Sports Cards Ate My Brain

So Georgia lost to Belmont in the first round of the NIT this year.  While this is considered an upset, it is not a surprise to me.  UGA basketball history is full of probations and disappointing teams.  Winning 20 games in a season is almost unheard of so this year's team settled on 19. Georgia basketball was terrible until Hugh Durham came along in the early 80's.  He somehow lured Dominique Wilkins to Athens and then recruited some fine player around him.  In 1983 Georgia made it's one and only Final Four appearance, losing to the famous Jim Valvano NC State team that year. Georgia's star player on that team was Vern Fleming. Vern came down to Athens from New York City and ended up being a first round draft pick by the Pacers. This is card 83 from the 1986 Star set.  For those of you who may be unaware, there was no major card set available for the NBA during the mid-eighties.  I had no way to get these cards near my house and ended up g...

 (For those of you who have no idea who Bill the Cat is please search for Bloom County.) Jim Acker     Jim Acker was originally drafted by the Braves as a First Round pick in 1980 out of the University of Texas.  He was selected by Toronto in the 1982 Rule 5 draft.  I'm speculating that Bobby Cox may have had something to do with that since Cox went to the Blue Jays as manager in 1982. Jim was traded to the Braves in mid-season 1986 for pitcher Joe Johnson.  He spent parts of 4 seasons with the Braves and had a decent 3.71 ERA; however, in a reflection of how bad the Braves were in the late 1980's, he had a 7 and 27 record.  He started 15 games for Atlanta but was mainly a relief pitcher and led the team in Saves in 1987 with 14. In a fortuitous move, Atlanta sent him back to Toronto during the 1989 season.  The Braves got reliever Tony Castilla and some catcher named Francisco Cabrera.  If you don't know about Cabrera w...