In protest of Bruce Chen getting the Royal's opening day start instead of Hochevar I'm going to post some pictures of football cards. I know it's probably card-blog sacrilege, but I don't care. I'm very sad that Hoch doesn't get to face-off against Jered Weaver on opening day for a second year in a row. Now that I've got that off my chest, on with the show.
The third card I've added to my Denver Broncos Super Bowl XXXII Roster Rookie Set (I may need to shorten that name in the future) is one of my man Eddy Mac's rookie cards.
Until I got this card, I never knew that I wore both of McCaffrey's jersey numbers in high school football. I wore 81 my freshman year and then 87 the rest of my high school career.
And since I'm showing off McCaffrey cards at the wrong time of year, I may as well unveil this monstrosity.
This card is one of the few times that I'm glad they don't make cards like they used to.
Sure, it's a touch early to be making plans for next year, but I thought I'd get a head start on setting my 2012 collecting goals.
Obviously I'm going to keep picking up Hochevars, Fowlers, and Stocktons whenever possible and I'm going to try to get organized by getting my cards filed away in their library card file home. But I need specific collecting goals to keep me motivated over the next year.
The nice thing is, unlike most of my new year resolutions (i.e. lose weight, read more than 2 books in a year, stop killing hobos, etc.), I really want these goals to come true and I will have fun accomplishing them.
So, here are my Fave Five 2012 Collecting Goals
FIVE: Vintage Cards
I want to get my 1910 Murad T51 and 1948-49 Leaf (baseball) sets to at least 50% completion by the end of next year.
FOUR: Mustache Portrait Collection
Yikes, that's some bad scanning
I want to build a mustache portrait collection that is at least 100-cards strong by the start of next MOvember.
THREE: Manupatch Collections
I want to complete both my letter and logo manupatch collections. The MLB logo collection is 66% complete and the letters collection is just under 50% complete.
TWO: Denver Broncos Super Bowl Rookies
Obviously this isn't a rookie card, but it's the only Broncos card I had scanned at the moment.
A rookie card of every player on the Denver Bronco's 1997 Super Bowl winning team. When a rookie can't be found, I will make due with any card that can be found. HERE is the 1998 roster. Key players include Elway, Davis, McCaffrey, Sharp, Romanowski, Atwater, and Elam.
ONE: Eck Trifecta
A rookie, a relic, and an autograph of the greatest mustache/mullet combo in history, Dennis Eckersley. I also wouldn't mind getting my Eck collection above 100 cards.
There you have it. Even if I don't reach these goals, even attempting them is going to make 2012 a great year of collecting in the Manupatches and Mustaches house.
Once I saw Bad Wax's Secret Santa idea, I knew it was something of which I wanted to be a part. I've had fun searching ebay for cards to send away in trade (Dennis and Greg know what I'm talking about) and the thought of receiving a "surprise" gift in the mail sealed the deal for me.
Earlier this week, I received my package, and, just like in real life, the package didn't make it to Christmas before I opened it (but to be fair to me, I had no idea it was a "Christmas gift").
And, suffice to say, my Secret Santa is this year's winner. I am almost ashamed to send off my Secret Santa gift, because it pales in comparison to this one.
My Secret Santa hit upon four of my personal collection categories and sent along a staggering nine cards.
First, my Colorado Collection increased to 14-cards with this LenDale White autograph.
Next, my Eddy Mac collection got a card closer to hitting the Trifecta with this jersey relic. Even better was that a piece of Rod Smith's jersey is also attached.
And I love that they tell when and where Eddy wore the jersey. If the card back is to be trusted, this jersey could have remnants of Mile High Stadium's final season's turf on it. Anyone have a home cloning kit handy?
My Secret Santa didn't stop there because he added another Dexter Fowler autograph to my collection. These Goudy Graphs are one of my all-time favorite autograph cards. This one is pitch-perfect from top to bottom.
And, last, but certainly not least, my Secret Santa sent along SIX!!!! team logo cards for my MLB Manupatch collection.
When these beauties started spilling out of the bubble mailer, I was dumbstruck by the kindness and generosity that my Secret Santa displayed.
I don't know if you blog and I don't have your email, but if you see this Mike D, thanks a ton!
My wife's computer is "in the shop" until a new battery charger arrives later this week, which means she's using my computer during the day to study for her bar exam. Therefore, I'm doing some late night blogging.
I was looking through some of my binders and thought I'd do a few Fave Fives of some of my Colorado sports card collections over the next week or so, with some purchases and trades sprinkled in as they arrive in the mail.
Today's Fave Five is going to feature my favorite football player of all time: Ed McCaffrey. I've previously explained my love for Eddy Mac and, of the 43 McCaffrey cards I own, these are my Fave Five.
FIVE: Concentration
FOUR: Gallery Portrait
THREE: Mile High Salute
TWO: Intensity
ONE: Up in the Air
I'd eventually like to add a McCaffrey autograph, jersey relice, and rookie card to my collection, especially if anyone has one they'd like to trade away. If that someone is you, please let me know.
When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, I only rooted for one local (i.e. in my state) professional sports team, the Denver Broncos.
Colorado is Broncos country and I was raised on the Orange Crush from an early age. When I played football in my yard with the neighbor kids, I would pretend to be John Elway passing to the Three Amigos on offense and I was always Karl Mecklenburg when it was my turn to play defense.
By the time I got to high school, the Broncos had ditched their Orange Crush uniforms and had finally surrounded Elway with the talent he needed to win his first Super Bowl. While Terrel Davis, Bill Romanowski, Rod Smith, Steve Atwater, Shannon Sharpe, and Elway were the popular players of this time, Ed McCaffrey was the player I looked up to and attempted to emulate.
Eddy was everything I wanted to be on the football field. He was tough, gritty, scrappy, and fast. I was skinny, slow, and did not enjoy being tackled or hit, which was not the ideal skill set for football. But, I did the best I could and I contend I looked just as cool wearing 87 on my jersey as Ed.
To make matters worse (or maybe better, depending on how you look at it) our football team was a rushing team. During my high school career, my classmate Wade Sumpter rushed for 6441 yards (5th all-time in the state) on 723 attempts (7th all-time) and scored 110 touchdowns (3rd all-time) for 676 points (3rd all-time). You don't reach those numbers by passing often.
I spent my freshman, sophomore, and junior years playing on the JV team. I just wasn't big enough, fast enough, or tough enough to play at the varsity level. But during my senior year, after a few players ahead of me on the depth chart got injured, I became a starter on the varsity team. I ended up being a decent tight end (I was too slow to play flanker, so they hid me on the line) and made the All-Conference team.
Ed McCaffrey was a team player and did what was necessary for his team to win. He wasn't the star of the team, but without him, the Broncos may not have won back-to-back Super Bowls.
Unfortunately I wasn't collecting cards while Ed was an active player in the League, so here are some cards I picked up at my LCS a while back.
BONUS VIDEO of one of the greatest crack-back blocks in NFL history. Ed lays-out a Green Bay defender and completes it with a finger-point (and please excuse the accompanying music).
