Wallet Card Wednesday - 4

A few more wallet card photos to throw out there.

Tenor clef? Really? Haven't had to deal with that before!

Pulled out my wallet card as I was practicing in advance of my weekly choral group rehearsal. This is our group's first time singing this song - a song that I have heard many times played on bagpipes, but wasn't aware that there were words to. I should have known...

 

Anyway, from early rehearsals, it sounds like a nice arrangement and I'm sure we'll have it nailed down well before our spring concert season.

 

 

Some people may remember that I assisted Tony with his trade war with JBF. One of the items I sent along was an action figure of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister.

 

Here is my wallet card in front of a statue of Sir John A. to the east of the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.

 

I expect statues and building in Ottawa will form a backdrop to many wallet cards in the future. I'll have to work on the lighting.

 

Snack time!

Trying to lose some holiday pounds I gained, and therefore snacking a bit healthier. The problem with it is that I eat way too many carrots. Watching the football games on Sunday, I went through a 2 lb. bag...and that wasn't the first time. Sigh. I guess it is better to finish a bag of carrots than to finish a big bag of chips.





Browns By The Numbers - 1, 2, 3!

I am going to start some recurring posts showing Cleveland Browns grouped by the numbers that they wore. Depending on the amount of Browns wearing any given number I may look at more than one number in a post.

Images of the players wearing Browns uniforms will be taken from The Trading Card Database, although I am going to try to only use images of cards in my collection. If I don't own a card that I am using, I will note it.

I'm using Pro Football Reference as a reference source for the numbers. (I think that I have a fairly recent Browns media guide or yearbook at home that has a section on numbers and the players that wore them. I will have to look for it and compare it to what I find on Pro Football Reference.)

To start, let's look at numbers 1, 2 and 3!

Number 1

Michael Jackson     WR     1991-1992

1991 Upper Deck #610

It appears that Michael Jackson is the only player has worn the number 1 for the Cleveland Browns. He ended up switching his number to 81 after the 1992 season.


Number 2

Jerry Kauric        K     1990
Tim Couch         QB   1999-2003
Reggie Hodges   P      2010-2012
Johnny Manziel  QB   2014-2015

1990 Score Supplemental #2T

I was aware of his kicking in the CFL before he signed with the Browns. A Canadian, his NFL career consisted of 14 games in the 1990 season where he was 14-20 on FGs, and 24-27 on PATs. An interesting statistic that jumps out from his record is that he had a reception for 21 yards against the 49ers on October 28, 1990.

2002 Sports Illustrated for Kids #189

Tim Couch, of the Kentucky Wildcats, was the #1 pick in the 1999 NFL Draft. He had a 22-37 record as the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns.

 

 

I do not have a card of Reggie Hodges, who punted for the Browns from 2009-2012. He wore number 3 in his eight games of the 2009 season before switching to number 2.

2015 Topps #56



Not too much to say about Johnny Manziel. I figure everyone knows enough about him already.

 

 

Number 3

Mark Moseley                    K             1986

Goran Lingmerth               K             1987

Matt Stover                        K             1991-1995

Derek Anderson               QB           2006-2009

Reggie Hodges                 P              2009

Jarrett Brown                    QB          2011

Brandon Weeden              QB          2012-2013

Pat Devlin                         QB          2015

   

Mark Moseley, the long-time Washington Redskins kicker, finished his career with four games with the Browns. In that short period, he was 6-7 in FGs, and 13-14 in PATs. Yep, that's right. 14 PAT attempts in four games. To compare, this year's kicker, Travis Coons, attempted 24 for the season. Unfortunately, with such a short stay in Cleveland, Moseley does not have a Browns card.

 

 

Goran Lingmerth was born in Sweden, and played his college ball for the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks. During the 1986 college season, he set a NCAA record by kicking 8 field goals in a game. In 1987, he attended training camp with the Philadelphia Eagles, and then as a replacement player played one game for the Cleveland Browns, although he had no scoring attempts.

