Blog Bat Around - Alphabet Challenge

I've seen a few people tackle Nachos Grande's card blog name Alphabet Challenge, and figured that it would be something that I could jump in with for my blog. Of course, mine will be with Cleveland Browns players that have cards that I own.

D - Dieken, Doug

Long-time left tackle, and then broadcaster for the Browns. He has pretty much always been associated with the Browns for as long as I've followed them.

A - Alzado, Lyle

I don't have many memories of seeing him as a Brown, although I do remember him with the team. I remember him more for his personality and his play with the Raiders.

W - Warfield, Paul

For years I would go into a local card store and look at the cards locked in a cabinet hung on the wall. Inside there was a 1965 Philadelphia Paul Warfield rookie card. I always wanted it, and eventually gave myself the go-ahead to buy it. I consider it to be my first big card purchase.

G - Groza, Lou

It was tough to not go with Otto Graham here, but I had heard of "The Toe" before I had heard of Graham, and loved the fact that a tackle was also the kicker for the team.

D - Dixon, Hanford

Credited with naming the Dawg Pound. Loved having Dixon with Frank Minnifield together for years as Pro Bowl cornerbacks.

A - Anderson, Derek

He had a great 2007 season, and I was so disappointed when the Browns missed the playoffs with their 10-6 record. His week 2 win (51-45) against the Bengals is a very fond memory.

Y - Young, Glen

This is a strange pick. As far as I can tell, Glen Young is the only Browns player with a last name starting with Y that I own a card of. On the other hand, I love these 1986 McDonald's cards!

C - Cribbs, Josh

He brought so much excitement to special teams, and developped as a receiver. He was also used in the Wildcat offense when it was all the rage.

A - Acho, Emmanuel

Not for his playing career, but for his YouTube videos and his media career.

R - Ryan, Frank

The last quarterback to win a Championship for the Browns (1964). I love that he managed to earn his PhD in Mathematics during his NFL playing career.

D - Dawson, Phil

Browns kicker from the 1999 expansion season through the 2012 season. I'll always remember his kick against Baltimore that went through the uprights, bounced off the support post and back through the uprights and landed ahead of goal posts. After much discussion, the officials called it good and had to get the Ravens back fron their locker room where they were celebrating their win. Dawson then kicked the game winning field goal in overtime.

S - Sipe, Brian

The Browns quarterback when I first started following the team. Love those Kardiac Kids!

This was fun, and there were a couple of tough choices. If I were to do this again in a few years, Nick Chubb could pass Josh Cribbs, and I found it to be a difficult choice between Brian Sipe and Webster Slaughter, one of my favorite receivers with a great name!

One thing that I noticed is that the letters for my blog name don't include the necessary letters for some of my favorite Browns - Steve Everitt, Bernie Kosar, Clay Matthews, Eric Metcalf, Ozzie Newsome, Joe Thomas. Instead I get three 'D's, and three 'A's to choose from.

I hope you enjoyed my contribution to this Blog Bat Around.

Otto Graham additions

I want to share two Otto Graham cards that I added to my collection in the last 16 months.

In October 2021, I had to travel to Phoenix for some family issues. While there, I met up with Daniel from the It's like having my own Card Shop blog. (Also check out his YouTube channel - Daniel Wilson)

We met at one of his local card stores, and I found a vintage Otto Graham card that I had to buy.

This 1955 Topps All-American card may have soft corners and some dings on the edges, but it displays really well, and was more affordable with the flaws.

I was really happy to buy this card, and am really quite jealous of a couple of card stores that Daniel gets to visit regularly.

The second Otto Graham card was a gift from a friend.

During COVID times, my friend Lorri has done an amazing job of turning her work from home office into a real fan-cave.

She is a big Packers fan, and filled the office with all sorts of different items, many autographed. Among the autographed items, she has two framed Favre jerseys (one Packers, one Vikings), a number of autographed mini helmets, which includes a couple of Hall of Fame players, a few autographed footballs, and two autographed kicking tees. 

She also has a small section devoted to the Bulls - a small display case of Michael Jordan cards, and a framed autographed Dennis Rodman jersey.

I've found her a number of football cards to display with her autographed items, and she has bought more for herself. She had a few cards from one set that made me comment that I was looking for the Otto Graham card from the same set.

I went to visit a month or so later, and was presented with this card.

The Trading Card Database lists these as the  1999-01 Danbury Mint 22K Gold Legends set. The Otto Graham card is the only Browns card in the set.

You can see that these gold cards are sealed in their own plastic cases.

I was very surprised and pleased to receive this gift.

Lorri told me that the most cost effective way to buy this Graham card was to buy a partial set. She also decided that she didn't want the extra cards, so I have some other cards from this set that are available for trade.

