Father's Day

My father wasn't the best role model or someone you would brag to your friends about, but he did the fatherliest thing a father could do and that was spending time with his kid.

A lot of my childhood memories come from spending time with him.

Whether that was playing backyard baseball, football and basketball or playing a football game on a Sega system we would rent from the video store or watching NY Giants football together. I would also go to his work and take tours and get home from school and go watch him play softball. We also spent a lot of time enjoying the sport card hobby we had together with sorting, looking up values in Beckett and planning our next pickups.

Moments were being made every minute we were together.

I ended up following in his footsteps for the music he enjoyed, the teams he rooted on, the talk-to-anyone jokingly personality and some of how I collect cards. I took on what I considered were the good traits from him.

Even though I took on some of his card collecting traits, I also began my own collecting journey as well. Despite being a big time NY fan, he never actually collected any of the New York teams or players, but I do.

One of those players is soon-to-be Hall Of Famer, Eli Manning. These are my latest additions from a multiple websites,

(20/20 eBay 1/1!)

(my first Shockey/Eli dual relic)

 

The final card which features Super Bowl 42 with the Eli escape and Tyree helmet catch, is another connection between my father and myself. It marks the first time we got to watch and celebrate a Giants Super Bowl win together and what a way to do so.

Even though our lives are busier now, that Super Bowl was actually the last game we watched together, he still finds a way to spend time with me with daily phone call or Facebook messenger check-ins. Most conversations start and end with cards, but there are discussions of life as well.

Happy Father's Day dad. I don't think you will see this, but if you happen to be looking up cards and do, I hope you enjoy this.

Also, Happy Father's Day to the rest of the fathers, stepdads and fatherly figures out there. Have a great day and take some time out for yourself today. But, also remember why you are being celebrated today and celebrate with them as well.

Taking As Many As I Can

Do you have a card that you don't care how many copies of it you get? Your answer would surprise me if you didn't.

Other than taking in as many copies of the 1990 Score and Topps Rodney Hampton rookie cards I can, I am quite fond of anything that features the NY Giants and Super Bowl 42.

Especially a photograph that depicts the greatest play in Super Bowl history.

 

The acrobatic helmet catch has got to be the greatest catch in the history of football. If you just think about some special team guy who rarely saw a ball thrown his way, go up against a guy who should be in the Hall Of Fame and being able to keep the ball caught against his helmet with that caliber type of player pulling all he can to strip the ball and finishing the catch. 

That's incredible.

Super Bowl 42 was incredible.

Give me as many cards like this you want. I won't turn any away.

Thanks for my latest one @ShaneSalmonson.

Let me know in comments any cards you have multiple copies of and why.

Taking As Many As I Can

Do you have a card that you don't care how many copies of it you get? Your answer would surprise me if you didn't.

Other than taking in as many copies of the 1990 Score and Topps Rodney Hampton rookie cards I can, I am quite fond of anything that features the NY Giants and Super Bowl 42.

Especially a photograph that depicts the greatest play in Super Bowl history.

 

The acrobatic helmet catch has got to be the greatest catch in the history of football. If you just think about some special team guy who rarely saw a ball thrown his way, go up against a guy who should be in the Hall Of Fame and being able to keep the ball caught against his helmet with that caliber type of player pulling all he can to strip the ball and finishing the catch. 

That's incredible.

Super Bowl 42 was incredible.

Give me as many cards like this you want. I won't turn any away.

Thanks for my latest one @ShaneSalmonson.

Let me know in comments any cards you have multiple copies of and why.

The Catch Heard Around The World

Eli is back to throw, tosses it up deep over the middle....TYREE WITH THE GRAB! How did he ever catch that between multiple defenders and with the ball pinned to helmet and Rodney Harrison hanging all over him??!

We will never fully know.

I think it was God's hand helping hold that ball there.

No matter how you feel that ball stayed there, it did and it drove the Giants to the biggest upset in Super Bowl history beating the 18-0 Patriots.

It's a game and moment that will live on in my mind forever.

When my buddy Valley Of Cards passed along this gold Legends card from 2019 Plates and Patches, it began to move me in a rainbow direction. It was such a moment I would like to watch over and over again. So I will through cardboard.

I then looked for the rest of the parallels. Found this blue /60

Purple /35

and the red /10. Which has a fun story behind it. When this card popped up I immediately offered the seller the starting price on it which was $4. They declined and countered with $15. I countered with $8 and then they countered with $10. I just didn't feel the card would go that high knowing it's David Tyree so I played the waiting game which I was hoping would pay off. Well, it didn't. The seller won the battle and I landed this for $12.50 which was more than I thought it would go for.

