Buster Davis Autograph Card

Buster Davis was a star linebacker from his high school days at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach (Florida) all the way through his All-American residency with the Florida State University Seminoles.

He was drafted in the third round by the Arizona Cardinals, but was released just months later, only to be picked up by the Detroit Lions. He spent the 2007 season in Detroit, before hitting the waiver wire in August of 2008 and getting claimed by the Indianapolis Colts, even getting re-signed at the end of the 2008 campaign... only to get waived by them in March.

In 2009, the Houston Texans decided to play around with his psyche, signing him to a one-year deal on April 3rd, waiving him on September 5th, re-signing him to the practice squad on October 8th and releasing him again on October 13th.

After that, he toiled around in minor leagues with the Hartford Colonials (2010, UFL), Las Vegas Locomotives (2010, UFL) and Jacksonville Sharks (2011-2012, AFL), before calling it quits.

In 2012, he wa named head coach at Duval Charter of Jacksonville, but was let go after 7 games; in 2013, he took on the same job at St. Petersburg Admiral Farragut prior to spring practice but left that job four months later. 

In 2014, he was named head coach at McArthur High School, saying:

Some people only look to tomorrow. But some people like myself need to have a vision that goes past tomorrow, past two weeks from now. We really feel that in the next two to three years that our program is going to be one everyone talks about and players at other schools will want to come play for.

He resigned after going 0-10.

In 2015, he took on the head coaching position at Port Orange Atlantic... resigning in August, two days after the beginning of Fall training, without ever coaching a single game with the team.

I wouldn't hire him to renovate my home... or probably anything else, for that matter.

Here he is wearing the Cardinals' red (home) uniform, on card #X-BD from Upper Deck's 2009 SPX set and X Factor Signatures sub-set:

It features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph.

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Vladimir Guerrero & Alfonso Soriano Jersey Card

With Alex Rodriguez set to play his final game next Friday (the day I launch my brand-new poetry book!), I will soon know a grand total of zero baseball players by name. Ok, that may not be true because I know hometown boy Russell Martin plays for the Toronto Blue Jays, but because they do not exist to me, neither does he at the moment, so there's that.

Still, Alfonso Soriano rang a bell to me, and Vladimir Guerrero was the last great member of the Montréal Expos, though I am pretty much unaware of anything he achieved elsewhere apart from his MVP title in his first year with the Anaheim Angels.

Both players are multiple Silver Slugger Award winners and All-Stars, and both were outfielders.

And both graced card #191 of Upper Deck's 2009 Ballpark collection (and Dual Swatch Memorabilia and Stat Kings sub-sets), which I obtained in a multi-sport repack, numbered 211/400:

Both swatches are game-used, and Soriano's is of the two-coloured variety, with a blue stripe complementing the predominant white. I don't really do two-player cards, so this one's up for trade.

Santonio Holmes Jersey Card

Not that I'm a huge fan of the Baltimore Ravens or anything, but I was rooting against the Pittsburgh Steelers - as I often do - yesterday as the NFL playoffs continued. At this point, there are three teams I wouldn't mind seeing get to the Super Bowl: the Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots, and the Dallas Cowboys; on the other hand, if any of these teams were to win, I don't care who they face off against, though my preference would be to see the Broncos beat the Cowboys (dominating offense, Peyton Manning coming up big, Tony Romo choking).

Speaking of the big game, Santonio Holmes was once named the Super Bowl MVP (XLIII, February 2009). In my opinion, losing WR Larry Fitzgerald played a much better game, and kicker Jeff Reed's points were more valuable than Holmes', but who am I to judge?

Still, no one can take the award nor the championship away from the now-free agent, who was waived by the Chicago Bears last November after pretty much getting screwed over by the New York Jets, who asked him to restructure his contract and released him six months later.

Injuries have taken their toll on the wide receiver, but for a while, he was as consistent as you could ask for, with 49 receptions in his rookie year in 2006, then five-straight seasons with over 50, with a high of 79 in 2009; his yardage was also pretty much always near or over 15 per carry, and he started his career with four seasons with over 800 receiving yards (with a high of 1248 in 2009), and had 746 in 2010 in his first year with the Jets.

