Occasionally when sports sites like ESPN run out of non-Tebow/Manning content, they trot out features trying to determine the "best" sports town or state based on factor like wins, titles, fanbase, cost of attendance, etc. Well, I happen to be reaching for content today, but I have a slightly different question to pose to those of you reading this: how successful have your hometown/favorite teams been in your lifetime? What got me thinking about this was the relative feast-or-famine we've got going on in Detroit. Here's a look at how the four Detroit teams have fared since I was born in 1983:
That gives me 13 finals appearances and eight total championships over almost 29 years worth of four major sports teams--and that's without the Lions contributing a single thing! I'd say that's not too bad: we can't ALL be Boston, New York or California-born fans, and if I'm seeing a pro sports title about every three to four years, I'm fairly happy with that.
I'm curious to see what some of you come up with: more/fewer? More finals but fewer titles? Fewer available sports teams but more titles? Let me know in the comments or throw up a post about this on your own blog if you get the inclination. It's definitely a good way of gaining perspective when you feel like it's been a while since you've been able to enjoy a title run, or if that's ALL you've been doing lately! Update: So far a couple awesome bloggers have stepped up with posts of their own, which I think is great. I'll be happy to highlight more if anyone else comes up with them.
I've largely stayed away from retail stuff this year, but between St. Patrick's Day party bottle returns and other return stuff, I had house money to play with at Meijer today and I took advantage of it, buying three discounted football blasters. You'll find two of them here, and the other over on TMM, for obvious reasons. Here's how I did today:
2008 Absolute Memorabilia: I really like the RPM and other hits from this set, and for $12 I figured I'd take a stab at my all-time favorite football draft class. This one included eight packs of five cards, and here's what I pulled:
Base, front and back (36 different)
Inserts: Spectrum Red (Manning, Cason); Spectrum Gold (Johnson, #264/799); Spectrum Blue (Smith, #066/250) (NO ODDS LISTED)
Nothing to write home about, but I got a few keepers, and the inserts fell 1:2, which sounds about right.
2010 Elite: I picked up one of these blasters before thanks to the lure of the guaranteed hit, and that time I pulled this sorta cool, if not terribly valuable, Wes Welker patch. Now that today's blaster was $5 off, I gave it another shot. This one was five packs of five with the guaranteed hit "on average."
Base, back and front
Inserts: Easley Rookie (#468/999); Martin/Green Passing the Torch (#511/999); Crompton Status Die-Cut (#08/92); Kindle Rookie (#366/999) (NO ODDS LISTED)
Hit: Frank Gore Down & Distance jersey (#269/299)
In some ways this was better than the Elite box, and it should have been. The base look very nice, just like their baseball counterparts from that year, and the inserts are great, especially the Die-Cut Status of Crompton (the best card in the box). The inserts, including the hit, fell one-per-pack, which was nice. Compared to the Welker patch I pulled, the Gore is a bet of a letdown, but at least it's a nice looking card with a very nice red Niners swatch. That's available for trade if anyone would like it.
Those were kind of fun since I hadn't busted anything in a while, though the real highlight for me was the other blaster, which, again, you can find over at TMM. I hope everyone had a fun and safe St. Patrick's Day!
Over on the other blog I mentioned a few hundred times that I put together yet another giant COMC package to celebrate my tax refunds. Well, that package arrived today, and before I get to posting about all the Michigan stuff over there, I thought I'd share two cards appropriate for this blog this afternoon.
Curtis Granderson 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Light Blue jersey (#018/200):
For just a few bucks as part of a purchase from one seller, I definitely couldn't down a relic of Granderson, especially one from the outstanding 2008 UD Heroes set. I definitely haven't lived up to this blog's original name, but I'm working on it a bit at a time: this is now my third hit of Curtis, including two jerseys and one auto/jersey. Obviously I'm collecting a bunch of hits from this set because of the Rich Hill project, so I'm very familiar with how the different colored parallels work, but I really like how well the light blue goes with the rest of the card on this one, even though it's in no way associated with the Detroit uniform. I guess some colors just look good no matter what, and this serial-numbered gem has found a happy home in my Tigers PC.
Tony Gwynn 2002 Topps Archives Reserve Reprint Relics jersey:
From a former Tiger we go to a former Padre and permanent HOFer. One of the COMC sellers from whom I picked up a few things had this Gwynn and there was never any doubt I'd be picking it up. 2002 Topps Archives Reserve is a fantastic set, from the 100% Refractor reprint base set to the sweet hits, it's a prime example of what Topps was capable of when they didn't stop giving a shit due to their license monopoly.
