2014 Michigan Gameday #8: at Michigan State

Michigan rides a one-game winning streak--thanks to Penn State and a bye--into East Lansing for a tilt against the rival Spartans.  The Wolverines are 3-4 and continue to search for reasons to rise from the ashes while #8 MSU is 6-1 and shooting for the newly-created four-team playoff.

State has uncharacteristically won five of the last six games, though Michigan is 19-12 in the series during my lifetime, plus a dominating 68-33 (with five ties) overall.

2014 is also the 10-year anniversary of the Braylon game.  For most Michigan fans, you probably already know what I mean without saying anything else.  For the rest of you, that's one of the most famous entries in the entire series.  Unranked State gave the #12 Wolverines all they could, and were up by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter before the Henne-to-Braylon connection flipped the script.  In front of a smaller crowd--many had left dejectedly--the Wolverines pulled out a thrilled in triple OT with the winning TD caught by Edwards, who'd also nabbed two scores in the insane fourth quarter.

The roles are kind of reversed this year, but in rivalry series like this one, anything can and will happen.  I just hope the ghosts of the Michigan greats from the rivalry smile down on the Maize and Blue in East Lansing this afternoon.

LET'S GO BLUE!

 

2014 Michigan Gameday #5: vs. Minnesota

Fresh off a demoralizing loss to Utah at home the Wolverines welcome Minnesota to town at 3:30 for their first conference tilt of the year.  There are a lot of rumors to the effect that backup QB Shane Morris may draw the start in light of Devin Gardner's inconsistent play (possibly due to a lack of confidence), so we may get our first extended look at the lefty since last year's bowl game.

The Wolverines are so all over the place this year that I literally have no idea what to expect, but I'm hoping for a convincing win for the team, the fans, myself, and Jeff, as he's on his way to Ann Arbor for his annual game.

It's the 101st matchup of the two teams and the Little Brown Jug is on the line.

What else is there to say, really?  I want a win and to keep the Jug where it belongs in Ann Arbor, sooooooo...

LET'S GO BLUE!

 

2014 eBay purchases: the Henne Hill show

The title came to mind because of the subjects of today's post, but the play on the old show name is also apt for the state of the Big Ten after just three weeks:

Anyway, at least my Wolverines won, so lets celebrate with some cards!

Chad Henne 2008 Leaf Limited Slideshow auto (#40/50)

This sweet Henne is actually my most recent eBay purchase (and only pickup of this month as of this post), and I landed it for just a bit over $5 10 days ago, a low price that definitely surprised me.  I've said before that I really admire the Slideshow inserts and hits, which is no surprise as I can point out I have Chad's fellow draftee and teammate Jake Long from the same set.  This one scanned a bit better than Long's card, but as usual both look better in-person anyway.  Regardless of his NFL performance, I love picking up another great hit of Henne, my 67th, tying him with the aforementioned Long for first place in my football PC!

Rich Hill 2008 Topps Triple Threads 217A Emerald triple jersey auto (#36/50)

Switching gears (and sports) we now move on to my favorite baseball PC player, Rich Hill, who's done quite well in the Yanks' bullpen in the season's second half.  This card is my next-most-recent purchase as I won the auction late last month for just $6 shipped.  I'm particularly happy to add this 2008 Triple Threads issue because I now have all 10 of his solo cards in that product:  two versions each of "base," Emerald, Gold, Sapphire, and Sepia, ranging from 99 copies on down to 10.  Of his 18 non-1/1s in the set I'm short just four:  three versions of a triple relic/auto card alongside Johnny Cueto and Tom Gorzelanny, plus a final booklet including Sam Fuld.

Although these are cards I "have to" pursue in trying to collect Rich's PC, I've been happy to do so since I very much like the look of the '08 TTT set.  I also have a hard time finding much to dislike about almost any card that includes his autograph, of course.  Speaking of those, this is my 109th hit of Hill, and in terms of his PC, I now stand at 228/347, inching myself closer to the 2/3 mark.

With a couple interesting auctions ending early this week, hopefully I'll have more fun stuff to show off to you soon.  Until then, please enjoy the clown show that is 2014 Big Ten Football!