 

 

1995 Topps #64



Matt Stover had a 19 year career in the NFL after being drafted by the New York Giants in 1990. Never playing for the Giants, he kicked for Cleveland from 1991 until the move to Baltimore after the 1995 season. He then kicked in Baltimore until the end of the 2008 season, before finishing his career with one year in Indianapolis.
 

2008 Playoff Prestige #23

Derek Anderson had a Pro Bowl season for the Browns in 2007. He is currently the backup quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.

 

 

As stated above, Reggie Hodges wore number 3 before switching to number 2.

 

 

Former West Virginia Mountaineer Jarrett Brown is listed by Pro Football Reference as having worn number 3 for the Browns but I don't believe that he ever played in a game for the team.

2013 Topps Archives #92



Brandon Weeden started 20 games for the Browns in his two seasons with the team. In the 2015 season he started games for both the Cowboys and the Texans.

 

 

I believe that Pat Devlin was with the Browns during the last preseason. He was then signed by the team in December as quarterback depth after Josh McCown's injury. He did not play.

Trade package received

Late in 2014, shortly after I discovered the Trading Card Database and started to submit scans to the site, I received a message from a fellow Browns collector asking if I had any extra Browns cards that I was interested in getting rid of.

When I told him that I would be happy to trade with him, he mentioned that he was on deployment and wouldn't be able to do anything right away. Then when I heard he was going to be heading home last spring for leave I decided to check his wantlist on the site send him a box of my Browns doubles that he needed to give him something to play with, told him that he could send me something later, and that even if he couldn't that I was happy knowing that they were going to a fellow Browns fan.

Shortly thereafter he sent me a nice little thank you gift and said that he would get to his Browns doubles later on. A little while ago he asked me for my address, and I gave him both my home address in Canada, and my PO Box in Ogdensburg and told him to choose whichever one he wanted to send to but warned him shipping to Canada would be quite a bit higher. He then sent me back a message with a tracking number to my home. The package arrived last night, completely changing my plans for the evening...I had new cards to play with!

Anyway, here is some of what he sent me:

For some reason this "Air Raid" Kosar poster card always seemed to evade me. So happy to have it now.

I'll never complain about getting another Steve Everitt card that I need. Being lucky enough to meet him once made me like him even more than I did while he was playing for the Browns.

The Collector's Edge Edgetech Quantum Die Cut card is pretty cool. You can't tell from the scan, but it is similar to the Sportflix cards that change the image depending on how you tilt the card.

The 1990 Topps Browns card is a variation that I needed, not having little hash-marks on the bottom blue border, underneath "Kosar Calls The Play". You can see the hash-marks under Ozzie Newsome's name on the card below.



You might wonder why I needed any 1990 Topps cards, other than the variant above? Well, when I started entering my collection into the Trading Card Database, I discovered that there were two versions of their backs. Card backs that had a "disclaimer", and backs that didn't. You can see the disclaimer on the team card back at the bottom, and will note that it is not on the Matthews back. (The Newsome also has no disclaimer.)

I have all the 1990 Topps cards, but they are mixed together between the two variations. COMC actually differentiates between the two so I know I can look for my missing cards there, but for a lot of the other sites I would just be ordering a 1990 Topps card and hoping for the best. The good thing about having another collector from the Database sending me cards is that he knows the difference and hit a few of the ones that I needed.



A couple of nice Ty Detmers from the 1999 expansion season in the top of the scan, and a couple of nice Pacific insert on the bottom.

Like a lot of the baseball bloggers, I love a lot of the old Pacific inserts. the Pacific Private Stock mini is cool, but doesn't compare to the 2000 Pacific Paramount Tim Couch End Zone Net-Fusion insert in the bottom right. Between the uprights on the card is a section of white plastic forming the net. I had never seen any of these inserts before. So awesome!

A few players from the early 2000s, including another Spergon Wynn. I love multi-player cards, especially when they are all Browns. And that is a great photo on the Earl Little card! I am a big fan of the throwback style cards that we see in Retro, Tradition and Heritage sets. It is so funny, or not really since it means I'm getting old, that we're starting to see styles from the early 90s now used in some of the current throwback sets.



