The Grich before Halloween

Bobby Grich #90

Photo Front: A batter box follow through by Grich photo taken from the same game as Ford, Burelson and Carew's Donruss Cards. You can see the blurred Angel sitting back in his chair near the dugout.

Back Stats: Signed a new 4 year contract after the '81 season after compling his best year yet....(As I think I mentioned before, in 1982, Donruss became the first card manufacturer to mention a player's contract status on the back of cards).

Gorman Thomas #132 (Boo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Since Halloween is almost upon us, I present you with something that is very very scary: Gorman Thomas

Photo Front: An in action shot of Thomas in his batting stance in the batter's box. This photo appears to be taken from the same game as the Robin Yount as the Oakland A's are prominant in the back ground of the card.

Back Stats: He was originally signed by the Seattle pilots in 1969 (at age 19).

Leon Roberts #415 (Texas Ranger)

One of the great expansion type players of all time (These are the players who are given chances to play because expansion i.e. Nate Colbert,  Otto Velez, Dante Bichette,  Rick Bosetti,  Miguel Cairo, Dave Dellucci, Don May and Bob Kauffman – the last 2 are Basketball players for the 1970-71 Buffalo Braves.

Photo Front: An action shot of him awaiting a pitch. Another good 2010 Upper Deck photo as his Team name is obscured.

Back Stats: Traded to Texas from Seattle 12/12/80 with Rick Honeycutt and Mario Mendoza for Richie Zisk and 5 other Players.

NBA opener edition (Panini?)

Every Sport has a major defining base brand mass produced set. Topps has its base brand for Baseball. Football has Topps and Score. Hockey has Upper Deck, Victory and Score (and maybe O-Pee-Chee). However, what is it for Basketball. Last Year (2009-10) we had Panini Basketball, Upper Deck and Topps (even Bowman 48). However,for this year (which Panini has exclusive rights) what exactly do we have. Is the major Panini  base brand set this year going to be Donruss (which seems very expensive at 3 bucks a pack.). Is there going to be a Panini Basketball set this year, at all?

So far Panini exclusive agreement with the NBA is dissapointing. They are not really defined , they put out all these sets and call them different names (Certified, Absolute, Rookies and Stars, Classics) and I can't differentiate between them all. I know out of the 4 major team sports Basketball does not have that major set that everyone collects every year. It has been that way since Fleer ended its reign in the early 1990s. Topps and Upper Deck seemed to fill that niche and even Bowman Basketball  seemed like the set to collect for the past few years.

Come on Panini, what is your major base brand set going to be this year(and years after).

6 degrees of Bump Wills #289 (Bump to Buck to Bip)

In 1982 Bump played with Fergie Jenkins; In 1966 Fergie Jenkins played with Robin Roberts on the Cubs; In 1948 Robin Roberts played with Dutch Leonard on the Phillies. In 1933, Dutch Leonard played for the Dodgers with Joe Judge. In 1915 Joe Judge Played with Christy Mathewson on the Giants. In 1900 Christy Mathewson was coached by Buck Ewing.

Before there was Bip Roberts there was Elliott Taylor Wills. Set the Rangers club record for Stolen Bases in ’78. Nice shot of the TR logo on his left shoulder.

NFL Football Sunday (the Overrated edition)

The top 7 overrated players in the NFL. 1. Peyton Manning (though his 1998 Topps rookie card is one of the most underrated football cards) 2. Tony Romo 3. Nate Clements (who?) 4. Tony Gonzalez 5. Albert Haynesworth 6. Philip Rivers 7. Ray Lewis.

I view tend to view being overrated as receiving excess accolades and compensation than one should.

Peyton Manning is a great quarterback, so how could he be overrated. Well he has won 4 MVPs more than anyone ever in the NFL. Think to yourself he is not the greatest QB ever and there were other players at other positions who were greater (Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Lawrence Taylor). So why does he have the most MVPs. He has won as many Super Bowls as Eli Manning (who I think is underrated). In most playoff games, other teams are able to exploit his limited athletic ability and render him somewhat ineffective. For the player with the most MVPs, this should not happen to.

Tony Romo, this is easy, I doubt more has been talked about a player that has done so little.

Nate Clements after the 2006, signed the largest contract ever for a defensive player. He has played on one team with a winning record and he has made the pro bowl once. He is an average player that was paid more than anyone else.

Tony Gonzalez is a 10 time pro bowler and 5 time All Pro.   Gonzalez has only played on 3 teams that won 10 or more games and one was in his rookie season when he did not start a game. He has made the playoffs 3 times since 1997. He has never played on a team that won a playoff game. You would think his greatness would translate into winning for his team.

Albert Haynesworth received 21 million dollar bonus in March to play a position that he can’t play.

Philip Rivers there are so called football experts who think Rivers is a better QB than Big Ben, are you kidding me.

Ray Lewis is an 11 time pro bowler and 7 time 1^st team all-pro, he is good. But is he really a game changer. (though he recovered a fumble in today’s game) He is rock solid but Ed Reed who has been with the Ravens has been more of a big play changer than Ray. Ed has been there best defense player since 2002 and not Ray. This was the toughest pick

Joe Charboneau #363 (The Incredible Hulk?)

Photo Front: A full head shot while wearing an Indians cap. Joe looks like Lou Ferrigno without all the green makeup. This photo appears to be taken before a major league game as a few fans can be seen milling around in the background

Back Stats: Had a bitter and unexpected comedown last year from his rookie of the year season of '80 (This is more descriptive langauge than you usually get on a baseball card up to this time - In fact I doubt the words bitter, unexpected and comedown have ever been used more than 5 times ever on the back of a baseball card.