I Love Football Season

     **CONGRATS TO TEAM SPAIN ON WINNING THE WORLD CUP**

    I got my first taste of the coming football season when yesterday when I had a fantasy football draft with nine friends. I love fantasy football drafts - they're so fun.

I also drafted a really good team

    I'll be rooting for the 49ers and Bengals again this season (49ers have been my dad's team ever since he was a kid, and I like Joe Burrow and Tee Higgins), and I got lucky enough to have many of them on the team.

    In addition to fantasy football drafts, I'm also having a little season-long contest through ESPN. It's called the Playoff Predictor, and you guess the standings in each conference and the wildcards who will make the playoffs. The winner of this contest will get a pack of football cards and perhaps something else at the end of the season.

To Enter, click here

Passwod is: BENGALS

    

 Who's the football team you will be rooting for this season?

Excited and Nervous

    I'm so stoked that Spain was able to pull off the upset victory against France. We played such a great game that it looked as if no soccer team in the world could have beat us. But...then there's Argentina.

    Let me be perfectly honest, I'm a little bit surprised with how much trouble Argentina has had in the knockout rounds, almost falling to both Cape Verde and Egypt. But they're still Argentina, and they're still a great club. And they seem past those struggles.

    

    I think Spain is honestly the team best-equipped to tangle with Argentina's powerful offense. After all, we've only allowed one goal in the entire tournament. I've watched many impressive games where the defense and Unai Simon have been almost flawless. And they'll need to do it once again tomorrow afternoon (3:00 EDT) to pull out a victory.

    Sports Illustrated's opening odds were in favor of Spain, at -154 for the red and gold, and +134 for Argentina, a 60.3% implied probability of Spain pulling out on top. That's certainly nice, but I feel that it's closer to 50-50 in a true clash of the titans. Of course, Spain will have me rooting for them, and they haven't lost yet when I've rooted for them 🤣 Plus, I've got that Spain jersey I promised. 

    When we are officially the World Cup champs, I'd like to celebrate on the blog by posting the cards I recently got from a TCDB user. 

    Until then, thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend, and ¡vamos España!

¡Vamos España!

     I've been watching a lot more of 2026's World Cup than I ever thought I would. USA had a pretty good showing this time.

    Out of the four teams left in the tournament, I'm pulling very hard for Spain. I have some deep Spanish roots and have been rooting for them from the beginning alongside the US.

    Spain has had an incredible run, not allowing a goal until last week's game against Belgium. Their defense and goaltending have been phenomenal, and they have some pretty strong pieces on offense as well.

    Tomorrow at 3:00 EDT, Spain will go toe to toe with France in the semifinal matchup. Spain has the tools to pull off the victory, but I'm pretty confident FIFA wants a rematch between France and Argentina, so it's going to be tough. I'm expecting a lot of bad refereeing decisions against the Spanish squad. And sadly for me, the game will not be shown at my workplace...I'll be able to check my phone periodically, but that's about it.

    And since my fandom won't be present at the television, I'd like to ask all neutral soccer fans reading this post to root for Spain with me. When they win I'll be able to watch them in the final, which would be amazing! Not to mention I'll be able to wear my España jersey for that one LOL

    Until tomorrow's matchup, thank you for reading, have a great start to the week, and ¡Vamos España!

Wow...what a pull

     I hit the LCS a few weeks ago and picked up some goodies....unfortunately, if I try to mash all the cards I got into one post it would never get done. So I'll split them up into two or three shorter posts.

    Today's post will feature the packs I got. There were three such packs, containing a total of 73 cards.

    I also received a couple packs for my birthday, which wasn't long ago, and the contents of those will be shown off at the end of this post. There was quite the hit in one of these packs, but you'll have to be left hanging until the very end.  

    Coming first is a couple packs of 2025 Topps Stadium Club. These packs were four bucks for five cards. 80 cents per card doesn't thrill me, of course. I meant to grab one pack, but accidentally picked up two, and based on the scenario, I felt a little too silly to put one back. Yeah I know, I have social issues 
:(

    The first thought that came across my mind when I saw these cards was 'Holy smokes the photo quality on these bad boys is crisp.' 

