An Era Ends Today

It's no secret that I am an Islanders fan. My favorite player growing as a kid was Mike Bossy and I do collect his cards to this day. But ever since 1994, my all time favorite hockey player didn't play on Long Island. He played against them and beat the Isles on numerous occasions and for that alone he should have earned my wrath. But ever since I watched  a young Martin Brodeur play for the Devils I knew I was watching someone very special. So, when word broke that Marty was hanging up his pads, I felt pretty damned emotional.

I followed Marty's career ever since I first saw him play for the first time during the 1995-96 season. I may have actually seen him play during the 1991-92 season when he played four games for New Jersey when Chris Terreri and Craig Billington went down with injuries, I can't remember. I do know I first took notice of him during the 1993-94 season when as a rookie, he took the Devils to the Eastern Conference Championship and nearly led New Jersey to the Stanley Cup Finals with a fantastic performance that series, which went to 7 games. Brodeur won the Calder Trophy as Rookie Of The Year and I had a new favorite player.

Over the next few years, I got to watch Brodeur win a few Stanley Cups, a few Vezina Trophies as the top Goalie in the NHL and even a few Gold Medals for Team Canada in the Olympics. Even though I rooted for Team USA, I was happy that my guy got a Gold Medal. Every time I watched Marty, it seemed like he made an impossible save that would ultimately win the game for the Devils. I was impressed with Brodeur's hybrid style of goaltending, which has led him to the accolades and records he would achieve during his career.

One of my favorite moments of his career was a moment that I was actually in attendance for. After waiting outside the Prudential Center for hours, I was able to get tickets to see Brodeur take a shot at history. On March 17th, 2009, I was in the stands, watching the Devils beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2 with Marty becoming the NHL's All Time Leader in Regular Season wins with 552. I had never been at an event where history was made. I never went to a game where a No Hitter was pitched, I've never been at a Playoff or Championship game, but the excitement that emanated from the crowd during the game and the pure joy that was felt after the game was something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

When I got back into collecting cards around 2003, one of the first players I knew I would be collecting would be Brodeur. So I collected as many cards of him I could get my hands on. My collection is more base and inserts than game used and autographed cards, although I do have those as well. As of this moment, my collection stands at 363 cards. That's not a lot, I know. I actually hd stopped collecting Brodeur because his stuff is pretty pricey. Getting an autograph will set you back $75-100.00. Even his inserts can go for a high price. But, I still pick up his cards whenever I see them for a good price and I will always. I would like to re-start my Brodeur collection once I get back to work.

Cards are not the only thing I collect of Brodeur. I have figures, bobbleheads, autographed pictures, a jersey, t-shirt, a puck, a mini stick, even a Wheaties box that I bought off eBay that came from Canada. I'm always looking for items to add to my Brodeur collection. I would like to have a shelf or display case dedicated to Broduer at some point, so I will continue to add to my collection whenever I can.

In the future, I would love to add a signed jersey, maybe a game used stick to my collection. That would take me either getting a six figure job or winning the lotto. I also have a Devils throwback jersey that I want to customize into a Brodeur #29 jersey, to make it look like the jersey he wore when he first came up. Getting the NHL 75th Anniversary patch is easy enough. Finding a Devils 10th Anniversary patch for the back is a lot harder. I would also love to get an autographed puck and have a Brodeur puck collection.

Over the next few days, I plan to show off pieces of my Brodeur collection as a tribute to my favorite hockey player,  It was a joy watching him mind the net for the Devils through out his career. And even at this late stage of his career, he still managed to stick it to the Islanders, this time as a member of the St. Louis Blues. All I could do was smile and shake my head. Somethings never change. I will be in attendance at the Rock when the Devils retire his jersey and raise his number to the rafters and say thank you number 30.

Lets Make A Deal, Hockey Edition

With apologies to the great Monty Hall, Let's Make A Deal! I'm not talking about what's behind door number 1, 2, or 3. I'm not talking about trading in what you have already won for what's inside the mystery box either. I'm talking trades!

I haven't made a trade in a while and I am itching to make a few deals. I have to get a package out to Fuji this week and I would like to add a few more packages to mail as well. I am hoping that I can add some new cards to my collections and I hope I have something you want to trade for.

I am going to post pictures of the cards I have to trade. I am looking for Yankees, Jets, Knicks, Islanders, Mark Teixeira, Tino Martinez, Mike Bossy, Martin Brodeur, Patrick Ewing, David Lee and Wayne Chrebet cards. I would also ask that you mail your end first because I have been cheated a couple of times and don't want that to happen again.

Now, the cards I have aren't exactly high end. I would think this would be a trade for team collectors and player collectors. But, I think I have a couple of things that someone might want.

