What Really Grinds My Gears...

 I've ranted on this topic before. Twice actually. Over a year ago... maybe two now that I think of it. But you see, nothing has changed. In fact, it's gotten worse. Why do idiot commisioners insist on wearing rose coloured glasses, and eating scented pellets so their crap don't stink when it's obvious that there are serious problems in their sport?
In case you're still wondering what the hell Canuck is blathering about now, I'm speaking of Bud Selig and the Florida Marlins.
In their game against Cincinnati yesterday, there were 347 fans in attendance. That's not a typo. Three hundred and fourty seven.

 Apparently the Marlins closed down the top two decks earlier this season.

 My local Calgary Vipers get a bigger turnout than this. Foul balls for everyone!!!

Sweet jesus Bud, wake up and smell the contraction. The game will be better for it. The quality of play will increase. And the fans will be happier.
Oh wait, none of that matters to you does it?

Contest Update! and a bit of a rant...

Alright! So we have updated to the second standings after the first round in the Great Waxaholic Playoff Hockey Contest II.

1. DogFacedGremlin 75/120
2. CynicalBuddha 72/120
2. Jeremy 72/120
4. Play at the Plate 70/120
5. Sal 67/120
6. madding 65/120
7. Roy 57/120
8. Dan 55/120
8. Dr. Steven Ibbotson 55/120
8. shanediaz 55/120
8. roofgod 55/120
12. 1st and Goal 52/120
13. Dayf 50/120
14. Night Owl 49/120
14. GCRL 49/120
14. Justin G. 49/120
14. DFWBuck2 49/120
18. BA Benny 42/120
19. Wax Wombat 40/120

*results are unofficial (because I did this REALLY late at night)

Please DO NOT forget to make your guesses for Round 2 (scroll down a post) Also, I have no way to contact a couple of you as you are not following this blog, nor have you sent me an email... please do one or the other. Or both.

Now......
I was going to go off on the NHL schedule makers for their horrible kob at scheduling the playoff games, particularly Round 2. Why do the teams that went a full 7 games start the second round, while the teams that haven't played for a week continue to get rest???
But we all know that the executives at the American Television studios make the schedule, not the NHL, so I'll let it go for now.

What I really want to chat about is the Hart Trophy. The Hart Trophy, for those of you who don't know, is the award given to the Most Valuble Player.
The finalists were announced today, and amazingly enough, the NHL screwed the pooch on this one too.
The finalists are as follows.
Henrik Sedin - Vancouver Canucks
Alexander Ovechkin - Washington Capitals
Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Penguins

Really? REALLY? Do they not actually watch the games? Were these names pulled out of a hat? Okay, first, Henrik Sedin, a very good choice. Top scorer in the league, vital to Vancouver's success. Bravo. But here's where we delve away from reality.
Sidney Crosby? Mr I Live for games that mean nothing so I can pad my stats Crosby? He's no more worthy of this award than I am. Pittsburgh is still the fourth seed in the playoffs without him. Next.
Alexander Ovechkin. Huh? Did you not see how Washington did without him during his suspensions? The Capitals still win the Presidents Trophy without him. They are that good. (In the regular season, anyways...heh...)

I can see people putting Ovechkin in because of the leadership he provides. After he was named Captain, the Caps just took off. But seriously.... he's not worthy of the Most Valuble Player.

This is a problem I have had in baseball as well. Too often the MVP award is given to the BPL. (Best Player in the League) See: Albert Pujols. Was he the Most Valuble Player? No. Not even close. The Cards are a very good team, with or without him. But he is the best player. So let's give him an award.

The Hart Trophy Finalists SHOULD be:

Henrik Sedin - Vancouver Canucks
Ryan Miller - Buffalo Sabres (Buffalo doesn't even sniff the playoffs without him, let alone win the 3 seed.)
Ilya Bryzgalov - Phoenix Coyotes (Phoenix may have made the playoffs without him, but not with any other goalie they have on their roster right now, so..... see above)

Most Valuble Player in simple terms means the player that's the most valuble to his team. Is that too hard to understand?

Apparently, the NHL thinks so......

Random musings about the sports around us

I've managed to catch 3 Braves games on tv so far this season. They are 0-3 in those games. 5-1 in games I haven't watched. Sorry Bobby, my bad. I may not watch any more this year.

I tuned into the Jays game today against Pale Hose. I saw #42 pitching to #42, hitting the ball to #42, who threw the ball to, yeah, you guessed it, #42.

WTF?

I appreciate the importance of the event, and the greatness of the player. But that is the stupidest thing I've ever seen since the DH was invented. Way to go Bud! Take a momentous moment in history and turn it into a cheap merchandising ploy devoid of any meaning or respect.

