Washington Wednesday: RIP Redskins HTTR

WASHINGTON WEDNESDAY:

RIP Redskins: HTTR4LIFE

Redskins Super Fan Chief Zee crying (date unknown)

Well they went ahead and did it. The NFL's Washington Team The REDSKINS gave into the pressure to change their controversial Nickname. I won't go into all the history of the name and the periodic attempts from outside entities to force the team to change the name they have held for 87 years. all that can be found on the interwebs. Along with all the Pros and Cons. Sure some people are now not offended but now a different group of people have been offended and some angered.

I will say that I am far from happy about the whole thing. I've been a life-long fan of the team, growing up with an older brother who was a super true blue fan, even my father who wasn't much of a sports fan enjoyed watching the occasional Redskins game on the telly and kept track of them during the season from time to time (mostly I think to please his fan family). What ticks me off the most is it appears to be that the owners were being blackmailed by FedEx one of their biggest financial supporters, investors and others. The delivery service sent a letter saying basically "Change the name or move to another stadium", they have about 7 more years on the stadium's lease so that isn't really one of the pressing issues. Also several big named merchandise retailers such as Amazon, Target and Walmart to name a few have pulled all Redskins merchandise from their shelves and have stopped selling them.

A couple of weeks after announcing that the name was going to be changed and the old name dropped the team now has a temporary name for the 2020 season "The Washington Football Team". They will keep the maroon and gold colors, but will be logoless. The helmets will be plain maroon with large gold numbers on the sides. Apparently they will have a permanent as yet unannounced new name and logo starting in the 2021 season.

I guess to a non-fan the best analogy would be if the high school you and your siblings graduated from, maybe even one of your parents and their siblings graduated from as well, was forced to change their mascot's name and/or even the entire school name. That is how it has affected me. After several generations of history.  It just "always was the way it was". It is part of the fandom intangibles. You don't know exactly what it is unless you have it. Even then it seems to be different for every fan.

As a fan of the old team I am not in the mood to attempt to become a fan of whatever the new team will be. Collecting cards for this year/season will be bittersweet. I'm not sure what I will do for next season. Do I stay with the team trading group I am a part of once the new team is established and cards baring the new team name and logo are made? A big part of me doesn't want to. 

OK rant over for now here are some historic DC Football cards that are sure to offend some people.

Lets start with one of my fave QBs of ALL-TIME Sonny Jurgensen. This one is from 1991 a special Quarterbacks set. I chose to show it because of it's original old school looks, especially the back pic with the original arrow helmet design (not the 1990s retro version)

1991 Quarterback Legends: 24 Sonny Jurgensen Washington Redskins

These next two cards I picked to show are of the same Player Jim Lachey. Both are very cool photos the first is a portrait from the 1991 Pro Set Football set, 

1991 Pro Set Football: 381 Jim Lachey Washington Redskins

Next Card. Check out the cool up close and personal pic. I picked this card to show because of the peeling of the stripe stickers on his helmet. Thought it was very cool looking.

1991 Upper Deck Football - 102 Jim Lachey Washington Redskins

This next card I chose because of the retro looks with the airbrushing/photoshopping (or maybe it is just unbranded spring training gear). It is also close to what the "temporary" helmets of this 2020 season will look like, with the exception that the new temporary helmets will have the player's uniform number in gold on the sides.

2004 Score Football: 330 James Thrash Washington Redskins

The final card I'm showing is one of the cool retro cards from 2004 Fleer Tradition Football set. Not only is the card design retro but this was the year the Redskins were sporting an anniversary retro uniform with the Arrow Helmet and a retro looking jersey and their return to the mustard colored pants.

2004 Fleer Tradition Football: 196 LaVar Arrington Washington Redskins

*UGH Due to the recent formatting updating changes that Blogger did, on my ancient computer at home I can no longer edit posts on blogger. It just gave me a blank page, well it had part of the editing "frame" of the page but the part where content was supposed to be it was blank. An incomplete page. I think it is because of something with my outdated Chrome browser. I didn't think about checking with Firefox (or Internet Explorer) until after I had shutdown my ancient Windows XP laptop/notebook. I'll try seeing if my ancient Firefox or IE works sometime later. Probably not because I think they had problems ages ago preventing me from using them then. So I won't be able to directly upload from my laptop to Blogger. I will have to use other sites or do what I did this time and transfer the images to a thumb drive and do it old school. Not to mention I will have to use my work laptop to do all the post editing, not just some of the last minute corrections before the scheduled Noontime posting. Yeah Yeah Yeah I need to get a new up-to-date home 'puter/laptop.

Washington Wednesday: R.I.P. Wes "Mr. Bullet" Unseld

R.I.P. WES UNSELD 1946-2020

On Tuesday 02 June of this year 2020 while doing my daily routine of checking out the main page of TCDB (Trading Card Database) for the random card of the day, new forum posts, born on today and then finally In Memoriam I saw the image of a familiar RC. (I don't have the card but am familiar with it). That of perhaps the most iconic Washington Basketball Player of All-Time Wes Unseld. I was beyond shocked another of my childhood sports idols passed from this Earth. I think it was during the years between his playing career (1981) to his coaching career (1988) that I drifted away from being a basketball fan and would eventually stop caring about the sport until a few years ago. Plus I was more attached to football at the time, as the Washington Senators were long gone, and the Washington Capitals were not very good yet.

