Premier League contest - Match 34

welcome to Match 34, the mid afternoon edition. Most of the matches for today are over, but there's still more fun tomorrow and monday.

Looking at the table, which I believe to be accurate up to the minute, we see the bottom three all losing today.

Club	Pld	Pts
Man Utd	33	81
Man City	32	68
Arsenal	34	63
Chelsea	32	61
Tottenham	32	58
Everton	34	56
Liverpool	33	50
West Brom	33	45
Swansea	33	42
West Ham	34	42
Fulham	34	40
Southampton	34	39
Norwich	34	38
Sunderland	34	37
Stoke	34	37
Newcastle	34	37
Aston Villa	33	34
Wigan	33	31
QPR	34	24
Reading	34	24

Sunderland scored a huge home win today over Everton, surly securing a spot in next season's Premier league. Unless Newcastle, Stoke, or Villa fall.... we'll say goodbye to Wigan.
These next few matches are going to be exciting!

At the top end, the fat lady is warming up as United look to secure the title before the last month of the season even gets here.

Premier League contest - Week 32... and/or 33...

Welcome to Match 32... or is that 33? Or both? We've got matches spread out over a few days this time.... Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Some clubs play twice, others, not at all.

Hey. I don't make the schedule.

 

So since it's my birthday Saturday, I won't be around much.... meaning let's use this post for all matches the 13th through the 17th. We'll have a new post next Saturday for that weekend's fixtures. Please get your comments in by Thursday evening.

Looking at the table, we say goodbye to Tottenham, while Arsenal hangs on by the slightest fingernail. Any type of result by United or if the Gunners don't win will result in their elimination.
Chelsea can also be eliminated this weekend if they lose OR United wins.

Club	Pld	Pts
Man Utd	31	77
Man City	31	65
Chelsea	31	58
Tottenham	32	58
Arsenal	31	56
Everton	31	52
Liverpool	32	49
West Brom	32	44
Swansea	32	41
Fulham	31	39
Southampton	32	37
West Ham	31	37
Newcastle	32	36
Norwich	32	35
Stoke	32	34
Aston Villa	32	33
Sunderland	32	31
Wigan	31	31
QPR	32	24
Reading	32	23

At the bottom, Wigan has a match in hand, while it looks curtains for QPR and Reading.
Should be some great matches.

Go United!

If there's no one there to see it, does the game still count?

Looking up the old boxscores this morning to see the Braves won last night 8-0 over Miami to improve their record to a MLB best 8-1.

Which led me to Deadspin... for those of you who haven't read it, or don't peruse that site, I've ganked some of their pictures to show you here....

Paid attendance was announced at 13,381. Actual attendance was lower.



Now this is a park where you can take your kids and not worry about any drunks cursing or throwing up on your family.



lotsa leg room behind the dugout...


I wonder if the beer sales and cotton candy guys get a subsidy to work there?


On the plus side, those four fans in the outfield each got a Braves home run ball. No fighting, just everyone wait your turn.

Now this is not the fans fault. You can't blame them for any of this. It's not a baseball area... plus there are two very big idiots to blame. The first is owner Jeff Lauria who never met a player he couldn't sell.
Second, and biggest idiot of all is Bud Selig. For giving Lauria a second team after what he did to the Expos.

It won't take 4 seconds for lauria to put the For Sale sign up after the 2014 season, the earliest he is allowed to do so under his stadium agreement.

And then maybe, maybe, the Marlins will have a reason for fans to go to the park other than to meditate in peace and quiet.

Premier League Contest - Match 31

Welcome to Match 31... only 8 matches left for some, 7 for the rest. Can City catch United? Who can avoid the drop?

Let's take a quick look at the table....

