The Hopeful Chase

Top Five Lightning Rookie Cards to Own

2012-02-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

As the internet’s resident Tampa Bay Lightning cardcollecting blogger I must say this post is long overdue. As the Lightning bandwagon grows (it’sactually more of a mini-van at this point) folks out there are going to want toknow what cards they need for their collection. Well I’m here to drop thecardboard knowledge on you!

Coming up five names for this list was fairly easy. That’s what happens when you follow a teamthat has been in existence less than 20 years. I didn’t have to go back 40 years and figure which long-dead greatsshould make the list. Nor did I have todebate which Hall of Famer should I leave off. For the record on two members of the Hall of Fame have donned the black,silver and blue – Dino Ciccarelli (111 games) and Denis Savard (105 games).Spoiler alert – neither made the list.

I debated a couple of names from the pre-Cup teams, nameslike Selivanov, Puppa and Zamuner. In the end, I thought I’d stick with playerswhose rookie cards showed them in Lightning uniforms (with one exception). If I’dextended the list to 10, at least one of those names would have definitely madethe list (but so would Nikita Alexeev – hey my list, my rules!).

One benefit of being a Lightning collector - low prices. There isn't much demand for the cards below so they're pretty easy to pick up (with one glaring exception).

With no further adieu – I present the Top Five Rookie CardsLightning Fans Should Own

5. Brett Connolly 2011-12 Upper Deck - $4.25-$6.99

The new kid on the block has had an up and down rookieyear. His cards have slid back down abit after starting off hot (around $10) when the Upper Deck series was firstrelease. His performance at the WorldJuniors provided another bump, but lately the prices have been coming back down(getting benched does that).

Connolly could very well be the first of the new crop ofLightning stars to emerge in the NHL. Ifthings work out as management hopes, names like Carter Ashton, Dustin Tokarski,Cory Conacher and Tyler Johnson could be gracing this list pretty soon.

4. Brad Richards 1997-98 Upper Deck - $1.25- $5.00

Yes he’s a Ranger now (a dastardly Ranger who scoresovertime goals against his former team), but he still has a loyal following inthe Tampa Bay area. Moving to the brightlights of the big city hasn’t affected his cards that much so they’re still relativelyeasy to obtain.

Upper Deck was able to sneak a bunch of young players intotheir main set before they were drafted by creating a subset called “Program ofExcellence” and showing them in dramatic staring-off-in-the-distance poses orin their Team Canada gear. A very youngVincent Lecavalier is featured in this set as well. Is that card on the list? Only The Shadow knows.

3. Martin St Louis 1998-1999 Upper Deck Rookie - $.99 -$2.99

There are so many weird things about this card - the Calgaryuniform, the number 46, the fact he isn’t scoring a goal. Marty’s entry intothe NHL wasn’t exactly accompanied by fanfare. As a non-drafted, college playerwho toiled in the AHL for three seasons he didn’t get all of the bells andwhistles that card companies lavish on top prospects. So his Upper Deck rookie was just a commoncard released in the era of over produced sets. Since there are a lot of these cards out there the prices remain low.

When he eventually retires I’m sure there will be some talkabout the Hall of Fame for St. Louis. Heshould have over 350 goals and close to 1000 points. I hope it’s enough for himto be enshrined, but you never know with these things. If he is inducted it will be interesting tosee if his cards get a bump in value.

2. Vincent Lecavalier 1997-98 Upper Deck Black Diamond - $1.29-$4.99

It’s almost criminal that Enzo’s cards go for so low oneBay. There are some parallel versions(Triple Diamond) that trade for around $20 or so, but those don’t pop up thatoften and we don’t consider parallels as true rookie cards here at the HopefulChase headquarters (except for the number one card on the list).

I think the relative affordability of Lecavalier’s cards isreflective of being a star in a non-hockey market. To the hockey world outsideof “Hockey Paradise” his declining numbers and escalating salary have hit himwith the dreaded overrated label and that affects his collectability. That being said, if had been traded toMontreal the value of his cards would have escalated no matter what hisperformance would have been.

I’m not even going to offer you a cheaper alternative. If you can’t spare $1.50 – get off of eBayright now.

1 .Steven Stamkos 2008-09 Upper Deck The Cup Patch Auto -$1700-1800

This is going to be the first card I go out and purchaseonce I hit the Powerball. For those notfamiliar with “The Cup”, it’s pretty much a product geared toward the 1%. Four card “boxes” can sell for more than $400online and even the base cards normally hit the secondary market for more moneythan I care to spend.

Stamkos’ card is the card to have out of the 2008-09 set. Itstarted off high and never wavered. Ashe continues his march to being the most elite goal scorer in the NHL I don’tsee it tapering off any time soon.

There are less expensive rookie cards out there to bringinto your collection. His 2008-09 UpperDeck Young Guns goes for about $50 on eBay these days. As I’ve mentioned before, the Young Gunsrookies are pretty good cornerstones for player collections. If that’s still a little too rich for yourblood his 2008-09 Upper Deck MVP card can generally be had for less than $5.

National Hockey Day Comes to the States

2012-02-11T15:29:00.001-05:00

I'm too lay to check, but I'm pretty sure at some point in the past I've bitched about there not being a National Hockey Day in the U.S. for us hockey card collectors. Well, 2012 marked the debut of NHCD south of the Border. Huzzah! So I was obliged to visit the Local Card Store and pick up a pack.

I had checked ahead of time to make sure they had the packs and was told that they were free to collectors with any Upper Deck purchase. Luckily for my broke ass that wasn't limited to just boxes of product and I was able to get just a pack of Series I to qualify.

I won't waste your time with the results of the Series I pack - the highlight being a Tomas Vincour Young Guns. Lets move right to the five card NHCD pack (plus bonus Tim Thomas card!).

A Swede, A Russian and A Czech start off the US version of this pack

You're looking at:

Gabriel Landeskog (America's Franchises)
Alex Ovechkin (America's Franchises)
Jaromir Jagr (America's Franchises)
Zach Parise (Stars in Stripes)
Mike Modano (American Icons)
Tim Thomas (Memorable Moments)

Not a bad pack, but nothing that I feel the need to hold on to. If anyone needs any of these let me know. If anyone has a Patrick Kane I'll take it off your hands and if any of our Canadian readers have a Stamkos they don't feel the need to hold on to - let me know.

Now if only we could get McDonalds to start giving packs away.....

Mail Time! What Did the Postman Bring This Week?

2012-02-10T12:42:00.001-05:00

The Super Bowl is over, Spring Training is still a week or two away, hockey is in its pre-trade deadline doldrums and basketball is well.....basketball. So lets brighten the day with some new cards! Today we have an eBay purchase and the results of my first ever group break.

First up is the eBay purchase. I strayed a little from my 2011-12 mandate of only picking up single cards of players in my personal collection. Honestly, I was a bit bored with what I was seeing out there so I expanded my search a little.

With another 4th or 5th place finish projected for the O's again this year I've turned my eye to the future for the club. That got me to looking into their cards on eBay and while Manny Machado is a little out of my range, there is one prospect that is still rather cheap to pick up, and could be just as important to the future of the ball team.

2011 Bowman Chrome Johnathan Schoop. Less than $4.00 with free shipping? Sure I'll take it. Of course, the temptation is now to get all the versions of this card.

If my usual luck with prospects holds, Schoop will suffer at least 3 career-ending injuries in the next month and a half; and then get hit by a bus. When that happens this card will join its spiritual brothers Ryan Anderson and Rick Asadoorian in the "Failed Prospects I Collected" Wing in my Sports Cards Hall of Fame.

For now Schoop is projected as the heir apparent to Brian Roberts at second base. The native of ~~Wedge~~ errr Netherlands Antilles projects to have a big league bat with average defense. He'll probably spend the season in the minors with a possible late season callup, but if he pans out the Orioles could have a very strong nucleus up the middle with him, Machado at short, Adam Jones in center and Matt Wieters behind the plate.

Despite all the hoopla surrounding the newest base set released by Topps I'm sticking by my stance of not buying any packs of it this year. The only way I planned on picking up cards from this set was through trades and with one group break buy in. Flywheels over at Cardboard Collections was putting together one of his "Affordable Group Breaks" and I was lucky enough to catch it early enough to secure the O's.

Each participant was able to choose a team and then had another team randomly assigned to him. My random team - the Chicago Cubs. Hey that worked out pretty nice. In addition to the jumbo box of Topps he also ripped up a 2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom box as well. Here are the results.

The highlights of the Orioles base cards and some thoughts.
Hopefully Nick Markakis recovers from his off -eason surgery and rediscovers his power.
Best of luck to Jeremy Guthrie in Colorado. O's fans will miss you.
I like to think that this was taken after Nolan Reimold broke the Red Sox Nation on the last day of the season.
Luke Scott played defense?
Josh Bell getting ready to throw one into the stands.

The O's hits.
Frank Robinson Gold Standard. I know this isn't a popular view, but I like the layout of the Gold Standard cards. Sure, it looks like a card designed for a signature, but still over all it looks nice. Nice photo of the player, no clutter and a nice gold medallion in the middle. That being said, if I get a chance to have Frank Robinson sign a card, he's signing this one, baby.

Adam Jones. Gooooooollllllllllld. Jones and Markakis celebrating as the ghost of Josh Bell heads to the plate for another strikeout. From what I've seen of 2012 Topps so far they're big on celebration, multiplayer cards - and not just for shortprints, either. I guess that's cool.

The Cubs base cards:
Kosuke Fukudome. Wow, did Cubs fans not like Kosuke. I guess when you think you're getting another Ichiro and you end up with Turner Ward you tend to boo the guy a bit.

Milton Bradley. Yeah, that didn't work out either.

Two Starlin base cards in series one. His highlight/checklist card (the horizontal one) celebrates his "Youngest Hits Leader" accomplishment. I like Castro, hopefully his off-field issues don't distract from his one field issues.

Reed Johnson. As much as Cubs fans dislike Kosuke, they love Reed Johnson. Don't know why, but they do. Heck I loved Joe Orsulak as a kid so I've got no room to complain.

The Hits

Yes the 1987 mini-parallels are fantastic. Yes I want to collect them all despite my disdain for the mini phenomena (does the fact that the Duchess and I own a Mini Cooper make that ironic?)

Timeless Talents - Eh, throwaway insert for me. Take an old guy and a new guy and stick them together based on some handpicked stat. Ryne Sandberg and Dan Uggla are paired together because they "bring rare power to their position".

Alphonso Soriano Seasoned Veterans - If Soriano made $7 million less a year he would be beloved by Cubs fans. Instead they want him gone on the next train out of Union Station.

Carlos Zambrano deckle edge - I'm going to miss "Big Z" as are the beat writers for the Cubs. Along with the first 80 degree day game at Wrigley, the Zambrano melts down and breaks things are time honored traditions in the Windy City.

No big hits, but still a nice haul for what I paid.

200 Posts... Jeez Took Long Enough

2012-02-08T17:38:00.000-05:00

Yup. It took almost two years but I finally broke the 200 post barrier. I'm not sure if it's an accomplishment or not (heck it seems some bloggers kick out 200 posts a week) but it feels good. I might take the occasional unannounced break from posting, but I haven't come close to feeling burnt out on writing about sports and trading cards (and occasionally Chicago). To celebrate the 200th posting lets take a look at what brings you folks to this site.

All numbers are from blogspots "stats" page which probably aren't the most accurate in the world but look way better than sitemeters so we'll go with them.

As of my writing this post folks have viewed 24,855 pages on this blog. Of those 24,000 odd visits 13,872 of them are from the United States, 2,126 from Canada (thanks Captain Canuck!), South Korea checks in with a strong 554 page views which is almost double the amount of people from France (260).

The most popular post is the one I wrote about Carl Crawford signing with the Red Sox. It's been viewed 991 times (yet no comments). The post that surprises me the most is the third most visited page, a quick throwaway piece where I tried to come up with a new nickname for Steven Stamkos. Apparently "Stamkos mustache" is a popular search term.

Speaking of search times, I'm glad to say "Hopeful Chase" is the number one term used to find the site with 314. However, as was my nefarious plan, "Sidney Crosby shirtless" is number two with a bullet. In just over three months or so it's already directed 216 folks to my humble piece of Internet real estate. I love that "Joe Flacco mustache" and "Ricky Hatton fat" round out the top four.

As far as sites that refer traffic my way there is a bit of an upset. I thought the blogroll would be number one, but despite the 361 referrals it is actually second. Riding on Night Owl's coattails (or having my blog on his blogroll) has led 378 folks this way. Which is odd, because I don't think we actually talked to each other until a couple of months ago when we pulled off a small trade.

It looks like most of you are running Windows when you take a look at the site (70%), Mac users are second at 9%. A combined 4% of you guys (and gals) are apparently reading the site via a smart phone of some sort. Sorry about that, it can't be easy to read my rambling thoughts on such a small screen. Heck I can barely do it when I type these words down.

Finally, thanks to the folks who took the time to leave the 245 comments. I do really appreciate the feedback, all of which has been positive so far, hopefully it improves the writing. Hopefully I have at least another 200 posts in me that y'all find somewhat entertaining.

Thank you!

Super Bowl Preview

2012-02-04T23:17:00.001-05:00

Will we see this again?

It’s Super Bowl Sunday. Well, almost. I’m typing this upSaturday night waiting for the Julio Ceaser Chavez, Jr. fight to start. Don’t worry, no boxing in this column (RIPAngelo Dundee) I’ll have my thoughts on Floyd Mayweather’s next big boxing contestin a little while. For now it is time towrap up my brief coverage of football.

Sunday will feature two teams that slugged their way to theSuper Bowl. New England advanced onlyafter Billy Cundiff shanked a field goal while New York needed overtime toadvance on their side. Despite rooting for one of the teams that lost onChampionship Sunday I thought overall both games were pretty fun to watch. Nowwe move on to the fun stuff.

Gambling-wise here is where we stand:

Link – 5-5 against the spread and 2-4 straight up.

Justin G – 5-5 against the spread and 4-7 straight up.

We both enter the Super Bowl with a chance to finish with awinning record against the spread. However, when the confetti settles on the field and the MVP proclaimshis desire to visit the Rat Kingdom there will only be one.

Per vegasinsider.com the Patriots are the 3 point favorite.

First, via twitter, Link’s pick –

New York Giants 27,New England Patriots 24

That sounds like an exciting Super Bowl. Isn’t that what we’re looking for? At least those of us without a dog in thefight. I really don’t want to have totalk to people about the commercials being better than the game this year. The stars are lining up for a pretty goodoffensive game. It’s in a dome, bothteams have questionable defenses and both quarterbacks like to throw thefootball.

There is a 50 percent chance that I’m going to watch thegame at a movie theatre on Sunday. TheDuchess is kicking me out of the apartment for the game and with no party to goto I was thinking bar. Then I noticedThe Vic is showing the game for free. They have cheap beer and popcorn. Winner Winner Super Bowl Dinner.

Speaking of dinner, I’m kind of glad that I’m not going to ahouse party this year. With the fried food ban in full effect it would be hardto resist any type of buffet-style party. According to some expert somewhere, the only day where Americans consumemore food is Thanksgiving. I’m willingto bet dollars to (fried) donuts that more fried food is consumed on Super BowlSunday than any other day in the year.

I’m starting to see people say that they’re tired of theSuper Bowl-hype. Let me tell yousomething. Going off the cable grid isthe answer to that. Since we’ve droppedcable I find that I don’t get overwhelmed by sports chatter. I feel like I have the ability to controlwhat I watch or read about since all of my access is through the internet. Idon’t find myself mindlessly drifting to ESPN to watch Skip Bayless yammer onfor 15 minutes. I highly recommend it.

As for my pick. I’mgoing:

New England Patriots31, New York Giants 24

The two themes I have heard this week are that the Giantsfront four will harass Tom Brady (so calm so poised) all game long and thePatriots will have Julian Edelman covering a wide receiver. For those reasons everyone is supposedly hammeringthe Giants at the betting windows. Somehow, despite being the odds-on favoritesthe consensus is that the Patriots are the underdog.

I’m not so sure about that. I can see Tom Brady (so calm, so poised) coming out with ahurray-up/pistol offense and dink and dunk the Giants to death. The Patriots offense isn’t based on longpasses or plays that take a long time to develop. They love the quick shots to their tight endsand then letting them run for 10 or 12 yards after the catch. That’s hard to defend, and if they’re goingquick-huddle the big four linemen for the Giants are going to be gassed.

Any time you can post a picture of Brady with a goat you have to do it, right?

As for the Patriots secondary matching up with New York’sreceivers – that’s going to be an issue, but I think they find a way tominimize the damage. I think they’llfind a way to keep the receivers in front of them and not give up the longbombs. Bill Belichik has two weeks to figure out a solution. He might not shut them down, but he’ll makethem work for it.

That being said, I think the Giants have a legitimate chancein the game. A lot of folks think EliManning is just lucky. They point to theTyree helmet catch and say, “Oh he just flung it up there and got lucky”. Yes, but did you see what he did to get in aposition to be able to throw that pass? He has a little Roethlisberger in him. In a good way, that is. Get yourminds out of the gutter, folks. He handsaround and makes the plays he has to make.

For the Giants to win I look for them to try and establishthe run and keep the Patriots off the field. Their offensive line will have to find a way to clear Vince Wilfork outof the way and open up holes for their runners. Use the run early and throw late. Keep Tom Brady (so calm, so poised)and his band of tight ends on the sidelines.

In the end I just hope for a good game and at least two goodcommercials that I haven’t seen yet.

Sorry Rory, this was too good not to share with dozens of readers.

Gordie Howe in a Lightning Uniform and Other Photos

2012-02-03T13:12:00.000-05:00

I was flipping through my photo box looking for a particular photo to replace the one I have on my header on this site and stumbled across a collection of sports photos I've taken over the years. Since I don't feel like writing a lot today and I haven't posted a Chicago photo in forever I figured I'd give you, my loyal readers, a quick photo journey. Here we go:

Baltimore Orioles

Albert Belle stretching some time in 2000. Pretty sure Albert is debating throwing a baseball at me.

BJ Ryan warming up vs Rays 2001? Some would say he was the last true closer the O's had.

Saint Leo College Baseball

Thomas B. Southard Stadium Saint Leo, FL - Play at the plate probably ~~1997 or 1998~~ 1996. One of my favorite photos of all time. Can't remember the catchers name at the time - Link or Saint Leo Mike help me out? (edit - Per fellow Saint Leo Monarch Pat - the catcher's name is Bryan Lafata.)

AL Lang Field, St Petersburg, FL 1996 - Link at the plate ~~1997 or 1998~~ - Before he was a part time blogger and full time steel-slinger he was the only hitter I've ever seen who could hit a home run that almost took off the second baseman's head. Line shots that kid hit.

The Horse Track

Tampa Bay Downs 2002 - I probably bet on this horse. I'm pretty sure he didn't win.

The Lightning and Hockey

The Ice Palace 10/2/1999 - Opening night and Mr. Hockey was there to drop the puck. Damn seamless glass messed up what would have been a nice photo to have. In case you were wondering I had tickets in the lower bowl, 10 rows up that I bought the day of the game at the box office. Cost - $40.00.

Ice Palace 10/2/1999 - Felix Potvin looking at the action behind the net. Felix the cat always had some of the best pads in the game.

Ice Palace 10/2/1999 - A better shot of his pads with the cat face on them. With the equipment I had at the time, pictures of the goalie were really the best I could do.

Ice Palace 10/2/1999 - Darren Puppa don't need no mask to keep his crease clean!

Ice Palace 10/2/1999 - Well maybe he does. The Lightning actually won this game 4-2. If I'm not mistaken that might have been the only time they were over .500 that season.

Ice Palace 10/2/1999 - Puppa's backup that season - Dan Cloutier. Pictured here not fighting anyone.

Ice Palace November 1999 - Freddie Modin. The Cory Cross for Modin trade is usually the first move I look at that built the 2004 Stanley Cup team (other than drafting Vinny, of course).

Ice Palace - No idea - I'm pretty sure this is Jassen Cullimore, but I'm not sure when I took this photo. In 1999-2000 he wore 27 and Bruce Gadiner wore 5, and I don't have any other photos from the Rangers vs. Lightning to get a better grasp of when the game was played.

Ice Palace November 1999 - TUCKSIE! A young Darcy Tucker finished with 34 points that year. That was good enough for 5th on the team in scoring. Not a good season for the Lightning.

Ice Palace November 1999 - The captain for the Lightning at the beginning of the year - Bill Houlder! This was actually taken at Houlder's last home game with the Lightning. A few days later he would be put on waivers and claimed by Nashville. Later that season a 19 year-old Vincent Lecavalier would don the "C" on his sweater. Which lasted about a season and a half.

