Aquaman Movie Review (NO SPOILERS)

Loved Aquaman.  It was a ton of fun and my youngins, in their twenties, also really liked the movie.  It is easy to Jason Momoa as Aquaman.  No different from his take in Justice League he is a fun loving rough around the edges hero.  The characters and actors and actresses that fill out the movie are great compliments.  The "origin" part of the movie is fairly quick and still offers up action that is the main backdrop of the movie. 

Aquaman's main foils work well opposite him making each fun to watch.  I don't want to give away too much but the world of Atlantis has almost everything we know of Atlantis in the Aquaman world.  Not saying it is exactly the same as what we see on t-shirts, but there may be sea horses...just saying.  Bottom line Aquaman is a good movie.  If you are at all into the hero genre or just enjoy action adventure this is a good movie to go see.

The Curios Case of Harold Baines and his election to the MLB Hall of Fame

I'm a big Harold Baines guy with him being a top 10 all-time favorite for me.  That being said his election to the Hall of Fame has me conflicted.  Baines, who was dropped off the writer's ballot after only five years maxed out at 6.1% of the vote in 2010.  That tells you there never was much of an argument for him.  He was an excellent hitter but really didn't bring much else to the table.  He did lead the league in slugging one year but power really wasn't his deal (he did finish his career with 384 homers).  He played 22 years, much of it at DH which is an obvious knock on him in the eyes of most voters (though I think that view is changing).   

When I watched him play back in the day I just never thought "this guy is a Hall of Fame guy".  Again he was an excellent hitter.  You don't get 2,866 hits and a career .289/.356/.489 slash line over a career without being very good.  Unfortunately he is now the center of the argument about how these guys get in and the "good ole boy network".  And that bugs me that he'll always be thought of in that way - he's that guy.  You won't talk about how great a player he is but how he got in.  I'm still happy for him but I too will forever look at this and wince a little.

The story behind the Harold Baines autographed card above can be found here.

Lee Smith of course loses out in all this as well.  He at least received up to 50% of the vote in his days being voted on by the writers but the Baines narrative has overshadowed that some.  I think there is a strong argument for him and think he is deserving.  How the closer has been looked upon of course affected the voting for him.  I'm happy to see Lee Smith get in the Hall of Fame. 

2018 Contenders Football Blaster Box

I always look forward to the Contenders brands so I was excited to see the 2018 Contenders football at my local Wal-Mart yesterday.  I picked up a blaster box which is a high price for 40 cards but you will pull a relic or autograph.  Mine was a Nick Chubb Rookie Ticket green parallel relic which you can see below. While not my favorite Contenders design I do like these cards.  The hobby boxes are expensive but boast five autographs and from what I've seen there are some pretty nice looking autographs to include some past greats of the game.  While that would be fun I just don't see myself picking one of those up anytime soon as they currently sit at just over $200.  Last year's hobby boxes are already near $400.  I'm sure the draw of Patrick Mahomes rookie ink is the huge draw there.  This was a fun box with plenty of stars and few inserts were good as well.  There will be more of these in my future.       

I had a great pull.  I haven't been able to track down a checklist for the set but my pull was very star heavy for 40 cards.  Last year's base set was 100 cards and I'd bet this years isn't much different.

There were was one insert per each eight card pack (not including the relic).  I like the Rookie of the Year and MVP Contenders cards.  Nice designs and I pulled a Tom Brady MVP Contender to throw into the personal collection.

  The backs aren't anything special but colorful.  While they take the easy way out using the same photo from the front, they do add the photo background here which makes it different enough to say good job.

The numbers stand for the following: 

Section - Weight

Row - Height (first number is feet/next #(s) are inches )  i.e. 511 is 5 feet 11 inches

Seat - Uniform Number

So I will definitely pick up more of these though I may look at the fat packs which have 22 cards in each.  Buying four packs would give you 88 cards for the same price of a blaster though no promise of a relic or auto.

Nick Chubb, the Georgia Bulldog alum and Cleveland Brown 2nd round pick, is having a good year.  He's averaging 5.3 yards per carry for a total of 760 yards.  He didn't make his first start until week 5 and has already had a career high of 176 rushing yards.  Unfortunately that was in a win against my Falcons.

BREAKDOWN:

40 - Total Cards

2 - MVP Contenders

2 - Rookie of the Year Contenders

1 - Round Numbers

1 - Rookie Ticket Green Parallel Relic

Random Wax: 2018-2019 Hoops Basketball

Grabbed another pack of the 2018-2019 Hoops basketball.  Definitely not a star laden pack.  DeMar DeRozan is a favorite of mine so this Get Out of the Way insert was a nice pickup.  After that about all I had to admire were the nice looking cards and photos.

 I like that retro uni Lance Stephenson is wearing.  I don't remember ever seeing it before to be honest and there is a possibility it is one of the other special unis teams wear throughout the year.  Markelle Fultz is struggling to find anything resembling a shot and it looks as though injuries were the root cause.  Nice card of Trey Lyles skying for what I am assuming is a dunk.

Shaq is the other highlight of this pack though I think I pulled him in a previous pack.  I wish there were more than one retired great in each pack.  Not a lot to say about the rest of these cards.  Again this was not a sexy pack.  I've done better and hopefully my next pack will get me back on track.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Total Cards

4 – RC

1 – Teal Explosion

1 – Faces of the Future

1 – Get Out of the Way

1 – Retired Great

1 – Class of 2018

Random Wax: 2018-2019 Donruss Basketball

More of the 2018-2019 Donruss Basketball which I'm enjoying this year.  The retro '84 design and photos combined with the overall appearance really works for me.  It also helps that neither of my pulls of this year's Donruss have let me down.  Paul George is a favorite of mine and he and the Thunder are having a great year currently in the top four of the Western Conference.

This pack gave me a nice pull which I'll never complain about.

And the stars keep on coming.  These three all go straight to the personal collection.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Donruss

6 – Rated Rookies

1 – Rookie Kings

1 – Winner Stays

Cards on Cards Contest - College Bowl Pick 'Em #10

Kerry @ Cards on Cards is doing a great 2018 Bowl Pick 'Em contest with some great prizes.  Head on over to the link HERE to get stared.  Thanks so much to Kerry for doing this.  

2018 Playoff Football

Released just a few weeks ago this is my first look at the 2018 Playoff football and I really like the look of these cards.  There is plenty of color and nice photos here.  These packs contain 40 cards which is a big plus for me and I definitely liked my pull.  Those looking for a large amount of inserts won't find them here as it seems those will fall two to three per pack not including the parallels you'll find.  The big thing missing for me was that was the 2017 Playoff offering had 100 retired greats. That was a big reason for me liking that set so I'm disappointed Panini chose not to  include them in this year's set.  Aesthetically it seems as though they wasted a bit of space at the top and bottom.  Still I really like the cards on first look and I'm sure you'll see more of them in the future.

While the photos on these defensive stars of the league all seem similar I still like the photos.

That Fitz card is a Goal Line parallel which means you'll see Goal Line printed on it and the player's name and position will be in blue foil instead of the standard silver foil.  The backs have a cropped color version of the front photo and nice team logo.  These work for me.

A look at the inserts I pulled and the Baker Mayfield RC.

BREAKDOWN:

40 – Cards

6 - RC

3 – Goal Line

1 – Air Command

1 – Thunder & Lightning