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.