From time to time I pick up a hanging 100 card repack at Target. Sometimes I'm pretty happy with the results, thinking that if I had bought a new pack of something with that $4 I'd probably get seven cards I don't want. This isn't one of those times.
I went for the hockey repack the other day. I was suckered in by the Red Sullivan card that was among those showing. This is from something called In The Game with a 2005 copyright date. I love vintage hockey pictures. I wonder if when this was shot back around 1958 they just put up a screen across the ice and set up the photo shoot that way. Sullivan was about done when I was becoming a hockey fan in about 1960 and I have no memories of his playing days but I remember him as Ranger coach in the early '60s. The Rangers were pretty awful in those days, usually battling the Bruins to see which team would finish fifth, miss the playoffs, but relegate the other to sixth. Sullivan coached into the 1970 with Pittsburgh and Washington.
I bought this in the hopes of getting some Rangers and NHL stars knowing full well that they wouldn't be worth the cost of the cardboard they are printed on. I got a few of each. Wide variety of brands and years. When Brian Leetch was starring for the Rangers it wasn't as easy being a long distance fan as it is now. I had to rely on the Hockey News quite a bit.
Lemieux raising the Cup. Whoooopie.
Gretzky as a King.
Like the Gretzky O-Pee-Chee used a crap picture with a floating trophy for this Ray Borque card.
Mike Richter. One of my all time favorites. He was a big part of the Cup winning Rangers of 1995. I doubt I'll see another Cup in my lifetime.
Mike Gartner...
Here is an odd bunch of facts tying Gartner and Dino together:
According to Wikipedia...Despite his long impressive career, Gartner never won the Stanley Cup or played in the Cup Finals, never won an NHL award, and was never named to the postseason All-Star Team, being one of the few NHL players with this distinction to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Dino Ciccarelli has likewise never managed any of these accolades, although he made the Cup Finals in 1995.
One time Ranger back-up Corey Hirsch
James Patrick played for the Rangers for a long time. He's one of the best players ever to NOT make an NHL All Star Squad.
I was a goalie once upon a time. I like goalies.
Maaarrrty!! Maaarrty!!
When the Original Six became the Total 12 every kid I knew picked a Western team to root for when they were not playing the Rangers. Mine was the Minnesota North Stars.
Some of the cards in the pack were nice just because they featured classic NHL team sweaters.
This is easily the ugliest card in the bunch. It hurt my eyes.
THE END
You ended the best way!
ReplyDeleteThose behind the goalie photos are simply gorgeous.