Random Wednesday Scans

Throughout the year I put scans into a folder called BLOG.  Most of the time I name things simple like that.  It's about time I clean out the folder some.  Usually once I post stuff on here I delete the pictures off the hard drive.  Usually so I know if I already talked about it but also because if I need it again I can just find it on here again.

So here is some random scans and the reason why they are in my folder.
 

























How about a non-wrestling card of Jesse Ventura?  I am an up and down fan of The Body or whatever name he calls himself (don't worry Mr. Ventura, I'm not calling you names, so don't sue me).  What I like about this card is that it is a perfect design for a wrestling card.  Nice photo on the front, name on the bottom, and a minimal bio on the back is all you need.  It's not like you need stats on a wrestling card.  HE LOST 8 FAKE FIGHTS!  Don't get me wrong, there is nothing fake about what they go through, I've said for years (long before it was cool to say) that wrestling is soap opera for men.  Getting back to the card, I scanned it for the TCDB and just moved it into the folder for no real reason.

Next is another card I scanned for the Trading Card Database.  This is possibly Ian Kinsler's first baseball card.  Since he is a product of Mizzou, I had to get it when I saw it cheap on COMC last year. I like minor league sets, and this one looks a lot better than most I have seen.  At some point I'd like to expand my minor league sets, but getting a few here and there is fine for now.

A while back I talked about athletes from Boonville, MO.  I mentioned Donovan Graves, and here is the only card I have of him.  Unlike Chuckie Jones who I also talked about, I don't think I ever met Graves, but know of him through friends.  Here is a nice card I got off of COMC, another minor league card (he never made it to the majors), in the Cardinals system.

Originally I had this card set aside for a Card Hall of Fame induction.  I'm not sure if or when I'll bring that back, and since adding it to the folder, this card has lost its appeal to me.  I was going to write something about "HEY I CAN PAT MY HEAD AND DRIBBLE AT THE SAME TIME."  Beyond that, I'm not sure what else I would write.  I remember very little about Devin Harris, but do remember him playing for the Mavericks.  Nice card design, but looking back, maybe not Card Hall worthy.

I don't know if I included this card by itself before, its one of the last SI For Kids cards of 2014 and one of the last ones with the old design.  It's always nice to see someone I like included in the cards of SI for Kids, but my subscription runs out soon, and can't find it for free, so I'll likely be done with them soon.

Here is a card I recently won on Listia that goes with the Dual-ing Die Cuts I was given last year.  I got it cheap, and at least I've heard of Mondesi, he is one of the top prospects of the Royals system,  Sorry I don't have anything else to add.

At this point, let me apologize if the design of this post is bad, sometimes I hate moving cards on here.  Anyways, back to more scans.

LET'S HAVE SOME FUN!  I might have posted a card or two of these before, but I had the pack scanned again for the TCDB and never deleted it.  I actually liked these cards, I might chase the entire set one day, but its not high on my list.


 

 UGH! I hate putting cards side by side, much easier to use paint and crop them into one.  Anyways, sorry for the eyesore, but I got these cards last year in a random binder, and like them.  If I collected team sets these would be perfect dividers for card pages.  I collect a few 49ers, so that's good.  I hope to get a Chiefs one one day and if I find it cheap enough, maybe a Buccaneers one.

James Franklin was one of my favorite Mizzou players ever.  Some of it could have been because I wasn't the biggest fan of Blaine Gabbert (I still think it was more the way he was coached, but still I saw flaws in his game before most others, injured or not).  Franklin is an all-around nice guy, and hope he lands somewhere, even if its in the Canadian Football League (which would give me a reason to buy CFL cards).  If I ever meet Frank the Tank again, I'll see if I can get this card signed.

I'll wrap it up with a fairly newly scanned card.  It has a weathered look because it is weathered.  I found it in the laundry room of my house last week while I was waiting for the gas to be turned back on (they were fixing pipes and had to shut the gas off).  My mom had it with some stuff, and she didn't mind if I took it.  Derrick was a Mizzou product, so it will go into my Mizzou binder along with other Tiger greats Doug Smith and Anthony Peeler, and Steve Stipanovich, and Jon Sundvold.

That will wrap it up today.  It feels good to clean up the folder, it's about half empty, but the other scans are for a few posts I might do soon.  I also have a blog planned for a contest I won earlier this week,  once I get the cards I will show them off.

