Lightning Card of the Week - Autograph Prospects

OK.  This is starting to get downright uncanny.  On Sunday I got this.

That’s right, baby! It’s a hand-signed Steve Konroyd 8x10! He was signing at the Blackhawks game, there was a line, and I like standing in lines.  So I got an autograph.  Konroyd had a decent career in the NHL and now works with Blackhawks media.  It’s always nice to add a NHL autograph to the collection, but that’s not the reason I’m posting this.

You may remember that the last two times I picked up an in-person autograph of a former Blackhawk I ended up getting a Through-The-Mail autograph the next day.  Surely, that wouldn’t happen again would it? 

After working on a piece for The Hockey Writers I went downstairs to check the mail slot and low-and-behold I saw one of my self-labeled envelopes amongst the advertisements for Seamless.com and Comcast Cable (Hey Comcast, how about you match up your mailing lists? I just switched over to you).

Inside the envelope was this:

Brendon Mikkelson 2008-09 ITG Heroes and Prospects signed with what appears to be a small paintbrush.  Well at least there was no smudging on it this time.

Mikkelson was picked up by the Lightning in January for Blair Jones and has played fairly well since then.  The big, smooth-skating defenseman just picked up his first NHL goal in the 3-1 loss to St. Louis Saturday night and now has 3 point in 30 games with the Bolts. Though his ice time has dropped a little recently, he’s been playing around 15-17 minutes on a pretty regular basis.  Not bad for24-year-old with limited NHL experience.

A Restricted Free Agent after this season, I fully expect he’ll be brought back (and hopefully signed to a multi-year deal) once the CBA is figured out.  He’s not that flashy with the puck, but he can handle it, has decent speed (always a bonus) and has shown a proclivity for staying calm in the sometimes chaotic Lightning defensive zone. 

I guess I have to check the Internet and see when the next signing is happening in Chicago if I want to see any of my other TTM cards come back.  As they say in Norfolk, “Three isa fluke, four is a streak”.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my love for the ITG products in the past, and 2008-09 Heroes and Prospects was the first product I ever busted from them.  It's nice to rummage through around when the Lightning pick up players so that I can send the cards off quickly for autographs.

Showing him in his junior's uniform is kind of fudging the whole "Lightning Card of the Week" gimmick, but frankly I didn't want to subject you to back-to-back single card posts.  Aren't I a kind and benevolent blogger?

Yea! New Through-the-Mail!

Apparently the secret to getting my through-the-mail autographs back is to go stand in line for a free autograph.  For the second time in a row, within days of getting a free in-person autograph of a Chicago Blackhawk Hall of Famer I've gotten an envelope in the mail with my mailing label on it.

Unfortunately, for the first time I've suffered some damage on the return shipping.  It appears that the athlete put the card back in the penny sleeve before the ink dried on the card AND neglected to include the toploader on the return shipping as well.  Oh and I don't think they actually sealed the envelope.

But hey I still got an autographed card and it's a member of the Lightning.

Love the look of Heroes and Prospects

That's right, it's Teddy Two-Goals!  Or Two-Time Teddy. Or Teddy Two-Step.  Or whatever I call him on twitter when he scores a goal.

As you can you see, some of the Sharpie rubbed off on the penny sleeve and the signature itself is a bit smudges.  Of course, some of it is my fault.  I didn't prep the card at all, thinking that the ITG Heroes and Prospects set didn't have that high of a gloss on it.  My bad.

Still, to add a Teddy Purcell autograph to my collection is a plus.  If he hadn't signed a two-year deal before this season, chances are he'd be on the trade block for the Bolts along with Pavel Kubina and the recently departed Dominic Moore. 

Purcell was a deadline pickup for the Lightning in 2010 as Tampa Bay sent Jeff Halpern to Los Angeles for the young winger.  Last season was a bit of a breakout for Purcell,  as he potted 17 goals and 51 points for the Bolts. A slick skater with a sneaky quick snapshot Purcell has 14 goals this year and is showing that he is a valid secondary scoring option for the sometimes punchless Tampa squad.

He would be even more potent if he shot the puck more, but playing on a line with Steven Stamkos kind of prevents that from happening.  Anytime you are on the same line as the best shooter in the NHL you tend to defer to him whenever possible. 

Thanks for sending the card back Teddy!

A TTM Braves A Chicago Snowstorm

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!

TTM Success - Penguin Pascal

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.