Ice Palace November 1999 - Mike Sillinger. Also known as the last Lightning player to wear the number 26 before Marty St. Louis. Sillenger was traded in March of 2000 and Marty was signed in July of that year. I have a feeling that it's going to be the first jersey number retired by the organization when Marty retires - which should be around 2031 or so.

Ice Palace November 1999 - There he is! A young Vincent in his second year. So young, so hopeful. He would score 25 goals that year starting a streak of 11 straight seasons with at least 20 goals.

Ice Palace November 1999 - The Undertaker! (Because he buries pucks - at least that's what the billboards said). Stephane Richer would bury a total of 16 goals for the Lightning during parts of two seasons with the club. He also fancied nice suits and loafers with no socks.

Ice Palace November 1999 - In case Steve Guolla needs to prove to his kids he played in the NHL. Just kidding. Steve actually logged over 200 games in the NHL with Tampa, San Jose, Atlanta and New Jersey.

Ice Palace November 1999 - We finish with Chris Gratton. Seen here in his second tour of three tours of duty with the Lightning. He would be sent to Buffalo in March along with a 2nd round draft pick in a good ol' blockbuster deal that netter the Lightning Corey Sarich, Wayne Primeau and Brian Holzinger.

The Sabres would use the second round pick for Derek Roy - not bad. When the Lightning acquired Gratton for a third time they dealt Florida a second round pick in the 2008 draft as well. That player turned out to be recent TTM signer Jacob Markstrom.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane.

2012 Topps of Squirrels, Short Prints and Gooooolllllld.

2012-02-02T13:56:00.001-05:00

Ah you silly bastards at Topps. May I congratulate you on a job welldone. It’s been awhile since yourflagship product has generated this much interest, both in the community andoutside of it. And all you had to do wastake a picture of a squirrel. Heck itwasn’t even an armed squirrel.

Rally Squirrel has nothing on Machine Gun Squirrel

I know there has been a lot of virtual ink spilled about2012 Topps base set already, but I figured I’d add my two cents as well. From the reports I’m seeing from folks whohave actually ripped a few packs it seems like it’s a fun product to open. Between American Pie and this set it seemsthat Topps is, at least for its lower end product, skewing towards the lessserious side of collecting, and there is nothing wrong with that.

What I look for in a base set is simple. Is there a good selection of players? Are thecards themselves decent to look at? Can I put the set together with areasonable amount of effort? From what I’veseen so far it looks like two yeses and a strong maybe.

Scanning through the checklist it looks like Topps uses the330 card base set allotment pretty well. There are about 20 cards designatedwith the Rookie Card logo (including Wasteland Hall of Famer Michael Taylor), adecent mix of young players and veterans and the typical league leadermulti-player cards sprinkled throughout.

From what I’ve seen the photography has improved which issomething that fluctuates with Topps. Some years it’s pretty standard (2007) and some years it is prettyunderrated (1992). Coupled with thesimple white boarders the cards look pretty crisp.

Image taken from Cardboard Collections Home of the Affordable Card Break!

As far as the set building option. That seems to be a bit of a problem sofar. It seems there has been a lot ofdupes from people buying retail and some card damage from folks buying hobby orjumbo boxes. Depending on how Toppshandles customer complaints, which could be a big sticking point for somecollectors.

There does seem to be the normal assortment of inserts for aTopps base set, which means there is a lot. I do think that they need to trim down the number of insert sets thatthey produce on a yearly basis, most collectors would probably prefer anotherbase card as opposed to a pointless insert of a player they don’t collect. That’snot a problem specific to 2012, though; it’s been an issue for years.

If I was to chase any of the insert sets it would probablybe (like a lot of others) the 1987 minis. The 1987 set does hold a special place in my heart as it was the firstcomplete set I ever owned. I think mydad spotted me the money or bought it for me (copious amounts of alcohol havedestroyed the exact memory) and I remember thinking that it was a goodinvestment. With so many young stars inthe set there was no way it wouldn’t increase in value. I was especially fond of the Bo JacksonFuture Stars card with him shagging fly balls in the outfield.

The Golden Greats/Moments/Futures/Standard/Grahams/Retrievers/Gates/etcare nice but not something I’d really go out of my way to put together. Thesame goes with the Classic Walk-offs and Timeless Talents.

Of course, none of that is going to be a big problem for mesince I’ve decided not to purchase any of the product this year. It’s not because I’m morally outraged atsquirrel cards or photo-shopped free agents. Simply put I don’t have themoney. I decided early on that any extramoney I scrounge up will be spent on Heritage this year so I’ve cut the baseset out of my life (well apart from a group break). So if I’m to trade with you this year, feelfree to send me any Orioles related inserts – doesn’t look like there are thatmany.

In the end Topps flagship isn’t about short prints or goldbar inserts. It’s about being the mostcomprehensive product available (until they bring back Topps Total). People buyit because of tradition, they buy it because there is a binder on the shelfthat needs filling, they buy it to see players from their favorite team, theybuy it because building a set is fun. Gimmicks and variations don’t changethat, but they do bring in new collectors and people outside of our worldtalking about it. That interest makesmoney for Topps and if it doesn’t appeal to you, fine there is enough out therein the world for you to collect. Don’t take it so seriously, after all they’rejust cards of men playing a child’s game.

Your unasked for Steve Downie photo of the day - getty images Scott Audette

Back To Hockey

2012-01-31T12:35:00.000-05:00

There are several ways for teams to improve down the homestretch. The most notable is to pull offa big trade that brings in a player to fill a specific need. A team could also call up a young prospect toprovide a spark in the clubhouse. Or,they could just get healthy. As theTampa Bay Lightning return to action Tuesday night we’ll see how option threeworks.

The game against the Capitals will feature the return ofRyan Shannon, Tom Pyatt and Victor Hedman. Depending on what line-up Coach Boucher goes with J.T. Wyman could alsoreturn to action. While Shannon andPyatt will add some experience to the bottom two lines the Lightning should seethe biggest impact from Hedman.

Adding a player capable of playing 20+ minutes, who can movethe puck out of the zone smoothly and provide a physical presence in front ofthe net would probably cost GM Steve Yzerman at least a first round draft pickor a top prospect. With Hedman’s returnthe team gets that player for nothing.

"Crosby Shirtless" led to more page hits, hopefully "Hedman shirtless" works too!

The Big Swede has missed more than a month with aconcussion, and I think there is always some concern with a player returningfrom a head injury (exhibit number one – Sidney Crosby). That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised tosee Coach Boucher throw him right into the fire especially with Marc-AndreBergeron out with an injury. Hedmanshould jump immediately to one of the top four pairings and ease some of theminutes that Bruno Gervais and Brendan Mikkelson have been logging.

Hedman has seen his production dip this season, logging only6 points in 32 games, but is still the foundation for the future of theLightning defense. At a listed 6’6”, 220 lbs Hedman is a big presence on theice. He is strongest when he is playinga positional game, despite his size and to the consternation of fans he’s not abig hitter. What he is, is a smooth skater who can accelerate the puck throughthe neutral zone and transition from defense to offense better than any otherblue-liner on the team. It does seem that he doubts his talents from time totime and makes mistakes when he tries to be too cautious.

Despite his occasional gaffes, adding Hedman to the lineupshould help the Lightning continue their current improved play. During their 4-game winning streak theirgoals against is 2.25, more than an entire goal below their season average of3.28. Part of that is due to MathieuGaron and Dwayne Roloson playing better between the pipes, but the team as awhole has been playing better.

Much like last season, everyone is starting to chip in. Out of the 15 goals scored during the winningstreak, only two belong to Steven Stamkos. When names like Purcell, Angelidis, Thompson and Moore are showing up inthe box score it’s a sign that the team is returning to the “pack mentality”that Coach Boucher likes to talk about to the press.

They will definitely need to keep it going during the nexttwo weeks. Nine of their next 11 gamesare at home and eight of them are against Eastern Conference foes. Of those eight teams only the Sabres arecurrently lower in the standings then the Lightning. This stretch will determine whether or notthe Bolts are going to seriously contend for the playoffs.

Sunday Night Product Preview - Heroes and Prospects

2012-01-29T20:30:00.003-05:00

The NHL All-Star game just ended and with that, myself-imposed break from posting. Actually, it was self-imposed because I wasextremely lazy this week. Now it’s timeto get back behind the wheel and drive this thing home. There should be plentyof posts spanning all sports to keep y’all somewhat entertained throughout theweek. Or, at the very least, kill fiveminutes of your work day.

First up, we’ll start up with a product preview. I might not have the funds to buy any newproduct, but that doesn’t mean I can’t let you know what is out there. Up for preview today the 2011-12 version ofITG’s Heroes and Prospects set. I’velamented the fact that In The Game doesn’t hold an NHL license in thepast. By focusing on prospects andplayers in the junior leagues they can skip over that handicap and produce whatI think is the best product in their portfolio

Heroes and Prospects has a simple 200 card base set and aplethora of inserts and autographs of younger players, many of whom have yet tomake their impact on the NHL. This year’sbase set is broken up into a couple of different categories:

- Heroes – 7 cards featuring NHL players that havegraduated from the junior leagues ranging from Tony Amonte to Red Kelly

- International – ITG cherry picked 3international prospects and gave them cards. If you’re a fan of Adam Larsson,Mika Zibanejad or Vladimir Tarsenko be sure to pick up their cards from thisset

- CHL Prospects/Rookies – The best players in theCHL are on display here. Think DougieHamilton, Malcolm Subban, potential #1 pick Nail Yakupov, etc

- AHL Prospects/Rookies – Same as above justfeaturing players in the AHL such as Nazem Kadri, Kyle Palmieri and BraydenSchenn.

- AHL/CHL Grads – This subset is composed ofcurrent NHL’s in their minor league uniforms. So if you wanted a card of Ryan Miller as a Rochester American or LoganCouture as an Ottawa 67 this is where you would find one.

- Tribute Card – Four cards dedicated to playersthat passed away this year (Luc Bourdon, Rick Rypien, Derek Boogaard, and WadeBelak).

Since I know some Lightning fans are reading this byaccident, let me answer your number one question. There are two Lightning prospects in thisset.

Card 41 – Vladislav Namestnikov

Card 141- Carter Ashton

Namestnikov also gets an autograph card in this set whereasAshton is featured in a non-memorabilia subset with his father Brent. The “FamilyTies” subset doesn’t have a Michael Gross/Michael J Fox card, but it doescelebrate the family tradition that runs throughout the history of hockey. Soif you’re a Subban fan feel free to pick up the card featuring P.K., Malcolmand Jordan. Former Lightning goaltender Sean Burke also has a card with his sonBrendan.

In searching for Lightning players in this set I’ve noticedthat most of the prospects for the team are already skating in Norfolk (Ashton,Tyler Johnson, Dustin Tokarski), overseas (Nikita Kucherov, Nikita Nesterov) orare in college (Alex Killorn, James Mullin). That leaves some slim pickings fora set like this.

Design-wise the base cards are pretty simple. Normally it’s an action shot of the player inhis junior or minor league uniform against a non-descript background. This year’s set seems to have a goldbackground with the a close-up of the players face while a blue strip down theleft hand side bears the team name. Theplayers name and position are centered along the bottom of the card inwhite.

ITG hasn’t listed their insert sets that feature memorabilia,but from the sell sheet it looks like there will be plenty to choose from.Single swatches to quad switches are littered throughout the set. Perhaps myfavorite will be the “Net Prospects” which feature large pieces of uniformsfrom up-and-coming goalies. What can Isay, I like puck stoppers.

Based on some of the pre-sell information it does look likeITG will be welcoming Gordie Howe back into the fold. Mr. Hockey’s exclusive contractwith Upper Deck has expired so it appears his autograph and memorabilia cardswill be appearing in ITG and Panini brands this year.

Yes Please! Photo lifted from Canada Card World

The release date is set for 2/23/12 and online retailersshow a price of about $78 per box. Eachbox will feature 18 packs with 9 cards in each pack. For $80 a collector can expect to pull about6 hits from each box. Keep in mind ITGconsiders their non-memorabilia inserts as a “hit”. It usually breaks down to 2 autographs, 2 relics and 2 other inserts.

This set tends to skew towards player collectors andprospectors. The autographs and relic cards tend to be a little cheaper on thesecondary market than their licensed NHL counterparts so if you’re looking topick up an affordable auto of a young player this is a good place to start.

Seventeen Things Better Than The Ravens Loss

2012-01-23T11:58:00.000-05:00

Superman Smith breaks the goaline. Photo by David Butler II, US Presswire

So far 2012 isn’t treating my favorite teams any better than2011. Last year the Tampa Bay Lightningwere one goal away from advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals. Liverpool washorrendous, sacked their coach and sold off their most prolific scorer while barelyqualifying for the Europa League (European soccer’s version of the NIT). Now,as the opening month of 2012 draws to a close I have to watch a field goal sailwide of its intended target costing the Ravens a shot at the Super Bowl.

Len Bias Cocaine Surplus

Mon 23 Jan 2012 2:32 AM

What Went Wrong On Billy Cundiff’s Missed Kick?

I'm going to say the part where it didn't go through those yellow things

The above comment was posted on a deadspin article thatbroke down Billy Cundiff’s failed attempt to tie the game against the Patriotson Sunday. It literally made me laughout loud. Literally. I guess that means the healing process is well underway. The stages as the happened:

1. Joy – the football in Lee Evans hands.

2. Surprise- The ball falling out of Evans hands.

3. Dealmaking – Chip shot field goal ties the game,50/50 chance in overtime.

4. Shock – Football sails wide, CBS cuts to TerrellSuggs saying “Oh My God”. (Seriously,that was an awesome piece of camera work. Kudos.)

Totally stole this from Kissing Suzy Kolber

5. Morose Mother F*cker – Walked back to theapartment in the chilly Chicago rain. If I had my iPod, Bill Withers would havebeen playing (probably the BB King version)

6. ALCOHOL! – Good friend Hamel comes through withtickets to see Buddy Guy play at his club downtown. Blues and beers perfect for getting over theloss. Legends is a bit touristy (I prefer Kingston Mines), but to watch amaster craftsman tear up a stage at 75-years old is awesome. I’ll be lucky toget out of bed when I’m that age.

7. Sleep – Nothing better than a good 7 hours ofsack time.

8. Laughter – Sure the jokes are at the Ravensexpense, but they’re still funny.

9. Writing – I guess that’s part of the reason whyI write. Helps get the sad out.

So that’s where I’m at right now. By the way, in regards to point number two, Idon’t think Lee Evans caught the ball. It should have been reviewed, but I don’t think that would have changedthe outcome. It just didn’t seem like acatch, but at the same time it wasn’t a drop. It was a great defensive play by Sterling Moore. Moving on (as I’m sure Lee Evans will be inthe off-season).

I could remember this season for the disappointment of beingso close to the Super Bowl, but instead I think I’d rather remember the goodthings:

1. The Week One curbstomping of the Steelers.

2. The first quarter of the Rams game when Flaccoto Smith was unleashed and millions of fantasy footballers rushed to theircomputers to pick Torrey Smith up on waivers.

3. The second half comeback against the Cardinals

4. Flacco to Smith to beat the Steelers in WeekNine.

5. Being part of the 71,000 strong cheering for theRavens on Thanksgiving.

6. The Week 17 win in Cincinnati to clinch a homefield playoff game.

7. The Bernie Pollard to Jimmy Smith interceptionagainst Brady.

8. Flacco to Dennis Pitta all season long madelosing Todd Heap a little easier to take.

9. The absurdity of “Ball So Hard University” andJoe Flacco skateboarding.

10. Flacco’s mustache.

11. The maturation of Lardarius Webb.

12. Learning to spell “Lardarius”.

13. Ray Lewis, a step slower, but still one of thebest.

14. My cousin’s slightly insane Ravens-relatedFacebook posting.

15. My niece’s “Go Way-Bins” cheers.

16. Did I mention the Steelers beat down?

17. John Harbaugh with a cut in his chin quotingTeddy Roosevelt.

So I guess my point is that there was a lot of good in the2011-12 Ravens season. I’ll be trying to ignore the NFL for the next two weeks,mainly because I don’t need to hear about the Patriots wanting revenge for thenext fourteen days. Besides theLightning are fighting for their playoff lives, and that’s way more interestingthan Skip Bayliss yelling at a TV camera.

I will throw one more football post up a couple of daysbefore the Super Bowl. After all, thegamblers need to know who to bet on, right? Heck, maybe Link and I will even break down some of the prop bets foryou as well. Till then, it’ll be more hockey and sports cards, yea!

Get Your Short Term Investments In!

2012-01-21T18:12:00.001-05:00

OK. Here we go! I know all of you sharps out there have beenwaiting for our NFL Conference Round predictions so that you can get your betsin. I must say, both Link and I redeemedourselves a bit in the Divisional round as we both went 3-1 against the spreadand I pulled a 2-2 straight up (Link only gave me his numbers against thespread). So for the playoffs he is at1-3 straight up and 5-3 against the spread. I’m at 4-4 against the spread and 3-5 straight up. Both of our records are respectable with achance to finish over .500 by the end of the Super Bowl.

Now onto this week. As always the lines are from vegasinsider.com and represent what thebetting opened up at.

Baltimore at New England (-7.5)

Link is taking the favorite and based on his final scoreprediction of 38-22 it looks like he thinks New England will be able to scoreon the Ravens defense.

For me, this is a tough one. Everywhere I look people are picking the Patriots. Most New England fans are already talkingabout how they are looking forward to getting revenge on the Giants in theSuper Bowl. Their main reasons arepretty sound:

1. New England has an unstoppable offense

2. Joe Flacco can’t beat them

To that I say “Poppycock!”

I’m going full-on Ravens fan here and consequences bedamned. The Patriots offense is the best in the league, but it can be sloweddown. Pittsburgh was able to do it aswere Giants and the Cowboys. Throughoutthe season New England threw up a lot of points on a lot of crappy defenses. The only top five defenses (based on yardageallowed) that they faced were the Steelers, Jets and Eagles. Baltimore finished the season ranked third inyardage allowed (288.9) and points allowed (16.6).

I like those numbers for the Ravens. Of course, the key is going to be puttingpressure on Tom Brady, which isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. It’s hard for pass rushers to get to himsince they rely on a lot of quick routes. I think you’ll see the Ravens try and press the big three receivers(Hernandez, Welker and Gronkowski) at the line of scrimmage to throw the timingoff on their routes.

If they are able to do that, it should give Terrell Suggstime to wreak havoc in the backfield. What Suggs and the rest of the team hasto focus on is staying disciplined. Sofar this year they’ve done a great job of not taking stupid penalties thatextend drives for their opponents. Goinginto the game they have to know that the refs will frown on anytime rough tacticsvisited upon Brady and his cohorts so they have to keep their emotions incheck.

Along with the pressure in the backfield they also needtheir secondary to make some plays. EdReed, Jimmy Smith, Bernie Pollard, and Cary Williams have to have their bestgame of the season. They have to know when to go for the pick (which seems tobe always) and when to know play the man to prevent the big play. If they keep the receivers in front of themthey can make the Patriots work for every yard.

As for Joe Flacco. We’vehad a season of Good Flacco/ Bad Flacco. Hopefully this game sees the return of Good Flacco. That’s the rub, they don’t need Great Flaccoto win this game. He doesn’t have tothrow for 400 yards and 6 touchdowns. Anaverage day of 250yrds and 2 touchdowns will probably be good enough towin. The key to winning will be Flaccobeing good enough to take the pressure off of Ray Rice. If he makes enough completions down thefield, it’ll force the Patriots to respect the pass and give Rice enough roomto make his magic work.

I think the Ravens get physical early, get a defensivetouchdown and pull off the upset.

Ravens 27, Patriots 24

New York at San Francisco (-2.5)

~~Link has the Giants pulling out ahead in a low scoring game,17-6.~~

Link had San Fran winning 23-17. Not sure how I misread the text that badly.

I’m not going to lie, I’m thinking along the samelines. With the beatdown the Giants puton the Packers last week I’m kind of surprised that the 49er’s are favored. There has been some late money coming in onthe Giants that has pushed the line down to 2 in some casino’s which mightindicate the public likes New York’s front seven against the Alex Smith.

By the same token I think San Francisco’s defense is goingto present a challenge for Eli and the boys in blue. As I mentioned last week, the 49er’s likepicking the ball off. They used that totheir advantage last week against the Saints and I think it will be a factorthis week as well. However, Eli finds away to win despite having horrible stats.