2014 Michigan Gameday #2: at Notre Dame

Fresh off last week's 52-14 thumping of Appalachian State, the Wolverines head to South Bend for the last matchup (for a while) in one of college football's most storied rivalries.  Michigan is 24-16-1 in the 41 contests with the Irish through 2013, having won the opener in 1887 as well as last year's game.  The Maize and Blue are winners of four of the last five and won three straight, 2009-2011, by four points each thanks to the heroics of QBs Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson.

With #16 Notre Dame having chickened out of the series for now ("Notre Dame is scared like a little girl" tag in play), it remains to be seen how much they bring to tonight's 7:30 game, especially considering the results of the recent matchups.  Michigan, meanwhile, is seeking a road win against a good opponent, something that's eluded them under coach Brady Hoke thus far.  2014's edition of the Wolverines looks pretty talented, though, especially with fifth-year senior Devin Gardner at QB, new #1 WR Devin Funchess winning jumpball matchups, and a potential dual-headed RB threat in Derrick Green and De'Veon Smith.

All three of Michigan's biggest tests, naturally the rivalry games with Notre Dame, Michigan State, and Ohio State, are on the road this year, so tonight's game could be an excellent indicator of how far the Wolverines have come since last year's disappointing finish.  For my part, I hope to see a lot of this tonight:

"Brian Kelly is very red" tag also in play.

While I await gametime (and try to send some good luck towards Kerry's Ducks (MSU) and Adam's Hokies (OSU), not to mention Matt's Mountaineers, here's some of my fondest memories from the series:

Grbac to Desmond on 4th down, 1991

Michigan's final drive, Forcier to Mathews, 2009

Highlights, including Denard Robinson's game-winning drive, 2010

Final 0:30, including Denard to Gallon, from 2011 (Under the Lights), possibly the best game in the entire series

Here's to beating the team formerly coached by Captain Front-Butt himself,

and closing out the series the way it started.  To hell with Notre Dame...

LET'S GO BLUE!

 

Jonvalk, MGoBlog

2014 eBay purchases: hip H-O-P hooray!

First of all, I'd like to say thanks to Jeff for his three posts in the last week or so (while I've been too lazy to post).

And now here's something new from me, finally--another eBay showoff post covering pickups from the last few weeks--er, months, now that I look over my purchase history!  So here's some new stuff of three of my favorite players from my Michigan Baseball PCs:

Rich Hill 2006 Topps Triple Threads Emerald dual jersey auto (#07/75)

It was a good productive few months for my Hill collection thanks to several eBay scores, that's for sure.  First up is this Triple Threads dual jersey/auto from 2006.  I actually got it from a friend of my brother's who was selling off most of his Cubs stuff.  Although I offered to buy it directly for a bit more than the minimum and shipping, he let the auction ride, and I got it for the bare minimum of $3.49 total.  Of the set's five variations I'm now short just the Sapphire (/25).

Rich Hill 2007 UD Black Illustrious Dual Autographs dual auto (with Sean Gallagher) (#02/25)

This shiny dual sticker auto hails from the high-end UD Black product of 2007 and was a reasonable buy at $8.  It's the more abundant version of two made as the Gold Spectrum variation has 10 fewer copies.  Hill was paired with fellow Cub prospect Gallagher on four other cards that year, all of which are found in Upper Deck's Exquisite Collection product;  I have two of them (base and Gold) so far.  Sean, by the way, was part of the deal with Oakland that brought Rich Harden to the Cubs back in 2008, and he's bounced around the minors since his last Major League appearance with the Pirates in 2010.  

Rich Hill 2008 Topps Triple Threads 217B triple jersey auto

Lastly for Hill today I finally scored this version of his "base" 2008 Triple Threads triple jersey/auto.  I've owned the "A" card (featuring three stars instead of the team abbreviation) for a while, and plenty of other parallels, but I didn't find a price I liked on this one until recently, when a bit more than $7 worked for me.  Rich has 18 cards in the set, including eight where he's paired with one or more players, and I've scored 13 total, including all but one of his solo cards.

Today's trio gives me a total of 227 of Rich's 347 issues (about 65%), and an all-PC-dominating 108 hits.  His 239 overall cards give him a small edge over second-place SS Barry Larkin!

