Ranger Recap - Opening Day

This recap is coming a little bit later than I would have liked, but I was out all day today 

    Yesterday the Rangers began their season against the Phillies of Philadelphia. Facing Christopher Sanchez, it was going to be a tough game.

    Nathan Eovaldi, Big Game Nate, took the hill for Texas, and though he didn't fair as poorly as Paul Skenes, he still got a bit roughed up, allowing five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings, striking out seven and walking zero. Home runs by Kyle Schwarber and Alec Bohm did Nate in, and rookie outfielder Justin Crawford had an impressive debut as well, scoring up a couple of hits and a run.

    The Ranger offense struggled just as much as they did all of last season, as they failed to get any runs on the board until the ninth inning, when a monster Jake Burger home run put the score to 5-2. Danny Jansen, our new catcher, would also single to bring the score to 5-3, but that's the best the team could do as they were ultimately defeated by the Phils. 

    Evan Carter was not in the starting nine, but he pinch-hit for Sam Haggerty. Carter went 0-for-2, but did not strike out, which I suppose is good. Hopefully he'll be in the starting lineup for Texas's next matchup.

    So we've fallen to 0-1 just like we did last year. There are still 161 games to go, but every game is important. I hope they can make it back into the playoffs this year and potentially make a run.

    Thanks for checking out the blog. Have a great weekend, and happy collecting!

CARTER'S BACK BABY!!!

     I've been waiting so long for this. My man, Evan Carter, is getting called up for tomorrow's game. 

    After a rather sad Spring Training, Evan Carter missed out on making the Opening Day roster for the Rangers. However, after a slow start in Triple-A, he's heated up a ton recently and will finally get the call. The move is likely due to Leody Taveras being put on waivers. 

    The Rangers have been pretty bad this year. Though they are .500, the offense has been downright terrible -- they cannot score runs. And let's face it; Patrick Corbin's not going to have a 3.28 ERA all season.

    I am very happy to hear of this news. I think Carter's still got star potential in him, and he deserves this chance at the big league level.

    Now, this post, aside from releasing my joy and bliss into the world, is also going to show off the latest addition to my Carter PC. This card comes from TCDB user ThemightyOx, and came in a week or two ago. Unfortunately, I misplaced the card, but just found it the other day on my desk, which pleased me.

    Ox pulled the 2025 Topps Easter holiday parallel, which he sent my way. This is a beautiful card. I actually think the colors, though not very Ranger-ish, make it look great. The glare on the photo is really bad, but I'm a bit too lazy to retake it right now.

    So thanks to Ox and congrats to Carter! Let's go win some games baby!

Ranger Recap: Opening Day

     It's not usually a week-ish between posts for me, but I'll probably be getting used to that these coming months. I'm working on a few posts that ought to be posted soon (I'll try to get one out within a week), and as an endeavor not to go too long without posting, here comes the recap from Opening Day. Buckle up boys, this was not a fun one.

    I listened to almost the entire game on the radio as my Rangers took on Matt from Diamond Jester's Red Sox. 

    It was a really good game; it was 2-2 until the ninth inning. Though the score was low, both teams had their fair share of hits. Kyle Higashioka made me particularly happy. Wilyer Abreu, on the other hand, did not.

    I don't have a lot of nice things to say about Luke Jackson. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the man -- he just has no business playing a closer role for the Rangers. Chris Martin's getting gypped. And, unfortunately, Luke Jackson gave up a three-run home run -- to no other than Wilyer Abreu. Man, he's a good hitter.

    It's been a minute since the Rangers lost an Opening Day game, and this isn't the prettiest way to start a season. Of course, there are 161 games to go.

    Well Matt, we'll just need to settle with winning the series. 

More Help With the PC (and some mystery items)

     I've been working on the Evan Carter PC for about a year now, and while I can't say it's big (yet), I've gotten some sweet new additions for it, including two more from the biggest contributor of the PC, Johnny's Trading Spot. He sent me a package that arrived several days ago, full with lovely cards.

    

    I really like both of these cards. My LCS doesn't carry very many A&G cards that I know of, so I don't get my hands on very many. 

    The picture for the left-hand card really doesn't do it justice. It's a wonderfully vivid card, and of course, it's very shiny. These two cards are going straight into top loaders and then the PC box. Thank you!

