Wallace Johnson Autographed Card

Wallace Johnson was synonymous with the Montréal Expos for much of the 1980s. Not that he was as big of a star as Gary Carter, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Tim Wallach, or Dennis Martinez - far from it - but he fit with the team's blueprint of short hits and speed, and is the team's all-time leader in pinch-hits, with 86.

He had three stints with the team: 1981-83, after which he was traded to (and subsequently released by) the San Francisco Giants, back in Montréal in 1984, in the minors in 1985 and back with the team from 1986-90.

The year he had the most at-bats was 1986, when he had 134 plate appearances and 127 official at-bats with 36 hits (.283), while he actually surpassed the .300 mark (.309) in 94 at-bats in 1988.

I have found two of his cards but want to feature just one today, one of the earliest I have signed - I can tell because it's autographed in ball-point pen:

It's card #192 from Fleer's 1982 Fleer set, which serves as his rookie card for the brand. I think I initially bought the card around $3-5 in 1989 or 1990 so I could have it signed.

Pat Lafontaine Stamp And Swatch Card

I mentioned a Tony Gwynn card from the same 2010 Donruss Americana Century Collection and Souvenir Stamps sub-set by Panini a few years back, and my opinion hasn't changed. This one (#42 in the set, numbered 227/250, featuring a dark blue swatch that could have come from a shirt, a sock or a game-worn jersey from any number of teams or occasions) may well feature Pat Lafontaine - which is why I traded for it - it is still too vague in its description of what you're getting:

Unless you're clear that you're getting a stamp card, first and foremost, and one that has nothing to do with the former member of the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres, except for the fact that he's an American:

The stamp takes up more room than he does! Also, the Hall Of Famer deserves more than a four-cent flag stamp.

Buck Rodgers Autographed Card

I wrote about one former Montréal Expos manager yesterday, not remembering what (useless) uniform number he wore; well, apart from Felipe Alou, Buck Rodgers is the team's manager I remember most (and most fondly), and I can say for a fact that he wore #37, which makes him fair game for my Expos Numbers Project with card #293 from Topps' 1987 Topps set, the first set I ever pulled a Gary Carter card from:

Of course, the card - signed in black sharpie in the early 1990s - lists him as "Bob" instead of "Buck", but you can't win 'em all. And he hasn't. However, as an Expos boss, he mostly had winning records, with a .510 winning percentage over 7 seasons, including his 1987 title as National League Manager Of The Year.

His best record as manager was with the Milwaukee Brewers, with whom he kept a .549 record, albeit in parts of just three seasons. As a matter of fact, both on the Brewers and on the California Angels, he lived through seasons where he started as manager, was replaced, then came back to finish the season - he replaced George Bamberger (preseason heart attack) with the Brewers, and had a replacement with the Angels himself after the team suffered a bus crash.

To this day, he's still an Angels fan, the only team he played for in his younger days; he was their catcher from their inaugural season until his knees gave out, nine years later.

Bill Virdon Autographed Card

Bill Virdon was an excellent defensive center fielder who was also decent at the plate, with a career batting average of .267, mostly with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1956-1965, and three plate appearances in 1968), but also with the St. Louis Cardinals (1955, 1956), with whom he was named the NL Rookie Of The Year.

Officially, he could still play in the late 1960s but retired because he wanted to become a manager, which he started doing in the minors before graduating to the majors with the Pirates in 1972, finishing first in the NL East. After finishing third the following season, he had a year-and-a-half stint with the New York Yankees, finishing the 1975 season with the Houston Astros, where he remained until 1982, with first-place finishes in 1980 and 1981, but finishing fifth in 1982, leading to his departure and subsequent hiring by the Montréal Expos for two seasons.

He then moved back to Missouri with his wife, at times joining the Pirates for special occasions, including stints as guest first-base coach during Spring Training. The team had him and Bill Mazeroski appear in the dugout in 2012, but that didn't go over well with the powers that be over at MLB and the experiment was terminated after just a single game.

I don't recall the number he wore when he managed the Expos, so I can't add him to my Expos Numbers Project just yet - and, for the record, I do find it odd and borderline ridiculous that managers have uniform numbers in baseball when they aren't player-managers like Pete Rose was - but I do have a signed card of his that reflects his time in La Belle Province:

It's #516 from Topps' 1983 Topps set, which he signed in blue sharpie during the Expos' final season.

Tyler Pitlick Autograph Card

Just as Tyler Pitlick had become a regular on the Edmonton Oilers' roster, with 8 goals, 3 assists and 11 points in 31 games, his season is now compromised due to a torn ACL in the left knee. The Oilers are now second in the Pacific Division, three points behind head coach Todd McLellan's former team, the San Jose Sharks.