So, without further ado, here are the cards I have to trade, Hockey first:

Roberto Luongo BAP Signature Portraits signed 8x10

2006-07 BAP Alex Tanguay Autograph

2003 Calder Hockey Tomas Vokoun GU Jersey

2006-07 BAP Todd White Autograph

2005-06 BAP David Legwand Autograph

2002 Titanium Erik Cole GU Jersey

2007-08 BAP Tim Taylor Autograph

2002 Titanium JP Dumont GU jersey

2004 Prism Chris Drury GU jersey

2005-06 BAP Daymond Langkow Autograph

2004 Invincible Fred Brathwaite GU jersey

2006-07 BAP Robert Esche Autograph

2006-07 BAP Mike Sillinger/Trent Hunter Dual Autograph

1998-99 BAP Dave Andreychuk Autograph

2007-08 Fleer Hot Prospects Jordan Leopold GU Jersey

2009-10 SPx Erick Karlsson GU Jersey/Autograph- Minor flaw with this one. there is a small ding on the top right corner. It was there when I pulled it out of the box.

2007-08 Upper Deck Ice Peter Forsberg Dual GU Jersey

2006-07 Flair Showcase Zdeno Chara GU Jersey

2010-11 Artifacts Evander Kane Dual GU Jersey

2008-09 BAP Tyler Ennis GU Jersey

2009-10 BAP Jerome Iginla Autograph

2002 Titanium Brett Hull GU Jersey

2010-11 SPx Hendrik Karlsson GU Jersey/Autograph

2007-08 BAP Kris Russell Autograph- I have two of these.

2011-12 Pinnacle Steve Mason City Lights GU Jersey

2008-09 SP Game Used Justin Williams Dual GU Jersey

2008-09 SP Game Used Dion Phaneuf GU Jersey

2006-07 BAP Robert Esche Autograph

I also have a 2003-04 Private Stock Reserve Martin Biron GU Jersey and a 2010-11 Decades 1980's Al MacInnis Autograph that I haven't had a chance to scan as of yet.

If you are interested in any of these cards, please let me know by commenting below with your email address, Google plus account or Facebook and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Let's Start The Weekend With Some Autographs

I'm the kind of TTM autograph collector that will only write letters a few times a year. In other words, I will only write when the mood strikes me, which is usually never. But every now and then I will fire off about 20 letters over the course of a few weeks and send them off to various athletes, actors and comic book artists. Today, the fruits of my labor has arrived in the form of 4 successful returns.

I've been wanting to build my Islanders autograph collection, so I sent off to former players and received these 3 successes today:

Doug Crossman was a defenseman who played 14 years in the NHL for teams such as the Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings, Hartford Whalers and My New York Islanders. In fact, his best offensive season came as an Islander when he scored 15 goals, had 44 assists for a total of 59 points during the 1989-90 season. Mr. Crossman signed my 1990-91 Pro Set card and Islanders custom card in about 10 days.

The current GM of the Phoenix Coyotes is best remembered for his days as a New York Rangers (or Rags as I like to call them). But yes, the left winger played 2 seasons on the island after a season in Hartford. He had a decent season during the 1989-90 season, scoring 16 goals with 27 assists. He was named Islanders GM after his retirement, which wasn't a successful time for Mr. Maloney. He traded Pierre Turgeon to Montreal for Kurt Muller, a player who never wanted to be here and make it known of that by playing like it. That trade summed up Maloney's time as GM of the Islanders. But since I want to collect as many Islander autographs as I can, I needed Maloney's and he was nice enough to sign my 1990-91 Pro Set card, but not my Islanders custom. I sent the request c/o the Coyotes.

I was very happy to get Brent Sutter to sign these for me. Brent is a former Islanders Captain and a member of two Stanley Cup Islander teams and was also an All Star. He played over 1,000 games with both the Islanders and Blackhawks. He also the head coach of the New Jersey Devils, leading them to a division title then coached the Calgary Flames. I sent this request c/o the Red Deer Rebels, a hockey club he owns. He was nice enough to sign my 1990-90 Pro Set, 2006-07 Parkhurst and Islander custom.

To finish off the TTM's for today, I got former NY Jets Dave Herman. He played for the Jets from 1964 to 1973. He was a 2 time AFL All Star and was a member of the 1968 Super Bowl team. In fact, he had to block Bubba Smith, who at that time was one of the most feared pass rushers in the game. Herman did a masterful job, enabling Matt Snell to rush for 121 yards as the Jets beat the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in one of sports greatest upsets. Dave signed my 1971 Topps Football card in less than 10 days.

I also got my half of a trade in today. I traded for this 2013-13 Upper Deck NHL SPx Brock Nelson signed dual jersey card #'ed to 499. I really like the way this kid is playing this season and I think he's going to be a steady player for the Islanders. I traded a few inserts for this and I'm thrilled that I am able to add this autograph to my Islanders collection.

