The Dead Parrot Sketch Of SNL

Yeah, sure, I know there's "Cowbell" but I was reminded about this today and even Mariel Hemmingway's horrible acting can stop this skit.

Reduced Ticket To Stardom

Target recently had a few packs of Topps' regrettable Ticket To Stardom set in their clearance area...I say "regrettable" but I don't really mean it. I'm so hungry for new cards I've got a countdown clock until 2011 Topps on the side of my blog [two weeks and counting] and I'm reconsidering all my opinions on previous sets. The baseball card landscape is so empty right now I'm reduced to frantically searching the discount bins for any old baseball product marked Upper Deck [or Fleer]. So I nearly leaped for joy seeing those TTS packs for $1.59 each.

I don't have a lot of time to post today so I'll just highlight my favorite card of the packs:

#189 Jim Thome [Deckle Edge]

I wish that these deckle edge cards had a larger deckle?...if that is the right way to say that? Are you with me? I want the half circles on the edge larger.

Genius Covers: Wolverine #10

Wolverine [Vol. 2] #10

Today's cover we have Wolverine #10 from August 1989. It's a rare cover to see Wolverine getting his butt kicked but that is sort of the point in this story. The comic tells the tale of the first meeting between Sabertooth and Wolverine [on this birthday, no less] and how Sabertooth killed his girlfriend, Silver Fox. Sabertooth would create a macabre tradition of tracking down Wolverine on his birthday and fight him.

This was Chris Claremont's last issue as writer of Wolverine for ten odd years and in my opinion it's one of his best stories overall.

Bill and Blake

For Christmas this year I received The Big Book of Basketball written by The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons. I've been slowing working through the nearly 800 pages before hitting the hay and I really enjoy it. I haven't really followed basketball on a daily basis for several years and don't know very much about the early history of the game or the ABA days and the book is a great primer on the subject. There is also a great section about the early attempts at basketball cards...I hope to rehash that someday as soon as I can track down some vintage cards...

Other than Billy Crystal, Bill might be the best known L.A. Clippers season ticket holder and is just about the biggest Blake Griffin fan on Earth...In case you missed the Clippers highlights from Saturday's game, here are two of the best plays of the year courtesy of Mr. Griffin.

1970 Topps Seattle Pilots Team Set Needs List

1970 Topps Seattle Pilots Needs List

Bold = awaiting arrival/pending trade

SET COMPLETE: 5-14-11

THANKS MIKE D.!

Egypt

While I rent and watch Aaron Sorkin's commentary track on The Social Network, there are people out there trying to start a revolution in Egypt.

This is what happens when you turn off the internet.

Kansas Alumni #2: Paul Pierce

Previously on Kansas Alumni, we examined the Jayhawk career of Green Bay Packer and burger salesman, Gilbert Brown.

In today's installment, we move to the basketball court which, let's be honest, is the sport that most people here in Lawrence care about.


Paul Pierce was the leader of the Jayhawks team in the 1995, 1996, and 1997 teams before leaving for the NBA after this junior year. In each of his three years the Jayhawks cruised to the NCAA tournament getting either a #1 or #2 seed each year. Still, each season ended in an upset and the Jayhawks leaving the tournament before they should have. In 1995, Kansas lost to Villanova in the Sweet 16 game. They lost to Syracuse in 1996 in the Elite 8 as a #2 seed. The Jayhawks were again a #1 seed in the 1997 tournament but lost they lost to Arizona in the Sweet 16.

Here are some cards of The Truth...that jersey card is actually green and I have no idea why it scans as that sort of brown color.

2007 Upper Deck SPx Winning Materials #WMT-PAG Paul Pierce/Al Jefferson/Gerald Green Triple Jersey

2000-01 Upper Deck Ovation #3 Paul Pierce

2000-01 Fleer Focus #135 Paul Pierce

Everybody's Got A Record: Kenny Lofton Edition

**In this series we strive to prove the universal truth that every baseball player holds some kind of record.**

Mr. Lofton has quite a few records that you may think Rickey Henderson would hold [most steals by a rookie, most total runs scored in the first inning of a game in a single season] but I think the greatest might be that Kenny is one of two players to have played in the NCAA Final Four and a World Series. Kenny was on the 1988 Arizona Wildcats team in the Final Four.

The other player is Tim Stoddard who made it to the World Series with the Orioles in 1979 and was on the North Carolina State team that won the NCAA tournament in 1974.

2003 Playoff Piece of the Game #POG-54 Kenny Lofton Bat Relic

Quicker To Train A Monkey

My general feelings on today:

Various & Sundry

[Editor's Note: The mid-winter cleaning continues and today we have another rogue's gallery of scanned cards for posts that died on the vine. You'll see a whole bunch of '73 Topps that I stumbled upon at a card shop...and yes, I did pull that short printed Michal Jackson card...anyone interested?...that Area 51 card is my favorite card from the 2010 Allen & Ginter set...followed closely by Sig Hansen. Enjoy.]

1973 Topps #310 Dick Allen

1973 Topps #213 Steve Garvey

2009 Upper Deck X #MJ2 Michael Jackson Icons

1962 Topps #108 Willie Davis

2010 Topps Heritage #363 Joe Mauer/Roy Halladay

1973 Topps #179 Dick Williams

2010 Topps Football #197 Myron Rolle [Rookie Card]

2009 Topps Chicle #C44 Terry Bradshaw

1973 Topps 236 Tito Fuentes

1973 Topps #136 Earl Weaver

1996 Topps Stadium Club #23 Kirby Puckett

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter #130 Area 51

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter #203 Sig Hansen

1973 Topps #297 Walt Williams

1973 Topps #109 Doyle Alexander

2010 Topps #BF-8 Luis Aparicio Baseball Flashbacks

COMC Black Friday Deals

[Editor's Note: Up next in my scanned card folder clearance, we have a whole bunch of Diamond Kings that I purchased on Black Friday weekend from CheckOutMyCards.com. I had originally wanted to go through each DK and try to find why they were selected for the highest honor Donruss could bestow to a civilian. So I only ended up writing about one of the cards, the first 1st Diamond King ever. And so here is how the original post was going to go and then just sit back and enjoy a whole bunch of some Dick Perez goodness.]

CheckOutMyCards.com had a great Thanksgiving weekend sale [10¢ shipping costs for each card, minimum of 20 cards ordered] and I ended up putting in two orders...I'll highlight the first one here which took a big chunk out of my remaining Diamond King needs list.

I've wanted this DK for a long time because it is the Andy Pafko of Diamond Kings...

1982 Donruss #1 Pete Rose DK

1982 Donruss #16 Tom Seaver DK

1982 Donruss #21 Ozzie Smith DK

1982 Donruss #2 Gary Carter DK

1982 Donruss #18 Dave Winfield DK

1982 Donruss #17 Dave Kingman

1983 Donruss #8 Willie Stargell DK

1983 Donruss #26 Terry Kennedy DK

1983 Donruss #16 Steve Carlton DK

1983 Donruss #3 Reggie Jackson DK

1983 Donruss #7 Jim Sundberg DK

1983 Donruss #25 Carl Yastrzemski DK

1984 Donruss #4 John Castino DK

1984 Donruss #20 Bill Madlock DK

1985 Donruss #25 Tony Gwynn DK

1985 Donruss #1 Ryne Sandberg DK

1985 Donruss #16 Don Sutton

1985 Donruss #7 Don Mattingly DK

1986 Donruss #15 Tony Perez DK

The Incredible Hulk Cover Cards

In these next few posts I'll be doing some mid-winter cleaning of the old scanned card folder. I'll also be cleaning out the draft post file as I have a ton of posts that were either aborted or abandoned mid stream and as Wag the Dog reminded us, "you never change a horse midstream."

I was going to include this post along with my needs list for this insert set but I didn't quite know what to write about each of these covers. I'm a Hulk fan but I don't personally own any of the issues highlighed so far...so I'm just going to post scans for your possible enjoyment and leave it at that.

Incredible Hulk Covers #31
Issue #345 July 1988

Incredible Hulk Covers #13
Issue #119 September 1969

Incredible Hulk Covers #26
Issue #307 May 1985

Incredible Hulk Covers #9

Issue #75 January 1966

Incredible Hulk Covers #25

Issue #300 October 1984

Incredible Hulk Covers #30
Issue #340 February 1988

Famous Hulk Covers #35

Issue #377 form January 1991

Famous Hulk Covers #24

Issue #297 July 1984

Famous Hulk Covers #22

Issue #258 from April 1981

Famous Hulk Covers #01

Issue #1 from May 1962

Famous Hulk Covers #16

Issue #144 from October 1971

Famous Hulk Covers #03

Issue #3 from September 1962