AL Central Champions... of the World!

Thought about a musical blog today, but couldn't find ones I liked enough to use, so in honor of the Royals winning the AL Central, what did I pick to represent?

WORD LIFE!

I have no idea why I chose it, I'm listening to wrestling theme songs and this came on, so why not.

I've already gotten emails about where to get championship gear, so I might have some new clothes to show off soon.  Until then.... YOU CAN'T SEE ME!

*Editor's note: I am not a big John Cena fan, and I just wanted to have a little fun to wrap up the week, I hope you enjoy it.

Fall Equals Football

Here's some football cards I got in the last month or so.

Nothing I needed, but I like the Robert Quinn card, so I guess it was a good pack.  Six cards for a buck seems like a deal these days.

Now onto a box of Topps football.  I got this the week they came out, but I've been slacking lately as you may have noticed.

Glad I got the Todd Gurley and the Joe Flacco, the rest I could take or leave.  Still not a fan of the Top 100 players cards in the middle of the set.

Knile and Justin Houston were good ones for me as were the Aaron Donald and Clay Matthews cards.  Another Zach Mettenberger too,  maybe I should start collecting him as easy I I've been acquiring his cards.

Now for some inserts.

I forgot who was on the flip side of the Marino, but I like Marino more anyways.  A double dose of Antonio Brown would be cool if I collected him.  I like the Matty Ice card but I'm not collecting him as much lately.  It was nice to get a gold and a pink card in the same box, but neither are guys I collect.

I like the Clay Matthews card.  I also like the side of the jersey of the Perriman card, even though I was hoping it would be someone I knew or even collect.

Overall I guess I did okay, I can't complain too much.  I have a lot of baseball packs to show off soon, I just need to scan them.

It's been a bit crazy lately so that's why the posting has been sporadic.  I have a few things I need to finish doing so it may be like that for a while, but I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon.  Thanks for reading and have a great night.

Friday Morning Quarterback

I'm not sure I want to do this, but I still can't get it out of my mind.  I'm talking about the Chiefs vs. Broncos game from last night.  From start to finish I can't think of a worse game I've seen in a while.  I felt the ending of the Sunday Night game was bad, and the early Monday Night game wasn't much better, but this game took the cake... then proceeded to fumble, stumble, intercept, and penalize the cake to top it off.

Let's start with the finish first because that will be the most talked about.  Well, the Jamaal Charles fumble (his second of the night), it wasn't exactly the finish, but it might as well been.  Even when KC got the ball they felt like they already lost, I mean if they hustled back to the line, there was a chance for a final attempt at a comeback!

Anyways, the second Charles fumble really stunned almost everyone I know watching the game.  Many questions arose from the play such as:

"WHY DID THEY RUN THE BALL, WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST KNEEL DOWN?"

"WHY CAN'T CHARLES HOLD ONTO A FOOTBALL"

"HOW DID WE JUST LET PEYTON SCORE"

"DID THEY REALLY CHOKE THAT BAD ON NATIONAL TELEVISION?"

"WHAT WAS ANDY REID THINKING?"

I had to paraphrase some of those due to vulgarities but you get the idea.  For those who may not be aware, here is what happened.  Less than a minute left and after Peyton Manning lead a drive to tie up the game, the Chiefs ran the ball at around the 20 yard line hoping to either run out the clock or surprise the Broncos and score an 80 yard touchdown (or something similar).  What happened was the Denver defense snuffed out the play and Charles fumbled the ball, allowing a Broncos player to scoop it up and waltz 20 yards for an easy TD.

It was crazy enough to drive a sober man into drinking... then driving... then proceeding to drive off a bridge!

If that recap is all you've heard about the game, then you might think a last second blunder ruined a good game.  However, that wasn't the case.  No matter who came out on top last night, I wouldn't declare either team a victor.  Sure a win is a win, but I'm sure neither team can be too happy with their performances last night.

Let's back it up a give more of a recap.  Peyton Manning did eclipse 70,000 career passing yards last night, becoming only the second man to only Brett Favre to do that.  2015 Peyton Manning is a knockoff of Peyton Manning in his prime though.  Having said that, sure he will still have flashes of greatness, but all he has proved so far this year is that he's no longer the undisputed best QB in the league and he may not even be the disputed best.  Sure I'm not a Manning fan, and I don't like the Broncos, but his first two games this year should cause concern for Denver.  Part of that could be he doesn't have the same amount of weapons but if that is the case, the rest of the offense needs to step up quick.

