Saturday, August 25, 2012

2012 MLS Cup - Entenmann's

Entenmann's is running a contest to win a trip to the 2012 MLS Cup. Information available on boxes of Little Bites or at Entenmann's website.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

2008 - MLS Upper Deck


2008 Upper Deck base set - Aleck Eskandrian, and Claudio Reyna

Inserts: Goal Scorers - chris Rolfe, Assist Kings - Dan McCarty

Inserts: Super Draft - Josh Lambo, Young Guns - Robbie Finley

Insert: Keepers - Jon Conway

2008 - MLS Upper Deck trading cards - 200 card base set
Insert cards: Young Guns, Super Draft 2008, Goal Scorers, Keepers, Assist Kings

MLS Materials Memorabilia cards, including David Beckham game used jersey cards...
Autograph cards numbered to 30 from Landon Donavan, Sacha Kljestan, Taylor Twellman and others...

2008.09.04 - Upper Deck press release:
With the addition of David Beckham to the league just over a year ago, collectors are intrigued by his megastar power and long-term collectability, as he single-handedly shook up America's perception of the sport. Sought after game-used cards and autographs fill the 2008 Upper Deck MLS product, featuring such stars as Beckham and Landon Donovan of the LA Galaxy as well as Pablo Mastroeni of the Colorado Rapids.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Kirk Urso - Columbus Crew

Kirk Urso (1990 - 2012)

Urso played 6 games for the Columbus Crew in 2012 before his untimely death at age 22.

The Columbus Crew honored Urso by wearing the number 15 memorial patch on the right hand side of their jersey. The Crew honored Urso with a memorial on Aug 15, 2012 prior to their game against the LA Galaxy. A moment of silence was planned for the 15th minute of the game (15:00 - 15:59).

The Urso family has decided to honor Kirk legacy with the gift of tissue donation. Lifeline of Ohio promotes and co-ordinates organ and tissue donation. As a hero on and off the field, Kirk not only touches lives as a member of the Columbus Crew, but he will continue to impact others through his gift of tissue donation.  Lifeline of Ohio gave out 4,000 green Donate Life bracelets at the game to support Kirk's gift of life.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Red Bull - Pocket Schedule


2006 Red Bulls

 2010 Red Bulls - Spanish version

2011 Red Bulls
originally published 2011.09.01

2012 Red Bulls

Red Bulls possibly have the least exciting designs in pocket schedules...

I guess the stripe at the bottom is an improvement over 2012...


Sunday, August 19, 2012

2012 Upperdeck MLS

2012 Upperdeck Retail pack - although not marked as a retail pack. Found this in Target, which was a great surprise to see it amongst the baseball and football cards. The pack sells for $1.00 and has 6 cards. The promotion on the pack says "Look for 2012 Super Draft Rookie Cards" in English and French. There are no memorabilia or autograph cards available in these packs...

The 2012 Hobby pack, which indicates it as a hobby pack in the upper left hand corner retails for around $5.00 offers the promotion "Look for National Pride Jersey Cards!"
The hobby edition features autograph and jersey cards as part of the 200 card base set. The set features the first MLS card for Robbie Keane.Odds of finding game used memorabilia 1:5, autographs 1:20..
Luke Rodgers base card -Rodgers was a Red Bull fan favorite in 201, who did not return in 2012 due to problems obtaining a work visa...
Player Debut cards and Super Draft cards featuring incoming rookies in their college jerseys...
-
Purchased a box and got the following:
MLS Teammates - Freddy Adu & Danny Mwanga
Premium Series #4/25
 Benny Feilhaber - NE Revolution
Joel Lindpere - NY Red Bull
MLS Teammates - Brad Davis & Tally Hall
Autograph - Andrew Duran
Seattle Sounders draft pick currently playing for the Atlanta Silverback



Saturday, August 18, 2012

DC United - Dwayne De Rosario : 2012

2012.08.19 DC United honor Dwayne De Rosario with his own bobble-head. The first 7,500 fans inside RFK Stadium for the DC United-Philadelphia Union game will receive a bobble-head courtesy of Volkswagen..

