The things I'll do for charity...

A couple of weeks ago, I asked a bartender friend what she was doing for St. Patrick's Day. I know that she has like being included when a group of us have gone out before, and she has joined us in the past with her husband in tow. She answered that she was working for a special fundraiser being held in the restaurant.

My friends and I play Buzztime trivia regularly in this restaurant. Another group of regulars are the coaches and organizers for the Nepean Eagles minor football club. I talk football with a couple of them, and have attended a couple of fundraisers of theirs in the past, but this fundraiser was for one of their nine year old players.

When we noticed that the fundraiser had a trivia component to it, some of us trivia regulars decided to attend, and spend our St. Patrick's Day at that bar. Now, I missed the live music and singing that I would normally add my accompaniment to in other bars, but the cause was worthy. (Our team handily won the trivia, and went to donate the restaurant gift card prizes back to the fundraiser, but the restaurant instead paid the cash equivalent of the gift cards to the fundraiser, and then still gave us the gift cards. This on top of a percentage of food and beverage sales that they said they were going to give. Thank you Broadway Bar & Grill!)

As well as the trivia, there were raffles, and lots of silent auction items to help raise money. I figured that I would contribute a number of bids to help push prices up and appreciate that it was for a good cause when I wound up winning something that I didn't really need.

I didn't expect to find anything Cleveland Browns related at the auction.

After eyeing some potential items to bid on, I saw some signed footballs down the table. Being home to the Ottawa RedBlacks, I figured that they would be signed by some of their players. Well, two that I remember seeing were, but something jumped out at me on the third football: a Browns helmet! There was a Myles Garrett signed Cleveland Browns football on the table!

I was excited! I quickly looked at the bid sheet - nobody had bid on it yet!

The minimum opening bid was $80, and they wanted $10 increments on it. I slapped down a $90 bid. (I could have gone with the minimum but I wanted to look serious.  ...Or I just made a charitable mistake.)

For the rest of the evening I checked out the silent auction tables and kept seeing that I had the only bid on the football. When they called the two-minute warning on the bidding I got up and stood within sight of the football. People added bids to the items beside it but left it alone. And then it ended, and I won!

The different brown colors on the ball are just shadows from the picture and the lighting in the restaurant.

Here is the letter that was with the ball to educate people as to whose autograph they were getting.

Of course, I didn't need to be told this but I'm happy they gave me the letter to go with it.

I was curious, though. How did a signed Myles Garrett football wind up at a fundraiser in Canada's capital city? I asked one of the organizers, and he said that its donation was arranged by former CFL All-Star, and local media personality, Ken Evraire.

Mr. Evraire was there, so I went to ask him how a Browns football wound up in Ottawa. I believe that he told me that it was arranged after a conversation with former NFL quarterback Jesse Palmer, who grew up in Ottawa.

We talked football for a bit, and he mentioned that there was a letter of authenticity in the top of the box. I thanked him for letting me know, then waited to pay for the football.

After getting back to my table, I decided to look at the letter, and was very pleasantly surprised!

I don't know why I didn't expect it, but it was actually a letter from the Browns on team stationary.

Yes, there are fold marks, and I blocked out the address where it was mailed, but I'm thrilled with owning this letter as well.

Thank you Cleveland Browns First and Ten program! The ball actually went to a Browns fan and will be won't just be stashed away in some closet by someone that bought it just to support a good cause.

The restaurant was packed. I was told that the organizers were happy with what they raised. All in all, it was a good night for a good cause.

All the best to young Percy!

Sportlots order

It had been a while since I had bought cards on Sportlots but I knew that I was missing a whole lot of 2017 Browns base cards and thought I would take a look to see what I might find.

Looking through a few different cards, I found a couple of sellers' names repeated themselves so I started looking through their football inventories and picked up a few older cards as well.

With shipping, these cards were about the price of a blaster with tax.

We'll start with the 2017 cards since that is what I originally went looking for.

Top (l-r): 2017 Donruss Optic #12 and #78

Bottom (l-r): 2017 Donruss Optic #92 and #109

Crowell, Collins and Coleman are the three Browns veterans for their Optic team set. Dayes joins the Jabril Peppers I showed in a recent post to give me two of the five Browns rookies from the set.

Isaiah Crowell signed with the Jets as a free agent. It wasn't a surprise to see him leave the team.

(L-R): 2017 Panini Contenders - ROY Contenders #RY-28; - Round Numbers #RN-3

Some regular inserts found in the Panini Contenders set every year.

(L-R): 2017 Panini Illusions # 84, #85 and #86

I ordered these cards without knowing what the Panini Illusions set looked like. They're Browns cards, I was going to need them anyway. I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw them. The fronts of the cards may be my favorites of all the sets that Panini has put out.

(L-R): 2017 Panini Illusions - Living Legends #17; - Mystique #MY-15

I know that the Living Legends card was in my Joe Thomas post, but I bought it with this Sportlots order so I'm still including it here. Both it, and the Mystique insert are acetates. Frankly, these inserts make me like the Illusions set even more. I'm definitely going to have to keep my eye out for more cards from this set.

(L-R): 2017 Panini Phoenix #7, #84 and #154

Nice to add another Ozzie Newsome card to my collection.

I guess it is nice to see Peppers with a Browns helmet and a brown jersey on, but the photo just loses something with him being in shorts.

(L-R): 2017 Panini Playbook #20, #21 and #119

I've now got all the veteran and retired Browns for the Playoff team set. I don't have any of the rookies yet. I like the set, and I really like how Panini uses the old shade of orange on the borders and the helmet on the Newsome card, and the brighter orange on the current players.

(L-R): 2017 Panini Prizm - Prizm #13; - Prizm #99; - Prizm #190

A few of the Prizm parallels.

Top (l-r): 2017 Panini Rookies & Stars #23, #101 and #143

Bottom (l-r): 2017 Panini Rookies & Stars #145 and #218

Buying a Kenny Britt Browns card gives me a worse bad taste in my mouth than buying Andre Rison and Dwayne Bowe cards did.

Top (l-r): 2017 Panini Unparalleled #45 and #46

Middle: 2017 Panini Unparalleled #204

Bottom: 2017 Panini Unparalleled #247

I like seeing the player's draft pick number on the rookie cards. It seems different, which isn't a bad thing.

(L-R): 2017 Panini Unparalleled - Lime Green #46; - Lime Green #47; - Lime Green #200

Which is more garish? The lime green parallels?

(L-R): 2017 Panini Unparalleled - Pink #45; - Pink #46; - Pink #200

Or the pink parallels?

(I think the pink parallels are muted, and more purple looking in the scan.)

(L-R): 2017 Panini XR #25, #26 and #133

I know that Panini has to put out a lot of sets for their exclusive contract, and I know it must be tough to come up with a lot of set names, but XR? I don't really get it.

Top (l-r): 2017 Panini Certified #39; 2017 Panini Elite #22

Bottom (l-r): 2017 Panini Father's Day #32; 2017 Panini Limited #7

I'm sure sellers that are opening all these Panini boxes are happy to see someone like me come along and buy their Browns cards. I'm happy enough to not have to buy all the boxes.

I also found other cards that I needed from previous years among the two sellers' inventories.

Top (l-r): 2016 Panini Prizm Collegiate Draft Picks #140, #147 and #158

Bottom (l-r): 2016 Panini Prizm Collegiate Draft Picks #218 and #224 

With the young team that the Browns have, it isn't a surprise that I can find a lot of cards in this collegiate set.

I was disappointed that Scooby Wright didn't make the 2016 Browns team.

The Briean Boddy-Calhoun card shows how fluid my collection can be. I'll collect college cards of Browns draft picks, and their undrafted free agents, but I usually don't pick up college cards of undrafted players that don't sign with the Browns as their first NFL team. Boddy-Calhoun originally signed with the Jaguars, and was let go during their final cuts before being picked up by the Browns. However, since he ended up playing such a big role with the Browns during the 2016 season I decided to make an exception.

Top (l-r): 2016 Panini Unparalleled - Purple #76; - Purple #96

Bottom (l-r): 2016 Panini Unparalleled - Teal #76; - Teal #96

Both the purple and the teal seemed to scan darker than they look in hand.

(L-R): 2016 Panini Crown Royale 23; 2016 Panini Playoff #256

The Playoff card has a nice clean look, but I think that I prefer the color coordinated borders on the 2017 cards.

2015 Topps Fire - Silver #7; - Silver #43

Another addition to my Vince Mayle collection - 68 cards and still climbing!

I like the photo/art on the Duke Johnson card.

(L-R): 2015 Topps Museum Collection #56; 2015 Topps Museum Collection - Copper #99

I was surprised to see these Museum Collection cards in one of the inventories. I figured a quarter for the Duke Johnson rookie card, and $0.75 for the Haden copper parallel were quite worth it.