Thanks for reading and have a great night.

I kind of missed my birthday

I wasn't on the internet for a week last month.  I've brought it up, but the reason I'm mentioning it again is because during that week, I had a birthday.  I am a Valentine baby, born in 1982.  That makes me... (let's see, carry the one, add 3...) I am now 33.  Crap, time crept up on me.  Anyways, on my birthday, my best friend dropped off a present for me.  He always knows how to brighten my day.  In case you haven't read my blog before, my best friend also has a blog, its called TALKIN' TRUMAN.  If you have seen his blog, then you know we have a common bond about our fandom of Mizzou.  He leans more to the football team, and I veer more to the basketball (yes even this year where its been a bit... lackluster).  Anyways, gave me a few Mizzou goodies, and here is one of them.

My friend finds a lot of old Mizzou programs, media guides, and yearbooks on ebay.  He sometimes buys them in lots, but is only interested in the football ones.  He usually gives me the basketball ones.  I think in total he gave me 4-5 this time, 2 or 3 I already had from the last time he gave me some (including this one).  That's not bad though, I told him I'd give them back to him and maybe he can make some money on them.

It's fun going through these and remembering some of the players.  Unlike programs, they are light on the ads, but they have tons of stats and records in them.  They list just about everyone on the staff, and in a couple I even seen a couple people I went to school with (they were student managers or some sort of interns).

One of these books though caught my attention.  The one above mentions the new arena being built and 2003-2004 would be the last year in the Hearnes Center.  The yet to be named arena was starting to take shape.

This yearbook was one I was happy to get.  I wanted something official from Mizzou that named this arena Paige Sports Arena.  Locally known as the PSA (or maybe I just made that up, some people did call it the Paige, and today still jokingly do), shortly after opening, the naming rights went into question and less than a year after opening, it was renamed Mizzou Arena.  For those that don't know the story, its a bit comical (at least to me it is).  Mizzou has a rich history and many famous alums.  Among them are the Kroenke family (Stan is the one who wants to move the Rams back to California, and his son Josh, a former MU b-ball player is now Team President of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche), and the Laurie family (Bill and Nancy Laurie are the ones who donated the $10 Million to build the new arena, and the "Paige" is their daughter).  Both are rich many times over thanks to another former Mizzou product- Bud Walton.  Basically a lot of Missouri is funded by Walmart, for better or for worse.

The reason their is controversy over this arena is two-fold.  First, Paige Laurie never attended the University of Missouri.  A lot of people weren't happy some rich kid has an arena named after her when she never did anything for the University.  Now I agree it shouldn't have been named after her, but to be honest, I kind of like the name Paige Sports Arena.  To me it has a nice ring to it.  However, I also loyal to the old arena, Hearnes Center (named after former Missouri Governor William Hearnes).  The other controversy is shortly after the arena opened, Paige got into a bit of hot water.  While attending a California college (I think it was USC, I'm not 100% sure), it came out that she paid someone to take her tests, and she didn't earn the grades she got.  The University of Missouri decided shortly after this happened to take her name off the arena, and rename it Mizzou Arena.  I'm not sure if it was a temporary name change or what, but a decade later the name remains.

Since this all happened within months of opening, not a lot of items were produced with the Paige Sports Arena name.  I'm happy I finally got something.  I'm also watching a paperweight on ebay, but not willing to drop $100 on it.

Before I go on, I want to make a really quick point about how Missouri is Walmart country.  The city of Columbia has 3 Walmart Supercenters, and a Sam's Club, plus a Walmart Express.  On paper that doesn't seem odd, but considering there is only one Target (inside a mall), it makes it obvious Walmart has a lot of pull.  Maybe I just want another Target to open up in Columbia, or at the least, some other option (I miss Kmart and Osco Drug).  Sorry rant over.

Anyways, my friend also gave me a card (which I didn't scan), but inside had some cards inside.  Let's take a look.

YES, ODDBALLS AND SOME BRETTS!  The first card is from 1991 from the Mootown Snackers.  I've heard of this card, but was happy I got it.  The only Royals card in the set, so it also completes a set. I still love the powder blue unis.  Even after airbrushing the logos off, I still like this card a lot.

