Oh man - how long has it been... what year is it?!
Well, it's still 2018; but, not for much longer. Anyway, it's been about a month and a half since my last post here on Wrigley Roster Jenga - that's quite a long and fairly unintentional radio silence. I could run down the list of reasons why and how this hiatus came to be... however, I'm sure you've all heard (and lived) this list of excuses before and don't really care. Work got crazy, some personal issues, the holiday season sucking up all my time, a general feeling of apathy towards the hobby... you've heard it all before, so why bother wasting the character count?
But, all is well in the Burbs and it's time to shake off the rust, stretch out the blogging muscles, and get this blog back up in running. Let's see if I can still do this - it's been a minute since I've done this, after all.
A trade package (relatively) recently came across my desk and this generous soul deserves some recognition - it is Trevor P who disturbs my long slumber. Trevor is the creative force behind the gridiron-centric blog, Bump and Run Football Cards, a long-time favorite on my blog roll. Being a pigskin guy, it should come as no surprise that the bulk of this package contained football cards. What was surprising was the fact that so many of the pasteboards included within were needed for me Bears All-Time Roster Collection!
That said, Trev is a Packer backer, so he is most assuredly all too happy to dump as many Bears items on me as possible.
With the Bears being so un-bear-able the last half decade or so, I've kind of pushed my Monster of the Midway collection to the side. However, under the leadership of new head coach Matt Nagy, things have changed here in the Windy City and, at 8-3, they look like real Superbowl contenders right now. It's been a while since we Chicagoans could say that!
This pair of 2017 Score cards had been ignored by me during the dark times, but Trevor has brought them back to my attention. Danny Trevathan has been played a key role in the revival of Bears' defense and I'm happy to be able to finally add his name to my Bears tome. Meanwhile, Kendall Wright spent just one season in the Windy City (2017) and is currently out of football. Nevertheless, a Bear is a Bear, not matter how much of a bust.
Leonard Floyd had been already repped in my binder; however, it was with a card that pictured his days with the University of Georgia squad. That's well and good, but a true blue and orange Bears card is better.... much like his Leonard's play as of late!
The Throwback-themed Panini Classics product isn't a bad-looking product either. I always enjoy simply-designed sets that make heavy usage of corresponding team colors. Speaking of Classics, from this point, Trevor has turned back the clock and shifted the focus to Bears legends of yore:
While I do have several cards of "Da Coach," believe it or not, this 2016 Classics single, from the Legends subset, represents my very first card depicting "Iron Mike's" playing career. I'd much rather have a card showing the Hall of Famer reeling in a catch than skimming a clipboard or talking into a headset as his representation in my Bears All-Time Roster Collection, so this will be a nice upgrade.
Meanwhile, this is my first card whatsoever of fellow Bears' Canton-resident, Stan Jones. I know it's hard to believe that card collectors might still have needs from Pro Set, perhaps the most overproduced brand in the history of trading cards, but it's true. Love the artwork though!
Additionally, Trevor also included this Bears card masquerading as a Dolphins card - I missed this fact, at first glance. Cox signed with Chicago as a free agent during the 1996 off-season, after a decorated tenure in Miami, a fact that Donruss hurried to document in that year's Football flagship. Of course, he was about to begin a major downswing and his Bears career wasn't much to document. Though, he would eventually swap jerseys again and win the Superbowl with the Patriots afterwards.
Now, Trevor also included a large amount of other Bears cards that were quite welcome; however, I decided to limit this post to just the new additions to my main roster collection. This is my first blog post since early October - I can't afford to pull a muscle trying to do too much to soon, after all!
That said, I would be remiss if I didn't show off the massive, unannounced boost to my Bulls collection that Trevor included with his football gifts:
Trevor may be a gridiron guy, but clearly he dabbles in the paint as well. That's seven, count 'em, seven instant additions to my Bulls All-Time Roster Collection, a collection that hasn't seen much action in the last year or so. Like with my Bears binder, with as bad as the Bulls have been since Derrick Rose fell apart, it's been hard to feel any enthusiasm towards this project. Of course, collecting of any kind is all about the ebbs and flows.
As if all of that wasn't enough already, there was a whole section of Cubs cardboard stuffed in Trev's bubble mailer too. However, I gotta come clean, it's been so long since I found this package in my mailbox, that I cannot remember what was included from that bunch. That's what I get for not properly documenting and for letting myself fall headlong into a blogging rut. My bad.
Thank you, Trevor, for bumping me out of the blogging doldrums. Sorry it took so long for me to finally take the bait, but I am ever so grateful to you for providing the carrots. With so much awesome new cardboard to add to my roster collections, it was only a matter of time before the inspiration finally dug it's claws into me.
Here's hoping I can keep this momentum rolling - it's nice to be back, pounding the keys!
