Cheap ebay purchases

Just a quick post of some ebay purchases that were actually a few weeks ago but I never got around to posting.

Tom Seaver – 1981 Topps

John Danks – 2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary

Tom Seaver – 1983 Topps (Super Veteran)

Total amount paid for all 3 cards was $2.00/shipped.

Every time I see a 1981 Topps, I seriously consider becoming a set collector and trying for that set.  It was the first year that I collected as a kid and I had a crap load of them.  I had some Fleer and Donruss as well but for reasons I don’t remember, I had about 3 times as many Topps as the other 2.  Hell, I probably had a couple of sets back then and didn’t even realize it.  I was only 8, give me a break, geez!  But the major thing that stops me from starting to collect that set is the same reason I don’t push for many trades.  I just don’t have many cards left to trade and I can’t afford to purchase more so I don’t see that changing any time soon.  I haven’t even bought anything on ebay for myself in a few weeks.  Although I will have another ebay post if I ever get around to scanning the rest that came in.

Trade with Indianaland

We all know what today is, we all won’t forget.  I remember every time I go to a sporting event and get scanned with a wand and have bags checked.  I remember every time I see a fire fighter or police officer.  I remember every time I hear “God Bless America”.  I remember every time I hear on the news of another soldier dying over there.  I will never forget.  I don’t need to watch countless TV programs for me to remember.  I remember, you remember, anyone who was around 10 years ago remembers.  We will never forget.  So I won’t go into where I was on that tragic day.  The best thing for all of us is to carry on.  So I will.

I’ll save my comments about the big Michigan/Notre Dame game to my weekly post about this weeks game so don’t worry. Only cards from here on out for today.

I plan on sitting down and typing up some blogs tonight so hopefully I’ll have some for this week.  Since I’ve slacked for the last couple of weeks.  I have decided to drop my Colts collection and yes, I decided that before I saw today’s game.  I just don’t have the love for professional football that I do baseball or NCAA football.  But I am going to keep my Peyton Manning’s and start a player collection.  Nothing that I will go way out of my way to fill but I do like Manning.  I like players that are just as good off the field as they are on.  So after I get blogs typed up tonight, that’ll give me time this week to add him to my player collections.

I’ll finish off today’s post with a trade post.  Darren over at “Indianaland” posted an Adam Dunn 2011 Bowman Platinum awhile back that I said that I’d be interested in.  Yeah, I know, he sucks, but he is a White Sox and I think he’ll have a great comeback next year.  I mean, could he really get any worse.  Anyways,  He sent me that and some more Sox cards for my collection.  I won’t show all the goodies he sent as a stack of them were 90’s cards that no one cares about, but I didn’t have them so they were still greatly appreciated.  Here are the other cards he did send though.

Along with the Platinum Dunn, he sent me a couple of the 2011 Allen & Ginter.  These are the only 2 I have as I’m not a big fan of the set so I haven’t bought any packs.  I also have a Konerko in my player collection but I still need one for the team collection.  Thanks Darren, your package has been shipped, or rather, re-shipped with the correct address this time.

Michigan vs. Notre Dame

Here we are.  The day of the big Michigan/Notre Dame game.  My thoughts, I hate this game.  Why?  Because I live just outside South Bend, IN.  Which in case you didn’t know, is where ND is.  Which means, 90% of the people that surround me at all times, are ND fans.  And what do I hate the most about ND?  Their fans.  First let me say, I’m not referring to all of them, just most of them.  Some of them, mostly those in my family, I can carry an intelligent conversation about the rivalry or about the school.  But the others are delusional idiots.  They talk so much crap before the game it isn’t even funny.  YOU JUST GOT BEAT BY SOUTH FLORIDA!!!!  And you want to talk how your going to walk all over my Wolverines?  Seriously?  I wasn’t talking crap after we got beat by Appalachian State, I knew we weren’t that good.  I know we haven’t been good for the last few years.  I can admit it.  My Facebook wall has all kinds of anti-Michigan stuff on it from ND fans tagging me in their crap.  I’m all for rooting for your team, but I guess I’m just more conservative.  I can trash talk with the best of them, but I don’t.  Don’t tell me Michigan sucks when we’ve beat you 4 out of the last 5 years.  Don’t tell me your schedule is harder because you play a bunch of bowl teams but only play 2 ranked teams.  According to Wikipedia, there were 35 bowl games, that’s 70 teams who make a bowl.  We play 5 ranked teams, we play in a conference with a bunch of good teams.  You play the armed forces on a regular basis.  The fans I can’t stand are those who you put facts in front of them and they still won’t admit to being down.  I understand the media hypes you every year and you hop on the bandwagon, but it has always been this way, get used to it.  Just a week ago, some fans were saying they could see ND going undefeated.  Seriously?  Like I said before, I’m all for rooting for your team, but let’s not be ridiculous.

