Pete Rose Las Vegas Signing

What's a trip to Vegas without a Pete Rose signing?

I stopped by the Field of Dreams store in Caesar's Palace Las Vegas to pay Pete a visit. He was great with his customers as he always is. I got a baseball with a 1973 NL MVP inscription to add to my Rose collection.

The people in the store are a little pushy. They keep following you and ask what your favorite team is and then bring out anything autographed by someone on your team. After I told them it was the Mets the guy brought out like 50 (or it seemed) things of Tom Seaver. And it's not like they brought out a bat, or a baseball, but they are these huge 16x20 (or similar) sized wall mounts and plaques! Who has room for even two of those huge things!

But, I think I'm done on the Pete Rose baseballs and signed pieces. It's getting to be obscene, but I'm pretty happy with it. My collection includes:

• Signed Reds Jersey with "Charlie Hustle" inscription
• Signed Black Bat with all of records hand written in a silver sharpie
• 3 Personalized Signed Baseballs
• Signed Baseball with "4256 Hit King" inscription
• Signed Baseball with "1963 ROY" inscription
• Signed Baseball with "1975 WS MVP" inscription
• Signed Baseball with "1973 NL MVP" inscription
• Signed Baseball with "1963Fort Knox" and his co. # inscription
• Signed Gold Glove Baseball with "1969 and 1979" Gold Glove inscription
• Signed 1980 World Series Baseball with "WS Champs" inscription
• Signed Minn. All-Star Game baseball with "Last All-Star Game" inscription
• Signed Baseball with "I caught Boone's bobble in the 9th" inscription

Are Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo still in High School?

My other Las Vegas celebrity/sports star sighting was also in the Wynn on Saturday, June 21. Not long after we saw Jason Taylor in the Wynn casino, we also walked past Jessica Simpson - aka: Tony Romo's main squeeze.

Simpson and her assistant were also in the Wynn casino and walked right up the counter in a Louis Vuitton store to ask for a specific purse. But the story gets better . . .

Remember when you were in High School and the girlfriends of football players would wear their boyfriends alternate jerseys on Fridays? Yeah, that's the nature of the Simpson/Romo romance. Jessica was wearing sunglasses, bright blue pants, sandals, and a white "Tony Romo for President" t-shirt!

Are you kidding me? Does she need to draw that kind of attention to herself?

I'm not sure, but I think she was also wearing his class ring!

Jason Taylor Working the Strip - Dolphins Future?

Miami and Las Vegas both get pretty warm in the summer and have a pretty active nightlife (not that I would know). But the similarities seem to end there.

So why did I see Jason Taylor on the Strip? It seems like an odd way to workout his relationship problems with his new coach and GM.

I just got back from a few days in Las Vegas and I walked right by Jason Taylor at the Wynn Hotel and Casino. He appeared to be in work out gear, stopped at one of the shops and headed straight for the Wynn Country Club entrance at the back of the casino.

Real Stuff Sports is Real Fast

I decided to get the 1962 Dallas Texans full size RK Helmet.

I couldn't decide whether to do a Bob Lilly TCU helmet or go with one that Len Dawson wore, but decided on the Texans helmet.

It can be difficult to find a reliable dealer to buy helmets and such from so I was a bit nervous when Helmet Hut said they didn't distribute NFL Riddell RK Helmets to consumers anymore, but they gave the Real Stuff Sports web site.

The service was awesome. I emailed them on a Thursday night about changing the facemask, and a sales person responded to my email about 90 minutes later! I placed the order on a Friday with my facemask change and I received it on the following Wednesday!

I'm anxious to get this helmet signed by Dawson. I think it's pretty unique and will look cool with a '62 AFL Champions inscription!

Mets Clowns Getting Grilled in Papers

Today's NY Post covers. There are great articles in all the papers - especially the Amazin' Stories Blog w/ Steve Popper. No one felt sorry for Williot until the Wilpons and Omar FUBARed this one.