All I am missing from the rainbow is the Green /25 (I have this one now since I typed this up) and Gold 1/1.

Hopefully they will pop up at some point and come reasonably.

Legends Of New York

Unpopular opinion....I like Joe Buck.

So, so many of you complain about him, but when I hear him call a game, it brings me back to a glorious moment in my life.

That moment, Super Bowl 42.

The game that will forever be my favorite Super Bowl. David (Tyree) vs Goliath. The 18-0 Patriots who beat the Giants in the regular season finale to go undefeated, came into the Super Bowl just walking all over the people while the Giants found a way to the Big Game.

Then they found a way to win it.

With 1:15 left in the game, Giants down by 4 needing a touchdown and needing five yards on third down, Eli dropped back, avoids being sacked a few times, somehow stays on his feet and just whips the ball up there for the taken. There was multiple Patriots in the middle of the field and somehow, someway, some special teams WR named David Tyree jumped up in the middle of them, caught the ball, held the ball against him helmet with the great Rodney Harrison trying to pry it away and brought the ball safely down to the ground without dropping it.

I could play that over and over again in my mind.

Four plays later, Eli tossed up a beauty to a wide open Plaxico Burress for the Giants game winning touchdown.

18-1 Patriots....18-1.

This years Plates and Patches product has a Legends subset card of David Tyree who made that heroic play that led to a Giants win (and of course the play is pictured on the card). There is a series of colored parallels that I have considered chasing along with this one.

It wasn't just the play that made that game memorable. Beating the hated Patriots and watching the game with my father which I hadn't done in over 20 years made that game one that I will always remember. Even when I get too old to remember anything else.

That game meant more to me than the one the same two teams played four years later.

Where this guy, Mario Manningham, somehow kept his feet in-bounds by a fraction of an inch with two defenders around him for a gain of 38 yards in Super Bowl 46 that set up Giants momentum as they went for a Game Winning drive.I must also note the throw by Eli was superb. It was only where Manningham had a chance at it. Both catch and throw on that play was memorable.

The Manningham autograph to commemorate Super Bowl 46 is also in this years Plates and Patches product. Both cards were graciously sent to me by my friend Valley Of Cards unexpectedly.

Big thanks to him for these two additions to my Giants PC. If you haven't checked out him yet, please do so. He has some great stuff for sale at great prices on both his eBay shops and his website. Find them all here, website, eBay store 1 and eBay store 2.

Saved!

I don't post a lot of personal stuff on here as many as you know. It took me many years just to put my name on here, first only. So when it comes to opinions on politics and religion, I don't normally post anything about it as it just causes an uproar and controversy. Things I like to stay away from.

However, with today being Easter, I thought I would take a small dive into religion. I am a Christian. I have not always been a Christian. I was born into a non religious family who wanted nothing to do with God and did many un-Godly things. Despite that, I always had a belief there was something greater and survived my childhood.

I didn't find out what that greater thing was til I met my wife in 2002 who helped guide me into the knowledge I needed. By that summer, I was going to church every week and learning more on a daily basis. I even asked God for forgiveness for my sins and asked for him to come into my heart by late summer. I was saved. Saved by the grace of God and all his glory.

Speaking of being saved, a Christian athlete who was mainly used on special teams with the Giants, saved their season in Super Bowl 42 with the infamous helmet catch. The greatest play in not only Super Bowl history, but in NFL history. I finally was able to grab an autograph card, even a rookie one at that, of his.

David Tyree's autograph cards mostly run double digits but I guess for a Super Bowl hero and MVP runner up you would expect that. I somehow lucked out and offered $6 for this one and the seller accepted. I was pretty happy with this win as it's a nice looking card.

I promise this will be the one and only time I mention religion on here. However, just be known I will pray for those of you who need it and want it anytime. All you have to do is tell me.

I hope all of you have a Happy Easter and remember #HeisRisen!

Odd Ball Collection: Sports Books

I would say that with my all around sport collecting I do, sometimes even non-sport items as well, I feel I would fit the Nerd status. Here is a small gallery of sports books I own. Some I have read, some I haven't yet. But I feel some of these are collectibles. Remember this is only some :)

Then my favorite Sports book I have read so far Honus & Me. I also watched the TV movie which was excellent as well!
If only any of us could come across this card to own it or go on the adventures that took place. I highly recommend reading it or at least watching the movie!!