Spending the Night Before Xmas with Harry Caray

Merry Christmas.

A Baseball Christmas

It's video week here at Waxaholic. Yeah, I'm phoning it in, but it's xmas... sue me.

Booty Boogie of the Day...

Jacob Markstrom, future star goalie for the Florida Panthers, seen here playing for their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage, keeping things loose during a stoppage in play to fix a broken pane of glass.



It's no Ned Braden.... but it's not bad. Glad to see that some athletes still play for the fun of it.

A Star Trek box break... Yes. Star Trek.

It's been a long time since I bought a box of cards. If you subtract hockey from the equation, it's been almost 2 years since I've bought a box of cards. I think other than 2010 Topps Chrome football, it was 2009 Ginter for baseball.

Yeah.

I've been feeling what a lot of you have been expressing towards the latest offerings from Topps.

Meh.

And until they get their act together and release something worthwhile, I'll concentrate on my wantlists for vintage baseball, and buy other offerings from other companies who aren't just phoning it in.

One of those companies is Rittenhouse. While you will never find a Chipper Jones or Josh Hamilton in anything they do, that doesn't mean it isn't worth checking out.

I've always been a fan of non-sports cards. From the Star Wars release in the late '70's to the great sets out today. I've enjoyed seeing sets of movies and tv shows that I've watched.

Today's box break is of Star Trek: The Next Generation The Complete 1987-1991 Series One.

This is limited to 6000 waxboxes. Each box has 24 packs, 6 cards per pack.

The base set is 90 cards (including two checklists) and covers the first half of The Next Generation series run. Series Two, which will be released in February, 2012, will cover the latter half of the series in another 90 card set.

Each base card features 5 full colour pictures. Yes. Five. The fronts look like this....

 I really like the feel of these cards as they are not the typical full high glossy lacquered card you find in most sets today.
Each base card tells the story of one episode. A summary, as well as two more pictures, appear on the back.

 I really enjoyed sitting down after putting them in pages and reading the backs. Something I did as a kid with my sportscards, but manufacturers have all but eliminated. Did I mention you always get a full set in a box?

There are four different insert sets to chase. They have a foil front parallel set at 1:3 packs.

 An 'Aliens' insert, featuring, in alphabetical order, every alien race shown in the series. There are 13 different cards at 1:8 packs. Each card feautures 6 alien races.

 A 'Tribute" series, 18 cards featuring those actors that have passed on in the years since. 1:6 packs. Can you believe it's been 25 years since Captain Jean-Luc Picard first appeared on screen?

 Nine cards showing off artwork of one of the main characters. The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D. 1:9 packs

 But the real allure of the set, besides those awesome base cards, are the autographs. You get four per box.
Rittenhouse has different levels of autos in this set. Very Limited, Limited, and Normal.
Very Limited is around 200-300 total available. Limited is between 300-500. Normal is listed as 'Over 500'.
Knowing how many boxes/packs etc are available, I figure if everything is equal and balanced, Normal means around 580.
Rittenhouse changes the checklist of their autos from set to set, so not all of the cast is available in this series. Out of the "big" characters, Data, Doctor Crusher, and Commander LaForge are in Series One. I didn't get any of them. Surprise!
I pulled two Normal and two Limited autos in my box. None of the big names, but some memorable characters.

 William O. Campbell came on board the Enterprise and in less than five minutes had a young Ensign Terri Hatcher in the sack. Well done sir.
Now known as Billy Campbell, he's starred in Once and Again, The 4400, and The Killing

 Richard Lineback played a powerful slave/drug addict. He's been in Speed, Varsity Blues, Natural Born Killers and The Jackyl.

 Nehemiah Persoff is 92 years old and retired in 1999. He's been in so many shows I couldn't possibly list them all. You all know who he is, if not, IMDB or google is your friend.

My best auto, character on the show wise, was of the mysterious Traveller. This is the dude that kept popping in every other year to help Wesley Crusher evolve into an energy state. One of the more obscure plotlines of the show for sure.
Played by Eric Menyuk, who was the runner-up to play Data. Eric is now a trial litigator in Los Angeles where, according to his firm's website, "he has been keeping the world safe for Fortune 500 companies."
I think that's lawyer-speak for he's rich with a nice car and even nicer house.

