On the left is the logo of the American Football League’s Dallas Texans, who played in Dallas from the league’s inception in 1960 until 1962, but couldn’t compete with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. So owner Lamar Hunt moved the franchise to Kansas City in 1963 and they became the Chiefs. It looks like they tried to stay true to their original logo with their new Chiefs’ logo (on right).
From CheckOutMyCards.com, this card is of former Boston Bruins coach Don Cherry. He is now a studio analyst for Hockey Night In Canada on canadian NHL broadcasts, and is known for his “colorful” suits and ties (and high-collared shirts). Cherry is a proud canadian and often touts canadian-born players on his show, but at least he is non-partisan in talking about the games, unlike another former Bruin player on the HNIC broadcasts – Mike Milbury. In this year’s Buffalo/Boston opening round Stanley Cup playoff series, Milbury was such a Bruins cheerleader in the intermission reports that they should have just given him some black and gold pom poms to wave.
Kudos to the Philadelphia Flyers for battling to overcome an early 3-0 deficit last night to defeat the Boston Bruins 4-3, enabling them to complete a historic, epic comeback in the series. They became only the third team in NHL history to come back from a 3 games to none deficit and win the series. There were 2 factors that turned the series in the Flyers’ favor. The first was the injury to goaltender Brian Boucher, forcing backup Michael Leighton into the spotlight in the final 3 games. Leighton played just well enough to keep his team alive, but mostly the change in goal forced his teammates to tighten up their game defensively around him. The second factor was the return from injury of Simon Gagne, who wound up scoring 4 goals in the 4 games he played, all huge ones. It will be a long, tough off-season in Boston after the Bruins blew both a 3-0 lead in games and a 3-0 lead in the final game. The Flyers’ surprising win sets up a strange pair of conference final series, with the Western Conference finals featuring the top 2 seeds – San Jose and Chicago, while the Eastern Finals will have the bottom 2 seeds in the Flyers and Montreal Canadiens. San Jose is attempting to wipe out a sorry history of being eliminated early in the playoffs after highly successful regular seasons, while Chicago has developed into a solid Stanley Cup contender after going fairly deep into the playoffs last year with a young team. In the East, the Canadiens have already knocked out the top regular season team in Washington and the defending Cup champion in Pittsburgh, and also have a history of coming out of nowhere to steal Stanley Cups in seasons when they weren’t expected to win. The Flyers also have a solid franchise with a winning history so this series should be a classic.
The Philadelphia Phillies are the 2 time defending National League champions but look like they may face stiff competition in the NL East division this year from Atlanta, the New York Mets, and yes, possibly even the Washington Nationals. With Jimmy Rollins set to come back off the disabled list soon, the Phils still have the most potent lineup in the NL, led by newly re-signed slugger Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Shane Victorino, Rollins and the underrated Jayson Werth. They substituted Roy Halladay for Cliff Lee in their starting rotation and haven’t missed a beat there, and Cole Hamels looks to be returning to his old reliable form. I like the Fightin’ Phils to win their division again this year and represent the NL in the World Series for a third straight season. They are clearly still the most talented team, even if they do wear pink uniforms. (C’mon…that strange shade of red they wear is HOT PINK!)
On the left is the 1958 Topps football card of R.C. Owens – oops – it’s actually Don Owens of the Pittsburgh Steelers. R.C. Owens’ 1959 card is on the right. Wow….somebody really wasn’t paying attention at the Topps company in 1958.
This is the logo of another old American Basketball Association team – The Spirits of St. Louis. They weren’t particularly successful, but had 2 players on their roster who went on to have careers in the NBA – Maurice Lucas, who helped the Portland Trailblazers win an NBA title, and Marvin “Bad News” Barnes, who was a very talented player who was out of control off the court most of his career. The team’s radio broadcaster also went on to bigger and better things – it was Bob Costas of NBC.
Major league baseball made an announcement the other day that just boggles the mind. They are moving an inter-league series to be played in late June between the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies from the Rogers Centre in Toronto to Philadelphia, due to security concerns with the G20 Summit being held in Toronto at that time. The games will be played as if Toronto is the home team – the Jays will bat last and a designated hitter will be used. Are you kidding me? This is a series that would have marked the return of star pitcher Roy Halladay to Toronto and most likely would be an attendance boost for the struggling club. This series could be a huge competitive disadvantage to the Phils’ NL East competitors. If the Phillies wind up dominating or even sweeping that series and finish a small amount of games ahead of the New York Mets or Atlanta Braves at season’s end, will those teams have a legitimate beef? Just another Bud Selig-induced nightmare.
In the 1970s and 80s the Buffalo Sabres’ American Hockey League farm team was located in Cincinnati and known as the Swords. This is their logo.
In 1962 Post cereal had a series of baseball cards on their cereal boxes that are scarce today and popular with collectors. New York Yankee fans would consider this card of pitching legend Whitey Ford as sacrilegious, since it erroneously lists Ford’s team as the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Bill Russell rookie card from 1957. He was probably the greatest defensive player in NBA history and one of the greatest players of all time. His Boston Celtics won 11 NBA titles in his 13 years with the team, and he was voted NBA Most Valuable Player 5 times. When you consider that prior to his NBA career that his University of San Francisco college team won 2 straight national championships and that he played on the USA gold medal winning team in the 1956 Olympics, Russell can be summed up in one word – WINNER.