    

    Even though $8 is a lot for these cards, I can't really complain. The Posey was a nice pull, along with the Chase Petty Sepia Parallel (never heard of that parallel before) and Schwellenbach insert. That Gerrit Cole card has a really nice picture as well.

    I actually found this pack while walking out of the store. There was a stack of cards from the LOTR card game, and the initial one I found was the 'Pippin Deck.' Then I saw this one, and if any of you have read my LOTR blog, you would know that I had to go with the Aragorn deck from The Two Towers. Unfortunately the price tag is covering our beloved Ranger's face.

    The 63-card starter deck is from the discontinued Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (known simply as LOTR TCG) started in 2001. Apparently the goal of the game is to compete with your opponent to try and destroy the One Ring. Your opponent tries to stop you, either by killing your Fellowship or corrupting them. It's a pretty dark but also super cool concept.

   

    Now that I know that this game is discontinued, I wish that I had gotten all the decks while I had the chance. At $12-14 each it would come at a bit of a price, but not one I'd be unwilling to pay. Well, I should be able to hit up the LCS soon enough and see if there are any decks left.

    If you'd like to see what this Aragorn deck contains, I'm planning to open it up sometime soon on my LOTR blog, He's Known as Strider. Stay tuned for that post if you're interested.

    That does it for the three packs I bought, However, I did receive two birthday packs, which I will show off presently.

    The first such pack contained 14 cards from 2025 Topps Allen & Ginter. A&G seems a bit like a novelty design to me, and I enjoy ripping a pack every now and then.

    So you see we got some interesting stuff here. The little Matt Olson card is pretty cool. That Jack Morris insert looks like a Halloween advertisement.

    The last birthday pack I received was a 2026 Topps Fat Pack. Unfortunately, I seemed to have misplaced the bag the pack was in (though I know I would have put it in a safe place, don't you worry), except for that pull I mentioned at the start of the post. And without further ado, here it is:

    Few things are more exhilerating than pulling a sweet card from a fat pack. This was one of my better pulls over the years, as I'm a pretty big Matt Shaw fan. This card will find a home in the case of my 'prized' cards.

Marv is such a funny character lol

    That'll do it for the latest pack-pulled additions from the local card shop. Make sure to stay tuned for my next post, where I'll be celebrating a blogging milestone almost two and a half years in the making. Until then, thank you for reading the blog, have a great weekend, and happy collecting!

Rescued from THE BOX - Ep. 6

     I hadn't had an encounter with THE BOX in a month and a half. I had kinda forgotten about its existence. And then last night it reared its ugly cardboard face once again.

    I went to open a drawer and it would hardly budge. I stuck my hand in the small opening and pushed down the binder that was blocking it from opening completely. 

    When the drawer opened I was shocked to see THE BOX leap out at me. Using my lightning-fast reflexes, I ducked out of the way as THE BOX came crashing into the wall. Getting that fixed is going to be expensive.

    I think THE BOX must have sensed that the rectangular hole in the wall peeved me, because it changed its tactics, and instead of attacking me it destroyed my personal property. Not cool bud.

    I watched in horror as THE BOX jumped onto my shelves and knocked over all my autographed baseballs and bobbleheads. Thankfully none of them were damaged, but it was still pretty rude. 

    As I was pondering how it's possible that I got stuck with the evil sentient box, it made another move, knocking all my lego sets that I had since I was a child onto the floor. Growing up with numerous siblings, I was surprised they lasted that long anyway, but my years of hard work preserving them was in serious danger. 

    Once THE BOX turned to my library is when I got particularly mad (library meaning a shelf of books). I was gonna maybe possibly read some of those books some day. 

    I lunged at THE BOX. It wasn't ready for my attack; I suppose boxes think they can destroy personal property without any consequence. Ain't no way.

    Being a human being, superior to a box, and especially since I had caught it by surprise, it wasn't much of a fight. 

    When the cops showed up to take THE BOX away, I was able to grab a single card from its disgustingly unbrushed maw. 

