My last card purchase in the Alamo City

Posted by cardboard hogs on June 2, 2013

As i’ve mentioned in previous posts, I spent last week and a part of this week moving my mom from San Antonio to her new home in Portland. She is making this move to be closer to her only son and first grandson…and it’s a pretty big move for her. We moved to San Antonio in 1979 and remained there for most of our lives. Both of my parents worked for the Air Force and if you are a military person, you are aware that San Antonio is a large hub for military families to work and retire. But my mom has decided to retire in Portland and we are very happy to have her here.

So when I was in San Antonio, one of my goals in a short window of time, was to find Sports Cards Plus and pick up some cardboard for the road. When I left town, I had not visited this shop but had heard great things about it from random postings on line as well as Panini’s blog. Finding this shop for me was tough as San Antonio has grown 1,000x larger than when I left 10 years ago…so getting around was quite a task. I felt like a lost tourist looking Pee-Wee’s bike in the Alamo basement. After 45 minutes of driving and sitting in traffic i find my destination and walk in…My first impressions about the store were pretty high. It was everything I believe a card shop should be. Lots of cards laying around and boxes filled with commons organized for set builders. Opened and unopened boxes of high end cards for those that want to buy an expensive pack or a really expensive box. Lots of great stuff on display…and I loved everything about the shop. I wish i could have gone here when I lived in San Antonio.

My time was limited in the shop, so i just poked around for a few minutes and was able to find some Redskins cards to fill my PC…and boy were they gems!

and this one…

and this guy…

I was able to find a nice Stephen Davis card…wish they had a second one so I could add it to the Redskins PC and my Stephen Davis PC.

I also picked up a couple packs of the new Archives football just for fun and pulled a sweet base card of RG3.

One Dollar and Five Cents Pt. III: QB Carousel

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 7, 2013

I stopped by Marv’s table over the weekend to go through his nickel box of football cards and ended up buying 100 cards for a whopping $4. Thanks for the deal Marv!

As I was going through the cards, i kept pulling QB’s and thinking to myself…’what in the hell is going on here!’ I’ve seen the charts and understand the numbers of QB’s that the Redskins have had since their last Super Bowl winning QB, Mark Rypien…but DAMN! To see it through a card collector’s eyes was a little overwhelming and as a fan, quite disappointing. It’s no wonder why the Redskins have had so little success in the past 20+ seasons. I realize it doesn’t begin and end with the QB, but that’s one major part of the ‘Why’.

Here’s one group starting with Rypien. Shuler…ugghhh…and Frerotte. Gus actually had a pretty good NFL career and saw some success with the Minnesota Vikings as well as the Redskins. Just not enough to be a franchise QB

The next group included Brad Johnson. He had varying degrees of success before and after his Redskins career and nearly got the Redskins to the NFC Championship game in 1999…but not close enough. Jeff George was a freaking disaster and appeared visibly unaffected by his inability to complete a pass to one of his teammates. Todd Husak…i don’t even remember him…

Now for the really dark days. Sage Rosenfels never got a start for the Redskins and i’m not sure if he had any games played in the NFL and I don’t really care to look it up. Patrick Ramsey. The poor kid. I was really excited when the Redskins drafted him and thought he could be a franchise QB…unfortunately, the team around him, especially the O Line was terrible and he got knocked around like a punching bag which hindered his career as it would anyone. Tim Hasselbeck. The thing i know about him is that he’s one of the generalist talking heads at ESPN and his wife is quite obnoxious, although cute, but still obnoxious.

Brighter days are ahead with this next group. Brunell led the Redskins to the playoffs in 2005, well not really because he was terrible and could barely complete a pass. That team made the playoff because of the defense and the running of Clinton Portis. Insert Jason Campbell. I really, really thought he would be the guy and was extremely excited about him starting at QB. But, similar to Ramsey, he was in a very unstable environment which ended up stunting his growth. You can’t expect a guy to learn a new offense every season of his career and have any ounce of success. He has bounced around the past few years and never really gotten a fair shot a starting job. I’m hoping he can be the guy in Cleveland this year. The Browns have done a great job of rebuilding their franchise and I think he can perform better than Weeden at this point. Palmer…that’s it.

Here is a list of the men that have taken a snap from center since Mark Rypien was injured and eventually released from the Redskins in 1994.

Rich Gannon – 4 games

Cary Conklin – 2 games

Heath Shuler – 13 games

John Friesz – 4 games

Gus Frerotte – 49 games

Jeff Hostetler – 3 games

Trent Green – 14 games

Brad Johnson – 27 games

Jeff George – 7 games

Tony Banks – 14 games

Shane Matthews – 7 games

Patrick Ramsey – 24 games

Danny Wuerffel – 4 games

Tim Hasselbeck – 5 games

Mark Brunell – 33 games

Jason Campbell – 52 games

Todd Collins – 3 games

Donovan McNabb – 13 games

Rex Grossman – 16 games

John Beck – 3 games

RG3 – 15 games

Kirk Cousins – 1 game

That’s 20 QB’s that have bridged the gap between Rypien and Griffin. This hopefully makes it clear why us Redskins fans are so overly infatuated with Robert Griffin III. He’s brought some stability to a very unstable position…now, if he can stay healthy…but, if he can’t? I will take my chances with Kirk Cousins…or at least welcome a first rounder or two for Captain Kirk next season.