Oregon Ducks versus Oregon State Beavers Bobblehead Style #1

As I posted on Sunday when doing the business card post for the weekend. Things got a little busy this past weekend, and one of those reasons is why we now have this post. On Friday Jackson Stores did their first release of bobbleheads for Oregon, and Oregon State. These bobbleheads which started in 2006, but only for the Boise State Broncos. Have finally moved on to a few new markets with those of us in Oregon finally reaping the benefits. Last season they started the branch out by doing bobbleheads for the Nevada Wolfpack mascot, and Oregon State Beavers mascot. With the success of both the Boise State, and mascot bobbleheads this season Jackson's added more to the mix. While Boise State still gets top billing with a bigger selection we here in Oregon are representing. Both of our teams are getting three bobbleheads this year with some big names in the three. The three bobbleheads come out every two weeks with the first of each team being released this past Friday.

In honor of these three bobbleheads I am going to show you the two bobbleheads each time they are released, and pick a winner. If possible I will be buying both bobbleheads as the wife is a fan of the Beavers, and wants all three Beavers. A co-worker for the wife is a huge Ducks fan, and had a birthday this past weekend. I know the first one she is giving to him as a gift. Not sure if all three will be the gift or not. What I do know is this means I am attempting to get atleast one of each bobblehead. I am shooting to add the winner from each week into my own collection if possible. With no loyalties to either team I can get either one, and not be persuaded by team loyalty.

Starting the collection Jackson's went with what fans here in Oregon consider going big. Starting out for the Ducks was Dion Jordon. Jordon was the third overall pick by the Miami Dolphins in this years draft. While he has yet to accomplish much in this young season. As the third pick you know Miami has to have plans for the guy. Hopefully he will reach his potential, and be everything Miami hopes.

For the Beavers they went with Jordan Poyer. Picked in the seventh round by the Philadelphia Eagles, and playing cornerback. Poyer has already appeared in two games for the Eagles, making two tackles and an assisted tackle. A very popular player for the Beavers during his time here playing at Oregon State.

AND THE WINNER IS.....

Being drafted with the third overall pick, and personally just being the cooler looking of the two. It's a no brainer that I would go with Dion. For some reason I like the pose of Dion more than Jordan. If he was rocking the same pose as Jordan has then it would have been tough, and possibly gone the other direction. He isn't though so Dion goes on the shelf.

Included on the side of the box is a picture of the three bobbleheads in the collection. For your viewing pleasure, and to maybe get you wondering which you would buy if you were in my shoes, here they are.

As a heads up the next releases are Marcus Wheaton, and Kenyon Barner.

Biz Cards The Collection- Rochester, Lehigh Valley, & Richmond

With this only being Sunday I have already had a crazy weekend. All the activities is the reason that this is the first, and only showing of business cards for the weekend. The great part of being so busy is if I can think of how to do the write ups. There are two posts that should be coming from these last two days. Until then I am going to share three new towns worth of baseball business cards.

Rochester

Baseball in Rochester, and the International League dates back to the 1800's. It wasn't until 1929 when the Red Wings started their first MLB affiliation. The team was the St. Louis Cardinals who became owners of both the team, and stadium they played in. During the 1940's some slim years followed with the Cardinals announcing the team would cease operations, and both the stadium and team were for sale. A group with the plan to sell stocks in the team, and make the public Rochester's new owners was formed. Successful in their move the team is now owned by the Red Wings fans much like the NFL Green Bay Packers. Despite the new ownership the Cardinals would remain affiliated with Rochester until the end of 1960

Ending their relationship with the St. Louis Cardinals the Red Wings became affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles in 1961. The new relationship would last 42 years with the Red Wings winning six Championships. Things went south during the last few seasons as Rochester suffered from five miserable years. This led to the end of the relationship at the end of 2002.

Signing with the Minnesota Twins at the end of 2002. The team started its current affiliation at the start of the 2003 season. To date the team has had a rollercoaster ten years with the Twins. This season ending just short of making the International League playoffs.