Michael O'Neill 2013 Elite Extra Edition Signature Green Ink auto (#01/10)

The "O" in today's title is Yankees prospect Michael O'Neill.  I probably could have posted this 2013 EEE Green Ink auto a BIT sooner--I grabbed it in late MAY for $10.50--but sometimes I just prefer to group my eBay pickups together.  Anyway, its extreme rarity makes it a big win to add it to O'Neill's PC as his second auto (here's the base) from that set, never mind that it's also #1 of the production.

Michael O'Neill 2013 Elite Extra Edition Status Gold (#3/5)

And along for the ride is this even RARER, non-autographed Gold Status insert.  I was surprised to pick it up for a measly $4 a few weeks ago, knocking off what should have been one of Michael's toughest cards to find.  The gold and die-cutting go very well with Panini's EEE design this year--as usual--and of course I'm thrilled to have landed this card now, which gets me 1/3 of the way done with his 15 cards in the product.

Speaking of the number five, these cards represent my fifth hit of O'Neill and a minor milestone of 10 out of his 40 issues to-date, crossing the double-digit mark.

Zach Putnam 2008 Playoff Contenders Draft Class Autographs dual auto (with Trey Haley) (#22/25)

Back in June I happily plunked down a reasonable $7.50 to get this dual autograph featuring the "P" of the title, Zach Putnam, because it closes the chapter on his 2008 Contenders cards:  Playoff Ticket, base auto, Draft Class insert, Gold Draft Class, and Black Draft Class.  I knew this auto would be the hardest one to find, but it still eluded me until June as I'd literally not seen ANY copies available previously.

I now have 41 of Zach's 52 issues, but I'm in an interesting position since an insane nine of those are numbered to 5!  I'm also very curious to see if he gets any newer cards since becoming a more important part of the White Sox's bullpen--he was one of their leading closer candidates before a recent injury.  For now I'll enjoy owning 32 of his hits, which are good for second best in the baseball PC, which by the way, is now at an almost-milestone total of 275.

With nothing else planned for now, stay tuned for what I previously promised will be an exciting series of pickups, at least for some of you!

2014 Sportlots purchase #3: ACTUAL sports guy B. Simmons

I'm back with even more Sportlots baseball PC pickups I nabbed while completing my latest round of football sets courtesy of one of the best sites for both!  I've got three posts worth of scores from that site before I get to my latest COMC haul.

Today features just one player because I landed so many new cards of him, so it made sense to give him his own post.  That player is former Chicago White Sox prospect Brian Simmons, to whom you were introduced in this post when I finally realized he used to play for the Wolverines!

I had only started with four cards, so it's not a huge surprise that I had lots of luck finding many I needed, especially since he was a common player during a time when there was simply an explosion of sets.  Without further ado, here's a bunch of new cards of a B. Simmons that actually has something to do with sports instead of talking about crappy TV and his goofy family and friends:

Brian Simmons 1999 Bowman

Brian Simmons 1999 Bowman Chrome

Brian Simmons 1999 Bowman Chrome International

Brian Simmons 1999 Bowman Chrome Refractor

Brian Simmons 1999 Bowman International

Time to start a new rainbow!  Simmons has nine cards between Bowman/Chrome for 1999, so I'm already more than halfway done with this one.  Of the four remaining, three are serial-numbered, but I don't think it'll be horrible tracking them down.

1999 Bowman is a solid set with a pretty good design whose biggest flaw is the huge borders and other elements that detract from the amount of space the photo gets.  Other than that, the chrome-ified version looks great as usual, and the Refractor is easily the best of the group.  The International parallel is pretty good as well, with (hard-to-scan) backgrounds that highlight the player's home state, in this case Pennsylvania since it's nearly impossible to see.

Two of the remainders I have to track down are Refractors, so I look forward to showing those off when I get them!

Brian Simmons 1999 Fleer Brilliants

Keeping the hard-to-scan ball rolling is this somewhat forgettable Fleer release from 1999.  Playing off the set's name, it's very reflective, which means the scanner makes it look extremely dark.  There are three parallels to chase:  Blue, Gold (#d /99) and 24-Karat Gold (/24).  It may be tricky tracking down the latter, but I don't expect too much trouble.