    Now, this may have been the end of the post is John hadn't sent me a smorgasbord of other Rangers cards.

    Four more Rangers from the 2024 Topps Big League set. I'm really glad that the team kept Eovaldi around for the next three years. Hopefully he and Jacob deGrom can throw a pretty one-two punch. I hope Jonah Heim can rebound also after an abysmal 2024 season. 

    I'm remaining in 2024 with Topps Chrome Justin Foscue. Chrome and 2024 Topps looks like they were meant to be. They look so good together. I'm gonna miss the 2024 design. 

    Next we have a tiny little Josh Jung. I didn't mess with the size of the image to bring the point across. Though the card is small, I actually really like it; it looks old. I hope that Josh Jung can have a fully healthy season in 2025 that includes no hand breaking.

    I didn't know this at first, but this is a member of Topps Big League, so I probably should have put it with his quartet of friends earlier. Oh well. Die cut cards are so interesting to me. The first one I got was Steve Carlton from 2022 Topps, and my reaction was, 'It looks like they gave a two-year old scissors!' This card doesn't quite look like that. I like this one a lot, with the baseball directing the cutting on the card. It looks really nice.

    This is a last of the 2024 Cards(?). I think we all agree (from reading other blogs) that Topps did a really good job on their 2024 Holiday design. The Corey Seager ornament is fantastic. Besides just looking amazing, it also has a glorious shine to it, which makes it even more appealing. 

    This is 10 wonderful cards. And yet we're not done with this package! The generosity is really quite unbelievable. 

    This card looks like it came straight out of the '90s.....which would make sense since it's 2022 Bowman Heritiage -- based on the 1994 Bowman design. I wonder who the catcher is.

    The Lone Not-Ranger. I had to do my research on Spook Jacobs, because I did not know who he was. Jacobs was a second-baseman who played from 1954-1956 with the Athletics and Pirates (he played with both the Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics). Before he played in the Majors, spook was a sergeant in World War II. Apparently a sportswriter gave him the nickname. Spook played 14 seasons and 1735 games in the minor leagues, where he slashed .300/.383/.364 with 1162 runs. He hit 9 home runs in the minors.

    Well that was a fun three minutes of research. Spook seemed to be a pretty cool guy. He died in 2011 at the age of 85.

    This is a cool little box full of near 35-year old bubblegum. I've chewed 1990s gum before (in the 2020s), but I don't think I'll be chewing this one any time soon. The box is really cool; that's my favorite Rangers logo. I actually really like this. I would not complain if this were a thing again. However, there's probably some law regarding food-borne illness which wouldn't let it slide.

    A huge thank you to John for all the amazing new cards! His generosity is shocking. I had never seen some of these before, but I really like each and every item inside this package. 

    Thank you all for reading, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting! I'll catch y'all later.

    This post featured almost completely Rangers cards. While I'm on the subject of the Rangers (which it seems I almost always am), I have started yet another new blog. This one was the result of being turned down from a writing job. In my hopes of one day reapplying for that job, I've started Rangers Nation. This blog will feature bi-weekly posts on the Rangers upcoming 2025 season. I'm trying to keep the quality of writing on that blog to a peak, although it probably won't stay that way very long (once I get into rants and the like). If there are Rangers fans among us, you can go ahead and check it out. Or, if you're just interested, I won't turn you away.

I Got Humpty Dumpty!

    I never thought I'd be so intrigued by an egg. This card came to me in a package from The Diamond King. And I have to say, I really like it, though it surprised me a little bit. 

    I got the package from Diamond King's last Serial Number Guessing Contest. Along with Humpy Dumpty and the 100 serial-numbered cards, he also gave me a bunch of filler cards. Diamond King warned me beforehand no to get too excited, but the 'fillers' he gave me were full of PC players. Here are all the guys in my PC that were added to the box:

    These nine Ripkens further advance my most-collected player (all were needs). There was also a bunch of shiny, which is always appreciated. The nasty glare messes with the picture, but I took pics about a month ago, so won't bother changing it now.

    Posey's the second-most collected player, and so adding these three was great too. And still more shiny for my collection. Love it!