Club	Pld	Pts
Man Utd	30	77
Man City	30	62
Tottenham	31	57
Chelsea	30	55
Arsenal	30	53
Everton	30	51
Liverpool	31	48
West Brom	31	44
Swansea	31	40
Fulham	30	39
West Ham	30	36
Southampton	31	34
Stoke	31	34
Norwich	31	34
Newcastle	31	33
Sunderland	31	31
Wigan	30	30
Aston Villa	31	30
QPR	31	23
Reading	31	23

with this weekend's matches, a win by United will eliminate Tottenham, Chelsea, and Arsenal. The best the Gunners can hope for is a tie for the title, but goal differential will probably doom them anyways.
A draw from United will also knock out Arsenal, and hold Tottenham to a possible tie.

But the match of the week I feel, is QPR hosting Wigan. Here is where the drama lies. QPR and Reading are most certainly relegated, but the battle will be for that third spot. Only 4 points seperate 7 teams. At stake are millions and millions of dollars.

Let's see who wants it.

United and City play on Monday, with rumours that United will rest players. (Sir Alex would do just that to antagonize Mancini)... so get your comments in by Tuesday lunch please.

Go United!

the Miami Yankees

Baseball is off and running. Well, for most teams it is anyways.

The Braves were victorious over the Phillies. Chicks dig the longball will be a theme in ATL this season.
A sellout crowd of 51,426 witnessed it. Or about 51,000 more than the Marlins opener.

Speaking of loyal fans, how about those Yankee fans? This pic caused quite a stir.....

...taken during the 9th inning of their blowout loss to Boston.

Way to support your team bandwagoners. Foul balls for everybody!

Scoring Junk from Scott Crawford..

Awhile back Scott from the aptly named Scott Crawford on Cards put up a flyer advertising a bunch of 'junk commons' that were going to the recycle bin if no one claimed them.

My lists? Where are my lists??? I scrambled around for a spell trying to figure out what I needed Scott to look for before the blue bin of death came calling.

He sent me a nice box of stuff, and in return I sent him everything I could find off of his wantlists. Plus some other stuff.

Some of what I received......

Take a look at Phil Niekro... Phil retired at the end of the '87 season, but Score included him one last time. Oh, and it's Phil's 74th birthday today! Happy day Knucksie.

I've finally got all my lists for what I need in relation to team sets finished. Well, finished for Topps, Upper Deck, Donruss, Fleer, and Score. I printed out Donruss, Fleer and Score, and then they deleted themselves before I could transfer them over to my wantlist blog.
Microsoft Excel 1 Canuck 0

Some of these cards are just awesome. Each of them comes with built in memories. Flashbacks to summers spent in front of WTBS....

Thanks for the junk Scott.

If anybody else has any Braves needing a new home... let me know. I now know exactly what I need.

Except of course for Bowman, Bowman Chrome, Topps Chrome, Fleer Ultra, Stadium Club, Leaf......

oh gods, help me....

Premier League contest - Match 30

Welcome to Easter weekend and match 30 of 38.

After a week off in the Premier League in which we saw most of the players compete for their home countries in World Cup qualifying, we get right back to it.
During the last round of matches, we saw Liverpool and West Brom eliminated from championship contention.

Club	Pld	Pts
Man Utd	29	74
Man City	29	59
Chelsea	29	55
Tottenham	30	54
Arsenal	29	50
Everton	29	48
Liverpool	30	45
West Brom	30	44
Swansea	30	40
Fulham	29	36
Stoke	30	34
Norwich	30	34
Newcastle	30	33
West Ham	29	33
Sunderland	30	31
Southampton	30	31
Aston Villa	30	30
Wigan	29	27
Reading	30	23
QPR	30	23

With a win or draw at Sunderland, United will knock off surprising Everton. A win combined with an Arsenal draw or loss and the Gunners are done. A drw or loss also eliminates Tottenham.

At the bottom of the Table, the bottom six all play superior opponents, so they'll all be looking for the upset in order to try and stay top flight.

Reading named their new manager this week. Nigel Adkins, the former Southampton boss, takes over this week. Good luck Nigel, you've got quite the task in front of you. No pressure.

Go United!

Are you hungry??

most of you know about the big hootenanny that went down in Las Vegas a week or so ago. All the cool kids were there. Which may be why I wasn't.