Brian Simmons 1999 Fleer Tradition

To paraphrase Abe Simpson, "Now THERE's a product you could set your watch to."  As I've mentioned, this isn't my all-time favorite Fleer set (still 1997, if you're wondering), but I enjoy how it's sort of a budget set while not really feeling low-end.  The photography and design are great, and I love the stamps that commemorate significant events (such as an MLB debut) without needing an extra subset.

By the way, this set has three parallels of its own:  Warning Track, Millennium (#d /5000), and the ultra-rare Starting Nine, for which just nine copies exist.  Yikes!

Brian Simmons 1999 SkyBox Thunder Rant

I'm still on record that I don't care for this ugly-ass set (I own the base card), and the parallels don't make it look any better, including this un-numbered version with its disgusting purple foil.  Rave (#d /150) and Super Rave 25 wait in the wings to further turn my stomach.

Brian Simmons 1999 Sports Illustrated (with Johnson and Wilson)

One of Fleer's better entries in the late 90s, Sports Illustrated featured some great photography (no surprise) on a thick glossy design.  And just like some of my favorite older Topps cards, it includes multi-player prospect cards!  Joining Simmons here are catcher Mark Johnson and his fantastic goatee, and SS Craig Wilson.  

The Sox took Johnson 26th overall in 1994 (ahead of Jay Payton, Troy Glaus, and others), and he managed to play in parts of eight seasons, which isn't bad.  Meanwhile, THIS Craig Wilson is not to be confused with the guy that played for the Pirates in the 2000s, and was a 1992 13th-rounder that made his debut in 1998, causing Fleer to throw him on this card for some reason.

Brian Simmons 1999 Upper Deck Victory

At times I lump sets like Victory, Collector's Choice/UD Choice, and MVP all together because they all kind of went for that lower-end, kid-friendly feel.  Still, I'd consider Victory a bit of a step up from those design-wise.  Also, it's decently large at 470 cards.

Simmons didn't make the cut for the Ultimate Victory checklist, which was sort of the Chrome version for Upper Deck, but that makes sense since this isn't even a RC.  Really, I'm just happy with how this one turned out--a very nice swinging shot on a simple design.

Brian Simmons 2000 Fleer Impact

This set is about as forgettable as '99 Fleer Brilliants, but doesn't even have the courtesy to look nice.  The photography is fine, but man is that an ugly design overlaid on it.  Like the Victory card above, this one fortunately doesn't have a parallel for me to chase, and it's one of just three cards on which Simmons was included in 2000.  That number includes this 2000 UD base card and its Exclusives Silver parallel (#d to 100).

Doing the math (which I can manage without a 911 call!), today's 11, along with my original four, give me a new Simmons PC total of 15.  He's got a run of 35 cards from his playing days, so I'm almost halfway there, which isn't bad considering I recently started collecting him.

Stay tuned for a couple more Sportlots pickup posts shortly!

COMC/JustCommons/Sportlots 2013 roundup part 1: DONE

(Note:  view all posts in this series with this link)

I've been sitting on a bunch of purchases from late 2013 that needed to be recorded, scanned, and posted, and I'm finally getting around to those.  In many cases I may just mash up purchases by player instead of online store to make things easier.  We'll see just how many posts I get out of this series, which I'm going to abbreviate COMC-JC-SL 2013.

Day one of COMC-JC-SL has one theme:  DONE.  Which I guess is weird since this is just the start of this series, not the end.  Whatever, it still makes sense to me, so "DONE" it is, like this outstanding song by The Band Perry:

Is Kimberly Perry the Alison Brie of sorta-country-but-not-really-since-it-doesn't-suck music? Note: ask Greg Z. about this later....

Anyway, I believe briefly noted in a recent post or two that although I hadn't posted proof, I actually completed two more PCs (besides Matt Miller) before the end of 2013.  As such, I think showing those off would be a great start.

First up alphabetically is Mr. Rick Leach:

Rick Leach 1986 Topps Traded Tiffany 

Rick Leach 1988 Score Glossy

Rick Leach 1989 Topps Traded Tiffany 

The Tiffany cards were a bit tough to track down at reasonable prices, but I scored them from Sportlots, and the Score Glossy appeared fatefully on COMC at a nice price.  So that's an even 60/60 for the former Tiger and Michigan QB.  Oddly enough he was also featured on one 1/1 in 2012 Leaf Memories in the form of a stamped buyback from 1990 Leaf; I haven't been able to track it down other than to find that it sold on eBay early last year, so there's a good chance I'll never get a shot at it.  No big deal--I'm thrilled to have completed Leach's PC so quickly considering I'm pretty sure I officially began chasing it sometime last year!  