Giants 19, 49er’s 10

A TTM Braves A Chicago Snowstorm

2012-01-20T19:37:00.000-05:00

As I type this up it appears the Florida Panthers bus is having issues making it to the United Center. Such trouble that the start of the game is actually being delayed. Needless to say we're getting a pretty nice weather event up here in the Windy City. Nothing like ThunderSnow, but still a pretty good accumalation is going on out there.

Speaking of South Florida, my buddy Hambone is flying up from the Pyscho state, he just boarded the plane in Miami and is hoping that he's actually able to land. He's only about 2 hours behind his original scheduled landing time which is kind of a surprise for O'Hare. Normally they would have shut the airport down for the day by now.

The Duchess worked from home today - no way that Florida is girl is ready to be driving in this mess. From what I've seen on the news sites in regards to the highways around the city - it was an excellent idea. We did go wandering down to Trader Joes for some dinner fixin's (didn't want to make some poor delivery guy ride his bike in this mess) and I think she enjoyed her first city walk in a snow storm.

When we got back I saw that I had a small little envelope with my address label on it. TTM success! It also came from South Florida.

If I didn't know his name, I would have guessed "John Ell" based on his signature

Jacob Markstrom turned this baby around in a little more than two weeks, guess he had some free time due to his knee injury. The signature is a little scribbled, but looks nice on the clean, white Score card.

Time to crack another beer and watch the cars slide there way along Belmont Ave! Thanks for the card, Mr. Markstrom!

Who or What is an Evan Oberg?

2012-01-20T11:51:00.000-05:00

“1/19/2012” – Tampa Bay Lightning recall D Evan Oberg fromNorfolk of the American Hockey League”

To most it was hardly a transaction of much notice. Most likely it appeared on the page in thesports section that is crammed with scores from high school basketball gamesand the leader board from the first round of the PGA’s Humana Challenge. ToLightning fans, however, it was another link in the chain that is the legend ofEvan Oberg.

Who is Evan Oberg? Ifthe Lightning are to be believed he is a 23-year old defenseman who stands 6’and weighs 191lbs. He was supposedly acquiredon December 5^th that sent fan favorite Jimmy Wright to the FloridaPanthers. Allegedly, he’s played in 13games with Tampa’s minor league affiliate in Norfolk. According to the Admiral’s records this EvanOberg person has played in 13 games and scored 2 goals.

Since the 5^th of December his name has appearedon the transaction page 11 times. That’sright, in a little over a month this Oberg character has been recalled 6 times forthe Lightning. By my records he’s spent 19 days on the Lightning roster. If my calculations are correct he’s traveledmore than 8,000 miles back and forth from Norfolk on these recalls. I imagine, if he exists, that he has a readybag packed in his apartment and has his own express security line at theNorfolk International Airport.

The only known photo of "Evan Oberg". Couldn't that just be Dana Tyrell is a different jersey? Hard to tell. - Original photo by Bruce Bennet/Getty Images. Crappy blur effect done in paint.net

For all of that trouble he’s seen exactly zero minutes ofice time with the big club. And thatmakes me wonder if he even exists. Could he be hockey's Sidd Finch? His name is an anagram for "Never A Bog". What is a bog? Is it short for "Being on Gameday"? What does it all mean? Of course, Iwouldn’t put it past Steve Yzerman to have created a false identity for rosterpurposes. I’m not sure what advantagethis would give him, but then again I’m not as smart as he is. I’m sure it’s part of some master plan.

Why has poor Mr. Oberg been subjected to such a rigorous schedule?Nagging injuries. Not to him, although I’msure he suffers from the minor aches and cricks in the neck that all business travelerssuffer from, but to various members of the Lightning’s blue line. The latest victim to require Oberg’s back upservices – Marc Andre Bergeron who is dealing with some back issues.

Throughout the year only Brett Clark and Eric Brewer have played in all 45 games. Injuries have cost Pavel Kubina, Victor Hedman and Matt Gilroy all to miss games. Hedman is still out indefinately with his concussion. That doesn't even take into consideration Mattias Ohlund being out all season with bad knees. The injuries on the blue line are part of the reason the Lightning have struggled to gel as a defensive unit and are giving up 65 goals a game so far this season.

MAB is day-to-day (aren’t we all) and will be a game timedecision for Friday’s game in Dallas. Thismeans that Oberg will probably get to watch another NHL game from the pressbox. If he’s not going to play, whyshuttle him back and forth like an inter-office memo?

Simply put, because they can. I’m a little hazy on this, but from myunderstanding, since he’s on a two-way deal with the Lightning he can berecalled and reassigned as many times as they want without having to go throughthe waiver process. That allows the Lightning to shuttle him back and forthwithout risking losing him to another team.

Also, he’s got enough talent to play in the NHL (4 gameswith Vancouver) but he’s not vital enough to the future of the Lightning thatmissing action will stunt his growth. The Lightning have some prospects playingon the blue line in Norfolk such as Radko Gudas and Richard Petiot that youwould think could benefit from NHL experience. The problem is, as Oberg’s zero minutes of game time attests, is thatthey won’t play unless it’s an emergency. In the meantime they would miss valuable minutes in Norfolk, a team thatis actually fighting for a divisional lead (currently 4 points behind Hersheyfor the top spot in the AHL’s Eastern Conference).

What’s in it for Oberg? Well money, of course. Because he has a two-way contract, it means hegets one salary when he’s on a NHL roster and another when he’s on a minorleague roster. According to Capgeek, hisAHL salary is $65,000. His NHL salary -$875,000. So everyday he’s on the NHLroster he gets a pro-rated portion of that $875,000. Not bad work, eh? That doesn’t even includehis meal money when they’re on the road (which can be around $90 a day).

He also gets to practice with the big club and soak in theknowledge that comes with traveling and playing with veterans. That can be important in helping him take thenext step in his career. Who knows, whathe learns this year could be the difference between him making the club nextyear or spending another year in the minors.

Then there is also that remote chance that Coach Bouchercalls his number during the morning skate and he gets to play a NHL gameagain. Of course, that’s if he actuallyexists.

Trade Time! Card's That Is..

2012-01-19T11:29:00.002-05:00

I haven’t declared 2012 a year of trading yet, but so far itlooks like it’s turning out that way. I’vepulled off two already and am in the middle of a third. Not bad for one month. Since I’m not one for going in order, let’sbreak down the second trade first.

Scrolling through the interwebs one day I noticed a VinnyLecavalier on the Card Boarded site. I scrambled through my collection to seeif I had anything even remotely close to value that I could offer Paul. I found a Jimmy Howard Parkhurst rookie and ahandful of other Red Wings cards. Luckily enough he accepted and mentioned that he would throw in a coupleof Lightning cards in addition to the Lecavalier.

First up the Vincent –

Oh parallel goodness – the Blue Mirror version of 2010-11Leaf Certified. Only 1000 more parallelsto go to complete the rainbow! Thisparticular card is numbered 98/100…98 is his rookie year….eBay one of one!

Now for the Lightning “throw ins”

A trio of the Big Three from 2009-10 Artifacts. No team getsa higher percentage of goals from their top players than the Lightning. I’d look up the numbers, but I’m feeling kindof lazy right now.

Three Score cards. Mike Smith – redeeming his career inPhoenix, Steve Downie cruising to lay the smack down on somebody who outweighshim by 30 pounds, and Dwayne Roloson making a save (so you know it’s from lastseason).

Dana Tyrell Black Diamond Rookie Gems. The latest member of the Lightning’s walkingwounded brigade, Tyrell suffered a lower body injury last Sunday against thePenguins and looks to be out for a few more games.

Finally….a surprise card that instantly becomes the frontrunner for 2012’s Card of the Year:

Daymond Langkow 1997-98 National Pride Die-cut #’d207/1997. This card is wonderful. It’s die-cut, it’s serial numbered and mostimportantly it features the greatest uniform in Lightning history, theshort-lived flame sleeves third jersey. It features a pretty solid player as well.

Langow was drafted in the first round by the Lightning in1995 and managed to play parts of 4 seasons with the Bolts before being tradedto Philadelphia with Mikael Renberg for Chris Gratton and Mike Sillinger. He’sstill in the league now having come back from a neck injury to skate in 39games for the Phoenix Coyotes this season.

Paul – thanks for the trade!

Since I don't know how...

2012-01-18T10:57:00.000-05:00

...to load the SOPA protest page. I'll copy "The Bloggess" and post this link instead. #stopsopa

New Cards and Cheapshots - A Lecavalier-centric Post

2012-01-16T18:57:00.000-05:00

It’s time for another card that I just added to mycollection and a bit of a discourse on being a fan of a player who doessomething a bit underhanded and shady.

First up, we have the newest Vincent Lecavalier card. It isalso the first Lecavalier card from the 2011-12 added to my collection. Thanksto eBay and to those folks who post auctions with no shipping charges.

Is this the face of a villian?

That is the 2011-12 Upper Deck Canvas version of VincentLecavalier’s base car. Nice card of theLightning captain making his way onto the ice. I’m 90% certain that the youngfan over his left shoulder is rocking an O’s hat as well.

The canvas parallels are definately one of the nicer parts of the set. So nice that I hope they bring Masterpieces back as a set next year.

Onto the shady side of things. While I was enjoying the Ravens victory overthe Texans yesterday the Lightning were taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins in ameet up of two struggling franchises. Astypical for Tampa Bay as of late, the Lightning went down 3-0, rallied back totie it at 3-3 and then, in the end lost 6-3.

To say Evgeni Malkin had him self a day would be anunderstatement. With two assists and anatural hat trick, “Geno” showed why he could be a dark horse contender for MVPas the season rolls on. However his offensive output isn’twhat I’m writing about.

With about 8 minutes left in the game, Hopeful Chase mancrush Vincent Lecavalier went to hit Malkin in the corner. The cagey Russianducked out of the way and there was some contact at the waist/leg/kneelevel. As they skated back up the ice,Lecavalier kept shoving and trying to provoke Malkin into dropping the mittsfor a rarely seen superstar showdown.

Malkin refused to take the bait, but finally had enough andthrew a shoulder into Vinny’s face. The two danced, a couple of punches were wingedin the general vicinity of each other’s head and then everyone scrummedup. As the two combatants were draggedapart, Lecavalier landed what can be nicely described as a surprise jab to theface, but is better known as a sucker punch. Watch it develop here.

First off, I disagree 100% with the NHL on NBC folks. I don’t think Malkin was “low-bridging”anyone. He was just getting the hell outof the way. Lecavalier didn’t talk tothe media after the game, so we can’t be 100% certain as to what set himoff. Coach Boucher stated that Vinnythought Malkin went for his knees. Noone likes to have their knees taken out (one of the reasons Mr. Marchand isenjoying a five-game suspension) and Lecavalier’s reaction would indicate that.

Vinny isn’t a dirty player, but he is physical. He’s droppedthe gloves in the past, the most memorable one being his throw-down with JaromeIginla during the Stanley Cup run in 2004. When he’s on his game, he’s throwing his body around and creating havocin the offensive zone and that’s all he was trying to do in this case.

I can't believe this is almost 8 years ago- photo from Life

I honestly believe that he thought he was being clipped, butthat doesn’t excuse the sucker punch at the end of the scrum. Perhaps heflashed back to the 2006 Olympics when Malkin was suspended for trying to kickhim in the head, or maybe it was just the heat of the moment.

I know the entireteam is frustrated. Losing isn’t fun. Waking up in last place isn’t fun. Playing from behind isn’t fun.Storming back from three goals only to go back down by two less than threeminutes later isn’t fun. It seemed thatall of that just boiled over and Lecavalier entered that zone normally occupiedby Steve Downie.

As a huge Lecavalier mark, it’s hard not being able todefend that punch. I want to, I really,really want to lay all the blame on the Penguins. Unfortunately, in this case it’s pretty blackand white. To be entirely honest, I’msurprised he didn’t at least get the $2,500 NHL slap on the wrist for hisactions. According to Bob McKenzie, Vincent will not be subjected to any supplementaldiscipline from the league. Dang, noShanaban video.

It’s not like I’m going to sell off my Lecavaliercollection. He’s still my favorite player, but now I’ve got to put up with fansof other teams and their snarky comments. They already have his declining production, oversized contract andstanding on the Sports Illustrated “overrated player list” in their ammo belts,now they have this. Trust me, it won’tgo away. No matter how much money hedonates to local hospitals, or how many times he’s up for the Lady Byng – some fanswill label him a dirty player because of this incident (and if you’re aCanadians’ fan – his slash of PK Subban).

He can help alleviate some criticism by upping hisperformance on the ice - fans will forgive a player anything if he performs. He could apologize, fans love them someapologies. Or, he can just ignore it and move on with things. Chances are that the third option is the mostlikely.

It’ll be interesting to see how Lecavalier will be receivedin Pittsburgh when the Lightning head up there on February 12^th. I’m assuming a lot will be determined bywhere the Penguins are in the standings. If they’re still struggling I’m surethere will be some animosity. If their healthy players are back and good timesrolling, it’ll be a minor issue. I alsowonder if one of their tough guys goes after Vinny, perhaps a little Matt Cookeregression?

As a fan it sucks when your favorite player does somethingdirty, but it’s not the end of the world. Single actions do not define their legacies, nor do they take away frompast glory. The best part of this storyis that no one was physically hurt, just their reputations.

Let's end this on a good note. Your Steve Downie photo of the week. What an awesome Downie Mustache.

Auditioning for another Steve Prefontaine movie? Photo from SI.

The Collection Grows

2012-01-15T17:43:00.001-05:00

I must say, Sundays are a bit sweeter when your favorite team advances to the Championship round. It was ugly but effective for Joe Flacco and the rest of the purple-clad Ravens. I'll enjoy the victory for a bit before thinking about next week.

In the meantime, let's catch up with a couple of posts about new cards for the collection.

The first one came via an old eBay purchase from 2011. After I received those cards the seller sent me an email asking if I'd like to be added to his weekly email list where he gave folks a chance to buy cards before he listed them on eBay. I said why not and he did. Every Monday morning he sends out a list of about 30 cards and until last week I didn't see anything that really caught my attention.

Last week was a bit different. After a quick look I saw this beauty sitting in the middle of his list.

It's a 2008 SP Legen-wait for it-dary Cuts Memorabilia card for Eddie Murray. Looks like Murray just laced a double to the left-centerfield gap on this one (note - no batting gloves on this one). The back of the card talks about his 1984 season, but the photo is definitely from his second stint with the O's in the mid-90's.

Anytime you can get a Memorabilia card of a Hall of Famer that's numbered to 75, you gotta do it, right?

Back To Football - and Introducing the Joe Flacco Drinking Game

2012-01-14T10:48:00.001-05:00

OK. So we didn’t exactly light up the scoreboardwith our picks last week. For the recordI went 1-3 straight up and 1-3 against the spread (thanks Tebow!). Link went 1-3 straight up, but 2-2 againstthe spread as he correctly predicted New Orleans to cover the 6.5.

This weekwe’re going to continue to give you bad gambling advice while breaking down thesecond round games. The lightweights aregone, the big boys are rested and it’s time to see if Tebow-mania is going toroll on.

First off,let me offer my condolences to Link’s Steelers, like a blind, three-legged dogwith failing kidneys they were finally put out of their misery. I imagine a lotof changes are coming for that team this offseason.

When was thelast time all four home teams won AND covered their spread? For me the biggestsurprise of the week was the Houston blowout of Cincinnati. I didn't think a TJ Yates-led team would dominatein a playoff game. Good for them! Will he pull off a shocker in Baltimore thisweek? Let’s find out!

Saturday4.30 EST New Orleans (-3.5) at San Francisco

If I’mreading the NFL stats right we have the number one passing offense going upagainst the 17^th best pass defense in the league. Drew Brees had aho-hum 466 yard/ 3 TD performance against the Lions last week. He’s now thrown28 touchdowns against only 3 picks in the 7 weeks since the bye week. That’scrazy good. However, the 49er’s did pick off 23 passes this season and Brees canthrow ‘em in bunches when he’s harassed.

Some folksout there are making a lot of the fact that the Saints are an indoor team thatmight struggle outdoors. Two of theirthree losses were outdoors (Green Bay and Tampa), but they also came early inthe season before their offense really started clicking. The weather isexpected to be decent so I don’t think it’ll be that big of an effect in thegame. I doubt the Saints will be able torun the ball much, but should be able to hit the short passes and bombs to putenough points on the board.

As for the49er’s on offense…..well it is Alex Smith. He’s not exciting, but he doesn’t turn the ball over either, only 5 INTson the season. They rushed for about 127yards a game so I’m guessing they are a ball control, let the defense win thegame type of team. I’m not going to lie,I haven’t seen too much of them this year. Not sure that gets it done against ateam with the firepower of the Saints.

I’m going:

Saints 27,49’ers 17

Now onto the marquee matchup for the day:

Denver at New England (-13.5)

There’s no way Denver wins this game, right? Despite being heavy underdogs last weekagainst Pittsburgh there were things that you could look at as being in theBroncos favor, namely a depleted and banged up Steelers team and home fieldadvantage. This week they are looking ata rested New England squad that has the AFC’s best offense and what should be arowdy (i.e. well-lubricated) crowd.

There is no way the Patriots make the same mistake theSteelers did in letting Tim Tebow drop back and huck the ball down thefield. Link and I spoke earlier thisweek about that being the easiest throw a quarterback can make. I can see NewEngland keeping their safeties back and forcing Tebow to complete 8-15 yardpasses that require some sort of accuracy, something that he has troublewith.

If Denver can run the ball, great let them run all daylong. Make them grind out 10 minutedrives because you know Tom Brady can march down the field and score in 3minutes. As we saw when they met earlierthis season Denver can’t keep up with them in a shoot-out.

Patriots 28, Denver 13

On to Sunday

Houston at Baltimore (-7.5)

It seems the pundits are chalking this one up to arelatively easy Ravens victory. I’m notso sure. Granted, I think they win, butI have a feeling it will be an ugly, grinding 15-14 kind of game. Instead of breaking it down I will give you,instead, the Joe Flacco drinking game:

Drink:

Every time Flacco checks down to Ray Rice
Every time Flacco overthrows Rice by 5 feet on a swing outpass
Flacco overthows Torrey Smith by inches on a 50 yard bomb
Dennis Pitta has to leap 3 feet in the air to haul in a 3^rdand 8 reception

Shot:

Flacco hits Smith on a 50 yard bomb for a touchdown
You realize Flacco hasn’t completed a pass to a widereceiver in a quarter and a half
Flacco scrambles like a new-born calf on roller skates for afirst down
Flacco takes a delay of game penalty
Flacco throw a deep pass into the end zone to draw a passinterference penalty…and gets the call
Flacco completes 8 passes in a row to raise his completionpercentage to 50% on the day

I kid, I kid. I likeJoe Flacco and think he’s a better quarterback than critics give him creditfor. I look for Ray Rice to have atypical productive day and the defense feasts on a couple of T.J. Yatesturnovers.

Bonus Chug:

Ed Reed attempts a lateral after picking a pass off.

Baltimore 17, Houston 13

The final game of the weekend and a pretty good matchup

New York at Green Bay (-8.5)

The key matchup is going to be the Giants pass rush againsta banged up Green Bay offensive line. Ifthey can get penetration (heh, heh penetration) and fluster Aaron Rodgers theycan make it a long day for Mr. Discount Double Check. Like Brady in New England, Rodgers has plentyof options to throw it to, but it’ll be hard to hit Jordy Nelson when he’slaying on his backside.

On the other side Green Bay gives up a ton of yardage(411per game) but also creates turnovers (31 picks and 7 recovered fumbles). So Iwouldn’t be surprised to see Eli throw for 350 yards but also turn the ballover 4 times.

By the way, nice move by the Yankees picking up Michael Pineda. Now their pitching staff is almost as good as the Rays.

Packers 27, Giants 21

Due to a project at work (that required multiple cover letters for TPS reports) Link wasn't able to get to his side of the discourse. He did however provide his picks)

New Orleans -3.5
New England -13.5
Houston +7.5
Giants +8.5

Time to Sell? The Lightning at the Half-Way Point

2012-01-10T13:26:00.001-05:00

Now, more than ever, it looks like the chances forpostseason are sliding away for the Tampa Bay Lightning. On Tuesday they takeon the Western Conference leading Vancouver Canucks at the newly christenedTampa Bay Times Forum (it will always be the Ice Palace to us) fighting fortheir postseason lives. While no gamesare must win until facing elimination, every game from now on is pretty damnimportant.

