Copy Cat Card Companies

Back in the early 2000's, Upper Deck issued a handful of products that resembled vintage Topps' designs...

2001 UD Vintage vs. 1963 Topps

2002 UD Vintage vs. 1971 Topps

2001 UD Decade 1970's vs. 1975 Topps

Fleer also jumped in on the action...

2001 Fleer Tradition vs. 1956 Topps

Heck... even Topps will borrow ideas from their older designs from time to time...

1963 Topps vs. 1983 Topps

1964 Topps vs. 1986 Topps

So I figured, I'd have my students follow in their footsteps.  Each year, my students compete in table competitions and one of their assignments is to create a set of trading cards featuring themselves.  I have always passed out baseball cards to help inspire them, but this year I went one step further.  This year... I told them that they were required to one of the card's designs.

Here's how they turned out...

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

Pretty cool, right?  I was really impressed with how most of them turned out.  Some of them are pretty obvious... while others are a little harder to pin point.

Anyways... I figured I'd turn this into a little contest.  Here are the guidelines...

A:  Determine the set that each of these designs are based from and leave them in the comment section below.  Here's an example...

By the way... comment moderation has been turned on, so all answers will remain hidden until the end of the contest.

B.  The person who has the most correct answers will win an assortment of cards from the team of their choice.  The prize package will essentially be a small flat rate shipping box filled with base cards, rookie cards, inserts, autographs, and memorabilia cards.

C.  If there happens to be a tie, than I will throw your names into the list randomizer at Random.org and randomize them five times.  The name on top wins.

D.  I'm going to keep this contest short and simple.  The deadline to enter this contest will be this upcoming Sunday at 6pm.

Good luck!  Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Plop. Plop. Fizz. Fizz.

Okay.  Okay.  Wrong company.  It's just that those four words along with the rest of the Alka-Seltzer commercial from my childhood is embedded into my brain and automatically makes me think of the word "relief".

And that's the focus of today's post.  Relief.  And when I say relief... I'm talking about relief pitchers from the late 70's to the early 90's.

I loved playing baseball when I was younger and I've pretty much collected baseball cards off and on since the early 80's.  However, statistics have always been the driving force behind my love for baseball.

While other kids were reading Green Eggs and Ham, Where the Wild Things Are, and Charlotte's Web... I was flipping through National League Green Books and American League Red Books.  It gave me an idea of who was good... and who was really good in certain categories.

Like many baseball enthusiasts, I loved comparing batting averages, home runs, wins, ERA's, and strikeouts among the game's finest.  But I spent just as much time on things like stolen bases, hit by pitch, triples, shutouts, wild pitches, and of course saves.

The fact that relief pitchers with the best statistics were awarded a giant gold plated firefighter's helmet only fueled my interest in closers.  Over the past few months, I've started to rethink what I'm going to collect in an effort to narrow down my collection.  One of the things I'm going to target are autographs of athletes I enjoyed watching when I was a kid.

Here are the relief pitchers that come to mind...

I didn't like the Kansas City Royals in the 80's, but that didn't keep me from admiring Dan Quisenberry and his awesome submarine delivery.  Mariano Rivera and him are the only pitchers to win five Rolaids Relief Man Awards, however Quiz is the only one to win it four seasons in a row.  I only discovered a few years ago that he passed away in 1998 after battling brain cancer.  He was only forty-five years old.

Kent Tekulve never led the league in saves and he never won the award, but his iconic pitching delivery and dark shades give him a free pass and automatic admission to this post.  I just discovered that he's the only guy in MLB history to pitch in 90 games, while in his forties.

If you mention the name, Bruce Sutter... I'll immediately think "bushy beard".  The guy always reminded me of a very young Santa Claus... especially when he was with the St. Louis Cardinals.  There are only a handful of closers enshrined in Cooperstown and Sutter is one of them.  He wrapped up his career in the late 80's with four Rolaids Relief Man Awards and exactly 300 career saves, which was the National League record at the time.

