Danny White: QB-P

A couple of months ago on the blog, I shared my newly completed 1982 Topps football set. It might be my favorite football design of the 1980s. Quite a few cards stood out to me—some for the action depicted, and others for the noticeable lack of action. Then there were cards that caught my attention for other reasons, including one that I thought deserved some research and a post of its own. 

 

Here it is:

 

Have a look at the playing position on the right side of the banner.

QB-P

Quarterback. Punter.

That's right. Danny White is listed at both positions on his 1982 Topps card.

Now, you often see multiple playing positions on baseball cards. You've got designations like 2B-SS, OF-DH, and so on. Hockey cards also sometimes feature players who spend time at multiple positions, like C-LW, or RW-LW.

But football players? I'm not as knowledgeable about the sport, but aside from maybe a wide receiver who also returns some kicks (WR-KR), a dual-position player feels pretty rare—especially the "QB-P" designation. And it sure seems like a lot of work for the poor guy. I mean, he tries his hardest to advance the offense far enough down the field for a touchdown or field goal, but every time he fails he's got to punt it away, too?

 

Regardless, there it is, right on the card front. And check out the card back!

 

 

The evidence starts right away, with the statistical highlight printed under Mr. White's name:  

 

Danny tossed a 73-yard pass and booted a 60-yard punt in 1981.

Impressive. 

 

Below that, the card goes on to list White's career passing, punting, and rushing stats.

 

Even more impressive!

 

So here's the story:

Danny White was punting and quarterbacking even in his college days at Arizona State University. The Dallas Cowboys selected him in the 1974 draft, but with Roger Staubach as the main man taking snaps at the time, the team was only interested in White's punting skills. Not happy with that idea, White signed with the Memphis Southmen of the World Football league, where he had the opportunity to punt and quarterback. 

 

Welp, a couple of years later, the WFL folded. White then signed with the Cowboys, settling for a full-time punter and backup QB role. (Backing up Roger Staubach isn't such a bad thing, I guess.) When Staubach retired after the 1979 season, it was White's time to step into the starting QB role, while maintaining his punting duties. So he took the ball and ran with it. And threw it. And punted it.

 

Because the 1982 Topps card above mentions some of White's 1981 accomplishments, let's look more closely into his numbers that season.

 

1981 Punting Record

Category	Total	NFL Rank
Punts	79	T-14th
Yards	3,222	14th
Yards per Punt	40.8	T-15th
Long	60	T-22nd
Touchbacks	7	T-14th
Punts Inside 20-Yard Line	19	T-8th
% Punts Inside 20-Yard Line	24.1%	11th

 

 

Those numbers show that Danny White was a pretty serviceable punter. With 28 teams in the league at that point, I'd say he was at league average—maybe even slightly above. Let's look at his quarterbacking numbers now.

1981 Passing Record

Category	Total	NFL Rank
W-L	11-4-0	4th
Attempts	391	15th
Completions	223	15th
Completion %	57.0	11th
Yards	3,098	12th
Touchdowns	22	T-8th
Interceptions	13	T-21st
Long	73	15th
Yards Gained per Attempt	7.9	T-3rd
Sacks	30	T-8th

 

 

White also rushed for 104 yards in 38 attempts, for an average of 2.7 yards per carry. His longest rush was 17 yards. And looking at all those passing numbers and rankings, you can see that he was a pretty good QB, too.

But what about the modern NFL? With the enormous salaries of starting quarterbacks these days, a team wouldn't dare use one as a punter as well, would they? It's just too risky. And let's be honest. If you were a linebacker on the punt return team and you saw that the starting QB was back there to take the punt, you'd probably try extra-hard to break through the line and block it, right? 

 

I would.

 

So I think we've got to tip our collective hat to Mr. Danny White. He held down the full-time quarterback and punter responsibilities for a good part of his career (from 1980 through 1985), was a Pro Bowl participant in 1982, and earned a Super Bowl ring in 1978.

Pretty remarkable.