Lehigh Valley

A new team since the start of the 2008 season. The IronPigs were originally the Ottawa Lynx who relocated to Allentown after the 2007 season. This move almost didn't happen, and wouldn't have if not for the failure of Harrisburg to update its stadium to Triple A baseball standards. Allentown stepped up to the plate by building a new stadium. The stadium Coca-Cola Park opened in 2008 with the arrival of the IronPigs. Since arriving in Allentown the IronPigs have been an affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Richmond

 

Created in 1966 as the Triple A affiliate for the Atlanta Braves. The team would play in Richmond until their relocation to Gwinnett in 2009. The move would come after years of trying to get a new stadium, but with no results. Despite an online petition by the fans of Richmond the team would move to Gwinnett who had built the team a new stadium. 

Richmond wouldn't remain without a team for long as in 2010 the San Fransisco Giants came calling. The team looking for a new home for its Double A Eastern League franchise which was relocating from Connecticut moved into town. The new team known as the Flying Squirrels was chosen during a name the team contest. Even with the new franchise Richmond is still haunted by the desire for a new stadium. Since their move into town the Flying Squirrels have been working on a new stadium for the teams games.

Filling The Gaps

As I've said a few times on this very blog. I have the attention span of a gnat at times. Due to this there are points in my hobbies where things get lost or forgotten about. Other then my time of not collecting, baseball cards never fall into this category. When I collect cards I collect them, and keep enjoying the hobby. The one hobby I have that suffers from these gaps is my pocket schedules hobby. There are times such as this summer. When I just don't mail out SASE's to sports teams. What this does is creates a hole that sometimes I am able to fill, and other times go empty as none of my usual trade partners mailed the team or only got one when they did.

 Sometimes this is when a fellow collector John comes into play. John does massive amounts of mailing, and then sells his doubles. This is a great deal for guys like me as it reminds me of baseball card purchasing. Much like when you buy that one or more cards you need for the collection. That card you never seem to find no matter how many packs you buy. So John steps up with his doubles, and offers them up at a price that costs a third of what it would have cost to mail the team myself. These can either fill a missing gap or as with one of the ones in this post. John saves me the time of mailing a team altogether.

 Often times the don't know what you are getting surprise much like buying a pack of cards. This I believe is why I collect pocket schedules along with baseball cards. You send out a pair of stamps, and don't know what player you are going to get. While like baseball cards there are checklists of the pocket schedules. It's still a lottery in what one of those are coming your direction. The fun chance of not only surprised by what is in the envelope. The chance like a baseball card to own a picture of your favorite player. The great thing with schedules is instead of the players stats. You can see what teams he played against all season long during that given year.

Much like with cards there are becoming more high tech goodies. While it doesn't show in the scan the 2013 Utah schedule is a moving picture style. The second picture is the crowd of red cheering on the team. Currently the Utes are the only schedules being produced this way. Hopefully like baseball cards more teams will see these, and test them out. Sometimes other teams will see some new goodie, and try it out themselves. Until then I will hope John keep offering up schedules at a good price so I can update the collection when I miss schedules like these four.

I Didn't Know These Were In There

The title for this post is exactly what was going through my mind Sunday night. To know what led to this we have to go through the entire story. On Friday night the local Boys and Girls Club held their first monthly dance. Last year these became a staple for the daughter as it's more of a chance to hang with friends, and listen to loud music. Part of the fun though is they always have a theme with this one being the 80's. Being the first dance she talked us into having her friend stay the night so they could do each others hair before going. After leaving the wife asked me what was with the hair to which I told her about the dances theme. Her answer was "well they nailed it!" Sadly if I had known about this post I'd have taken a picture, but I didn't so instead you get an 80's Madonna which odds are was the inspiration for my daughter's hair.

After the dance it was late so the girls came home, and headed for bed not long afterwards. Saturday came with a ton of possibilities as the Beavers were in San Diego, and the Ducks on a bye week. This meant that the freeway wouldn't be crazy with fans all heading to the game. With this opportunity we discussed what we could do with the day. Both girls have been on this kick of wanting to find all the parts for their Halloween costumes. Despite being just over a month away they have been driving me insane whenever they get together as they want to have their costumes finished.

