on February 10th, 2010 by Newspaperman
Posted in Cardboard Icons
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on February 10th, 2010 by Howard Bagby
I got this idea from my friend Caron’s blog, I have A Piece Of News For You.10. Ice Cream. My favorite flavor is Butter Pecan, but there are not very many flavors I would turn down.9. Pizza. Like with ice cream, there are not many that I would turn dow…
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my life
Posted in Baseball Cards
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on February 10th, 2010 by White Sox Cards
Posted in White Sox Cards
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on February 10th, 2010 by T.S.
When you watch the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics Friday
night, try to picture what it must have been like 30 years ago when the tiny Village
of Lake Placid, N.Y., hosted the 1980 version of the games.
Vancouver has a population of about 600,000 or so; Lake Placid’s population
in 1980 was about 3,000 or so permanent residents, and that figure has actually declined
a bit in the ensuing 30 years despite the expansion of the U.S. Olympic facilities
since those 1980 Games.
Obviously, the profile of the Winter Olympics has expanded enormously
in those three decades, so it’s hard to imagine that the Games could return there
now, but I’ll bet the local folks are still trying. The real miracle of 1980 – no
letters from hockey fans, please – may well have been that a community that size was
able to host an international event of that scale.
I was a reporter in nearby Saranac Lake back then, and took part in a
couple of year’s worth of meetings about Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee
plans, endless confabs that tried the patience at the time but ultimately are hard
to criticize, since they pulled it off.
One of the linchpins of the whole proposal was the Olympic housing for
the athletes, which ended up being undertaken by the Bureau of Prisons, with a federal
minimum-security facility built just outside the village corporation limits. It worked
handsomely for the Winter Olympic athletes in 1980, then was promptly turned over
to the feds and became part of an imposing array of New York State or federal correctional
facilities that dot the upper quadrant of the Adirondack Park.
That took care of a major hurdle, but there was also the dilemma of how
a couple of two-lane state highways in and out of the tiny village could handle the
thousands of fans attending the events. That was addressed by severely limiting automobile
access into the designated Olympic area, and two enormous staging (meaning parking)
areas were set up on opposite ends of the village – and several miles outside of it
– to accommodate fans. They were then bused into the village for the events. The draconian
parking restrictions were absolutely unavoidable, and so far-reaching that even duly
accredited journalists like myself couldn’t drive into town.
To this day I still can’t understand how they pulled it off, even though
I sat through so many of those LPOOC meetings. To make matters worse, a brutal cold
snap hit in the weeks leading up to the Games and right into the beginning, raising
one of the major concerns that Games planners had fretted about all along.
With a vast armada of reporters covering the actual events themselves,
I was left with the odd feature or color piece here and there. Thus, I ended up riding
behind a dog sled team on Mirror Lake in the Olympic Village, or reporting on the
then-startling phenomenon of people collecting zillions of Olympic pins. There was
also a good deal of reportage on the guys in front of the Lake Placid firehouse setting
up judging panels outside and kind of raucously rating the various attributes of female
touristas, employing the figure-skating 1-10 scale.
I’ll have a couple of closing recollections in tomorrow’s blog.
Continue reading about Lake Placid Olympics really were a miracle … »
Posted in Infield Dirt
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on February 10th, 2010 by chrisolds
Posted in Beckett Blog
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on February 10th, 2010 by zman40
Posted in Auto Cards
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on February 10th, 2010 by Al Leiter's Bullpen Catcher
It looks as if Chien-Ming Wang has decided to sign with the Nationals. This signing shows me that the Dodgers must either not have faith in Wang or that they are done spending money. Though with that, I can’t imagine the salary that he was demanding an…
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Posted in Baseball Cards
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on February 10th, 2010 by 30-Year Old Cardboard
Lenny Dykstra turns 47 years old today!!
As one of the grittiest players to play the game in the 1980’s and 90’s, you couldn’t help but enjoy watching Dykstra suit up each and every day. With an unparalleled style, ‘Nails’ was the supreme competitor and often put his body on the line solely in the effort to help [...]
Continue reading about Happy Birthday Lenny Dykstra!! »
Posted in 30 Year Old Cardboard
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on February 10th, 2010 by rosschrisman2003
Yesterday, Topps announced that Ryan O’Hara would become its new CEO. Departing is Scott Silverstein who has been with Topps since 1993 and will stay on the Topps board.
O’Hara holds a BA in Economics from Stanford University and a Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. This guy has spent so much time [...]
Continue reading about A Look At Ryan O’Hara: Topps Gets A Social Media Upgrade »
Posted in Sports Card Info
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on February 10th, 2010 by rosschrisman2003
The day hasn’t come yet when I can add a Connie Mack game-used or cut signature to my personal collection. I’m really picky when it comes to cut signatures. I need them to be signed in ink and centered perfectly. I want nothing to do with signatures that are half cut off just so it [...]
Continue reading about Connie Mack or Connie Mack? »
Posted in Sports Card Info
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on February 10th, 2010 by Chris Harris
Posted in Stale Gum
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on February 10th, 2010 by 30-Year Old Cardboard
Now that my Eddie Murray player collection is complete I wanted to take the time to show off my favorite 5 cards from this set.
Card #3 - 1979 Topps
Yes, I know it’s a posed photo from Spring Training. And yes, they tend to be my least favorite kind of photograph used on a baseball card.
But this 1979 [...]
Continue reading about My Eddie Murray ‘Fab 5′ – Card #3 »
Posted in 30 Year Old Cardboard
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on February 10th, 2010 by Tom
Custom Autograph cardGeorge Edward Thomas Jr.OutfieldBats: Right, Throws: RightWeight: 190 lb.Born: November 29, 1937 in Minneapolis, MNDebut: September 11, 1957 Detroit TigersFinal Game: September 6, 1971 Minnesota TwinsPurchased by the Los Angeles An…
Continue reading about #38 George Thomas »
Posted in Baseball Cards
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on February 10th, 2010 by chemgod
In case you haven’t heard, Bob Gainey recently stepped down as the Canadiens GM. Stepping into his role is Pierre Gauthier. The Canadiens have an interesting situation developing. They have two young starting goaltenders on their team. With the trade deadline only a few weeks away it was thought that one [...]
Continue reading about Who is the Montreal Goaltender of the Future? »
Posted in Bad Wax
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