1969-70 Topps Basketball: 56 Wes Unseld Baltimore Bullets

Image from comc.com

OK so his rookie card was when the Bullets were still the Baltimore Bullets, but the man would play his entire career with the Bullets Franchise, work with the front office and then later return to the court as Head Coach. He then moved onto General Manager for the team on into the transition to the name change to Wizards and a few years after that.

Here are some (but not all) of my Unseld Cards as a tribute to one of my childhood Icons. For the most part I have already shown these cards on this blog sometime previously so I don't need to explain them.

The following items are a few gems in my collection:

Next is a "card" in my collection that is more of a mini poster than a real "card" it is from 1969-70 Topps and they call it a "ruler" it is only 10 inches by 2.5 inches so not a true ruler but hey it is only paper. I got it from Ebay I think some years back for I forget how much I might have mentioned where and when some posts back a few years back.

1969-70 Topps Basketball Ruler: 22 Wes Unseld Baltimore Bullets

Finally here is a photo of an item I have from my childhood, the photo is actually from an image search I did a few years back and from someone's Ebay auction for which they had I think the whole set was listed for of course way too much money. I forget if they sold or not. Anyway as I said this is something that I actually have but not my copy in the image (I haven't scanned or photographed mine). It is a mini poster that was available from McDonald's in 1976. The size is 12" x 16" One of those premium things during the basketball season that year. Each week they featured a new poster that had two caricatures of Washington Bullets players. There are a total of 4 mini posters. This is the one with Wes and K.C. Jones.

1976 McDonald's Washington Bullets mini poster: K.C. Jones and Wes Unseld

Washington Wednesday: By The Classic Numbers

Washington Wednesday: By The Classic Numbers

10 Oct 2018

When I first noticed this pair of cards on Ebay I was a little leery of their authenticity. What with the odds of one seller "pulling" these specific numbers from a pack and the sellers other auctions for cards with some of the more sought after serial numbers. D'oh OK so one of the special things about the cards I purchased were they are serial numbered. Another thing that chased the warm fuzzies away was the auction title calling them 1/1s. This seller has a bunch of listings using the 1/1 keyword. Even though the auction title also had the actual serial numbers shown it was titled as a "1/1 lot" indicating each card in the lot is a 1/1. OK semantics I guess. Even with the red flags and warnings going off I decided to grab this pair before anyone else did.

2018 Panini Classics Football: Timeless Tributes Gold: 188 Joe Theismann Redskins #d 07/99 and 99/99

The pair of cards I got are these 2018 Panini Classics Football: Timeless Tributes Gold 188 Joe Theismann Redskins #d 07/99 and 99/99 from Ebay for $14.99 Free Shipping. Like I said the seller titled the auction using their serial numbers and using the old "Ebay One of One" labeling trick. The serial number is on the front hard to see left hand side under the "Classics" logo near the top.

2018 Panini Classics Football: Timeless Tributes: Gold 188 Joe Theismann Redskins 07/99

2018 Panini Classics Football: Timeless Tributes: Gold 188 Joe Theismann Redskins 99/99

The dealer also sent these 5 Chiefs cards as a bonus. ?Redskins and Chiefs? Guess it is an Alex Smith connection, or the Indians Connection, or the seller just got confused and thought they were all the same team.

That one is vintage so it is a keeper by default.

1974 Topps Football: 34 Elmo Wright Chiefs

Then we have a card from the "Wave of the Future" insert set of 6 cards to the 1994 Fleer Flair Football set. I was going to toss this into the tradebait pile but in checking the player's team history saw he played for the St. Louis Rams in 1998 so it is a keeper.

1994 Fleer Flair Football: Wave of the Future: 3 of 6 Greg Hill Chiefs

Next up one of those annoying "two sided" cards that is a card with two players sharing the card one player on each side. Confusing the collector as to which face is the "front". Not really since this is a serial numbered insert and at the time the serial numbers were put on the back of the card, but that practice varies from company to company and from set to set it seems. I don't normally like this kind of card so again it is one of these was going to toss in the tradebait pile card but one of the players was a Redskin in 2001. The "front" player Donnell Bennett.

2000 Donruss Quantum Leaf Football: Double Team: DT-13

Donnell Bennet and Elvins Grbac Chiefs #d 0475/1500

The final two cards are tradebait and technically are the "same" card. You can't tell from the scans since they are separate scans but one is the mini variant of the other.

2014 Topps Chrome Football: Fantasy Focus: FF-JC Jamaal Charles Chiefs

2014 Topps Chrome Football: Fantasy Focus: Mini FF-J Jamaal Charles Chiefs

Out of five cards I originally didn't want to keep I am keeping 3 of them for now. The vintage one (wasn't ever really tradebait since it's "vintage") will be added to my 1974 set build (if I don't already have it). The other two "keepers" are just keepers for right now. 