Next is from 1990 and is a Sports Illustrated for Kids card of George Brett.  I've had my eye on this card for a while, but never jumped on it.  This also completes the team set via being the only Royals card in the set for the year.  I liked the thickness of the old SI cards compared to today.  However, I wasn't a fan of the design.  Which by the way, at the start of the new year, SI for Kids did another redesign, too bad they didn't make the cards thicker.  I might scan the new looks soon.

Finally is a another card I've eyed for a while.  Actually according to my checklist (not the one on here, but an unofficial one) I might have already had it.  I really need to finish organizing my cards.  I will never be upset at a minor league card of Johnny Damon, and Action Packed one no less.  I loved the embossed feel of them.  I don't remember having any baseball ones, but do remember trading for some football ones in the schoolyard once.  It was a Buffalo Bills card and I believe the player was Shane Conlin.  The only other embossed cards I really remember are the WCW Topps cards released in 1999.  One day I'd like to build that set again.

Well that's enough rambling for one morning.  I know its an odd time to post, but I promised a new post on facebook and twitter yesterday, and I didn't want to get sidetracked again and not do a new one, so since I had time I wrote one in the morning for a change.  So thanks for reading, and depending on when you read this, have a great day (or night).

Don't change that channel, I have another Maddux

So I'm not sure what is going on but the last few packages I've gotten from Listia has had postage due of 21 cents on them.  I guess the USPS have changed the ounces on packages or something.  Anyways, I have a couple more cards to show off today.

 Another 2015 Greg Maddux card.  This time from the insert set Free Agent 40.  I really don't get the concept of this set, but its a Maddux card and now I have it.  I really need to update my Maddux collection, but this was one I knew I needed.

Moving on, I also got this beauty of a card the same day.

 This Carl Edwards will be heading into my Mizzou collection.  I don't seek out all his cards, but this one was up right after the Daytona 500 and I bid on it.  I'm a bit surprised the Coors Light logo made it onto the card, but I recently noticed a Dale Earnhardt Jr. card with the Budweiser logo on his car.  What made it even more strange is that it was a Sports Illustrated for Kids card.

Just when you thought that's all I have.  WAIT!!!!! DON'T CHANGE THAT CHANNEL!

 I was digging around my junk drawer the other day and spotted this.  I forgot I bought this a few years back, but remember it was cheap.  I might try it out in a couple days.

I do have another card to show off to finish the night, it is the first GEM MINT 10 CARD I ever got.

 A year or two ago I bought a box of random packs at Wal-mart and it had this included as a bonus.  Not a bad card, and for a short time I collected Strasburg cards.  I'm not sure what I plan to do with it.  I bought another box later and pulled a Nolan Ryan Upper Deck card which I gave to my friend who likes him a lot.

Well, that's enough for one night, so as the snow falls in my neck of the woods and I prepare for a night of 90's music on the radio or computer, thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a safe and great night.

Maddux Mania and Who Let The Dogs Out?

Not much to this post, just showing off a Greg Maddux card I won on Listia and some cards of dogs (none of which are playing poker).

My first 2015 card is from the Archetypes insert set.  It was 499 credits I think, so it was worth it.

While I still think there are too many inserts, I like the design of this one.

Well, now let's see some dogs.

I'm not sure why SI For Kids did this, but eh, whatever.  I had to scan it to add it to the Trading Card Database, so here it is.  It even has stats for the dogs.

Oh yeah, and kids, BY THIS BOOK!  I guess that's why they promoted the cards.  Anyways, I also scanned some Goldfish, so might as well show them off too.

I think that's enough damage for one night, so thanks for reading and have a great night.

Random Rumblings from the Sports World

I could do a post showing something off, but I wanted to share my thoughts on a few things.  I don't have a radio show or anything, and this is my only real way to express my thoughts on a few things.  Long ago when I first ventured on the net I would share my thoughts on stuff (sometime I miss Xanga, its still around, but why would I want to go back to it), so it was the best avenue I have.

The big talk today is about Alex Rodriguez.  He showed up to spring training two days earlier then many expected.  I'm sure the Yankees were like the party goers in the early scene of Wreck-It Ralph (IT'S A-ROD, SOMEBODY GET RID OF HIM!), sorry I watched it a couple times this weekend, not a bad movie.  Anyways, he was bombarded by the media wanted to talk to him.

I don't feel sorry for athletes much.  This is no exception.  As an athlete I believe the media has a duty to get the latest (not when they are eating or stuff, but at the ballpark or media days).  I'm sure A-Rod expected this, and probably came early to avoid more media.  Anyways, I was watching video from ESPN and they asked him everything under the sun.  From the chopped video they showed, he said all the right things.