 She does this as a few years ago I decided that the price of costumes were way over the top. Paying 30 dollars for something everyone else is wearing so that you can get five dollars worth of candy. The entire thing seemed insane to me so that year I offered her ten dollars in candy to skip the whole thing or come up with something not everyone was wearing. Thinking she would just say "ok, I'll take the candy" she stunned me, and took the challenge dressing as a vampire cheerleader. This sparked her creativity, and is something she has looked forward to each Halloween. Due to this offer Goodwill each year around this time has become her best friend. Wanting to get the costume done we all agreed to head up north to the Goodwill hoping it would have a better selection that our closer store. It turns out I was right as she found the dress she has been looking for to start the outfit. Leaving she noticed a shell necklace, and wanted one. Many years ago her grandfather went to Hawaii, and brought me back one so I offered it up.

This moves us to Sunday night. On Saturday I agreed to look for it Sunday evening after everything died down. In the garage I have four bins full of things that haven't seen the light of day in years. Mostly its pewter, glass, and wood castles as I once collected these, and showed them off in nice cases around the house. When the daughter was born they all got put away, and the cases given away as I didn't want her hurt by breaking the glass or breaking any of the castles. Going through a couple moves since I divorced her mother, they have still sat in the bins waiting for me to decide their fate. Not only is there castles, but other odds, and ends as well. Some of these are magazines or other Nolan Ryan items that I keep not knowing what to do with.

 Inside one of these bins was supposed to be the necklace we were wanting. Going through the first bin we found  a box that holds other necklaces I had long forgotten about. We enjoyed seeing what was in there, but moved on quickly as it wasn't our end goal. A second, and third bins didn't reveal much more than the castles I knew were in them. The sad part is some had to be thrown away as they have been seriously damaged by all the moves. The fourth bin revealed the most as the daughter dug to the bottom. Reaching in she came up with a stack of cards that led to the quote, and post title. "I didn't know these were in there".

These are the 1997 Cracker Jack minis. The little prizes you get from inside a box of Cracker Jacks.  Two things about these cards caught me off guard. First is these cards come from a time frame I wasn't collecting baseball cards. I wasn't even remotely interested in baseball cards, and had no thoughts of ever collecting again. So how they survived the few times I have gone through that bin, and were still inside is incredible. You would think that they would have been trashed at some point.

The second thing that caught me off guard is I've never been a fan of Cracker Jacks. I liked the peanuts in them the few times I did eat them, but as for the caramel popcorn. I just never really did get into that part of them. So how did I end up with eleven cards from boxes of Cracker Jack?. All from a time frame that I wasn't even slightly interested in baseball cards. Talk about a mystery that will never be answered.

Besides the baseball cards I found a few more cards that I knew about, but had long forgotten.

All these came from a football game I had bought years ago.This is another case of not knowing what happened to everything. I have these three cards, and I believe a couple Broncos in a box with my baseball cards. What happened to the game along with the remaining cards is another mystery. I do know I kept these cards as I had heard of these three guys. The other cards I had no clue about.

So after going through all four bins we never did find the necklace that started all this. As I've said a few times these bins have gone through alot. I believe I know where the necklace ended up. A place where its never to be seen again. I doubt the person who ended up with it even has it anymore. The small container it was in had something else they wanted. So the necklace was an afterthought that odds are ended up getting tossed aside. The good news is the daughter, and myself had a good time going through the bins. She did find a sword ring that she is in love with so for her it wasn't a total loss.

Football Helmets

Sunday was quite the day for me when it comes to collecting. Starting off the morning I had the plan to go north and hit an antique show they had going on. Waking up at the appropriate time I made the journey north. While my plan was to see about adding some sort of baseball memorabilia or possibly even cards on the cheep. What I got was something I never even imagined.

Entering the building I started doing the row after row thing. On the third row sitting on a table were these little goodies right here.

At the price I couldn't say no. This had to mostly be because of the memories flowing through my head as I handed over the dollar. I remember as a kid the first time I saw these helmets in one of those quarter candy machines. We barely made trips over to the town where these machines were located so we would save, and or beg for money so we could buy a couple. The machine would torture me as all I ever wanted was the Denver Broncos helmet. Things never worked out until Sunday as that one helmet always seemed to elude my hands. My friend always seemed to get his as he was an Oakland Raiders fan. Still that Broncos helmet never showed up. That was until looking into the bag, and finding two.