Anyways... I had a blast breaking this box... so much so I'll definitely pop on Series 2 in February.

Jim Plunkett... Hall of fame worthy...

so today is December 5th, 2011. Which happens to be Jim Plunkett's 64th birthday. I was planning on doing a post sometime this week on Jim, but Hackenbush's "You Can't Have Too Many Cards" told me this morning that it was his birthday. So we have to quickly adapt and move plans forward a bit.

At the last trade night I went to, I picked up a few 1976 Topps football cards out of the Quarter box.... er... Quarter binder actually.

One of them, surprise!, was Jim Plunkett.

Now some of you out there may not know who Jim Plunkett is. Let me enlighten you on someone who deserves the recognition.
Jim is a guy who worked four part time jobs through junior high school and high school to help with the familie's financial situation. His mother was blind, and his father, due to a medical condition, was going blind.
Jim earned a full scholarship to Stanford University where he would play his college football.

Despite being encouraged by the NFL to come out early after his junior year for the NFL draft, Jim stayed in school for his senior year to be a good role model to the grade school kids that he tutored in his spare time.

During his Senior seasonin 1970, Plunkett led Stanford to it's first Rose Bowl win over Ohio State, earning the Heisman Trophy as best college football player, beating out Joe Theisman and Archie Manning.

Plunkett was drafted first overall by the Boston Patriots and set rookie records for touchdown passes his first season.
Jim ended up being traded to San Francisco for their starting QB, three 1st round picks, and a 2nd round pick.

Fast forward a bit, towards the end of Jim's career. It's 1981 and Plunkett is a backup with the Raiders. Due to an injury to starting QB Dan Pastorini, Jim took over the starting job and guided the Raiders to 13 wins over the next 15 games, including four in the playoffs, to lead the Raiders to a Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XV, becoming the first 'Wild Card' team to win the title. Jim also took home Super Bowl MVP.
Three years later, another injury to a starting QB, this time Marc Wilson, had Jim leading the Raiders into the playoffs once more, and once more winning the Super Bowl, defeating Washington.

If the whole 'race' thing matters to you at all, Jim was the first Latino to be a Rose Bowl winning QB. The first to win the Heisman. The first, and only, to be drafted 1st overall. The first to start a Super Bowl at QB, the first to win a Super Bowl, the first to win Super Bowl MVP. The first, and only to start and win multiple Super Bowls.

Jim Plunkett is also the only QB of any race to ever start multiple Super Bowls, and the first to win multiple Super Bowls, and NOT be elected into the Hall of Fame.
Why the heck he is not in the Hall I will never understand. We're voting guys in every year like Rod Woodson for god's sake, and we can't elect Plunkett???

Anyways... if you've stayed this long, I thank you. And next time you see a Quarter box, or binder, give it another look. You never know what you might find. There's some interesting stories hidden away in there.

New Competitive Balance Lottery... WTF????

with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement signed by MLB and it's players, a few new things have come up on our baseball landscape.
Bud Selig's stupidity in putting the Astros in the American League.
Bud Selig's stupidity in allowing two more playoff teams. Everybody gets to play!!!
Bud Selig's stupidity in his insistance on making the leagues one and the same. Mixing teams, interleague play, eliminating seperate umpiring crews, eliminating league presidents, but still insisting on using the DH. That should've been the first thing to go.

and now we have something called the Competitive Balance Lottery. Basically, it's a lottery for teams to get extra picks in the draft, so that the "poorer teams" can compete with the Yankees and Red Sox.

It starts with the 2013 draft, and 13 teams are eligible for picks. There will be 12 picks given away, 6 at the end of the 1st round, and the other six at the end of the 2nd round.
The teams that are eligible are the D-backs, Orioles, Indians, Royals, A's, Pirates, Padres, Rays, Reds, Rockies, Marlins, Brewers and Cardinals.

Read that list again.

Four playoff teams, two division champions, and the World Series winner.

Because they need the extra help and picks.

Bud Selig wins again.

Just when I think there is nothing anyone can do to top Gary Bettman and company, Bud comes back swingin'.

New! Shiny! Bowman somethingorothers.....

at last weekend's card show, I picked up a couple of new shiny Braves from on of Bowman's latest releases.

The first, of pitcher Arodys Vizcaino is a very shiny die-cut thingie. I have no idea what insert set this is from. It's number is 10.

