Sports Card Bust #8: Rick Mirer

Two for the price of one. Last month, I picked up a Rick Mirer card for my Seahawks PC and quickly posted it HERE. Then yesterday morning a member on SCF posted a few suggestions to my sports bust thread and low and behold, Mr. Mirer's name popped up. I'm not sure why his name never occurred to me. It's probably because he played on one of my favorite teams and I was in denial. Well there's no hiding from the facts. Rick Mirer is definitely a sports card bust.

He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the first round with the number two pick in the draft. Drew Bledsoe was the first overall pick and he went on to play in four Pro Bowls. In fact there were three other Pro Bowl quarterbacks chosen after Mr. Mirer: Mark Brunell (5th round), Elvis Grbac (8th round), and Trent Green (8th round). Other notable players chosen after Rick Mirer were Michael Strahan, John Lynch, and Jerome Bettis.

But let's get on with the show. Mr. Mirer played for five different teams during his 8 year tenure in the NFL. During those 8 years, he racked up the following stats:

Career QB Rating: 63.5
Career Passing TD's: 50
Career Interceptions: 76
Career Record (Starter): 24 wins - 44 losses

These stats will never earn him a spot in Canton, however Mr. Mirer has earned himself two different spots in my collection. The first spot is in my Seahawks PC and now thanks to jnuh (of SCF), he's part of my sports bust PC.

Sports Card Bust #7: Curtis Enis

My newest Sports Card Bust PC addition has actually been sitting in my "trade bait" box for over 10 years. Luckily, nobody ever snatched this beauty from me. It's a 1998 Skybox Thunder "Chicago Convention Autograph" #NNO Curtis Enis.

If you're a Penn State fan, then you know who Curtis Enis is. If you're a Bears fan, then unfortunately you also probably know who Curtis Enis is.

Joe Paterno rewarded Curtis Enis with his first start against USC during his sophomore year. Curtis Enis rewarded Joe Paterno with 27 carries for 241 yards and three touchdowns in a 24-7 victory over the Trojans. Mr. Enis went on to rush for over 3,000 yards and 36 touchdowns in three seasons as a Nittany Lion. According to SI's War Room report, he had a body of a linebacker and the moves of a much smaller back. He was considered the most complete "big back" in the draft and was a lock as a top 10 pick.

So it wasn't too big of a surprise when the Chicago Bears drafted him with the #5 pick in the 1998 NFL draft. What is a surprise is that Mr. Enis only lasted three seasons in the NFL. Here are the stats I found for Curtis Enis on pro-football-reference.com:

Rushing Yards: 1,497 (his best year was in 1999, when he rushed for 916 yards)
YPC: 3.3 yards per carry
Touchdowns: 6 (4 rushing/2 receiving)

This wouldn't be too bad if they were from one season. Unfortunately, these are his NFL career totals. He played in a total of 36 games, 18 of which he was the starter.

According to a blog I read (written in 2009), he is currently a deputy with the Miami County Sheriff's Office in Ohio.

FYI - Here's a list of notable NFL players that Curtis Enis was drafted ahead of:
Alan Faneca (9 Pro Bowls)
Randy Moss (7 Pro Bowls)
Fred Taylor (11,540 career rushing yards & 66 rushing touchdowns)
Hines Ward (895 career receptions & 78 receiving touchdowns)

By the way, if you're looking to trade away some of your autographs of sports card busts, please email me at: sanjosefuji@yahoo.com

You can find my current wantlist here: Sports Card Bust Wantlist

PC Addition - Ozzie Smith Autographed Baseball

At the end of April, Steiner Sports offered 3 autographed baseballs for $99. I chose two Ozzie Smith autographed baseballs and a Bob Feller autographed baseball. When all was said and done, I paid just under $110 and had them delivered to my doorstep. Steiner Sports even threw in three really nice wood/glass ball holders that they sell on their site for $24.99 a piece.

It's not my first autographed baseball (I had a baseball signed by former San Jose Sharks winger, Owen Nolan... but that's another story), but it is my first baseball signed by a baseball player. And I'm glad to say he's one of my favorite players of all-time.
The first time I saw him do his famous flip, I was hooked and a fan for life.

In his 19 year career he...