(L-R): 2013 Topps Magic #308; 2014 Bowman Sterling #14; 2015 Panini Gridiron Kings - Red Frame #152

I don't know why I haven't found that Weeden card before, but I finally found a cheap enough copy to buy.

I think that the background of the Bowman Sterling card actually looks better in the scan than it does in hand.

Top (l-r): 2011 Upper Deck College Legends - Bowl Game Heroes #BGH-BK; 2011 SP Authentic #188

Bottom (l-r): 2012 SPx - Shadow Slots #BK-2; 2012 SPx - Shadow Slots #BK-3

Some nice new Bernie Kosar additions to my collection. The two Shadow Slots are acetate cards.

Top (l-r): 2006 Press Pass SE - Gold #14; 2011 Upper Deck College Legends #61

Bottom (l-r): 2012 SP Authentic #46 and #94

A few more collegiate cards for my collection. It is nice to get a new-to-me Eric Metcalf card. He was one of my favorites in the early 90s.

(L-R): 2011 Panini Gridiron Gear #180; 2011 Panini Gridiron Gear - Silver X's #29 (#/250)

Back to some Browns cards to finish. The silver on the Silver X's card is found in the areas around the Xs. Of course you can't tell from the scan since it scans as black.

(L-R): 2011 Panini Crown Royale - Majestic #10; 2011 Topps Legends - Aspiring Legacies #AL-GL

The Majestic insert card is an odd shape - tapered towards the bottom and die-cut in the corners. The lettering on the bottom of the card is all in silver foil and also shows up black in the scan.

I'm very happy to have added this many cards that I needed at once for such a reasonable price. Sportlots can be really nice if you have the time to actually search through sellers' inventories.

73

I've started three different posts since my last one. Two of them are still drafts that I'm working on, and one was discarded, but this post has to come first.

I thought about titling this post "Numbers", but then I realized that one is all that matters. If you ask me what I think of when I hear the number 73, I would answer Joe Thomas.

73

Seventy-three is an odd number. I really have no memories from 1973 so it wouldn't immediately come to mind, so I would think uniform number, and for the last eleven years there has been no better Cleveland Brown.

2008 Topps Mayo #57

On April 28, 2007, with the third pick of the 2007 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns selected the Outland Trophy winning tackle from the Wisconsin Badgers, Joe Thomas. Instead of attending the draft in person, he was fishing on Lake Michigan.

2007 Upper Deck First Edition #105

Today, Joe Thomas announced his retirement from the NFL.

10,363

Here is another number for this post, but it is one that I won't necessarily remember.

From his first snap in 2007, until tearing his triceps in his left arm on October 22, 2017, Joe Thomas never missed an offensive snap. His record consecutive snap string ended at 10,363. Since he has decided to retire instead of coming back from the injury, it means that his whole playing career was a consecutive snap streak!

I own 62 Joe Thomas cards, 32 of which are from his rookie 2007 season.

2007 SP Authentic - Gold #276 (#/25)

This is the only Joe Thomas autographed card that I own. It is one of two Thomas cards that I own that are serial numbered out of 25.

2007 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia - Rookie Premiere Materials AFC/NFC Spectrum Prime (#/10)

I love the scan's reflection on this spectrum card, and the two pieces of jersey with a piece of football. This is the lowest serial numbered Thomas card that I own, being numbered out of 10.

Here are a few other rookie season memorabilia cards that I own.

2007 Leaf Rookies & Stars - Dress for Success Jerseys #DS-9 (#/175)

I like the layout of the card, having a picture of Thomas without the helmet on one side, and him in uniform on the other. The jersey material is a bit boring though.

2007 SP Rookie Threads - Rookie Threads Silver #RT-JT

A couple of jersey pieces here, and at least they are a little different from each other. Nice to see them in a cut-out of Thomas' jersey number.

2007 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection - Rookie Materials Silver #URM-JT

A different design for the cut-outs, showing his number and position.

Thomas was a day one starter during his rookie season, and impressed early. He was the NFL's Rookie of the Month for November during his rookie season, and was second in the voting for Offensive Rookie of the Year that season behind Adrian Peterson. After his rookie season, he was also named to the Pro Bowl as a replacement for Jason Peters.

2008 Topps - Gold #281 (#/2008)

The Pro Bowl became very familiar to Joe Thomas. He was named to the Pro Bowl team during all ten of his complete seasons.

More impressive than the ten consecutive Pro Bowl seasons is that he was also named to All-Pro Teams from 2008 - 2016. (First Team All-Pro in 2009 - 2011, and 2013 - 2016, and Second Team All-Pro for 2008 and 2012.)

2009 Topps - Gold #14 (#/2009)

Something that makes all those Pro Bowl and All-Pro recognitions more impressive is that he was constantly being recognized even though he was on some poor teams.

The Browns just missed the playoffs in Thomas' rookie season of 2007 with a 10-6 record. They lost tie-breakers with the Steelers for the division and with the Titans for the last wild-card spot. As you will see later, his team never came close to that record again.

2010 Topps #324

6 and 20

In his eleven seasons with the Browns, Joe Thomas played for 6 head coaches, and blocked for 20 different starting quarterbacks, with additional cameo appearances by two additional quarterbacks.

Here are the seasons that Joe Thomas played through along with the coaches and starting quarterbacks:

Season   Record   Coach                      Starting Quarterbacks

2007       10 - 6   Romeo Crennel    Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson

2008       4 - 12   Crennel                Anderson, Brady Quinn, Ken Dorsey,

                                                        Bruce Gradkowski

2009       5 - 11   Eric Mangini         Anderson, Quinn

2010       5 - 11   Mangini                Jake Delhomme, Colt McCoy, Seneca Wallace 

2011       4 - 12   Pat Shurmur         McCoy, Wallace

2012       5 - 11   Shurmur               Brandon Weeden, Thad Lewis

2013       4 - 12   Rob Chudzinski    Weeden, Jason Campbell, Brian Hoyer

2014       7 - 9     Mike Pettine         Hoyer, Johnny Manziel, Connor Shaw

2015       3 - 13   Pettine                  Manziel, Josh McCown, Austin Davis

2016       1 - 15   Hue Jackson        McCown, Robert Griffin III, Cody Kessler

2017       0 - 7     Jackson                DeShone Kizer, Kevin Hogan

As for the cameo appearances that I referred to:

In 2012, newly signed backup quarterback Josh Jackson made an appearance after an injury to starter Thad Lewis on a fourth down with just over a minute left in the final game of the season. He was sacked and fumbled the ball away.

In 2016, during their week 5 game against the Patriots, Cody Kessler was hurt and Charlie Whitehurst came in and went 14-of-24 passing for 182 yards with a touchdown and an interception, but also suffered a knee injury during the game. The Browns cut him with an injury settlement shortly afterwards, so he never started a game for the team.

2011 Score #70

There was an interesting tweet today from one of Pro Football Focus' writers:

Joe Thomas gave up 30 sacks in his 11-year career (6,680 pass-block snaps).

His replacement, Spencer Drango, allowed 11 sacks in 11 games#Browns

— Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) March 14, 2018

One of the many crazy statistics from Joe Thomas' career.

2012 Panini Stickers #98

Another crazy factoid from Joe Thomas' career is that he never won a season opener. The Browns were 0-11 in Week 1 during his career.

2013 Topps Magic #317

I am so grateful to have had Joe Thomas to cheer for over the last eleven years. As bad as the Browns have been, I always had an answer when people asked me if the Browns even had anyone on their team that their team would want. He was the one good player that you could count on being there when the rosters changed with the new coaches and front offices.

2014 Topps - Camo #308 (#/399)

There is no doubt that Joe Thomas will be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He will be the first Browns Hall of Fame player that I have watched right from the draft through to the end his career.

(I don't believe that I watched Ozzie Newsome at all during his rookie season. My earliest Browns memories would be during his third season, the 1980 Kardiac Kids.)

2015 Topps - Gold #295 (#/2015)

Leading up to his retirement announcement, I've read articles saying that Joe Thomas might be offered a media job in football. In the past, I've really enjoyed reading what he said in post-game interviews, on twitter, or in his podcast, and if that is what he wants to do with his future, I can't wait to hear what he has to say!

2016 Panini Absolute - Unsung Heroes #13

I went to two Browns games this year. One of them was the game where Joe Thomas suffered his injury. Once I noticed that it was him on the ground, and knowing that his snap streak was coming to an end, I was quickly on my feet, cheering him as he was led off the field. Little did I know that this would be the last time that I would be able to cheer for him on the field as a player.

2017 Panini Illusions - Living Legends #17

This insert set says it all.

Thanks, Joe Thomas, for an amazing career!

National Hockey Card Day 2018

I decided to take advantage of this year's National Hockey Card Day last Saturday and visited two local card stores and a local Toys "R" Us as well. Of course, this resulted in my first hockey card purchases of the season.

First the free stuff!

I went out fairly early on Saturday morning, sometime within the first hour that stores opened. The closest card store to me was giving everyone who entered three packs of the free cards. The owner there knows that I am mainly a football collector but that I will buy packs from other sports just to see what they look like, and to see what I might get. I told him that I would buy some hockey to look at, but I was still going to look through the rest of the store.

I spotted a solitary box of Topps Heritage baseball sitting on his shelf at a decent price and spent the next little, while talking to him, internally debating whether I should buy it or not. I did, and will have a post on that later, but I also bought a few packs of hockey cards.

At the second card store that I went to, nothing was said about National Hockey Card Day as I entered. I didn't see anything open that really caught my eye but they did have a lot of supplies that I needed. As I went to pay for them, I was presented with a single pack of cards and was told that it was National Hockey Card Day. I thanked him for the cards.

With four packs of five cards, and a fifteen card checklist, I thought that I could get lucky and get a full set.

Here is the checklist, included in each pack. Since I had more than one, I scanned it so that the front and back are side by side.

I know that I really don't follow hockey much anymore. (I guess I'm a poor excuse for a Canadian.) However, the NHL really ticked me off by seemingly dismissing outright the concept of their players playing at the Olympics. I really don't think there was serious negotiation over the matter. That being said, looking at the checklist, I can't tell you what teams Jost, Dubois and Tippet play for. That's bad.

As I opened the four packs, I immediately noticed a lot of doubles. I received nine different cards, and of the nine, only one was a single. Three came in triples.

Again, with those that I have two of, I will scan them side by side. Here is what I got for the base set.

Well, I found out what teams Jost and Dubois play for.

At the first store, for making a purchase, I also received an extra promotional card. Here it is with the card that I only found one of in my packs.

As well, I had heard that Toys "R" Us was giving out sheets of cards as part of the promotion. I popped into one of the local locations and picked up this sheet along with the purchase of a blaster of Upper Deck Series 1.

There were multiple sheets to choose from. I grabbed this one so that I could send it to someone that I know collects Steve Yzerman.

I was happy with the promotion, although with the box of Heritage baseball, I spent more than I expected to for the day.

Here are the packs that I bought at the first local card store.

It is only a four pack of cards, but I hadn't seen it yet.

So, you can see the three base cards. I'm happy to say that I know all of these players.

As for the fourth card that didn't show up well in the scan, well, here is a picture of it.

My first reaction was that the Aurum inserts seemed pretty cool. The store owner told me that they have a scratch-off code on the back to try to get people to collect them all and redeem all the codes, and that, of course, there would be short-prints to make that difficult.

The other two packs were bought on the recommendation of the customer next to me. He told me to buy Upper Deck Series 2.

Pack 1:

Okay, I don't know Parayko and Necas, but was happy to see that Necas is a Young Guns card.

I know all four of these guys! Now, of course, being in Ottawa I better know Anderson. I saw Logan Couture play in junior hockey for the Ottawa 67s.

Pack 2:

I don't know Austin Watson.

I don't know much about Niederreiter, but I know the name because every time I hear it I think of Martin Short's character in Three Amigos, Ned Nederlander.

With friends of mine here being Habs fans, I should probably know Victor Mete, but I don't, and I can't say that I know Matt Hunwick either.

I'm not sure what the O-Pee-Chee insert is. I thought O-Pee-Chee still had their own sets. I guess Upper Deck is just capitalizing on the name among hockey collectors.

The blaster of Series 1 that I bought was a special Canadian Edition that came with two special insert cards.

Here are the exclusive bonus cards that I found in my pack.

I'm happy to say that I know of all three players on both cards. I'll blame an Oiler-fan friend of mine for me knowing the top card. The Senators I know from local sports media.

I'm not going to show all the cards from the blaster, just the inserts and Young Guns.

To once again embarrass myself, who? (Wow, I really am not watching hockey these days...)

I'm guessing that the red one is a parallel. I don't recognize that Columbus uniform.

The black and white portrait is kind of nice, but I still think that I would prefer this portrait set to be in color.

Okay, I like the canvas cards, but I only know one of these Capitals. I was surprised, though, to see on the back of the card that Backstrom has played 10 seasons in the NHL. I think I would have thought it was only six or seven. Maybe I have been out of touch with hockey for longer than I thought.

Anyway, it was nice to buy these to see what was happening. I'm not really that attached to most of these so if anyone wants me to put something aside for them, just let me know. And if you're looking for any of the base Series 1 cards, let me know and I'll look to see if it was in my blaster.