It was the Industry Summit, or some such nonsense. Most of the card manufacturers and a whole whack of card shop owners in one place.

Chaos ensued.

But my point is, and I do have one, honest, is that my local shops were well represented.

Well, at the bar and craps tables anyway.......

But throughout the slot machines, video poker, and disease infested strippers, my local card shop thought of me. I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not.

Anyways... as we all know, it's not whether our friends have a good time on vacation or not, it's whether they brought us anything or not.

Am I right?

Well I got something.

and like I said, Are you hungry? Too bad because......

 

HA!

 

Thanks Darren, this is awesome.

You can't even make a phone call for that anymore...

.25 cents. You can't get much for .25 cents anymore. Not even a phone call. IF you can find a payphone that is.

But I found something I wanted, and yes, it only cost me .25 cents.

 

At a card show, one of the regular sellers brough a big box filled with small sets from the late '80s and early '90s. Mostly hockey. Stuff that really no one wants, but everyone had at one time when they were sure it was part of a well thought out retirement plan.

 

You know what I'm talking about.

1991 Score Young Superstars set.

1990 Classic set

1991 Upper Deck Hi number set.

1991 The Tuxedo set.

 

You get the drift. Nothing worth grabbing. In fact, it might be better if it was burnt for warmth.

 

But at the very bottom, tucked in a corner, was this beauty. Still in it's original package.

 1992 Kellogg's 3-D All Star set. 10 cards, sealed for freshness.

How much is this package of goodness? .25 cents was the answer. And just like that, it was mine.

My buddy Brett asked me, "Are you going to open it?"

Hell yeah! It's mine now... not going anywhere.

Now I'll share it with you. Aren't you lucky? Of course you are. It's why you come here.

According to my up to date and highly accurate 2009 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, this is the highly sought after Canadian version. What are the odds?

Like a lot of Kellogg's cards, they're oddball sized at 2 1/2" x 2 5/16"

 being the Canuck version, you of course have bilingual backs.

 The American version had only English backs naturally.

 Also, the Canadian cards were found in boxes of Frosted Flakes...

 while the U.S. cards were distributed in boxes of Corn Flakes.

 So you can tell the difference in the sets from the front, and back.

 Schmidt seems to be the most valuble card in the set...

 I was hoping to find a Brave inside, and I did!

 Quisenberry was on the front of the package...

 ... and Schmidt was on the back.

 Pretty decent player selection, but not who I expected in a 1992 set.

Pops seems a great way to end off in a Post dedicated to Cereal cards.

See what I did there? Post cereal? Pops? As in Corn Pops?

m.a.i.l.f.r.o.m.g.c.r.l.

I've received a few packages over the last little while. Most of them have included cards from my wantlists, which is awesome.

Some people may not get excited over '89 Score, or '93 Upper Deck... but I do. As long as it's on my list, it's golden.

 

 

My pal Jim, otherwise known as gcrl, sent me a few cards the other day. I won't bore you (too late) with most of them, particularly the six cards from 2012 Topps Update that I needed... so I'll so you some shiny instead.

 

From last year's Bowman chrome, a green refractor of Brandon Beachy. These are awesome. I would like all the colours please.

 Speaking of colours, let's have a xmas theme and show a red bordered parallel from the previously mentioned 2012 Topps Update set. Big Ben came back from two years of injury for one last go. He pitched really well for the Braves, including one last emotional start on the last day of the season against Pittsburgh.
Knowing he was retiring because of another slight injury, manager Fredi Gonzalez told him he was getting the start, and to let it all hang out because he would be pulled after one inning.
Ben lit it up, 12 pitches, 8 strikes, 4 foul balls and two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 inning.
Thanks for everything Ben.

 Another card from 2012 Bowman Platinum... everytime I think I've completed the Braves team set, someone sends me a card I don't already have. That's Bowman in a nutshell.

 a couple of cards that weren't on any list.... from 2003, cards of Al Hrabosky...