He did have a lot of trouble with the law - mostly related to anger management issues - with domestic abuse accusations, assault (throwing a drink in a woman's face at a bar), and disrupting a flight being chief among them, but he had steered clear from controversy of late.

Like Jessie Hester, he's from Belle Glade, Florida.

The Steelers' loss last night combined with the blizzard outside my window made featuring this card an easy decision:

It's card #101 from the Donruss 2009 Rookies And Stars set (numbered 84/299) by Panini, which I got in a trade involving a half-dozen cards going each way (I mostly gave up cards of players from Southern teams, and got mostly cards from teams in the North-East in return). I'm not usually too fond of cards that are Photoshop-heavy, but this one's design blends in very nicely with the snowy conditions Holmes is facing.

Athena Lundberg: Two Autographed Cards

In 2010 and 2011, I got over a bad breakup and losing my day job by writing and touring. My travels took me to North American places I hadn't been to in over a decade, including where the sun shines all year.

I met Silicon Valley native (though not silicone-enhanced) Athena Lundberg either in Nevada or California, and she proved to be charming, witty, kind-hearted and a lover of animals.

We also share a love of big-time celebrations: while I usually host UnPop Montréal - a 10-to-30-day festival of free music shows with 3 or 4 acts per night in my hometown for everyone to come and enjoy in various bars and lofts, around my birthday - she holds parties in Hollywood where she basically is the queen and surrounds herself with her friends and loyal subjects, as can be seen in these ads:

Then again, you can do whatever the hell you want when you've been a Playboy Playmate (January 2006). She'll turn 30 in a year and a half, I can only imagine the scope it'll have then.

She turned brunette recently, and while I'm not the biggest fan of blondes, I must say that these Benchwarmer cards she signed in blue sharpie for me do not do her justice, as she looked a lot better and ''realer'' in person than here. First, her ''Rookie Card'', from the 2009 Limited set (card #10):

And a card celebrating her ''Norwegian roots'' (though there is nothing about her that doesn't scream ''California''!), from the 2009 International set (and #I81 of the High Numbers sub-set):

For those who are curious, she does, indeed, have a back tattoo:

She's been a Benchwarmer staple since 2009 and has many limited-edition cards in most sets nowadays. Now that her dream of appearing in Playboy has been fulfilled, she will no longer pose nude.

Lisa Lakatos Autograph Card

Lisa Lakatos is a California-born model who has appeared in ad campaigns for Miller Lite, Skechers, and Makita Tools (as ''Miss Makita''), and has been a Benchwarmer staple since 2002.

Her ''big break'' came when she was named one of the case models on Deal or No Deal, which ran from 2005 until 2009, though she was mostly there in 2007.

She is signed to PMG (Prestige Management Group), who are a powerful agency, and is also an accomplished esthetician.

This card is from Benchwarmer's 2009 Archive set (card #6 of 18 of the Archive Exclusive insert sub-set, as many of the Archive cards found in packs were leftovers from previous editions, this sub-set was created solely for this release):

It features a black-sharpied autograph with a smiley face doodle, and a heart as the dot on the ''i''.

Anja Monke: 2 Autographed Postcards

Anja Monke is a German professional golfer who has been a pro since 2004, first on the Ladies European Tour, then the LPGA (from 2008 onwards). Her fist victory was at the 2008 Platz Dubai Ladies Master, where she was the first post-Annika Sörenstam winner. The same year, she also won the Platz Verdiorbis Open de France.

I'm not a huge golf fan, but the only time I do watch it is for the women's game. Honestly, I don't care how many hits it takes to get the ball in the hole, I want to see a competition, emotion, humans trying to out-perform one another, not vaguely distinguishable robots whose caddy can calculate the amount of backspin needed to counter a three-knot wind. And since the rest of the male golf world has caught up to Tiger Woods, the men's game is just a blur of boredom to me, one in which I find myself daydreaming about having a picnic on the grass rather than realizing a sport is occurring on top of it.

But the ladies keep me captivated. They are still pure athletes, uncorrupted by their sponsors, uncompromised by ephemeral fame, the same way tennis players are, like my favourite hockey players are. And Anja Monke is one of my favourites. She can be patient, determined, passionate, relentless and as cunning as a chess master.

