February 10, 2019 (January 2019 newsletter)

We here in Virginia are finishing up the February thaw we usually get each year. Hope it's been nice for you, too. I think it will be back to business as usual next week with Old Man Winter coming back at us. I always remind you guys out there that Valentine's Day is coming up. You must not forget the "mushy" card or you will face serious consequences. Speaking of VD, what's the best thing about Valentine's Day? The day after when all the chocolate goes on sale! Hahahahaha!

Let's take a look at the sports news. I try to cover those stories that you may have missed. Here's one from somewhere named "Garmisch-Parten-Kirchen", which is alleged to be in Germany. The World Men's Downhill contest - that's skiing, if you didn't know - was canceled because of - wait for it - snow! Yep, too much snow to ski. I've never skied, so I don't know how that worked, but it seems to me it's like cancelling the Westminster Dog Show because there are too many dogs.

Another story you may not have seen - Boston beer brewer Sam Adams has created a beer called (I'm not making this up) " Too Old, Too Slow, Still Here" to honor quarterback Tom Brady. How many do I have to drink to wipe him out of my mind? Rob "Gronk" Gronkowski got hit by a beer can during the celebration parade; no word whether it was a Sam Adams Brady beer. Fortunately it hit him in the head so there was no damage.

For a couple of weeks the big story in sports was the "non-call" in the Saints-Rams conference championship which probably decided the game in the Rams' favor. The real story was not reported, but my crack staff dug out the actual truth. Two Vegas gamblers, very well "connected", bet on the game. First guy took the Saints, second guy took the Rams. First guy said, "How can you take that team? I have all the good and most experienced players." The second guy said, "I have the referees!".

I must not overlook the big contest - the one that features running, jumping and pooping on the playing field. I'm talking, of course, about the "Super" Bowl. No, wait, I'm talking about the Westminster Dog Show which will happen this coming week. The show started in 1877, and this will be the 143rd happening of the event, none of which I've watched. But I believe some of the events are car chasing, synchronized flea scratching, and dragging their butts across the carpet.

Okay, I have to mention the "Super" Bowl. All right, consider it mentioned. Now forget I brought it up.

Major League Baseball cannot somehow generate the off-season excitement of the NBA or the NFL. It's sort of pathetic how the MLB channel is reduced to showing Jim Thome giving batting tips to Little Leaguers or showing "The Sandlot" for the 145th time. Anyway, spring training cranks up in a week or two, so maybe they'll have something to talk about.

This is a tough one. Who was the first NBA player to win the All-Star Game MVP, NBA MVP, and NBA Finals MVP awards in the same year? And it's not who you're probably thinking. (see answer below)

I reported several months ago that Heritage Auctions sold a nearly complete set of T206 for $8.1M dollars. Well, this month they sold the highest PSA-rated set of 1933 Goudey. The set was sold as individual lots, and the sale brought in $3.6M. The sale was led by the four Ruth cards that sold for just under $1.3M and two Gehrigs for $621,000. Although I didn't get in on this sale (did you?), I do have one Goudey that I'm very proud of - the Mel Ott #127 RC that I bought a long time ago from our pal "Big" John at Mike Deane's show at Valley View.

Catcher J.T. Realmuto was just traded to the Phillies, and (according to Beckett) his card values may be rising. His most available RC is the 2015 Topps Update.

Finally, three of the top-rated baseball prospects, Vlad Guerrero, Jr., Fernando Tatis, Jr. and Eloy Jimenez may all hit the big leagues this year, so now might be the time to stock up on them.

Joseph Fink was the high school basketball coach for the Friendsville Academy Foxes in Tennessee. This is a portion of an interview he gave.

I call him a "hero" for saying what he really thinks instead of that marshmallowy puffery you usually get from coaches. You know what they say [and don't say]. "We're just a few [hundred] plays from being in first place". Or, "Our guys are continuing to play hard [just wish they could play better]". "We're just one or two players away from turning this thing around [maybe I can get some of the cheerleaders to try out]".

Today we talk about pillow fighting - not that sissy thing kids do when they're supposed to be in bed. This is described as "a real-life semi-professional women-only sporting event that is all about pillow fighting". It has its own league based in Canada. I'm not sure what the actual rules are, but I'm sure a match would be much more exciting than the recent "Super" Bowl. If only they did it in the mud it would be perfect.

As I first reported last year, February 15th is "National Hippo Day"; I said last year I'd love to have a pet hippo but the litter box is ginormous. I didn't think then of how it would feel when he jumped into your lap. The 18th is (remember, I'm not making these up) "Cow Milked While Flying In An Airplane Day"; sort of like the "mile high club", I guess, but probably messier. This month we celebrate Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays, but, strangely enough, not on their actual birth days; the feds, who can mess up anything, thought they'd be smart and combine the two into one big holiday, but if they'd been thinking, they would have celebrated them on the right days and had TWO holidays! Finally, February 20 is "Love Your Pet Day"; if you must have a special day to do that, then you should NOT have a pet!

Willis Reed in 1970 was the first to do this. Reed, of course, played for the Knicks who won the championship for the 69-70 season.

March 7, 2019 (February 2019 newsletter)

Hello again! Here we are once more in the merry month of March, and you know what that means! It's "Spring Ahead" time, when we gleefully give up an hour of our lives for who knows what reason. And, in fact, we'll spend several more hours changing all the clocks in our lives. If you have another couple of hours to waste I'll be glad to rant about "Daylight Savings Time" for you. Just ask. Hate to interrupt my generally fact-free report with some facts, but here goes. Although Ben Franklin is frequently blamed for DST, he reportedly did NOT technically recommend it. (Franklin is best known today as the big head on the $100 bill. The only hundreds I ever see are when somebody at the card show buys $1.50 worth of cards from me and gives me a hundred to pay for it. Thanks!) No, the "credit" generally goes to a New Zealander named George Hudson who is otherwise a total unknown. New Zealand is a source primarily of wool (see Out of the Mainstream Sports below) and "kiwi", which is a green and very sour fruit favored by many who also think plain strawberries are tasty. My sources do report, however, that New Zealand produces some good wines (thanks Sue!).