Before I go onto the many flaws on the Chiefs, let me also say I wasn't too pleased with all the penalties last night for either team, but especially the Broncos.  An uncalled for roughing the passer and twice getting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on late hits to Jamaal Charles were too much.  I never advocate for hurting players, but if they would have done it again, I would have been all for retaliation on the Chiefs part.  Fortunately neither Alex Smith or Charles were injured on the hits, but it still doesn't justify dirty plays.  Unlike baseball (which I'm also not a fan of dirty plays, but much more lenient on retaliations), football already has enough contact that players trying to take out players is not needed.

Okay on to the Chiefs.  Let's start with a troubled spot for the Chiefs for a while, the offensive line.  The O-Line need to block better and protect the quarterback and the running backs.  If Alex Smith felt less pressure he would have more time to connect with the wide receivers which still haven't caught a touchdown in over a year.   Hopefully the line can improve in the weeks ahead and make Smith's days easier.

Speaking of Alex Smith, he needs to find more options to pass to. It seems he has found someone in Travis Kelce, but he still isn't connecting with the receivers.  On the radio broadcast last night, they tried to play it off that Smith and Jeremy Maclin are still trying to mesh.  They've had all preseason and 2 regular season games, and both are veterans, they should already be connecting by now.  On top of that, Andy Reid coached Maclin in Philadelphia and backup quarterback Chase Daniel played with Maclin in college at Mizzou, both Reid and Daniel should have eased Maclin and Smith into working together better by now.  Even if they aren't gelling just yet, that's no excuse for the other receivers Smith can't connect with.  This is Smith's third year in Kansas City and as an offensive leader of the team, he needs to make sure his teammates can work with him.  If he can't than maybe its time to go.

I'm not saying bench him and put in Chase Daniel, though I wouldn't be completely against that idea, I'm just stating that Alex needs to step up and prove he is a team leader.  I will admit he does get a lot of the blame, but when things go right the quarterback usually gets most of the praise, so it's only fair.

The wide receivers need to step it up too.  They need to catch the ball, and if they can't at least put themselves in the position so defenders can't easily intercept passes, tipped or otherwise.  Maybe Jeremy Maclin hasn't gelled with the team yet, but he needs to soon.  I am a big fan of his, but a lot of his critics say he just isn't a #1 receiver, its time to step up and prove them wrong.  He isn't the only one though.  De'Anthony Thomas moved from running back to receiver this past offseason to add depth, its time to use him.  Frankie Hammond and Jason Avant also need to become threats too.  The bulk of the passes can't continue to go to Travis Kelce even if he is a bright spot.

Now on to the running backs.  The aforementioned De'Anthony Thomas was able to become a wide-out because of the depth at running back.  Nobody will displace Jamaal Charles yet, but having Knile Davis as another option is always good to have.  Especially if Charles is making mistakes like last night.  As much praise as I hear Charles get, I also hear a lot of negatives too.  He has no stamina (which he is getting better at since Reid came on board), he can't hold on to the football (which is what happened last night- twice!).  They told a story that Charles carries a ball around the practice facility with coaches trying to knock it out.  I've heard that other teams do that too, unfortunately they are college teams.  By the time you're in the NFL (especially as long as Charles has been), you shouldn't have to do that drill.  Sure mistakes happen, but these weren't simple mistakes.  He simply need to protect the ball better.  Even the CBS announcers squared in on it at the game last night after his first fumble.  When the league knows your weakness, you become a very big liability.  Hopefully he can recover from this quickly.

After the game ended I watched my twitter explode on who should get the blame.  The consensus was in dispute.  Charles took the blame post game, so did Andy Reid.  Overall the entire team shoulders the blame for this one, Smith, Reid, Charles, the offensive line, De'Anthony Thomas, Jamell Fleming (who Manning personally used to burn all night), EVERYBODY!  Not one Chief can really hold their head high after that performance.

In total Alex Smith had two interceptions.  Jamaal Charles had two fumbles.  De'Anthony Thomas had one fumble on a return.  FIVE TURNOVERS!  Peyton Manning even managed to throw a pick as well, in one of the only bright spots for the Chiefs.

