Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
Congratulations to Canada’s Olympic Hockey Team–and their fans–for winning the gold medal on Sunday.
Yes, I wanted USA to win. And they came close. Very close. But in the Olympics, close gets you the silver…
Nonetheless, it was a great game. It was a great tournament. Many close games. Many upsets. Many competitive teams. Borrowing from my Star Trek metaphor, if the 2002 tournament was “Wrath of Khan,” then this was “First Contact” all the way.
I’ve been a bit slow in my acquisition of old Parkhurst cards so far this year. But I did manage to snag this beauty for under $4, shipped. William Hicke is the 22nd card in my ever-growing 1963-64 Parkhurst set. Hicke has two cards in this set; I purchased his other card back in November.
In honor of Black History Month, today we will take a look at the career of Tony McKegney. He was not the first black hockey player–or second, or third–to play in the NHL. Rather, McKegney was the first black hockey player to make an impact in the NHL. Here are some of his trading cards issued during his 13-year NHL career. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Tony McKegney”
Today, I’d like to give a special thanks to Mike G. of Taunton, MA for hooking me up with a bunch of hockey cards from my want list, including…
…2 shiny cards from the 2002-03 Topps “Own the Game” insert set…
…and a bunch of Upper Deck cards from last year and this year.
And some MVP cards too!
Mike, thanks for helping me out in my collection quest.
Ever since the NHL decided to let it’s best players fully participate in the Winter Olympics, there seemed to be a sort of even / odd “Star Trek” paradigm going on here.
You see, the 1998 Olympics was very much like the first “Star Trek” film–highly-anticipated, but failing to live up to the hype. Of course, I say this from a North American perspective, because I’m sure hockey fans in the Czech Republic thought the ’98 games were just fine.
And like “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the 2002 Olympics was all it was supposed to be and more, culminating in a final showdown between the United States and Canada. Expectations were met, and then some.
The 2006 Olympics? Totally “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” Yawn.
That makes 2010 the “Star Trek IV” of Olympic Ice Hockey. In other words, good. Or so we can hope. I’m crossing my fingers, ‘cuz I’ll be dammed if I have to sit through “Search for Spock” twice.
With the Men’s Ice Hockey tournament starting today, I thought it would be fun to look back at some pictures from the 2002 games.
Photo of Team Canada after winning the gold. Click on the photo to enlarge, and see the enviable and unmatched level of talent.
Let’s hope that the 2010 games are as good as they were in 2002.
Hayley Wickenheiser is similar in many ways to former women’s hockey mainstay Cammi Granato. For numerous years, Granato was the dominant player for – and considered the face of – women’s hockey in the United States. The same is true in Canada for Wickenheiser, who is the team captain of the 2010 Canadian Women’s hockey team. Coincidentally, both women have NHL ties. Cammi’s brother Tony played in the NHL, as did Haley’s cousin Doug. Continue reading “Canada’s Captain”
Well, the Chicago Blackhawks did just that in a trade with the Minnesota Wild on Friday, and I’m left scratching my head. Continue reading “Bye-bye Barker”
This weekend, two NHL teams will be giving out an exclusive trading card set of Upper Deck trading cards.
The cards more or less resemble the 2009-10 Upper Deck hockey cards, but with subtle differences, and will be given to the first 10,000 fans who attend the game.
If anyone picks up an extra set of either that they would not mind trading, please drop me a line.
Thanks to DFG for sharing info about this.
After buying a single pack, and later a rack pack, of this year’s Fleer Ultra, I have to admit that the set has grown on me. That said, I bought a blaster box at Target last week. Yes, we all know that blasters suck harder than 36-count “retail” boxes…but I had a 10% of coupon, and figured that, you know, maybe this blaster would be special.
Yeah right. (Well, it did happen to me once.)
I don’t wanna scan all the cards I got. I’m not even going to scan the best card from each of the 12 packs, but rather just the best “type” of each card.
Here is what I got:
Photo by Sal J. Barry
Did anyone who watched the Super Bowl yesterday remember the Miller High Life commercial, where they featured four small business owners?
Well, that baseball card shop owner is my “dealer”! I have been a customer of Tim’s Baseball Card Shop since he opened his store in my neighborhood in Chicago. Tim Herron is a friendly guy, he prices his stuff very fair and he’s very patient with kids.
Tim’s Baseball Card Shop, along with 3 other small businesses, were picked by Miller High Life to be featured in a Super Bowl commercial that touts the “little guys” for a change.
Needless to say, all of his customers were very happy for Tim. He’s a nice guy, and my number one source of hockey cards. Hell, I watched some football game just so I could see him on TV.
In addition to the commercial, Tim was featured on several news programs, including Fox News. It isn’t every day that a baseball card store owner gets to be on TV, let alone the Super Bowl.