I wrote her an email in November, not really expecting anything to happen from it, but I received these two postcards from her during the Christmas break, signed in black sharpie:

They are identical from the back, detailing her date and place of birth and best finishes (though her 2010 victory at Lalla Meryem Cup isn't there, probably because the cards date from 2009 or so). I haven't seen any of her scores since September 2012, either, so she may have retired or taken a break from the sport. I wish her the best, of course.

Rhett Bomar Jersey Card

When the CFL season came to a close (congrats again, Alouettes!) on Sunday, the NFL was left standing as the sole (American) football league whose play I actually follow, just in time for a playoff run.

This year, Rhett Bomar ended the season with the Minnesota Vikings, after two seasons of alternating between the New York Giants' practice squad and the third-string QB position. The quarterback position is, of course, the hardest one to become a regualr in, as only one can play at a time, as opposed to four or five linesmen, three or four receivers, and so forth.

This card is from Donruss' Rookies & Stars set by Panini, and is card #11 of the Dress For Success sub-set, a limited edition set for which this card is # 77/299. What I appreciate the most of this patch card is it denotes the exact date of wear on the back - you can't get more specific, nor authentic.

Holly Huddleston Autograph Card

Half of the hyperactive, cliché'd-blonde duo ''The Olly Girls'' with Molly Shea, Holly Huddleston has been a model since the end of her high school days.

Modeling and befriending her fellow near-twin Shea, both landed roles on the ''Reality TV'' show Sunset Tan, although both seemingly lose their jobs (together, of course) at the end of the first season, after pissing everyone else off, and throwing a party at their bosses' house - when they were away. They've also appeared together on many Benchwarmer cards.

Speaking of which, here's one where she appears solo: part of the recycling-friendly 2009 Benchwarmer Archive series, what they did was take a 2007 autograph card (#5 of 24) and add a foil stamp in front that says ''Archive Auto'' and add a limited edition number on it (in this case, #04/50). So, essentially, Benchwarmer tried to add value to a 2007 card by taking 50 of them, numbering them, and re-releasing them in 2009... yeah, makes total sense. Who thought of that, the Olly Girls?

As I'm sure you can tell, this set is (only) the second time Benchwarmer has disappointed me; not enough to institute a boycott, as these are still beautiful card, albeit recycled, but enough to issue a stern, public warning. And the other time I was disappointed is when they made a whole set, Gold Edition (2005, I think) where all they did was reprint old, previously-used pictures on gold-coloured cardboard to make a new set, when they could have at least used alternate pictures of the girls wearing the same lingerie/clothes/bathing suits.

Michelle Baena Autograph Card

Michelle Baena is one of the hardest models to get in Benchwarmer cards; it's why her cards usually sell for more than the others' on Ebay, which is ironic, because she sells autographed items of her own, at affordable prices ($15 for a personalized 8x10).

Her career really took off after she made the cover of Playboy for the May 2005 edition; she has since appeared in a bunch of fitness magazines, most Benchwarmer sets since, Mac & Bumble, as well as the USA National Bikini Team.

I'm glad I have this card (#13 of 18 different model autographs), from the 2009 Benchwarmer Archive set, pretty much a ''Greatest Hits'' set offering leftover ''special event'' cards to the general public and patches of worn materials from previous photo shoots; more and more, Benchwarmer, instead of pleasing their ever-increasing fan-base by making original new sets and printing more cards of more models, go the other way around - they make ever-more-limited sets (the last few limited at 199 cases produced); it seems they'd rather make a dozen Ebay resellers happy than make enough cards for people who want them.

Kurt Warner Patch Card

Football!

After last night's amazing Saints-Vikings game, I had to do another (American) football post. I looked in my stashes and boxes and closets for a Drew Brees card - or any other Saint, for that matter - and just couldn't find one, so I turned to Kurt Warner, the one guy I wanted to make a difference against New Orleans, even though I'm now rooting for them.

But before that, a little history. I could start with his accomplishments, or name the numerous obstacles he's faced on his way to Football Immortality - and I'll mix both. His story is so amazing, he'll probably end up being knwon as Mr. Second, because he always seems to achieve so much more than expected, yet rarely actually break records. Well, that's not true, he has broken a few, but still...

First off, coming out of College (Northern Iowa), Warner went undrafted. Sure, the Green Bay Packers gave him a tryout in 1994, but they had Brett Favre, so they were set - and they didn't think Warner was ready for the NFL.