Just because you’re a catholic school, doesn’t make you better than everyone else.  Your old excuse of “We can’t recruit as well because ND has higher standards” doesn’t fly anymore.  You lowered your standards when you allowed Michael Floyd back on the team after suspending him for the summer, yes, the summer, you know, when football isn’t being played.  So apparently your standards are now, it’s ok to drink and drive if your on the football team, we’ll take care of it.  Michigan’s 2nd leading wide receiver got a DUI, he’s being red shirted for a year as a penalty.  He can’t play any games this year.  That makes me proud of my school.  Apparently my school has the standards you say you have.  You lowered your standards when you allowed football players to rape a student and then tried to slide it under the rug.  So apparently your standards are now, well, I guess you just don’t have any standards.  Like I said, that excuse doesn’t fly anymore.

It’s real easy to be a Michigan fan when you can see past the curtain that is the ND perception.  I am by no means saying that Michigan is perfect, all schools have problems, it’s how you handle those problems is what defines the school.  I don’t like how ND handles their problems, trying to keep them from going public isn’t handling it.  I’m not stupid enough to believe that what happened at Ohio State doesn’t happen at Michigan.  I’m pretty sure it happens at most if not all schools.  I love my Wolverines, but I also see them for what they are.  College Students.

Delusional is a word I like to use a lot when speaking of ND fans.  They believe every year is their year.  They believe they should be ranked every year in the pre-season.  The sad thing is, every year they get ranked, somehow.  I don’t know why they get so much love from the media.  All they do is feed the delusions of the delusional.  A friend of mine’s Facebook status earlier this year was, I just looked at ND’s schedule and I can see us starting 6-0.  Seriously?  I’ll give you South Florida, Purdue and Air Force.  You should be able to beat them fairly easy.  Oh wait, never mind.  But can you serious look right past Michigan State, Pitt and Michigan?  Regardless of how ND or Michigan is, it is almost always a close game.  Michigan State is ranked and has been good for awhile now (damn it!) and Pitt isn’t exactly a slouch.  Do you see what I have to deal with?

I admit it, some of my hatred for ND is because around here, EVERYTHING is Notre Dame.  Where is the campus, why it’s in Notre Dame, IN.  Yes, they even have their own Post Office.  The local NBC affiliate, well, it’s WNDU.  If you read the local papers, the South Bend Tribune and the Elkhart Truth, 90% of their front page will have a ND story on it.  100% of the sports section has a lead story with them on it.  I’ve always said the president could get shot and the lead story would be something about Notre Dame.  I realize it’s probably like this in most college towns, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.  And it would be different if they actually give the love to all the sports but they don’t.  It’s all about football.  I’m not sure they even have classes over there anymore.  It may just be a football organization.

As far as tonight’s game goes, my family all gets together, Michigan and Notre Dame fans, and watch the game.  My aunt (ND fan) makes the Mexican Salad she is famous for.  And she makes a lot of it.  My family is a bunch of eaters.  I’m the thinnest of the 4 of my generation and I weight a touch over 250 pounds.  We are all over 6 feet by a few inches as well so as you can tell, we are some big boys.  I love getting together with my family to watch this game because we talk about the game.  I can say “Floyd should have caught that” and it’s not a fight.  The ND portion of the family will usually agree.  I can say “Not sure what Brian Kelly was thinking with that play call” and they’ll usually agree or give me a reason why, such as when we ran that play against whoever and it worked.  See a normal conversation about a football game.  We do all our trash talking all year round.  But they are jokes about each other’s team.  No fights over it.  No hurt feelings.  No crying.  They are realistic about their team.  When I used to say Jimmy Claussen sucks, they agreed.  They realize it doesn’t make them less of fans, they still rooted for him because he played for ND.  But they don’t have to like him.

I fear this game because rankings are out the window.  Previous records are out the window.  It doesn’t matter if we are the better team, or they are the better team.  It’s almost always a close game and it can almost always go one way or the other.  That’s why I fear this game.  Not because I fear ND.  I fear having to deal with the delusional ND fans in this area.  If they win, I have to listen to them all year.  If we win, it doesn’t mean anything to them.  They are still the better team, we just got lucky.  Whatever!  I think I could truly live without this rival.  I’m not worried about our offense, I think we can move the ball.  I liked what I saw last week.  They spread the ball around, it wasn’t just the Denard show.  I liked it.  I worry about our defense, especially our backfield against Floyd.  Maybe our defense should carry a six pack and offer him a beer.  Sorry, couldn’t help myself.  Hopefully, we’ll see a lot of this.

And maybe this guy can get a couple more touchdowns.

Maybe a couple of touchdowns and another Player of the Week award.

Congrats on that last week, Brandon Herron.

The defense looked great after his pick 6 last week.  Hopefully they don’t wait until mid 2nd quarter to show up again, otherwise it may be too late.

I’m out, got about 20 minutes or so before I leave to head to my brother’s house.  I only have one final statement before I go.

GO BLUE!!!!

Random bits of nothing

If that post title doesn’t get you to read this, then I don’t know what will!  Yeah right!  I know, I know, I’m a slacker.  2 posts in the last week.  I should be ashamed of myself.  But I have a reason, honest!

I finally got all my for trade stuff listed into Google documents and made them public so you can view them.  They are listed under the pages, trade bait.  And I also got my player collections listed under the My Collections page.  And I spent most of one evening putting all my White Sox cards in year order as well as numerical order in their year so they are all ready to get listed in Google documents.  I just haven’t had the chance to list them yet.  So see, I’ve been busy doing card stuff.  Don’t judge me!

I have some posts in mind, a trade or 2, a few ebay purchases, a photo cleansing, plus of course, you know I’m going to have something to say about the big Michigan/Notre Dame game.  Wish I had tickets to that one.  I planned on typing out some of those tonight, but when I decided to log into Google reader, which is my first stop, I had over 300 unread posts.  Yikes!  So that took most of the evening.  Usually I read a lot of them at work in between loads but the lab guy is gone this week and I seem to be his only backup.  So I’m too busy to read, other than on breaks and I don’t get through to many on those.  But I plowed through tonight and caught up.  So I’m thinking tonight I can blame on all of you for posting all that good content that I had to read.  And yes, I typically read every post that is baseball or baseball card related.  I tend to skim other sports, football depends on my mood.  Other than Dennis’ “Too Many Grandersons” football posts because even though they are pro football, they are Michigan guys.

Congrats to me on my 50th follower!  Yeah Me!  Thanks Baseball Dad for being that guy.

My schedule for the next few days are busy, I’ll try to take the time to get something up at least so I don’t lose all of you.  Tomorrow night my son and I have Cub scouts (not Chicago Cubs, I wouldn’t torture him like that).  Friday night I have tickets to the White Sox/Indians game.  Saturday, I’m working and then in the evening, I’m getting together with my fellow Michigan family to watch the game on my brother’s big screen.  We usually get together with the fellow Notre Dame family members during this game as well but apparently, being a night game, it’s too late for them.  Pansies!

So I’ll try to be around and hopefully I’ll get some time to read yours and better yet, post something else here.

My thoughts

As most of you know, my family and I headed up to Ann Arbor for the Western Michigan vs. Michigan game.  Driving up there (2 1/2) hours, we watched the outside temperature go up in the car all the way up to 95 degrees.  So we figured we were going to be stifled by the heat.  We decided to drop the $40 to park at the high school across from Michigan Stadium so we didn’t have to walk to far in the heat.  But once we got in and grabbed our seats, the heat really wasn’t as horrible as we thought it would be.  Yes, it was hot, but there was enough of a breeze so the air was moving and it didn’t really feel like 95.  So we were definitely pleased about that.  And bottled water was $4, we definitely weren’t pleased about that.  My brother made the comment that if the temperature is that high, maybe they should discount the water some and then you wouldn’t have had to deal with all the heat illnesses that they had.  I think I heard somewhere they had to take over 50 people to get cooled down and get some water in them.  Anyways, here’s my thoughts about what I saw, bare in mind, I’m a fan, not a coach.  I don’t know all the in’s and out’s of football like I do baseball, these are just my observations.

• Special teams have to do better on kickoffs.  They were giving way too many yards up on kickoff returns.
• The defense was dead until the pick 6 by Herron.  That play seemed to fire them up.  For the 1st quarter and half the 2nd, I was afraid our defense hadn’t improved.  They weren’t pressuring the QB at all during that time.  They were letting the receivers have a cushion and WMU were taking advantage of it.  But after the pick 6, they got fired up.  Starting hitting harder, pressuring the QB and not to mention 2 touchdowns.  It was so nice to be applauding the defense, it has been awhile.  But if it takes a big play to wake them up then we may get down too far before that happens.  So I hope Mattison can figure out a way to send them out there fired up.  I’m really hoping it was just 1st game jitters.
• The offense looked ok.  I was glad they were moving the ball, 5 to 10 yards at a time because that will help against the good defenses.  But this is Western Michigan, I really expected some more big plays.  There were a few by Shaw before they called the game officially.
• I haven’t heard anything yet on Troy Woolfolk.  I hope we don’t lose him again.  Only thing I’ve heard is a quote by Hoke saying he was going back in if we needed him.  So I’m guessing it was minor.

My family and I sat through it all.  We didn’t run for the stands until they told the players to get off the field.  It rained fast and it rained hard.  Big, huge drops.  It would rain from the right for 5 minutes, then rain from the left for 5 minutes, then stop and the sun will would come out.  We even saw a little bit of hail briefly.  But being as it was 95 degrees before the rain came, it actually felt pretty good.  Not once, even sitting there drenched, did I say it was cold.  Not until we went to Joe’s Crab Shack and sat in the air conditioning soaking wet did I complain.  Then after the 3 hour drive home, sitting in the car wet all the way home and finally changing to dry clothes, did I realize how chilled to the bone I really was.  My wife looked at me kind of funny when I crawled into bed in my PJ bottoms and a hoodie.

But I had a great day.  I always love the atmosphere at “The Big House” on a game day.  The traditions before the game alone are at least worth one trip there.  If you’re a Michigan fan, you have to see a game live.

Pictures from “Maize and Blue Nation” and the “Big House Blog”