I'll often use songs to stir up conversations with my students and this one wasn't any different. I asked them things they missed and received a bunch of random responses ranging from places to people.
Anyways... it made me start thinking about things I miss in terms of sports and our hobby. Here's what came to mind...
#1: Topps Gallery
#2: Montreal Expos
I guess the 80's glam rock band, Cinderella were correct. You don't know what you've got... 'til it's gone, because my appreciation for the Montreal Expos continues to grow. They have a great franchise history, a sweet looking logo, and they represent the bleu, blanc, et rouge better than any franchise out there.
#3: The Sporting News
The Sporting News is one of the greatest sports magazines of all-time. They had everything I have ever wanted in my bathroom reading material: lists, charts, graphs, statistics, photographs, and excellent articles.
#4: Upper Deck Masterpieces
This was Upper Deck's version of Topps Gallery... and it definitely didn't disappoint with their beautiful artwork, on-card autographs, and framed parallels. I just wish Major League Baseball would hurry up and give Upper Deck their license back, so they could start producing this product again.
#5: Stirrups
In many aspects... my childhood and baseball can be summarized by one word: stirrups. When I played Little League, I loved wearing and showing them off. Whoever decided to start covering them up by pulling their pants down to their cleats sort of killed a tiny piece of the sport for me.
#6: Multisport Athletes
There aren't a lot of benefits in terms of being a collector during the Junk Wax Era. Many of us essentially threw our money away buying overproduced sports cards in hopes of an early retirement. With that being said... at least we had the opportunity to watch guys like Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, and Michael Jordan play two sports.
Well that's all I have for now. I'm sure a few more items will pop into my head. Until then...
In terms of our hobby and/or sports, what do you miss?
By the way... while writing this post it occurred to me that another blogger already writes about the same thing on his blog: Sports Card Collectors. Hopefully he's okay with me borrowing his idea. You know what they say... imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Happy Wednesday and sayonara!
18 comments:
I miss being able to go into a card shop and see the shelves full of all sorts of products and I could afford them all, or at least a pack or two.
Man, do I ever miss Gallery. And Masterpieces for that matter.
As far as the hobby goes I really miss Sega Card Gen.
As far as sports go, I'm going to miss all of the minor leaguers I got to know in Staten Island this year.
Topps Gallery! Good call!
I don't mind at all buddy. I take this as a compliment. As you know from my posts there are many things I miss and many more to come.
I too miss the Sporting News...that was an awesome magazine. We got that and Sports Illustrated every month when I was a kid but I only really read one regularly...and that was the Sporting News.
I also miss upper Deck Collector's Choice. And a lot of 90's/early 00's card stuff in general.
As for music in the classroom, I can never decide on a mix I like, because I always want to play a lot of rap/hip-hop yet keep it appropriate, and that seems hard to do without a lot of repetition. But the Social Studies teacher on our team plays a lot of 80's New Wave (and a TON of The Cure) and today our Science teacher was playing Round Here by The Counting Crows...I love getting to share awesome older music with kids.
Sporting news is a good call. Baseball digest a close second. Stirrups are definitely a lost part of the game. We used to take pride in sporting them back in the day
This has been a post idea since the early days of my blog. I've got it written down in the idea notebook an everything.
I miss almost all of the above. Gallery I could take or leave. Some of it was OK, some of it was forgettable.
cynicalbuddha - great call. i wrote about that when my buddy's shop closed down last year. i keep singing "where have all the card shops gone?" to the beat of paula cole's song.
junior junkie & the lost collector - i picked up a blaster of 2003 gallery off of ebay. can't wait to bust it open.
zippy - those sega card gen cards are sweet. never acquired them firsthand though. the handful that i own came from fellow bloggers.
sports card collectors - thanks for understanding. this post is dedicated to you and all of those things that i miss :)
spastik - i use pandora and turn on the filter. there are a bunch of stations i've programmed over the years. the only problem is that their filter weeds out the inappropriate words, but not the topics themselves. my 2nd period class started giggling during one of the r&b songs. after listening more closely... i hear justin timberlake singing about how he's going to have sex with the girl when the song finishes.
mark - i still subscribe to baseball digest. it's now my favorite magazine. i just wish they'd make it a monthly magazine.
the early years of topps gallery were okay... but it's the later years that i mainly crave
I miss the Expos as well. Anytime I buy vintage singles, I always try to snap up a few Expos cards just because.
I miss good painted sets, there are some that just did not do the athlete any justice but most are good. I also was a fan of UD Masterpiece sets, there is just something about the texture of the card and then toss in the framed versions and you have a winner from top to bottom.
As for teams, I miss the Sonics. The team was truly part of the heart of Seattle and were lost due to a lying thief (Clay Bennett) an idiot who didn't care what happen to the team until he realized he was about to flush his political career down the drain by letting the team leave (Seattle Mayor Nickels) and a an underhanded slimy commissioner (Stern).
I miss Upper Deck having an MLB license and Starting Lineups.
Totally on board with both of these. I made sure my baseball pants were high enough to show a lot of stirrup...and we had real stirrups -- not ones sewn into the socks!
I miss having the choice of two to four different flagship sets to choose from every year. And all the other stuff having logos and full team names, without huge copyright and trademark symbols.
I miss the times when my local teams (DC/MD) would have equal consideration on the sports channel talking head shows instead of them preaching from the altar of the big market teams. It didn't used to be a crisis in the sport if the Yankees and Red Sox weren't winning everything. This also applies to football and hockey....
I miss many of the things brought up here... Some of the other things I miss:
- Red, white and blue basketballs (even though I'm not a basketball fan in the slightest).
- Rack packs made with clear plastic so you can see some of the cards you're getting.
- Packs which don't have a long list of odds printed on the back.
- The Minnesota North Stars - love the name, logo & colors.
I originally had a longer list, and had thought about making a post out of it, but a lot of it came across like "Get off my lawn!", so I punted.
I miss going into a local candy store to buy cards and 1. Being able to get brand new 75 topps cards, 2. Not worrying the packs were searched for relics (cause there weren't any :-)
Plus ditto on the Expos and good art cards.
Adam - Until now... haven't really targeted Expos vintage, but I probably should.
Corky - Nailed it. Texture + Framed = Awesome. Nice call on the Sonics too.
Matthew - I'm embarrassed that I didn't think of SLU's. Kind of feel like Canseco after getting hit on the head with the baseball and having it bounce over the fence.
GCA - Sadly being a fan of several small market teams... I've actually gotten used to it. Although that doesn't mean, I'm okay with it.
shlabotnikreport - 4 for 4 sir. Like Matthew and his SLU call... I really should have mentioned rack pack and cellos. There's just something cool about finding you favorite players on top.
steve - wish i could say i collected back in 1975. such an iconic set.
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