The Bolts return froma road trip through Canada that started with high hopes. Having won three straight at home prior todeparting, a solid road trip would have launched them into the thick of theplayoff race. Alas, it wasn’t to be so.

They return to Tampa with nothing more than a couple of newstamps on their passports and some new faces in the lineup. Three straight losses and zero points havedropped the Lightning to thirteenth in the Eastern Conference. They are now closer to last (3 points aheadof the Islanders) than playoffs (9 points behind the decimated Penguins). With forty games gone in the season it’sstarting to look like they will be sellers at the deadline.

Looks like someone is scared of Mr. Downie - Getty images Graig Abel

No one on the team or in the organization will admit thatthey aren’t planning for the playoffs, but it’s time to be realistic. Even ifthey take advantage of the home-heavy portion of the schedule, there are fiveteams in front of them that they have to leapfrog. If they do manage to pull that off then theyare sitting in the seventh or eighth seed and staring down a first roundmatchup with the Rangers, Bruins or Flyers.

Still, the fans on the internet call out for GM SteveYzerman to trade for a stud goalie, a top-six forward and a top-four defenseman. It’s not going to happen. The individual cost of any one of those typesof players is going to be astronomical as the season marches to the tradedeadline (48 days and counting!). Duringhis short reign in charge Yzerman has made it quite certain that he isn’tinterested in trading the future for the now.

Blowing up the farm system (i.e. Carter Ashton, BrettConnolly, the Russians or Dustin Tokarski) for a goalie or a rental forward isgoing to do more damage to this team in the long run than missing the playoffsthis year. The goal of the owner and thefront office is to put together a team that is successful for a long run. Inthat process there will be bumps in the road, this year obviously being one ofthem. There is no need to sacrifice what has been built because of a temporarydetour.

Last year’s deadline deals cost them Ty Wishart, a 23-yearold defenseman who might be a career AHL’er , and Brock Beukeboom who maydevelop eventually but is still years away from making an impact in the NHL. Neither player was considered an integralpart of the Lightning’s future so they were exchanged for pieces that helpedsolidify a much better product than what is on the ice this year.

Those types of deals won’t make the 2011-2012 Tampa BayLightning Stanley Cup contenders. Trading for Corey Schneider or Tuukka Rask sounds like a good idea atfirst, but there is no guarantee they are going to perform to the level that theyhave displayed with their current teams. If the Semyon Varlamov trade is the starting point for young goaltendingtalent then it’s a non-starter. Yzermanis not going to sacrifice a first and second round pick for goalies that haveperformed well, but haven’t proven anything. Especially since both goalies areRestricted Free Agents next summer and could be heading for decent raises.

Josh Harding has been another name bandied about theinternets, but one would wonder how he would perform outside of the Wild’sdefensive system. More likely, ifYzerman is going to address the goaltender situation, he is going to target aveteran backup such as Johan Hedberg or Evgeni Nabokov to ride out this seasonand then start over in the off-season. Would that be an upgrade over what they have now? Probably not and it would be making a movefor the sake of making a move, something Yzerman isn’t known to do. So face itLightning fans – Roloson and Garon are the team going forward.

As for the blue line, it seems that every GM in the leagueis searching for a top-four defenseman heading into the second half of theseason. That demand is going to drive upthe market at well, with sellers looking for young controlled talent or draftpick. Which leads into the next discussion – if the Lightning aren’t buyingthis season what are they selling?

Yesterday, in an email to a couple of friends I picked thetop three members of the team likely to be packing their bags at thedeadline. They were:

Exxxxxxxcllllluuuusssive!

Pavel Kubina – Since the injury to Victor Hedman, Kubina hasstepped up and filled the role of the physical blue-liner that everyone wantsto add at the deadline. He still can’tskate his way out of a paper bag, but he provides twenty-plus minutes ofdefense and a heavy shot from the point. With the competition for available defensemen expected to be heated hecould draw a second round pick or a decent prospect in return. As an unrestricted free agent at the end ofthe season, it’s unlikely that the organization would be bringing him backanyway so they might as well get some value for him.

Prety much the only Malone photo ever needed.

Ryan Malone – If only he could stay healthy his value wouldbe much higher. Malone still has 3 yearsleft on his contract at a $4.5 million cap hit. However, for a team with cap space his contract isn’t that bad. In actual salary he is scheduled to make $3million, $2.5 million and $2.5 million over the life of the contract. Not bad for someone who plays the physicalgame in front of the net. Clearing thatcap room could help the Lightning bring in a decent free agent in theoff-season. If a club is offering a 2^nd round pick and a mid-levelprospect I’m sure Yzerman is listening.

One of these guys can be had at the deadline. And it's not the little one.

Brett Clark – His numbers are down a bit from last season,but for a team needing some depth on the blue line he could be a fit. Clark playing ten minutes a game is moreeffective than Clark playing twenty minutes, a role he’s been forced into withthe injuries suffered by the Lightning. For a fourth round pick he could be had.

Other names that could come up in trade talks would beMathieu Garon, Dominic Moore, Teddy Purcell and Adam Hall. Teams looking for depth could take a flyer onany of those players and help themselves make a playoff push.

Whatever happens, expect Steve Yzerman to make the best ofthe situation. Take for example, theBlair Jones trade. Jones was a role player and was turned into a youngdefenseman that fits the Guy Boucher model – a smooth-skating puck mover. I would expect similar moves going down thestretch. And hey, most of the moves haveworked out in the Lightning’s favor so far so why not trust in Yzerman?

Please Allow Me to Retort

2012-01-07T12:46:00.001-05:00

Now that Link has provided some actual football insight onthis webpage, now it’s time for my half-reasoned analysis for the upcomingplayoff week. My knowledge on teams notbased in the Charm City has been gleaned from watching the RedZone channel,Kissing Suzy Kolber and Bill Simmons’ weekly previews. Not exactly insider information. If you use any of the below information for short-term investment advice then you're a fool. Ask my uncle about how good I am at picking winners. I think his house in Florida is partially financed on the future payments I owe him from lost bets.

Here we go….

Cincinnati at Houston

Wow, the AFC features some real hot teams in the playoffs,eh? Cincinnati finished the second half of the season with a 3-5 record whileHouston defined backing into the playoffs by losing their last 3 games. How about a new rule, NFL? If a team losestheir 3 games and still qualifies for a playoff spot they lose any rights to ahome playoff game.

As for the game itself – my key matchup is TJ Yates againstthe Bengals defense. At some time in thesecond half I have a feeling we’re going to hear ~~Al Michaels~~ Tom Hammondfollowing:

“Third and six for the Bengals from their own 24. The snap. Yates drops back…he’s under pressure…rolls to his right…lets it go….PICKEDOFF... Maualuga is at the twenty! The fifteen! Ten! No one is going to touchhim! Touchdown Bengals!”

Normally I would hesitate to take a rookie quarterback onthe road, but the alternative is TJ Yates or Jake Delhomme. Cincinnati’s defense sways my decision. LikeLink wrote, they find a way to shut down Foster and put the game in Yates’hands.

Bengals 23, Texans 17

Detroit at New Orleans

This game should be fun. Drew Brees is a machine whose solegoal is to put up offense. CalvinJohnson was put on this earth to make spectacular touchdown catches. Theover/under on this game is at a ridicules 59. The Lions averaged almost 400yards a game while the Saints were around 467 yards a game. Their defenses gaveup 360 some odd yards a game. Bothquarterbacks threw for more than 5000 yards this season. Holy Crap.

Why do I have a feeling it’s not going to live up to all ofthat potential? The two teams met in early December with the Saints emerging asthe 31-17 winner. While Brees had histypical 360 yard, 3 TD game the Lions added to their own misery by racking upover 100 yards in penalties. Defensive menaceNdamukong Suh was missing in action as well due to his 2-game suspension.

If Detroit can get some pressure on Brees they can createsome turnovers. If they can’t convert the turnovers into points at the veryleast they have to burn some time off the clock. The only way to really slow down the Saintsoffense is to keep them off the field. Ithink they do enough to keep it close, but Brees kills them with a last minute78 yard touchdown drive.

Saints 27, Lions 24

Atlanta at New York Giants

Link touched on this yesterday. Who are the New York Giants? They were 4-4 at home and 5-7 in the NFCoverall. Yet here they are hosting ahome playoff game. On the other hand,you could say the same thing about Atlanta. Yes they have 10 wins, but 7 of those wins were Seattle, Carolina(twice), Indianapolis, Minnesota, Jacksonville and Tampa Bay. Not exactly thecream of the NFL crop.

I do like Atlanta’s running game more than the Giants so Ithink I’ll give them the nod. Despiteboth teams being pretty similar I think we’re due for a blowout. Victor Cruz gets hurt early and Eli can’tadjust leading to an Atlanta rout.

Falcons 28, Giants 10

Pittsburgh at Denver

A team that has lost their last three games against a teamthat is missing 80% of its lineup. Thefinal playoff matchup of the weekend might set the forward pass back 20years. Tim Tebow can’t hit a pass longerthan 15 yards with any type of consistently and Ben Roethlisberger can’t dropback more than 2 steps without getting hit by a linebacker.

The thing is, it seems like Roethlisberger has been hobbledand without options for the last 4 years and he still finds ways to wingames. His career record is 80 and 33which translates to a .708 winning percentage. Of the top fifty quarterbacks,win-wise, only Joe Montana and Roger Staubach have a better winningpercentage*. Wins aren’t the greatestway to measure a quarterback, but still, that’s impressive.

Maybe I’m jaded because I’ve watched him shrug off Ravenstacklers and complete absurd third-and-twelve’s seemingly every year, but hejust finds ways to get it done. Franklyit pisses me off. More so than the Tebowmedia hype. I don’t see why this should be any different. The Broncos will try and run the ball and winthe possession/field position battle, but I still think Roethlisberger finds away to get it done.

If I was the Broncos I would try and take some shots downfield. After all, is anyone expectingit? Why not have Tebow fake an option toWillis McGahee, drop back and chuck an awkward, 40- yard duck off his back footto Eric Decker? What’s the worst thatcan happen?

In all likelihood the Steelers get an early lead, Tebowbulls his way to a touchdown with a minute left and they fail to recover theon-side kick.

Steelers 13, Broncos 10

*I pulled these numbers off of Wikipedia. It's amazing how hard it is to find win/loss records for NFL quarterbacks.

A Break From My Stuff - Link Drops By With a Few Playoff Predictions

2012-01-06T18:48:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in mylast post The Hopeful Chase is going a bit more football this weekend. Since I have no clue as to what I’m talkingabout I’ve brought in someone who follows the game a bit more than I do. FormerSaint Leo baseball great, former radio talk show host, former gum slingin’salesman, and unremitted Pittsburgh sports lover – Link! You may remember Link from such posts as “An Eulogy in Black and Gold” and “Let’s Review Game Sechs”.

Home teams are inall-caps and the lines posted are the opening lines from the Las Vegas Hiltonvia vegasinsider.com

Take it away, Link………

Cincinnati vs. HOUSTON (-3)

Kids - that is how you stiff arm.

The last time the Bengals let a 9 point lead slip throughtheir hands was when T.J. Yates threw a late touchdown pass. In that game, theTexans were playing without their stud wide receiver Andre Johnson. Right now Yates has a separated shoulder (nonthrowing shoulder) which make me think if he struggles we will see JackDelhomme early in this game.

The real question is howlong can the Texans can survive playing a 3^rd string quarterback. Ithink the Bengals, despite their inability to beat winning teams, find a way toshut down Arian Foster.

Cincinnati 23 Houston16

Pittsburgh (-8) vs. DENVER

It's funny 'cause Ben looks like he's dead.

First I have to admitthat I am a Steelers fan from Pittsburgh (ed note – BOO HISS). Now that we havethat out of the way, here are my thoughts.

To say the Steelersare hobbling into this game is an understatement. It would be quicker to tellyou who is healthy as opposed to who is hurt. Pittsburgh has the best scoringdefense in the NFL, but on offense, we all know Big Ben looks like Herman Munstertrying to throw a pass. The offensive tackles have struggled all year withundersized speed rushers and the Broncos have two of them in Elvis Dummervilland Von Miller. The two mile high pass rushers should be able to get pressureon an immobile Roethlisberger and shorten a lot of Steelers drives.

Denver is led by TimTebow. It is hard to imagine a team playing a quarterback who can’t throw tohis right. Good thing Denver can rely on their defense. I am not a Tebowbasher, I do think he has talent, but I think he would have been better servedlearning to play the position by watching for a few seasons. The Steelers winthis battle, but it won’t be easy.

Pittsburgh 15 Denver10

Atlanta vs. NEW YORKGIANTS (-3)

Remember when Stokley caught the ball in the Super Bowl? I don't. I was a little tipsy

Can you tell who thereal New York Giants are? Are they the team that shut Dallas out in the firsthalf or the team that looked awful in Week 15 against the Redskins? Atlantastarted off slow, so people forgot about the Falcons, but they have quietly putup 11 wins.

The big question iswhich defense will show up? The Falcons and the Giants have been passed uponall year. The Falcons 1-2 punch of Roddy White and Julio Jones is better thanthe Giants Victor Cruz. Even though I like the Giants defensive line a lotmore, I think Atlanta finds a way to win. By the way, take the over (ed note – currentlyat 47.5).

Atlanta 41 New York 30

Detroit vs. NEWORLEANS (-10.5)

Hey Willis!

Wow, what to say otherthan I think this is your old style WAC match up. If you are a defensivecoordinator you won’t get a lot of sleep this weekend. The Saints come into theplayoffs looking like a well-oiled machine. Their offense is on fire and theirdefense played surprisingly well down the stretch. The Lions are all offenseand no defense, but damn is their offense fun to watch. Put the kiddies to bedearly, this is gonna be a shootout (ed. Note – the over/under on this game iscurrently 59).

New Orleans 48 Detroit 34

Look for Justin G's unscientific breakdown on Saturday!

A Season in Review - How I did in Predicting the Ravens

2012-01-05T13:26:00.004-05:00

That's a Super Bowl Level Mustache - photo from Baltimore Sun

Alright, it looks like we might be a little football heavyon this here weblog for the next couple of weeks. I don’t write about it much because, quitefrankly, it’s the one sport I enjoy more as a casual observer then as awriter/analyzer. I’m not quite at thepoint of drinking the purple kool-aid (just the jungle juice) and donningpurple zubazs yet, but of all the teams I follow I am most unabashedly a fanfirst.

That being said, I did try to take an analytical look at theRavens schedule before the season to try and predict how they wouldfinish. My prediction was close, 10-6,vs. their actual record of 12-4. I thought it would be spot on, after all MGMhad them pegged as a 10 win team as well. However, the game-by-game guessing was wildlyinaccurate; to the point of my dad taking the time to email me and make fun ofme. He’s also threatened to sign up as acommenter just so he can make fun of me in public. Thanks for reading, Pops! Enjoy Hawaii!

As is my policy, anytime I make predictions I follow up onthem to see how I did. Unlike thetalking heads on TV I accept accountability for my prognostications and willsuffer the consequences when I do poorly (as is often the case). So here we go:

Week 1 vs. Pittsburgh

My prediction – Ravens Could Lose

Reason – “I think Pittsburgh is a better team than Baltimorethis year”

Outcome – Yeah, missed the boat on this one. The Ravensforced 7 turnovers and cruised to a 35-7 victory that I didn’t get to seethanks to a Direct TV problem at the bar.

Prediction record – 0-1

Week 2 at Tennessee

My prediction – Ravens Should Win

Reason – “Ravens should be able to shut down Chris Johnsonand put the game in Matt Hasslebeck’s hands.”

Outcome – They shut Johnson down holding him to only 53yards rushing, but Hasselbeck torched them for 358 yards and Rod Bironas kicked4 field goals to lead the Titans to a 26-13 victory that I also didn’t seebecause the folks at Goose Island in Wrigleyville kept switching the game off.

Prediction record – 0-2

Week 3 at St. Louis

My prediction – Games We Don’t Know What Will Happen

Reason – “Stephen Jackson is a legitimate offensive threatand their defense should be better than people think”

Outcome – The coming out party for rookie Torrey Smith. Thewide receiver has 3 touchdown receptions in the first quarter and the Ravensrolled to a franchise record 553 yards of offense. I’m giving myself a win here since I thoughtthey would win 2 of the 3 mystery games.

Prediction record 1-2

Week 4 vs. New York Jets

My Prediction – Ravens Could Lose

Reason – “There is no way Mark Sanchez has a big gameagainst Baltimore, but I think bad penalties and a lack of discipline will bethe difference as the Jets win 10-9”

Outcome – The defense scores 3 times and leads the team to a34-17 victory. Hey at least I knew that Sanchez would struggle.

Prediction record - 1-3

Bye Week – Push!

Week 6 vs. Houston

My Prediction – Games We Don’t Know What Will Happen

Reason – “If Arian Foster and Andre Johnson stay healthy themiddle of October could be a shoot-out.”

Outcome – Johnson was hurt and the Ravens outplayed theTexans down the stretch for a 29-14 victory. Joe Flacco threw for over 300yards and Billy Cundiff kicked five field goals.

Prediction record – 2-3

Week 7 at Jacksonville

My Prediction – Ravens Should Win

Reason – “The one game on the schedule that the Ravensshould be double digits and actually cover”

Outcome – I created a new gambling rule – never bet on theRavens when they’re favored by more than 10 points. Jacksonville took away Ray Rice as a checkdown option for Flacco and stymied the Ravens offense. The Jaguars had their highlight for theseason as they won in primetime 12-7.

Prediction record – 2-4

Week 8 vs. Arizona

My Prediction – Ravens Should Win

Reason – “If the Ravens get pressure on him (Kevin Kolb)they should be able to force mistakes.”

Outcome – The Ravens had to come back from 21 points down inthe second half to win, but they did it. This is the game where they decided toadd the “throw it deep in the endzone and hope for a flag” play to theplaybook. It actually worked twice and led to two easy Ray Rice touchdowns.Flacco threw the ball a career-high 51 times in the 30-27 win.

Prediction record – 3-4

Week 9 at Pittsburgh

My Prediction – Ravens Could Lose

Reason – “The pressure will be on Flacco and so far in hiscareer pressure games haven’t been his forte.”

Outcome – For once it was the Ravens winning in the lastminute as Joe hit Torrey Smith for a 26-yard touchdown to win the game 23-20with eight seconds left on the clock. I had labeled it a must win game if theRavens wanted to win the AFC North and in the end it proved to be thedifference as the two teams finished the season with identical records but theRavens with the tie-breaker edge.

Prediction record – 3-5

Week 10 at Seattle

My Prediction – Ravens Should Win

Reason – “Tavaris Jackson”

Outcome – Marshawn Lynch (who I had cut from my fantasy teamdue to lack of production) had a combined 167 yards of offense and the Ravensturned the ball over 3 times in the 22-17 loss.

Prediction record – 3-6

Week 11 vs. Cincinnati

My Prediction – Ravens Should Win

Reason – “The Ravens should be able to shut down the runninggame and feast on the rookie quarterback (Andy Dalton).”

Outcome – Baltimore held off a fourth quarter comeback by thefeisty Bengals to cling to a 31-24 win. Torrey Smith was a factor again with 165 yards receiving while thedefense forced 3 second-half turnovers by Dalton (2 picks and a fumble).

Prediction Record – 4-6

Week 12 vs. San Francisco

My Prediction – Ravens Should Win

Reason – No real reason given, just implied the 49’s wouldbe bad.

Outcome- I was at this game! Yea! Oh, and the Ravens won 16-6by dominating on defense and doing just enough on offense to win. Who cares? I was there!

Prediction Record – 5-6

Week 13 at Cleveland

My Prediction – Ravens Should Win

Reason – “The Ravens won’t light up the scoreboard, butshould score enough to win.”

Outcome – Ray Rice runs for over 200 yards and the Ravenscoast to a 24-10 victory. Lardarius Webb runs a punt back for Baltimore aswell, a bright spot in the season for the much maligned special teams unit.

Prediction record – 6-6

Ed Dixon uses the Force to make a catch - AP/Nick Wass

Week 14 vs. Indianapolis

My Prediction – Games We Don’t Know What Will Happen

Reason – “Much like Roethisberger he (Peyton Manning) hasthe Ravens number in head-to-head matchups.”

Outcome – To my credit, when I made this prediction therewas still talk of Manning playing at the end of the season. Curtis Painter was no match for the Ravensdefense and Ray Rice ran for over 100 yards in the 24-10 victory. I’ll take theloss on this one since I didn’t have the stones to make a real prediction.