Can any of you football fans out there think of other quarterbacks who punted? I did a little research, and a couple of famous QBs like Terry Bradshaw and Randall Cunningham made the list. However, those cases seemed more out of necessity, like when the regular punter was injured.

 

There's also the example of Tom Tupa, a punter who filled in at quarterback a few times. That's pretty cool too, but it's still no Danny White.

Share any info you have in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

A Red Hot Custom Card (And a Giveaway)

I suppose the title of this blog post could be a little cryptic.

But if you happened to have music or rock bands on your mind, you might have guessed where this was going.

 

It's the Red Hot Chili Peppers on a custom card!

 

Design-wise, the 1974 "rookie" template worked very well, as it provided plenty of room at the top for the band's full name. And the red color seemed the right fit, for obvious reasons. 

 

As for the personnel, I had to go with John Frusciante as the guitarist—although that takes nothing away from the other guitarists who've been part of the band, like Hillel Slovak or Dave Navarro.

Regardless, because the templates I use for these customs are usually taken from sports trading cards, something I try to do with these posts whenever I can is to tie sports into them. And in this case, there's a pretty cool sports tie-in.

 

Did you know that the Chili Peppers teamed up with tennis star Andre Agassi to make a Nike commercial back in 1991?

 

Check this out!

 

 

 

Man, that was such a fun time for American tennis.

And the fun kept going and going after that. Andre Agassi won his first major championship the following year (Wimbledon, 1992). He won 8 majors in all, the final one coming at the Australian Open in 2003. He collected 60 career ATP tour titles from 1987 through 2005.

 

As for the Chili Peppers, they've created 13 studio albums, starting with their self-titled release in 1984. Their most recent releases were in 2022. It's impressive to me that the band has written hit songs and maintained a certain amount of freshness across all those years.

My favorite Chili Pepper era spans the late-80s and early '90s. (Think Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik). I do like the Californication (1999) and Stadium Arcadium (2006) albums as well, but they just can't hold a candle to that earlier stuff.

I think it's because to me, the Chili Peppers are guys that should just never get old. And I know you can say that about almost any rock band that ever existed. We tend to remember rockers when they're young, and full of raw energy. But I don't know. Maybe that's not always the case. I mean, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards don't need to be young, right? I don't necessarily picture them as young guys when they come to mind. Anthony Kiedis, however? Somehow I always see him as that young punk up there on the top left of the card.

In any case, I'm glad to have some copies of this card in hand now, including a few extras. And here's a question for you that has a Chili Peppers–themed answer:

What am I going to do with one of those extra copies?

 

The answer:

 

Give it away, give it away, give it away, now!

 

(How many of you saw that one coming?)

 

Last year I tried the fun and goofy duck race to choose the winner of a giveaway, and that seemed to go over pretty well with readers. So I think I'll do that again. And just like last time, all you have to do to enter is leave a comment below. If you have a favorite Chili Peppers song, add that to your comment as well.

I'll start out by offering one custom Chili Peppers card to the winner of the duck race, but how about this? If at least 10 people enter the giveaway, I'll award a Chili Peppers custom card to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finisher.

Sound good? 

 

Alright. Get to it, then. Comment below. You have until next Sunday, January 12th, to enter. After that I'll close it up and get the ducks ready to race.

 

Thanks for reading, as always!

Six!

 

1975-76 Topps #150, Darryl Sittler

If you were a hockey-loving kid opening packs of cards on February 8th, 1976, and pulled the card above, you would have let out a big cheer.

 

Why?

The night before, Darryl Sittler scored 6 goals against the Boston Bruins in an 11–4 win for the Maple Leafs. Add 4 assists to his scoresheet, and you'll find that Sittler contributed to 10 of his team's 11 goals.

There was no way you were trading that card at school the next day. (Or maybe you do try and trade it—you'd be sure to get a haul in return.)

Regardless, six goals in a game is pretty special. And do you know what else has "lit the lamp" 6 times now, in an anniversary sense?

This blog!

That's right. Tomorrow marks the 6-year anniversary of my very first post here at Nine Pockets. I don't know where the time goes. It's baffling.