    And another Pete Crow-Armstrong for the collection. I have high hopes for this kid going forward. (I need to stop photographing cards in their penny sleeves)

    Also some great Corey Seager cards. I also have hopes for the Rangers come next year. I still have my doubts with their pitching staff, but being able to extend Nathan Eovaldi is big, and trading for Jake Burger......I don't know how that will effect their offense. I can do nothing but hope for now.

    I really like the see-through card. I didn't notice it until the picture showed the table I had the card on in the background. And the addition of a parallel will always be appreciated.

    Six amazing deGrom cards. The 2015 Topps design is great, and it's a little bit funny to see deGrom as a 'Future Star.' I sure hope that he can make some magic for the Rangers. Magic mostly meaning that he starts more than ten games. Boy, we could sure use a full season outta him.

    And I'll round things out with a Troy Tulowitzki mini. He'll be getting his first shot on the ballot this year. We'll see how that one goes.

    Apologies for the lack of decent photos. I need to redo them, but all the cards are in a box now, and I don't want to mess with them too much for the time being.

    I think I'll do a top 20 countdown for the serial-numbered cards sometime in January. Thank you to the Diamond King for the awesome cards, and thank you for reading. Happy collecting!

Dessert Time!

    I've always thought that the Mother's Cookies cards were kinda funny. It was the first instance I ever saw of a completely non-related company producing sports cards. I probably got this at the card store for a couple bucks two or three years ago, but never opened it. I finally did so, but as I took off the plastic seal on the pack, to my dismay, it looked as though the pack had already been opened! (Sighs) I guess I should've opened it sooner. 

    

    Three of the 28 cards were missing, and they obviously had been tampered with, since they were put back in the incorrect order. The perfectionist side of me is peeved a little bit about this, but oh well.

    Upon re-opening the 32-year old pack of cards, I was greeted by a few advertisements, which I don't complain about. The first thing that strikes me is the rounded edging of the cards -- a nice little touch. Say, I wonder if I sent in my $3.95, would they give me the collectors album? Haha, I'd doubt that.

    In order from left to right, then top to bottom, the numbers of these cards (out of 28) are: 28, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 18, 21, 19. 
    I could go into detail about Kevin Brown's HOF case, but I wouldn't want to bore my readers to death ;)

The cards are a little bit plain, and leave a lot to be desired on the backs, but it's not bad. I like the fact that the players' shadows are featured on the card, which seems to be desired less nowadays.

    14, 23, 22, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 21. We see our friend Kevin Brown once again on this page. I'll put that card up for trade if anybody wants it. The flames added to Jeff Russell's card make the rather plain design more vibrant, which I'll call a win.

    And finally, we have #'s 15, 11, 16, 20, 25, 17, 27, 13. It is now as I write this that I realize that they left a little space on the back of the card labeled Autograph. I thought that was kinda funny.

    The cards missing from this pack are #1 (Bobby Valentine), #24 (Monty Farriss), and #26 (Dean Palmer). I'd be open to trading for them, but not pursuing them too far. It doesn't leave an emptiness to my life that I don't have this complete set.

    Upon opening this pack for the first time, it's slightly disappointing that they didn't have it all, but it's alright in the end. I got Nolan Ryan. And the cards themselves are alright in my opinion, maybe a 6/10, and I'm glad I got at least some of them. And though the Rangers didn't have me as a fan 30 years ago, it's still cool to see what they had as a team back then. Back when they had (some) pitching! Gee, if only we had both Nolan Ryan and Kevin Brown, as well as the '92 season out of Jeff Russell! Jacob deGrom will have to do for 2025 (so don't get injured!).

    This was a fun post to write. Thanks y'all for stopping by and reading my happy little mess, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!

A New Carter for my PC

    On the sixteenth, a friend of mine sold me my latest Evan Carter card. I guess he sells baseball cards regularly, which I didn't know at the time. I made it a kind of a goal to get any reasonably-priced card of his that I found, so I was more than content with this find.

    We see another 2024 Bowman card, which both my friend and I agree is an excellent set. I like Bowman as a whole, but this one is one of their better jobs, in my opinion. I realize that all my favorite sets are newer. Probably because I wasn't around until fairly recently (😂), and didn't really start collecting cards until 2019.

