First Pitch Friday - Patrick Sharp

The Cubs have had a slew of Chicago Blackhawks throwing out first pitches lately. I don't follow hockey as much, is there some kind of tie in? I kid, of course.

While cards for those players will show up eventually, I do have one today from an appearance by a Blackhawk last season, Patrick Sharp.

I was kidding about not knowing about the Stanley Cub victory but only a little bit about not watching hockey. Where I live, the talk is all Caps, Caps, Caps and Ovie so I don't know much about the Blackhawks aside from two recent titles. I recognize names like Sharp and Kane and Coach Q and probably others if I heard them, but couldn't tell you why Sharp played almost as many playoff games as regular season games this past season. Injury? How many games did they lose to the strike or lockout, whatever it was?

Either way, Patrick Sharp threw out the first pitch on September 2, 2012 in a game between the Cubs and the San Francisco Giants.The Cubs lost to the Giants 7-5 with, not surprisingly, Carlos Marmol taking the loss after giving up two runs in the 9th.

First Pitch Friday - Michael Jordan

I'll start off with a couple of updates here. First, the 2013 Blaster/Blog Fantasy Baseball League is live. Yahoo finally allowed me to sign up for the league so I set it up Thursday night and sent out email invites to those who have expressed interest so far. If you want to check it out, there's a tab at the top with details. Should be a lot of fun!

Second, thanks to everybody who responded to yesterday's post with offers of 2013 Topps help. It is much appreciated. I have made updates to items I am in the process of acquiring through purchase or trade by marking them bold. I have also added a tab at the top with the same information so that it is easier to find. Hopefully, we can work together to get that tab removed before Series 2 comes out in June!

On to the First Pitch Friday card. This is one I was pretty surprised to find in my search for photos of ceremonial first pitches at Wrigley Field. Mostly associated with the White Sox (in terms of baseball anyway), I didn't think Michael Jordan had done anything with the Cubs at all.

MJ's first pitch came before a one game playoff against the San Francisco Giants for the Wildcard spot. The Cubs would go on to win 5-3, only to be swept in three games against the Atlanta Braves in the League Division Series.

I was never a basketball fan, even during the 1990's when it was seemed to surpass baseball or even how popular football is now. I think I've mentioned this before, but growing up, I always wanted number 23 on the back of my jersey. But that was because Ryne Sandberg was the Hall of Fame #23 in Chicago before this joker showed up. And I use the term "joker" sarcastically because I understand he's the greatest to ever play his sport. Not that I have any hatred towards the White Sox, but this Cubs photo may have softened my stance on him a little. 

I don't really have any shot at getting this card signed at all because I certainly won't pay the exorbitant prices he commands for a signature. And if I did, I wouldn't waste it on a silly custom card that has absolutely no retail value for when my collection eventually gets passed to my kids. Maybe I'll have to hit up one of the golf tournaments we plays in but more than likely, I'd have to hit the lotto...

First Pitch Friday - Robbie Gould

The Cubs seem to be pretty good about cross-promoting the other Chicago area sports when it comes to throwing out a first pitch and/or conducting the 7th inning stretch. I've already featured former Cubs, Bears, Fire, and Bandits.  I have Bulls and Blackhawks waiting in the wings but today is another Chicago Bears player.

No, that's not Ben Affleck

Before making the card, I didn't know that much about him other than he was the kicker for the Bears. But be honest, how many of you know much about any kicker? It has to be a tough job, lots of pressure, with the opportunity to be a hero or goat for your team at any given time.

A quick glance at his Wiki page shows that he connected for 26 consecutive field goals in 2006 for a new Bears record. The NFL record is 42 (Mike Vanderjagt) but it is still pretty impressive to have your team record. Gould is also tied with the Vikings kicker Blair Walsh for the longest active streak for consecutive field goals made over 50 yards which stands at 10. The all-time record is 11. Looks like we have a 1998 Sammy Sosa-Mark McGwire style race on our hands!! Who's going to tie it and break it first?!?!