Prediction record – 6-7

Week 15 at San Diego

My Prediction – Ravens Could Lose

Reason – “From Phil Rivers ability to rack up passingyardage to the Ravens having to go to the west coast, it all adds up to a loss.”

Outcome: I prettymuch nailed this one. The Chargerspicked on rookie Jimmy Smith and racked up 270 passing yards to take the 34-14win. The Ravens weren’t able to get anypressure on Rivers as the Chargers looked way too comfortable in winning thegame.

Prediction record – 7-7

Week 16 vs. Cleveland

My Prediction – Ravens Should Win

Reason – “The air is cold, the stockings are hung and theBrowns still suck.”

Outcome – Baltimore built a 17-0 halftime lead and held onto a 20-14 win. They sealed the win by drawing the Browns off-sides on a 4^th-and-2play with two minutes to go in the game. It wasn’t a pretty game, but it locked up Baltimore’s first undefeatedseason at home.

Prediction Record – 8-7

Ray Rice don't need no help! photo from AP

Week 17 at Cincinnati

My Prediction – Ravens Should Win

Reason – “The Bengals will be playing for Andrew Luck andnot much else.”

Outcome – Ray Rice had an early 70-yard touchdown run and theRavens turned a late fumble by Cincinnati into another Rice touchdown toproduce a 24-16 win. The Bengals didhave a chance of making the playoffs had they won, so I was a little offon the Luck prediction.

Prediction Record – 9-7

There ya go. Anextremely uneven season for the Ravens that led to an AFC North title, a firstround bye and the first home playoff games since the 2006 season (in which theywere also the2nd seed). Are they built for a long playoff run? That is the million dollar question rightnow. If they win their game next weekthen chances are they would have to go on the road to face the Patriots, and I’mnot sure Flacco has the arm to win that shoot-out.

But more on the playoffs as the days roll on.

The 2011 Hopeful Chase Card of the Year

2012-01-01T14:37:00.003-05:00

Well, the calender has flipped on 2011 and it's time to move on to 2012. Last year I changed up my collecting philosophy. I limited the packs I bought, almost eliminated boxes totally (I think I only bought one all year) and focused on player collecting, trading and set completing. I believe I was pretty successful in following those tenants.

The oncoming new year will be much of the same. I am going to allow myself to chase two sets - the 2011-12 Score Hockey (with inserts) and the 2012 Topps Heritage Baseball. For the first time since returning to collecting I have no plans to buy any Topps base whatsoever. It's not that I don't like the design because I kind of do, it's just that I like Heritage better.

Even if I don't have any current baseball guys that I collect I don't plan on adding any other players to the personal collection which currently stands at:

1. Vincent Lecavalier
2. Eddie Murray
3. Dustin Tokarski
4. Floyd Rayford
5. Peter Bondra
6. Brett Connolly

Now on to the meat of the post. My favorite card of the year. This is a semi-annual tradition that I hope to keep going from here on out. The criteria is simple - what is the favorite card I picked up in the calender year 2011. It can be from any year, it just has to be added to the collection this year.

This year was a pretty close race. Thanks to e-Bay, card shows and the generosity of fellow bloggers I picked up a lot of cool cards. However, one stood out. For all of the money I spent on acquisitions this year, this card only cost me 10 cents.

image totally jacked from eBay

It's a 2010-11 Upper Deck Base Martin St. Louis base card.

Such a simple card, but totally awesome none-the-less. St. Louis is celebrating one of the 29 goals that he scored in 2009-10. The card is framed perfectly with his raised arms bringing the focus to the center of the card and a look of accomplishment on his face. (Congrats by the way to St. Louis on picking up career assist 500 on Saturday night).

When this photo was taken the Lightning were in the midst of a disastrous season. Depending on which home game it was, chances are those who shall not be named were still in charge of the team, trade rumors were swirling and St. Louis was contemplating his future of the club.

Scoring a goal must have been some sort of relief in a tumultuous season. When it ended, St. Louis openly questioned whether he wanted to come back or not. Luckily for Lightning fans the new ownership group assured him that they were dedicated to being competitive and locked him up to a four year extension. An extension that hopefully allows him to finish his career in the blue and white of the Lightning.

Awesome card of an awesome player.

TTM Success - Penguin Pascal

2011-12-31T16:48:00.003-05:00

After a slow start autograph-wise, 2011 finished strong for me. Thursday saw Tony Esposito's signature added to my collection and then on Friday I added this one.

Pittsburgh Penguin forward, and last year's 24/7 funnyman (link NSFW-language), returned this card in about a month. I'm pretty sure I sent it out just before Thanksgiving and just got it back. He signed a 2011-12 Score basecard in blue Sharpie. It's not the neatest signature, just a couple of swirls and the number 9, but hey it looks good on the card.

It looks like I'm going to try and complete the Score set this year. I like the clean, white background and some of the photos are pretty cool. Any double I pick up will make nice autograph fodder as well.

Fourteen Hundred Words on Why I Stood in Line

2011-12-30T16:18:00.001-05:00

Nothing to do with the words below - just an awesome scene from Christmas Story The Musical

When you’re not working you tend to have a lot of free timeon your hands. So when certain opportunitiesarise, it’s not hard to find the time to take advantage of them. On Thursday, Link dropped me a text to let meknow that a certain Hall of Famer was signing autographs for free down at theNavy Pier (Chicago’s number one tourist destination). I checked my schedule andsaw shockingly I was free.

I then embarked on the hardest part of the day’s journey –finding pants. Well pants that I couldwear in public. After all, it wasThursday and Laundry Day wasn’t till Friday. It’s important to have things tolook forward to when everyday is like the day before it. After a little digging I found a reasonablyclean pair of jeans, said good-bye to the cats (they didn’t even raise theirheads) and went off to catch the El into the city.

From where I’m at in Lakeview, the Red Line was the easiestway to get to the Pier. The Red Line runsnorth to south and attracts the most diverse crowd of all of the CTAlines. If you sit on a chair that a bumpissed on, chances are you’re on the red line. I snuggled into the last seat in the car, the single one in the backthat is pointed toward the middle of the car instead of facing front or back.

The car was reasonably packed, and I did what all Chicagoansdo – shrunk my personal awareness to just my seat. I whipped out a book (Sin inthe Second City) and commenced reading. I tried not to pay attention to myfellow riders, but sometimes you can’t help but noticing them. For instance the guy in front of me was usinga mirrored compact to either put makeup on or snort coke. I didn’t look close enough to be certain.

After a quick 10 minute ride I jumped off at the Grandlocation. I would not sit down again for the next 3 hours. The escalator was out (as usual) so Ifollowed the pack shuffling up the dirty stairs. The city is working on upgrading the lightingand cleanliness of the downtown stops (gotta impress the tourists), and theGrand stop is about 60% finished. But the stairs are still dirty.

The walk from the Grand stop to the Navy Pier was a littleover a mile, I think. It was niceoutside so the walk was enjoyable. It’salways fun to walk downtown, lots of bustling action going on. I got to the Pier in a decent amount of time,delayed only a few seconds by the kid running his new remote control car intomy ankle.

The Navy Pier in the winter is entirely different than theNavy Pier in the summer. For reasonsunknown to me it is packed during the summer. Vast multitudes of tourists walk from one end to another, ride theFerris Wheel, buy overpriced beer from Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Harry Carey’s,The Billy Goat, or stuff their face with McDonalds and buy Chicago knick-knacks. A hundred and one river cruise operatorsshill their boat as the best in the city (for the record the ChicagoArchitecture Foundation tour is the best) while the Navy boys walk theirgirlfriends down the long, concrete pier.

In the winter it’s subdued, like a kid who just got reamedout for knocking over the cereal shelf at the grocery store. The tourists are still there staggeringaround aimlessly, but not as many. Thechain restaurants have closed up their patios, heck even the churro guy hasmoved indoors. No one is hawking a rivercruise, after all, who wants to sail down the Chicago River when it’s 20degrees outside?

They do, however, have a Winter Wonderland around Christmastime, and that’s where I would be obtaining my free autograph. If there is a 4^th circle of hellfor middle-aged men who don’t plan on having kids, it’s the Navy Pier WinterWonderland (presented by Bank of America!). Housed on the second floor of one of the main buildings on the pier, theWinter Wonderland is in essence free. However, to do anything you have to pay.

Inside there are allof the child entrapments – giant slide, photo with Santa, motion simulator, a merry-go-round, and some sort oftilt-a-whirl/hang-glider ride whose sole purpose was to induce ear-splittingscreams from pre-teen girls every 5 minutes. There was cotton candy, sodas, popcorn, churros and I think pure sugarfor sale everywhere.

There were families everywhere, so help me God so many families. I understand why. Most parents are on week two or three ofwinter break and need something to distract the children with. None of theparents looked happy to be there, they all looked so tired. The noise was deafening – along with thescreams from the rides, there were the parents yelling at kids, people yellingon their cell phones, random toddlers running around and screaming for no apparentreason.

I wandered over to the indoor ice rink where the autographtable was set up. It was about 2:45 withthe signing set to begin at 3:00. The line was already stretching back aquarter away around the rink. Although,I think half of the people in line thought it was the line for renting iceskates.

I took my spot at the end of the line and broke out thebook. Based on my autograph linestanding experience I knew I was in for at least an hour wait, probably closerto two which would be cutting it close since the session was only supposed tolast until 5:00pm. Even with a strictlyenforced “one item only” policy this was going to take some time.

Slowly we trudged along. The family behind me quicklyabandoned the mother to go skating or ride a ride or something. She was there alone with two bags, fourjackets and some stuff to get signed. She also had a camera and managed to take a photo of every person thatwalked by. I pity the poor person thathad to sit through that slide slow.

After 30 minutes or so we had moved about 10 yards. It wasn’t looking good, but hey at least Igot some good reading time in. I alsogot to watch the zamboni clean the ice. One thing I learned – little kids are fascinated by the zamboni. If you ever to need to settle down a sugaredup, hop-head five year old plant him in front of a machine that scrapes ice.They will be transfixed for a half-hour.

At the hour mark, the line picked up a little speed. Either people realized they were in the wrongline or they got bored and wandered off. Twenty minutes after that the count started. If you’ve ever stood in the line you knowwhat the count it is. As the signingperiod draws to a close, the official looking people walk through the line andstart counting people to figure out where to cut the line off at. As they walk bye you hope that they don’tstop in front of you.

Luckily for me they didn’t. In fact, there were probably another 100 people or so behind me thatmade it. However, one unlucky couple whowas friends with the mother behind me didn’t make it so they came up tocomplain – and to cut into the line. Because, after all, rules are rules but that doesn’t mean they apply toyou.

Finally it was my turn to get an autograph. I pulled out a card, which looked kind ofpuny next to the sweaters and 8x10’s and poster that everyone else was gettingsigned. I didn’t care, I like gettingcards signed. They’re small andportable, they don’t require planning on how to display. Just throw ‘em in a page and in a binder.

The hockey player was pretty nice. He asked me what I do for a living. “Freelance copywriter,” I replied. Hey, it’s true. I’ve done some SEO copywriting over the lastmonth. I thanked him for the autographand moved on. Here it is:

Former Blackhawks goalie (and part-founder of the Tampa BayLightning) Tony Esposito. I now havematching Esposito brother autographs. Idid have to break my completed Champ’s set to get the card, but I think it’s aperfect card to get signed in black Sharpie.

I hustled out of the Wonderland and walked back to the El.As it was now rush hour I squeezed into the car and rode it on home. After a quick walk down to our apartment Iwas finally able to sit on the couch and rest my tired feet. The cats hadn’t moved an inch since I left.

The Playoff Push Starts Now

2011-12-28T13:09:00.001-05:00

The difference in size between Marty and Vinny will never cease to amuse me - Getty Images

“We have to make a push now.”

On Monday, Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier utteredthose words, making it clear that the fight to make the playoffs cannot wait anylonger. Despite the season not yet reaching its halfway point, the team findsitself battleing for its post-season lives. Going into Tuesday night’s gameagainst the Flyers they found themselves 8 points out of a playoff spot withfive teams to hurdle.

So how did the team, the team that has been disappointing allseason long, respond? With a 5-1 win over Philadelphia that eerily resembled alot of their playoff wins last spring. Howso? Look at the numbers:

Playoffs: The Lightning played 18 games in the postseasonand were outshot in 11 of them. Of those 11 games Tampa Bay won 7.

Tuesday: The Lightning were outshot 32-16.

Playoffs: The Lightning averaged almost 19 blocked shots agame.

Tuesday: They blocked 22 shots (Eric Brewer led the way with6)

Playoffs: Dwayne Roloson was epic goalie man.

Tuesday: Mathieu Garon was epic le gardien de but stopping31 of the 32 shots he faced.

There was some grumbling from Lightning fans on Wednesdaymorning about the team being “lucky” and only winning because of a humongousbig bad effort from 24/7 sensation Ilya Bryzgalov. As Tampa Bay area fans are want to do theyfocused on the negative. What they fail to acknowledge is the positive from thegame. Steven Stamkos scoring as agrinder (rebound in front of the net) and a sniper (one-time roofer from thepost), secondary scoring from Steve Downie and Bruno Gervais, and a winningrecord in the face-off dot (Adam Hall winning 10 out of 15 was huge).

The Lightning played physical, blocked shots and won face-offs.They also took advantage of the limited offensive opportunities that theygenerated. In short, they won a playoff-like game against a toughopponent. Being able to sustain thattype of intensity for the rest of the season will be near impossible, but rightnow it’s the only way they can win. Theyhave to want each game more than the other team.

Not gonna lie - Simmonds handed Brewer his lunch - photo from Getty Images

Having to play that style for 47 more games will wear a teamout mentally and physically. Tuesdaynight’s game was a prime example. Withthe defense already depleted Victor Hedman left in the first period with anundisclosed upper body injury (please don’t be a concussion) and midway throughthe second period Brewer was knocked woozy after a fight with WayneSimmonds. Brewer returned after gettinga cut cleaned up, but is now listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury aswell. I’m sure that means Evan Oberg isrepacking his suitcase for yet another plane ride from Norfolk.

Should the Lightning suffer any suspensions from the ScottHartnell/Ryan Malone/Steve Downie spearing/stick-waving/angry words incidentthen the team will be extremely shorthanded going into a critical stretch ofgames against teams they’re chasing (Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto).

Tuesday night’s win against the Flyers was a good startingpoint for the Lightning’s playoff push. A win Thursday night against thereeling Montreal Canadians would be even bigger. AsLecavalier (who scored a sweet goal at the end of the game on a 2-on-1 withMartin St. Louis) pointed out this team can’t afford to wait around anylonger. They need to get it going now.

Gotta have a Downie photo! - Getty images

The Reason Marty St. Louis Can Return From a Broken Face

2011-12-21T22:20:00.000-05:00

Finally My Take on Realignment

2011-12-20T12:37:00.002-05:00

So have you heard all about that realignment talk? Seems that down Tampa way it’s time to put Gary Bettman’s head back on the platter. The diminutive commissioner has it out for the boys in black and is working on a masterful plan to snatch the team from the comforts of Channelside Drive and deposit them in Kansas City, or Las Vegas, or Houston…basically anywhere but Florida or Canada (because if there’s any region that the man in charge hates more than Florida, it’s our maple syrup-loving neighbor to the north). Feeling persecuted much, Lightning fans?

Let’s face it, when talks of shuffling divisions around it was predetermined that at least one time would find themselves with the short end of the hockey stick. Whether it be Dallas and Detroit forced to play west coast opponents or long-time rivals being torn asunder, somewhere, someone was going to bitch about how the chips settled. Unfortunately for Lightning Nation (16 strong and growing!) the Florida teams are the ones on the outside looking in.

Being grouped into a division with Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Florida does mean that the team will be eating more peanuts on planes and standing longer in customs lines next season. To some fans, having the players earn extra stamps in their passports is proof positive that Gary Bettman and the rest of the NHL hates Tampa Bay and would love nothing more than to move that franchise somewhere else.

To those folks, I say ne ne. Instead I offer you two words. Jeff Vinik. That’s right, the savior of the organization, the man who brought this team back to respectability, the very man who harnessed electricity and stored it inside the Ice Palace. That man, that god, is only in charge because of Gary Bettman. After all, it was Commissioner Bettman who introduced the idea of buying the Lightning to Vinik and paved the way for a smooth sale between the northern businessman and Those Who Owned the Team Before But Shall Not Be Named.

Proof that Betts doesn't hate Tampa (not sure about Canada)

That simple fact allows for a lot of leeway in my book. So let us not look down upon the new schedule and curse our fates. Instead, look forward to new rivalries being forged in the playoffs. Think about how many “Lecavalier/Stamkos/St. Louis Return Home” articles get to be written by the Canadian press.
Let’s embrace the fact that the Lightning get to compete against some of the most storied franchises in NHL history - and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Let’s not forget one thing. I am a greedy hockey fan living in a different city than the team I follow. With the new schedule allowing every team to play every other team at home and on the road I know that I will be able to see the Lightning at least once a season. That is awesome.

Most importantly, think about how much fun it will be to follow the team on the road now! Gone are boring cities like Raleigh and Winnipeg (we hardly knew ya’). Instead of going to see the Lincoln Memorial three times a year, Lightning fans can now go to Montreal. It’s almost like a slice of Europe in North America. The only two cities missing from my favorite places to travel are New Orleans and Honolulu, and there is a 36% chance that Bettman will expand to those cities in the next 6 years.

Let me give you a personal experiences breakdown of the cities where the Lightning’s newest foes are located.

Sunrise- Oddly enough, the only arena I haven’t attended and it’s the one closest to the Lightning. I probably should have checked that out when I lived in Florida. The closest I came was watching an Argentina/U.S. soccer match at Joe Robbie stadium. Afterwards, we went to an Argentinean restaurant where not a lick of English was spoken, but the meal was delicious.

Montreal - In the top three of favorite cities to visit. The first time I went was with legendary travel mate Hambone and I had a picture taken. The bartender swore his name was Jimmy Walker and made us take a picture in front of “The Jersey”. I think it was Henri Richard’s jersey, I’m not sure because I got pretty drunk that night.

The jacket - real pleather baby!

On top of the drinking there is beautiful architecture, wonderful museums and a restaurant called Au Pied Cachon. If you ever want to see if you can give yourself a heart attack with one truly exquisite meal then go to this place. After all, it almost broke Anthony Bourdain.

I love having reasons to post pics of Downie fighting

Ottawa - Haven’t seen a game here yet, but did attend a session of Congress. They were debating something about marijuana laws I think. Cool city, would definitely hang out there again.

Toronto - Hockey Hall of Fame. Clean city. Watched Zac Beirk take a puck to the throat in warm-ups. This would probably be the first city to take a weekend trip to watch the game for me. I’ve been twice (once for business) but never stayed long enough to truly explore the city, although Link and I did have a robust game of air hockey in the basement of the CN Tower. (Holy Crap! They have a rotating restaurant in the CN Tower, I’m a sucker for those things!) .

Link and I ended up getting standing room tickets to watch the Lightning and the Maple Leafs and I must say, we weren’t disappointed. We had a decent view of the ice and a counter to lean against. The beer was fantastic and we had a decent time.

Buffalo - On the same trip that took us to Toronto, Link and I stopped in Buffalo to watch a Sabres/ Pittsburgh Penguins game. Based on my hazy memory the Penguins won in overtime. I can’t say much about the city since we were basically there only long enough to watch the game, but it’s close to the border and there are casinos close by. So is Niagara Falls, which every American should see at some point.

Boston - I've only been once, but I liked the city. Although I will say Wrigley > Fenway. There are tons of historical sites to visit and places to eat. Why I didn't research the Freedom Trail Pub Crawl before I went is on the big regrets in my life.

So get ready to look at those calendars and book those flights Lightning Fans. You have some new cities to start exploring!

One Goalie, Six Cards, A New Collection

2011-12-14T19:06:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of cards out there in the world. I don’t hope to own all of them, just all ofthe ones with Vinny Lecavalier on them. I know that’s never going to happen (too many 1/1 cards and not enoughPowerBall money) but that doesn’t mean I can’t try. However, lately I strayed a bit, my eyeswandered and before I knew it I had another flame to keep an eye on.

It started innocently enough a rookie card picked up in atrade, simply because the other guy knew I liked the Lightning. It wasn’t allthat special (although it was shiny) and I didn’t think twice about it. Little did I know that the seed had beenplanted.

The next card foundits way into my collection on purpose, an eBay purchase that featured an autoand a jersey swatch. I told myself thatI picked it up because it was cheap and I had some extra money in the PayPal account. It meant nothing to me, I liked auto/jerseycards and Vincent’s were way overpriced.