A Through The Mail Day

A couple of years ago I picked up a pack of Upper Deck's first incarnation of a hockey based retro set - Champs. I gave it a hearty "meh" and moved on my way. Too few cards in a pack and a dastardly mini card.

I'm not a fan of the mini card. They always slip out of the pack and hit the floor. They're almost always part of multiple parallels and have mini serial numbers. Are they short printed, over printed, normal printed? Who knows?

So I put them in a box and promptly forgot about them. Till last winter. Then I decided to parse down the collection. What to do with these lonesome cards? Well why not send them out for autos? So I did.

Chris Pronger sent one pack (even personalized!) and now I got back my second. After more than a year - Carolina Hurricane star Eric Staal sent a signed card back.





Now I guess I should get the rest of his brothers to sign something, eh?

Let's Dust This Keyboard Off With A Mail Day!

After another lengthy break I've returned to the web-o-spheres. It's nice to take some time off to recharge the batteries and gain some new perspective on things. We'll ease into things with a little mail call. Both of these came into my world a couple of months ago, but I never got around to taking the photos and posting them.

As always, sorry for the quality of photos (there might be a scanner in the near future!)

Let's start with a pack of cards from a reader.



Michel noticed I needed some UD Champs and was able to knock one off the list. That's Mr. Hawerchuk down in the corner. One more closer to completion. In exchange for just a couple of MVP cards he also tossed in some Lightning cards, most of which I didn't have.

Another Vinny for the collection. A Marc Denis to remind me of the glory days of Lightning goaltending. He even threw in a Hall of Famer - Dino Ciccarelli. Tampa Bay was a brief stop in a long and storied career for the right winger. He did have his last big year in the black and blue as he potted 35 goals in 1996-97.

Thanks Michel!


Next up is a card I forgot about.




I sent out a few TTM's early last year and hadn't really gotten to much of a response. Well in November one came back. It seems Mr. Hamilton handles most of his auto requests after the season. What a nice card to add to the collection. It seems a battle with pnemonia has waylaid the former Ray, here's hoping he rebounds and puts up another great season!

With no plans this weekend and some bad weather on the way look for me to get back into the swing of things. Many thanks to all the readers out there!

Through The Mail Thursday!

It’s one of those days where work didn’t go horribly, I have food in the apartment to eat and I received some mail that didn’t require me to send them money. No Bills Thursday!!!! That’s right, thanks to the play of Antti Niemi and folks on the internet I had some extra funds in the PayPal account.

That meant I got to buy a card or two. While one is still on the way from Canada, I did get a card from California. I must apologize for the condition of the photos, one more paycheck and we might invest in a new printer/flatbed scanner. Until then, crappy photos are the way to go!



What you see is a 2008-09 FabFour fabrics card of highlighted by Paul Ranger and Jussi Jokinen! Oh wait I mean Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis. Nice two color piece of for St. Louis. It’s numbered 86/100 and adds yet another card to the Vinny collection.

In the offseason there are many questions still facing the Lightning and Paul Ranger’s status is one of them. After leaving the team for personal reasons about a month into last season not much has been said about the young defenseman who showed tremendous potential in his rookie season. Here’s hoping he fixed what needed to be fixed and is skating in the Black and Blue once again.

Item number two was actually sent to my old condo in Florida and I picked it up when I was visiting my better half in May.




It’s a signed promo photo of Vladimir Guerrero. I sent a 2008 Allen and Ginter to the Rangers facility back during spring training and received this back in May. He also included the original card in the envelope unsigned. Maybe he didn’t want to sign anything in an Angels’ uniform?

Vlad has been one of the best free agent signings of the offseason through the first few months of the season. So far in 2010 the free-swinging outfielder is hitting .336 with 13 homeruns and 51 RBI’s – all of that while playing in 57 games. Not bad for someone who signed for $5.5 million.

Last season it appeared that Vladdy was on the decline. He battled through injuries and only played in 100 games. Although he hit a respectable .295 he only had 15 home runs and knocked in 50 runs. So he’s already matched his power numbers and there are still 3 and ½ months to go!

With his free swinging style and wide smile Guerrero has always been a fan favorite. He has always been one of those players that you didn’t want to see come up with the game on the line. Part of the reason is because it’s really hard to pitch around him unless you intentionally walk him. And if you do try that he might swing at it anyway!

I’m not sure if it’s a manufactured signature or not, the “card” looks like it was a promotional giveaway as it has Dr Pepper written along the top right corner. Any Rangers fans know if this was part of set they gave away?

There ya go. Coming up sometime soon I review my box of Chicle!