302 days.  That's how long Jeff Reardon was the all-time saves leader.  I don't really recall watching him play, but I do remember chasing down a rookie card of the bearded closer in the early 90's.  According to an ESPN article I read, he received his nickname "The Terminator", because of his intimidating fastball.  That fastball earned him 367 saves, which by the way is more than the number of walks (358) he issued during his career.

When Tug McGraw threw his final pitch for the New York Mets, I was only two years old... which explains why I'll always associate him for his accomplishments with the Philadelphia Phillies.  I honestly don't remember McGraw for his numbers or individual performances.  It's the cool nickname that stood out.

Dave Righetti is a left handed pitcher from San Jose who pitched a no-hitter, won the 1980 AL ROY award, and won the Rolaids Relief Man twice.  The guy should have been one of my favorite players growing up.  Too bad he was a New York Yankee.  Oh well.  Time heals all wounds.  I might not have liked him back in the 80's, but he's definitely someone I remember from my youth.

Last... but certainly not least... are three former Oakland Athletics and two former San Diego Padres who I've written about in the past.  Eckersley helped the Athletics win the World Series back in 1989 and was part of those great World Series teams.  Fingers is my all-time favorite relief pitcher.  He is my childhood buddy's uncle and played for both of my favorite teams, although I wasn't a Padres fan until a few years later.

Another pitcher who played on both of my favorite teams is Gossage.  But I remember him more for his 'state and his years with the Yankees... than I do for his time in Oakland.

Well... that wraps up my late 70's to early 90s relief pitcher collection.  Stay tuned... I'll be holding a contest this week for some free cards.  Details will be published in Wednesday's post.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

League of Legends

Imagine getting to meet Rickey Henderson and taking a selfie with him.  Picture yourself shaking hands with Nolan Ryan or hanging out with Pete Rose.  Plus... as an added bonus, they were willing to sign any single item you wanted for free.  It'd be a once in a lifetime opportunity, right?

Well back in September... I had that opportunity.  Only they weren't legends of the diamond.  They were legends of the octagon.

One of my closest friends makes a living off of selling autographed sports memorabilia and he needed my help obtaining a pair of signatures at the Bellator MMA Fan Fest.

The main guy he wanted was Kazushi Sakuraba.  He's best known for taking down four members of the Gracie family and is a huge name in Japan.  However since he doesn't cross the Pacific very often, his autograph is definitely in demand over here.

The other guy he wanted was Fedor Emelianenko... who is one of the biggest names in history of the sport.

I ended up meeting both of these guys and had Sakuraba sign my buddy's magazine, while Fedor signed a glove.  Each fighter also signed these special 8x10 photographs, which my friend let me keep.

Everything else was a thank you present for helping him out...

The person I was most excited to meet was Royce Gracie.  He's the guy who originally got me interested in the sport back in the 90's when he won three of the first four UFC tournaments.  However by the mid 90's... for one reason or another... I lost interest in mixed martial arts.

Then in 2005 a few of my friends started watching the reality television show: The Ultimate Fighter.  One of the coaches that season was Randy Couture who happened to be the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion at the time.

Although I was definitely cheering for Team Liddell, the legendary Couture played a big role in me rekindling my love for mixed martial arts.

Next up was Frank Shamrock...

He was the first UFC Middleweight Champion and was voted by the Wrestling Observer to be the "Fighter of the Decade" for the 90's.  Personally... I know him best for being Ken Shamrock's brother.

And last, but certainly not least is Cung Le...

Mr. Le is a local guy who fought out of San Jose and is a fan favorite in my neck of the woods.  He recently retired from mixed martial arts, but might return to professional kickboxing competitions.

Well there you have it... a warm September evening... hanging out with some legends of mixed martial arts.  It was very cool, unique opportunity to shake these guys' hands and watch them sign everyone's memorabilia.  Guys like Gracie and Sakuraba were very fan friendly and were my two favorite encounters.

Well that's it for today.

Any of you watch MMA?  Collect MMA cardboard?

Are you watching the Rousey fight tonight?

Although it doesn't rank as high as baseball, football, or hockey... I still consider myself a fan.  I'll definitely be watching tonight's fight as Ronda defends her UFC Women's Bantamweight title against Holly Holm.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!