I wasn't even aware that the Leaf Rookies and Stars sets had Browns photos on checklist cards in those two years of cards, so it was great to receive them. And I know that I need an enormous amount of parallels and inserts like this Ultra Gold Medallion and Topps Rookie insert.



Again, more cards that fit the themes of multi-playered, or throwback style. All great cards!



The Panini Adrenalyn XL cards he sent me are the first that I own from the 2011 set.

Just showing that sometimes easy cards are missed in my collection, I needed this nice simple base card of Joe Haden from the 2014 Score set. The funny thing about it is that even had I been going through a box of cards at a store or show I probably would have left it there thinking that I already had it. I really need to finish working on my wantlists so that I know these things.

I want to offer many thanks to SFC Temple from the Trading Card Database for the great cards that were waiting for me at home last night! It was nice getting cards without having to drive down to my PO Box in Ogdensburg.

Wallet Card Wednesday - 2

Time to see what I was up to this week with my wallet card.

First, my wallet card decided to look at a late Christmas present that I received.

You might ask, "Why a Xavier Cooper jersey?". I laughed when I got it because I instantly knew. My roommate who bought it for me is a big fan of the Washington State Cougars. During last year's draft he was so excited that the Browns drafted two of their players - Vince Mayle and Xavier Cooper.

There was no way he would switch his support from Dallas to Cleveland, but he was pulling for those two to succeed. (A funny thing is that after Mayle was released, he was signed by the Cowboys.) I appreciate the jersey since I enjoy jerseys of the guys in the trenches.

Xavier Cooper played the last 14 games of the season for the Browns. He had 1.5 sacks, 11 tackles and 8 assists over the season.

After watching football on Sunday, I needed to run an errand. My wallet card decided to check out the weather for me.



Good to see the car not moving as it looks like Kevin Mack is diving away from my snow covered car. There was a light snow still coming down that you can kind of see in the light at the top of the photo.

I've learned to hate snow, and often joke that I should try to move down and join my mom in Arizona, but then I would have to deal with all that immigration paperwork. And really, it snowing out isn't that bad, it is much better than when it is too cold outside to snow!

Lastly, in this week's photos, the wallet card decided to check out one of my winter activities.



Yes, I curl in the winter. And for years I have always curled wearing a Browns jersey. I've played in the odd out of town bonspiel over the years, and had people remember the jersey from previous years. I mean, really, how many Browns fans are there in the Ottawa area that like advertising that fact so openly all the time?

Happy surprise part two

Most of the cards in the lot that I talked about in my last post were from between 2000-2009. Among the cards that I needed in the lot, there were a lot of Fleer and Collector's Edge products. As with any card I need, I was happy to get them. I'll show you a sampling of what I needed.

Here are some insert cards that I needed:



The top players, by numbers, in my collection are Tim Couch (325) and Kevin Johnson (203). I added a number of cards of each of them. I was happy getting both of their 2000 Upper Deck New Guard inserts.

I like the scan of the 2000 Collector's Edge Supreme Kevin Johnson Monday Knights insert, but I think it looks better in person.

The reflective background on the 2000 Collector's Edge T3 Tim Couch Overture insert, and the 2007 Press Pass Brady Quinn Primetime Players insert really pop when you scan them.

Seeing Brady Quinn in his Notre Dame uniform, there were a bunch of Browns I needed in their college uniforms. Here are some of them:

Top (l-r): Charlie Frye - Akron Zips; D'Qwell Jackson - Maryland Terrapins; Jerome Harrison - Washington State Cougars
Bottom (l-r): Joe Thomas - Wisconsin Badgers; Brian Robiskie - Ohio State Buckeyes; James Davis - Florida Gators

Top: Courtney Brown - Penn State Nittany Lions
Bottom: Alex Mack - California Golden Bears



It is fun seeing college uniforms scattered through my collection, even though I think the companies go too far in having all the rookies at the expense of league veterans.