Sunday, August 12, 2012

1992 Olympics - Impel

1992 Impel (Skybox) released a 110 card set for the 1992 Summer Olympics, Barcelona, Spain.
The cards were arranged alphabetically by sport (archery to wrestling), with the most popular cards of the set being the Basketball Dream Team and Lance Armstrong.  Members of the US Olympic Soccer represented in the set included:
Dario Brose - US National Team 1994-1997, Stade Briochin (France), FC Saarbrucken (Germany), SJ Clash/Earthquakes (MLS)

Rhett Harty - US National Team (qualified for the Olympics, did not play due to injury), SJ Grizzlies (CISL), MetroStars (MLS)

Chris Henderson - US National Team 1990-2001 (1992 Olympics, 1990, 1998 World Cup), FSV Frankfurt (Germany), Stabaek (Norway), Colorado Rapids (MLS), KC Wizards (MLS), Miami Fusion (MLS), Columbus Crew (MLS), NY Red Bulls (MLS)

As the Olympics close on this day, Congratulations to the US Women's National Team for winning the Gold Medal over Japan 2-0 on 2 goals by Carli Lloyd, following a tough match against an excellent Canadian team which earned the Bronze Medal...
Congratulations to Mexico for winning the Gold Medal in the Men's Tournament defeating a favored Brazilian squad 2-1.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

San Jose Earthquakes - Chris Wondolowski : 2012


Centerline Report: Quakes All-Bobblehead Team
2012.08.04 Robert Jonas, SJEarthquakes.com

On the Earthquakes web-site Robert Jonas talks about the Earthquakes honoring Chris Wondolowksi with his own bobble-head - Wondolowski Bobble-head Night Presented by Wells Fargo Aug 6, 2012 at Buck Shaw Stadium as the Earthquake take on the Portland Timbers. The first 5,000 fans will receive the bobble-head.
Jonas also reflected on the previous members of the San Jose Earthquakes to be honored over the years.
Jeff Agoos - 2001 issue the first Earthquakes player to be honored...

Troy Dayak - The Beast was honored in 2004, complete with signature hat...

Landon Donovan - variations exist of this 2001, brown hair or blond or the re-issue holding the Alan I Rotenberg Trophy as MVP of the 2003 MLS Championship...

Joe Cannon - a special commission in 2002 issued to members of the supporters group Club Quake...

Darren Huckerby - by way of Norwich City became an early fan favorite in the summer of 2008 and had his bobble issued in 2009...

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

2011 World of Sports

Picked up a few packs of Upper Deck's 2011 World of Sports.
On the Upper Deck site they boast the return of the set for it's second year as exciting, with the addition of Football (college) to the previous sports baseball (college), basketball (college), Hockey (Team Canada), Soccer (MLS, WPS and college), golf, surfing, college coaches, lacrosse a video game champion, snowboarder..a truly strange collection of athletes.  Upper Deck stated that last years set was the surprise hit of collecting, while most of the blogs I have seen disliked the product...

I find it interesting that the wrapper features Landon Donovan (MLS-LA Galaxy), golf and basketball...no football or baseball (not complaining)...I can see collectors of one sport having difficulty with a set like this, as it is difficult to obtain the sport of interest. And do I really need a card of a video game champion (like pulling the hot dog eating champ in the Allen & Ginter set!) I also do not understand the use of college photos of pro, like Josh Wolff in his South Carolina jersey?

In my view the card designs are  good, nice clear photos, with the World of Sports banner at the bottom. The checklist for the soccer cards:
214 Kevin Hartman
215 Donovan Ricketts
216 Davy Arnaud
217 Andy Najar
218 Marvell Wynne
219 David Ferreira
220 Michael Stephens
221 Chad Barrett
222 Chad Marshall
223 Kyle Beckerman
224 Kasey Keller
225 Landon Donovan
226 Javier Morales
227 William Hesmer
228 Josh Wolff
229 Omar Gonzalez
230 Justin Braun
231 Fabian Espindola
232 Jamison Olave
233 Robbie Keane
234 Stefan Frei
235 Steve Zakuani
236 Matt Reis
237 Conor Casey
238 Marco Pappa
239 Zack Schilawski
240 Omar Cummings
241 Heath Pearce
242 Teal Bunbury
243 Juan Pablo Angel
244 Shalrie Joseph
245 Sean Franklin
246 Macoumba Kandji
247 Matt Pickens
248 Chris Pontius
249 Diego Chaves
250 Amy Rodriguez
251 Tasha Kai
252 Laura Kalmari
253 Eniola Aluko
254 Brandi Chastain
255 Cat Whitehill
256 Ella Masar
257 Jordan Angeli
258 Jillian Loyden
259 Karen Bardsley
260 Lori Lindsey
261 Lauren Fowlkes
262 Leslie Osborne
263 Nicole Barnhart
264 Shannon Boxx
265 Meghan Klingenberg
266 Hope Solo
267 Heather Mitts
268 Christie Rampone
382 Will Bruin
383 Juan Agudelo
384 Rafael Marquez
385 Sebastien Le Toux
386 Dwayne DeRosario
387 Thierry Henry
388 Charlie Davies
389 Landon Donovan
390 Chris Wondolowski
391 Omar Salgado
392 Tobin Heath
393 Alex Morgan
394 Kelly Smith
395 Christine Sinclair
396 Mia Hamm
397 Marta
398 Abby Wambach

The set features the expected autograph cards (the use of stickers, which I do not like) and relic cards...