Let's Go Rangers!! Clap, Clap, Clap-Clap-Clap

The NHL Playoffs began last night and my Rangers are taking on the Ottawa Senators tonite in the first round. That's one of my favorite cards of my favorite player. It's the 2007-08 Hot Prospects Henrik Lundqvist card. King Henrik had a great season. He'll need to continue to do so if the Rangers are going anyplace this playoff season. The grabbed the #1 seed in the East but their play down the stretch didn't do much to inspire my confidence. 

I've been a Ranger fan since... well, I can't remember NOT being a Ranger fan. I went to games with my father in the old Madison Square Garden fifty years or more ago. With there being only six teams back then the rivalries were very intense. And most of the teams only played one goalie all season so if felt almost like a 'club'. My friends and I knew every player. 

I'm very lucky. I've had a chance though the years to became acquainted with, or at least spoken to, nearly all my favorite sports figures. Except one, the great Eddie Giacomin. 

I cried when the Rangers traded him to Detroit. It was one of the most traumatic sports related experiences of my life. It's is right up there with the '69 World Series, Super Bowl III and the Colts leaving Baltimore.

I sure hope that  wearing my genuine Ryan Callahan jersey brings the Blueshirts luck. 

btw..... Potvin Sucks.

Mort Tadder Photos

Mort Tadder was the Orioles' team photographer from 1961 through 2003 when he retired at 74. During those years he shot thousands of pictures of Oriole players, stars and otherwise. 

I can't remember how I got my first Tadder 8x10 B&W Oriole portrait. I can tell you that I bought many through the years from the team and from memorabilia dealers through the mail back when I was an active collector. The Orioles would send a list of available prints if you sent a letter asking for info on mail order souvenirs. I have a couple of hundred most of which are from the early/mid 60's through about 1980.  

I kept the in binders in roughly chronological order. They make a nice timeline of the Oriole roster and uniform styles. Most, but not all, have the "Tadder" word-mark in a corner of the print. Most, but not all, have the player's name below their portrait. The typography of the printed name changed through the years.

Mort Tadder did much more than just these portraits. As the 'official' team photog he shot the team's yearly picture, game action and more. I have quite a few of his other work, particularly his team photos, but the portraits are what I collected the most. He also shot the Colts while they were in Baltimore and was acclaimed for his shots of the Beatles during their Baltimore stop on the 1964 tour. He also worked with visiting clubs.

Mort's son Tim Tadder has inherited his fathers knack for photography and has a business in Southern California. He does sports photography and much more.

Some of his other pictures including an iconic Baltimore moment:

The 'Vintage Player, Modern Card' Craze

I'm not sure how long this has been popular with Topps. Probably for awhile. But I've really noticed it since I began looking at contemporary cards again in the last two years after having been out of the card collecting hobby for quite some time. I'm sure someone can fill me in. 

Last year I bought a rack pack or two of the regular Topps issue and Lineage among others. I got a couple of Sandy Koufax cards and it kicked my Koufax love idolatry fanism collecting interest into high gear. As neat as some of these new Koufax cards are (lots of them have pictures I've never seen) they just can't touch the real vintage stuff. How great is the '57 Koufax?

Listening to the Birds

I've got Sirius radio and they've recently added MLB broadcasts as part of their internet listening add-on. As I type this I've listening to the O's/Yankees broadcast with Joe Angel at the mike. It's my first time to hear an O's game on the radio in quite some time. I like Joe Angel so far. He's got a touch of Jon Miller in his voice and style. You people with MLB packages that get 100s of games on your TV will laugh at me but this is a big deal for me.

When my family moved to the Jersey Shore for my last two years of high school I made a wonderful discovery. The radio in our kitchen picked up WBAL pretty clearly at night! I got to hear a lot of games in the 68-70 seasons at the kitchen table. It was heaven.

The O's lead broadcaster in those days was the terrific Chuck Thompson. Everyone has a favorite broadcaster, Chuck Thompson was mine.

"Ain't the beer cold!"

How 'bout those Orioles?

Three and oh to start the season. I'm trying not to read too much into it. Here's an Adam Jones card to celebrate!

Muhammad Ali..... and me! UPDATED

I went back and dug up the Sports Illustrated issue that was published late in July of '71 that mentioned the gym training session I attended. You can read it on SI's Vault site. I really don't recall the Ali-Ellis byplay that Tex Maule writes about but I'm sure I was in a fog at that point. And just to show that you can't believe everything you read, not even in the unerring Sports Illustrated (sigh), Maule mentions Ali being behind the first row while kibitzing Ellis. We were in the 3rd or 4th row of about five. I know because the other writers all turned around and came back to surround us. A tiny matter, but it's bugged me since July of 1971.

In Over My Head

A couple of weeks ago I got myself talked into joining a fantasy baseball team. I don't know what I was thinking (I know what they were thinking...'We need a patsy and more cash for the prize pool'). I guess I'm expecting that by having a team I will be forced to follow baseball on a day-to-day basis. I haven't done that in many years. And I've come to sort of miss it.

I still like baseball. I go to an occasional Astros game when my sons are in town because they are big fans. And I hit college games when I can because I really enjoy the atmosphere at those, the parks are fun and the tickets are cheap. But as far as MLB... well I am one of those that bailed during the strike/lockout/stoppage of 1994 and never came back.

Obviously success at fantasy baseball requires an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the players. And that presents a problem. I know a handful of players on the Orioles and barely any others.

I'm not proud of that or anything, it's just how it is. So I decided to plunge in. If I was going to do this I was going to try and do some research going into the draft (online ESPN league) so I'd not embarrass myself to badly. I found a 'cheat sheet' online, unearthed the meaning of '5x5' and figured I was ready. Once the draft started I learned how quickly 90 seconds go by when you're trying to choose a middle infielder from a rapidly dwindling pool of guys you've never heard of.

I think I did OK. Time will tell. I know I made two errors. I drafted these guys:

Why didn't I figure out that they were available late for a reason. Doh. I've replaced them but it sure starts me out behind the eight ball.

Anyway this whole story has been to introduce my latest collection. I'm going to pick up one card of each of my players. I've done this for fantasy football since I started that in 1980. I've got a jumbo sized binder nearly full with cards of the players I've had through the years. I've had a few players with no known card so I made my own (poorly I'm afraid). 

My quest began today. I usually buy a pack of two of Topps when they arrive each year so I had this card, the first of my collection of members of the Baltimore Elrods:

I'm giving myself until the middle of May before I lose interest.