Here he is on card #730 from Panini's 2013-14 Score set and Hot Rookies and Dual Rookie Class sub-sets:

It shows him wearing the Oilers' classic blue (now-away) uniform, and features a blue-sharpied, on-sticker autograph.

You may recognize the picture (used twice here), because Panini used it (twice!) on another card that year, which I featured two years ago to the day (#223 in the 2013-14 Contenders collection, part of the Rookie Ticket and Dual Rookie Class sub-sets):

I wonder if they had to pay royalties once, twice or four times on that picture...

Box Break: 2016-17 Upper Deck Series 1

Going on a pharmacy run now pretty much always means I look in the "electronics" section, between Minion clocks and DVDs of 13 Going On 30 to see if there aren't any boxes of cards.

Lo and behold, there were blaster boxes of Upper Deck's 2016-17 Series 1 cards going at $28 ($32 after taxes) for 12 packs of 5 cards, for a total of 60 cards. First off, the packaging is a tad misleading; sometimes UD don't mention "extra packs" (which is fine), sometimes they do. For some reason, I thought two extra packs meant 12+2 (14), not 12.

There were no doubles in the box, which is a good start.

There were five inserts, divided as follows:

Two Young Guns rookies of kids I like, the Philadelphia Flyers' Ivan Provorov and the Chicago Blackhawks' Gustav Forsling:

There was a gold-and-silver foil Shining Stars card of Evgeny Kuznetsov:

A Superstars Portrait of Sidney Crosby:

And a Canvas card of Jordan Staal:

The Young Guns cards look particularly nice, as does the regular-issue set, which looks like this from the front, with the sharp pictures UD has gotten us used to:

The backs are nice as well, the head shot cut from the picture on the front:

You can see from Roberto Luongo's card that they "only" display the last 12 seasons, as his doesn't show his New York Islanders statistics. You can also see from Alexander Wennberg's card that we shouldn't be surprised at how good he's doing this year, as he already led the Columbus Blue Jackets in assists last year and tied for Team Sweden's points lead with 8 points at the World Championships.

All told, it's a fairly nice set. I would have liked to pay around $20, $25 tops for 60 such cards, but I have a feeling the Provorov might net me half my money back if I put it on Ebay, which would enable me to send out the common cards to be signed at pretty much no cost.

I feel like I prefer the MVP set this year, so I'll give this one a 7.5/10.

Frank Corrado Autograph Card

All Frank Corrado wants for Christmas is a chance to show that he can play at NHL level, despite the fact that he has only suited up for 40 games so far over two full seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs - and only once this year, on November 12th.

Is it that he's not good enough to play? Not really. It's that the Leafs claimed him off waivers from the Vancouver Canucks prior to the start of last season and don't want to lose him the same way if they send him to the AHL, but he's so rusty from never suiting up that coach Mike Babcock isn't comfortable letting him play. Meanwhile, he rightfully feels his career is slowly passing him by, because every year brings a new crops of draftees from Juniors and overseas, as well as U.S. College players - hundreds of guys potentially gunning for his position.

He's 23, a defenseman about to enter his prime, and he hasn't been able to gain experience in the years where he should, i.e. the early 20s. It's poor asset management on the Leafs' part, and it's borderline cruel to the player.

Sure, he's making NHL-level money right now eating popcorn in the press box and practicing with actual NHLers, but not improving may cost him an NHL-level payday as early as next season. If he were/would have been to become a regular top-six defender, or a top-four, that's millions of dollars potentially at stake. One season at half a million for doing less than one feels like they can will never buy that back and definitely is not worth a lifetime of bad blood, resentment and bitterness.

I'm no fan of the Leafs, but this is below even what I initially thought of them. Ironically, it's not entirely below what I think GM Lou Lamoriello can do to a guy who hasn't deserved the favours he keeps handing out to his favourite guys.

I wish Corrado a new team for 2017.

Here he is on the signed insert version of card #742 from Panini's 2013-14 Score collection, part of the Dual Rookie Class and Hot Rookies sub-sets:

It features an on-sticker, blue-sharpied autograph and shows him wearing the Canucks' current blue (home) uniform.

Moe Mantha Autographed Card

It's December 24th, and I thought I could feature someone whose name rhymes with "Santa", Moe Mantha.

Moe Mantha Jr. had hockey bloodlines, though not from George and Hall Of Famer sibling Sylvio Mantha of Montréal Canadiens fame, but from Moe Mantha Sr., a career minor-leaguer who played in Québec leagues (the Québec Citadelles of the OHA and the Montréal Royals of the QHL), as well as the IHL (Cincinnati Mohawks and Columbus Checkers), AHL (Cleveland Barons, Québec Aces, and Providence Reds) and WHL (San Francisco Seals, Seattle Totems, and Vancouver Canucks).