Then it happened. Icrossed the line. One dark, rainy night,while surfing eBay, I bought a lot. Sixcards for basically the price of two (with free shipping!) I couldn’t resist, I bid and I won. Three days later the cards were in my handsand I was officially a Dustin Tokarski collector.

The first four cards are what I call fodder. They weren’t the cards I was looking for, butthey look nice in the collection.

What you see above are four ITG cards from four differentyears that all proclaim Tokarski a “Future Star”. I can cross the 2008 through 2011 ITG Betweenthe Pipes Future Stars cards off of my needs list now. The 2008 and 2009 cardsfeature him in his Spokane Chiefs uniforms while the 2010 and 2011 show himadorned in the Norfolk Admirals colors.

All four cards are considered “pre-rookie” cards since theywere either issued before his NHL debut, or in the case of the 2011 card, wereissued by a company that doesn’t hold a NHL license. Nice cards to have as filler but not the realmeat of a collection.

Next up is the secondary card, the card that made bidding onthe lot worth it. The card I reallywanted could have been had on its own, but when I saw it paired with this cardfor almost the same price I had to pull the trigger.

A 2010-11 Upper Deck Rookie Materials from series II. “Tic” is shown in his Lightning gear on thefront of the card and it includes a nice black jersey swatch. Game used? Nope. On the back of the card Upper Deck’s Dick P.McWilliam lets us know that the card is from a rookie photo shoot. So this falls under “even used”.

Finally we happen upon the money card. I perused several eBay pages trying to decidewhich auction I should bid on. The oneswith free shipping were too expensive, and the ones with cheap shipping werebeing bid up beyond what I wanted to spend. So I switched tactics and started looking to see if I could score a lotthat included this card. Low and beholdthere was. So it became mine.

A 2010-11 Upper Deck Young Guns #246. Its the hockey card cornerstone for anyplayer collector. If you’re building a player collection and that player has aYoung Guns card you have to have it. Noif’s, ands or buts about it, get that card as soon as you can.

So that’s how a player collection is born, or at least myTokarski collection was born. Will itcontinue? Probably, as long as he doesn’tget traded by the Lightning along with a number two pick and a prospect forTuukka Rask.

I’m not sure if he’ll be in next year’s releases. It seems, despite their woes, the Lightningare committed to keeping Tokarski in Norfolk for a full season. So far thisseason, he’s been splitting time with fellow prospect Jaroslav Janus. Tokarskiis 10-6 with 2 shutouts, a 2.43 GAA and a .901 save percentage. The numbers are solid, but not spectacular.

At this point, the Lightning might opt for steady and notspectacular as opposed to what they’re getting from Roloson and Garon right now. There would be a big risk calling himup. The team in front of him is not veryresponsible and could lead to him getting barraged with shots. A couple of bad outings could damage hisconfidence and he could join the long list of failed Lightning goaltendingprospects.

He is only 22 years old, so I can wait another season forhim to get called up. In the meantime Ican look forward to some more ITG cards (maybe he can make Future Stars for a 5^thstraight year).

C'mon Panini!

2011-12-13T11:32:00.000-05:00

Even though I’m no longer a set builder I like to keep aneye on the products that the companies are releasing just to see if there isanything novel. Last week Panini, one oftwo companies that have a NHL license, released some images from their upcoming2011-12 Limited Hockey set.

Panini, long known in the U.S. for their sticker yearbooks,jumped back into the hockey market last season with mixed results. They revived several defunct brands such asScore, Pinnacle, and Donruss while also offering collectors an alternative toUpper Deck’s monopoly. They also floodedthe market with thousands of pointless parallel versions of cards and insertsupon inserts.

One of the new inserts for Limited Hockey is Back to theFuture. The card will feature autographs from two players from a team. From their post they think the cards are a “compellinginsert {that} unites one current superstar with one all-time great (along withtheir respective autographs)”. That’snot a bad idea for an insert set. Although I don’t collect vintage cards, it’s nice to see cards that tiethe past with the present.

Their website features some pre-signed versions of thecards. Some of the pairings are prettycool: Brad Marchand/Ken Linesman, Claude Giroux/Tim Kerr and Jeff Skinner/RonFrancis. These cards should be a big hit for team collectors, especially sinceit appears the cards will be hand-signed.

As I was scrolling through the images I was delighted to seethe Lightning represented in the set. Even though I would be classified more as a player collector than a teamcollector since I focus most of my collecting budget on Vincent Lecavalier, it’sstill nice to see the boys from Tampa included.

The “current superstar” half of the card is StevenStamkos. As the most prolific goalscorer over the last three years, that’s pretty much a no brainer. Stamkos is the best player on the team anddoes have appeal outside of the Tampa Bay area (enough so that he made thecover of NHL12).

Look at the flowing locks! - From Panini's site

So who, out of the almost 20 year existence of theorganization, did Panini pick to represent the “all-time great”? None other than Steve Yzerman. Holy crap do I have a problem with thatselection. Not just a little problem, but alarge-probably-overreacting-taking-too-personally-problem with it.

I don’t disagree with the notion that Yzerman is an all-timegreat, just not for the Lightning. If youwant to put his autograph in the set, put it on the flipside of PavelDatsyuk. Yzerman has done a good job ofputting a professional product on the ice in Tampa, but he never donned theuniform for Tampa Bay. Heck, he hasn’teven been with the team as long as Stamkos has.

Sweet Suit Stevie - From Panini's site

Despite what some people in the media and in the standsbelieve, the Lightning existed before they drafted Steven Stamkos in 2008. Hundreds of players, some good, a lotnot-so-good, have skated for them since the franchise debuted with Chris Kontosbanging in 4 goals against Chicago on October 7, 1992. It strikes me as lazy and a bit of a shot atthe organization that Panini would chose Yzerman to represent the other half ofthe card.

So who should Panini have tracked down to sign the cardsinstead of Yzerman? From looking at the other pairings it appears that Paninimatched up players with similar skills, or at least ones that played the sameposition. So that rules out Darren Puppa(and as a novelty, Manon Rheaume) since he was a goaltender. Chris Gratton was more of a big, physicalcenter, not the gifted scorer that Stamkos has developed into. Rob Zamuner, Alex Selivanov and DaveAndreychuk were all wingers so despite their contributions to the team they’reout as well.

That leaves, as the only logical choice, Brian Bradley. Thecenter from Kitchner, Ontario was the first true scoring threat, some would saythe only threat, for the Lightning. He played 328 games for the Bolts from 1992to 1998 and tallied an even 300 points. He scored 111 goals in a Lightning uniform and provided some legitimacyto the organization in its infancy.

Overall in his career he also played for Toronto, Calgary andVancouver, logging 652 games and 503 during that time. He retired during the 1997-98 season, aseason prior to Vincent Lecavalier joining the team. I wonder if Lecavalier’s transition to theNHL would have been smoother if Bradley had been around to help him out.

I don’t know why Panini chose Yzerman. If someone over there reads this, feel freeto let me know. They imply that thisinsert is for team collectors so it would be nice if they actually pickedsomeone who skated for them in the past. They might not know it, but there those of us that remember folks whoplayed for them prior to 2008.

If they were worried that no one outside of Tampa wouldknow, or want to collect a card with Brian Bradley on it at least chose anorganizational figure that has been tied to the team longer than a season and ahalf. Throw Phil Esposito on the otherhalf of the card and I would understand. Like Yzerman, Espo never played for the Lightning, but unlike thecurrent GM, he has been around since day one.

Either guy would be better, especially in those uniforms - Photo from St Pete Times

I would be remiss not to mention that the cards Paniniposted on the website aren’t the complete set. There is a chance that there is a second card that represents an actualplayer from the Lightning’s past. After all, the Alex Ovechkin card shownfeatures Mark Messier as the other signer and while that is a cool card, notentirely indicative of Washington’s past.

Despite being in the same area for 20 years having a hockeyteam in Florida still seems to be a bit of a novelty for the rest of the hockeyworld. That holds true for the collecting world as well. Throwback sets rarely feature Lightningplayers, even if they feature other players from the 1990s. Cards like the one Panini is producing don’thelp the cause.

Time to Clean House - 2011 Topps Insert Trade Bait!

2011-12-04T12:51:00.001-05:00

As baseball card collectors know, 2011 was the year of the insert glut. Soooo many different insert sets were placed in Topps base product alone that it was nigh on impossible to collect all of them. Therefore, I chose to collect none of them. Since they are taking up limited space, I've decided to trade/give away all of my non-Orioles inserts. Check out the list below, let me know what you want and we'll work something out.

Don't be shy in asking either. If you want them all, tell me you want them all and we'll make a deal.

DS 23 - Josh Johnson

DS - 1 Evan Longoria

Diamond Parallels:

296 - John Buck

~~441- Rafael Furcal~~

459 - Frank Francisco

~~78 - Mike Stanton~~

180 - Paul Maholm

189 - Kerry Wood

191 - JayBruce

Kimball Champions:
KC-10 Ichiro
KC-1 Ubaldo Jimenez
KC-19 Brandon Morrow
~~KC- 28 Mike Stanton~~
KC -29 Jered Weaver
KC-32 Alex Rios

~~CMGR-20 Lou Gehrig 1932 U.S. Caramel~~
~~BTT2 - Christy Mathewson American Tobacco 1911: T205~~
~~CMGR - 8 Cy Young 1911 T205~~

HOT - 5 Topps Goes Public
HOT -7 Topps Reintroduces Bowman
~~MBC1 - Mickey Mantle Chrome Insert~~
THP26 - Pedro Alvarez
~~THP28 - Justin Upton~~
THP16 - Cliff Lee
THP7 - Chase Utley
Topps Gold -#554 Cedric Hunter 1786/2011

T60-2 Andre Dawson
T60-37 Stephen Strasburg
T60-100 Albert Pujols
T60-82 Shane Victorino
T60-8 Felix Hernandez
T60-63 Evan Longoria
T60-9 Ian Kinsler
T60-11 Troy Tulowitzki
T60-27 David Wright

DD-2 Utley/Cano
DD-12 Tulowitzki/Ramirez
DD-27 Johnson/Verlander
DD-10 Gonzalez/Youklis
DD-18 Halladay/Hernandez
DD-LJ Larkin/Jeter
DD-BY Boggs/Youklis
DD-CS Carlton/Sabathia
DD-KA Kinsler/Andrus

60 Years of Topps
Paul Molitor - Original Back
Mariano Rivera - Original Back
#140 Reggie Jackson
#695 Rod Carew
#193 Calrton Fisk
#595 Nolan Ryan
#97 Curt Schilling
#459 Mike Piazza/Ivan Rodriguez/ Jason Kendall

60 YOT #100 Vlad Guerrero

60 YOT #290 Stan Musial

DD-BW Berkman/Wallace

Not pictured - a slew of Topps Town cards:

~~TT-5 Roy Halladay~~

~~TT-7 Joe Mauer~~

TT-9 Adam Jones

TT-19 Andrew McCutchen

TT-25 Ryan Howard

TT-28 David Ortiz

TT-37 Billy Butler

TT-38 Justin Verlander

TT-41 Carlos Santana

TT-45 Hanley Ramirez x2

TT49 - CC Sabathia x2

TT2-12Justin Morneau

TT2-19 Victor Martinez

TT2-35 Ian Kinsler

A Card in The Mail - Low Numbered Edition

2011-12-02T17:33:00.001-05:00

As you may remember, I recently acquired a Steven Stamkos emerald parallel of his 2010-11 Upper Deck Artifacts card. Numbered to 50, it was the lowest numbered card in my collection. I say “was” because a day ago I received a new card that is numbered even lower.

I love GOOOOOOLLLDDD!

What you are looking at is a Vincent Lecavalier gold parallel of one of his 2010-11 Artifacts cards. It’s not his base, despite having a card number of 174 on the back. It is, in fact, part of the Legends and Stars subset from that release. The regular version of this card is short-printed and numbered to 999. The one above is serial numbered to 35.

Over all I’m not really impressed with the design. Sure, the writing is in a lovely gold script, but look at all of the wasted space. I mean, really, could they use a smaller picture of Lecavalier? I do like the background, but I don’t want it to be the focal point of the entire cards.

As for the picture itself, I like to think that Lecavalier has the puck at the end of his stick as he heads up ice. Possibly, he’s on the power play and looking to hit Marty St. Louis for a beautiful one-time goal. This is one of an inordinate amount of cards featuring Vincent with his mouth open. When coupled with his raised eyebrows he looks mildly shocked. Perhaps he’s shocked that he was still with the team (it was during those days when he was being shipped to Montreal for every player on their roster) or perhaps he’s surprised that he’s getting paid $10 million a year to skate around the ice.

I do like that he’s wearing the old, road whites, you know the “classic” ones that lasted about two seasons? I hope the NHL goes back to having teams wear their white sweaters at home like the good ol’ days. After all, how stupid is the Winnipeg White Out going to look when the road team is the one wearing white? Granted, they have a few seasons before they have to worry about it, but you would have to assume that the ex-Thrashers make the playoffs sooner or later.

The back of the card doesn’t offer any stats, just a couple of sentences about his season. 2009-10 wasn’t one of Vincent’s better years and the only thing they could mention is that he played in all 82 games and was second on the team in shots on goal. Ten million a year, folks!

I always felt bad for the copywriters who had to tackle the backs of the late-80s Score cards. Coming up with three paragraphs on Mickey Brantley (former student of Coastal Carolina University - Go Chanticleers!) couldn’t have been easy. At least Topps had the decency to cram enough stats on the back of their cards so that they only had to write one or two sentences on the back.

The number 35 doesn’t play to relevantly in Lecavalier’s career. He did score 35 goals in 2005-06, but that’s about it. The number 11 plays even less a factor. The best I could find was the 11 playoff games he played in 2002-03. Like I said, not that important.

Such a great uniform!

How about in Lightning history? Well, Tom Pyatt currently rocks the 11 on his sweater. However, my favorite number 11 has to be Steve Kelly, or as he was known around the Ice Palace - Speedy Stevie Kelly. Speed was really the only thing he brought to the ice. In parts of two seasons, from 1997-99, he scored 3 goals and added 4 assists. Somehow, in only 58 games he managed to end up a -24. Those were some good times to be a fan!

The number 35 is currently unused, but has graced the backs of several players in Lightning history, all of them goaltenders. The most famous would be Nikolai Khabibulin, the Russian net minder who led the team to their only Stanley Cup Championship. As much as I liked the wild-eyed, puck stopper, he isn’t my favorite player to wear that number.

That honor belongs to Kevin Hodson, the backup goalie from the turn of the century. Much like Kelly, he was a member of the organization during their darkest days and only managed 4 wins in his 36 games with the Lightning. During those days he also sported number 30 and 31 on his uniform. I’m not going to lie, it was hard to keep track of who was who back in those days, not that it really mattered - they were all pretty bad,

Hodson, whose problems with a rapid heart beat earned him the nickname “Ticker” from his teammates, came over to the Lightning at the 1999 trade deadline. He was part of the blockbuster deal (at least to Lightning fans) that sent Wendel Clark to Detroit. Clark, who actually had a decent year with the Bolts, was traded along with a 6th round pick to the Red Wings for Hodson and a 2nd round pick. That pick would become Saint Leo Mike’s favorite Lightning player of all time - Sheldon Keefe.

Ben Clymer? Paul Martins? How did this team NOT make the playoffs?

While he never lived up to the potential Lightning fans hoped he would, Hodson was well-liked by the fans. He habitually flipped pucks to fans following pre-game warm-ups and occasionally handed his stick to young fans following games. Oh, and he was nice enough to autograph a card for me one time!

Not in Lightning uniform, but still nice!

Overall, even though I’m not a big fan of the card, I’m glad I picked it up. If I didn’t have the need to collect every Lecavalier card ever produced I probably wouldn’t have bought it. Heck, if the cost wasn’t less than a pack of 2011-12 Upper Deck Series One (the secret is free shipping, my friends!) I probably would have passed it by for another card.

The problem know is, since it’s a colored parallel, I must have all the different version to complete the rainbow!

The Quarterly Review - Tampa Bay Lightning

2011-11-30T11:49:00.001-05:00

Still a thing of beauty - Photo by Getty Images

With a quarter of the season gone it’s a good time to look in on the Tampa Bay Lightning and check to see how they’re doing. The quick answer is….meh. At 11-10-2 (that’s 11 wins, 10 losses and 2 overtime/shootout losses for those who aren’t hockey savvy) they’re good enough for 3rd place in the Southeast Division and 11th place in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, both spots get you bupkus when it comes to the playoffs.

The good news is that with 24 points they are only 2 points out of the playoff race and 6 points behind the surprising Florida Panthers for the division lead (and the home ice advantage come playoff time). One solid hot streak and they’re right back in the hunt.

The not quite so good news is that this team, as presently constructed, is average at best. A quick spin on the nhl.com stats site shows them 16th in the league in goals per game, 22nd in the league in goals against, 19th in power play, 16th in penalty killing and so on and so on.

A lot of fingers have been pointed at the goaltending situation. Through 23 games Dwayne Roloson (.887 saver percentage) and Mathieu Garon (.916) have put up Smith-Ellisian numbers (not very good). Anytime you have to go to page two to see where they rank in terms of goals against and save percentage it’s not a good sign.

That lack of production would seem to lead to an easy fix. Bring in a new goaltender. A lot of names have been thrown around on the message boards. Most of the names mentioned happen to be in other organizations. Organizations that are wanting to extract a heavy price for their talent. The Washington Capitals set the bar in the off-season when they dealt Semyon Varlamov to the Avalanche for a first round pick in 2012 and a second round pick in 2012 or 2013.

So for all of you crying for Tuukka Rask or Corey Schneider that’s what the price is going to be. It’s pretty steep for an organization that is looking to build up it’s in-house depth, something that GM Steve Yzerman has mentioned is pretty important. Even if the Lightning can work a deal that has less of an impact it might not change the results.

For all of the talk of the 1-3-1 trap and how it shuts down offenses, the Lightning have been giving up a lot of goals. As in over three a game. Coach Boucher’s game plan relies on a “pack mentality” that involves the entire team playing as one. Forwards helping defensemen, defensemen helping goalies, mascots helping water boys, etc. When they don’t play that way, things get ugly in a hurry.

Roloson was not brought in because he is a technical goaltender who absorbs shots like a sponge. He was brought in because he was athletic enough to stop the first shot, even on two-on-ones, and then let his defensemen clear out the rebounds. The blue-liners control the front of the net, the forwards hang back far enough to get the puck on a short pass from the defense and counter with speed. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

After losses you can usually hear Mr. Boucher talk about “gap control”. The “gap” he is talking about is between the forwards and the defensemen. When the Lightning are struggling (which seems to be far too often this year) the forwards are breaking out of the zone too early and forcing the defensemen to hit them with long passes. While once in a blue moon it leads to the odd man rush, more often than not it leads to a turnover at the blue line or in the neutral zone.

Turnovers lead to more shots, which lead to more goals. So, just switching goalies isn’t going to help. They need to play better on defense. Which is something I think they will do once Mattias Ohlund returns from injury and the new players they brought in fully adapt to the system. Of the 7 defenseman on the roster only Pavel Kubina, Brett Clark and Vic Hedman have played more than one full season with the team. There is a learning curve to Mr. Boucher’s system that takes time.

One thing that can help right away is to improve their special teams. With the firepower they can roll out with the extra man, there is no excuse for them to be converting only 15.7% of their opportunities. With the Lightning that means grinding more goals out from in front of the net. They do get in ruts when they become infatuated with scoring the prettiest goal in NHL history. That leads to a lot of passing when it might be a better idea to throw the puck on net and let the bangers like Ryan Malone and Brett Connolly put in a rebound or two.

There was a lot of worry in the pre-season about the lack of secondary scoring with the loss of Sean Bergenheim and Simon Gagne. To the most part I think that concern has been alleviated with the play of Connolly and Vincent Lecavalier rediscovering his scoring touch. Marty St. Louis is down a bit in regards to his goals, but he is a streaky scorer who can pot 4 goals in three games and be back among the team leaders in no time.

The biggest concern in the lack of scoring department has to be Dominic Moore, Steve Downie and Ryan Shannon. Moore had 18 goals a season ago, and while that might be a bit much to ask for on a yearly basis, he should have more than one goal at this point. Shannon needs to start contributing a bit more on the offensive side as well. He’s been benched a few times already and he might start losing more playing time now that Dana Tyrell has been called up.