So were there any other positives?  Sure, Charles ran for 125 yards, and Knile Davis had a nice rushing touchdown.  The Chiefs defense held Denver to 61 rushing yards total.  Jaye Howard got seven tackles and added six more including 2 sacks.  Also of note is Derrick Johnson inched closer to the Chiefs all time tackles record as he notched two more.  Hoping to score the record against Denver, he will have to wait until next week where he only needs 5 more.

Meme I made after the game to prevent me breaking something.

Next week is a long time for Chiefs fans waking up still trying to let go of the game from last night.  A tough loss or an ugly loss is never easy to get over, but add in the fans have 4 more days to ponder it makes it seem like an eternity.  The next Chiefs game is 10 days from now!  It is a Monday Night Football game against the Packers.  Hopefully the Royals can provide some relief until then.

Some people may think I'm jumping to conclusions and getting worked up over one game.  That is likely true but I needed to vent.  I am still in disbelief over the game.  I'm not ready to call for heads to roll like in 2011, but I do think the Chiefs need to correct some critical problems before they become weekly problems.   It's only one game, and let's just hope it stays that way.

Thanks for reading this really long rant, and I hope you all have a great day and weekend.  I hope your team fares better this weekend.

Down With The Sickness

I haven't felt well the last few days, I think its the flu.  So I have worked on a post for a few days off and on, but its not done yet.  So today won't have much talk but showing a couple packs of cards I got recently and I don't think I've shown off yet.  I hope you enjoy and I hope to be writing more soon.

I got a Cain!

The Sosa I already had oddly enough since I only bought 3 packs or so.

Series Two with a nice Colon card I needed.

Nice throwback card of Astros jerseys.  I also like the DeGrom and the Fielder card too.  Nice pack.

I have one more photo to show I was saving but here it is.

From the media guide I got on Fan Day (pics and post later), Cheadle had a big play in the Mizzou win yesterday.  He is a cousin of Don Cheadle and its cool that he play's for Mizzou.

That's it for now, but once I feel better I will post more.  Have a great week and thanks for reading.

Going Junkin' - What I Got

So after a few days of holding people in suspense, its time to show what I actually bought at a recent trip to the Midway Antique mall.  Lower the expectations a lot and realize I bought only 3 items.  I was going to add a couple pics of stuff I got at Savvy Seconds, but I have plenty of scans so I'll hold off.  Though 3 things seem not like much, I was very happy with how things turned out.  Let's begin.

Did you even think it was possible I would pass up cards?  In fact I did pass some up.  Last time I went a seller had some boxes packed for $4 with commons and such that I showed on here.  This time the boxes were $14!  I didn't feel like it was much of a deal at $4 so there was no way I was going to risk $14.  Instead I bought these cards I've wanted for a while if they were cheap enough.

These came out in the mid 90's and is a collector's set from Campbell's Soup.  They came out the same time as the Coca-Cola cards and the Coor's too and I think by the same company.  I like the flag one on the bottom the best of the set.

This set can help if I'm out of ideas for holiday posts (maybe the bottom one will be a Halloween post).  In total the seller had the complete set broken up into 36 cards per package.  He wanted $2.22 per package (seller's have odd prices sometimes), but he had a half off sale, so I got all 72 cards in the set for... well $2.22.  I thought that was a good deal.  I enjoyed reading all these cards and found out more about Campbell's then I ever expected.  They actually sold Pork & Beans before Chicken Noodle Soup.  So I learned history with the first purchase of the day, not a bad thing.

Next I spotted some fuzzy dice.  No I don't collect them and I have no idea where to display them (for now they are still in the package), but I decided to get these.  You don't see blue dice everyday.

Especially Kansas City Royals dice.  These were $1.99 so I thought it was a good deal since they were still sealed.  They had other Royals items at this booth but I didn't want to spend much and nothing else really stood out.  I believe I also have a pair of Mizzou fuzzy dice too, so one day I might display them side by side.

So I've spent $4.21 so far on two items.  I didn't set a price limit, but if I spent under $10 I would be very happy.  I bought one more item, and needless to say, I didn't even come close to the $10 limit.