Gould's career long for field goals is 57 yards, which is also the Bears record. That personal record always seems to shortchange kickers in my opinion. I have no idea if he's missed any from farther away but the team has to be in a certain position to even make the attempt from that distance. Usually field goals of that length are attempted with time running out in the 2nd quarter or end of the game because if the kicker misses, you don't want to give the other team fairly decent field position. I'm going to have to look to see if Gould has missed any longer.

*EDIT* As far as I can tell, Gould has not attempted anything longer than 57 yards in a regular season game. He is 13-17 in 50+ yard situations with his 4 misses in the 52-54 yard range.

First Pitch Friday - Arne Friedrich

I know very little about Chicago sports outside of the Cubs. As I've said before, I'm a fan of the Cubs because of WGN, not due to any particular ties to the city of Chicago. But I know even less about soccer. Not that I'm your typical soccer-hatin' Murican. I played a lot growing up. To me, it's just not that interesting to watch outside of highlight reel goals and/or saves. Playing was fun. Watching? Not so much. But, on my list, it still ranks higher than basketball and Nascar.

All that said, I had no idea who Arne Friedrich was. I assumed a Blackhawk. Or maybe an up and coming actor because he does seem to be unfairly attractive in addition to having an athletic build.

So soccer player didn't come to mind right away but it makes sense too. After some searching I saw him described as a world class soccer player from Germany. I saw he only had one goal last year for the Chicago Fire but also quickly noticed he was a defender. They probably don't have many chances to score, right? He's played a bunch of games for Germany but apparently had a back injury that curtailed his career a bit.

Is a European player playing in the MLS the equivalent of an aging MLB veteran going to Japan?

He has resigned to play with the Fire again for the 2013 season, but don't ask me when that is!

On a side note, if I was partial to any international soccer team, it would probably be Germany. My dad was stationed in Germany during my middle school years (late 80's-early 90's). In fact, we moved there just a few months before the Berlin Wall came down. I remember West Germany winning the 1990 World Cup and their star player was a guy named Lothar Matthaeus. I'm pretty sure he was one of the best in the world, but I liked him for no other reason than my name (Matthew) is Matthaeus in German. Ah, how easily kids are entertained. My brothers even called me Lothar for a while.

First Pitch Customs - Redesign

First off, I apologize for missing my post yesterday. By the time I realized I didn't hit "Publish" for my scheduled post, I figured it would be easier to just skip a day. I know, I know. That's a slippery slope to not posting for a while. But I have a few post ideas coming up so no worries.

Second, I got an extra day's run on Pimp My Fantasy League post with some additional help from "unclemoe" of the 2008 Topps Set blog. Check him out if you don't already! We're now up to half-full with a few more nibbles that I think will turn into committments once the season gets a little closer and the details are hammered out. Looks like we're leaning towards the $15 Blaster prizes so if you're interested in playing, leave a comment on the original post here.

Now onto the real post.

Last year, in addition to my ATCRCS cards, I debuted a subset of cards featuring various athletes, celebrities, politicians and other personalities that have thrown out a first pitch at Wrigley Field.

I have whittled down my collection to mostly Cubs items so these allow me to branch out a little from Cubs players while still sticking to the theme. The other day when I was cleaning up my computer and external hard drive, I ran across my folder of first pitch photos and noticed they were all in color. Now, one of the reasons I went with the ATCRCS design for the players was that older photos were in black and white and I wanted a uniform look. I figured I could desaturate the newer color photos a lot easier than I could colorize old B&W photos. I don't know why I didn't see it before but once I did, I decided to revamp the First Pitch series. Here are the new counterparts:

And one more for good measure:

 
Not sure about doing backs for these yet. The important information is now already on the front.

While looking for photos to use, I realized there was another Cubs tradition I was overlooking. I'm not if any teams do it as often (or even at all) but the Cubs also have "Guest Conductors" for the 7th Inning Stretch. Sometimes it is the same person who throws out the first pitch, sometimes not. I may look into doing something for those as well!

Let me know what you think!