Look at me, gotta be, Centerfield!

On to baseball, and what's not to like. I have years and years and brands upon brands. I still think the 70's and early 80's has to be the greatest era though. Only a few brands and some great looking cards.

I told you it was coming and here it is...the GREATEST moustache in the history of sports. Go Rollie!!!

This has to be the best team card ever. Why don't they make team cards like this anymore?!? Though come to think of it, they don't really make team cards anymore, do they. Whatever, this thing is awesome!

Glasses of the early 80's. Not only do players wear contacts now, but they're missing out on these Wall Street beauties!

Yes kids, emulate your favorite players.

His name really is listed as "Wonderful Terrific Monds". Really. Note that this is a minor league card. I never heard of him prior to this card. Perhaps Wonderful Terrific was a bit presumptuous.

Finish that beard and you've got Abe Lincoln in that top hat.

If the hat can't fit on your head, your fro's too big.

What's not to love about these Braves uni's? Why don't they bust these out on throwback night?!?

Is this one of those beer helmets with the dual straws?

Blurry picture aside (profound apologies), love the blue uni collars. Only the White Sox...

Lots going on here...the tinted glasses, the thick stache...this guy was really a pro athlete?

Lots to love about this uni too. The hat, the stripes...maybe the Pirates would start winning if they brought back this look. Don't forget the hair!

Jim Bob Duggar played baseball?!?

Princess Lea...you played OF for the Royals!

Gotta see the collar twice to truely appreciate it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all!

New Camera...no idea how to use it

Thanks to a 4 year old budding photojournalist, our previous camera was broken a couple weeks ago and a new one recently purchased to replace it. The end result is not many pictures of the grand card project being taken in the last couple of weeks. That doesn't mean progress isn't being made though.

I'm currently sorting the basketball cards into team lots for (hopefully) sales on ebay. As a team collector myself (go Blazers), I'm trying to put together lots that I would like - no duplicates. So for basketball at least, I have a fair number of lots of each team without duplicates. These are mainly base and extras so I'm okay letting them go at pennies a piece. Cards I've pulled out with a book value over a buck I've sent in to Checkoutmycards.com.

Cards are slowly selling on COMC. I've sold 49 cards so far for a total of about $40. This is no where near my initial investment in this project but I feel pretty good about it so far. I sold another $100+ on ebay a couple of weeks ago on ebay in the form of factory sealed complete sets. One was 1997 Topps which went for like $57! I couldn't find anything interesting about that set but yet it sold like hotcakes! I'm not complaining...but it certainly was a surprise.

In the meantime, I'll muddle over how to sell off the 6 complete sets of 1990 Skybox basketball I'm stuck with and try to figure out how this new camera works. After all, I've come across a card of Horace Grant in horrible shorts circa 1992 that must be shared...

That's Just Wrong!

You know what I'm talking about...you watch certain players on specific teams for a number of years. You associate them with that team. There is only one team they belong on. To see them in another jersey isn't just weird. Its wrong. Here are a few such examples.

Mark Aguirre is a Piston. Not a Clipper. How did this happen?!?

Same with James Edwards!! Another Piston turned Clipper! Is the Clippers where Pistons go out to pasture? Not to mention the notation on the card that he signed with the Lakers. Even more wrong. You don't join a team 2 years after defeating them in the finals.

Thurl Bailey is a member of the Jazz. Period.

Xavier McDaniels...Sonic and Sun. If it isn't one of those 2 teams, its a mistake. Pure and simple.

There will be many more of these to come. Unfortunately, the holiday impeded my sorting progress somewhat this weekend. I did get some nice ebay and checkoutmycard.com sales though. Thank you black Friday!

Short shorts and Who Dat?!?

I'm am swimming in a sea of 1990 Skybox. The good news for you, and more importantly, for me, is that I finally got through sorting it this afternoon. I have about 6,000 of these things. And, thanks to a shortage of Gary Paytons, only 6 complete sets. Oh well. At least next week you can look forward to seeing scenes from a different set.

That doesn't mean that there aren't a few more gems from this set. Its easy to forget that sometime about 18 years ago, short shorts went away. Nowadays, shorts go down to players ankles. That's a good thing. Here's why:

There's a lot of 7'7" Manute Bol to see even without hip huggers. In these things though, its just an endless sea of skinniness...
Sal...dude...you're going to scare that little boy down there.
Alex English is a legend of a player. And thanks to the magic of photographic technology, he can be remembered for his lovely thighs as well.

