Two Six Packs and a Prediction

The whole week I was planning on doing a special Kenner SLU card post for Chris (The Collector) and Jafronius.  But things fell apart after I discovered that I only had four cards featuring today's Super Bowl participants... which seemed a little underwhelming.  

Instead... I figured I'd show off six Kansas City Chiefs and six Philadelphia Eagles from my collection and then use them to help predict the Super Bowl winner.  Now I don't really have a preference in today's game.  If this game took place back in the 80's or 90's, I would have rooted for the Eagles since I was a fan of this guy...

1986 McDonalds Black Tab #12

Randall Cunningham was really fun to watch and I literally spent over an hour digging through boxes looking for his 1987 Topps rookie card, but ended up having to use this card instead.

Now I could have dug up the lone Patrick Mahomes rookie card I own to go up against Randall, but I decided to go vintage instead:

1968 Topps #171

Len was a little bit before my time, but I've heard my dad talk about him.  My parents attended Super Bowl I where Dawson completed one touchdown pass.  At the time my parents were big Green Bay Packers fans, so they were happy to see Dawson and the Chiefs lose.

Earlier in the week, I asked my father who he would be rooting for today and like me... he didn't have a preference.

Here's my oldest Philadelphia Eagles card of a hall of famer:

1968 Topps #162

Honestly didn't know Ditka played for the Eagles, but that's the team name is on this card.

2013 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto #FFA-CO

The Nigerian Nightmare is my favorite Kansas City Chief of all-time.  This guy was fun to watch.

1999 Topps Chrome Refractor #147

Donovan McNabb was another guy that was fun to watch.  He's right behind Randall as my all-time favorite Eagle.

1984 Topps #89

This dude intercepted Dave Krieg four times in a single game back in the mid 80's.  Gotta admire greatness... even if it's at the hands of your favorite team.

1986 Topps #275

I'm sure most football fans remember The Minister of Defense for his time with the Eagles... but I followed him much more closely during his time with the Packers.  This has to be one of the greatest free agent signings in franchise history.

1989 Score #258

Like Reggie, Thomas terrorized quarterbacks.  Sadly... like Reggie, Thomas passed away way too early in life.

2014 Five Star Rainbow Autograph #FSA-LM

This is the youngest player in this post.  I actually had several Eagles autographs to choose from (Bill Bergey, Chuck Bednarik, and Harold Carmichael), but decided to pick McCoy.  He's here for any football fans reading this post under the age of thirty.

2000 Bowman Reserve Autographs #TG

Travis Kelce might wind up being the greatest tight end in Kansas City Chiefs franchise history, but if he does... he'll need to pass this guy who some consider to be one of the greatest in NFL history.

2001 Archives Reprint Stadium Seat Relics #AS-SJ

Like Ditka, I didn't realize Jurgensen was an Eagle.  But I really wanted to include this card in the post, because it contains a sliver of wood from Shibe Park... which was once the home of the Athletics.

2016 Panini Classic Material #8

Did you know that there are only four kickers enshrined in Canton?  Stenerud is one of them.  I wanted to round out this post with a kicker, because in a perfect world... tonight's game will go down to a last second field goal.

As of yesterday, the line was close with the Eagles favored by 1.5 points.  But as promised at the start of the post, I'd let the cards predict the outcome.  The easiest way was to look up each player's AV (Approximate Value) on Football Reference, add up the numbers, and see who has the highest sum.

Here ya go...

Randall Cunningham (137)

Mike Ditka (67)

Donovan McNabb (138)

Reggie White (231)

LeSean McCoy (104)

Sonny Jurgensen (136)

Philadelphia Eagles Total:  813

Len Dawson (143)

Christian Okoye (37)

Deron Cherry (92)

Derrick Thomas (131)

Tony Gonzalez (147)

Jan Stenerud (78)

Kansas City Chiefs Total: 628

It's obviously not scientific... but if you believe the cards, the Eagles will win their 2nd Super Bowl Championship in franchise history.

Here is today's question of the day...

Who is your all-time favorite Chief?  Favorite Eagle?

Happy Super Bowl Sunday and sayonara!

Not an Expert... but Proficient

In one of our district inservice trainings, the presenter discussed the five stages of acquiring expertise.  Without boring you with the details, it just states that people go through a five step process (novice → advanced beginner → competent → proficient → expert) to become an "expert" at something.

It got me thinking about whether or not I consider myself an "expert" at anything.  Sadly... I couldn't really think of anything.  But when it comes to classroom management, collecting cards, and knowing Star Wars trivia, I'm confident that I'm at or at the very least close to being "proficient".

Those are three areas in my life that I enjoy and I'm eager to grow in.  Over the Christmas break, I found a cool YouTube channel dedicated to teaching Star Wars geeks like myself random facts that most people could care less about.

2000 Star Wars: Young Jedi CCG Battle of Naboo Expansion #86

(Photo from SWCCGStore)

In one of their videos, I learned that the famous bikini that Leia wore in Return of the Jedi made a cameo in The Phantom Menace.  Maybe I was focused in on Jabba... or maybe it's because the scene only lasts a few seconds.  Regardless... I've watched The Phantom Menace at least ten, maybe fifteen times... but never noticed it.

But now that it's embedded in my brain... my eyes will be drawn to it from this point moving forward.

I also discovered a bunch of baseball card variations over the holiday break.  Rod @ Padrographs sent me over 300 different Tony Gwynn cards last year.  I finally sat down and went through them to see which ones I needed.  TCDB opened my eyes to a boatload of variations.  And just like the Diva Shaliqua bikini scene in The Phantom Menace, you've gotta look closely or you'll miss them.