But it's been another fun year. I designed more custom cards, found some pieces of trading card nostalgia from my childhood, learned some French-language baseball terminology, and started a series on food-issue cards.

 

I'm also happy to report that I've officially kept the streak of Sunday posts going for another year. Every Sunday since 2019. I'm pretty happy about that.

One more thing I'm happy about? Last year at this time, one of my goals was to get some zeal back for the hobby. And I'll give myself a passing grade there. The Smorgasbord series has helped, as I've enjoyed picking up some cool, retro, funky food-issue cards over the past few months. Much more to come there, so stay tuned. I also completed three more sets from my youth this past year: 1983 Topps Baseball, 1982 Topps Football, and 1990-91 Pro Set Hockey.

As for this coming year, I've got some posts lined up already that I'm hoping you'll enjoy. It's been a while since I've done a giveaway, so I think I'll try to include a couple of those throughout the year, too. Other than that, I just want to keep the good mojo going, and I've got to make an effort to find more time to read and comment on all the great trading card blogs out there.

The hobby is still in a weird place, isn't it? It seems like there's lots of big energy, but lots of malaise at the same time. Quite a few things are behind that phenomenon, but instead of taking time to analyze and write about them, I think I'm just going to stick to what makes me feel good in the hobby, share some of those good feelings here on the blog, and treat all the rest of it as noise.

Thanks to all of you for following along these past 6 years, for your friendships (real-world or virtual), for your trades, and for your comments. We've got a great community, and I look forward to year number 7.

Here's to lots of good collecting all around in 2025!

A Smorgasbord! 1977 Burger Chef Fun Meal Discs

From the 1970s through the 1990s, it seemed like you could find your favorite baseball stars on food product packaging everywhere you looked: supermarkets, corner stores, restaurants, and beyond. This past year, in an effort to capture a little more nostalgia, I set a goal to expand my own collection of these "food-issue" cards. In this series I'll show the specific examples I've acquired, and share a little bit of history about the food or beverage sponsor as well. 

Previous entries can be found here.

 

  

It's winter holiday time, 1977. School's out. You're feeling pretty good about things. Your most recent report card was impressive, and there's a strong chance you'll receive at least one or two of the gifts you've been hoping for.

 

You'll find out in a few days, but it doesn't even matter right now. Your first gift just came early. . .

 

Mom and Dad are treating you to a Fun Meal at Burger Chef!

 

 

 

Even though it's been ages since they brought you there, you can already taste that flame-grilled burger, french fries, and dessert.

And it gets even better once you enter the restaurant. Instead of the standard toy, check out what you get with your Fun Meal tray:

 

Baseball discs, featuring Major League players!

There's too much text to read right there at the register, so you run over to an open table, blitz through the assembly, and set the game board in front of you:

 

 

There's no time to put your burger, fries, and drink in those designated locations. You've got to learn how to play the game, so you flip the whole thing over:

 

There's more discs on the back!

You waste no time punching them out, and then make a wise move—agreeing with your parents to eat some of your food before it gets cold, and before you can fall out of their good graces. (I mean, come on. Holiday gift list. Don't mess it up now.) Besides, there will be plenty of time to play this Burger Chef baseball game at home.

So you keep your food off the tray altogether and scarf down that delicious, flame-broiled burger and the rest of the meal.

 

As soon as the holidays are over, you'll start bouncing off the walls, just waiting for April to arrive so you can see your favorite baseball pros in action again. At least you have some super-cool Burger Chef discs to play with in the meantime.

 

Now let's talk about Burger Chef a little bit.

Do you know that Frank and Donald Thomas, founders of Burger Chef, patented a flame-broiler machine way back in 1954? They used it in their very first Burger Chef location, which opened a few years later in 1957. The flavor imparted by the broiler became so popular that by 1972, only McDonald's had more hamburger locations around the country.

 

And speaking of McDonald's, guess where they got their "Happy Meal" idea from?