This is my fourth relic of Gwynn, the others being this bat, this jersey that Adam picked up for me, plus this dual jersey with Cal Ripken. My baseball relics PC also includes another HOFer from this set in the form of a Nolan Ryan jersey, one of my favorite relics for sure since it has the same awesome good looks going for it. In this case I really like the choice of reprinted card because I very much enjoyed collecting the 1997 Topps set, which was at the point where I really started opening boxes and packs again. It's also a big plus for me that the swatch isn't the usual bland whiteness, but a San Diego brown.
While this particular COMC package was very Michigan-heavy (make sure to check out TMM in the coming days for a ton of great new PC cards!) I was very happy to add this pair, not to mention finally have something new to blog about over here!
Kids these days still listen to the Foo Fighters, right? Consider this video a hat tip to those of you that embiggen (it's a perfectly cromulent word) your noble blog posts with excellent music. Also, it's the first thing that came to mind as I sought for a title. It's been quite a while since I showed off some of my favorite Cal Ripken cards, other than a couple stray pickups of relics and autographs. So long, in fact, that I can't easily find that post. The point is, it's time for me to do it again, so here's nine more of my favorites from my Cal Collection:
1983 Topps:
This is definitely a good place to start: Cal's second-year Topps card. The Iron Man was fresh off his first full season, during which he won the AL Rookie of the Year. He'd easily top that in 1983 by winning the AL MVP (one of two in his career) on the way to the Orioles'most recent World Series title. Besides all that, I chose this card since it's the year in which I was born. so basically, lots of reasons to like it!
Leaf Preferred Staremasters (#0876/2500):
Some of you remember I bought a decent amount of '96 Leaf Preferred because you'll recall my posting the complete Steel insert set. Well this isn't a card I pulled from those packs (they were really, really hard to pull at the time, as you can see from the numbering) but I ended up with one all the same, which is great because it's such a cool card. Fact: If you stare at the card long enough, his eyes move.
1996 Studio Stained Glass Stars:
I can't imagine anyone not liking this sweet die-cut card. At least as far as I see it, my inner child sees it and goes "OOOH COLORS!" and I'm instantly entranced. Just another great example of a creative (read: not Topps) insert from the 1990s in the years before things shifted to "HITS OR GTFO."
1997 Donruss Franchise Features (with Scott Rolen) (#1572/3000):
This is another product I bought a lot of, and I might have actually pulled this from a pack, but I can't remember for certain. 1997 Donruss Rookie Update featured some awesomely entertaining inserts, including Diamond Kings, Press Proofs, and these two-player inserts featuring the oft-used conceit of pairing a star with an up-an-coming player. Rolen never became Ripken, but he's been a very good player in his own right, so this pairing isn't the usual Topps insanity. The design is very pleasing to the eye, making for an excellent total package.
1997 Leaf Knothole Gang (#2375/5000):
Here's another fun, unique 90s insert, in which Leaf took a die-cut, faux wood piece and placed it over a great photo. Baseball is the sport that probably does the most to emphasize its history, I'm sure because it's been around so long, and the "knothole gang" hearkens back to a more innocent time when you could sneak in a game for free. I chose this one because of the great look and the fact that for whatever reason I love shots of Cal in the field.
Here's another one that I'm pretty sure I pulled from a pack even though I didn't buy a whole lot of the set. I'm not 100% in love with the design, but it's a cool parallel (the scan makes it a stranger color than the copper or so it really is) that's serial numbered and it features a sweet shot of Cal's swing, so up it goes.
2000 Black Diamond Rookie Edition Gold (#0192/1000):
And our second Upper Deck numbered parallel in a row. I really liked the look of the 2000 Black Diamond and Rookie Edition sets, especially the red and black (my high school colors!) of the base set. But this Gold insert is numbered and has a great look of its own, plus another good shot of Cal at the plate.
Our only non-insert today besides the '83 Topps, this one's special because it was a short print. I'm very sure I pulled it from the one box I grabbed of the product, along with a Jason Giambi SP that's now in my trade bait. This is kind of a busy card front but there's a lot I like: the shot of him fielding, the excellent close-up, the two key moments mentioned and a perfect design to use on a horizontal card. This was a great base set and I'm glad to have the short-printed Cal as part of my collection.
I promise I won't wait as long next time to put up some more of these for my fellow Ripken fans to enjoy!