    Now I wanna take this time to state my hopes for Carter and the Rangers moving forward. I'm not expecting a ton from the Rangers next year, which saddens me. But if they can get a rejuvenated and rolling Evan Carter, as well as a full season out of Jacob deGrom, we'll never know. Of course, they could use a few more arms and a productive Adolis Garcia too. I will just need to wait patiently until the beginning of the 2025 season. One can just hope for now.

One Thing Leads to Another

     This is post #100 for Don Cardwell. I didn't think I would make it this far, but here we are. 

    I found this card yesterday in one of my boxes:

    To start, I really like the 'Future Stars' design on the front of this card. I kind of like the 1988 Topps set (not sure how popular it is though). However, I do wish they did something a little bit better with the player names, which kind of just linger on the bottom right side of the card. And I'm still looking for Elster's position.

    Anyway, seeing this card reminded me of a card store pickup from however long ago. Now, this pickup wasn't from my local card shop. Alas, this particular store raised their prices and started focusing on Pokemon cards and the like, which isn't really my thing.

    Seeing the Jeff Huson autographed photo again reminded me of his 1990 Fleer card (because I really like his card from that year).

    I'm not a huge fan of 1990 Fleer as a whole, but I do like this card. Though I don't particularly like the set, I found it almost complete for $3, so picked it up. I forgot how many cards were missing from it, but I've added a few in there since.

    And while putting the autographed photos away, I saw the autographed cards from when I went to the Rangers Fan Fest in 2023.

    That was the first Fan Fest I've ever been to. It was definitely a fun experience, though lines were long. My family and I waited over an hour to get Jon Gray's autograph. I wonder how long folks waited for Corey Seager and Pudge Rodriguez. Yikes.

    Well, I thought this ended up being an interesting 20 or so minutes of my life. I'm glad I found those autographs of Elster, Vosberg and Huson again though, because I had forgotten about them. Thank you, 1988 Topps Kevin Elster.

    Thank you for sticking with me for 100 posts. Have a great end to your week, thank you for reading, and happy collecting!

    P.S. Jackson Merrill won the Silver Slugger for NL centerfielders. Let's go!

Player of the Week 3

     This Player of the Week thing really hasn't worked out the way I thought it would. I mean, there was a particular list of players that I expected to win, and not one of them got the title. After this week, there will be two more Players of the Week, and I can't award them to all the six or seven guys I originally thought would win. But that's the fun in it, right? My own bias has been unable to sway me (except for the part about Walter Pennington; that's on me).

    Before we get down to it, I'd like to announce that both of my fantasy baseball teams are fighting like dogs in this first round of the fantasy playoffs. My worse team is currently losing 10-5, but have made it as close as 8-7, and my other team, boy my other team! I'm playing the third place squad, and it is an all-out nuclear war. Currently I'm up 7-5, but that one could still go either way.

    I bring this up for two reasons. A) I like to share about fantasy baseball to those who both understand it all and who I won't drive insane with it (hence the reason I've done it so many times), and B) well, you'll see.

    There is one prejudice that stops me from keeping this, well, as fair as it could be. Not like it matters, considering it's my personal opinions. Heck, like Walt Pennington would've been the best player in the MLB for the whole of last week! Not even in that one game. 

    Anyway, that prejudice is my team. Since I can sometimes hit a few games and see my guys up close, they tend to grow on me. We'll call that reason C. I didn't go to another Rangers game, but I think y'all know who my next Player of the Week is. Any guesses? I'll give you a moment.....

    Alright. If you've had enough time, you may continue to read.

    

    Of course, as a Rangers fan and a huge fan of this guy, my third Player of the Week is.....

    Okay, here we go. deGrom finally made his 2024 debut yesterday, tossing 3 2/3 scoreless innings and striking out four. My friend actually went to (GTT, please correct me on this when I'm wrong) his last rehab outing with AA Frisco.

    And now for the illusive reason B, why sharing about my fantasy playoffs is at all relevant to this. Well, I don't know how many enemies are out there, so I should probably share this tomorrow.......

    

    Well, I won't. Somebody in my fantasy league (the one I'm barely winning in) dropped deGrom literally the day before his long-awaited season debut. I have higher waiver priority than any playoff member in that league, except for my current opponent. While his addition of him wouldn't hurt my team this week, I really want him on my team as we make a push for the championship. But the waiver period ends tomorrow, so we'll see if I get him.

