The other night, while watching the MLB network, I heard the great Vin Scully (and there is still such a thrill in hearing the master announce a game) mention this night was the 20th anniversary of Hideo Nomo's major league debut. He’d come from Japan with a unique windup, led the league in strikeouts and had fans talking from here to Tokyo. It’s difficult to explain just … [Read more...]
2014 Panini Absolute Football Review
Twenty years ago at this time, with work stoppages plaguing both baseball and hockey and Michael Jordan spending some brief time in retirement, the most activity in the hobby was centered around football. With a good young crop of young players and collector interest moving in that direction, the card companies were also looking to expand their football lines. One of the … [Read more...]
Ramblings: Card Sharks and the 2 Decades Since
I received an email from Pete Williams the other day. If you don't remember Pete, he was the USA Today writer who did many columns on sports collectibles and also wrote the book called Card Sharks: How Upper Deck Turned a Child's Hobby into a High-Stakes, Billion-Dollar Business, which chronicled, among other hobby history, the Upper Deck Company. We arranged to speak to each … [Read more...]
Impact of 1994 Baseball Strike Still Lingers
August 1994 seems such a long time ago now. Let's see we were just a few months removed from the nightly soap opera that was Nancy Kerrigan and Tanya Harding and both teams which played their home games in Madison Square Garden had just concluded seasons which ended with them playing for their league's championship. The New York Knicks concluded a magical run by losing in game … [Read more...]