 Cool despite not knowing where it came from. Or why the really odd die-cut shape.

The second was a shiny J-Hey. This one was a little easier figuring out where it came from.

Nice.
Not bad for a hockey show in the Great White North.

Tony Stewart for the win!

EDIT: so I posted this on monday. Apparently blogger is a Carl Edwards fan as it decided not post it. Boo blogger!

Tony "Smoke" Stewart won his third NASCAR championship yesterday. His first as a driver/owner.

My favourite driver since he moved over from Indy car.... Congratulations Tony!!!

2011-12 NHL Hall of Fame Inductees...

This year's Hall of Fame inductees are....

Joe Nieuwendyk (KNEE-when-dike) Center. (SEN-ter)

Joe ended his 20 year career with 564 goals, 562 assists in 1257 games. And three Stanley Cup wins with three different teams.

Joe's rookie card is this 1988/89 OPC #16. To show you how times have changed, Joe had already played 2 seasons BEFORE this card came out, including scoring 51 goals the season before.

 Mark Howe (HOW) Defence (DEE-fents)

Mark Howe, famous for more than being one of Gordie's sons, retired after 22 seasons in both the WHA and then the NHL. Combined, Mark scored 405 goals and 841 assists.  No Stanley Cups, but two Avco Cups in the WHA with Houston, '74 and '75.

Mark's rookie card is from the '75/76 OPC WHA set, which I do not have sadly. So enjoy his card from the '77/78 OPC WHA set instead.

 Mark did have a card in the '73/74 OPC WHA set, but apparently it does not count as a rookie card like it would in baseball.

Ed Belfour (BELL-4) Goalie (GO-lee)

Eddie the Eagle, probably best known for his masks than anything, finished a 17 year career with one Stanley Cup win in 1999 with Dallas. In those 17 years he had a record of 484-320-125 with a 2.50 GAA.
Ed's inclusion into the H.O.F. is marginal at best, however with the bar set at Grant Fuhr, quite a few goalies from the '90's are going to get in.

Ed's rookie card came in the horroble card year of 1990/91. Upper Deck (seen here), Bowman, Pro Set and Score all had rookie cards of Belfour.

Doug Gilmour (DUG) Center (DUG)

Another marginal entry into the Hall. Mostly due to media popularity. But when Glen Anderson, Bernie Federko and Clark Gilles are in the Hall.... the bar is now set pretty low....
450 goals 964 assists for 8 teams. Traded 7 times.

Dug's rookie card is the '84/85 OPC seen here.

what I thought was a mint set is not as Dug here is the poster child for OPC off centeredness.

Congrats to all the new entries into the NHL Hall of Pretty Good. I mean, Fame.

Who's it going to be???

On Monday, November 14, the National League Rookie of the Year will be announced. It will be an Atlanta Brave. The top three rookies in contention are all Braves. The question is, which one?

Freddie Freeman 1B - .282 with 21 HR and 76 RBI with a .795 OPS and top notch defence....

 or Craig Kimbrel RP - 4-3 46 saves 2.10 ERA 1.04 WHIP .178 avg against and 127 K's in 77 IP

 or Brandon Beachy SP - 7-3  3.68ERA 1.21 WHIP  2.36 avg against with 169 K's in 141 2/3 IP

 all very strong candidates... however, I feel that the voters with lean towards............

Strikeouts are sexy.

Nationals 2B Danny Espinoza will get some votes as well... I just don't think that many.
Thoughts?

Redemption at the Plate

Awhile ago I received a small package from my buddy who runs Play at the Plate. In it, he enclosed this piece of cardboard....

 3-4 weeks later, another small package arrived at my door from Topps.

Nice.

Now if only Panini and Upper Deck would return my redemptions.....

Thanks Brian!!!

btw... please keep Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos in your thoughts.... LINK

Cause and Effect ..... Yankee Edition.

The average price of the breakfast buffet in Las Vegas increased yesterday to $32.

Today, CC Sabathia signs a contract with the yankees for 5 years and 122 million.

Coincidence?

CC Sabathia seen here with Yankee fan, Miley Cyrus outside the locker room.

when there's something strange, in your neighbourhood...

As we all know, today is Halloween. For today's post, I was saving a pack of Ghostbusters 2 to break on the old blog. As I was saving the scans, I had troubles because my computer was telling me they already exist. Hmmm....