I'm very pleased with the haul today. I am hoping that some more TTM requests I sent out come back within the next few days. I the meantime, I will keep writing them until I just don't feel like writing anymore.

This One Bleeds In From The House Of Swag

A couple of days ago, I posted on the Sports Room's brother blog, The Sexy Geek's House Of Swag, about an item I had been long interested in starting a collection of. If you can't what that is by the picture above, that item is lunch boxes.

While writing about them, I started thinking if there has been any sports lunch boxes I have come across in my youth and it triggered some memories that I had buried in the deepest regions of my brain. I HAD come across not one sports lunch box, but two of them in my days.

At the school I attended as a youngster, there was this MLB lunch box just lying around somewhere. The counselor who was assigned to my group either felt bad for me or got sick of my constant yapping about these cursed things and would let me play with this lunch box. I say play because if you look on the back of it...

There is a picture of an infield, a scoreboard and one lonely outfielder. I used to take this lunch box and play an actual 9 inning game with a spitball and a pencil. I recorded the outs, hits, strikeouts, walks and everything in between. I even had my own team, the Bronx Bombers. Yeah, not very original, I know. The team was made up of my friends and I and I would keep stats for each one of us and pad my own stats. I think I had 100 home runs one year. I even designed uniforms for us.

I would love to grab this lunch box. Obviously, the memories of the hours of joy playing the game in the back has something to do with it, but I just love the lithography on it. On the front, you have an obvious picture of a Red Sox player sliding into third base while a Yankee player is administering the tag (He was out, ump!). The side panel on one side has a Baltimore Oriole swinging a bat (Frank Robinson, maybe?) and the top has a pitcher at the tail end of making a pitch. If I had to guess what team he could be from, I'm guessing he's a Cardinal.

Great looking lunch box.

Moving on to a different sport, I also seem to recall a buddy of mine, a Steelers fan, if I remember, having this awesome lunch box.

 
This is really cool. What it has that the baseball one doesn't have is official logos, or helmet logos in this case, of all the teams that were in the National Football League. I had fun looking at the helmets on this lunch box, trying to count how many teams still were using the same helmets that was on this 1970's lunch box. On this side, The Cowboys, Saints, Bears, 'Skins, Lions, Cardinals, Vikings, Packers and Niners all have just about the same helmets.

These football lunch boxes must have sold well because during the 1960's and 70's there has been numerous NFL lunch boxes offered for the fans to pick up.

Here's one from 1978. I love the painted action shots n the front of the lunch box.  The Cowboys, Steelers, Rams, Raiders and Broncos are all represented here. Where is my team?

Right under the Houston Oilers helmet. 1978 was the year of this lunch box as well as the first year the Jets wore those helmets. I wish they would wear them again as alternates instead of the Titan unis.

This lunch box is from the early 70's, 1975, I think. Again, I love the classic helmets on this lunch box, 10 of which are not in full time use.

Here's one from 1973. Love the blue Oilers helmet on this lunch box.

There was one other from the early 1960's that I couldn't locate a picture of, unfortunately. I have seen it before. What I remember of it, it had a drawn action shot of a QB from the Bears dropping into the pocket while his offensive linemen tried to stop the blitz from the Green Bay Packers.

How about Hockey?

There are the generic ones like these from the 60's and 70's

Borrowed that one from Kovels's site.

NHLPA had lunch boxes of their own

And the players had lunch boxes of their own. Bobby Orr had a few all to himself.

Not an official player lunch box, but you can clearly tell that's Phil Esposito.

Of course, Wayne Gretzky has to have a lunch box of his own.

I'm not sure, but I am willing to bet the majority of those lunch boxes were Canadian. Maybe the Boston Bruin lunch boxes were made here in the good ole US of A, but I can't be too sure.

Shockingly, I could not find any examples of any vintage NBA lunch boxes. I would have thought with popularity in the NBA growing during the 60's and 70's, there would have been some lunch boxes produced, even if it was of players like Wilt Chamberlin, Jerry West, Walt Frazier, or Oscar Robertson. Aside from a Harlem Globetrotter one, there was nothing from basketball.

I did find one for you soccer fans.

I remember when Pele came to New York to play for the Cosmos. It was huge. I knew absolutely nothing about soccer, but when Pele played, I would watch the games. That's when I realized that soccer was not for me. I would give the sport a few more shots during various World Cups, but it just doesn't tickle my fancy.

So, as you can see, if you're a collector of a sport, team or player, chances are there was a lunch box produced that would nicely into your collection. The prices on these vary. They depend of if there is a thermos and condition, but most could be had for around the $50.00 mark. If you have the means, I would definitely suggest grabbing a few to add diversity to your collection.