For the Love of Ball Card Collecting

Like many kids across America, I grew up with the obsessive hobby of collecting trading cards. It started out with Topp's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards (still had the rock solid sticks of gum back then), then Marvel Comics cards, and as I grew older I turned to basketball and football. I loved the anticipation of going to the ball card or comic book store to burn any allowance money I had on these plastic or foil wrapped treasures. The smell of printed comics, the feel of plastic coated cardboard, the obsessive drive to complete a set, and contemplating if I could afford any rare gems behind lighted glass counters are all fond memories to me. Even if you had the complete series of cards, the ones most sought after would be the 'chase' cards - holograms, transparent cards, jersey swatches, rookies, or autographed. This age-old pastime has evolved to some degree, as cards have become pricier and even more collectible. Here's a documentary short, called The Baseball Card Movie, that was shot in a ball card shop in Brooklyn that encapsulates the rush of trading card collecting.

The Baseball Card Movie

Let the Madness Begin....

The NCAA Tourney starts today, the biggest basketball event of the year. Below I've posted the '94 documentary Hoop Dreams, following 2 kids from inner city Chicago and their path to collegiate basketball in hopes of one day making it to the NBA. In my mind this is the best sports documentary I've seen. Although the film's almost 3 hours long, it's quite extensive.

Super Bowl XLIII: Ad Aftermath

What an exciting game! Although I was hoping the Cardinals could break some history by finally winning one for their franchise, they definitely contributed to a memory making match-up against Pittsburgh. Many watch the big game for the commercials as this is the most watched game of the year. There seemed to be a ton of beverage commercials this year. Many of the movie trailers didn't seem to wow. I don't think there was one this year that completely stuck out as outstanding.

Here's some of my fav's from yesterday (no Polamalu with Coke Zero, I hate those Coke Zero commercials and that one wasn't any better):

Sobe Life Water in 3D
Silly commercial with Ray Lewis, Justin Tuck, and Matt Light(BOILER UP!) translated well to 3D with those glasses. Click on the video below and watch in HD with your glasses on youtube.


CareerBuilder.com
Upon several watches, this wasn't as funny as when it debuted but the repetition is still mesmorizing.


Audi A6: The Chase
Jason Statham plays wheelman to Audi's homage to the car chases of the silverscreen.


Bud Light: Conan's Swedish Commercial
Anytime you can get Conan on TV is great TV.


Cash4Gold.com
This is how you know this company's making off like bandits if they can afford a Super Bowl commercial - not sure if Ed McMahon or MC Hammer cost that much though.


Lastly, NOT a Super Bowl commercial but a great football related commercial that caps off the season: State Farm's LeBron James joins the Cleveland Browns.

Resurrection of Roundball Rock

Today, the Team USA basketball team opened up the Olympic Games in Beijing by taking on the Chinese National Team, which included NBA notables Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, and Wang Zhizhi. After a close first half, USA broke away and won convincingly, 101-70. What I want to note about this game, which was part of NBC's immense Olympic coverage was their use of "Roundball Rock" during the game. This was the theme song for the NBA on NBC, composed by John Tesh. Once ABC took over national coverage of the NBA, the song went away. I guess NBC brought it back with their coverage of basketball. Listening to that song brings me back to the memories of the NBA when it was at its highest during the heydays of Jordan and the Bulls dynasties, Mailman and Stockton, Ewing and Starks, Miller and Smits, and the voice of Marv Albert...."Yes."









I'm sure you've heard this song before, if not let me introduce you to 'Roundball Rock'







Here's an ESPN.com article on Tesh and his infamous song

Here's an old intro from NBA on NBC:



......and here's Mr. Tesh's response to all the fans of the song: