Okay Everybody, Stay Calm. But We're Pulling a Baltimore Colts

Keep calm and carry on, mates.

But I am in the middle of major changes. The backstory goes like this -

Last fall I launched Faraday Sports Marketing. An attempt to leverage my experience and relationships in sports into building websites and doing social media development and consultation. I built three websites before Amanda and I went to Ireland. When we got back from Ireland, sports just like...kinda stopped.

The domain has languished for the last year. Instead of letting the domain expire, I've decided to move this blog to that domain name and consolidate this blog and the upcoming (and hopefully growing) Comc page that will (again, hopefully) fund a personal collection rebuild.

Some Exciting Updates

There's been a lot going on here at the corner of Ashburn Alley & Yawkey Way.  Collections wise,
we've been relatively quiet.  I've had a couple returns come in for the Phillies Frankenset that I haven't posted, including Ramon Aviles, who I've been informed has recently passed away. I'm thankful that Ramon took a few minutes to sign some autographs for me.

I've added a few new pieces to my growing Providence Bruins/Rhode Island Reds hockey collection.  I found a cheap eBay auction for some AHL stickers that had a "There's something Bruin in Providence" bumper sticker and a Providence Reds round logo sticker as well as AHL, Philadelphia Phantoms and Sherbrooke Jets logo stickers.  The biggest pick-up though is a Stall & Dean Reds jacket.  It has a Rhode Island Reds logo on the front left pocket, which I would guess is probably a 50's era logo, and on the back is a block print "PROVIDENCE" on a white rocket panel.  Everything is heavy and stitched.  It's a little big for me at a XXXL, but it's nice and warm and will get me through what's been a fairly mild winter up here on the South Coast.

Now, on to the stuff that's kept me off blogger...

2019/20 Hockey Season Rink Wish List

It has been a few days since I've posted anything.  Several things have been taking up time; we lost my partner's grand father a few weeks ago, and yesterday was his memorial.  He was a great guy and the joke around her family is that while most women find a guy like their dad, she found a guy like her granddad in me.  Joe and I got along famously, mostly because we have identical senses of humor.  And losing him was hard on all of us.  Fortunately, he had great relationships with my partner and her mom, so the final days were full of love and support.

Besides that, and obviously way less important, I've been doing play by play for my friend's NHL 20 team as they compete in LeagueGaming.com's ESHL season 12.  Calling 5 games over 2 nights a week isn't hard, but it is absolutely time consuming.  And on top of all that, I'm 4 weeks deep into a certification course for a planned career change.

So things have been happening around here.

Hello Friends from TTM Cast!

Last night I chopped it up on the phone with the one and only Jeff Baker, host of TTM Cast, a fantastic podcast covering the TTM/auto/card collecting hobby.

We talked for about a half hour, but covered quite a bit of territory, from stadium visits to the TTM Hall of Fame page to just the mental approach to collecting TTM's.

Jeff's podcast is a great touchstone for TTM collectors, a nice way for those of us in the hobby to get together and trade ideas and information about TTM's and autograph hunting and collecting.

The episode is up already, and you can listen to it now at http://www.ttmcast.com.  He also writes occasionally for SportsCollectorsDaily.com.  Check his stuff out there.

If you came here on Jeff's recommendation, thank you for checking the site out.

If you haven't listened to the show, here you go:
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-nkpke-c04f01

Mail Day And Also The Time I Did Play By Play for Shonie Carter's Pro Wrestling Debut (With a Tony Atlas Cameo)

I've been on a team set splurge lately.  I'm working on collecting all the Phillies AAA team sets.  It started when I refound my '88 Maine Phillies team set and saw a good deal on the '87 Maine Guides set.  Then I got a really good deal on this lot of 7 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons sets from 1990 thru '94.  There are 3 ProCards sets, and a SkyBox set as well as 3 team issued sets.

I was really excited to get the 1990 ProCards set.  That packaging and design is one of the most iconic minor league set designs ever.  The '92 SkyBox design was also very good.

Unfortunately, the eBay seller decided to dry load the '92, '93 & '94 team issued sets just wrapped in some news paper and put in the box.  Total clown show move.

Since this is an incredibly dry and boring post, I'll tell you the story about the time I did play by play for "Mr International" Shonie Carter's pro wrestling debut.

TTM Failure #2 & Ben Franklin Having a Heat Stroke at the All-Star Game

Writing about failures is a drag.  If you have any doubt, ask Bill Conklin.

On second thought, don't do that.

Either way, instead of dedicating a post to a TTM failure, I've decided to use failures as a chance to share some stories.

Today's story comes by way of a return to sender sticker that came on the request I sent out to former Phillies' manager John Felske.  I sent the request to Huntley, IL.  Looks like the postal service attempted to forward to Blue Eye, MO and the forward timer expired.

Now, on to a story about Ben Franklin, heat stroke, and the 2014 Single-A All-Star Game in Wilmington, DE.

TTM Failure #1 & The Time I Got Heckled by Carl Everett

One of the few photos of Carl Everett not yelling at someone

I feel like just reporting a TTM failure is a waste of a blog post.  So I'll start by saying Jim Lonborg was a failure.  Return to sender/unable to forward result from his Hanover, MA address listed on SCF.  Now, on to a short story that involves Carl Everett and the Camden Riversharks.

Carl Everett bounced around the majors for a while, before finishing his career in the Atlantic League.  He spent two years with Long Island and Newark.  This was 2007-10.  I did see him play several times with both the Ducks & Bears as his teams came through Camden.

One afternoon game when he was wrapping it up with the Bears in 2010, I managed to get two tickets right next to the third base dugout at Campbell's Field.  I say "managed" making it seem difficult.  It was 20 minutes before first pitch and I walked up to the box office and said "two best available, please".  This may be why Rutgers University razed the stadium for, I don't know what they built down there, I'm assuming condos.

This particular game Carl I believe was playing Designated Hitter and was not having a good game.  He struck out on some brutally ugly swings and worst of all, got tagged out at home on a horrendous slide.