 

Yep, that's right. Just a few years after Burger Chef introduced their Fun Meal for kids, McDonald's launched their Happy Meal. Burger Chef initiated a lawsuit, but lost the case. 

 

They did keep going strong through the late '70s and early '80s. However, in 1982 the entire chain was bought by Hardee's. And sadly, that was the beginning of the end. Over the next decade or so, individual Burger Chef locations were either converted to Hardee's restaurants, other types of restaurants, or just closed down.

But let's get back to Burger Chef's run of greatness, including the awesome cast of characters they featured on the tray up there. There's Burger Chef himself, along with a sort of sidekick youngster named Jeff. Then you have some "likeable villain" types. Crankenburger is a Frankenstein-type monster. Count Fangburger is, as you can guess, a vampire. There's also Mrs. Fangburger and Fangburger's Daughter. Then you have Burgerilla (a gorilla), Where Wolf (a shaggy wolf), and Burgerini the magician.

Someone in the Burger Chef marketing department was quite productive.

 

Here are the discs I have in my collection, front and back.

There's a whopping 216 total discs in the set, and 24 of the 26 MLB teams were represented. Only the two new expansion teams of the time, the Blue Jays and the Mariners, were absent. A different tray was printed for each team, which means there's a perfectly even distribution of 9 players per team. The discs themselves are about 2 3/8 inches in diameter.

I really might have to pick up more of them—both for the players on the front and the Burger Chef mascots on the back. (I still need a disc of Crankenburger, Fangburger, Mrs. Fangburger, Burgerilla, and Jeff).

Regardless of what teams and players you collect, you're likely to find a few discs for your collection.

Do any of you readers have memories of Burger Chef? If there were any locations in my region of New York back in the 1980s, I certainly didn't know about them.

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

PS: How big was Burger Chef back in the 1970s? Check out what franchise they linked up with in this commercial:

 

2024 Softball Season Review: A New League

 

 

What you're looking at up there is a jersey for each of the three softball teams I've played for since getting back into the sport in 2018.

And to remind you where we last left off, I began the 2024 season searching for yet another team. The regular third baseman for the Stunners was ready to return from injury this year, so they no longer had a spot for me on the team. (No hard feelings, as many of those guys have played softball together for 15 or 20 years.)

 

Well, after scouring the local softball message boards and posting some information, I'm happy to report that I did find a new team for 2024. 

 

 

 

Not quite the feel-good moniker you'd be looking for, but hey, softball team names are known to be pretty wacky. And they needed a third baseman. Besides, not only would this be a new team, it would also be a new league. I went into it with a completely blank slate.

It turned out pretty well. Let's get right to the stats. 

 

The competition level in this new league fell right between the previous two I played in: Not as strongly challenging as the Stunners' league, but a little more competitive than the Wolfpack's league.

 

Ultimately, it was a tale of two seasons for me. Here's the TL;DR: 

 

  

The biggest difference for me was the Monday night games compared with the Sunday night games. Mondays are usually long, busy days at work for me. It can be pretty tough to finish at 5:00pm. Oftentimes my Monday nights involved rushing to finish up with work, grabbing a quick bite to eat, getting my uniform on, and zooming over to the fields to play a doubleheader. And as much as I like to say No excuses, play like a champion, I definitely showed up to some games during the Summer season feeling physically and mentally drained. (Just look at the difference in my batting average from the summer to the fall!) There were even a couple of games where I noticed the outfielders moving in on me, because I was making such weak contact.

In addition, our pitcher left the team pretty early on during the Summer season. And when our captain asked me if I had any pitching experience, I reluctantly said yes. Pitching is not my favorite thing. Combine that with some tough luck and rough defense, and it affected my enjoyment of the game. It's not to say that I didn't have some good outings where I managed to pitch well and keep our team in there, but let's just say I also had a couple of pretty big stinkers. I hesitate to share my pitching stats, but here you go.