So he returned to Iowa, where he (now famously) work as a sales clerk, stocking shelves at the local Hy-Vee grocery store in Cedar Falls, for $5.50 an hour - and went back to his alma mater to serve as assistant coach. With no NFL team willing to give him a shot, he accepted a job as quarterback in the Arena Football League, with the Iowa Barnstormers, starting 1995, which he kept until the end of the 1997 season. He was a First All Star Team member for both 1996 and 1997.

When 1998 came along, the St. Louis Rams offered him a contract and immediately sent him to the Amsterdam Admirals of the NFL Europe league, formerly known as the World League Of American Football, which included the Montréal Machine, of whom I have seen every home game in person. It didn't take long for Warner to make an impact on the league: he ended the season as the league leader in touchdowns and passing yards.

The Rams didn't really have a choice to bring him back to North America, and he was named the team's third-string quarterback. When the first two QBs were released by the team before the start of the 1999, they even went so far as to sign another #1 quarterback, thus 'half-promoting' Warner to second-string, but not showing enough confidence in him to give him the reins. Nevertheless, when Trent Green got injured in a preseason game, despite coach Dick Vermeil's reticence, Warner was given his chance, and he did not disappoint, putting together one of the best seasons in NFL history, with 4353 passing years, a completion rate of 65.1%, and 41 touchdown passes - including three in each of his first three games, a league record. He was named NFL MVP before the year ended, and won the Super Bowl (and, yes, he was the game's MVP).

Warner has a knack for records, so he started the 2000 campaign tying another one (held by Steve Young) - six straight games with at least 300 passing yards in each one. An injury and a poor defensive unit killed any hopes of a repeat championship, but 2001 again led the league in touchdown passes (36) and passing yards (4830, third all-time behind Dan Marino and Brees). Oddly enough, while he completed a terrific (amazing?) 68.7% of his passes, he threw a whopping 22 interceptions - Favre-like numbers. He again was named NFL MVP, got another team record under his belt (first team ever to be 6-0 to start a season three years in a row) and again led his team to the Super Bowl, throwing for 365 yards (second-highest total in history) but losing to the New England Patriots on a time-expired field goal by Adam Vinatieri.

While 2002 and 2003 were riddled with injuries (a broken hand that never healed properly), he signed with the New York Giants in 2004, winning 5 of his first 7 starts. Then he lost two more (for a 5-4 record) and the Giants decided it was time to groom Eli Manning for the starting position, and they remained with the youngster despite being 1-6 with him.

2005 saw him signed to the Arizona Cardinals, but again injuries got the better of him. By 2006, however, Warner reached the 20,000-yard milestone in his 76th career game - one game more than NFL record-holder Dan Marino. He struggled for most of the season, though, and had to share time with Matt Leinart. In 2007, despite again sharing duties with Leinart, Warner threw 27 TD passes, just one shy of the team's record.

He made up for that in 2008 when he threw 30, with 4583 passing yards and a completion rate of 69.9%. Then post-season time came, and he really got into a groove. He led his team to the Super Bowl and, again, fell just short, losing 27-23 to the Pittsburgh Steelers, despite throwing for 377 yards - yep, you guessed it - the second highest total in history.

2009 came along and, once again, it was record-breaking time: a week after my birthday, he broke the NFL’s single-game record for completion percentage in the regular season, completing 24 of 26 passing for 243 yards and two touchdowns. Yes, you read right - 26 attempted passes, his receivers caught 24 of them; neither the receivers nor the QB made any mistakes. That's a completion rate of 92.3%, kiddos, it's ridiculous. He then started the month of November passing his 14,000th yard for the Cardinals - becoming the only QB in league history to throw for over 14,000 yards for two different teams. In early December, he registered his fourth consecutive game with a passer rating of 120 or better, making him... the second quarterback in NFL history to accomplish the feat. And later that month, he became... the second quarterback in NFL history to throw 100 touchdown passes with two different teams.

Earlier this month, his Cardinals defeated the Packers 51-45, the highest-scoring game in NFL playoff history. He accomplished a rare feat - having more TD passes (5) in a playoff game than incompletions (4), and finished the game with the... second highest quarterback rating in NFL playoff history, at 154.1.