Next up is another guy I think I officially began chasing last year:  Geoff Zahn:

Geoff Zahn 1975 O-Pee-Chee

Geoff Zahn 1975 Topps Mini RC

Geoff Zahn 1976 O-Pee-Chee

Geoff Zahn 1978 Topps

Geoff Zahn 1979 O-Pee-Chee

Geoff Zahn 1979 Topps

Geoff Zahn 1981 Donruss (#532B)

Geoff Zahn 1981 Topps Traded

Geoff Zahn 1983 Fleer

Geoff Zahn 1984 Topps Tiffany (#276) (with Carew)

Geoff Zahn 1984 Topps Tiffany (#468)

Geoff Zahn 1985 Fleer

Geoff Zahn 1985 Topps Tiffany

Geoff Zahn 1986 Topps Tiffany

Of those 14 cards, the '78 Topps, '81 Topps Traded, '83 Fleer, and '85 Fleer arrived from Sportlots, while COMC supplied the rest.  My favorite of this bunch is the '75 Topps mini since that's a RC and comes from such a fun, iconic set.  The '81 Donruss variation, by the way, is different than the "A" issue, whose 1980 highlights section starts "Was 2nd in league for shutouts with 5."  This one begins:  "Signed a 3 year contract Dec. 2nd...."  Meanwhile, Zahn was around long enough during the Topps era to warrant a few Tiffany parallels, which are pretty "meh" as far as I'm concerned.

Thus, I've acquired all 36 of Zahn's player collection issues, meaning I just need to find a Michigan Baseball alum whose last name starts with "A" (and ISN'T Jim Abbott and his six thousand cards) to brag about a solid collection from "A" to "Z"!  Anyway, have a look at Zahn's album here if you'd like.  And as always, please remember you can follow along with my player collecting here.

Well, today was just the start, but I have plenty more of these posts to mix in with my other content, especially since I started with around 300 cards to show off!  Stay tuned for more Michigan sports player collections, plus some football and hockey pickups too.

Ok, now this post is officially DONE (soooooo doooone).

Many more Michigan Men part 8: Jim Abbott

Previously: Part 1 (Chris Sabo), Part 2 (Kelly Dransfeldt, Scott Kamieniecki, Heath Murray, and Geoff Zahn), Part 3 (Mike Matheny), Part 4 (Steve Ontiveros), Part 5 (Drew Henson), Part 6 (Hal Morris), Part 7 (Charlie Gehringer and George Sisler)

A month or two ago I embarked upon a project of scanning all of the cards in my collection of any other Michigan Baseball alumni not already included on my Player Collections page. That includes anything that arrived via trade, was already in my collection otherwise, or was part of a complete set (or set in-progress). As you can imagine it took quite a while to get everything done, but about 250+ cards later, I finally have something to show for it! These posts will show off new player collections or new cards for existing PCs. Some players will join the group that I supercollect and others will be guys I just pick up whenever I can. If you have anything I don't and feel like trading, please let me know as I'd love to build up these collections!

Today's featured player is a guy who shows up in a lot of collectors' PCs, and I think that says a lot about him given his limited career and varying degrees of success.  Jim Abbott's story is well-known to collectors and baseball fans young and old, but it's still worth recapping briefly.
Jim was born in Flint, Michigan, and due to a deformity, was born without a right hand.  Thanks to a tenacious attitude and wonderfully supportive parents, he overcame that obstacle to become an improbably successful collegiate and pro pitcher.  His success started at Michigan (1985-88) and with the US teams of the '87 Pan American Games and '88 Olympics.  His resume included the 1987 Golden Spikes award (best amateur baseball player) and a Gold Medal in 1988 (with baseball being a demonstration sport at the time).