Now if you believe him or not is up to you, but the way I see it, he is another year older, and likely another year wiser.  He had a year to reflect on all his mistakes and prepare for his final shot at staying in MLB.  Now it is all up to him on how he responds.  He will be rusty and the Yankees could dump him, but I would like to see him play again somewhere (maybe not in Kansas City, but somewhere else unless he agreed to a small no-risk contract).

What will make it tougher for him this year if the Yankees keep him is the fact that Derek Jeter won't be around.  Jeter still being around would have caused the media to split a bit more between the two, allowing Alex a better chance to transition back.  I believe one of the reasons Jeter retired last year was to avoid the circus this year.  He didn't want any part of the firestorm Alex will bring.  Also having Jeter they would have helped A-Rod more with them being teammates so long.  Now it seems Alex will have a us against the World mentality because not too many will be in his corner.

Will Alex Rodriguez be able to return to past greatness or will he wilt like a dying flower?  Time will only tell.

Moving on, a lot of storylines were made heading into the Daytona 500 yesterday.  Would Jeff Gordon win from the pole in his final start at the biggest race of the year?  Could Tony Stewart or Carl Edwards finally win the Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing?  How would Regan Smith and Matt Crafton fare as replacements for the Busch brothers?  Who would breathe on Danica's car causing her to crash?

Okay that last one is a bit harsh, but some of the analysts I think are starting to realize the success or failure of Danica now falls on Danica herself.  They didn't spend the whole race talking about her, and it made it better.  The Gordon talk was a bit much, but it was justified.  In the end, I was happy with the finish.  I rooted for three drivers yesterday, one who I thought had a good chance of winning, and two who I just wanted to finish in the top 15.  The two I wanted to mention first are Michael Annett (pictured above), and Sam Hornish Jr.  Annett drives for Pilot/Flying J and I am loyal to the brand.  Hornish I have followed for a few years and was upset he didn't have a ride last year.  It was great to see him have a full ride this year and at the top level no less.

The other driver I rooted for was Carl Edwards.  With a new number, sponsor, team, and now with Toyota, King Carl had a real good shot of winning.  I root for him on occasion because he is a local guy and I like him better than most of the other contenders.  I'm still getting use to the new paint scheme and the number #19, but it shouldn't take long to accept it.

In the end my only complaint was the timing of the commercials and I'm still not a fan of red flags so often.  I understand its for safety, but I think it takes away from the race with stoppages as often as they do.  I know they only did one yesterday, but it was within the last 10 laps and it caused a reset that made the finish a little less exciting.  My thoughts on red flag stoppage's not involving weather can be summed up easily...

The final topic I will discuss today was one I was shocked at last week.  Kevin Garnett is back in Minnesota!  I have stated for the most part I never had a official team to root for in the NBA but in the late 90's Kevin Garnett was one of my favorite players.  So much so that I started to root for the Timberwolves.  It didn't hurt that I liked their jerseys too.  However they never contended, so when KG went to Boston, I followed him and rooted for the Celtics.  Since then, the T-wolves have become an afterthought.

After he went to Brooklyn, I lost interest in him for the most part, and this year I have been rooting for De'Marre Carroll and the Atlanta Hawks.  However things could be changing soon.  IN A BIG WAY!

The rumor mill is saying that Kevin Garnett wants to BUY Minnesota!  Well, not the state, but the team.  The story is him and Flip Saunders wants to buy the team.  If that happens, I may have a favorite team.  I think it will be a great spark for the team, and could be a turning point in the franchise.  I haven't followed the NBA a lot in the last few years because I'm not a LeBron fan, and the Heat winning all the time didn't interest me.  This year has been odd though.  Atlanta and Golden State are the hottest teams, the Heat are stumbling, Cleveland and LeBron started slow, Kobe is done. The NBA is going through a transition soon.  Kobe should retire soon.  LeBron's best years are behind him and the league needs a new star.  There are many options and things are looking brighter.  The Spurs are also about to change too.  Depending on the health of Chris Bosh, the Heat aren't what they use to be.

