Happy New Year everyone!!!

Hope everyone has a great NewYear's Day!....I know this weekend is going to be filled with lots of football and time with family and friends....here's some recent ebay purchases that finished out my buying for 2011.

Last time Michigan was in the Sugar Bowl?

The year was 1984 where the 8th ranked Wolverines played the 3rd ranked Auburn Tigers...Auburn won 9-7 on 3 Al de Greco field goals in the 2nd half....Steve Smith scored the game's only touchdown in the first half....

Here's hoping this year's game is a little more exciting with Virginia Tech ....my prediction is a 31-20 win for the Wolverines and Brady Hoke goes 11-2 and a top 10 finish in his first year at the helm of the Wolverines.

The rest of the BCS predictions:

Clemson wins big over West Virginia  37-17

Oregon over Wisconsin 38-21

Oklahoma State over Stanford 45-38 in what may be the most entertaining BCS game this year

And LSU wins the rematch over Alabama 21-17 to finish one of the greatest years a college football team has ever had.

Feel free to post your BCS predictions below...am very interested in hearing what my fellow bloggers think about the BCS matchups.

Here's a couple of players from Michigan's last Sugar Bowl team from my TK Legacy UM set....

Topps Tier 1 box break...a Christmas present to myself

I had to run some errands yesterday and stopped by a local card shop to browse and pick up some card supplies....they had a some specials going on, one which involved Topps Tier 1 boxes...they had 1 left and after looking around and not seeing anything that caught my eye, I decided to try it....knowing there would be two autos and 1 relic in the 7 card pack(box) helped me decide to go for it and give myself a Christmas present.

Here's what my $70 got me for Christmas:

First the base cards numbered to 799:

got two Hall of Famers and a nice player in McCutchen...would have liked a Tiger or two but happy with these...I really like the design on these thick stock cards which all the cards are made on.

Next are the two autos:

Can't complain too much with these on card autos which I  am happy to see ( no stickers!!)  ....Craig is one of the Cardinals top prospects....the Heyward auto is numbered to 99...pretty happy here....seen a lot of duds on ebay last night checking out who all signed.




Next is a parallel card which I was very very  happy with:

only the 1 of 1's are a better parallel pull than the purple ones....#4 out of 25

And we have now our relic pull.....

This was a nice way to finish out the pack (box) I'd say....all in all, I'm pretty happy with what I pulled....I think I would like to check out some of the Tigers in this set and see if I can add to my Tiger collection.

Beat Ohio! Beat Ohio! Beat Ohio!

When Michigan plays that team from the south (Ohio as Coach Hoke calls), in some ways it brings a little sadness in that a whole season has just gone by and, other than the bowl game to come, there will be no more Saturdays watching Meeeeechigan football with friends but also with my dad who turned 68 this year.   As each season ends, I wonder more and more if there will be another season to watch my beloved Wolverine football at my dad's house with him who brought me to my first UM game back in the mid 70's watching Gordie Bell and Rob Lytle run through Big Ten defenses to bring Michigan to victory.  My first game at the Big House watching the team from Ohio was when Art Schlichter was beaten up by the Wolverines in 1978, I believe.

This year Brady Hoke has a chance to do the unthinkable by beating Ohio and finishing 10-2 in his first year as coach of the Meeeechigan Wolverines.  I had predicted 8-4 but had hopes Denard would have a season that would carry them farther than that.  Who would have thought that the play of the defense coached by Mattison would really be the reason for a chance for a 10-2 season and a shot at a BCS bowl after last year's debacle?  Hats off to the defense and their coaches for one of the most amazing turn-arounds a team has ever had, going from the 100's in most defensive categories in D1 football to being in the top 20 with basically the same guys sprinkled with a few freshmen.  

Something tells me that the defense and offense will be ready on Saturday Nov. 25 to finish off a truly unbelievable season and end the losing streak against Ohio.  31-17 in favor of the Meeeeeechigan Wolverines.

Here's a card of the guy who had one of the most unbelievable games in UM-Ohio history back in 1995 to knock the #2 Buckys from the national championship game, the last UM-Ohio game I attended.  Mr. Touissant, now it is your turn!!

Congratulations Brady Hoke!!

It was not a barn-burner, but it was a very satisfactory win today over the Broncos of Western Michigan...with Notre Dame getting beat ( looking past the Bulls, were we Irish?), and some other close calls by some rated teams ( Auburn, USC and others)...UM fans have to be happy with a lot of things today.

#1 The defense....it is a work in progress but already appears to be head and shoulders above last years disarray....it certainly has Mattison's fingerprints all over it with its blitzes and 4 man front....they struggles some but certainly got the game turned around  with their two TDs...Thank you Mr. Herron!! first two time TD defensive player in the same game....will be great to see this defense develop over the year....still very young but there is talent there and is coming in next year as well.

