March Report

Despite quarantines and all the hilarity that has not ensued, I've hit a couple nifty milestones this month. I completed a set and harpooned a white whale.

I've also been forced to probably cancel the West Texas trip as it appears there won't be any baseball until at least July 4.

Anyways, a quick report...

MARCH 5
Frank Stams, c/o home, 5/4, 3 and a half years; wrote a short note back

MARCH 13
Dion Phaneuf, c/o parents' home, 4/4, 3 months

MARCH 18
John Van Boxmeer, c/o home, 3/2, 4 months; also signed protective index card

MARCH 19
Dmitri Bykov, c/o team, 2/1, 2 and a half months; also signed protective index card

Yes, you read that correctly: I got a TTM success to and from Russia! I figured that of the final 11 I needed for Topps Total that Bykov might be the last one I get. He only spent a year in the US and played in Boston (where I lived at the time) before the card came out. So I never had the chance to get it signed myself, and I knew no one who had gotten it signed. The postal system in Russia typically sucks so I didn't think TTMing would be possible. But when I found he was coaching a team in Moscow, I figured that was worth a try (apparently mail to Moscow and St. Petersburg is decent, but it's highly questionable anywhere else).

So, pro tip if you send to him, address your envelope in both English AND Cyrillic. It should look like this...

Dmitri Bykov                  | Дмитрий Быков
HK Krasnaya Armiya            | ХК Красная Армия
CSKA Ice Palace               | Ледовый Дворец Спорта ЦСКА
Leningradskyi Prospekt 39/41  | Ленинградский Проспект 39/41
125167 Moscow                 | 125167 Москва
Russia                        | Россия

Your SASE can be in English alone. But do yourself a favor and GET PROPER POSTAGE FOR IT!

I went on eBay and got a 45-ruble stamp. It cost me about $3 and it had to be shipped to me from Moldova, but it was worth it, clearly. Your outgoing envelope needs a US Global stamp (runs something like $1.20).

And so with that, I sit at 10 cards remaining for the Topps Total set: Paul Kariya, Jason Allison, Mike Richter, Mark Messier, Todd Bertuzzi, Tommy Salo, Lubomir Sekeras, Espen Knutsen, Miroslav Satan, and Andrei Nikolishin. A friend in Finland has my Nikolishin card hoping to get him with the KHL team he is with, and I have someone who may be able to help with Bertuzzi. Satan has been known to sign occasionally TTM, ditto on Richter, Salo, Sekeras, and Knutsen (though I have failed on all at least once). I think I can safely say that my white whales now are Messier and Kariya; as one would expect. Allison may be the third-toughest.

I put a few posts out on Facebook and Instagram hoping for some trades. And I got even better: Mike from Minnesota helped me out with the last card for my 2008/09 Upper Deck Rookie Class set, sending me the signed Steven Stamkos card that graced my mailbox today. So I'm now at three complete sets...

My hockey want list now sits at 50 cards. I may have help coming on as many as 15 of them from various trade talks and even a long-running 50/50 deal.

Lastly, I made my return to the broadcast booth a couple weeks ago, calling games for the Texas Open Floorball Tournament in Arlington. The games were originally going to be broadcast online, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the broadcast crew was unable to make it, so we tried to cover the games as best we could with a three-person crew, a camera, a computer, and a couple mics. As soon as they're on YouTube, I'll post some links here.