But enough about that. Let's take a look at the sports news. First, a comment about "sports radio". I sometimes turn on ESPN radio when I'm out driving somewhere. Perhaps you've noticed as I have, that it appears you can turn on "ESPN in Virginia" pretty much at any random time, and you'll get a commercial. I'm led to believe that ESPN radio is maybe 75% commercials and 25% stuff which may be sports - if you include as sports such things as random snippets of music, hot-pepper-eating contests, or interviews with various rap "artists".

Anyway, as I was driving home from our show last month, I turned on ESPN. Of course, it was NBA All-star weekend. They were promoting the upcoming - on the radio! - 3-point shooting contest and the slam-dunk contest. The thrills! The chills! Listening to those on the radio! "Did you see that dunk!!! No, of course you didn't. You're listening on the radio."

Sadly, there is apparently no end to drug usage in sports. A fellow who calls himself "Geir Helgemo", if you can believe that, and who is the top-ranked bridge player IN THE WORLD, has been accused of using PEDs, specifically synthetic testerone and a female fertility drug (insert your own female fertility drug joke here). There's no report yet on what his punishment may be. I know, you may think "bridge" is not a sport, in which case, see more on this in the Unsung Sports Heroes section below.

Here's a big story which I'm sure you've seen but is too entertaining for me to pass up. Johnny "Footnote" Manziel was basically kicked out of the Canadian Football League for unspecified violations of his contract. Is it the end for Johnny Footnote? No, there's always the AAF (Almost Authentic Football). We at this site certainly don't want him to go away.

In other Manziel family news, Johnny's wife Bre Tiesi-Manziel, if that's her real name, who is reportedly an "Instagram model" (whatever that may be), is accused of having cheated in a half-marathon race which was being run for charity. Some analysis indicates she must have run the final 6.4 miles at about a 4 min/mile pace, which would be just flat-out gettin' it. That's faster than I could have done it, and you, too, I'll bet.

In sports financial news, the big story is out of Philadelphia. You probably already heard it. I'm referring, of course, to the Eagles who made Jason Kelce the highest paid center in the NFL. No, really - the big story out of Philadelphia is the signing of Bryce Harper by the Phillies to a lifetime contract for a bejillion dollars. I was hoping he would sign at San Fran or San Diego or LA or even the Hokkaido-Nippon Ham Fighters - anywhere out west where I wouldn't have to see him on any regular basis. But it was not to be.

Don Newcombe recently died. Although I was never a fan of the Dodgers, either Brooklyn or LA, as a team, there were some individual Dodger players that I did like, and "Newk" was one of those. He was not only a fine pitcher, winning both the MVP and the first Cy Young in 1956,l but also an excellent hitting pitcher. Like many others of his generation, he also sacrificed two prime career years to serve in the military, a sacrifice which none of the whiny athletes of today have ever had to make.

Poor Kyrie Irving has to face reporters after games. The horror! Much worse than flying combat missions over Korea as Ted Williams did, winning commendations at the invasion of Normandy as Yogi Berra did, or giving his life in combat as Pat Tilman did. Of course, Kyrie will only get about $20,000,000 this year for his heroism.

Once again we have (I think) a tough one. Three men are enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both a coach and a player. Name these three. Okay - name any one of them! (see answer below)

Goldin Auctions reported that they sold a 2009 Trout Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Refractor auto graded 9.5 by Beckett for $186,000+. Goldin describes it as a "rookie card", which, of course, it is not. Here's hoping that Trout will eventually amount to something.

Memory Lane is going to auction what is described as the "best Willie Mays collection", offering 282 cards ranked as best on PSA's set registry.

Kyler Murray, who may or may not be the #1 pick in the upcoming NFL draft, and who may or may not be worth that #1, has signed an auto and card deal with Panini. His first cards and autos are scheduled to appear soon in Prizm Draft Picks, and his first officially licensed NFL cards (whatever that means) will appear in 2019 Score.

Usually I use this segment to poke fun at some deserving doofuss in the world of sports. This time, however, I want to celebrate a youngster who's doing something actually amazing. If you haven't seen this before (it's been on TV) you may at first think it must be fake, but I don't believe it is. Just watch!

(Okay, I know you may not consider juggling and solving Rubik's cubes to be "sports", but consider that we report here on things like horse racing and golf, and call THEM "sports". So there.)

Sheep shearing is a sport which apparently came out of New Zealand. Their farmers even recommended that it be added as an Olympic sport. I can see it rivaling, say, race walking, synchronized swimming, or even golf in excitement and popularity. I think the object is either to "shear" the most sheep in a certain specified time, or maybe to get the most wool in the allotted time. Don't know if the sheep are checked for PEDs. I might add that many "sports" have been suggested as Olympic contests, including, for example, "pole dancing". If you want to know more about this pole dancing sport (haha! I'll bet you do!), click here!

March 17 is, of course, St. Patrick's day, when millions of Americans drink too much, and millions of others of us celebrate that our ancestors left Ireland long ago. March 5, if you missed it, was "Mardi Gras", which is another day millions of Americans drink too much, and lots of women apparently celebrate by exposing their, uh, beads. March 10-16 is "Girl Scout Week": celebrate by eating some Girl Scout cookies ("serving size - two boxes" hahahaha).

Bill Sharman, Lenny Wilkens and John Wooden.

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