While some of these are admittedly in rough shape. I couldn't turn down the chance to not only finally add that Broncos helmet. So despite their age, and what not these will be finding a home in the hobby room at some point. The daughter already has what sounds like a great idea on how to display the entire collection. Once we get it figured out another post might get made. How long it takes to find exactly what she is looking for is yet to be determined. The hunt is most of the fun anyway if you ask me.

Biz Cards The Collection- Durham & Toledo

Odds are today's two teams or towns will be the most fun ones in this entire series. You have two teams with quite a history. One team was the meat, and potato's of a movie. This movie would forever change the franchise. While the other got some mentioning on a television series. So with those two things on your mind lets get into showing the cards shall we?

Durham

Most if not all of us have seen the movie 'Bull Durham'. If you haven't seen it already go right now since it's Sunday, and watch it. The movie has my favorite all time quotes from baseball movies. I would say my favorite, but that quote comes from the movie 'Grosse Pointe Blank'. The main character is getting ready to kill someone who asks him not to do it. He replies with "It's not personal just business. Why does everyone take it personal?" After that my next few favorite quotes come from 'Bull Durham'.

Originally created in 1902 the last, and current use of the name was formed in 1980. Playing in the single A Carolina League as an Atlanta Braves affiliate until 1998. The team's real fame came from being in the movie 'Bull Durham' in 1988. This fame is what catapulted the team to its current place in the triple A International League.

While it took ten years after the movie to move into the International League. The move might not have been possible if not for a need to add two teams to affiliate with the Tampa Bay Rays, and Arizona DiamondBacks. The city of Durham was added to the mix, and became the Tampa Bay Rays affiliate. An affiliation that has been kept since the addition to triple A. With the success of the Bulls, and Rays affiliation this relationship will run for many more years to come.

Toledo

My first time knowing that there was a team in Toledo known as the Mud Hens no less. Was while watching the television show M.A.S.H. as a kid. This is one of those classic television shows that still holds up to this very day. My daughter enjoys watching the show on TV Land every so often. So if you haven't seen the show look for it sometime, and give it a shot. One of the characters Maxwell Klinger is from Toledo, Ohio. Due to this he mentioned the Mud Hens numerous times in the series. Even sporting the teams hat a few times.

Another franchise that has on again off again roots. The current run of the franchise was started in 1965. While jumping from affiliation to affiliation early on the team has stuck with the Detroit Tigers since 1987.

According to the team website the name originates from strange marsh birds that inhabit the local marshlands. The birds have short wings, and long legs.

 

 

Biz Cards The Collection- Charleston, Syracuse & Louisville

Now that a busy week is over it's time for the weekend, and some fun. While I have no idea what is on the agenda for today what I do know is it's time for another showing of cards from the business card collection.

Charleston, West Virginia

The Charleston Charlies played in the International League from 1971-1983. Only affiliated with the Indians from 1981-1983 which is the time frame this card comes from. Leaving Charleston in 1984 the team moved to Old Orchard Beach where the team became the Maine Guides. For the next few years Charleston would be without baseball until 1988 when a new franchise in the lower South Atlantic League would move to town. The current team known as the West Virginia Power still play as a Pirates affiliate.

Syracuse

The current run of the Chiefs name has been used in the International League since 1961. Coming into the league as an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. The team bounced from affiliate to affiliate until 1978 when the team signed with the Toronot Blue Jays. This affiliation would last until 2008.

For a few years during the time frame of 1997-2006 the team went to the name SkyChiefs. While I can't say with certainty the name change came as a way to drop the Indian reference.

Going back to the name Chiefs in 2006 the team came up with a much friendlier logo featuring the train currently used. In 2008 another change would come as the team would change from the Blue Jays to the Washington Nationals affiliate. The relationship with the Nationals still continues today.

Louisville

Formed in 1982 as the St. Louis Cardinals relocated their triple A team to Louisville. The move proved to be very successful as the team set all sorts of attendance records. Even becoming the first ever minor league team to top one million fans in a single season. The relationship was such a success that at the time there was talks of a MLB being placed in the city. As we all know the team never came, but triple A baseball kept going.