If I had to do it over again, I might not have bought this.  Some of the pages were slightly ripped (pages stuck together and a previous owner ripped them to separate them).  Sure I don't need pristine condition on old programs, but the main reason I bought this was because it was a game against the Kansas Jayhawks.

It was $1, so that's why I imagine it was so easy to splurge on this.  This game in particular I don't remember off the top of my head, but I am pretty sure I watched it on TV.  If a Mizzou game was on TV I watched it.  Most of the Mizzou and Kansas games were televised usually part of Big Monday games on ESPN.  A bucket list goal is to see Mizzou take on one of their arch rivals in basketball, I'd like it to be Kansas, but its unclear when they will meet again.

Look at these lineups!  Of course the Kansas squad was filled with future NBA players Raef LaFrentz, Scot Pollard, Jacque Vaughn, and obviously Paul Pierce.  I remember playing as Jacque Vaughn a ton on NBA 99 on the Playstation because he had amazing skills in stealing the ball.  I remembered Pierce's time in Lawrence and I was a fan of his when he reached the NBA.  I know most Mizzou fans will hate me for that, but once they reach the pros, I don't really care where they played (except for Tyus Edney, I will never root for him).

As for Mizzou, the Tigers had some good players too, albeit not NBA level guys, but I still remember liking most of these guys.  I liked Sutherland and Winfield a lot and Derek Grimm was good too.

Monte Hardge, the Haley twins, Kelly Thames, the bench looked good too.  It looked like we had better bench depth but Kansas was a powerhouse!  I just looked at the results and the Jayhawks killed us by 20 in Kansas later in the year, but on this night, Mizzou beat the at that point undefeated in conference Jayhawks by 4, the final was 77-73!  I'm starting to remember it a bit now.  Mizzou was trying to prevent KU from going undefeated in the final year of the Big 8 as Mizzou had 2 years earlier.

Jason Sutherland, Chip Walther, Julian Winfield, Kelly Thames were all on that 1993-94 squad who went 14-0, as well as maybe others.  I loved the 90's Mizzou squads.

I liked this page, it was cool to see cartoon Mizzou guys, and on top seeing a "Cellular" phone company.  I think I still have a couple of Dad's old bag phones he'd have for the cars.  Man that brings back memories.

When I first saw this, I thought it was Phillips 66 ending sponsorship but I remembered them always sponsoring basketball.  Then I saw the Big 8 logo and realized it was the final year of the Big 8 conference.  While I like the SEC conference, I miss the days of the Big 8 conference.  It seemed like most of the teams were able to beat each other on any given day, and the matchups were much more exciting.  College money killed a lot of things but the Big 8 was one of the biggest casualties in my opinion.  Mizzou basketball never really fully recovered from it.  The only positive was when it switched to the Big 12, football became bigger.  That was good for Mizzou in a sense, but Big 8 was known for basketball.  Sure Nebraska and Colorado had elite programs in football, but the basketball was what brought the most talk I believe.  Once the Big 8 dissolved I still watched college basketball, but it seemed that my love for basketball in general declined outside of high school which I was in at the time.  Today, it takes a lot for me to watch NBA and while I don't blame the fall of the Big 8, the implosion of one of the biggest college basketball conferences (next to the ACC and maybe Big East) had a huge impact on me and I felt the landscape of basketball changed around that time.

So I bought 3 items, and spent a total of $5.21.  It was well worth the price for all the fun I had.  I know these items may seem like a let down, but my expectations aren't usually too high, so just those Campbell's cards set the tone for the entire day.  I found them in the first booth I searched so I had a feeling that I was going to enjoy it.

I hop you enjoyed reading these past few posts, and hope everyone had a great Labor Day.  Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the week.

Going Junkin' Part Three

Okay, so its time for the final installment of stuff I passed up, next time I'll show what I got.  So let's get on with this stuff I didn't deem worthy of adding to my collection.

I spotted two of these in one day.  This one was a lot more expensive, but I still thought it was worth it to take a picture of.  I never understood the appeal of collecting cookie jars, but after the last few years of seeing odd ones, I understand now.  I'm glad I don't collect them though.  The Snoopy one on the right would be kind of cool though.

I liked this print when I saw it for a number of reasons.  First it would be cool to see an actual tiger in the middle of Faurot Field, and I've heard rumors of people wanting a live mascot (could be cool, but I'm against it), but there are other reasons I like this print.  Mainly the scoreboard.  I can't pinpoint the year this was from but its been quite a while since that scoreboard was around   In fact I think they've had two since this one was used.  The concourse is also smaller and some of the buildings in the background aren't there anymore either.  Mizzou has really expanded the last couple decades, so this brings back a few memories.  While the print was worth the price (I believe it was $15), I passed because I have posters now I want to hang and have no room.

I like Snoopy drawings even though I will admit I'm not the biggest fan of Peanuts.  I like them but I don't watch the specials on TV and hardly read the old strips still in papers.  This was a little simple but I liked it enough to snap a shot of it.  A couple days ago my friend posted a program on his Facebook site (which is a spin-off of his blog Talkin' Truman) and one of the photos reminded me of this drawing.  His Facebook page is here for those interested.  He posts a lot of cool stuff and its more accessible to him then the blog.  I can't wait to see the pictures he posts once the season gets started.

Okay, now its time to move to the front room of the Mall.  At this point, I was getting a bit hot and tired so I didn't take as many pictures.  Though next time if I start in the front I might take more.  At any rate, here is a few I took.

That fire truck is massive for a toy.  It didn't surprise me it was a Tonka.  I never had one this cool but I remember telling my mom about how I still thought about the one I did have growing up.  She forgot about it but I described it.  It was a two piece one that had a giant ladder that was attached to a string so you could crank it up and down.  I had fun playing with it but then the ladders broke and so did the string so I stopped playing with it.  I doubt I still have it, but if I do its a rusted mess that likely isn't salvageable.

This one is a lot more modern and I like how it has the bucket at the top.  This one is probably newer than the actual fire trucks my town still uses.  I could see myself if I had the room, I would possibly have a toy room, but since I don't I had no need for this.

TO AMERICA.... AND BEYOND!!!  This was an interesting piece to me.  Next to it is another variation of Buzz Lightyear but I liked this one much better.  I've never seen variations of Buzz before, but this is pretty cool.  I could totally see myself using this as a decoration but the $20 price tag was a bit steep for just that.  I didn't try the buttons or anything or even look to see when it was made, but it did catch my eye so it was worth a snap.

This also caught my eye and I wasn't sure what exactly it was.  I can't see Popeye as a weatherman though.  "THE FORECAST TODAY IS HOT AND WINDY!  WELL, BLOW ME DOWN!  EAT SOME SPINACH AND COOL OFF INSIDE!"

I do love the creativity of older toys and how simple they were.  The best part is I bet this got many hours of use out of it too.  I guess this isn't exactly a toy, but still it gave kids more imagination, and who knows this piece alone might have inspired a Popeye fan to become a meteorologist.  I always thought it would be fun to be one until I found out it took lots of Science and Math, my two least favorite subjects, so I moved on.  Though I sympathize with weathercasters more than most people.  Imagine if you had to predict the future and only got it right half the time, you'd either be a sports pundit or out of a job.

Okay this final piece struck me as odd, and I really can't describe it, so here it is.

A BEAN SLICER?  WHAT IS THAT?  My mom replied "I've been on this Earth a long time but I've never heard of a bean slicer".  After a few days of pondering I still cant wrap my finger around it.

A few things intrigued me though.  First is obviously this is old because of the condition of the box but also because it was acceptable to say "GAY NEW COLOURS" on the box.  I bet that wouldn't pass today, though I still use the word in that context sometimes.  Second it is old because of the spelling of the word colours.  Maybe this was adapted from a British version, or more likely it was more in vogue to spell it like that back then.

Also, when has WHITE ever been a NEW or even a HAPPY color?  I didn't understand that, however since the box was open the slicer was actually an aqua-ish color, maybe seafoam green, something like that.  I guess that counts.

I wonder how many they sold just on the addition of the suction cup base?  All in all, it was an interesting piece to find, right at the front of the store, but one I had no need or desire to get, so I passed it up.

As I said I passed over a lot of stuff in the front of the store, but next time I might take more photos.  So that concludes the stuff I passed up, next time I will show you what I did get.  It wasn't a lot, but it was a few things that made me happy and were cheap so I got them.

Thanks for reading and have a great night.

Going Junkin' Part Two

Okay, time for more stuff I passed up at Midway Antique Mall last week.  Here we go.