Clemson Tigers!

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 9, 2017

I was born in South Carolina. Conway Country, South Carolina, Myrtle Beach…Myrtle Beach Air Force Base to be exact. My parents were both in the Air Force when i was born and they were born in South Carolina as well. Both of my parents were born in South Carolina. My mom was born in Charleston and My dad’s family was from Spartanburg, SC. He was the son of a cotton factory worker that loved football, Clemson football. Football is huge in Texas and really all throughout the south. Every summer we would visit the Palmetto state, and when we went to Spartanburg we would go to the Beacon drive in. It’s a bit of a divey drive in greasy spoon kinda place, but damn that food is good! And the walls were always covered in Clemson newspaper clippings, Frank Howard and Danny Ford photos along Tiger memorabilia everywhere…not so much with the other school in the state, the Cocks, just mostly Clemson Tigers. So, as a young’n my college football team was chosen. The Clemson Tigers. A Tigers fan in the state of Texas, where i could have chosen the Longhorns or Aggies or Red Raiders or whatever…I stuck with my family on this one. Football hasn’t been too nice to me over the past few years. The ebbs and flow of a football season are quite emotional, far more than baseball, which i think is why i’m more drawn to the diamond than the gridiron. But tonight, my team won and it feels great!…and yes, i did order some Panini Clemson Tigers cards tonight.

Now to some baseball cards.

Wrapping up my box of Topps update with the hits. Like i said, nothing too major, but some cool decent stuff from the jumbo box.

Christian Vazquez – Boston Red Sox Scouting Report Certified Autograph

Stephen Strasburg – Washington Nationals All Star Game 2016 Event Worn Workout Jersey

Willie McCovey – San Francisco Giants 500 Home Run Club Capt. James Cook Stamp

My mind is a little distracted right now and i’m having a little difficulty writing and listening to ESPN, so i’m just going to let the images be. That Captain James Cook stamp got me doing some serious research though on global sailing, exploration and cartography. Maybe i can save some of my research for another (re)post.

Hope you guys have a great night! Here’s a cool song my wife introduced me to a couple of days ago…probably late on these guys, but love the song! Enjoy.

Natitude

Posted by cardboard hogs on February 3, 2015

I love the Yankees. People give me a hard time about it and when they don’t, they are utterly confused…why in the hell would a boy raised in Texas and who has never ever been to New York City be a Yankee fan.

Seriously?

Why?

The Yankees?

The Evil Empire!

Well, I don’t have a great reason why other than when I was a very easily influenced 9 year old boy my favorite player became a Yankee. He was an Athletic, and he became a Yankee. Being a 9 year old confused little child I decided I would follow my player to the team. Now, nearly 30 years later I am still a Yankee fan and love the history of the storied franchise. I’m gonna miss the hell out of Jeet as i do Mo, Posada, Pettitte, Mattingly…etc…Over the past couple of years though, i’ve developed quite an attraction for the Washington Nationals. Here’s my reasoning. As you can tell, i’m a Redskins fan and i do everything I can to listen to Sports Talk radio from DC, and as one would expect they talk DC sports. So, by default the past 6-8 years my affinity towards the Nationals has been building and building. So much so that i am working all angles to get the kid to become a Nats fan. They’re a lovable team, right? Scrappy, hard working. Dealt with tough losses in big games (looking at you Drew Storen…). Built a strong organization from the ground up, albeit from many poor seasons and in turn drafting well with their high picks (hard to miss on Harper and Strasburg though, eh?).

I’m kinda old school in that i love it when players stay with a team their entire career. I know this isn’t always the players fault, but i greatly appreciate it as a fan. I also appreciate an organization that can draft, develop and lock up their talent for years to come. You build a strong foundation with the kids in the minor leagues and infill with veteran leaders and role players as necessary. You don’t chuck millions after millions for guys past their prime. You take a chance on a kid that your program has developed and lock him up. Make it so he doesn’t even want to look at another club. Make him feel like he is a cornerstone to a strong future. Now this is in total contradiction to what the Yankees have historically done…although, you can very easily argue that their last mini dynasty was due in part to the development and infill mentality rather than poach and overpay mindset. So, i guess what i’m beating around the bush about here is that I will always love the Yankees, but i’m kinda diggin’ the Nats right now. I’m sort of a baseball polygamist.

Albeit one American League Team and one National League Team.

I bought baseball cards.

Remember that part where I talked about wanting a player to stay with one team for the duration of his career? Hanley is one of those guys that, well, he’s come full circle. Red Sox, Marlins, Dodger, Red Sox. Initially i was cool with the first Red Sox run because it was so insignificant in his career. In my eyes he was a Marlin. A Florida Marlin, not a freakin’ Miami Marlin. He was a wonderful player on my fantasy baseball team for a couple of seasons and won me a really nice chunk of change one season. I was cool when he became a Dodger. I kinda like the Dodgers. Great history. Iconic Jerseys and who doesn’t love Vin Scully?

Seriously.

Vin Scully!

But now that he’s a Red Sock again. I can’t do it. I can’t collect his cards and feel good about myself, the Yankee fan inside me can’t handle it. So, I’m only collecting him as a Marlin…Florida Marlin.