#2 The offense...Mr. Koger is going to have a big year at TE.....great catch in first half....nice duo back with Toussaint and Shaw....saw some power in OL in short yardage plays....also a work in progress but it appears Al Borges is developing a game plan to keep Denard healthy but still use his playmaking skills at times as well....will certainly score a lot of points this year.


Bring on the Irish!!!

Here's a guy who you had to watch every time he touched the ball back in the late '70's/early '80's....who can forget the Indiana game...last catch for about 50 yards on the last play....he was simply electric with the ball.

Three weeks to kick-off!!!!

After reading about the first week of practices for the Wolverines and Brady Hoke, I just can't wait for opening kick-off against Western Michigan on Sept. 3 and then  the first night game in Michigan Stadium against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame the following week!   After the three year debacle of Rich Rodriguez and his pathetic defenses, it will be great to see the rock em and sock em defenses of old with Hoke and Mattison come to light.


 Here's some of my UM TK Legacy collection

Brandon Inge's replacement?

Here in Grand Rapids, MI, we have the Tiger's lower Class A farm club called the West Michigan WhiteCaps....this year we have had the opportunity to watch this young man, Nick Castellanos, play 3rd base and hit the tar out of the ball for them.  He was the 1st pick of the Tigers in the 2010 draft and here's hoping he makes it to the bigs after developing for a year or two and solidifies the hot corner for them for many years to come.  His road to the Tigers got a little easier with the Tigers trading their other hot-shot 3rd base prospect to the Mariners as part of the deal to pick up Doug Fister.

Topps 2011 Wrapper Redemptions have come

I almost forgot to send mine in but did so a couple of weeks ago after reading a blog about what came in their mail....mine came in the mail a couple of days ago and here they are....

and the grand finale.......

looks like good things happen to those who wait....or almost forget.

Diamond Giveaway trades

Been wheeling and dealing with some minor cards trading for Tigers....have gotten a few done which I share with you on a later post but here's the big one that just was completed over the weekend....it was kinda like being a general manager wheeling and dealing at the trade deadline....do I pull the trigger on the trade for some thing I really want put really like the card I already have?

Anyways....here's how the first trade went down....I traded my Hank Aaron die-cut.....

 

I really liked the card and turned down literally hundreds of offers for it....99% were junk offers but there were a couple that I thought about for awhile but could not pull the trigger....then this trade offer came through

Now it was my turn to offer some trades....I offered the Kershaw for Miguel Cabrera and the Price for Austin Jackson die-cuts...within an hour they were mine...(no they are not the black diamond variety but the regular diecuts...I copied the wrong picture I just realized)

I have the Scherzer die-cut from an earlier trade so now I need some help to complete the Tiger die-cut set....I need the Hank Greenberg die-cut....any one got one to trade?  :)     let me know what it would take to get you to trade...let me know what your favorite team/players are and we'll see if we can get a deal done

Here's come the NFL!!

It appears the owners and players have figured out how they can all make their money and allow us to hold our fantasy drafts in a month or so and watch all those "exciting" preseason games in August.....could this be the year of the Lions?   Will Peyton be healthy at the start of the year after his neck surgery?...where will all those free agents end up?  Guy on the radio said there could be up to 1500 FA signings in the next few days....should be interesting.

What say ye?

GO TIGERS!!!!!

Well, it's been a while since I posted...camping, working, and tearing down my mini-barn and rebuilding it has made life pretty busy but now that the All-Star Game has come and gone, its time for the 2nd half of the season to begin...the question is, will the Tigers finally put it together and hang on to 1st place by the end of the season or will we have our usual 2nd half swoon under Leyland and once again have our hearts cruelly ripped from us and watch the White Sox or Twins come racing past us and claim the division?

What say ye, fellow bloggers?    ( no I didn't forget about the Tribe....don't think they'll be there at the end...sorry Indian fans! )


Here's a couple recent pickups I got the last few weeks....good 'ole Willie and Mr. ( Grand Slam ) Schlereth.

More Wolverine autos and cards

Here's some more ebay pickups of some of my favorite Wolverines and a needed card (Matchefts) for the Legacy set I am slowly getting closer to finishing

To trade or not to trade?... need your help

I was fortunate to pull a diamond die cut of Hank Aaron pictured below...got two trade offers that are very tempting...one more so than the other...one was for a diamond die cut of Jackie Robinson and the other is a diamond die cut of Ernie Banks...leaning more toward the Robinson if I do make trade more so than the Banks...looking for opinions....