Seeing the Charlie Frye card brings up a little story. I drove down to Cleveland with friends for a game against the Raiders during the 2014 season. While down there we did a little shopping. One of my friends was looking at baseball caps and bought one that he really liked, an Akron Zips cap. I can't see there being too many Zips hats here in Ottawa. (Although for the last half of the past CFL season, the Ottawa team had an Akron Zips alum playing for it - Shawn Lemon.)

Here are some numbered cards that I needed:



The Upper Deck Vintage card is interesting because I assumed it was from the 2001 set, but it turned out to be from the 2000 Upper Deck Vintage Previews set.

The 2002 Fleer Andre Davis Rookie Sensations card is #/1250 on the back.

Seeing Spergon Wynn in the number 13, and David Veikune in the number 57 (all I think of is Clay Matthews) really makes me think that I should do a series of posts on each uniform number in Cleveland Browns history. It could be interesting.



A frustrating part of team collecting is parallel cards. I absolutely hate having to figure out if I have the regular or the glossy Score card from various ears of collecting, and even now as I'm going through my collection again to verify what I have, I am finding that I had identified some of them wrong. Fleer, with their 2001 Fleer Tradition sets, however, made this easier.

Look at the two Kevin Johnson cards. Isn't it nice that they add the word Glossy underneath the Fleer Tradition logo to differentiate the two? Oh, how I wish that other companies would always have some distinct way of marking parallel cards.

As much as I like team cards, or team leader cards that act as checklists, I find this one a little creepy. And it seems odd that you would have one player in his helmet while the others are not wearing one, but then again, you can see the headshot of Kevin Johnson is cropped from the base card.

What would a post with a large grouping of Browns cards be without more quarterbacks?



Okay, Tim Couch was already represented above, as were Brady Quinn, Charlie Frye and Spergon Wynn, but why not add Jeff Garcia (with the Lions) and Nate Hybl to this post?

I like the 1999 Playoff Absolute SSD cards, with the base cards being blue, and with Green, Orange, Purple and Red parallels. This is my first Red card.

I'll finish this post with a group of players that I just like seeing cards of. That is one of the great things about this hobby, it allows you to remember players that you watched play in the past.



Happy surprise Browns lot

Saturday morning I made the drive down to my post office box to pick up some auction wins.

There were a few different small purchases, and one lot of 400+ Browns cards that I won on Sportlots for $0.25 plus $8.00 shipping. I fully expected the lot to contain a bunch of junk wax and before opening it figured if I could find 24 cards I needed for my collection that I would be happy. (I figured that with conversion I was paying about CDN$12.00, and that would be about CDN$0.50 each, which I wouldn't have a problem with.)

However before I talk about the lot, let's look at some of the other cards I picked up.

Here are the newest autographs for my collection. All of the cards are new to me, but I already have multiple autographed cards of each player.

The Topps Platinum Danny Shelton was a contest prize that I won from Sports Card Info. I don't often enter their contests for cards but will always do so for a Browns card. I was lucky to win it as I only entered on one day over the period of the contest.

In my last few posts, I showed Crown Royale and Topps Heritage that I had bought hoping for Browns. Well, when you can't pull them, buy them. They weren't very expensive. And the Sage Hit Gold Acho joins with the Silver that I already had and now gives me five autographed cards out of the seven I own of him.



A small lot I won on eBay contained the cards above.

Bernie Kosar, Duke Johnson and Travis Benjamin - former Miami Hurricanes.

The Prestige Extra Points McCown is #/50.

An interesting tidbit that Browns fan would be aware of, but others might not know is that Brandon Weeden and Johnny Manziel, along with Brady Quinn, were drafted with the 22nd pick in the first round of their respective drafts. I am thinking that if they ever have the 22nd pick, that they shouldn't draft another quarterback there.



Now, about that large lot that I picked up. When I opened it, the first thing that I noticed was that, contrary to my expectations, it wasn't a whole bunch of junk wax years (and I say that with love) Pro-Set, Score and Fleer cards. In fact, only around 60 cards or so were pre-expansion year cards, and of those I needed almost a third. Here are some of them:

An interesting thing about working on wantlists - I do team searches which miss cards such as the Metcalf and Carrier cards above. It is nice to see them included in Browns team lots since they are wearing Browns uniforms. And it is very nice to get the Black Label parallels of them. Now to look for the regular base cards.

I might not be the biggest Andre Rison fan but I do like this Prism insert, and I love the photo on Touchdown Tommy's Nitro parallel card.



I previously only had two of the 1996 Collector's Edge Browns cards of the nine in the team set. Now I'm down to only needing one, Ernest Hunter.

All told, in the just over 400 card lot, I needed around 120 cards. And in checking another Browns collector's wantlist, among my new doubles I found quite a few that he needed. I'm very happy with the purchase, and glad that I didn't ignore the auction because I didn't want to pay the shipping cost.

Although I'm going to show an assortment of the cards from 1999 on in a future post, I do want to show one 1999 card that was in the set.



I hadn't even heard of the 1999 Giant Eagle Browns card set. It is always nice to get a new card, and find out about a new set. I found the checklist and added it to the Trading Card Database and am quite excited to see some names on there that I don't believe have any other cards in Browns uniforms. I haven't seen too many cards from this set out there, so I have something to search for. 

Wallet Card Wednesday - 1

I know that I've seen "Wallet Card Wednesday" used on a couple of different blogs so I'll borrow the name for use here.

A pretty simple week to start things off for my wallet card, mostly because I forgot that I wanted to take photos of it.

Here is my wallet card with a book that I received for Christmas and just started reading. I am about a third of the way through the book so far.

Football isn't a battle



I had previously read of the Harlem Hellfighters in a graphic novel by Max Brooks after hearing him speak of it at a panel at San Diego Comic-Con. I had a nice chat with him afterwards and he autographed the graphic novel for me.

My wallet card also accompanied me to trivia last night.

No football questions for me last night



Some of you may be familiar with Buzztime Trivia, or may remember it as NTN. I have been playing for many years now, and have a regular group that I play with locally every Tuesday night.

My regular bar pops up on the leaderboard fairly often on Tuesdays, it is "Broadway" in Nepean, ON. You can't quite make it out at this resolution, but my handle is Squire. And, yes, our bar still has the old consoles and not the tablets. It is always nice to play on the tablets when I travel.

When I went to Arizona for Christmas I looked up a bar that I often see on the leaderboard (a Tilted Kilt in Scottsdale) and went and joined its regular players for the big Tuesday night game. A fun time, even with one of the guys being a big Steelers fan.

-----

I have read online that the Browns have hired Hue Jackson as our new head coach. I really respect the job that he did as head coach of the Raiders a few years back and was puzzled when they let him go after he coached them to an 8-8 record. He has experience with chaotic situations and will hopefully help turn around the Browns.

I like the fact that the team hired a coach with previous NFL head coaching experience. Hopefully it will help cut back on some of the interesting decisions that an inexperienced coach brings. I hope that bringing in a coach like Hue Jackson will encourage Joe Thomas to stay with the team.

Blog plans for 2016 - Baseball project

Ever since I started sending baseball cards to fellow collectors, I have heard a common question: "What can I send you in return?"

I generally answered the question by saying that I collected Cleveland Browns football cards, but that they didn't need to send me anything - I just wanted to see the cards belong in collections where they are appreciated. I also often answered with a comment that I may start a Mets collection in the future.

Thinking about it, and looking at my Browns collection, I realized that I didn't want to become a general Mets collector. I would need to narrow my scope.

One of the great things about reading everyone's blogs, and looking at their collections, is that it gives you ideas to copy. Although I may eventually look at starting an all-time Mets roster collection, I still felt that was too broad.

So, narrowing further and realizing that a nine pocket sheet is just perfect for a National League baseball lineup, I am pleased to announce that I am going to start a collection of New York Mets Opening Day Starting Lineups!

