Clearing Out The Lost Artelopes- part 1

With baseball season finished for a few teams, and winding down for the remaining teams. I have seven artelopes that I've given up on with six being for baseball. Now seems like as good a time as any to admit that these won't be coming home so it's time to give up the ghost on these.

Ohio was an expansion team in the Major League Lacrosse for 2015. The Machine is listed on every lacrosse schedule collectors wantlist. This leads me to believe that the team either didn't print schedules, didn't want to bother mailing schedules out, or just decided to collect SASE's from those of us who sent them. Either way I did my best with what I personally thought was some pretty good artwork for me. Yes my star needed some work, but those gears weren't bad.

Amarillo was another new franchise for 2015 only in baseball. The Thunderheads are representatives of the American Association an independent league. With the team playing its last few games for 2015, the team is currently 42-51 for the year. As for the drawing I have to admit it wasn't my best work.

For the third straight year the Doubledays stiffed me again. I don't know if the whole artelopes thing just isn't working for them or what? Before starting the project I never had any problems getting returns from the team.

Odds are I should have given up on this request long ago, but for some reason it has taken until today. Going through an affiliation change this year I gave the daughter the chance to draw this one. My thinking was she would go all out, and take advantage of the music theme used by the Sounds. Unfortunately she went with just a couple notes, and told me she was done. Maybe at some point she will want to do more, but for awhile now she's had zero interest in helping with these drawings.

A Schmidt(y) Game

Saturday I got to hit what odds are is my last minor league game for the season. Sadly it has been a bad year for baseball as the count was a mere three games for the season. Another odd stat for me atleast is that only one was a giveaway game. That giveaway happening last night in the form of a bobblehead of one Mike Schmidt.

(image from the Emeralds twitter)

The bobblehead above has been on my radar since it was an announced giveaway. As the day got closer though, this game almost didn't get added to my watch list for this year. It wasn't until early in the week that I convinced the wife that going to it would be a great idea. In the end she agreed, and we would be heading to the game. From there another roadblock formed as some very much needed rain has been the forecast for not just Saturday, but through mid-week. 

Starting the drive towards Eugene I almost bailed as we hit serious patch of rain that was blinding due to the wind pushing it. Thanks to the wife, and her desire to catch what was her second, and last game of this year. We pushed forward, and in the end got the payoff we had both wanted. 

For seating we didn't get the usual aisle seats we always get as the Ems are in a playoff push, and therefore the crowd was bigger. Throw in the bobblehead that we learned during the game from one of the top office guys has been requested quite often by fans for years. What we did get were great seats behind homeplate.

We avoided the rain being the seats were covered, so all was good. The only rain was a drizzle that lasted a short time anyway. 

For a minor league game it was a great battle as the visiting Hops were just one game out of first when play started, and were the first half division champions. Cruising along with Hillsboro getting one run in the fifth, things continued to flow as Eugene threatened, but couldn't seem to punch the tying run across. In the top of the eighth Hillsoboro added two more for what would be the final score of 3-0.

One of the more fun things the team has been doing for a couple years now is the rally Bigfoot. He comes out dancing, and basically irritating the right fielder, and sometimes the base umpire. The fielder was especially irritated as he kept moving, and Bigfoot kept going with him.

In the end we had a good time at the game, and were glad we got in this last minor league game for the year. Next up will be my big planned weekend in two weeks.

NFL Artelopes

With me having today off, and a little spare time before the wife, daughter, and her friend all wake up. I figure now would be a great time to get two of my most recent returns out of the way.

When I first started doing the artelopes project the Titans were one of the very first teams I wrote. After waiting for three months I gave up, and vowed that it would take quite a long time before writing them again. Luckily I didn't hold true to that as the Titans sent just what the cat ordered.

The highlight is that Tennessee dropped the very much requested business card on me. Adding the Titans into the football business cards now leaves the missing at nine teams, and hopefully going down once I get the chance to create a new batch of artelopes.

The Bengals have been absolutely brutal when it comes to the artelopes. While I enjoy doing envelopes to send their direction due to the tiger theme. I have still come up dry in adding that ever elusive business card into the collection.

Another return, and yet we are still missing the business card. One day I will beat you Bengals, and when I do your business card will make it into the collection. Until then our battle continues. 

#Kylecard Goes To A No-No

On Sunday I wanted to head down to Eugene, and catch an Emeralds game. The original promotion that interested me was the Garage Sale. Things changed though when on Friday I saw that the promotion had changed to 'Remembering Civic Stadium'. For those that keep up with this blog you know that Civic Stadium was the old home of the Emeralds that was burned to the ground recently.

Wanting to hit a ballgame more than anything I thought why not, and decided to hit the game despite the change. Little did I know that I'd be seeing Emeralds history when the night was over.

When we went to the July 4th game I had Kylecard, but didn't take any pictures. This time I couldn't let him miss out on this game, and some photo ops.

These first two pictures were from outside the gates waiting to get into the game. While the crowd was decent sized during the game, you wouldn't have thought by seeing the empty view here.

I had to take a little closer view of the Bigfoot logo as I just love the look of this logo.

Besides the garage sale thing still going on, the Civic Stadium tribute, the Ems offer one dollar hot dogs on Sundays. Getting something to eat, and a drink was my top priority before deciding what to do next.

As I sat in my seat I noticed one of the staff wearing one of the jersey's the Ems would be wearing for the game. Opportunity struck as the information booth was slow, and I went in to see if he'd show off the jersey with Kylecard. Sorry it isn't be best picture, and honestly it frustrated me beyond belief to get this picture. For some reason the phone camera just wouldn't flash, and so I had to lighten this picture to get it to look this good. During the game they had a silent auction for the jersey's that were worn by the players.