 

 

  

I will say that pitching in this league was a lot more challenging than the fill-in pitching I did for the Wolfpack a few years ago, where most hitters were free swingers. I didn't walk many people at all in that league. But in this new league? Wow. Hitters have good eyes, and they're willing to take walks, as you can see by those numbers. And once they notice that you're struggling on the mound, they take even more pitches—even close ones! I can't tell you how many pitches I made that just missed landing past home plate for strikes. That's not to mention the couple of tournament teams we played against who had a few guys capable of rocketing balls over the fence, 300 feet away, even if your pitches were a little out of the strike zone. Oof.

In any case, for the Fall season we recruited an actual pitcher, picked up a few new players with skill and speed, and I went back over to third base. In my first game back at the hot corner I went 3-for-4 and made some good plays in the field, and felt much better about things for the rest of the season.

Speaking of third base, here are my fielding stats for the year.

 

Overall, I played fairly well at third, and made a few nice diving stops and double plays over the course of the year. I made a handful of errors as well. Some were throwing errors, and others were fielding errors. (It's the fielding errors that bother me more.) As a pitcher I also fielded well, snagging a few hot come-backers over the course of the season. I made just one silly throwing error when I cut off a throw to home plate from the outfield and tried to nail a baserunner who ventured too far off second base. As for those few innings at catcher, they were logged during a doubleheader when I tweaked my lower back early on, and just couldn't play third base for the rest of the day. Thankfully, that was the only weekend when I was more literally a member of the Walking Wounded.

Bonus Content: Playoff Stats!

We played well enough in the Fall season to make the playoffs. Impressively, this league holds a best-of-three series for each playoff round. (One round each Sunday for three consecutive Sundays.) We swept through the first two rounds, and then met up with a pretty tough team in the finals. We lost the first game, but came right back in the second game with a win. Unfortunately, they got the better of us in the final game with some timely hitting and fantastic fielding, so we finished runner-up. It was still a heck of a run, though, especially considering that we didn't even come close to the playoffs during the Summer season.

Here are my playoff stats.

 

 

 

A Deeper Dive

Just like last year, I kept a basic spray chart. Since we made the playoffs this year, I added those numbers to the totals. Have a look.

 

 

 

Last year, 50% of my hits went the opposite way (left field), 29% went to center, and 21% went to my pull side (right field). This year I spread things out a lot better, and I'm pretty happy about that. As for the ratio of fly balls to line drives to ground balls, I definitely leaned more heavily toward grounders and less toward line drives this year. (Last year it was 40% grounders, 55% line drives, and 5% fly balls.) 

 

Now part of that is because I collect some singles by deliberately slapping grounders through the hole, just to get on base. But I'd be fooling myself if I didn't acknowledge that a swing flaw revealed itself in 2024—especially during the Summer season. A pretty good percentage of those ground balls probably came from swings where I was trying to hit a line drive, and just got on top of the ball. It's lucky that some of them found a hole in the infield. 

 

Bu there's a positive to share. Throughout the Fall season and into the playoffs, I really started to figure things out and hit more line drives again. That helped to restore my confidence. We'll see what kind of work I can put in during the off-season, and hopefully I can start out next season on a similar roll.

More Bonus Content: League Leaders!

Speaking of confidence, I got my swing working well enough during the Fall season to lead the team in hits (31) and batting average (.721). In addition, across the 9-team league I was ranked #5 in batting average for all batters with a minimum of 25 at-bats. (I had 43 at-bats, which tied for 9th overall.) Yeah!

 

Okay, analysis over. 

 

Now I'm going to look at the goals I set at the end of last year, and give myself a letter grade for each one.

Learn How to Pull the Ball Again (B+)

I'm pretty happy here. It took me a while to really nail things down, but once I did, I started recognizing inside pitches and turning on them more confidently. I hit a few solid line drives into right field, including a rocket shot that drove in the winning run from third base in extra innings during a Fall season game. This also kept defenses a little more honest with me. There were times when I pulled the ball in a couple of consecutive at-bats, and when the opposing team put the lefty shift on me the next time I was up at bat, I went oppo for a hit. That felt pretty good.