As if that wasn't unbelievable enough, he was the 8th overall pick in the '88 draft, selected by the Angels.  He rose to the Majors quickly the following season and won 47 games over four seasons, including 18 in 1991, before being traded to the Yankees in 1992 (in a deal that brought future Angels stalwart J.T. Snow to California).  On September 4 the following season, Jim threw one of the unlikeliest no-hitters in the history of the game, cementing his legend.  It was amazing enough that his unorthodox delivery, which included holding his glove on his right arm, then quickly transferring it his pitching hand, worked at all in amateur ball, and here he'd accomplished something many better pitchers never did!  Ultimately his success was somewhat short-lived as he appeared in just 10 Major League seasons, going 87-108, but the fact he reached the highest level of the game and achieved so much success has inspired many to overcome their own limitations, be they more manageable or severe.

Whenever I think about Abbott's inspiring story I love to reference a great clip from the tragically cancelled Party Down:

Jim Abbott indeed.

So today I'll highlight 35 new cards I added to my existing Abbott collection (all hits) to give me a new total of 40.  Since that's a lot to show off, I chose 10 that seemed to be good examples:

1989 Bowman RC

1989 Topps RC

1989 Upper Deck RC

These are Jim's three "flagship" set RCs I own; the rest appear to hail from traded and rookie-type sets, but I'll chase those eventually.  '89 Bowman has never been a favorite of mine since the cards are oversized and the design doesn't do much for me.  The Topps is an improvement despite the fact it comes from such a crappy junk wax set, since Abbott is photographed with Michigan.  And out of the three, I have to imagine that the most well-liked is my favorite, the multi-exposure, horizontal offering from Upper Deck's landmark set, giving you a bit of a look at how his delivery worked.

1992 Baseball Card Magazine '70 Topps Replicas

This is about as oddball as my Abbott collection gets, at least for now, although I do have stuff from other notables such as Classic and Post.

1992 Upper Deck (#78)

While I wouldn't consider this a "Michigan Uniform" card, the mock-up--designed to look like a college dorm room--is pretty cool.  Remember CRTs?  For the sake of completeness, here's the back, courtesy of COMC:

Stay in school, kids!  Forever!  Don't try to get a job, those don't exist anymore anyway.

1994 Ultra

I wanted to include a card of Abbott with each of the teams he played with, so here's my Yankees nomination:  a great horizontal version from 1994 Ultra, a set that featured great photography but a surprisingly stupid design on its cards that were rotated 90 degrees.  Make the writing horizontal too, idiots!  This is another nice look at his pitching motion, though.

1995 Pinnacle

Abbott signed with the ChiSox before the '95 season and played about half of it with them before heading back to the Angels in a trade.  Here he is, still wearing black and white with pinstripes, on a card from another of my favorite sets:  1995 Pinnacle.  The full-bleed photos are great, and the baseball seam area with the player's name and team are phenomenal.  As a White Sox Wolverine, it's no wonder he fits so prominently in Jeff's collecting interests.

1996 Upper Deck V.J. Lovero Showcase

I showed off this complete set more than a year ago on the other blog as it's one that most definitely deserves to be seen repeatedly thanks to the focus being on excellent photography done by a legend.  Card #1 in that set was Abbott, who gets a very nice portrait out of the deal.  Here's the back as I scanned in in that post covering the complete set:

Yep, I'd say that sums up the guy pretty well.

1999 Upper Deck

Our penultimate card of the day features the player with his ultimate team, the Brewers.  Jim was out for the '97 season, then appeared in five games (all wins) in his second tour with the White Sox in '98.  He then signed with Milwaukee for the 1999 season, although he went 2-8 in 20 games before hanging 'em up for good.  Here he is in a rare shot batting; the '99 season would feature Jim's only career ABs, and he amassed two hits and three RBI in 24 PAs.  How many one-handed players can boast THAT?

2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites

Lastly we have this Fan Favorites issue from 2003 which I included because I like the set so much.  It's actually one of several issues on which he features from the Fan Favorites/Archives offerings, which I know very well since I have at least one more incoming.  Considering his early success with the team, not to mention the hype that surrounded his accomplishment of making the Majors, it's no wonder he's still considered a fan-favorite years later.

While I'm at it, here's a quick reminder that Abbott's number has been retired by the University at Michigan's Ray Fisher Stadium,

and also that he's got a great biography out that I recommend titled Imperfect:  an Improbable Life that you should go grab on Amazon today!

All right, we've had eight days worth of posts, and we're down to just one player, so stay tuned!