The Cardinals relationship ended in 1998 as the team changed to a Brewers affiliate. Along with the change came a new name as well to the RiverBats. Both changes would be short-lived as the Brewers relationship would last only two seasons before the team would sign with the Reds. Then after four years as the Louisville RiverBats the name would be shortened to just Bats in 2002. The new name, and logo are references to the Louisville Slugger bat maker.

Honoring Mariners Owner Hiroshi Yamauchi

Thursday was a dark day when it came to sports that matter here in the cathouse. Adding to the sad news that NAPA had dropped Michael Waltrip Racing. Was the news that Seattle Mariners majority owner Hiroshi Yamauchi died on Thursday morning. Taking all my feelings for the man out of the equation, as right now is not the time to rant on Mr. Yamauchi. The man's purchase of the team is the sole reason we still have baseball in Seattle. If he hadn't stepped to the plate all the games we have enjoyed in Seattle would have never happened. For that I thank you so much Mr. Yamauchi.

Without Mr. Yamauchi stepping up who knows where my baseball collecting would be? All the Mariners games we have gone to for years would never have happened. To see his influence on my collection all you have to do is see the many bobbleheads in the hobby room.

There would be no pocket schedules galore.

And there wouldn't be any Mariners cards in a binder.

Who knows if I would have the same love for baseball? While we have minor league teams in our area things would be so much different without getting to see MLB games every year. When I was collecting baseball cards in the early 90's my girlfriend at the time, and myself would go see Bend Rockies games often. It was a good time, but it wasn't the MLB. The creation of the Colorado Rockies had me thrilled, but that only got me so far. It's still funny that even though we watch the Mariners all the time. I'm a Rockies fan, and always will be at heart.

 Despite all that it wasn't until going to Mariners games with the wife. That baseball would become a passion once again. So for all that I owe Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi, and his buying the Mariners. While we go to tons of minor league games the seeing a Mariners game each year still gets me pumped. This doesn't matter how bad the team is.

So thank you Mr. Yamauchi for saving baseball in Seattle, and baseball for this one fan.

NAPA drops Michael Waltrip Racing

Being the huge NASCAR fan that we are in the cathouse I have to chime in on this. Today NAPA announced that it will no longer be sponsoring cars for MWR. This after the whole mess from Richmond just under two weeks ago. Personally I am sad to hear that NAPA felt the pressure to go this route. Hopefully they will be the only sponsor to drop this great up, and coming team.

The saddest part is this could be the first nail in the coffin for this team, and it's a shame. If more sponsors cave to the same pressure NAPA did NASCAR will be losing what was on the verge of being one of its top teams. MWR has been knocking on the top of being an elite team with a passionate owner, and great sponsors. This season NASCAR took some serious hits as the amount of teams has been slowly dwindling. There have been a few weeks where they only had 43 cars show up so everyone raced. There have even been some cars for the top teams race with no sponsorship.

 To lose a sponsor like NAPA is devastating to a team like MWR. Another loss will be what I feel are the best commercials in NASCAR. MWR seems to always be part of the best commercials shown during races, and the NAPA commercials topped the list. Both groups played off each others strengths in the commercials, and next year that will be lost.

All this stems from what I feel was an over-reaction on the part of NASCAR. While they believed that Bowyer spun on purpose they couldn't prove anything. So instead they went after something they could prove, and that was Vickers pitting to give up his spot. The most brutal part of that situation is it's something done all the time in NASCAR. Joey Logano was given a spot by another racer who just moved over. No punishment, yet the team committed the same crime as MWR. Heck they are still allowing teams to slide over, and let someone lead a lap for a point. A point that once it's given can't be taken back. A situation that has happened numerous times all season, but I guess it's not allowed during the Richmond race.

Now due to the over-reaction NASCAR is on the verge of crippling a team that is great for the sport. While the money punishment was huge. The biggest hits are the car they eliminated from the chase which cost the team another 1-4 million dollars. While it might be late to secure full sponsorship for 2014 hopefully MWR survives this bump.

