2024 Card-vent Calendar: December 23

December 23, 2024:

2000 Collector's Edge Masters K-Klub #K21 (1272/3000)

As I'm typing this, I'm watching the Packers dismantle the Saints on Monday Night Football.  Playing on Monday night is not the same as it used to be, with the NFL expanding to more night games over the past 20 years.  Still, it's fun to see your team deliver an ass-whuppin' in front of the whole country.  Our receivers played particularly well tonight, and it's not hard to see shades of Antonio Freeman in some of the stars.  Wicks and Reed in particular shined brightly tonight. 

This is a cool see-through acetate card.  Back when there were more licenses, cards were better.  There is no disputing this.  Sure, this may not have been the leading company back then, but they were trying out new stuff.  I just wish that cards were for collecting, not investing.  I don't want to play a stock market, I want to create a scrapbook.

Trade Me Anything XVIII: #2

Yeah, it's been a long time since I've done a TMA post.  There's a stack of unopened packages, and since the trade you're about to see was delivered, some of the guys on the cards aren't on the same team as they were when they were sent.  This long-time-coming trade was courtesy of Brendan, whose patience I appreciate.  (Maybe I should do this in a different season?  Nah, it wouldn't be the same without the breakneck December rush.)

Giving:

#US194 Juriskcon Profar Rainbow Foil, #MYS-9 Juan Soto Mystical, #T89CU-50 Ketel Marte 1989 Topps 35th Anniversary Refractor

Getting: 

Brendan sent a nice stack of cards, and by my logic, they fit into a few different groups.

First up, Guys Who Were Brewers Up Until a Few Weeks Ago.

We're going to miss Willy, but in truth, the Giants overpaid.  Devin caused me more heartache than he will ever know.  I wish them both well.

Next, Yount and Molitor.

I wouldn't be worth my salt as a Brewer fan if I didn't already have these, but you can never have too many.

The MoCo (Missouri Connection)

Two great players.  I'm slowly putting together the 1988 Score set.  I'll have to check if I still need either of these.

FOOBAW

Some new, some old.

And finally, one oddball that fit into none of these categories, 2022 Topps Heritage #NF-15 Watergate Hearings Begin.  My mom was always proud to share that the day Nixon resigned, she put an American flag outside the front door.

Thanks for the trade, Brendan, it was a great mix of everything!

2024 Card-vent Calendar: December 22

December 22, 2024:

2023 Panini Instant #39 Dare Ogunbowale (#/87)

This is a really cool card numbered to a small amount of copies that I'm really glad I got my hands on.

If you've followed me in other spaces, you might have heard that when I was student-teaching back in the fall of 2001, Dare was a student in my class.  He was a really nice, smart kid.  It was a little disappointing to learn that he went to the all-boys Marquette High School, a silver spoon institution in the city if there ever was one, and an athletic powerhouse.  Fortunately, he chose to go to Wisconsin to play football.  He's not a big dude, but he gets the job done.  This card commemorates the game last year when he, a running back, kicked a go-ahead field goal in the fourth quarter against the Buccaneers.  Baker Mayfield and Tampa Bay came back to retake the lead, but C.J. Stroud marched Houston down the field for the game-winning touchdown with under a minute left.  Dare also did the kickoffs during this game after the regular kicker had to leave the field due to injury.  It's always cool when a player succeeds outside of his or her usual position, and doubly cool when you used to teach that kid math and reading and shit.  I also recall several spirited games of paper football (the folded triangle thingy and finger goalposts) during some indoor recesses that semester.

2024 Card-vent Calendar: December 21

December 21, 2024:

2016 Topps Archives Bull Durham #BD-NL Nuke LaLoosh

I have a confession to make.

Bull Durham is not on my list of favorite baseball movies.  Sorry.

It's probably a matter of not seeing it early enough in life.  This doesn't mean it's not a good movie, it just doesn't hold a place in my heart.

That place is reserved for Field of Dreams.  That's a film I know forwards and backwards, and the sentiment gets me every time.

 

My other confession?

I don't think Major League is that great, either.

Bob Uecker!

County Stadium!

I don't know, it just never really clicked for me.  I know it's a classic, and if you like it, I can understand why. It's not you, it's not the movie, it's me.

 

I've never seen The Sandlot. 

At the time, that was a movie for little kids.  Once I saw Goodfellas, there was no turning back.

The Bad News Bears is great.

Am I redeeming myself?

 

While I've got your attention, can I recommend Bang the Drum Slowly and Fear Strikes Out?

I own both movies, great character studies made by Paramount.  See them if you haven't yet.

And how about For Love of the Game?  Just an awful title (the phrase is botched), but a good film.  A guy is having an existential crisis while pitching a perfect game?  Until they make a prestige Dock Ellis biopic, this is what we have to live with.

Go ahead, call me a monster.

I'll have my feet up watching Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball.

2024 Card-vent Calendar: December 20

December 20, 2024:

1988-89 Topps #120 Wayne Gretzky

The trade that sent Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings took place in the summer of 1988.  I was about to head into the 4th grade that year.  I was not a hockey fan (at least, not an NHL fan, but we had/have the minor league Milwaukee Admirals in town) since my family didn't have cable television, but I knew of Gretzky through cards, Panini stickers, and sports magazines.  That year our teacher had us do an art project where we would find a picture and cut it out of a magazine.  We would then cut that picture in half, paste one of the halves onto a piece of white paper, and then draw the missing half of the picture.  I chose the cover photo of Gretzky from this issue of Sports Illustrated.*

I wish I could say that I still had this art project, but it has probably been lost to time.  (Actually, my mom still has a file box filled with stuff from school, organized by year.  It could survive.)  The best part of all of this is that I remember doing this project almost 40 years later.  Support the arts, every time.  They make more of a difference than you might realize.

*For some reason, I also remember the picture that a buddy of mine chose, a streaky exposure photo of sprinter Ben Johnson, well ahead of his competitors in the 100m final in the Seoul Olympics.  Ahhhh, 1988, good times.  We were some awesome 4th graders.

2024 Card-vent Calendar: December 19

December 19, 2024:

1984 Topps #299 John Butcher

John is absolutely hiding a knife behind that glove.

Just so everyone knows, the last name is just a coincidence.

Oh, you say that you would dare to cross John if you had been there at the time of the photo?  OK, tough guy.  I'm just saying it wouldn't be wise to chance it.

2024 Card-vent Calendar: December 18

December 18, 2024:

1978 Topps #299 Nelson Munsey

So, I'm going to link to something that this card makes me think of.  Perhaps you would care to guess what it is?

 

Make your prediction, then click on the link.

 

This is the link.

 

 

Were you thinking the same thing I was?