Here is what I have for trade:

Chicago Bears - Gale Sayers

Dallas Cowboys - Drew Pearson, Lee Roy Jordan, Bob Lilly

Green Bay Packers - Paul Hornung, Bart Starr, Jim Taylor

Kansas City Chiefs - Bobby Bell, Len Dawson, Jan Stenerud

New York Giants - Harry Carson, Y.A. Tittle

Philadelphia Eagles - Harold Carmichael

Pittsburgh Steelers - Franco Harris, John Stallworth

St. Louis Cardinals - Jim Hart

Not according to plans - Local card show today

The monthly Ottawa card show happened today, and I went to it with the intention of not spending much money. 

The only purchase that I wanted to make was to buy a new box of nine pocket pages from one dealer that usually has them a couple of dollars cheaper than area stores. As it turned out, he wasn't at the show.

I still managed to find ways to spend money though.

I really didn't plan on purchasing an autographed postcard.

I saw this autographed Tom Seaver postcard among a number of other autographed Perez-Steele postcards. I often buy a lot of items from the dealer that was selling them, and made the mistake of asking him how much this postcard was. He told me $40 (just under $30 USD).

Since I had already gathered some items from him (they'll be noted in this post), and wasn't sure if I wanted to spend more money, I asked if he might be able to put it aside until next month. He told me that he had someone that was going to buy all of the collection of postcards that didn't sell, so he wouldn't be able to.

I decided to buy it. I figure it is a good use of some Christmas money that I received.

The same dealer also had another single card that I purchased.

Okay, I've already got two Gary Carter rookie cards, and both are in better shape than this...

...but this one is O-Pee-Chee!

(I like that I finally get to do that!)

Both of my other Carter rookie cards are Topps. Since I started looking for Carter rookies after getting back into card collecting, I haven't seen an O-Pee-Chee one. There was no way I was passing on it.

Now I just need to find the Topps Mini version.

Continuing with the same dealer, he told me that he had bought a collection of pocket schedules and asked me if I was interested in these Browns ones.

I love the top right schedule for a political candidate, and would love to still have the prices on the back of the top left schedule.

I think I only had one or two schedules, so this was a nice addition to my Browns collection.

He also had another interesting card with Browns content.

Okay, I cheer for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFL, but those aren't the Roughriders in this 1961 Topps CFL team card. 

That is a photo of the 1959 Cleveland Browns being used on that card. (Jim Brown is just above #34.)

By some mistake, this photo was used as the Saskatchewan Roughriders team cards by Topps from 1961-1964.

I bought this card to see if is an upgrade over the other one I own. I'll look later.

I'm still looking for the 1963 Topps CFL Saskatchewan Roughriders team card.

Moving away from Browns content to my Christmas/Santa collection, I bought a partial set of Coca-Cola cards that included some Santa cards.

These are acetate cards, and you can see through them at the top of each card. They are cards 16-20 from what the Trading Card Database is calling the 1996 Score Board Coca-Cola Sprint Phone Cards set. I still need one more Santa card from this set - card 15.

Moving away from this dealer to another one that I usually deal with, he had one Browns card for me that I had never seen before.

It is a booklet insert card from the 2002 Fleer Platinum set. It opens up to show the inside:

There is a jersey piece in the bottom right corner.

It is a neat addition to my collection, and was given to me by the dealer. We kind of have ongoing trades that carry over. I rarely have to buy Browns cards from him. He's more than happy to get Packers cards from me in trade instead.

I purchased a couple of non-sports sets from another dealer that I buy from regularly.

This first set of six cards are an insert set in the 1995 Collect-A-Card Coca-Cola Super Premium set. The insert set seems to be called Embossed Santa.

I always love adding cards to my Christmas/Santa binder.

I also bought a set of 24 chrome type stickers that came as inserts in the 2002 Artbox Lord of the Rings Action Flipz set. They are from The Fellowship of the Ring.

The lighting for my photos is bad, and not helped by the curves in the stickers. The bottom photo is just to show the size of the cards versus the size of a regular card.

I was disappointed that there wasn't a Gimli sticker.

Finally, from a last dealer, I picked up two 1986 Montreal Expos team sets. I figured that I would keep one, and send the other one of to the Not Another Baseball Card Blog if he needed it.

Here are a sample of the panels for the 1986 Provigo Montreal Expos set of panels:

The joke was on me though. I already have a set of the panels as well as a set of the separated cards. The second set is available for trade if anyone is interested.

So, other than a couple of small items that I bought for others, that was my card show.

Honestly, I didn't mean to buy much. I just wanted nine pocket pages.

No regrets.

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I'm sure that most everybody has cheered on the recovery of the Bills safety Damar Hamlin. I'm not sure if everyone has heard the recent news and of the hospitalization of former Browns running back Peyton Hillis.

According to the most recent update that I have seen, Hillis could use any good thoughts and prayers that we can send his way. He was hospitalized after saving his kids from drowning.

Here are some nice Peyton Hillis cards from my collection:

Best wishes to you, Peyton!