Too many shots into the goalie's pads - Getty Images

As for Steve Downie, this is a big year for him. After suffering through injuries most of last season he found his scoring touch in the playoffs last spring and was a regular on the top two lines. This season he’s regressed a bit and found himself on the third line and with only 5 points to his name. Even worse he’s a team worst -12, not something you want to see out of one of your checking line players. He has been a bit snake-bit, against Winnipeg last week he hit a post and missed a wide open net, so there is a chance that the breaks will start falling his way, but he needs to make sure he’s outworking the opponents and staying out of the box.

Actually, that would be good advice for everyone on the team. Through 23 games they’ve drawn 110 minor penalties. Through 82 games last season they only drew 335 minor penalties. As you can see they are on pace to draw way more penalties this season. Most of the penalties have been of the “lazy” variety. Those would be hooking, holding, or tripping. You get those penalties when you’re not moving your feet and you let the other players beat you to the puck.

Last season the Lightning made it to the Eastern Conference Finals by outworking their competition. That’s their biggest problem this year. They’re simply not working hard enough to overcome their deficiencies. Not even the second coming of Patrick Roy would help them now. I trust in Mr. Boucher to make his team realize this before it’s too late.

Favorite Downie Photo of the Year - AP on this one.

A Card Showin' I Went

2011-11-28T22:01:00.001-05:00

Before the holiday weekend I attended the Sun Times Sports Collectibles show. There wasn't really a good reason for me to go since no vendors accept PayPal in person and that's where my card budget is located. But I knew Sal and Tim would be there and they lured me in with the promise of free cards.

So I went. I browsed, but did not buy. Finally I met up with my fellow bloggers - and blogger aficionado Nick B. and swapped out some cards. I had one card for Sal and about 15 commons for Tim....I left with 52 new cards.

I was also able to live vicariously through those two and watched them bust a couple of boxes of product I won't be buying this year (Upper Deck Base and Parkhurst Champions). It's fun to rip packs even if I'm not keeping the cards.

Here is a sample of the cards that have been added to the collection:

From Sal - An ITG redemption from the National earlier this year and an Emerald Parallel of Steven Stamkos from Artifacts. It's numbered 35/50 and is the lowest numbered card in my Stamkos collection.

Some more Sal cardboard goodness. A Cedrick Desjardins Luxury Suite Rookie numbered72/899. Sadly, Desjardins is no longer in the Lightning organization. He could have helped out with their current goaltender conundrum. Next to him is a Victor Hedman Rookie Materials card from Upper Deck. The back of the card swears that he wore the jersey - at a rookie photo shoot. Big Vic is having a rough year so far, the Bolts need him to improve to have any chance of making the playoffs.

Just a small sample of the goodies that Tim provided. First up is a retro-parallel of Dwayne Roloson from this year's O-Pee-Chee set. Next to Father Time is a card that Tim thought was just a base set at first. Instead, it's an unannounced parallel version. It's the playoff beard variant. That's not a joke, the first 50 cards in the set have a variation featuring the player rocking his best facial hair. Seeded at 1:9 packs it won't be easy to complete, but not impossible either.

Finally, a Jimmy Wright Young Guns card. He made the team in his rookie year, but has yet to crack the line-up since. Hopefully, after a solid season in Norfolk he'll be back up on the roster soon.

The generosity of fellow collectors never ceased to amaze me. Thanks, guys!

The Indianapolis Colt's Humiliation is Complete

2011-11-27T15:49:00.001-05:00

Is Indy so bad that ESPN iskicking them out of the standing?

It's Mailbag Time!

2011-11-23T11:12:00.001-05:00

That's right, the only time that's better than T-Shirt Time is mailbag time. So let's delve into what Mr. Postman delivered this week.

We have a padded envelope from Mr. San Jose Fuji! I unloaded a San Jose Sharks relic card that was collecting some dust on my desk and in return he knocked off a couple of want list cards. Let's see what he sent:

First Up - the greatest calling card of all time.

Next - an autographed Fredrik Modin Be A Player card. This is the main card I was looking for as it will contribute greatly to my double secret probation wantlist. Modin is definitely one of the most missed Lightning players from the Cup era.

A trio of Murray cards that I needed. Love the oddball sets from Kaybee and Woolworth. Top it off with a Members Only Stadium Club and I'm happy. For those keeping track, once card with double gloves and two with no batting gloves.

Not a card, but part of a card set. It's a little, bitty Vinny jersey. From the 2007-08 Upper Deck Mini Jersey set. I busted one pack of this product and pulled a Mike Modano jersey, which I think I still have somewhere.

The card I specifically requested and forced Fuji to go hunting in his archives for- the 1981 Floyd Rayford rookie card. Boom! That guy on the left had a pretty good career for the birds as well. Mark Corey, unfortunately, did not. He appeared in 59 games over three seasons (1979-81) and hit .211. He did hit one major league home run - so he can tell his grand kids that!

Thanks, Fuji!

The 1,312,004th Blog Written About Sidney Crosby’s Return

2011-11-22T17:30:00.001-05:00

Islanders fans - at least your goalie didn't get hurt last night (photo stolen from USA today)

As far as comebacks go, two goals and two assists isn't a bad way to do it. Even if you're not a hockey fan you might have heard that Sidney Crosby, or as I like to call him "Canada's Tebow", made his return to the NHL after post-concussion syndrome sidelined him for more than ten months. So much ink has been spilled about the topic I figured another 1000 words wouldn't hurt.

Normally, I would pass anything Penguin related to occasional guest columnist and hockey guru, Link. Unfortunately, he's currently on the DL himself recovering from some off-season surgery and making him bang out a couple of pages one-handed on an iPad seemed to be a bit cruel. So like Dave Johnson filling in for Pete Harnisch with the 1989 season on the line, I'll try my best.

Mixed in with all of the deserved superlatives that Crosby's performance garnered was the typical backlash that followed along. As with most of the anti-Sid animosity it seemed to be directed at the media "over-hype" then his actually abilities on the ice. To a point, I can agree with some of the rage that fans across the country felt seeing the U.S. and Canadian media descend upon Pittsburgh as if it was the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals. To listen to NBC/Vs. on-ice reporter, Pierre McGuire, spend most of the night in a state of rapture was particularly grating.

Why so delirious? Well, we can probably owe it to a couple of factors. First, the NHL has spent the last 10 months without knowing if its best player was ever going to lace up the skates again. Secondly, the never ending media machine needed something to feed on.
The NHL knows that with the NBA on an extended hiatus this is their best chance to garner the affection of the casual sports fan. They need their number one marketing tool on the ice, and that tool is Sidney Crosby. Link, despite his injury, did send me the following comment: "The NHL builds itself based on star players and rivalry matchups…no star (esp. in Canada) is bigger than Sid".

Look, I don't like it any more than the next fan. I rolled my eyes when McGuire rolled out his "one of the most glorious nights you can be a part of" line. However, I understand that NBC/Vs. doesn't care about me. I'm already hooked on hockey, I'm not going anywhere. They are trying to sell it to the mass public. If you know why "Alexander Semin plays the bongos" is funny, or follow BizNasty2point0 on Twitter, then the broadcast isn't aimed at you.

Should they sell other players in the league more? Of course. But, skilled Russians with limited English don't play in Peoria. For all of the magic that Pavel Datsyuk can wield with his hockey stick he isn't someone you plaster across a billboard. Alex Ovechkin had his shot to establish himself as the best player in the league while Crosby was out. Instead, all he led the league in was tramp stamps and time spent at Russian night clubs.

Crosby has the perfect blend of on-ice talent and off-ice humbleness that public relations folks drool over. The Duchess doesn't know the difference between icing and off-sides yet she knows who Sidney Crosby is ("Of course he's going to get attention. 'Cause he's hotter" were he exact comment). When you have a player you can market to everybody, it's in your best interest to do so. You suffer the discontent of your dedicated fans, because you know they're not going anywhere.

There are fans that argue Crosby isn't the best player in the league. They complain that he whines too much, or that he is a "diver". Heck, even I managed a "Crosby is a diver" joke last night at one point. Why? 'Cause it's an easy joke to make and I'm an extremely lazy writer. Does he yap at the officials? Of course he does, but so does Marty St. Louis and nobody calls him "Mary St. Louis". In fact, if you watch a lot of hockey, you'll notice that a majority of the stars in the league spend a fair amount of time jawin' with the refs. It's just part of the game.

The other reason everyone made such a big deal about "Merry Sid-mas" was the media itself feasting on whatever story they could. We have to live with the fact that moving forward, every news story is going to get blown out of proportion. When I was growing up, national coverage (i.e. Sportscenter) was in its infancy. Crosby's return would have gotten a lot of play locally, but only limited coverage across the nation. The Baltimore Sun probably would have devoted three A.P.-sourced paragraphs and moved on with what was wrong with the Orioles at the time.

Now, everyone gets to sound off about it. Look at me. I'm a Tampa Bay fan who lives in Chicago and I'll still get at least 40 page hits out of this post. And half of those hits will come because I'm posting a picture of Sidney without his shirt on (it's all about the page hits, folks!). So writers who actually have a large following need to cover the story and find new ways to do it.

Drink it in ladies. (photo stolen from GQ)

In my old industry, the phrase "trying to drink from a fire hose" was bandied about anytime a vendor came in to talk about the latest new product. Monday night NBC/Vs. did their best to fire hose the casual fan when it came to explaining why the game was so important. When McGuire interviewed Crosby between the first and second period I'm surprised he had the audacity to look his Penguin deity directly in the face.

Think of all of the words written while he wasn't playing. From February to November it seemed like a day didn't go by where there wasn't an article or two posted about his status. Was he coming back? Was he still sitting in a dark room? Should he retire? Will he be able to take a hit when he did come back?

The day he actually returned to play was predestined to be a spectacle. Now it's over and the hockey world can move on. We can also continue to hit the mute button anytime Pierre McGuire is talking.

I Need Help - With a Card

2011-11-22T12:00:00.001-05:00

Hey folks....I'm wondering if anyone out there can do me a favor. I'm working on a project and need a specific card - a 2002 Topps Gallery Ray Lewis (believe it's number 36 or 37).

If anyone out there has one they can spare, let me know and I'll see if we can work something out.

Thanks!

Two Men Fought and Nothing Was Decided

2011-11-21T11:27:00.001-05:00

Goatee = evil Manny Pacquiao?

Pacquiao vs. Marquez III. A disappointment or more of the same? To be honest, it was a little of both. Twelve more rounds between two great rivals that should have been met with open arms by boxing fans. Instead, it was received with disgust and naked Mexicans in sombreros. Where did it all go wrong?

Sure, this post is about a week late in being written, but I wanted to watch the fight again (this time on a feed that didn’t resemble a scrambled porn channel) and score along with the judges. Was the outrage I heard immediately after the fight justified or was it part of a growing anti-Pacquiao bias?

So I tuned into HBO and watched their replay prior to the Julio Cease Chavez, Jr./Peter Manfredo tilt (I thought Chavez looked good against an outclassed opponent). After twelve rounds of championship boxing between Pacquiao and Marquez I scored the fight a draw. That’s right 114-114, right down the middle.

Could it have gone either way? Definitely. I was on the fence about several rounds. For instance in the eighth round I gave it to Pacquiao because he landed a left right at the bell. If he hadn’t landed that punch I might have had to score that round a draw.

If you’ve ever sat down and tried to score any of the three fights you know how hard it is to judge on a round-by-round basis. Pacquiao scores by being more aggressive and throwing more punches. Marquez scores by landing clearer, harder shots. If you throw away the first round of the first fight (Marquez down three times) and the third round of the second fight (Marquez on the canvas) the entire trilogy has been pretty much a draw.

In their latest contest, Marquez fought his perfect fight. He was more aggressive, he kept landing left hooks to the body and straight rights to the face. He frustrated Pacquiao early in the fight and won most of the middle rounds. Several times during the night he landed big shots flush on the Filipino’s jaw. If he had fought this way in either of the first two match-ups I think he would have won either fight.

On the other side, Pacquiao seemed tentative (Kellerman accurately described him as “muted“). He bobbed and weaved like the Manny of old, he relied on the straight left hand like the Manny of old, and yet something was missing. We were promised a more complete Pacquiao, one whose right hand was as dangerous as his left. He was supposed to be at the apex of his talent, having trained harder for this fight than any other fight in his career.

That’s where the disappointment comes from. Instead of “Manny Pacquiao” the man who broke Antonio Margarito’s face, we got Manny Pacquiao effective fighter who did just enough to win. We wanted to see New York City’s 4th of July fireworks and instead got sparklers in the back yard.

Perhaps the newer, more evolved Pacquiao just isn’t as exciting as the raw version. If you watch the fight again, look at how much better his defense is. A lot of Marquez’s shots are picked off by gloves and elbows. Manny’s jab is better and more effective. The straight left is still there, but he’s not twirling around the ring after he throws it.

Technically, there is no doubt that he is a better fighter than when the two matched up for the first time eight years ago, but as fans do we want a conventional Pacquiao who blocks punches with his gloves instead of his face? Are we bored with a Pacquiao who wins on points and not with a Tasmanian Devil-esque flurry of punches?

So, if Marquez was better and Pacquiao more traditional, then how did Manny win the fight? HBO’s unofficial judge, Howard Letterman, hit it right on the nose during the 4th round when he said judges lean to the flashier fighter. When rounds are close, they will give the edge to the fighter that is more active, be it throwing punches or moving around the ring. In this case, that man is Pacquiao. Marquez is more a victim of his conservative, counter-punching style than he is of any grand boxing conspiracy.

There are talks of a fourth match-up between the two pugilists. Why? If insanity is doing the same thing again and again hoping for a different outcome then Marquez is insane to think a 4th fight would be any different than the first three. The only way the outcome changes is if Marquez puts Pacquiao on the canvas, and he’s shown that he doesn’t have the power to do so at any weight limit. It’s time for both fighters to move on.

For Pacquiao that means Floyd Mayweather. However, it seems the dynamics of that possible match up seem to have changed. Mayweather is a stronger, faster, more annoying version of Marquez. A devastating counter puncher with superior defensive skills and the uncanny knowledge of when to finish a fighter. If Pacquiao struggled so much with Marquez, what chance does he stand against a fighter who has the power to knock him out?

Perhaps the close win was the best thing for those who hope for a Pacquiao/Mayweather match-up. Pretty Boy Floyd would never risk his perfect record in a fight he didn’t think he could win. Did Manny struggle enough against Marquez to make Mayweather think his skills are deteriorating? That’s the $100 million question. One that needs answering before the end of the year if they want to fight on May 5th.

Meanwhile, what lies ahead for the defeated Marquez? Hopefully, the last image we have of the great Mexican fighter is not him sitting naked in the training room with a sombrero over his private parts somberly answering questions from Kellerman. There is a long list of pretenders like Timothy Bradley that he can knock off and then retire with one last victory.

There is some talk of a bout with fellow countryman Eric Morales. If this was 2005, I’d be all over that match-up, but Morales is a faded version of his former self and watching Marquez pick him apart for 12 rounds wouldn’t be fun for anyone.

In all likelihood the money will be too much to turn down for both fighters and we’ll end up seeing a fourth fight some time late next year. Honestly, these two fighters could probably fight every year for the next five years and it would be entertaining. The only problem is, it wouldn’t solve anything,

Joy of a Completed Page - Sweater Style

2011-11-18T11:07:00.001-05:00

In celebration of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s win over theCrosby-less Pittsburgh Penguins I figured I’d post my first ever “Joys of aCompleted Page”. Since VincentLecavalier scored twice, and I happen to be a Vincent collector, he gets thehonor of being featured in the debut.

So Much Sweater Sweetness!

What we have here is a complete page of horizontal reliccards featuring the Lightning captain. Some of these have been picked up via trades, the LCS,eBay and card shows. I can state for the fact, that I have neverpulled a Lecavalier relic or auto from a pack. Heck, I struggle to get his basecards when I bust wax.

Now let us go to the numbers!

9 different cards

2 Manufacturers represented (Panini and Upper Deck)

5 different players featured (Lecavalier, Brad Richards,Steven Stamkos, Paul Ranger, Jussi Jokinen (twice) and Marty St. Louis (twice).

19 different pieces of jersey

3 colors represented (2 blue, 6 white, 10 black, one mixedblack/white)

5 numbered cards

99 lowest print run (2010-11 Playoff Dominion)

10/350 lowest number I have (2005-06 SPX Winning Combos)

First card I bought – 2005-06 Upper Deck Trilo3y HonorarySwatches

Most recent – 2010-11Playoff Dominion

There ya go!

Dan Duquette Does Milwaukee

2011-11-16T15:03:00.000-05:00

The fun part is over for Dan Duquette. He’s had his press conference, picked out hisoffice and probably picked up his first paycheck already. Now the real work begins – building theBaltimore Orioles into a legitimate contender while dealing with a fan basethat hasn’t seen a winning season since the days of dial-up internet. The first step is under way, getting chummywith his fellow GM’s at the winter meetings in Milwaukee.

The winter meetings are really the kick-off point for baseball’soffseason. While few deals are actually consummatedduring the meetings, a lot of groundwork is laid out. After all, isn’t it more fun to wheel anddeal in person rather than over the phone? Don’t expect too much in the way of actual news this week, but don’t besurprised should a later deal happen that the participants use the phrase, “westarted discussing this in Milwaukee.”

So what will Mr. Duquette be doing with his time in the “Cityof Festivals”? According to theBaltimore Sun, he’ll be looking to strengthen the bench by making some offersto free agents that he hopes will be finalized within a week or so. Exciting stuff, eh?

Let’s face it, the new man in control doesn’t have a lot ofoptions this off-season. Signing a bigname slugger won’t fix the fortunes of this team. Overpaying for C.J. Wilson won’t bring atitle to Baltimore either. Nor is theorganization really loaded with pieces that other clubs will want so big tradesare probably out of the question.

The biggest asset that the O’s have on their roster is AdamJones. A solid centerfielder who hits.280 and chips in 20 homeruns and is under control for two more seasons is avaluable commodity. On the other hand, the26 year-old is also a good player tobuild a club around. One thing Mr.Duquette has mentioned that he likes about the Orioles is the strength up themiddle with Jones, catcher Matt Wieters, and shortstop JJ Hardy. Those three players are the ones who are probablythe closest to being non-tradable.

However, should the right deal come along it wouldn’t hurtto at least listen. Remember, he has no allegianceto any player on this roster. His onlygoal is to make the team better. ShouldAtlanta come along and dangle Jair Jurjens in front of his face, they mighthave some serious discussions.

The biggest needs on the team are definitely in therotation. Going into the season I wouldimagine the only pitchers to lock down a spot are Jeremy Guthrie and ZachBritton. The other three spots are stillto be determined and I’m sure Mr. Duquette would like to bring a veteraninnings-eater into the fold.

Would Jason Marquis be a good fit? Depending on his price tag I think he wouldbe. When healthy he could be a 12-14game winner and give a team close to 200 innings. If they could sign him foraround what he made last season ($7.5 million) or lower, he might be worth atwo year deal.

This is not a strong year for free agent pitchers. After Wilson, there is a big drop-off intalent and prospective buyers will be wagering on a lot of older pitchers wherehealth can be a concern. While theYankees might have the payroll to be able to take such a risk, it looks likethe O’s aren’t willing to risk it. In my opinion, that’s the right move.

The competition is going to be fierce for the second-tierstarters such as Edwin Jackson and Mark Buehrle, so the O’s might be better offconcentrating their efforts on the Paul Maholm’s of the world and signing themquickly before prices escalate.

The trade front could be daunting as well, as the teams thatdo have pitchers worth trading for seem to be holding out for a king’s ransomin return. The Braves have let it beknown that Jurjenns will require a major league, impact bat in return. Whichever pitcher the Rays decide to move, beit Wade Davis, James Shields or even David Price, they would demand a similarreturn along with some prospects.

Frankly, if Jones is off the table then the O’s don’t havethe firepower to make a deal. If he doesdeal Jones, it opens a huge gap in their outfield. From what I saw of Matt Angle last season, he’snot ready to be an ever day outfielder. Thetop outfield prospect for the O’s, Xavier Avery, is at least one more seasonaway from the big leagues.

Tuesdays’ mention of Mr. Duquette meeting with David Ortiz’sagent sparked some chatter of their possible interest in the free agentDH. At the right cost he might be afit. If they would sign the Red Soxslugger I think that they walk away from Luke Scott and his probable $7million-ish arbitration awarded salary.

Of course, there is the chance that Ortiz’s name never cameup. His agent, Fern Cuza also representsVladimir Guerrero, so the conversation could have been about whether or not theO’s will be retaining his services for next season. While his power production dipped, he was oneof the few Orioles hitters that hit consistently throughout the year. Even at an ancient 36 years old, he might beworth bringing back for another year.