I found eight different ones in Rod's care package.  

1989 Donruss #128

I'm hoping my scans will be clear enough for you to see the very subtle difference between these variations.

1989 Donruss Bonus MVP's #BC-20

In regards to the Donruss variations, all six in this post have to do with whether or not the cards have a period following the INC on the back of the card.

1990 Donruss #86

1990 Donruss Bonus MVP #BC-4

1992 Donruss #441

1992 Donruss #425

I wish I could tell you which variation I had and which one Rod sent me... but I didn't have the foresight to jot down that information back when I scanned these cards.  If I had to guess, I'd say that all of Rod's cards are either at the top or the bottom of the scan though.

The Stadium Club variations are based on tiny letters on the back of the card which I'm thinking is related to the sheet they were printed on:

1991 Stadium Club #308

1992 Stadium Club #825

Now I wasn't exactly a "novice" in regards to these tiny variations from the Junk Wax Era.  I'd probably classify myself as an "advanced beginner" who knew they existed and even knew that some of them were related to "periods" and "letters".  This information was accumulated by exploring TCDB and reading card blogs like Nachos Grande who shows off these types of variations within his Barry Larkin PC from time to time.

Have I moved up to "proficient" in regards to these variations?  Probably not.  However I consider myself "proficient" in the overall knowledge of baseball cards.  I've been collecting off and on for the better part of 42 years and I'm continuously learning new things about our hobby.

And while we're on the subject of variations, here's a 2022 Topps Advanced Stats parallel that Reader X sent me last year:

2022 Topps Advanced Stats #617 (#'d 112/300)

You can't tell this is a variation by looking at the front.  You've got to turn it over to see the differences:

The first difference is obviously in regards to the advanced statistics listed instead of the standard stats you'd normally see.  But if you look in the upper righthand corner, you'll also notice this card is serial numbered to 300.  If I'm not mistaken, you can also differentiate these variations by zooming in on the Topps code at the very bottom, but I'll leave that up to the collectors with superior vision.

Luckily for me, Xavier had this card sitting in a top loader.  Had it been in the stack of penny sleeved cards, there's a good chance I would have missed it.  It's these types of things that keep me from becoming an "expert" in baseball card collecting.  And with new variations coming out year after year after year... I'm more likely to slide back down into the "competent" level than advance to "expert".

What about you?  In regards to collecting cards...

Do you consider yourself a novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, or expert?

As an educator, I probably should create guidelines or a rubric for these categories.  But we're not in a classroom and this isn't an assignment.  It's just a friendly blog with carefree standards... and I'll leave it up to you to set come up with your own guidelines.  Honestly... whether you are a "novice" or an "expert", I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and hang out.

Thank you Rod and Xavier for these generous donations to my collection and for motivating me to learn more about our hobby.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

While putting the final touches on this post over the weekend, I actually discovered three more 1989 Donruss variations sitting in my duplicate box:

1989 Donruss #128

1989 Donruss Bonus MVP's #BC-20

Yup.  Seems like the learning process never ends.  And maybe I'm closer to "competent" than I really think.

It's My Special Day

Today teachers and students around the district I work in celebrated the 100th school day of the year.  I've never actually celebrated the occasion, but I know it's something primary school teachers look forward to.

Personally, I didn't even know that today was Day #100 until I started doing homework for this post three weeks ago after I received this card in Reader X's most recent care package:

2022 Topps Allen & Ginter It's Your Special Day! #IYSP-15

I've wanted to add a copy to my Sports Card Smorgasbord binder since the first time I saw it on one of your blogs.

Unfortunately National Teachers Day is three months away and this card is too cool to sit on for that long.  So I had to get creative... and here we are... the hundredth day of school.  Yeah, I know.  It's a pretty big stretch... especially since I don't even celebrate it with my students.  But the theme goes perfectly with another card that Xavier sent me:

2020 Panini Donruss One Hundred #93 (#'d 023/100)

Not the biggest fan of Panini baseball cards with their lack of logos and exorbitant number of parallels.  But Buster's gear has a way of disguising the lack of logos and it is cool when the parallel plays into the theme of the post.

Here are two more numbered Posey cards from his care package:

2021 Topps Chrome Magenta Speckle Refractor #29 (#'d 198/350)

2019 Topps Heritage Chrome #THC-445 (#'d 163/999)

I was hoping to think of an interesting 100 day baseball record, but this will have to suffice...

1975 Topps Mini #330

In 1974, Mike Marshall became the first (and only) pitcher to cross the century mark in MLB games pitched in a single season.  Kent Tekulve and Salomon Torres are tied for second with 94 games pitched each.

In December of 2021, Charlie Trippi became the 10th NFL player to live to see his 100th birthday.

Signed 8x10

He passed away this past October, but obviously lived a long, long life.  Wes (aka JayBarkerFan) hooked me up with this photo over a decade ago.

And wrapping up this post is one of the greatest basketball players of all-time:

1992-93 Upper Deck Basketball Heroes #13

On March 2nd, 1962... Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks.  Not sure what NBA attendance was like back then, but according to the card back only 4,124 fans were in attendance.  As sad as that sounds... the Oakland A's had less fans in attendance at the Coliseum thirteen times in 2022.

Well that wraps it up for this post... and the workweek.  Thank you Xavier for making my day feel extra special and for helping me out with this very cool addition to my Teacher PC.

As for the rest of you...

What other interesting sports records related to #100 can you think of?

Happy Friday and sayonara!