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.

Those of us that have collected cards for a long time (over 40 years for me) all have one or a few players that we seem to get many, many good cards for.  We end up with a decent player collection of someone that we don't actually collect actively. Frank Thomas is one for me but the player that stands out the most is Mats Sundin.  I have a hoard of good inserts of him. Me being lazy, I only have one card scanned but it is my favorite.  A 1997-98 Leaf Fractal Matrix X-Axis Silver Die Cut.  Easily one of the most confusing inserts of the 1990's, the Fractal Matrix set featured different colors and shapes which I still have no interest in actually figuring out. If you're a Maple Leaf or Sundin collector drop me a line and maybe we can work out a trade.

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...