So Long Smoltzie

Here's my Frank Wren Impression

Tuff Stuff's Excellent Adventure Pt. 4

Finally, something useful in a price guide! A card grading guide so you can tell what condition your card is in. Good use of 1971 Topps too as the black borders make for hard mint cards. I think some people on e-Bay might need to read this.

Tuff Stuff's Excellent Adventure Pt. 3

Oh to have a day when both Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones are extremely hot in the hobby....oh wait, that day was in 1997. Also making an appearance in the top 10 hot players, Grant Hill and No-MAH. Oh how times have changed. And check out the Card of the Month. To be back in 1997, when die cuts were all the rage.

Tuff Stuff's Excellent Adventure Pt. 2

Here I have an ad. A quite notorious ad. This is for Stan's Sports Memorabilia which is more than likely known to most people as one of the people/businesses who was caught up in the autograph forging business and part of a huge ring that was stopped by the FBI in Operation Bullpen. And if you haven't read the book about Operation Bullpen, you need to track down a copy an read it for yourself. It's quite astounding what these guys did. So take a look at this two page ad and click on the pictures to make them bigger and look at some of the prices. It's astounding what your money could have got you back in 1997, even if it was fake.

Tuff Stuff's Excellent Adventure Pt. 1

First thing I'm going to show you is an ad from 1997."OH MY GOSH WHAT COULD THAT MEAN??!?!?!! THIS AD IS BUILDING MY ANTICIPATION LIKE NONE OTHER!""1997 BOWMAN!!!"

My favorite thing about this ad is the stated odds and them basically telling you that you have no chance of getting that Jeter auto, in any of its forms. I also like that they're pushing Andruw Jones as one of the star autographs in this. Of course, this would have been right after his coming out party in the 1996 World Series and everyone was big on him. Now Andruw is just big.

Home Again, Home Again

Well I'm back from the 'Rents house and in Florida again. However I managed to sneak a few things out of the house that I'm going to get a lot of posts out of. I'll show you the first now.

Aww Snap! A July 1997 issue of Tuff Stuff. Thank goodness I'm a pack rat. I think I have the complete run of Tuff Stuff from '96 to '98 and if it's not complete, it's really really close. Jordan is just schooling Antwan "Baby Fat" Walker in this picture. I'm going to be scanning in some articles, ads and other stuff just to see exactly what was hot and new in the late 90's. I've got a few pages marked and I'll tell you right now, it's really interesting. Things have changed a lot in 12 or so years.

Da na da na da na da na na...BATMAN!!!!!

There are 3 autographed bats in my collection.  I've already shown you one of them in this post and now I'm going to show you the other 2.  

This is an interesting bat as it's signed by Mark Lemke.  The Lemmer wasn't known for his hitting prowess as much as he was known for his defense so it would make more sense to have an autographed glove from him, but I'm not going to complain about having this bat.  Next up:

Here's a bat signed by Mr. Halle Berry, David Justice.  Unlike Lemke, Justice was known for his hitting, having a .500 career slugging percentage,  especially his home run in 1995 to give the Braves the World Series title.  Justice waned in his abilities after he left the Braves, but he would win the World Series again with the Yankees in 2000.  Fun Fact: He collected 23 of 24 1st place votes to win the 1990 NL Rookie of the Year.  The other 1st place vote went to Delino DeShields.