 ... and the man himself, Eddie Mathews.

Pretty damn cool. Thanks Jim!

A package is already on it's way in your direction.

Premier League Contest - Match 29

Getting down to the grit. Only 10 matches left for most, for some clubs, only nine. We'll get into more of that at the bottom.

Welcome to Match 29.

Manchester United managed to eliminate another club last week, as Swansea, despite winning their match, was mathematically eliminated. If United beats Reading, West Bromwich and Liverpool are out. If United win, and Everton lose or draw, they are out as well.

Club	Pld	Pts
Man Utd	28	71
Man City	28	59
Tottenham	29	54
Chelsea	28	52
Arsenal	28	47
Liverpool	29	45
Everton	28	45
West Brom	29	43
Swansea	29	40
Fulham	28	33
Stoke	29	33
West Ham	28	33
Newcastle	29	33
Norwich	29	33
Sunderland	29	30
Southampton	29	28
Aston Villa	29	27
Wigan	28	24
Reading	29	23
QPR	29	23

Speaking of Liverpool, it was brought to my attention that not everyone had last weekend off for FA Cup action. Okay, I'm an idiot. Thanks for the email Richard....

A partial schedule was played, with 6 matches.

IF your team played last weekend, you may make a seperate post on this weekends action for that result.
Please make it seperate and put the date on there somewhere so when I tabulate points, I know why I'm counting your team twice.

Enjoy the full slate of games this weekend, and let's have your results posted by late Monday afternoon.

and as always, Go United!!!

Habemus Papam!

We have a new Pope! Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires is now the new Pope. Popes are elected for life, but at 76 years of age and already minus a lung due to severe illness, we may be seeing more smoke quite soon. Don't burn those unused ballots quite yet.

He took the name Francis, mainly because Jorge Mario Bergoglio just takes too damn long to say.

Do Popes get their names like tropical storms and hurricanes? Is there a list somewhere?

Welcome Pope Frank.

For those of you keeping track, that makes five Popes since the Leafs last won the Cup....

Can they hold out for a sixth?

Probably my only Heritage post...

Ahhh... Topps Heritage. The one set every year that sends collectors off on a rant... either good or bad. Love it or hate it.
The love of retro, the hatred of thin, shiny cardstock. The love of set building, the hatred of needless short prints and gimmicks.

I could argue and debate until the cows come home. (usually around dusk, depending on the weather) but instead, today, we'll just talk about cards. (with one, minor exception.) Focus on the positives!

At trade night last Thursday, the card shop owner called me over as he wanted help busting a box of this year's Heritage. He knew I was pretty much the only one there out of the 25-30 people that would appreciate it.
So I grabbed a few packs and tore in.

And I have to say, other that a few poorly chosen photos.... it looks like a fun set to build and put in pages.

Will I?

Maybe... but later on. I can't right now... tight budgets you know.

A few cards were thrown my way for "helping."

A brand new Adam LaRoche for my rather large LaRoche collection. I've ignored it over the last couple of years and I feel bad about it.

The Braves starting SS, Andrelton Simmons.

Michael Bourn shows his displeasure after finding out no one would sign him because of the 1st round pick compensation rule.... Cleveland finally caved.

The best pitcher in all of baseball early last year until his elbow fell off, Brandon Beachy.

The best pitcher in all of baseball in the 2nd half, Kris Medlen. 11-1  1.57 ERA. Yes please.

Kris Medlen hot box!

There was also a couple of Braves purple refractors and a Tim Hudson relic, but those were kept towards his master set that he's building. Hopefully he gets dupes.

I also bought a pack out of a fresh box. I won't bore you (too late) with all of the cards... but I will show you two.

First, this card of Red Sox thirdbaseman Will Middlebrooks.

What in the hell is that??? What a horrible airbrushing job. And why? Will Middlebrooks plays for the Red Sox. Will Middlebrooks has only ever played for the Red Sox. Will Middlebrooks has never played for anyone other than the Red Sox.
Sooooo.... they airbrushed out a Red Sox uni and hat, and replaced it with a Red Sox uni and hat?