And just last week, his team had a shot at beating the Saints, but he was injured early on and the Saints' lead was unreachable, despite Warner attempting to come back in the final (second, of course) half.

At age 38, he's closer to the end of his career than he was 15 years ago. Unfortunately, his career seems to follow a pattern of long good and bad streaks, and is that's correct, the next couple of seasons could be riddled with injuries, which could lead him to retiring a broken old man rather than a winner . But he'll always be a fighter, a beater of odds, a guy who achieves things on grandiose levels, maybe even in that category the... second one you'll think about, after Tom Brady.

This card, a 2009 Topps Historical Commemorative Patch card (card # PPR43), despite being released while Warner is a Cardinal, actually sports him as a Ram, commemorating his Super Bowl XXXV appearance. The only downside to it is that it's not an actual, official patch, and I quote Topps from the back of the card:

Featured on the front of this card is a patch commemorating Super Bowl XXXV which featured Kurt Warner.

The commemorative patch embedded in this card is a replica of a logo of either a historic NFL Pro Bowl game or a classic NFL Super Bowl. The relic contained in this card is not from any game or season.

I kind of wish I had known that before I bought it on Ebay, but it's also nice to have a special Warner card in my collection.

Daniel Johnston Autographed CD

I attended the Daniel Johnston concert at the Ukrainian Federation - basically a church - this weekend (Friday, October 16th, 2009, to be exact).

I did everything to see this show: I applied to be the opening act (and was declined because he didn't require a local opener, seeing as he's touring with his own openers who also work as his backing band for the second half of his set); then I purchased tickets - which I ended up giving away when, finally, I was hired to work security for the show.

They didn't know where to park me for this, though: they started by putting me out front to make sure the doors to the place were shut at all times, and to keep the conversation levels low for the people outside, so they don't disturb the neighbours of this residential area, who aren't used to having concerts be held at their local church.

But an acoustic/semi-rock show held in a church isn't the place where you require security in front of the stage to prevent moshing, body-surfing or injuries...

Eventually (and to my satisfaction), I was put in front of the backstage area, and my job was to make sure no one who shouldn't be allowed in to wander there. A really easy task that kept me in contact with everyone who was performing that night, from openers The Capitol Years (the likely subjects of my next post) to Mr. Johnston himself.

As a member of the staff, I was allowed free beer - and the show was co-organized my my 'arch-enemies' Pop Montreal, so - while I did remain in total control - I wasn't going to shy out on the free beverages. I likely ended up having a dozen Griffons - quality local microbrew.

Saving $80 on beer, though, I did spend cash on merchandise; I bought a vinyl from the opener, and the Daniel Johnston Discovered / Covered double-CD (one record a compilation of his songs, the second one the same songs, but by current indie musicians like the Flaming Lips, Beck and Eels), a DVD of The Devil And Daniel Johnston (a superb documentary), and was given a recyclable hand-made knit bag to stuff everything in it.

Which brings me to the subject of this post.

I really wanted Mr. Johnston's autograph, and two fellow fans wanted to have his picture taken with him after the show. But Johnston was just walking around everywhere, avoiding eye contact with anyone, turning around as soon as anyone would open their mouths in his direction. Like a shy child, you could say. Which, you know, fits with the character we've come to love from the documentary.

I ended up asking a member of his entourage, who said it'd be easier if we got a girl to pose with us, because he ''loves the ladies'' (can't blame him, really), so I did manage to find one, but it took so long to get the star close enough for a picture that she'd gone by then. But we got it made anyhow, it's right below, and you can see how thrilled he was...
As soon as the flash came on, he was ready to just up and leave - he made a 180-degree turn and was just going to walk into the wall right behind us when I asked him if he could sign my CD. He was gracious enough to say yes, grabbing a marker from the table right next to us, signing the inside jacket of the double-digipak I mentioned earlier, then proceeded to hand me the marker back as if it was mine.

- Uh, no, sir that's yours.
- Oh, it's mine?
- Yes.
- Huh.

Then he put it back on the table and left the scene quickly.

You probably can't tell from looking at the picture of seeing him in person, but that man is quick on his feet - I'm talking Olympian Speed Walker-type speed.

What a night. It was good, it was weird, it was short and definitely sweet. Everything I expected it to be, and I got souvenirs and saw it for free from a terrific angle.