How did the best team in the NHL get to that position with ice condition that bad??? The whole world is watching the playoffs, and the Caps staff pull out that crap? The pucks looked like they had never seen the inside of a freezer, bouncing everywhere. Atrocious.

Can someone who watches more Caps games than I confirm it was this bad? Or is it always like this?

Good to see one of the biggest cheap shot artists in the NHL doing his thing again. Milan Lucic continues to amaze at how he even has a job, let alone why someone hasn't killed him yet.

And HEY CHARA! If you want to head butt someone in the face, maybe take of the face shield. It's real easy to act tough when you wear a full cage... act like a man you overgrown tool.

Juan Pierre! How does this guy have a job??? He caught a ball 8 feet into left field off the infield dirt today, and Adam Lind tagged up and score from third.... without a throw. Why? Because Pierre can't throw that far without a cutoff, and the pitcher was backing up the plate instead of waiting for the cutoff..... Juan Pierre... he can't hit, and can't play defence... what a player!

Interesting rule change in college football... if a player, while on the way into the end zone, high steps, does the heisman, or otherwise taunts the opponent in any way will reult in the play being blown dead and a fifteen yard penalty being enforced from the spot of the foul, thereby wiping the touchdown off the scoreboard.

It's about time they did something... now if only basketball did this, more than 12 people might watch the games.

And finally, Big Ben! Listen to Terry B. If anyone on the planet knows what you're going through, it's him. Don't hate... listen...

thanks for reading..... as always, comments are welcome

All Star votes...

I'm getting further and further behind in my posts.... so rather than catch up, I thought I'd annoy a few people first.

What the hell are people thinking with their "All Star" votes? I know this a fan friendly event (notice I didn't say game) but really people.

Yadier Molina????????? Holy crap.

David Wright? He's not even the best 3rd baseman in his division, let alone league...

Alfonso Soriano?????

Jimmy Rollins????

Josh Hamilton??? At least Josh is an All Star, but being injured should have removed him from contention long ago.

Apparently there are 1.7 million mentally handicapped people running around in Yadier Molina jerseys with crumpled all star ballots in one fist and broken crayons in the other. Who knew his mom knew so many "special" people?

Donald Fehr is gone, when can we get rid of Selig and just START THE HELL OVER?

What is wrong with people?

It's time to bring it back.... I've tried to be nice lately, I know from the emails I receive that a lot of kids read this little blog, but no more. I can no longer be silent...... It's time again for;
What Really Grinds My Gears.

What state is the hobby in these days? A shambles. An absolute shambles. People are spending $65,000 on a fake card, commons are actually selling on ebay for $1, patches and autos are being counterfeited faster than the real manufacturers can produce them.... what the hell???
How many people have fought long and hard against Beckett and their "imaginative" price guide, instead turning to places like ebay for "realtime" values?
Now, with ebay's greed and stupidity, you can't buy a card for less than a dollar. Yes, I know you can via auction format, but really, who's going to auction a 1987 Topps Len Matuszek?
What does this do to a value of a card??? You can't honestly expect me to believe that commons are now worth a dollar? So now, Beckett is closer to reality?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Let me ask you another question... all of you know what a Braves nut I am, so naturally it's centered around a Braves card.
At your local shop, or at a card show near you, what would a 1975 Phil Niekro in really nice shape go for? How about a Braves team set from that year? (29 cards) Honestly, I want to know. $4 for Phil? $10 for the set? More? Less?
Here's what I got on ebay...

a 1975 Topps Braves team set for .99 cents. (Auction link)

Does this mean that a '75 Niekro is worth .04 cents? An entire team for less than a dollar? Again, is Beckett closer to reality here? No. I don't think so either.... but where do we draw the line? Where do we find honest, true values for our cards? Does anyone have an answer?

and by the way people... shame on you for letting beautiful cards like this go for .99 cents. Forget this year's Goudey and Bowman... it'll still be there later. Promise.

It still grinds my gears...

so if you read my last post on the start of my 2006 Flair Showcase Football box break, you know my rant. If you didn't read it... scroll down... hurry up. We'll wait ............................................... back? Good. On with the break. Did the hits get better? (I'll cover the base cards in another post... I still have another box of these to bust)
Inserts:
Mike Haas - Luxury Suite Rookie 625/699
Mike has never played in an NFL game. Awesome.
Reggie McNeal - Club Level Rookie 246/499
Reggie was a college QB drafted as a WR in the 6th round. He has played a grand total of one down in the NFL. A run for 8 yards. After some trouble with the law, Reggie is now a back up WR with the Toronto Argonauts in the CFL.
Mark Bulger - Sideline Pass 39/75
a solid QB....
Carson Palmer - Sideline Pass 627/999
another solid QB, but 999???