Whatever. Stay positive. Right?

How about this for positive?

Boo yeah!

Regular blue ink autos fall once every 5 boxes.... no idea what the odds are on these red ink autos /64. But I pulled one.

Now if I can only trade it for a Brave.

Premier League Contest - Match 28

Pay attention! It's Match 28 of 38.

It seems that the Table is starting to take shape. The top is seperating themselves, while the bottom feeders are struggling to stay out of relegation.

Manchester United eliminated two more teams this past weekend.

Club	Pld	Pts
Man Utd	27	68
Man City	27	56
Tottenham	27	51
Chelsea	27	49
Arsenal	27	47
Everton	27	42
West Brom	27	40
Liverpool	27	39
Swansea	27	37
Stoke	27	33
Fulham	27	32
Norwich	27	32
Newcastle	27	30
West Ham	27	30
Sunderland	27	29
Southampton	27	27
Wigan	27	24
Aston Villa	27	24
Reading	27	23
QPR	27	17

They have the opportunity to eliminate three more teams if everything falls correctly. Although I don't think Liverpool is going down quite that easily...

Matches this week fall on Sat, Sun, and Monday... so get your updates in by Tuesday lunch.

Go United!

Premier League Contest - Match 27

Welcome Back!!!

We are already into Match 27 of our 38 match schedule. My how time flies.

While our ladies turn the other cheek, let's check out the table and see how our teams are doing...

Club	Pld	Pts
Man Utd	26	65
Man City	26	53
Chelsea	26	49
Tottenham	26	48
Arsenal	26	44
Everton	26	42
Liverpool	27	39
Swansea	27	37
West Brom	26	37
Stoke	26	33
West Ham	26	30
Fulham	26	29
Sunderland	26	29
Norwich	26	29
Southampton	26	27
Newcastle	26	27
Aston Villa	26	24
Reading	26	23
Wigan	26	21
QPR	26	17

It seems that United has eliminated a few more teams from top flight contention.

How's your team doing? Still in the hunt for Champions League?

There is a match on Monday, so let's get your comments in by Tuesday lunch.

and as always, Go United!

a few nice additions... the easy way.

I'd open up with something witty about not posting much lately.... but what are you gonna do? Fire me? Pfft...

to continue the theme week from my other blog, today we're concentrating on the word of the day.
Generosity.

At the last trade night, I got a baseball card given to me gratis. Nothing unusual about that, except this is no ordinary card.

Oh yeah.

Dale Murphy. M.V.P.

a little story behind it.... someone pulled it from a pack. Of course those who were gathered around at the time saw this and started Ooohing and Aaahing and calling my name.

At certain times of the evening, that's a good thing.

At trade night with a bunch of dudes.... not so much.

It only means someone pulled a card I want that I probably can't afford.

Anyways, the card was brought over for me to see by a buddy of mine.... after drooling I announceed to the room in general (as I had no idea who pulled it) that I would DEFINATELY want to trade for it.

Ten minutes later someone brought the card back and handed it to me.

Turns out they had a trade going with the person who pulled it,and had them throw in the card in the deal. They then gave it to me, gratis.

That was a pretty good way to start out trade night.

Apparently there is also a Chipper just like this one that I need to track down. I betcha that one won't be gratis.

Ah well..... it's all in the chase.


My pal Jamie also pulled a card for me. Rather than fling it across the room in anger, he gives me his Cowboy pulls.

This from last trade night....

this one from the one before ...

bittersweet as I believe Felix has fumbled his last carry for Dallas. Good luck whereveer you end up Felix.

Thanks guys!

Premier League Contest - Match 26

Here we go again... a full slate of games this weekend, with Liverpool and West Brom bringing up the rear on Monday.

Lucy is NOT a Liverpool supporter.

Get your results in by Monday night. Good luck, and Go United!!!