The third possibility is that Mr. Duquette was talking toCuza about players we don’t even know about. Cuza has a strong presence inLatin America and the Orioles VPBO might have been opening a dialogue aboutsome of the up-and-coming players in the agent’s stable. If you’re going to focus on developingplayers from the south, Cuza is a man that you want to be in contact with.

I don’t expect much to come out of the winter meetings forthe Baltimore Orioles. After all, it isonly the first step on a long road to relevance. Hopefully, it’s a step in the rightdirection.

Certifiably Awesome

2011-11-15T17:40:00.001-05:00

I was going to write something about the Lightning and theirroad woes so far this season, but decided to adhere to the “if you can’t saysomething nice, don’t say anything at all” adage. I’m not sure what their fundamental flaw onthe road is, but I trust in Coach Boucher to figure it out and right the ship.

Instead let us delve into the card collection and pull out arandom favorite.

It’s a Martin St. Louis Certified Champions card from lastyear’s Panini Certified set. I know Ipicked this up at the National, but I can’t remember if I bought it or if itcame from Sal or Tim. The memory reallydoes go when you grow old. For a cardthat doesn’t have my boy Vincent on it, it still hits pretty high on the “Ilike it scale”.

First of all it is shiny. Shiny like a mid 90s insert. It’snumbered, in this case 297/500. I wastrying to find some significance for the number 297 in Mr. St. Louis’ careerstats. Honestly, I can’t find one. So you’ll have to go with the fact that hescored his 297^th goal on March 31^st, 2011. It was his 30^thof the season and the game winner against Pittsburgh that night. With 298 goals for the Lightning he is secondall time behind Vincent’s 357.

The card reflects the greatest moment in Lightning history,the winning of the 2004 Stanley Cup. Anevent so shocking that the league had to shut down for an entire year becauseof it. Marty is definitely enjoying hisfirst skate with the cut, and I think hockey fans all around enjoyed theplayoff beard he was rocking.

While St. Louis didn’t figure in the scoring of Game 7, theywouldn’t have been around to play the game if it wasn’t for his heroics in Game6. Thirty-three seconds into the secondovertime in Calgary this happened:

The goal sent Lightning fans into hysterics, however,Calgary fans probably recall that game for an entirely different reason –Martin Gelinas’ non-goal in the third period that would have brought the Cup toCalgary. Unfortunately, myLightning-colored glasses will never allow me to have an objective opinion onif it was a goal or not, but for what it’s worth, I didn’t think it went in.

Panini’s insert set that this card is a part of features 25players holding the cup. Four of thosecards are dedicated to the Lightning. Along with Mr. St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Dan Boyle arerepresented, as is goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin. If I had been consulted I would have substitutedDave Andreychuk for Boyle. Sure Boyle’shouse burned down during the playoffs, but the Captain was such an importantpart of that team it would have been nice to see him immortalized with the cupin card form. For now he’ll have to settlewith being a background figure in Marty’s shot.

Being Panini there are about 8 parallels to this card, somewith jersey relics and some with autographs. The “black” version is the rarest of the rare as it is a 1/1. If you happen to have that laying about, feelfree to send it my way. I have plenty ofneo-vintage* cards that I can send you in return.

*neo-vintage is a term coined by Puck Junk's Sal in order to give "junk wax" a slightly sexier name.

Off Season Madness. Uniform Changes!

2011-11-14T16:03:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow, at 9:30am the Baltimore Orioles are going to hold a special press conference. Unfortunately, it's not to introduce Albert Pujols as their new first baseman, but rather to show off their new jerseys and hats for next year.

Reports are limited, but according to Roch Kubatko, they are going back to a carton bird on the cap reminiscent of the late 1970 style that they had. That. Is. Awesome.

Best Hat Ever, Yuuuuup.

I'm all for ornithological correctness when it comes to mascots, but the cartoon bird is my favorite logo of all time. It's also one, like having "Baltimore" on the road uni's, that fans have been asking for for years now. The fans get their wish and the organization gets to sell some new merchandise (just in time for Christmas!) I'd put this under the "win,win" category.

I know it's not going to change the team they put on the field next year, but sometimes it's the little things that make a difference with an organization. Getting the small details right show that they are moving in the right direction.

Oh and in doing my 3 minutes of research I stumbled across this article from the past. It's about the 1971 debut of the all orange uniform the O's rocked.

I'm not sure what part is my favorite: Chico Salmon's "It brings out the blackness in me"quote or the fact that Brooks Robinson's sporting goods store filled the order.

Either way, it's a nice way to start off the Diamond Dan Duquette era.

They Have Been Weighed. They Have Been Tested. Who Will be Found Wanting?

2011-11-12T12:59:00.001-05:00

Seventy-two minutes. Seventy-two minutes in eight years. It doesn't seem like that much time, does it? For boxing fans it hasn't been nearly enough. Luckily for us we have the chance to see another thirty-six minutes on Saturday night. That's when Manny Pacquiao faces off against Juan Manual Marquez for the third and probably final time at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Without question Pacquiao is the darling of the boxing world and one of its biggest draws. With an other-worldly combination of speed and power he has dazzled fans since his 11^th round TKO of Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003. In those 8 years he has only lost once (to Eric Morales which he avenged twice) and has beaten all of the big names in weight class save for Mr. Money Mayweather.

Pacquiao has fought 17 times since the Barrera fight facing 14 different opponents. Of those 14, thirteen of them have been soundly defeated, and he sent two into retirement (Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya). Only one opponent during that stretch believes that he has never lost to the Pac Man. That man is Marquez.

They first met in 2004 and produced the fight of the year. Despite being knocked down three times in the first round and having to fight the rest of the way with a broken nose, Marquez battled to a draw. The three knockdowns showed that Marquez wasn't prepared for the speed of Pacquiao's left hand. Once he adjusted, he was able to effectively counter a majority of his opponent's attacks.

When they met for their rematch in 2008 Marquez found himself on the canvas once again, courtesy of another lethal left from the energetic Filipino. Of the four knockdowns this was the only one that I thought actually hurt Marquez.

In the 9^th round, Pacquiao's repeated straight lefts would open up a huge gash over Marquez's right eye. The kind of cut that makes you say, "Ewwwww" when trainer/cutman Nacho Beristain is shoving his finger into it to staunch the bleeding. Despite the knockdown and the blood, Marquez would battle to a split decision loss. If Judge Tom Miller had switched one round to Marquez, the relentless Mexican fighter would have won the fight.

For what it's worth, I re-watched the fights (thanks YouTube!) and scored along. In their first match I had Pacquiao winning 113-112 thanks to a 10-6 first round. In the second fight I scored it 115-113 for Pacquiao. Over the 24 rounds they fought I have Marquez winning 12, Pacquiao 11, and one round a draw (the first round in the second matchup).

Pacquiao's best round of the fights is undoubtedly the first one of their first fight. Marquez was totally unprepared for Pac Man's speed and power. I don't think any of the knockdowns really hurt Marquez, but they did put him way behind in points and left him swallowing a lot of blood as a result of the broken nose.

Marquez's shining moment came in the 8^th round of the second fight. He had Pacquiao's timing perfect and was pummeling his opponent at will. There was a brief moment when it looked like Manny might go down, and at the end of the round blood was flowing freely from a cut above his left eye.

So what makes Marquez such a difficult matchup for Pacquiao? Is it his relentless drive? Is it his counterpunching? Maybe it's his patient, subtle defense? Or could it be his awesome Dave Matthews-esque receding hairline?

Most likely it's a combination of all of those things. Marquez is willing to accept the fact that he will have to eat a few punches in order to get his shots in. When he's had his most success he's been able to bury a left hook into Manny's side and follow up with a right straight down the chute. The key is to get that right off before Pacquiao can come over the top of it with his devastating left.

So what are the chances of Marquez pulling off the upset? If you're in Vegas today you would
probably be getting close to 10-to-1 odds, so it doesn't appear likely. In the previous two fights Marquez hasn't had a problem getting to Manny, he just hasn't had the punching power to knock him on his Filipino ass. By focusing more on his upper body strength for this fight he hopes to change that.

There is a trade-off for building strength. It usually leads to a decrease in speed. At 38 years old, Marquez is already facing the natural erosion in skills that comes with aging. Putting on weight (at 145 this is heaviest he's fought at) also can be a detriment. Most small fighters struggle at higher weight classes, a fact that makes Pacquiao's success all the more mind-blowing (Pacquiao's first professional fight was at 107 pounds).

The biggest problem, however, for Marquez is going to be the evolution of Manny Pacquiao. In their first matchup, the Pac Man was an energetic, one-handed fighter who bounced around the ring like Calvin after his third bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs and fired viscous left hands from every angle. Sure he threw a couple of right hands, but in a disinterested "yeah I have this hand so I might as well use it" kind of way.

In the next match-up, wasn't quite as spastic in the ring. Still employing a ducking and weaving stance that was hard for Marquez to time, he also found out that using his right hand could be effective. He was able to use a jab that wasn't a factor in the first fight to set up his left and keep Marquez at bay.

Moving into the third fight we will see Pacquiao as the truly developed fighter. In his destruction of Antonio Margarito last November, he used both hands as battering rams, pummeling Margarito with lightning-fast combinations. In their previous fights Marquez, for the most part, has only had to counter lunging, one-punch attacks by Pacquiao. Now he faces a fighter who can snap off three or four big shots per rush.

As the overwhelming betting favorite it seems unlikely that Pacquiao will lose, and with the prospect of a mega-fight with Mayweather on the horizon you might think he could be looking past Marquez. I don't think he is. While he might not have the intense dislike for Marquez that he did for Margarito, Manny wants to end this trilogy with a decisive victory. He doesn't want there to be any doubt in this fight. Make no mistake he is looking to knock Marquez out. Against a viscous counterpuncher that need for a knockout can be dangerous.

For his part, not only is Marquez looking to prove he is better than Pacquiao, he is also looking to cement his place as one of the great Mexican boxers of this generation. He wants to be on the same tier as Eric Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera. A win over Pacquiao will do that. He will no longer be the third wheel, the brilliant tactician who just couldn't pull off the big victory. He will be a legend.

As for a prediction, I have Pacquiao winning by TKO in the tenth round. (That sound you heard was the rush of thousands of Vegas-ites running to the nearest sports book to lay money on Marquez.) Pac Man is just too good right now.

I think the fight unfolds much like the second, more tactical, more boxing than brawling. The difference will be that Pacquiao can now fight that style. His hand speed and combinations will be too much for the counterpunching Marquez. That's not to say Marquez won't get his shots in. Despite his improved defense, Manny still gets hit. In the face. A lot.

Keep an eye out for head butts. With Pacquiao's lunging in style, and the natural awkwardness of a southpaw facing a traditional fighter there is a good chance there will be at least one clash of heads. In their second fight, a butting of heads in the seventh round led to a small cut outside of Marquez's eye. Marquez also likes to work the body which normally leads to the occasional low blow or two. It hasn't been a huge factor yet, but should Marquez get frustrated he could go Golota on him.

In the previous 72 minutes of their fighting each fighter has been punched more than 300 times each. Seventy-five percent of those hits were of the "power" variety. I see no reason why the next 36 will be any different. Enjoy them.

Ever Want To Own A Bieber Card?

2011-11-11T20:38:00.001-05:00

Go Here.

It's hockey season so I've posted some new auctions to help support my quest to own every Lecavalier card ever made.

FYI - The Cup is Not Pregnant (as far as we know)

Embarrassing-For the Flyers That Is

2011-11-10T10:50:00.001-05:00

It's funny how things escalate. Last night's Lightning game against the Flyers started off as a match-up between two high scoring Eastern Conference teams and ended up as a sounding board for all that is right and wrong with hockey. On one side, according to Pierre McGuire and the rest of the Vs. broadcast crew were the Flyers and the forces of good and on the other, Tampa Bay coach Guy Boucher and his team full of chicken sh*t non-forechecking players.

Let's get something out in the open right away. The Lightning play a trap. Sheldon knows it. Luigi knows it. And, of course, Admiral Ackbar knows it. It's known as the "1-3-1" and has been broken down by smarter people than I. If you're not familiar with the intricacies, go here. I'll wait for you to read it, I know it's kind of long.

OK, welcome back. So now that you're caught up with Boucher's system let me tell you how the Flyers decided to combat it. After watching hours of video tape, after facing the same defense four times last year they decided to do nothing. Literally nothing. Defenseman Braydon Couburn stood in his own defensive zone with the puck at his skates and stood there. He stood there for 30 seconds while the fans at the Ice Palace reigned boos down upon him. He stood there, probably thinking about his new 4yr/$18 million contract, until the refs blew the whistle.

Later in the game, after being warned by the refs that the puck had to keep moving, the Flyers kept the puck in their own defensive zone and passed it back and forth a few times, skated in a few circles until the refs blew the whistle. They basically employed the, "we don't know how to beat your defense so we're not going to play" strategy.

The Vs crew (or Vs./NBC/Comcast/Universal/Outdoor Network crew) were outraged. It was an embarrassment to the game. During the intermission, resident blowhard Mike Milbury walked off the set in protest. How dare the Lightning treat the sacred game that way!

Wait, what? The Lightning was to blame? How was that possible? The team with the puck, stood there and did nothing, but the team that was playing their system, the same system that they've played for more than 100 games without a protest, was in the wrong.

After the game, upstanding citizen Chris Pronger stated, "The onus is on them {Lightning}. They have to come and forecheck once in a while, too." He also said, "That was their game right there. We were making them look bad. That's not hockey in my book, but whatever. The league is letting them do it."

Ok, big fella let's take a look at what you said. First of all, nowhere in the rulebook does it say that a team "has" to forecheck. If there is an onus, it's on the team with the puck to bring it up the ice and score goals. As far as making the Lightning "look bad" I think the team that looked bad was the one standing there doing nothing. Finally, the league is letting the Lightning do it, because it's not illegal. That is the salient point here. Nothing is illegal about the Lightning strategy. Not only have they been enforcing it for over a year, some form of the system has been in the league for twenty years. It's not that much different than the system the New Jersey Devils rode to multiple Stanley Cups in the 1990's.

Why would the Flyers resort to such a delay tactic? Surely it's because Boucher's diabolical scheme is so stifling that no one can score against them, right? They must have allowed the fewest goals in the league, right? Let's check. Nope. They are actually 24^th out of 30 teams in goals allowed. Justin, you say, the season has just begun, that sample size is too small! OK, let's look at last year where they played the same system for 82 games. How about 22^nd in the league! Suffocating, that 1-3-1 is.

McGuire getting ready to say something annoying. Photo from Icon Sports

At some point in the game, the man in the glass for Vs., Pierre McGuire, asked analyst Ed Olczyk if he'd like to play in Boucher's system, or if "star" players would like the system. Olczyk said no way. Of course, why would a star player want to play in a system that generates a ton of turnovers and breakaways? That would be ludicrous.

If you've watched more than one Lightning game during Boucher's tenure you will notice that the Lightning do indeed forecheck. They are actually really good at forechecking, especially the Nate Thompson line. As Boucher stated in his post game conference, "When we have the puck we're aggressive with it, and when we don't have the puck we dedicate ourselves to being above the puck instead of chasing from behind."

In other words, their system adapts to their needs. When they are in the 1-3-1, they're usually up by a goal or tied. The reason they play it is simple. Their defense is weak. Right now it's even weaker with the loss of Victor Hedman and the ongoing health issues with Mattias Ohlund. With two of their top three defensemen out, they need help from their forwards, and that's what his system provides.

Almost exactly a year ago the same two teams met and produced one of the more entertaining games of the year, a 8-7 Lightning win. Guess what defensive system the Lightning played in that game? That's right, the 1-3-1. Granted they didn't play it well, but they still played it.

The uproar over the Flyers tactics will die down in a few days. I doubt many teams will follow their example to the extreme that Philadelphia did. Teams may hold onto it a little longer in their defensive zone, but not for 30 seconds at a time. What they'll do is drop their forwards lower to give their breakout more options, get to the red line and dump the puck in. You know, outwork the Lightning. That's how you beat the trap, that's how you've always beaten the trap.

Nothing to do with the story, just a great shot of Downie. Getty Images

Will a New Man in Charge Bring A Return to the Oriole Way?

2011-11-09T14:46:00.004-05:00

Tuesday was not a bad day for the Baltimore Orioles organization. They introduced a new GM, excuse me, a new Vice President of Baseball Operations, had a pitcher cleared of manslaughter charges and it Chris Jakubauskas headed to the Diamondbacks. That last one doesn’t mean much to the organization, but it does mean that hopefully I don’t have to figure out how to spell “Jakubauskas” ever again.

The news of the day, though, was the introduction of Dan Duquette as the man in charge of putting the Orioles back together again. Sporting a nice orange tie he started his speech not by talking about what he was going to do, but from where he came from. From the story he spun he is a disciple of the mythical Oriole Way. The first ball player he met as a kid was Brooks Robinson and apprenticed at the knee of former Baltimore GM Harry Dalton.

After story time, he got into his philosophy of building an organization, something he’s down successfully twice in his career. Duquette believes strongly that “aggressive scouting will build championships”. For most of the approximately 10 minutes he had the microphone he outlined a broad plan to redevelop the Orioles scouting department and organizational structure to better develop their prospects to either help the ball club or be of use as bargaining chips for major league talent.

He believes that the Orioles need to be aggressive in the international market, something that has been severely lacking in recent years. I’m assuming that means not only the Latin America market, but also emerging markets such as China and possibly Korea. He acknowledged that statistical analysis will be important as well, which is sure to placate the sabermeticians in the fan base.

Those fans looking for a quick fix are going to be in for a bit of a letdown. . During the question-and-answer phase of the press conference he inferred that the Orioles would not be players for the big names such as Prince Fielder and CJ Wilson. The organization isn’t in a position where one player is going to make a difference so it appears he’s going to take those resources and use them to build depth and develop their internal prospects.

That fits in with what he’s done in past organizations. With both Montreal and Boston he worked to develop prospects within the organization and sought out the lower-tier free agents that were low-risk, high-reward type players. Only when a team was solidly built would he splurge on a player like Manny Ramariz (Cleveland Manny not Tampa Bay Manny). It sounds like he’ll spend the next few weeks analyzing the talent within the system, finding someone to take over as the minor league pitching coordinator and install a scouting director.

Though he never said it directly, it looks like the O’s fans have another rebuilding effort to look forward to. There will be no splashy free agent signings this Christmas under the tree, rather some second tier filler to build up the weak spots (namely the rotation). One thing that did appeal to Duquette about the current roster was the strength up the middle with Matt Wieters behind the plate, JJ Hardy at short and Adam Jones roaming centerfield.

I don’t know if there is any significance to him not mentioning Brian Roberts and that could become a sticking point with Duquette’s boss. It’s pretty well acknowledged that Roberts is a favorite of owner Peter Angelos. The millionaire owner might not be as involved with player decisions as he has been in the past, but if Duquette makes noise about severing ties with the longest tenured Oriole it might lead to some friction in marriage.

The new GM will have a short leash with the fans. After the dismal results the Andy McPhail era produced, O’s fans aren’t going to embrace another rebuild with open arms. They want wins on the field. Duquette claims that he wants to follow the Earl Weaver philosophy of “winning every game, every day” but how he’s going to do that next season in an extremely competitive American League East with the roster as it’s now constructed will be a mystery.

The good thing about a new GM is that he has no loyalty to players on the roster or prospects in the system. If another club comes calling for some of the O’s top prospects during the winter meetings, Duquette will be more inclined to listen than his predecessor. Does that mean he’s going to trade Manny Machado and Zach Britton? Not necessarily, but it could be an option should the right deal be on the table.

One moment did bother me a little bit. While answering a question about bringing in free agents he dismissively answered the questions with a chuckle and stated the he, "won't have any trouble getting players to take my money". Apparently, someone hasn't been following the organization's trouble with free agents over the past few years. Hopefully, once he puts the house in order the Orioles will no longer be the "mystery team" that gets left at the alter every off-season.

There is no doubt that the Orioles organization is in shambles. They lack a strong international scouting department. They haven’t developed players at a successful rate. The future aces fans have waited three years for floundered last season. Duquette has pledged to change that. From his opening speech it appears that they are going to follow the Rays model of success instead of the Yankees. That’s not a bad thing, but it does require patience. Patience from the fans and patience from his owner.

The O’s do have a solid nucleus up the middle, and their pitching staff has shown moments of hope over the last two years. It’s not a lot to build off of, but hopefully with Duquette and manager Buck Sholwalter running things there is a slimmer of hope that the Baltimore fans can look forward to playing meaningful games in October.