30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

My Wall of Fame


Last weekend, I finally finished my sports memorabilia wall in my office. I've had my place for almost ten years now and up until a few weeks ago, one of the walls was left empty. The main reason I didn't do anything with it was because I was lazy and never dedicated any time to the project. Well after I framed my 16 x 20 autographed photos of Rudy Ruettiger and Jake LaMotta, I decided to finally do something about the blank slate.

I started off by hanging my Ruettiger autograph next to the entrance to my office. Two of my favorite sports movies are Rudy and Raging Bull, so when Steiner had their two 16 x 20 autographed photos for $99.99 a few weeks ago, I had to add these to my collection. After I hung the Rudy photo up, I then added the shelf above it. It contains all of my baseball SLU's that aren't A's. It's hard to see, but I have the following going from left to right: Dwight Gooden, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Rod Carew, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux (Braves), Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson, KirbyPuckett, Will Clark, Greg Maddux (Cubs), and Mark McGwire (Cardinals).


Then I hung up the LaMotta photograph on the far right and added my Oakland Athletics shelf directly below it. For now, there are a couple of extra memorabilia cards that I have, an autographed Vida Blue postcard, a Tim Hudson bobblehead, and the following A's SLU's (L to R): Reggie Jackson, Mark McGwire, Rickey Henderson, Geronimo Berroa, Jim Hunter, Jose Canseco, Walt Weiss, Ben Grieve, Jose Canseco (posing), and another Mark McGwire. So congratulations Sal, you called it. I own ten Oakland A's SLU's.


After I was finished with the A's shelf, I added the three shelves located between the two photos. I added the one on top first. It's one of the small shelves, so I put my Seahawks collection on since I don't have a lot of it on display. I have a couple of Fathead Tradeables, a mini pennant, a few memorabilia cards and these 5 SLU's (L to R): Cortez Kennedy, Curt Warner (the 1st SLU I ever purchased back in 1989), Chris Warren, another Cortez Kennedy, and Joey Galloway. Night Owl guessed it correctly and earned himself 2 extra points.


Then I added another small shelf at the bottom for my Packers collection. It holds my Favre Headliner and mini jersey, a Packers Fathead Tradeable, a Packers mini helmet, two McFarlanes (Bart Starr & Brett Favre), and these 6 Packers SLU's (L to R): Reggie White, Dorsey Levens, Mark Chmura, Robert Brooks (behind Chmura), Brett Favre, and Antonio Freeman. Nobody guessed 6 Packers, but Gmoses was closest with 7. 82RedBirds also guessed 7, but Gmoses beat him to it.


The final shelf was centered between the Packers and the Seahawks and is dedicated to my Lakers collection. It features a Byron Scott autographed card, a Lakers logo card, and these ten Lakers SLU's (L to R): Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Eddie Jones, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Byron Scott, James Worthy, Kobe Bryant, another Magic Johnson, Nick Van Exel, and Shaquille O'Neal. Night Owl called it correctly again and earned another 2 bonus points. Those 5 points took him from 9th place up to 5th place. Nice job Night Owl.

On Monday, I added the finishing touches to the wall. I hung up my autographed photo of the Rock and a picture of one of my buddy's wedding party.


Unfortunately, I don't have any room on the wall for my Sharks collection. However, I do have some of it displayed on my TV in the office. It's hard to tell, but there are three San Jose Sharks SLU's in my collection. I don't have the Sandis Ozolinsh figure, but I have two of the One on One series that includes Sharks. First is the Modano vs. Mike Vernon (on top). Then below it in it's original package, I have an Owen Nolan vs. Osgood piece. So just like Night Owl, Gmoses wins big with 5 points. He started off the day in third place, but has now jumped into a tie for first place.

By the way, if you look at the Sharks photo you'll see my autographed ball of Owen Nolan. This is a monumental piece in my Sharks collection, because it marks the day that he ceased being my favorite Shark. In a nutshell, he spent several minutes talking to these two women in front of me (and my niece and nephew). However, when he got to us... he blew us off. He actually complained about signing the ball (which I had signed to go along with his 94/95 BAP autograph (which has a photo of him holding a baseball) and ignored my request to have him sign the sweet spot. Anyways... I apologize for the rant, but I felt I needed to get that off of my chest.

Which leads us to today's question of the day. Have you ever stopped liking a favorite player? If so, who was it and why did you stop liking him/her? If not, what would make you stop liking a favorite player?

So here's the updated point total:

Spastikmooss - 23 points
G Moses - 23 points
Hoopography - 22 points
Tony Mc - 21 points
82Redbirds - 19 points
Sal - 19 points
BA Benny - 14 points
night owl - 14 points
TJ - 12 points
Play at the Plate - 10 points
Steve D - 9 points
Cam - 9 points
dkwilson - 9 points
Martyn - 9 points
John - 6 points
Jeremy - 4 points
Redsox101 - 4 points
(...Joe) - 3 points
Captain Canuck - 2 points
longlivethewho - 1 point
The Ranter - 1 point
lonestar - 1 point
timmy v - 1 point
dodgerbobble - 1 point
Sports Card Report - 1 point
After tonight, there's only going to be one more chance to win points. It's going to get interesting, because it's going to involve a challenge similar to Final Jeopardy where you will have to bet some points. So stay tuned... and have a good evening!