This is one of the most embarrassing episodes in Mets History... which is saying something when you consider Vince Coleman's fire-cracker handouts and the trade of Tom Seaver are part of the Mets library of FUBARs.

Mets are Cowards - Willie Deserved Better

I'm not a huge Willie Randolph fan. I think he deserved to be fired following last season's historic collapse. But not this way.

The Mets let Willie travel with the team on a West Coast Road trip while Omar Minaya flew separately and circled liked a bird of prey.

All Willie does from there is handle himself with class, respect, and lead the team to their 3rd win in 4 games. He conducts his post game press conference and even mentions that the win is something his team can build with.

Then in the midnight hour, Omar talks to Randolph to give him the boot!

Why did it take until 3am EDT to fire him?
Why make Willie travel 2,000 miles to fire him?
Why wait until after Willie's post-game press conference and leave him hanging out to dry?

This appears to be a cowardly move by the organization to try and save face and do the deed away from the NY media spotlight.

The move needed to be made, but it's 8 months too late. They should have done it after last season's collapse and start fresh this season.

Dear Eric Davis -
How do you get back from the West Coast when you're stranded here?
Sincerely,
Willie Randolph

Nolan Ryan Rookie Typo

If you think you're spelling is bad, at least you didn't have a typo on one of the most collected cards in the past 40 years!

Check out this typo on the back of my 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan rookie. Notice the word "sensational" or "senational" as Topps spells it.

Doh!

Do you have any big typo/error cards?

Giants Super Bowl Rings Stolen

If you find these rings on eBay - don't bid!

A $2Million smash-and-grab at a Mass. jeweler took off with some of the NY Giants staff members Super Bowl rings. Isn't any coincidence this happened in New England?

More...

Beckett Hears Your Screams

Your Blog Needs More Love
They are the sports cards Leader
Beckett hears your screams

How about a little Humpday Haiku love?!

Anyway, Have you noticed the Beckett blog changes? Congrats to Eric and Beckett for cracking the Beckett virgin vault of opinions.

Beckett's blog has a link titled, "What's Coming Up" section that invites guest bloggers and a way for other blogs to get noticed and highlighted on the site. Mario from Wax Heaven has a guest blog entry scheduled soon.

I think this is a great start with Beckett. Lets wait and see if this is the beginning of a plan to create a web community or if they are only throwing bloggers a bone? Either way, it's time for sports cards bloggers to take advantage and let their opinions get heard!

Is TuffStuff or Sports Collector's Digest going to do the same?

The Last Best League - Game On!

I just finished reading "The Last Best Leauge," by Jim Collins and I'd recommend it to anyone who covers baseball, likes watching baseball, and for the fan who's reaching the mid-summer sense of feeling jaded by your favorite team's lack of enthusiasm and performance. I know it's not a new book, but it's like those summer reruns... if you didn't see it the first time, then it's new to you!

I needed this book after watching the Mets through the first third of the seaon.

I didn't know much about the Cape Cod Baseball League before reading this book, but I think every baseball fan who reads this will want to plan a trip to the Northeast.

If you're a baseball fan, check out this book - you can find it on paperback.

Making Beckett Blog Ideas Better

I'm not expert on blogging, the web 2.0, trading cards, or marketing. But for the sake of this post, I'll pretend to be one from my blogging chair.

Kudos to Beckett (Eric) with a quick response to my post about the leaders of the industry (Beckett, SCD, TuffStuff) being more inclusive and bringing the community together... blah, blah, blah, read the rest of that post here. I think Eric's going to do great with his new role @ Beckett.

But how do you do expand the blog and be more inclusive? And what does that mean? Here's an example:

A few weeks ago Beckett had a cool story on their blog about attempted destruction of their grading cases. It was very creative, promoted their product, and who doesn't like trying to destroy something. But that was it?! Beckett can be more inclusive by expanding on that idea:
What punishment will your grading cases accept? Let us see!
Beckett could run a campaign by asking you to send your YouTube video of what kind of damage your Beckett Grading case will take WITHOUT getting destroyed. Now I'm not saying to get your graded Mantle rookie and see if it'll survive a shark attack, but put something to test. Be creative with it.