1993 Opening Day Mets

The main qualification for any slot in a page is that the player has to be in a Mets uniform. I don't care if the position on the card matches the position that they played in that year's opening day, or if the card is from the same year or not, as long as they are in a Mets uniform. I am hoping to not use duplicate cards for more than one year, but as I start the project I will in order to fill the slot in the page.

I looked through my handy Mets cards and started the project. Right now, since they were handy, there are many oddball cards in the collection.



Some of these will stay, some may be replaced if I get a different card that I prefer. I'll probably tie most cards to they year that they represent, but then again it is up to what I want.

I've started the collection with what I had at hand, and 1993 is the only year that I have completed. I'll see how many years I can complete in 2016.


Since this is mainly a Cleveland Browns card blog, I will use a couple of images from the Trading Card Database of Mac Speedie, a Cleveland Brown from 1946-52. Today would have been his 96th birthday.

1950 Bowman #8

1951 Bowman #3

Back of 1951 Bowman #3



I own a copy of the 1951 card. I'll have to look to see if it is in better shape that this one from the database, and replace the scan on there if it is. These are his only two cards.

 

After the 1952 season with the Browns, Speedie left the NFL to play in Canada for the Saskatchewan Roughriders who doubled his pay to sign him. He played two years with the Roughriders, before going to the BC Lions in 1955. He only played one game for the Lions, suffering a hairline fracture in his leg, and torn ligaments in his knee and ankle.

 

He then got into coaching in the AFL, and eventually had a head coaching record of 6-19-1 with the Denver Broncos in the mid-60s. He remained a scout with the Broncos until his retirement in 1982.

 

A member of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame (1972), and the University of Utah's Crimson Club hall of fame (1986), he passed away in 1993.

Wallet card and 2015 Topps Heritage football

I'm still not getting the posts that I want in when I want to get them in. It's a good thing that wasn't a New Year's resolution.

I've started carrying around a wallet card, and it is one that has been seen a couple of times on my blog before. The card went in my wallet yesterday. My wallet folds into three, so the wallet card will be standing vertically in the middle of the wallet next to a bank card and a movie Scene card. I expect the edges to become frayed, but for it not to have many creases through the card when the year finishes. Here is my choice:



I hope to show Kevin Mack scoring touchdowns in many different places over the next year.

As an early premium type set, Pro Set Platinum seems to be a little thicker and have a little more gloss than the regular base cards of 1991. Hopefully that, and its positioning in my wallet will allow it to stay in decent shape.

Along with the Panini Crown Royale I showed in my previous post, over Christmas I purchased a second box to open, this one a small box of 2015 Topps Heritage. It was $24.99 at Target, and I believe the boxes are exclusive to Target.

 



Okay, there are two Browns in the set, and 11 cards in the box. Let's see what I get!

Starting with the autograph, and the foilboard card that I found in my box:



I've complained about this before - why does a set that comes out in mid-December have players that didn't make their teams? Are the companies working so far in advance that they can't modify their card lists? (Above, when I mentioned that there are two Browns in the set, one is Vince Mayle who didn't make it out of training camp.)

Any Jaguar collectors out there, or collectors of Notre Dame players in NFL uniforms?



The big "Congratulations!" really didn't do anything for me with this card.

The foilboard looks like a mirrored silver (foil, I guess) in person, but scans white as seen above.

On to the rest of the cards:

Well, another instance of not getting any Browns, although I knew the odds were slim. I know where this card will wind up:



 

And I know a local collector that will gladly take Jordy Nelson off my hands, but nothing here fits my collection.

 

The cardboard is very much like the Turkey Red cardboard from last year. I like the 1956 set that these cards are based on, but at that price point I have no interest in trying to complete the set.

 

Will I buy another box? Probably not, but if I'm at a Target, in the mood to buy something and don't have many other choices, I might. I probably spent too much money on Turkey Red last year which pretty much had the same distribution. I thought about trying to complete that set but started to run into way too many doubles.