17 comments:

Play at the Plate said...

I've not had an experience like that with one of my favorite players, but I've lost any respect I had for a couple of players when they blew off kids, but signed for good looking girls. If you don't want to sign, don't sign, but don't use your little head to make those decisions.

Captain Canuck said...

I had the opportunity a few years back through work to meet a LOT of hockey players. In the years '98-2000 I met about 98% of the players at least once. ANd of those, at least 98% were friendly and cordial. Your typical guys off the farm now getting used to being famous and rich... I can't recall ever being turned off by a player's attitude.

Other sports may be different however....

night owl said...

I love bonus points!

I've never had a player disappoint me in person (except being snubbed for an interview). I'm not much of an autograph hunter.

I was once a Paul LoDuca fan, until I found out he cheated on his wife with a high school girl and supplied team members with HGH. That pretty much ended that love affair.

Daniel Wilson said...

Your wall looks awesome! Very cool!

Growing up my two favorite baseball players were Griffey and Piazza. I had to have anything of theirs that I could find. Over the years, that changed, but I never stopped liking them. I have been blown off by Griffey many times trying to get his auto, but it never affected my being a fan of his. The only thing I can think of that would make me not like them would be if I found out that they had used PEDs or something like that.

Fuji said...

After reading my post, I realized that I left something out. When Nolan brushed us off, it was at a Sharksfest event, where we had paid money to get autographs and photo opportunities with the players.

I was never able to obtain an autograph after their morning skate, but never held it against him because it was his personal time.

Which is why I dished out the money when we heard he'd be signing at the Sharksfest event.

Unknown said...

Kind of not liking Ben Roethlisberger anymore. But that's pretty much the case with everybody who rooted for him.

Very nice wall though. Very 'man cave'. I dig it.

Anonymous said...

McGwire really made me proud to be a Cardinals fan for a long time. Even when other people knew he did steroids I still held out hope that he was clean. It wasn't until his admission this spring that I really accepted the truth. It was a huge disappointment. I'm still upset about it because I know it's going to be a big deal again in a few years when he's eligible for the Hall of Fame. I really feel like McGwire, A-Rod, Clemens, Canseco, and all of the others let the fans down.

Steve D said...

I haven't had an experience to make me stop liking my favorite players. But proof of using PEDs would definitely do it for me. And although he was never my favorite athlete, I pretty much lost all respect for Tiger Woods after his shenanigans with a wife and 2 young kids at home.

PS: Although I'm nowhere near the top, Fuji I think you forgot to add my point from yesterday's question. Thanks!

SpastikMooss said...

Whenever a favorite of mine moves from the Sox to the Yankees, he generally achieves dead to me status. Ruins everything instantly.

I don't think I ever went hero to zero though. Tanyon Sturtze almost fell that way due to his Yankee years, but he's still from Worcester and he was never good as a Yankee, so we're chill.

Martyn said...

Great looking wall Fuji very nice.

He was never a fave of mine, however Andy Cole (English Soccer player) I used to work at my fave club on matchdays in hospitality. In the box that day was a family with an 8 year old boy. who wore an Andy Cole #9 shirt.

After the match I noticed he came into another box that was then empty, I went in asked him if he'd like a drink and also if he had a spare minute could he go to the box next door and sign the boys matchday programme.

He was in that box alone for 20 minutes, he didn't go see that kid.

The next week that kid was in the same box with his family and I got David Bentley & Matt Derbyshire to sign his programme they spent 10 minutes with him!

For me though steroids are a no no!

AdamE said...

I love the LaMotta auto...

Tony Mc said...

Awesome looking office!
I've never really met a player that has disappointed me but if I have to pick someone it would be Tony Adams, the former Arsenal captain. There was a time in the early 90's when he scored a lot of own goals causing the side to lose. It annoyed me so much that I ended up getting rid of any Adams stuff I had including posters and stickers.

Redsox101 said...

Johnny Damon was a player that was my favorite at one point then he went to the yankees I mean how the hell can you go from the red sox to the yankees then he went to the tigers and then mabye he was gonna go back to the Red Sox

Sal said...

I used to like Daniel Carcillo when he was with the Phoenix Coyotes.

Then he got traded to the Philadelphia Flyers, and the whole "Broad Street Bullies" thing went straight to his head.

He morphed from a tough guy with good hands to a sucker-punching thug.

Fuji said...

Contest entries are officially closed: Feel free to continue commenting, but it won't count for points.

Fuji said...

Steve D - I'll correct it in the next post!

Steve D said...

Thanks again Fuji!