    As the police lights faded into the distance, I looked down at the card I rescued. I was surprised to see the face of....

    ...Ali Kazemaini?

    Let me be perfectly honest here. I've never heard of this guy in my life before. But this is why I enjoy freeing cards from THE BOX so much. Let's learn about Mr. Kazemaini, shall we?

    This card, from the 1987-88 design of the Pacific Trading Card Company, is a 'premier issue.' From looking at the front of this card, I would have guessed it was from the early 2000s. I guess I'm not very smart when it comes to soccer.

    

    Looking at his Wikipedia article, I found that Kazemaini was drafted in two soccer leagues, but ended up going with the Cleveland Force of the Major Indoor Soccer League (so that's where the MISL on the set's TCDB page comes from). He won the rookie of the year in the 1984-1985 season. Unfortunately for Kazemaini, his team folded after the 1987-88 season, so he went to play with the Tacoma Stars. Interesting, this card is from the last year the Force had a team. It's a shame to see teams fold like that. As a matter of fact, there were two professional teams I've been to games for that have folded within the last seven years.

    After his playing career, Kazemaini was the head soccer coach at John Carroll University in Ohio, a position he held for 14 years. He was extremely successful there, posting a record of 177-61-13 and winning seven Ohio Athletic Conference regular season titles and four postseason titles. 

    You know something? I still don't really know the rules of soccer. 

    Nonetheless, it was cool to discover Ali Kazemaini's card and rescue it from THE BOX's evil clutches. Other than the occasional hockey post I don't really talk about many sports other than baseball on the blog, so thanks for that Mr. Kazemaini. 

    As I close out this post, I realize that with THE BOX rotting in prison I will be unable to free any more cards. I'd best get on over to the police station and see if I can work something out. While I'm away, make sure to enjoy the rest of your week, and happy collecting! Thanks for checking out the blog.

A Quickie About My Favorite Prospect

    Coming into this season, it seems that a lot of people I know had a favorite prospect; JR Ritchie and Konnor Griffin were popular among my family members. My choice was Colt Emerson.

    It seems a little bit counter-intuitive since he's on a rival squad, but to be honest it doesn't really matter to me. Aside from being a man (hardly, he's 20 years old) of strong faith and a seemingly all-around good guy, Emerson is just a fun player to watch.

    I've been following Emerson for a while and was stoked when he made his MLB debut in mid-May. And he's done pretty well for himself in the big leagues too; (stats)

    I was pleasantly surprised to find the above card of Colt Emerson while at the LCS. I picked it up immediately and am very glad to add it to my collection. I'm excited to see what this kid can do the rest of this season. Who knows, maybe we have a great career in the making...

Life

    Life is a blessing. I would advise you not to take it for granted.

    That being said, life is a little bit crazy at the moment. It's been way too long since I've posted on the blog, and that saddens me. In fact, it is exactly one month since my last post.

    I got a new job that is taking up a good deal of my time. Aside from that I have made some commitments to family and friends, which is also taking up a lot of my time and energy. I could use an extra cup of coffee every now and then (where are ya at, Matt?). I go to bed tired every night.

Pauses to reflect on the logic of that last sentence lol

    As wild as my life has been the last few weeks, I wouldn't change it for a thing. However, I don't want to leave Don Cardwell here to rot. I'm afraid I haven't thought of it very much the last month. 

    For the forseeable future I think the posts on the blog are going to be a little bit on the shorter end (a handful of cards I picked up recently, Rescued from THE BOX posts, etc.) but that's fine. Hopefully I can hit up the LCS in the coming weeks and make a post out of that. In fact, I still have some cards waiting to go on the blog from my last trip, but I haven't had the time to work on that lately.

    Anyway, that's the update. I've gone awhile without posting on the blog before, but I don't really like doing it. I'll make sure to get a post out this week (with Memorial Day I get an extra day off work).

    Thanks for stopping by, have a great rest of the day, and happy collecting!

    Edit: My blog hit 100,000 views between posts, which is pretty cool. Thank you to all the readers who made reaching that milestone possible!