Sports Cards Ate My Brain

I recently purchased boxes of 2013 and 2014 Panini Golden Age. These sets were similar to Upper Deck Goodwin's Champions in that they featured retired players and historical figures.  They also tied in with Panini Americana as far as having memorabilia and autographs from pop culture figures. Each box promised two autos or relics. I had bought boxes when they orginally came out and pulled these a John Belushi shirt card and autographs of Angie Dickenson, Jan Stephenson and John Schneider. Here is what I got from this purchase: 2013 Bob Denver is most famously remembered as Gilligan from Gilligan's Island.  I also have a memorabilia card of him from Donruss Americana. Billy Sunday was a baseball player but is better known as an evangelist.  This card is a short print version as well as a rare white bordered parallel of the base card. I also got an autographed card of former Miami Dolphins running back Jim Kiick that I forgot to scan. 2014 Tatum O'Neal was 10 when she starr...

Leicester City wins the Barclay's Premier League championship a year after they were almost demoted.  Awesome! This is the only card I have of a current Leicester City player.  Huth has been huge playing as a central defender.

To recap:  These are the cards I would take with me if I could take ten 9-card pages with me to Mars. I decided that each part of my collection cannot have more than one page.  The cards must fit into a regulation page as far as height and width but I am taking liberties with how thick some of the cards are. And now for some good old American football: 1911 T51 Murad College Series Michigan football. 'Nuff said. 1970 Kellogg's #13 This card represents three things in my sheet.  Detroit Lions, Kellogg's cards and Blazing Saddles.  I had forgotten that there was such thing as Kellogg's football cards until I found this at a show. 1993 Upper Deck #481 As far as I know, Robert is the only player from my high school ever featured on a card.  Go Angoras! 1999 TK Legacy TK Legacy produced a wonderful set of Michigan Wolverine stars.  This is my only autograph from the set.  If anyone out there has some regular cards or autos...

To recap:  These are the cards I would take with me if I could take ten 9-card pages with me to Mars. I decided that each part of my collection cannot have more than one page.  The cards must fit into a regulation page as far as height and width but I am taking liberties with how thick some of the cards are. Page 2 is all about my favorite player, George Brett.  I got to see George play exactly once.  The game was on August 5, 1980 in Detroit.  We were in Michigan visiting family and my dad took me to see the Tigers.  George hit a 3-run bomb in the first inning and then was knocked down twice by inside pitches in the 6th by Detroit starter Milt Wilcox.  George flew out and, as soon as the outfielder caught the ball, George charged the mound and started a brawl.  It was sublime. 1975 Topps #228 For those of you who don't know, this is George's rookie card.  It has to be included here just because of that. 1979 Kellogg's #50 ...

I ordered a Game of Thrones Season 3 box online in December to see if I could get something good. My season 1 and season 2 purchases were from loose packs at a local comic book store but I had gotten 3 autographs including Conleth Hill, who plays Lord Varis, so I've had some luck. I got a full set of base from the season 3 box plus some good inserts. Here are the best cards: Card #7 Gold Parallel This card is numbered out of 150 and is my first gold card from any season. This is a Gallery card of Jaime Lannister.  It looks much better in person as it has a wonderful 3-D foil effect. The first of 2 autographs from the box is from the Full Bleed autograph set.  This is my first of this type of autograph.  Tobias plays Edmure Tully, brother of Caitlyn Stark and thus uncle to the various Stark children.  It is his wedding that turns into the infamous Red Wedding. The second autograph in the box made me happy, happy, happy! Happy! Happy! H...

The Braves are currently 75 and 75 and are 4.5 games out of the last Wild Card position.  The true Braves fan in me says they could get into the Wild Card game and then make it to the World Series and upset the American League champ.  The realist in me says this will not happen. The Braves just cannot score runs with any consistency.  The lack of clutch hitting over this season has been extremely frustrating.  I like Justin Upton a lot but with just ever so slightly better clutch numbers he would probably have 20 more RBI and be leading the league.  A big stat I just found is that Atlanta only has 26 Sacrifice Flies this year.  That is 6 less than any other team in the National League. A stat I heard on Friday's TV broadcast was that the Braves had scored 1 or 0 runs in 37 games this year.  That is basically a quarter of the season.  Add in the games that the Braves scored 2 runs and is must be a third of the season, at least. Best example o...