As a fan of Kyle Busch I hope MWR's remaining sponsors learn from his situation. After his meltdown in the truck race at Texas on 2011. There was talk at the time of Joe Gibbs Racing either losing all the sponsors related with Kyle or Kyle being forced out. In the end only one sponsor wanted off of the car, and that sponsor has been the loser in the entire deal. The ones who stayed have reaped the benefits of Kyle running good, and getting them tons of television time showing his car. The one who left has fallen into oblivion on its new car where they are barely seen on television. While there were behind the scene punishments the sponsors stayed. Hopefully MWR gets the same results as these sponsors will benefit from staying put if you ask me.

 More than anything I just want to see MWR weather this storm, and survive. As I've said a few times, and will say one last time. It's a great team with an even better ownership which would be a huge loss to NASCAR. Heck, when all this happened he admitted to the pitting to try, and get his driver in the chase. I can't think of too many other owners who would have admitted to this. I could be wrong, but I highly doubt it. That alone shows the man is honest, and unfortunately crossed an imaginary line that every team crosses constantly. The other owner who got caught went into total denial, and as I said walked away not only unpunished but got rewarded. Then they wonder why the sport is struggling right now. Could be the way they dish out punishments, and rewards as they please.

Well Sheet!

One of my biggest flaws is I have the attention span of a gnat sometimes. This flaw has haunted me throughout life, and still haunts me to this very day. The parts of life where it hits me the most is in getting things done around the house, and my hobbies. This past weekend it hit me in both as I was attempting to do some organizing in the hobby room.

On Saturday we made the short trip into town as the wife was working again, and needed the daughter and myself to get some groceries that were on sale. Not willing to turn down a chance to visit the Goodwill I was all for this trip. The daughter was in as well being she's been looking for a dress to use for Halloween. Her plan is to dress as Mother Nature, and getting a cool dress on the cheap for her costume has been driving her nuts. So going through the store I saw something that I should have bought, but let the daughter talk me out of. This is the reason for the post title. They had a baseball card binder that had probably thirty or so pages inside. Most the pages seemed like they were in rough shape, and that is why she was able to talk me out of the purchase. The thing only cost three dollars, and has been haunting me ever since. Binders alone cost more than that so even if I could have saved five pages it was a sweet deal, and one I messed up by not taking advantage of.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon. The NASCAR race that I was torn about even watching got hit with a rain delay. Throw in that they were going to be showing the Broncos versus Giants in a few hours. I had some spare time to attempt getting something done around the house. With the daughter being stuck to doing her chores of cleaning her bedroom, and bathroom. I felt motivated to get some organizing in the hobby room done. Things started well as I got a few of the shelves reorganized. The bobblehead collection is looking way better now with them all organized on four shelves. That is when the gnat attention span started to set in. My brain started wandering, and wanted to play with baseball cards, and pocket schedules. This wasn't a terrible thing as getting baseball cards organized is part of the hobby room cleaning. So deciding where to start I put the last couple trades in their respectable spots.

This has been something that has been going great for awhile now. Since getting most my sets in order I have been adding new stuff in their place more sooner than later for the most part. I do have some sets that I can't seem to remember their location so the cards for them are all on one box together so when everything is perfect I'll be able to add them no problem.

My next idea was to get my Mark Teixeira collection in order. This was were things went south, and in a hurry. I located one of my stacks of Teixeira cards that need to be put in the album. Then started to figure out which cards went where. As I got a few cards in I reached under the table for a nine pocket page, and.... Well Sheet! I have six pocket pages, I have two pocket pages, I even have four pocket pages, but no nine. I sat there for a moment thinking about that binder at Goodwill just a day earlier. Able to scrounge up a page or two from another binder. My gnat attention span set in, and organizing was done. If I had only bought those pages....

Biz Cards The Collection- Ottawa & Charlotte

As I write this the day is winding down from a day of college football watching. The day still isn't over though as the Oregon State Beavers are playing one of my two teams the Utah Utes. So if this post goes south blame the game. I did notice one thing that was done wrong in the Saturday post that won't be done tonight. When doing the town listing I did the team which was wrong. With names changing all the time I want to do just the town name, and show all cards related to thew town. Don't be surprised to see it happen in the future a few more times, but for tonight it won't be happening.

