Football Night in America - Too Crowded

"NBC's show will be so bad that about the only thing that could be worse would be if ESPN decided to team Stu Scott, Jay Mariotti and Emmitt Smiff in the Monday Night Football booth." - Jason Whitlock, FoxSports.com/Kansas City Star

I didn't blog about the "return of Dan and Keith" because I think the idea is stupid, the set is over-crowded, and Dan and Keith aren't the same personalities they once were. Dan's turned his attention to radio and Keith has turned into a political hack that can't wait to tell you how much smarter he is than you.

Anyway, check out the article written by Jason Whitlock - I think he's exactly right.

Thanks to the Awful Announcing Blog for linking to this.

Tiger Stadium - Good Bye Old Friend

The Tiger Stadium Wrecking Crew punches in at the time clock today. It's a sad day for baseball.

To think at the end of this baseball season we will have lost old Tiger Stadium and Yankee Stadium.

The amazing part of the article is that their seems to be seats and other pieces still left inside of the stadium. What the heck? Why aren't the auctioning off a lot of those pieces? I think they had an attempt to auction pieces off last year, but the auction company had problems with their web site.

And did it really have to come to this? Earlier this week Wrigley Field was announced as a location for a Wings/Blackhawks outdoor hockey game. Why wasn't this done at Tiger Stadium? Not that Wrigley isn't a great place - but wouldn't it make a lot of sense to give the city of Detroit and Tiger Stadium a revenue shot in the arm by having this event at old Tiger Stadium?

thanks to Shysterball for the heads-up.

CSA Autograph Show This Weekend

I'm headed to this weekend's CSA Show in Chantilly, VA. I usually catch one of these a year, but this will be my second one in 2008.

CSA does a great job with getting quality guests - mostly NFL HOFers. The show always seems to run smooth and there are plenty of tables to find cards, programs, and other memorabilia.

The biggest appearance this weekend is Chuck Noll. The 4-time SB Champion coach hasn't been around the autograph circuit lately and pre-sale ticket numbers have been #1 on the list since the show was announced.

I'll be picking up a few on Saturday and Sunday:

• Len Dawson - Texans Helmet
• Tony Dorsett - Dallas SB XII Helmet
• Gino Marchetti - Texans Helmet
• Doc Gooden - '86 Champs Baseball

Yankee Stadium Wrecking Ball Bobble

There have been some good Stadium Give-aways this season (see the St. Paul Saints bobble foot promotion), but this one brings in a great sports rivalry.

The Brockton Rox - a Mass. minor league baseball team is giveaway a Yankee Stadium Wrecking Ball Bobble (see picture).

The SGA is in early August. A quick search on eBay Sunday night didn't show anyone taking pre-orders for Yankee-haters.

Here's a link to the Rox web site.

Autograph Hunting Adventures

Before there were MAB, CSA, and Triumph shows. . . there were guys like this!

"If I had to pick the true highlight of my autograph-hunting days, it had to be the brief encounter with Honus Wagner, probably the greatest shortstop in baseball history. At the time, he was a popular coach with the Pittsburgh Pirates, after playing 17 years as their shortstop.

When I walked over to him, he appeared to be sleeping or just dozing off in the hotel lobby. Smiling, he wrote his name, J. Honus Wagner, on the bottom of a tiny photograph of his craggy face. I still recall his big ears and exceedingly large nose. I suspected he might have had a mouth full of false teeth. He thanked me for asking him to sign."

Check out the rest of this great story - this guys needs to have a book deal.
The Baseball Think Factory Blog first reported this.

Ticket Collectors Have a Real Piece of the Game

I mostly collect sports cards and autographs, but lately I've been getting more and more into tickets. I like the cards because it gives you a piece of the athlete - but the tickets and game programs give you a piece of the specific event!

Chris @ the Gavel Chat blog has a great story on collecting tickets and has a few top 10 lists from some of the best ticket collectors in the industry.

I've grown a little jaded to the sports cards industry because of some of the gimmick stuff that's been going on. Maybe this is something to get a little more into - having a ticket or a game program is a great way to actually have a piece of the historic event.

Stray-Rod Strikes Again

Ah, another good A-Rod story - the cover of the Daily News was better than the NY Post.
First he sticks to the fans by backing out of the all-star game home run derby. Then he sticks it to Madonna?

At what point does Stray-Rod stop going after Jose Canseco's women? Remember Canseco's latest book claimed that Rodriguez went after Jose's wife!

All Star Game Brings Steiner Marketing

If you are unsure about the location of this year's MLB All-Star game, then you aren't on Steiner's mailing list! Yesterday I received my about my 3rd Yankee themed All-Star Game Steiner marketing piece through the mail.

Steiner is promoting their All-Star game baseballs with mostly Yankee autographs. The biggest surprise price: Robinson Cano signed All-Star game baseball = $149.99 vs. Yogi Berra All-Star game baseball = $110!

I know there are some kind of price/demand metrics that probably determine this to be the most profitable for Steiner, but are people really paying $40 more for a Cano baseball than they are for Yogi?