UPDATE: 10 Mar 2021 - The 2 Jamall Charles cards have been traded away. One a few months ago and the other one just recently.

Washington Wednesday: A Couple of Unseld Autos

 Washington Wednesday: A Couple of Unseld Autos

It seems like there is always a long time between my Washington Wednesday posts. I should fix that. Hmm when was that Last one? You can click that link to find out. Moving On!

In this episode I will actually mention and show the cards that I briefly blogged about on my Kirk's Knook blog to make my self appointed minimum monthly posting quota way back in April of last year 2017. What I mentioned cards over there? And in APRIL? LAST YEAR? Egads Man PROCRASTINATE MUCH?

On Friday 21 April 2017 as part of my mail day one of the two packages contained an Ebay BIN single card $4.90 + $3.25 Shipping. Bidding had started at only $1.99 but got dangerously close to my max bid of $5.00. Was it a shill? I don't think so, but sometimes when I win auctions very close to or at my max bid I do wonder.

So here it that beaut:

 2015-16 Panini Excalibur Basketball: Regal Endorsements Autograph:

RE-WUN Wes Unseld Bullets on sticker blue sharpie #d 135/200

Then that following Wednesday 26 April 2017 on a single package mail day coming from Ebay. A BIN auction for a single card $1.99 + $4.99 shipping. Short story with this one that I first posted on my regular blog (Kirk's Knook Blog as linked at the beginning of this post). It was mainly a rant about ordering from Ebay without checking out the seller and where they were located. Which was why I posted it on that blog. I knee-jerk bought the card without seeing where it was coming from. It was from a dealer in China. Sometimes that means you will get some kind of counterfeit product. Original tracking information said it would arrive sometime between early May to early June. Fortunately it arrived well before the estimated date.

It was this beaut: Looks like a Dave Bing Cameo. I played some with the post-scanning photo editing to help bring out some of the features. I am far from a pro at it.

2015-16 Panini Threads Basketball: Century Signatures:

CS-WUN Wes Unseld Bullets on sticker autograph blue sharpie #d 137/199

The seller included 3 bonus cards: Fortunately all basketball. I like surprise bonus cards when it makes sense like these from the same sport, but I don’t like it when you order non-sports and they send sports or vice verse, or they send different sports than what you ordered. I like all (well most) sports but some people are just one sport collectors, or Non-Sport only.

2016-17 Panini Donruss Basketball: At first I thought these were special “gold” versions turns out the regular base has the gold/bronze coloring.

142 Marcin Gortat Wizards - Hey they sent the “same” team.

Yes Gortat was the subject of  the previous WW episode.

197 Tyrone Wallace Jazz

2016-17 Panini Select Basketball: Yes I did have to play with the post-scanning settings for this "chrome" card. I didn't realize until after the initial scan that the right side edge and some of the left side had some kind of smudged schmutz on it as shiny chrome cards tend to have if not wiped as soon as gotten and put into a penny sleeve. I wiped the card of the smudge but haven't sleeved it yet.

9 Zaza Pachulia Warriors

The Wallace and the Pachulia cards are of course up for trade.

Washington Wednesday: The Magical Wizard of Lodz

The Magical Wizard of Lodz

This episode of Washington Wednesday I am featuring a card I hinted at in my Trading Thursday post that had the 2015-16 Panini Donruss Basketball cards I pulled from two packs I had gotten from my local Dollar Tree store. If I recall correctly the first pack wasn't too thrilling for me. The second pack though started off with a Bang er Zap?

I pulled a Homie Wizard card. The Starting Center for the Wiz Marcin Gortat. Gortat was born or rather grew up in Lodz (Łódź), Poland. He began his professional career in Europe and was drafted by the Phoenix Suns round 2 in 2005, but continued to play in Germany til 2007. His rights had been traded to the Orlando Magic in 2007 and he made his NBA debut with the Magic in 2008. He was traded to the Suns in 2010 and from there traded to DC in 2013.

2015-16 Panini Donruss Basketball: 69 Marcin Gortat Wizards

Here are three other Gortat cards I have for my PC. I pulled them last year (2015)  in my blog group box break. Probably the last time I'll do one of those too much work and responsibility. It wasn't until I pulled these cards out to scan them that I noticed that I had a nice run of recent years without skipping a season.

 2012-13 Panini Prestige Basketball - 59 Marcin Gortat Suns

 2013-14 Panini NBA Hoops Basketball - 76 Marcin Gortat Suns

 2014-15 Panini NBA Hoops Basketball - 152 Marin Gortat Wizards

Back in October on my Mascot Monday post I mentioned I needed to find the Washington Redskins card from the 1992 Pro Set Football Spirit of the Game sub-set I featured in the post. I have since acquired that card. It was going to be the next Washington Wednesday post, that is this post, before I had pulled the Gortat card at the beginning of this post. I haven't scanned it yet, but anyway I guess there is no real surprise what the next WW post will be about.