Ottawa

Running from 1993 until 2007 when the club was sold, and relocated. The Lynx played in the International League during its entire existence. The relocation of the team became quite the ordeal as the city of Ottawa filed a lawsuit to block the relocation. Countering with its own lawsuit for breach of contract the Lynx moved at the end of 2007. The move in large part was due to the lack of support with low attendance figures its final few seasons. Since leaving Ottawa in 2007 the International League has zero teams left outside of the United States.

Charlotte

Joining the Double A Southern Lerague in 1976 as an affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The original name of the franchise was the Charlotte Orioles. Using the name until 1988 when the team was sold to new ownership, and changed to the Charlotte Knights. After the 1988 season the team signed a new deal to become affiliated with the Chicago Cubs. The deal would stay in place until 1993 when huge changes came to the franchise. First the team joined the International League, and then signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians. The deal would only last three seasons. 

 In 1996 the team would sign a two year contract with the Florida Marlins. The deal would be the teams only two years affiliated with the Marlins.

At the end of 1997 the team would be sold to a North Carolina businessman who would sign a deal with the Chicago White Sox. The deal still remains in place to this day, and goes through 2014. Going into the 2014 season the team is scheduled to open a new ballpark in the area of the Carolina Panthers stadium.

(back picture of lower two cards)

Biz Cards The Collection- Buffalo & Columbus

After only making one post last weekend this one should be much better when it comes to showing the business cards. If you didn't read any of my posts this week. We made a last second run over to the coast for the night last Saturday. This didn't give me a chance to write up a Sunday post so we only got the one batch of cards. This weekend my plans consist of running errands today, and watching college football. Sunday will be watching the NASCAR race, and with all the crap going on I don't know why. Not getting to big into that whole ordeal, but you can say right now I am so pissed at NASCAR. After all the events last weekend they released a statement saying they wouldn't deal with what if's or could have been's. Then Friday they put Jeff Gordon in the chase based on a what if or could have been. Way to stick to your guns... Anyways lets see some business cards shall we?

Buffalo Bisons

The Bisons name has a history in Buffalo going back to the late 1800's. Playing in various leagues, and having stints of teams, and then no teams in Buffalo. The current franchise dates to 1979 as a team in the Double A Eastern League. In 1985 the team joined the American Association until the league's demise in 1997. Joining the International League which it has been a member of ever since.

During the years the team has made seven affiliate changes. These changes have occurred with five different teams during this time. The longest run being with the Cleveland Indians from 1995 until 2008.

After the 2008 season the team announced a brand new affiliation, and team logo. The logo shown on the card above added the new affiliate New York Mets colors, and a skyline. Personally this is the best of all the Bisons logo's if you ask me. The buffalo with the city skyline has a good look, and is way better than the batting buffalo in my opinion. This relationship would be short-lived though as the team didn't do well for the four years as a Mets affiliate. During the 2009-2012 seasons the team had losing records in three of the seasons, and attendance took a huge dip.

In 2013 the team signed with it's closest MLB team the Toronto Blue Jays. Sadly I was unable to get a new business card this season to show the teams new look, and affiliation. This means I have something to shoot for next year unless one drops in my lap through other means before next season. The team went back to the batting buffalo logo, but with new colors. While the team didn't make the playoffs this season it did end with a winning record of 74-70

Columbus Clippers

Founded in 1977 as an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates which was very short-lived. The team changed to the New York Yankees in 1979. During its time with the Yankees the franchise had tons of greats come though its ranks. Much like its MLB team the Clippers were winning Championships by the handful. Playing in 10 different Championships, and winning 7 of the 10.

The relationship between the two lasted for 28 years before coming to an end in 2006. Two years with the Washington Nationals followed the Yankees era. Both seasons did not end well with the team going 64-80 in 2007. The following season the team didn't fair much better going 69-73.

Deciding a change had to be made the franchise signed a contract to affiliate itself with the Cleveland Indians in 2009. The contract which has been renewed now runs through 2014, and has yielded two Championships already in 2010 and 2011. 2013 wasn't the teams best year as they finished nine games back of Indianapolis with a 71-73 record.