    Well, now that I'm done rambling about fantasy baseball (and I will most certainly not start on fantasy football), I guess I should go. After all, I've got to be somewhere in half an hour. As for y'all, thanks for reading, happy collecting and I'll see who wins my penultimate Player of the Week title next Saturday. Y'all enjoy your weekend! 

Player of the Week 2

     Alrighty folks, it's time for our second Player of the Week. I apologize for being a bit late, but I was really busy today with baseball games and the like. Anyway, the guy I have chosen for today is not one you'd expect, and there's an interesting reason why I chose him.
    My second Player of the Week is......

    

    Walter Pennington.

    In case you didn't know, Pennington is a rookie relief pitcher who was acquired by the Rangers via a trade with the Royals (we traded Michael Lorenzen straight up for him). Pennington is my favorite relief pitcher of all time, so when I went to the Rangers/Yankees game on Wednesday I was really hoping that Pennington was going to make an appearance. I was dismayed when we jumped out to a 10-2 lead (not a high-leverage situation) and saw Andrew Chafin warming in the bullpen.
    But Pennington came on in the eighth nonetheless and fired 2/3 of a scoreless inning against the Brooklyn Bombers, his only flaw being a single to Juan Soto. 
    So that was a really special experience for me, and therefore I had to give him the title of Player of the Week for this week. 

    I took some live video of Pennington throwing to Juan Soto and Jazz Chisholm, but can't upload them on the computer. 

    That'll about do it for my second Player of the Week. As always, thank you for reading, have a great rest of your weekend, and happy collecting!

    P.S. The ninth inning of that game was insane! I was going to mention it in a separate post, but since Pennington pitched that game I figured I'd just post it here. If y'all aren't interested, skip the italicized part. But if you are, go ahead and check it out. It is very long though (😁).

    This is my personal account of Wednesday's ninth inning against the Yankees:

     The ninth inning was probably the most entertaining inning I've ever seen live at a baseball game (which isn't necessarily saying too much). Matt Festa is on the hill for the Rangers, with a more than comfortable 10-2 lead. The first two batters fly out to Travis Jankowski (Janko made a diving catch; they need a cage to contain him!). Then things got......messy.
    Festa walked pinch-hitter Oswaldo Cabrera (yikes) and then Jose Trevino. He proceeded to also walk lead-off man Gleyber Torres before heading to the clubhouse. The new pitcher was Grant Anderson who was set to face 2-3-4. Since they were down 10-2, Trent Grisham came in as a defensive replacement for the already 3-for-3 (with a home run) Juan Soto. So we're thinking it's the end for the Yanks, right?
    Wrong.
    Grisham hit a grand slam, making the game now 10-6. Then the defensive replacement for Aaron Judge, Duke Ellis, comes to the plate. The rookie was 0-for-4 in his career (9 games in 2024) before tonight. So the Yankees are really done this time and we can go home now, right?
    Wrong again.
    Ellis got his first big-league hit, a single to leftfield. Now Jazz Chisholm is batting, and we're starting to break out in a sweat just a little bit. Chisholm hits a 103 MPH comebacker off the leg of Grant Anderson, removing him from the game.
    It's a save situation now, so it's Kirby Yates time. All he has to do is get one little out so we can go home. 
    Well, he's facing Giancarlo Stanton.
    For the first time all night, Stanton decides to battle. The count is 2-2 when he hits an absolute shot to leftfield. Well, it's time to sit back down. It's not a happy house in Arlington yet.
    But gliding through the air like an angel is Wyatt Langford, who leaps the wall and takes a home run away from Stanton to end the game. It's a 10-6 Rangers win, and save number 26 for Kirby.

Shiny deGrom

     I was at the good ol' grocery store, when I saw a package of 29 2023 Topps cards for $7 by the checkout. While certainly not the greatest price in the world, the thing that jumped out at me was the headliner; Silver Pattern Foilboard #48 Jacob deGrom. I couldn't pass up that deal and made the purchase.
    The company selling these cards is able to sell Topps cards for less money than the company itself sells them for, which I found both interesting and economically helpful.

    And here's the foilboard deGrom. Beautiful, isn't it? When I first saw it I thought 'Shiny deGrom,' but I guess theSilver-Pattern Foilboard is more accurate. deGrom should be returning to the Rangers rotation soon, but it seems to be too little too late. Hopefully he'll be healthy for next year as we try to clean things up a bit. 