All that being said, there is no dominant team in the NBA, and that is causing a lot of excitement.  So how does that bring excitement to Minnesota?  It allows them a couple years of staying out of the spotlight and create a buzz in Minnesota and then exploding just like the Clippers and Warriors have done recently.  A league with parity will always be more exciting then a league with the same teams winning all the time (which is why MLB has been better lately as the Yankees aren't as dominant).

I can't wait to see things change in Minneapolis and give their fans a chance to see a quality team for the first time in years.

That will do it for today, thank you for reading and have a great night.

I've become a master at using Paint

It's been awhile, but don't worry, I'm not going to recite the rest of the lyrics to a Staind song.  I was going to do a parody of A-Rod's apology letter as to why I haven't been on for over a week (it would be a funny concept, a baseball card blogger suspended from the internet for a PED), but much like the finale of Two and A Half Men, it would be better just to move on and forget it ever happened.

I have a few posts to write including a few cards I received from Listia, and a cool birthday present from my best friend.  I'll talk about them later.  Today, I thought I would show off a few things I did in my time away from the internet.  I was still using my computer, just not getting online.

Last weekend my friend attended the Mizzou Sports Hall of Fame and got to see John Dettmer, Alisha Robinson, and I forgot the other woman inducted go in with Chase Coffman, Chase Daniel, and Jeremy Maclin.  I think it meant a lot to him, and I'm sure he had a lot of fun.  The first Mizzou football game I went to was one where Maclin, Coffman, and Daniel were playing.  In honor of that, I made some cards that I was going to see if he could get signed, but never completed.  No big deal since I already have Daniel's autograph, and might have Coffman's too.  Anyways here are the cards I created.

This was my first design.  I liked it okay, but I think that would be a better poster than a card, so I went back to the drawing board (which btw, I did show my friend this design, but he never saw these new ones).

Much  better in my opinion.  It represents Mizzou with the logo and the colors, yet shows his current team (at least as of current time).  The picture itself is from this past season.

Again, same thing, Mizzou colors, yet shows him as a Tennessee Titans player.  This was also taken from this past season.

I liked this photo the best of the three, however, this photo is from the preseason, but still the past year.  As a matter of fact, this photo is from the preseason game I went to.

So with the fronts done, now it was time to do the backs.  I couldn't remember if I had the GIMP software on my computer (turns out I do), so I messed around with Paint some more and came up with this back.

I liked the background of historic Jesse Hall and the columns, but other than that I was disappointed (even beyond how horrible the stats looked).  This is the only card with stats on the back, but I redesigned them a bit more, never really completing at concept.

A little better, but I still wasn't a fan.  I liked the font's and the background, but it just didn't seem right.  So I went back to the drawing board.

While I never completed it, I like this design much better.  The font is good and the background photo better relates to the football players (though the stadium didn't look like that when they played there).  I'm not sure what much else I would add to the back besides their complete college stats and their current team.  I might include something else, but I wouldn't want to make it too wordy.

After I worked on these, I decided to mess around a bit on some other things.  Here is a few more I did.

I wanted to make some Billy Butler cards since he went to Oakland so when I saw these photos I took a shot at them.  The color scheme isn't right, but I like the card on the left better.  Beyond being stretched, the one on the right pretty nice too.  If you couldn't tell, I like that card design a lot.

Here is two more cards I made.  These cards mean a bit more to me because these are actual photos I took.  I cropped the Charles card a lot better than the Gray card, but I will tweak them some one day.  The red and black design works really well, much better than white or yellow would have in my opinion.

The next card is one I've wanted to make for over a year for my friend.  The design my be changed before I finally print the card out for him, but here is the rough draft.

He is a big Nolan Ryan fan, so that is why I wanted to make it.  The blue and red work well with the team colors, but I couldn't find a better color for behind the font than black.  Like I said I will probably work on it some more one day.

The final card I whipped together pretty quick a couple days ago just out of boredom.  I was still on a card kick, and when I saw the photo, I decided to make a card.

A variation of an old Topps design (was it 1989 maybe?) I spent half a day earlier modifying it to something I would like better.  The next day I saw this photo in my many photos of pictures and knew it would be perfect to test it out on.  I think the gray and gold border compliments the design well, and I was very happy how the card turned out.  If I ever meet Max again (and know in advance), I will make this card and get it signed.  Max was one of my favorite players at Mizzou and I really wished he got a chance in the NFL.  With his personality I still think he should try out for WWE.

That will wrap it up for today, thank you for reading, and have a great night.