Sports Cards Ate My Brain

I watched very little of the NFL draft this year.  It's not because I wasn't interested but I have regular shows that I watch on Thursday and Friday evenings.  Back in the old days I would watch all day Saturday but the primetime draft eludes my interest. As far as I know, only one player was ever drafted that went to my high school (Clarkston): Robert O'Neal was an All-ACC player at Clemson and was drafted by the Dolphins in the 6th round in 1993. He only played 2 regular season NFL games, for the Colts in 1994.  He was 4 years behind me in school but, if I remember correctly, he lived in my neighborhood and we played nerf football with the other kids.  I know there was a kid named Robert that I could heave the ball as far as I c.ould and he would run under it  Probably the most famous person that went to Clarkston was Sean Mullins , who had a couple of hits in the 1990's.  He was a year behind me.  I remember him singing in the chorus.

I've never really been in to trying to complete a full set.  I usually collect a player or team instead of needing everything from a particular year.  The exception is 1976 Topps Baseball.  The first pack of baseball cards I bought was from this set on the night after I went to my first Braves games in 1976. I'm about 80-100 cards short of complete right now but will finish this at some point.  I love this design and the player selection can't be beat with the All-Time All-Stars cards making an affordable way to get some of the all-time greats.  That is Aaron's last card and Eckersley's first.  I love the stylized player in the corner of each card, with the exception being on the all-star cards (Bench). It's hard for me to believe that this set came out 41 years ago.  Make's me feel older than I actually am (50).

Several years ago a guy I worked with went to Europe for a week.  I asked him to buy me a pack or two of cards or stickers.  What he brought me was chocolate candy with this in it: I can't read the German on the back but I think this is cool.  I have 2 more stickers from this set that he gave me.  It is from Kinder Riegel Schokolade.

One of my favorite annual viewing pleasures starts tomorrow: The Masters.  My entire weekend plan will revolve around it.  After a day of storms today the weather for the weekend should allow the tournament to play out over the four days.  I have many golf cards but here are three that represent 21 victories and 13 runner-up finishes:   13 wins from these 3 greats.  This is simply my best memorabilia card from any sport. 4 Wins.  After buying many gold boxes I finally got a Tiger swatch out of this catch-all set.  4 more wins from Faldo and Couples.  Duval finished second twice. It will be bittersweet with no Arnie teeing off tomorrow but I hope it will be a great tournament. I'll set my Tigers Woods golf to the tournament settings and see how I score.  I'll let you know if I win.

With the golf Masters starting this week I decided to highlight a couple of tennis masters.  They met in the final of the Miami Open this weekend in another match-up of 2 of the top athletes of the 21st century.  These are from the 2003 Netpro set and are rookie cards of both players.  I got a box of this a few years ago on clearance at a Wal-mart, which is why I have these.  Neither of them had won a major yet.