bills homer seeing Andre Reed get in is fun.  He'll join Thurman Thomas and Jim Kelly from the great Bills teams that went to four straight Super Bowls.  It is too easy to say that receivers accumulate numbers and that they weren't quote "Hall of Famers".  There is truth to that in some cases but it shouldn't obscure the fact that many of these receivers are legit hall of fame players.  Art Monk and Lynn Swann were others who had to fight this argument for years.  Back to Reed.  His is deserved of this honor and I'm always happy to see another Bill enter the hall.

Speaking of being a homer, Claude Humphrey of the Atlanta Falcons (and Eagles) also gained induction to the hall.  While I have scant memory of his playing everything I've read he has deserved this honor for some time.  Sacks weren't an official stat when he played but I've read that 122 is what he has been credited with including 14.5 sacks with Philadelphia helping them get to Super Bowl XV. 

Derrick Brooks was definitely a player I always enjoyed.  He was a beast on defense and helped Tampa Bay win their only Super Bowl title.  Glad to see him get in on his first ballot.  Walter Jones is also a guy who deserved to get in first time out.  Aeneas Williams was a surprise to me.  Having played for the St. Louis Rams I've heard talk about Williams quite a bit on the local radio stations.  While they all said the right things they weren't convinced he'd make it either.  Michael Strahan is a guy who while I acknowledge how good he was resisted his getting in until late.  I didn't appreciate him while he played mostly due to the fact his Giants kept beating Tom Brady in the Super Bowl.  But once he retired and I've gotten to see him on Fox and his morning show how can you not like this guy?  It opened me up to really looking at him as a hall of fame candidate.  And he deserves his spot among the other greats.

I can't argue with any of this year's class which is nice.  Of course with the NFL's back log of good players waiting to get in I may not have any good arguments for a while.  Big names who will be first time eligibles next year are Kurt Warner, Junior Seau, Orlando Pace, and Isaac Bruce among others.  I do like the NFL Hall of Fame selection process.  It is very unique in that voters get to be in the same room and make their case for players.  That is just too awesome.  I would love to hear some of those conversations.  Well only one more year to see who will get in.  I'm thinking Seau and Pace are locks but won't be surprised if Warner also gets in.  His career is a bit of an enigma so it is hard to define but that is a story for another day.  It will be fun talking about when the time comes and I'm sure I'll post something then.

Baseball Hall of Fame - Maddux, Glavine and Thomas Oh My!

Great week for baseball as three of the greats were elected to the baseball Hall of Fame.  Greg Maddux, Tom Maddux and Frank Thomas will join the legends in Cooperstown come this July.  I wouldn't even begin to argue against any of these picks.  As a Braves fan I'm so excited to see Maddux, Glavine and manager Bobby Cox go in together.  The only thing better would have been to see John Smoltz go in as well.  Joining them is one of the great hitters of his era in Frank Thomas. 

Maddux was a slam dunk.  I have to say, and I don't think there is any bias here, he is the greatest pitcher I've ever seen in their prime.  And I got to see a lot of him.  It was awesome.  His command was amazing.  He always seemed in control and did not shake easy.  There are tons of antidotes that will show you there is another side to him you don't expect.  Yes he is a guy who knows pitching inside and out but he also has a sense of humor as well as being a quirky type of guy.  Oh and he is one of the best sports golfers there is.  Ranked 67th I think? 

His numbers ooze hall of fame.  355 wins (8th all-time).  Four straight Cy Youngs in the 90's.  Eighteen gold gloves.  ERA leader 4 times/top 5 ten times.  Top 10 in WHIP 10 times (led four times).  3,371 strikeouts good for 10th all-time.  Sub three ERA in 9 seasons.  3.16 career ERA.  A 2.09 ERA in 5 World Series starts.  You could go on and on.  Just a great pitcher.  Enough said. 

Tom Glavine is a guy who was drafted in the 4th round of the 1984 NHL draft ahead of greats like Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille even though he had told teams he was committed to playing baseball.  Glavine is a self admitted man crush of mine.  He's in the top 5 of my favorite baseball players all-time.  There was just something about how he handled himself on and off the field.  I'm so excited he goes into the hall of fame as a first ballot guy.  There was just a little talk of him maybe not making on this, his first time on the ballot so I am very happy to seem him go in with slam dunk 91.9% election percentage. 

His numbers don't lie.  2 Cy Youngs.  Top 3 in the Cy Young voting 6 times.  305 wins.  5 20 win seasons.    11 times he was in the top 9 of wins.  8 times he was in the top 8 of ERA.  He average 33 starts and 215 innings for his career.  Wow.  He is mister consistent to me.  His pitches were gonna be right there on the edges of the plate every day frustrating hitters even though they knew where the pitches were going.  His career highlight has to be game six of the 1995 World Series when he won the first and only championship for the Braves since they moved to Atlanta.  He did it in style with eight innings of one hit ball and for that was named the World Series MVP.  Glavine had a 2.06 ERA in eight World Series starts.  It may be due more to how pitchers are handled today but Glavine could well be one of the last 300 game winners we see in a long time.  That speaks to just how good he was.  Again his consistency in taking the ball every time he was asked to and his greatness was exactly what makes him a perfect Hall of Fame selection.   

I was actually surprised to see Thomas make it on his first time on the ballot.  That isn't a knock against him but because voters are so tough I thought he would fall short.  Two time MVP.  Career .301 average, .419 on base percentage (20th all-time), .555 slugging percentage (22nd all-time), 2,468 hits, 521 homeruns (18th all-time), 1,667 walks (10th all-time).  I do wish he had not been quite so injury prone.  His numbers would have been HUGE.  I always enjoyed Thomas' big smile.  He just looked like someone who enjoyed the game.  Of course it helps when you are spraying balls all over the field while you are doing it. 

Joining these three are three great managers.  Joe Torre, Tony LaRussa and Bobby Cox.  This is one of the greatest groups going into the Hall in a long time.  Wish I could be there.  I know it will be a great weekend. 

No matter what I've said or not said the careers of these players say it all.  Go to their individual baseball reference pages to see the whole story - Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Frank Thomas.