This brings us to the second promised auto.
Martin Nance WR. Perfect.
You should be worried when you see the hit of the player you've never heard of, and he's in one uniform, but the card lists him with another...... it gets better.. he's actually with another team right now. Practice squad with Pittsburgh.
Career totals - 1 game. 4 catches. 33 yards. Super.


Now the jersey cards.

Michael Huff Raiders

Ronnie Brown - Dolphins

Sweet! Two pretty good pulls here. The cards are awesome looking in person. These are what jersey cards should be. Bold colours. Good photo of the player. Proper placement of the swatch. The teal of the Brown card sparkles in person. Nice black on the Raider card too... Keep your damn useless FA rookie never has been wannabe autos....

GIVE ME MORE JERSEY CARDS!!!!!

What Really Grinds My Gears...

Normally, I'm a pretty easy going guy... not much upsets me. Today's Cowboys "effort" not withstanding...
But this really chokes me. You buy a box of cards. Pay an abnormal amount for S+H (that's a subject for another post) Get it home, and start to crack it open.
You're supposed to get "x" number of hits. Two packs into your box break, you find a hit. It's a rookie auto!!!
Hmmmm.... I watch a lot of football. But I never heard of this guy.... so to Google we go.

Oct 4, 2007: Released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Oct 3, 2007: Signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the practice squad.
Sep 1, 2007: Released by the Tennessee Titans.
Feb 17, 2007: Signed as a free agent by the Tennessee Titans to a two-year contract.
Feb 17, 2007: Signed as a free agent by the Tennessee Titans.
Jun 9, 2006: Waived by the New York Jets.
May 1, 2006: Signed as an undrafted free agent by the New York Jets.
May 1, 2006: Signed as an undrafted free agent by the New York Jets.

Now this product was released in November of 2006. Five full months after DonTrell had been cut. You have players in your set who are not even playing the game anymore... But why would you have undrafted free agent autos in the first place????? He's never played a game. Never suited up for a game. He's not even good enough for the practice squad.
the rest of this box had best be stellar....

What Really Grinds My Gears...

It's time for Wednesday's rant.... you want to know What Really Grinds My Gears? Here's this week's story.
As some of you may know, I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Not exactly the hot spot for card collecting. I only knew of two card shops in this city of over a million people. The largest city in North America. (land area wise) These two shops are kind of, well, pathetic to be honest. One I don't even bother going to, and the other is going even further into the tank as the owner passed away and his grandson is ruining what business he did have. So it's a lot of online buying for me. It's the only way to get anything you want... and a heckuva lot cheaper than buying local.
So when I found out about a third shop, I was thrilled. I patiently waited for my day off, and drove the 45 minutes to this new, uncharted wonderland. And was the wait worth it! I walked in and there lay before me 900 square feet of yummy collecting goodness. The man behind the counter in his Calgary Flames jersey, Flames sweat pants, and surprise! Flames hat, asked if he could help me. I mumbled something about being okay for now.... while I wandered around in amazement. There were two walls of wax boxes.... he promised that if it came out in the last two years, he had it on the wall. Baseball, Hockey, Football, and even basketball.

Figurines, autographed photos, and every supply one could ever need was here, waiting to be scooped up and taken to a good home. My home. My wife would understand. Right? The only thing he didn't have was boxes of cards to sort through to fill sets. But that was okay. I have never seen that in any card shop here in Calgary. No biggie.

After an hour of drooling and ogling... I was ready to start purchasing. I began piling up supplies on the counter.

2 boxes of 9 count pages... check

1 box of 8 count pages... check

8 more ball cubes, UV protected... check

4 packages of top loaders... check

And now, the wax... by this time the store employee had come back over... "anything else?" he says. Oh yes. Oh yes. I'll take 2 packs of that, and 3 packs of that, and a pack.........

Wait. He's interupting me. What is he saying? Why isn't he getting me my packs?

WHAT? No. That can't be right. "Um, excuse me, can you repeat that?" I say.

"We don't sell packs." he says. "Well," I say, "What are those?" pointing to the thousand or so wax boxes on the wall. "We sell boxes, not packs" he says.

I blurt out, rather rudely, " you're kidding me, right?" "Nope." he says. "Only boxes."

The room is now spinning. I feel light headed. I look for someone to tell me it's all a joke. but no one is around. And then it hits me. In the hour plus I've been there... I haven't seen anyone.

"How many kids do you get buying stuff?" I ask... "oh.... none. We never get kids in here. They can't afford it" he says.

I turn around, and slowly walk out.

So coming in at #4 is retarded card shops and their owners. Dooming themselves, and the hobby in one fell swoop.

And that, is What Really Grinds My Gears.