The son, however, was an Olympian, suiting up for Team USA in 1992, and played defense for the Winnipeg Jets and Philadelphia Flyers twice apiece, as well as the Pittsburgh Penguins, Edmonton Oilers, and Minnesota North Stars - and also some of their AHL and CHL affiliates - accumulating a total of 81 goals, 289 assists and 370 points in 656 regular-season games, and a very good 5 goals and 10 assists (15 points) in 17 playoff games, all with the Jets.

His best season was in 1985-86 with the Pens, as he used his sharp passing skills, fluid skating ability, fine stickhandling skills and hard slap shot to put up 67 points in 78 games.

Like many of his contemporaries, he was known to sport a dashing mustache, as can be attested from card # 506 from Score's 1991-92 Canadian Edition set, which he signed in blue sharpie:

It shows him wearing the Jets' early-1990s purplish-blue (away) uniform.

You may recall his name from having replaced Greg Gilbert as the Saginaw Spirit's head coach last season. It was the second time he was named interim head coach of the OHL franchise, the previous time occurring in 2003-04. His record as a coach isn't stellar:

Courtesy of HockeyDB.com

That's barely three times with a record over .500, and just once advancing past the first round when making the playoffs at all.

Mark Messier Jersey Card

I've debunked the Mark Messier myth on this blog a few times; it's not that I don't respect the man - he was, after all, the centerpiece of the New York Rangers' historic 1994 Stanley Cup run; he also captained the Edmonton Oilers to their only post-Wayne Gretzky championship in 1990, making him the only player in NHL history to captain two teams to the Cup.

But there's no way he gets to second in all-time scoring ahead of Gordie Howe if he doesn't play on the 1980s Oilers. He wasn't even the second-best Oiler on his team - that was Jari Kurri. In that regard, I was doubly happy when Jaromir Jagr surpassed his mark earlier this week.

And that compliment that Gretzky bestowed upon him, "the greatest leader in all sports"? Come on! If he was that great a leader, how do you explain his disastrous run with the Vancouver Canucks, where he was handed the captaincy right off of Trevor Linden's chest and insisted on wearing his usual #11 despite the fact that the team had retired it for deceased player Wayne Maki? The Canucks rightfully failed to make the playoffs in all three seasons he was there, resulting in two head coaches (Tom Renney and Mike Keenan) and one general manager (Hall Of Famer Pat Quinn) losing their jobs in that short span.

He also had a tendency to be mean and dirty, his elbows high and his stick always ready to disappear in someone's rib cage. Not unlike Howe, come to think of it.

But man, the longevity. 25 seasons spread over four decades; 1992 overall games, 1767 of them in the regular season, 11 less than Howe (who played longer in the WHA, hence the discrepancy). Messier was also the last player from the WHA - and last to have played in the 1970s - to retire.

Though he never won a scoring title, he has two Hart trophies and Lester B. Pearson Awards (1990 and 1992) to go with his 1984 Conn Smythe, and was a 15-time All-Star Game participant. He's the only active player to have played in an official Winter Classic/Heritage Classic alumni game (2004).

He almost hit round-number milestones for career goals (694) and assists (1193). Cementing his reputation as a big-game player are his postseason statistics, with 109 goals and 186 assists for 295 points in 236 games, although his teams failed to make the playoffs in his final seven seasons in the NHL, where his least productive years thus did not affect his career totals.

Here's a very special card which first appeared in In The Game's 2012-13 Decades - The 1990s set, as part of the Game-Used Jersey sub-set, which features a fairly large white game-worn jersey swatch

If you look in the top-right corner, however, you will see that mine is a 1/1 Fall Expo 2013 edition. On it, he is pictured as the Rangers' captain.

David Legwand Autographed Card

It was a long time coming, perhaps even a season late, but former Nashville Predators second-overall draft pick (1998) David Legwand has announced his retirement.

All told, he played 956 regular-season games with the Preds, scoring 210 goals with 356 assists for 566 points - all standing team records. He also suited up in 47 postseason games with Nashville, with 13 goals and 15 assists (28 points) to show for it, including a three-season run where he accumulated 11 goals, 11 assists and 22 points in 28 playoff games.

The Predators traded him to the Detroit Red Wings at the tail end of the 2013-14 season, enabling him to play for his hometown team. He then spent a year each with the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres before calling it a career earlier today.

At told, he retires with 618 points in 1136 games.

Here he is wearing the Preds' early white (then-home) uniform, on card #32 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Black Diamond set:

He signed it in thin black sharpie when he was with the Sens, with whom he scored 9 goals with 18 assists (good for 27 points) in 80 games, mostly spent centering the third line.