If Beckett did this, they'd have a ton to gain and we'd all have fun using their product.

They could run a huge campaign on it where the winner of the most creative grading case punishment got 10 graded cards for free and were featured in the next multi-sport trading card magazine, put on their web site and whatever else.

Now that's interactive marketing, that's web 2.0, and that's getting 100s of people to use your product, believe in it, and sharing the video of your product with 1,000s of people on the internet.

Capture the Stanley Cup Moment with a Newspaper

Red Wings shouldn't miss out on one of the best (and cheapest) ways to remember and treasure their Stanley Cup Trophy victory - Thursday's Detroit Free Press newspaper!

You can order a single copy of the Detroit Free Press by reading their FAQ page. It has links and phone numbers to call.

In my opinion, this is the best way to capture the moment. I have a some Dallas Morning News papers from the day after a couple of Super Bowl wins and a Baltimore Sun from the day after Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's streak.

Some people frame it for a few bucks or get it signed by players on the team, or just read it and add it to the collection. Having the front page of the paper also helps you capture the mood of the nation during the championship win. One of my paper's has a side-bar column story on disgraced Congressman Bob Packwood! ha!

Remember, newspapers are made on the cheapest and lightest paper. It won't hold well over time if you have it exposed to the sun, have it folded or get signatures on it.

What are some of the memorabilia items that you buy when your team wins the championship?

Beckett, SCD, or TuffStuff Should Promote the Blogs

One of these magazines should do blog reviews or blog profiles in their next magazine, web site, and blog.

Blogrolls aren't doing these great sites justice. There are so many great blogs that have started in the past year or so and it's impossible to find them all.

A few months ago, Beckett had a posting on their blog that asked readers about topics for their next magazine. I suggested the web 2.0 feature, and they responded that it was a great idea, but since then . . . .

If Beckett, Sports Collector's Digest and TuffStuff want to be considered the leaders in the industry, then they need to reach out an embrace all the good work that is being done to improve the hobby.

Start a weekly feature to promote a blog, start a monthly column in your magazine, and become the glue that brings the community together. Putting a url on the blogroll is only the start.
To TuffStuff's credit, I know they've invited bloggers on their radio show - I'm sure my invitation was lost in the mail. :) And Mario @ Wax Heaven consistently talks about other cool blogs and does a few features. Chris @ the Gavel Chat is great at this too.

Beckett has been posting YouTube videos of their box breaks, but there are a lot of blogs and collectors out there that do the same thing. Why not post their box break on the site? It doesn't take away from the Beckett break and it brings another perspective and opinion to the community.

It's time for the leaders of the industry to step up, lead by example, and bring this diverse web 2.0 to everyone.

2 Clicks Sports Memorabilia - A Great Resource

I don't know how these guys keep up with all the sports memorabilia sites, but they have a ton of them!

2 Clicks Sports Memorabilia tries to bring the community a little closer together by listing memorabilia sites and providing brief descriptions of what you'll find on each one.

It's a pretty cool site and I'm sure it'll grow in functionality. I'd think someday they'll have some kind of search wizard and a way to measure how successful your search was. I would think it would some day have a "was this helpful" type of metric.

Check it out - I think you'll find a lot of cool memorabilia sites.

Doomsday Clock Near Final Hour for Tiger Stadium

Is this it? The Detroit News is reporting that a group of investors failed to make a partial payment to keep the wrecking ball out of Tiger Stadium.

I wish there was a way to preserve Tiger Stadium, make it a museum, a minor league park or something. But it's sad to see it's going to be torn down to make room for a Walmart or something.

I'll add more if there is info on how collector's can get a piece of Tiger Stadium, but I think a lot of it is gone.

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