- was an all-star 15 times- won the gold glove 13 times in a row (from 1980 to 1992)

- collected 2,460 bases

- stole 580 bases

- won the 1985 NLCS MVP award

- played 2,511 games at SS (3rd all-time behind Omar Vizquel & Luis Aparicio)

- earned a spot at Cooperstown in 2002 (collected an amazing 91.7% of the HOF ballots)

To Bust or Not To Bust...

Some of my favorite autographs are from the Topps Retired series, which were produced in 2003, 2004, and 2005. All of them have on-card autographs and were encapsulated in holders with a Topps seal. Recently, I picked up a three of these autographs off of Beckett. The first one is a Dave Stieb autograph from the 2004 set. Next is another 2004 autograph of Wally Joyner. And last, but not least is a Joe Rudi autograph from the 2003 set. Since, I purchased these off of Beckett, I wasn't able to see what the cards looked like beforehand. And unfortunately, both of the 2004 autographs had scratched holders. Luckily, the Joe Rudi case was in decent (not perfect, but acceptable) condition. So that brings me to my first question. Would you bust these cards out of their holders if the holders are scratched?

I personally debated the issue for about 30 seconds, before I popped the Stieb and Joyner out of their scratched cases. Here's what went through my little brain:

Pros of busting:

1. They're part of my PC, so I want to be able to appreciate the autographs without looking at scratches.

Cons of busting:

1. They're no longer in their original holders.

2. If I decide to ever part ways with these, people may not want them since they're not in their original holders.

Well... that's it. Those were my arguments and so I decided to bust, but now I'm wondering if I made a mistake.

What would you have done? Does anyone have any other arguments either for or against busting these out of their holders?

By the way, I kept the Rudi in the original holder, since it was in decent condition. But I'll be honest, there's a part of me that wants to set him free too.

Sports Card Bust #6: Mike Williams

Some of you might be asking yourselves, what exactly is a sports card bust? This is something I had to determine before I started dropping money on this different type of PC. So far I've come up with two criteria.

The first thing I decided was that it had to be someone who was drafted with one of the top 5 picks in the first round. This would settle any debate on whether or not people had high expectations for the player, because anyone chosen that early is expected to perform. Plus, it would save me money in the long run, since there are a lot of #6 thru 20 something picks floating around out there. Multiply that by 4 since I'm focusing on the 4 major sports (baseball, football, basketball, and hockey) and there's lot of opportunities for busts to pop up each year. I'm not trying to chase down every athlete who has a sub par career, just the top 5 from each draft.

The next criteria for my collection would be purchase price. I cannot and will not allow myself to spend more than $10 on any sports card bust, and that includes shipping.

With that being said, after starting this project less than 30 days ago, I'm already breaking one of my rules. Allow me to introduce the most popular name in football history (actually, I'm not sure if this is true... but there have been 8 different players with this name to put on an NFL uniform): Mr. Mike Williams. I'm not talking about the offensive lineman from Texas, nor am I talking about the wide receiver out of Northeastern. Nope, the one I'm talking about is Mike Williams, the wide receiver out of USC.

Mr. Mike Williams from the University of Southern California is a wide receiver who was recently signed by the Seattle Seahawks. He was originally drafted with the 10th pick in the 2005 draft by the Detroit Lions. There he played two seasons, starting a total of 6 games. He caught 37 passes, two of which were touchdowns, but unfortunately had difficulty holding onto the ball. He was traded to Oakland before his third season, but was released after dropping a ball that would have given the Raiders a 1st down in red zone.

So, did you catch me breaking my own rule? Well, if you pointed out that Mr. Williams is not a top 5 draft pick, then you've earned yourself a big pat on the back. I decided to break my own rule for two reasons. First, Mr. Williams is legitimately a sports card bust. I remember people chasing his cards back in 2005, now they're sitting in common bins. The second reason is this card was generously donated to me by a member of Sports Card Forum (username: danielsweeney). There was no way I could pass up this opportunity of a lifetime.

So thank you danielsweeney for pointing out Mr. Mike Williams and for generously adding to my sports card bust PC. And thank you to everyone who's been commenting on my SCF thread and/or my blog. Your ideas are awesome and I'm in the process of tracking down more cards for this PC.

By the way, if you have any additional criteria you think I should consider... please leave some feedback.

Have a great week!