Cats, guitars, baseball cards -
December 2, 2014 (November 2014 newsletter)
We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday. My turkey day (at our house) was okay in spite of the fact that a number of my in-laws were here. But my sister also came up from Danville, and she significantly lightened up the occasion. We are still eating left-over desserts. I'll probably have to push my tables out a few more inches for the next show.
In case you didn't know - like, if you've been in a coma for a month - Christmas is coming up. Our show will offer many treasured gifts for the sports fan on your list: an autograph or a rookie card of a favorite player, an unopened box of treasures, team-related items such as gloves, umbrellas and what not - all kinds of goodies. Be sure to check us out.
In recent sports news, I see that although the Washington football team lost on Sunday, at least Robert Griffin (the third, if you're counting) was not injured. Oops - reading further, I see that he didn't play. Yeah, collectors, hang on to those rookie cards.
Of course the biggest sports news lately was the so-called "Commonwealth Cup" game between Va Tech and UVa. It had everything you'd expect in a game between two teams of this quality: interceptions, fumbles, ill-timed penalties, lots of punts. At least it ended the right way.
This month's show will be the last in this, our third year. We have every hope of continuing next year, and negotiations are underway for the schedule. I hope we'll have that for you this month. If you can't be with us this month, we wish you and yours the best and brightest holiday season ever. Whether you're celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or our friend Paul's birthday, or all of the above or others I've overlooked, may it be a safe and happy holiday! And Happy New Year!
December 31, 2014 (December 2014 newsletter)
If you missed my earlier letter, we want to let you know that we've signed up for our fourth year of doing this show. Our calendar for 2015 is shown below. The January 2015 show will be on the 17th.
Here's hoping you all had a great Christmas. I know I did, but, of course, I've been VERY good all year! Unbeknownst to each other, my wife and I gave each other new Samsung tablets. Beknownst to each other, we also got new smartphones. Now we're somewhat in the 21st century, or will be when I figure out how to make a phone call on my new phone. (Just kidding!) My gifts were rather clothes-intensive, which is pretty much unavoidable when you are, technically at least, a grown-up. But I did get some nice books and a deluxe food processor (you didn't know I cook?) among other stuff. And did I mention the new dining table and chairs we got (the excitement never stops at our house).
It's New Years Eve as I type this, and many of you are watching college football. Unfortunately TCU is blowing out "Ole" Miss, so I quit watching that one. Many of you are preparing for an evening of fun tonight. Hope you have a great time, but if you go out please be careful and don't overdo the fun. I don't think they'll let you out of jail to come to the card show. It's the most football time of the year. Bowl games continue tonight and tomorrow with the just-missed-it teams playing tonight and the "final four" playing tomorrow. I feel silly rooting for a team called the "Ducks", especially in those hideous uniforms, but GO OREGON! BEAT FSU! So far the bowl results have been pretty good with West Virginia losing and, oh yeah, Va Tech somehow winning.
January 26, 2015 (January 2015 newsletter)
Hi, gang! Lots of sports news happening this week. Of course, we're all anxiously waiting for the big event coming up this Sunday: unforgettable plays, memorable action, and those comical breaks to pee on the field. I'm referring, of course, to the 11th annual Puppy Bowl on the Animal Planet channel. I'm by no means a "dog person", but I do enjoy the Puppy Bowl.
My sources report that there's also a football game this Sunday, the "Super" Bowl, or, as many of the ESPN blabbermouths put it, the "Soup" Bowl. The game matches the Seattle Seajerks, who lead the league in obnoxiousness, and the "New England" Patriots (who once upon a time were known as the "Boston" Patriots, which I guess didn't completely express their greatness). The "Pats" are coached by Bill Bellicheat - known to his friends (if he has any) as "Mumbles". He has all the charm and loveableness of a bowl of cold oatmeal. Good luck on picking somebody to root for in that matchup. I will as is my custom be curled up with a good book during that time, although my wife usually watches for the commercials.
If I might be serious for a moment, a word of remembrance for "Mr Cub", Ernie Banks, who died the other day. Two-time MVP (for a team that finished in the bottom half of the standings), 512 career home runs (which coincidentally matched my favorite player Eddie Mathews) on a 180-lb frame, an all-time baseball great, but he was also by all reports a really nice person.
And Jeff Gordon announced his intention to, well, not exactly retire but to cut back after this year. If you're not one of those two or three folks out there who follow Nascar, Jeff is a very popular driver. My sympathies to my cousin-in-law Steve who will be losing his favorite driver, but he still has his Danica collection.
At the risk of running over my welcome time here, I want to talk about a book I just read called Mint Condition, subtitled "How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession". As the sharper of you may have guessed it's a history of baseball cards from their beginning in the Civil War era up to the present day. Each chapter describes a particular period or a certain person who was important to the story. Fascinating chapters cover such topics as the American Tobacco Company, who saw the cards included in their cigarette packs as a way to "hook" young smokers; Jefferson Burdick, who began the "Card Collectors Bulletin" as a catalog of all baseball cards to that point and who gave us the still-standard designations of those early cards such as T206; Marvin Miller, the MLB players union head who generated the union's income by shrewd baseball card contracts; and many others. I do recommend this book (which is for sale at Barnes & Noble) for any of you interested in this story.
March 10, 2015 (February 2015 newsletter)
This is, as you know, a major month for celebration. I refer, of course, to the birthday of Dr. Seuss. No, I'm joking, sports fans. This month the big sports news is certainly the Iditarod race in Alaska - if, that is, they can get some snow. Maybe we could lend them some. But, no, again I'm kidding. This is the month for the aptly-named "March Madness", when virtually every team in the land has some slim chance to be the "national champion". Well, maybe not my team, but at least we, as good Virginians, can still root for a Virginia team - GO VCU!
Speaking of hearts and hopes soaring with the coming of Spring, it is spring training time in baseball, when fans of all thirty teams can dream of their team winning it all - even those severely deluded fans in Colorado and Philadelphia. MLB is trying some ways to speed up the "pace of the game", in hopes that the average game length will shrink from 3 hours, 8 minutes, to, oh, say 3 hours and 5 minutes. Boy, that ought to do it!
Of course, every day is football season for the NFL. especially on ESPN ("Electric Sports Programming for the NFL"). Today is free agent day, when the decks all get shuffled. N~~~~~~ Suh (YOU try to spell it) got $114 million to sign with Miami. That should almost cover his unsportsmanlike fines. Speaking of Philadelphia, Charles Kelly (known to his friends as "Chip") is Big Poobah of the Eagles and has made several surprising moves. Experts are led to wonder whether: 1 - he has some "double secret" plan in mind which will astound us all when it's revealed, or 2 - he has oatmeal in his mind. Time will tell. We know which way we're hoping.
I told Ken I'd write a little about Soccer. I think the MLS ("Major
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