    I like the Alec Burleson rookie. The 25-year old is having a great season with the Cardinals, slashing .280/.320/.453 with 21 home runs and 72 RBI. 
    Those Athletics uniforms (top right) are......interesting. Not really sure that they got the colors right, but oh well. It doesn't look bad. 
    Also, the highlight of this page, the Topps Update purple foil Dominic Smith numbered 095/799. It's a nice card, but I'm putting it on my trade bait list. If any of y'all want it, go for it. 

    Not much coming out of this page. The Aaron Nola card is nice. I kinda like the Stars of MLB cards as a whole, though I miss reading the stats on the back. Hey, at least it's not Stars of LMB! Otherwise, just a few base card 'needs,' though I don't really try to collect the full sets.

    I like this page a bit more. I got another deGrom card, as well as a Corey Seager parallel. I like the Max Fried card, though I have like fifteen of that same base card. Stars of MLB Shohei Ohtani is cool too. And boy is he having a year in 2024 with the Dodgers. Though unable to pitch until next year, he's currently batting .292 with 44 homers, 109 runs (both league-leading), 98 RBI, and a .993 OPS in 135 games.  

    And these two guys. 

    I notice that I said I got 29 cards, but only 28 are shown. It seems evident that I traded one of these cards before writing the post, most likely a base card dupe, but I don't know for sure. That's on me.

    All in all I'm happy about this purchase. Though most of it was pretty boring, there were a few good points; the deGrom foilboard, of course, as well as Dominic Smith and Corey Seager. I will never complain about some Stars of MLB cards either. I like the 2023 design on them a lot. 

    That'll about do it for this post. Y'all have an amazing week, and happy collecting!

    

    P.S. I know I promised Fuji a post focused on Jackson Merrill, but I'm gonna take a little bit longer than intended because I have been really busy lately and need to do more research (as of right now I only have some stats, but for a post centered on one guy I want more information), but it's definitely going to happen.

To be Posted on July 27

     Today is pitching great Max Scherzer's birthday. Today, Mad Max turns forty and is officially old; just kidding (though for a major leaguer....)

    Scherzer was drafted 11th overall in the 2006 June Amateur Draft by the Diamondbacks. He would debut with Arizona two years later and post a 3.05 ERA in just over 56 innings.

    In 2010 Scherzer moved over to the Tigers. He pitched five years in Detroit, accumulating an 82-35 record and 3.52 ERA. He won the Cy Young award in 2013, and his team came up just short in winning the World Series in 2012. 

    Max Scherzer signed in free agency with the Washington Nationals in January of 2015. He would go on to play 6 2/3 seasons with Washington, in that time grabbing 92 wins and an ERA of 2.80. He won back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2016 and 2017, and his first World Series ring in 2019, helping the Nats to their first ever Fall Classic victory.

    At the trade deadline in 2021, Scherzer was shipped off to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where in 11 regular season starts, Max went 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA. In the 2021 NLDS, he acquired his first-ever save, striking out Giants' Wilmer Flores on an atrocious call to end the game.

    Max signed in free agency with the Mets for the 2022 season. He pitched the full season there, going 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA in 23 starts. He was 37 at the time.

    Max had a 4.01 ERA in 19 starts before being traded to the Rangers in 2023 for Luisangel Acuna (brother of Ronald Acuna Jr). He would go on to win a second World Series and help Texas to their first championship in 60+ years of existence. So far in 2024, Mad Max has a 2-3 record and 3.57 ERA in seven starts.

    There is talk of Scherzer being traded yet again this season with the struggles of the Rangers. We'll see soon enough.

   

   Fun fact, did you know that this 2024 Topps Max Scherzer card is an error card? See for yourself:

    It says Max was acquired by the Rangers from a trade with the Rangers. Subtle mistake.

    So happy birthday Max Scherzer! And congrats, for on his last start Scherzer struck out career batter 3400. He is now tenth all time on the K list. 

    And as for all of you, thanks for reading, have a great weekend and happy collecting!

    

    P.S. And Max has two different colored eyes. His right eye is blue and his left brown. I'm sure you've noticed this, but it's interesting nonetheless. And broadcasters love mentioning it too.