February Recap, and a trip preview

As expected, it was a light month.  On the positive side, the guitar amp is out of the shop and sounding incredible. So barring any unforeseen expenses, I should be back to mailing out pretty soon. We're also only a month away from the start of baseball season, so Frisco runs should start happening pretty soon too.

FEBRUARY 1 – Dallas Renegades Practice
Lance Dunbar, 3/3
Eric Dungey, 2/2
Landry Jones, 4/4
Frank Alexander, 1/1
Daryl “Moose” Johnston, 3/3
Greer Martini, 2/2
Sean Price, 1/1
Hau’Oli Kikaha, 4/4
Derron Smith, 2/3
Bob Stoops, 1/1
Tre Watson, 2/2

FEBRUARY 7
Rick Wilson, c/o business, 1/1, 1 year

FEBRUARY 19
Brad Maxwell, c/o home, 4/4, 1 month

FEBRUARY 21
Ken Holtzman, c/o home, 1/1, 1 month

FEBRUARY 22
Terry Labonte, c/o home, 4/4, 10 months

FEBRUARY 25
Ryan Reed, c/o team, 3/3, 10 months

I'm also looking at doing another graphing mini-trip with Arron in early June. We can catch Corpus Christi at Midland, Las Vegas at El Paso, Salt Lake City at Albuquerque, and Midland at Amarillo all in a four day span on June 3 through June 6. So that's pencilled in on the calendar. It's a good holdover until the 2022 National trip.

Speaking of that, we're now less than a year away from the 2021 Topps Heritage set being released with the 1972 design. I plan to go nuts on this set with TTM and IP and trading to get as much signed as I can in the base set, the high-numbers set, and the minor league set. I already have an improbable piece of work with the 1972 set project; I might as well add more to the Sisyphusian task.

Help me out here fans/collectors: what's my best way of doing this? Buy a hobby case? Retail case? Blaster case? Just grab a few complete sets off eBay? Snag a bunch of base lots from people breaking cases? Maybe a combination of a blaster case plus a box or two of hobby or retail?

I'm not looking to make a killing on inserts or SPs or anything like that, but I'd like at least two complete base sets, preferably three or four just for an overabundance of preparedness. And I'd like to do it in the most cost-effective way possible, knowing I'll have to lather-rinse-repeat in the fall with the high-number and minor league sets.

Capping off 2019 and previewing 2020

And starting 2020 as well!

Winters are always light on the IP front, especially with the Rangers being so woefully underprepared for the Toy Drive. I didn't go this year. I heard they didn't announce who was in what group until people were already in line inside. I have never understood why the organization has such absolute disdain for its fans.

I did at least get to go to a practice for the new XFL team and got a few there. I might have to see about going and graphing some of their games. Several former NFLers are on teams' rosters, coaching staves, and front offices. And I know I have cards of a few. I'll give a rundown at the end of the post.

DECEMBER 5
Johnny Bucyk, c/o Bruins Alumni, 3/3, 3 weeks
Casey Cox, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

DECEMBER 6
Don Money, c/o home, 4/4, 3 months
Terry Harper, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month

DECEMBER 7
Ken Hodge, c/o home, 2/2, 3 weeks - He signed one on the back and added a note that Ed Westfall is depicted on the front

DECEMBER 9
Bill Baker, c/o home, 2/2, 3 weeks

DECEMBER 12
Jim "Mudcat" Grant, c/o home, 1/1, 3 weeks, $10

DECEMBER 13
Jim Craig, c/o home, 3/2, 1 month
Rob McClanahan, c/o home, 2/2, 1 months

DECEMBER 14
Bryan McCabe, c/o Florida Panthers, 4/4, 1 month

DECEMBER 14 - Dallas Renegades XFL practice
Stacy Coley - 2/2
Jim Jeffcoat - 3/3, 5/5

DECEMBER 21
Steve Christoff, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month
Bruce Savage, c/o home, 7/6, 1 month

DECEMBER 23
Mario Andretti, c/o home, 1/1, 3 months

DECEMBER 24
Ed Westfall, c/o Bruins Alumni, 3/3, 6 weeks

JANUARY 3
Brad Park, c/o Bruins Alumni, 3/3, 2 months
Dick Duff, c/o home, 5/3, 3 weeks to Canada
Bob Baun, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks to Canada

I also got my new guitar amp bought. A nice Craigslist find netted me what appears based on the serial number to be a 1975 Fender Twin Reverb. At the very least it's a silverface with no tail on the Fender logo and the push-pull master volume knob to turn the overdrive on and off-- so 1974-1980. New caps and tubes on it, and I love the sound it gets. I've tried all my guitars through it just clean without pedals. And I still have about $200 left to spend on other pedals and/or a keyboard.

Or stamps. Maybe stamps. Yeah, probably stamps. $50 for stamps, $25 for a noise gate pedal, and $125 for a keyboard. I like that. (EDIT: I just ordered the noise gate pedal)

So, XFL. I'm sure there are more than these guys, but just off a cursory reading of the rosters, here are guys that are involved and that I'm relatively certain have cards...

DALLAS: Daryl "Moose" Johnston, Jim Jeffcoat, Landry Jones, Stacy Coley, Simmie Cobbs
DC: Ray Hamilton, Kurt Gouveia, Tyree Jackson, Cardale Jones, Donnel Pumphrey, Malachi Dupre, Eli Rogers, Sam Montgomery, Scooby Wright, Matt Elam, Orson Charles
HOUSTON: Chris Miller, Connor Cook, Akrum Wadley, Andre Williams, Sammie Coates, Jalen Saunders, Kony Ealy, Ed Reynolds
LOS ANGELES: Winston Moss, Mike Wilson, Jerry Fontenot, Pepper Johnson, Otis Smith, Martin Bayless, Josh Johnson, Keyarris Garrett, KD Cannon, Jordan Smallwood, Nick Novak
NEW YORK: CJ Ah You, Cris Dishman, Matt McGloin, EJ Bibbs
SEATTLE: Jim Zorn, Mike Riley, BJ Daniels, Chase Litton, Austin Proehl, Keenan Reynolds, Cyril Richardson, Stansly Maponga, Will Sutton
ST. LOUIS: Jonathan Hayes, Chuck Long, Az Hakim, Chris Crocker, Jordan Ta'amu, Taylor Heinicke, Christine Michael, Daniel Braverman, Jordan Lasley, L'Damian Washington, Terrance Williams, Will Hill, Marquette King
TAMPA BAY: Jerry Glanville, Aaron Murray, Rannell Hall, KJ Maye, DeAndre Goolsby, Jalen Collins

St. Louis is pretty stacked and play Dallas' home opener on February 9. I might look into that and see about how much tickets are and what I have in the way of cards. At the very least, there might be some solid TTM opportunities.

Winter Caravan dates and places are out-- mostly at the Miller Tavern at Texas Live on Thursday nights, and midweek afternoons at a few Whataburger and Comerica Bank branches. The only weekend event is the annual Frisco event on Saturday January 18. Last year you were limited to ONE autograph line. No thanks. I might check out the Thursdays since it's right up the road. We'll see when they decide to announce what players will be there.

Last but not least, my TTMCast appearance is now online!