As for the game itself, I had to work the next day. Due to this I thought maybe getting to see half the game would be my fate. As things got going though, I started to notice very few walks, and a pace that was flowing along. Eugene added a run to go up 1-0 as things just kept going.

Things really got interesting to me when Everett brought in Adam Moore. At the time I didn't put it together right off the bat, but that changed, and in a hurry. Moore was one of if not the star pitcher for the Oregon State Beavers. Throw in that he grew up in Eugene, and what you had was a crowd that turned on its home team. For the innings that Moore pitched it was like a home game for the Aquasox when in the outfield.

With all this going on I'm not sure how many noticed, but it wasn't lost on me. As the Ems added two runs to go up 3-0 I noticed that the Sox still hadn't gotten a hit. Then came the top of the ninth, and still no hits for the visitors. This game had an amazing flow that only took barely over two hours to complete. When all was said, and done four Emeralds pitchers had a no hitter. This ended up being the fifth no hitter in the teams history of 60 years.

Ironically the teams last no hit gem was in 1968, and was the year before moving into Civic Stadium. It was an amazing experience that I'm glad something told me to go despite the garage sale promotion actually taking a back seat. While they still did the garage sale, all it basically was is old team card sets that I had zero interest in. Getting to see a no hitter from a team that hadn't had another in your lifetime was simply amazing.

Odds are this will be my last game this season in Eugene unless a miracle happens. I'd like to go on the 29th, but I think we will end up doing my company picnic instead. The game features a Mike Schmidt bobblehead, and I'd love to bag one for the collection. Even if I don't catch another game Kylecard has something huge in his future next month.

Looking In The Mirror

Not much has been going on here at The Prowling Cat blog. That is largely due to lots of overtime being done by yours truly to pay for a huge weekend coming next month. While I can't give any good reasons for the previous seven month being slow I can give the overtime one for August. What I can say though is it has been a weird feeling year for some strange reason. Not many baseball cards have followed me home, I believe my card show count is one show this year, and with how the hobby room has been coming together I've had a very slow trickle of additions there. This means that in the near future I will need to take a hard look in the mirror when it comes to this blog.

No, this doesn't mean I plan on walking away. What it means is I will need to adapt the things I've been doing, and not rely so heavily on new additions to keep things running along. When you aren't adding tons of things it is hard to write tons of posts about your purchases.

A new direction will need to be forged which means writing about the collection, and not the additions so much. New stuff will have a home, but not as the sole basis of this blog. Who knows maybe a future that includes trying to trade more will help. Until then I will keep puttering along for the remainder of this year at the longest. What I can say is that by the start of the new year I will be coming up with a plan as I enjoy doing this whole blogging thing.

As for now, odds are things will be hit or miss. That meaning I might go on a streak of posts, or I might go cold for another almost two weeks like before this post. There is just so much going on outside of the blog right now that once done I believe will help get things back on track. Not one of these things are bad, they are just blowing my blogging focus. I've never been a huge multi-tasker so it's better to pick a couple project, and get them done. Once completed I feel things won't feel so weird, and I can get back to normal. Until then enjoy a few Coca Cola polar bear cards...

Artelopes- 2015 Utah Utes Football

When it comes to college schedules there are a very select few teams that I collect. One of those is from the area I was raised, Utah.

The idea for this artwork came from the college's website. While not a perfect match I took the idea, and went with my own mountain ridges, and buildings. With the branching out this year I was pretty pleased with the end result. Honestly there was a part of me that wondered why this was even being sent out. Proud of the end result I fought wanting to keep it for some strange reason. What good would it do me to keep it finally won over, and it made its way towards the University of Utah athletic department.

Returning home was five of the schedules above. No business card was requested as the athletic department sent two great looking cards last year. As for the schedule it's a great looking card style that unfortunately doesn't scan too well. What it does do is rotate between #13 in white, and #23 in red. Utah seems to be on a roll with this style of schedule as it is the third time in four years they have went with these.

On The Way Home From The Garage Sale

As I made the way back home from the few finds at the show. Stop after stop at the Goodwill's along the way home yielded zero results. It wasn't until the final stop of the day I was able to add baseball cards for the first time in a very long time.

Remembering that the card shop in Salem hadn't had a visit from the cat in a few months. I felt it was time to stop in, and see if his 2015 singles were stocked with all the cards I haven't been buying packs of this year.

The first additions were cards for my personal collecting.While Arenado, and Rosario are obvious, and  on my player collections list. Pomeranz, and Blackmon aren't on the list currently. Why I bought the Pomeranz, and Rosario cards are a mystery as odds are after this year neither will be players I actively collect. All that will be addressed in December, or when I decide to do the post addressing my players collection.

Next was this batch of cards that I figured would either find a home with some fellow blogger, or bloggers. When I bought them all, but one I had an idea of who to possibly send them to. If you'd like to beat me to the punch just tell which one, two, three, or all four you want with a comment. I can be real slow in sending cards out sometimes so they won't be gone for atleast a few weeks, or knowing me months.

Closing out my purchasing, and the reason I didn't have more cards than the eight was two of the ball cubes like the one above. Deciding to go the route of display cases for some of the league balls instead of the pack lottery. I felt like it would be wiser to spend the money on something I can use rather than luck.

It was a nice way to end the trip by hitting a card shop again. So far it has held me over, and won't hopefully be the last time I see cards for a few more months. If all goes as planned I want to hit the show at Mall 205 this month. Who knows if it will happen as it does coincide with the daughter's birthday weekend.