There's so much wrong with this picture, I don't even know where to start. It was painful enough watching Will Purdue play basketball but I never needed to see that much of his legs. Now lets talk about that girls shirt. I may have had a shirt like that at her age. With the matching scrunchie her friend is wearing. This will give me nightmares for sure.

There are so many ways this could break bad...

And Mr. Short Shorts himself:

Yes, may the short shorts live on in infamy.

Now, WTF? Will the real Otis Thorpe please stand up?

Isn't it somebody's job...

...to make sure things like this don't happen?

Now we move on from what TF to who TF? Here's a series of guys that are hereby getting a shout out because I think they were shortchanged on their 15 minutes of fame by about 14 minutes. Don't worry if you've never heard of any of these guys. No one has.

Mike McGee

- 6'5 shooting guard/small forward from Michigan. Played 9 season in the NBA (serious?!?) and won 2 Championships with the Lakers (really...seriously?!?). Lanard Copeland - Played college ball at Georgia State. Played 33 games in the NBA before jumping continents to play for the Melbourne Tigers of Australia where he averaged 22 ppg for 13 seasons. Copeland played until 2007 in Australia before retirement.

Stuart Gray - Born 1963 in Panama. Gray attended UCLA. He played for about 7 years and averaged 2.3 ppg and 2.6 rebounds per game.

Frank Kornet - Played 2 seasons with the Bucks after being drafted 30th overall. Averaged 1.9 ppg. Played college ball at Vandy.

Ben Coleman - Ooohh, this guy played for both Minnesota and Maryland. Drafted #37 by the Bulls but didn't play professionally until 1986 for the Nets. He last appeared for the Pistons in 1994 after a 3 year absense from the league.

Scott Haffner - A fighting Illini collegetly, Haffner only managed 2 seasons in the NBA. One with Miami, one with Charlotte. Haffner actually saw action in 36 games during his rookie season, starting in 6.

Dyron Nix - Dyron played only one season in the NBA, apparently this season with the Pacers. Nix played college hoops at Tennessee. He averaged 2.0 in the 20 games played.

Tim Kempton - Selected by the Clipps in 1986 (being selected by the Clippers can never be a good sign) out of Notre Dame. Kempton did play for 8 seasons in the NBA however. Being 6'10" can't hurt. Kempton is now a radio analyst for the Phoenix Suns.

Anthony Jones - Guard out of Georgetown and UNLV. Jones played from 1986 to 1990 (ooohhh, this is his retirement year card). Jones also played in Italy after his stint in the NBA.

Jeff Sanders - Sanders played 4 seasons in the NBA, appearing in 55 games after playing college hoops at Georgia Southern. He also played internationally in Turkey.

Brian Rowsom - His college resume is nice, playing for UNC. He played 3 seasons in the NBA, for the Pacers and Hornets. He also played in Israel (they have pro basketball in Israel?)

Michael Smith - I can't look up this guy. There's too many Michael Smith's in the world.

Zarko Paspalj - Serbian hoopster. He played a lot of hoops worldwide, but only a brief stint with the Spurs. Represented Yugoslavia in 2 Olympics.

The 90's According to Skybox

Just when I thought I was done sorting the ugliest set of cards ever conceived...
I entered the weekend of sorting 1990's Skybox and realized I was wrong. Granted, this is the only truly ugly set of the lot but it sure takes the prize. Yup, those computer generated stripes really bring the game to life...or if not it's bound to give some former flower children acid flashbacks. And don't get me started on the short-shorts. They speak for themselves.

The 90's gave us many things, the least of which was tall hair. Did this sideways-do0 by Armon Gilliam drive anyone else crazy 18 years ago?

Aaahhh, and then there's the 90's uniforms. I recall hearing a quote by Charles Barkley saying that these Sixers uni's look like "something my 4 year old colored". I can see why these haven't made an appearance in a throwback game.

But with the bad came the good. These Denver road stylings might be my favorite uniform of all time. Definitly better than the baby blue's they're sporting these days. That rainbow city setting is iconic.

Have these goggles made an appearance since the days of Abdul-Jabbar, Worthy, and Buck? These were a GREAT look! Bring back the goggles!

Wow. What can I say. That's dedication to a look...of some sort. Are those pearls he's wearing. And we can thank Skybox for memorializing this fashion road kill on a basketball card for all history and posterity. Someone will dig this up at an archeological site 1000 years from now and think that this is how we all dressed. And they won't be entirely wrong.

Haven't seen an "X" hat since 1992. And what on earth is that shirt all about?

monobrow- mon-oh brou - noun - see below:

And here I thought Johnny Depp starred in Cry Baby...

What could possibly have been so exciting in a game against the Clippers. Ever.