Now to the Nats portion of the program. Werth and Strasburg with some Game Worn Memorabilia on display below. Other than Mariano Rivera, I don’t typically collect pitchers. Too risky and their careers can be schizophrenic (is that not PC?). I’ve always steered clear of them, but Stras is pretty special I guess. So far he hasn’t lived up to the hype, but the hype was out of control that nobody ever could live up to that hype. He’s still be very solid and hasn’t been overly fragile, maybe sensitive, but not fragile. Now this Werth cat is something else. His hair is amazing. His beard is amazing, but the DUI isn’t really cool. Maybe hit up the Uber app next time for a $900 ride home. #justsayin

Speaking of wonderful pitchers. Jordan Zimmerman. He has become the most important Zimmerman on the team the past couple of years and luckily isn’t related to the crazy Zimmerman in south Florida. No, he’s a pitcher and a pitcher that will be an important piece to a potentially all time dominant starting rotation. I have his autograph on a sticker on a card that has no logos. I can imagine how annoying it would be to write Z I M M E R M A N every time you sign an autograph, but this is a little too much corner cutting for me. Although I do appreciate the left justified approach. Never know how long that squiggly line will need to extend at the end of Z I M M E R M A N.

HEY! I snuck in a Redskin card! But only because it reminded me of Rocket Pops.

This is a very patriotic, summer-y, popsicle-y card that I had to have. This is one of those parallel cards that makes the rainbow collector happy…i’m assuming?

It’s Art Monk and I love Art Monk.

A DC Die Cut Delivery Day

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 22, 2014

I came home to a few PWE’s with my name on them and a rigid piece of something in them. It’s card delivery day! YAY! I’m sure those cards were just waiting to get delivered to my mailbox after the holiday yesterday. Ironically all three cards were die cut cards of young DC sports stars…and here they are!

The Jordan Reed card is probably my favorite as it appears to have the least amount of surface area and was a little tricky to get the 2.5″x3.5″ box around the card when I scanned it. It’s a pretty simple card. No flash, no serial number, but the perimeter of the card is quite nice.

The Stephen Strasburg card is also pretty cool. This one is a little more flashy since it’s from the Topps Chrome collection. This one seems like it should have a stand in the back so you can display it somewhere nice.

The man-child Bryce Harper with the mountain main beard was the last card I received. Only minor die cut action going on here, but Bowman Platinum is always a nice card. Plus with Topps pledging to bring me closer to the game from the past, present and future, I feel good about these three going in to my player collections. I should add these to the page, eh?

Strasburg with few words

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 17, 2014

I am way too tired to write about some fancy cool cards that I picked up at a card show last weekend from the dollar bin. So, i am just going to show them to you and like fine art you can interpret them for yourselves. Remember kids, fine art. So lets get some intellectual insight to the gems below.

I like that this one is chrome and shiny. The problem with shiny cards is the fingerprints and other sticky stuff prior to sleeving and top loading them. I get these cards from a guys that’s always at the shows. He comes up from Salem and is a really nice guy, but his cards always seem a little dirty…and sticky…and sometimes…hairy….ehhhhh…

Check out that reconstructed elbow on this one. It would be interesting if any kid that pitched 3+ years of college baseball got the ol’ Tommy John surgery prior to starting their professional career. I wonder how many major league seasons could be saved if this happened? Probably a bad idea…just spitballing.

I really like this mini. Very cool card with Stras looming over Stras. I would be very happy if he did indeed become a Champion Base Ball Pitcher this year when the Nats win the World Series.

Strasburg in Red! Love the old school socks and short knickers for this GQ Mini. Both of these minis were simply dropped in the top loader. Why do people do this? If anything the minis NEED a penny sleeve to keep them from bouncing around.

New cards, new collections + boobs

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 15, 2013

As I mentioned in a couple other posts, I am adding 3 guys to my personal collection. One of them, and the only one to be in my collection from the NBA is Timothy Theodore Duncan.

PS. don’t act like you didn’t notice that rack under the basketball. BAM! She seems upset that an official is missing something…There are no boobs in the card below.

I grew up in San Antonio and this is the only Texas team that I can really get down with. They play and win the way I like a team to do it. With modesty and tons of servings of humble pie. Plus, Tim really seems like a cool guy…kind of weird, kind of quirky…but also, kind of great. He’s a superstar in a non superstar town and has been more than comfortable blending in to the low key, modest way of life in my old hometown.

I also picked up a couple cards from my new Nats players.

Both cards are transparent, which is always cool. Who doesn’t love them some see through cards. I know this kid does.

good night kids.

A break from football and new PC additions

Posted by cardboard hogs on November 24, 2013

So, i was going to do a post on some Redskin cards that have been sitting around the computer but thought i should mix it up with a couple of baseball cards. Being a Redskin fan i tend to listen to DC sports talk radio and over the past 5 years, that has bled over to their coverage of the Wizards, Capitals and Nationals. Not being a huge fan of hockey or basketball, two of those teams didn’t quite do it for me. But one has, the Nats. Normally when you become a fan of a team and collect sports cards, you want to start a collection of their better players or at least the guys on their team you enjoy watching. I’ve been a fan of Ryan Zimmerman for a while but haven’t jumped all in for his cards but have decided to roll with Harper and Strasburg…with the potential to start collecting Zimmerman, assuming Spanky is cool with that 🙂

Harper was a pretty easy decision for me. I love the way the kid plays. He may be a little to intense and hasn’t had the best reputation for being a modest humble guy…but most great players are not quiet on the field, right? I will admit that he has some growing up to do, but you gotta love a guy that sprints around the bases after going yard, right? Or a guy that dives in to a wall to make a catch, risking his face and his health…and his beard! Harper is the new addition to the PC. I will more than likely be focusing on the base cards and a few inserts, avoiding the autos and super short prints.

The other player that i’m adding to the PC is Stephen Strasburg. He is going to be the first pitcher added to the collection, which for some reason, i’ve never started a Mariano Rivera collection. I guess that can come at a later date since i’ve never started a PC for a retired player. Strasburg was a tough decision. Pitchers are always tough decisions since their health is always a concern and Strasburg has proven to not be a tough durable guy. When he is though, he’s lights out…and that’s what i’m counting on. The lights out part. Similar to Harper, I will be focusing on base stuff and a few inserts…maybe i can pick up an autograph or two next year.