There they were in my image folder alright. I guess I scanned them already. Turns out I posted them already too.

In June.

Of 2009.

Getting old sucks kids.

So if you want to see more of the Ghostbusters gang.... click HERE. Then come back.

So in a last minute scramble I found these..... boxtoppers from the Vampirella Gallery set. They are oversized, about 3"x5". There are six in total, of which I did have all six at one time. I think. But I could only find two.

#'s 5 and 6 of 6. So if any of you has the other 4, let me know.

and a video, just because I can. Have a happy and safe halloween everyone.

Delayed Trade Night posting...

I'm only three weeks late in posting this. Which means.... I'm catching up!

I managed to acquire two Braves 'hits' at this trade night. The first is an Alvin Dark auto on a Topps Heritage card.

 The second piece is this Hank Aaron card. It says "Game Used Memorabilia".

 But what does that mean?

You have received a Topps Memorabilia Card. The relic on this card is not from any specific game, event or season.

What the hell does that mean?????? Does it have anything to do with Hank Aaron even??? This could be a floorboard from the dugout from Three Rivers Stadium for all I know.

Does anyone know what Topps has said about these? Anything?

I had to give up a DeSean Jackson '08 Masterpieces auto, a Carlos Ruiz sticker auto from Moments and Milestones, and an '09  Ginter Chase Utley grey jersey.

The 2010 World Cup is NOT over... Stickie edition.

Let your minds wander back to last summer.... okay, not the one that ended a couple of weeks ago, the one before that. It was World Cup Frenzy! People who never watched soccer before or since were all of a sudden experts. Games were watched. And discussed. The U.S got beaten, and all was forgotten.

Except for those few of you, who like me, were addicted to stickers. World Cup stickers. We were a small, but determined bunch. Most of us finished our sticker books as well as our online sticker books.

Or did we???

Like you, once I put the last sticker into my book, I let out a satisfied sigh and closed the cover. Until a few weeks ago.

I found out some disturbing news.

The bastards Panini had put out an UPDATE SET! ACK!!!

Are you kidding me?!???! No pigeon had come to my door telling me this. I MUST complete my sticker book!

So I did what any normal OCD set collector would do. I scoured the internet until 3am looking for these elusive unstuck stickers.

And after a few sleepless nights, I found them. All of them.

Behold.

 The reason for the update set was of course because not all of the players in the initail release actually played, so stickers had to be made up for those that did.

 Germany did fairly well considering that apparently they had no idea who their Keepers were going to be going in. 0/2 on that one.

 I guess I should show you the backs..... they are numbered according to who they replace in the book, with an "x" annotation. At the bottom, it also tells you by name the 'substitution' that needs to be made.

 The stickers are a bit longer than the original stickers, as the new information about the player needs to cover up the old pplayer's information that was pre-printed into the book.

 Team France added 5 new members, and still imploded.

 Not much to say about most of these guys....

 like any of you are still reading at this point anyways...

 that was a boring sheet... all white kits.

 The lone new American.

 all in all they were 80 new stickers made up for this update set

 and as a reward for actually scrolling through all that, may I present 6 members of Canada's womens soccer team. They never win any games, but we don't care.

Sorry there's no ponies... but it's best to stick with what you know.
(see what I did there?)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a great and safe holiday.

I need better sunglasses...

Things have got shiny around here lately. I thought I might share some of the shiny with you. Because everyone likes the shiny, right?

Put on some shades, lower the lights, and take a gander.

First up, one of those Topps Atomic refractors everyone has got all excited about.

 I got this one of Dan Uggla at my card shop the other night. It was a gift from another collector, left there for me to pick up. Very nice.

The next two cards cost me .50 cents each at a card show a couple of weeks back.

 JHey in shiny parallel glory.

 I got Mr Aaron Shiny in a trade package from Cheap Card Collecting two weeks ago.

 And for .25 cents each at that same card show, I picked up these four Braves wrapper redemptions.

First Uggla

 then Jason...

 The Devil Wears Prado...

 and finally BMac.

I now have more Braves shiny in the last couple of weeks then I had all before put together. I'm almost in overload. I think I need to go and look through my '50's Topps Braves binder just to calm down. These cards are for someone who has a.d.d or something.