Stop Lunging at Short Pitches (B)

Not bad here, either. I did develop a better eye for short pitches (those that fall short of the plate, or on the plate) over the course of year, and my higher number of walks is evidence of that. I also noticed that I took more pitches in general, and took some at-bats deeper in the count than normal. That's very good for me, because I'm a bit of a free swinger. I've got more work to do here, but overall, it's a definite improvement.

 

Figure Out a Way to Produce on Bad Days (Incomplete)

Last year I posited that my bad days on the softball field were, in part, the simple result of getting older (I'm firmly entrenched in my mid-40s). After another year, I'm more confident that's the case. Some days you just feel tired, and not quite sharp physically or mentally. And like I mentioned already, that summer schedule—6:00pm doubleheaders every Monday right after work—didn't do me any favors. 

 

But really, those are all excuses. I've just got to do a little better at getting on base and playing good defense on those bad days. I'll make this a goal again for next year, and we'll see what I can do. I don't know. Maybe it's time for an over-40 league? Maybe I should start drinking coffee before games?

 

It's all stuff to think about. For now, let's keep the good mojo going. Here are a couple of things I'd like to work on for next year.

 

Keep that Swing Flaw Away

Like I mentioned a little while ago, I struggled with my swing during the Summer season. I was seeing the top of the ball too much and hitting it into the ground, even when I felt like I was trying to make a level swing. I think a decent part of this was a result of all the golf I played during the year, and how I spent much more time on my golf game than my softball game. (Being a two-sport guy has its challenges, for sure.) Recognizing the softball swing flaw and fixing it during the Fall season was a big win for me. So now it's just a matter of taking down some notes and reminding myself of the solution. Let's go hit!

 

Get Back in the Gym

This is more of a general life goal, but the fact remains that I've hardly worked on my strength and flexibility over the past couple of years. Getting back into that routine will certainly help my softball game, both at the plate and in the field.

I'm writing these goals down on the blog because I think doing so will help keep me accountable. Let's see what happens!

And that's my assessment of the 2024 season. Overall, I enjoyed the year. I got out there and met even more new people and made some new friends. And although the level of competition in this league is a step below last year's league, I think it's a pretty good fit for me. I like to challenge myself and work to improve my game, but I also just like enjoying some weekend softball. So I wouldn't mind joining the same team again, especially if they choose the Sunday afternoon time slot again. However, I'll also keep my eyes open for other teams and leagues, including over-40 leagues. We'll see. Maybe I'll have yet another jersey to add to my collection next year.

 

I look forward to checking back on this post at the end of next season to see if I made some of the improvements that I laid out here. For now, I'm going to enjoy a little time off for the holidays. 

 

Thanks for reading along and following my experiences. 

 

Did any of you get out and join a softball league this past year? Or play any other sport?

 

Feel free to share some of your own experiences in the comment section.

Packs at the Golf Course: I Return the Favor

Around this time last year, my brother surprised me after a round of golf with a couple of packs of hockey cards. They were both from the early 1990s, which was right around my peak hockey card–collecting time, so the nostalgia levels were high. 

 

Right then and there, I took one pack and he took another, and we opened them. Only two or three stars showed up inside, but it was still a fun experience.

Well, this is the time of year when golf season and hockey season overlap, and a few weeks ago I found myself thinking about that pack rip. I figured that the next time my brother and I played golf, I'd go into my stash of early '90s hockey packs and return the favor with a little surprise after the round.

 

When he surprised me, it was one pack of 1990-91 Upper Deck and one pack of 1992-93 Upper Deck.

 

This time, I split the difference.

That's 1991-92 Upper Deck. Many would argue it was the best hockey set of the year, far and away. And I'd agree. Just looking at those foil packs reminds me of a monthly card show back then that was held at a local Holiday Inn. My hockey buddy and I would walk over to the show, buy some packs, and then head back to my house where we'd open them and play NHL Hockey on Sega Genesis. Man, those were fun times.

 

Fast-forward more than 30 years, and let's have a look at the cards my brother and I pulled from those two packs.

First, my brother's pack.

The first card out of the pack was part of the popular Canada Cup subset, which contained quite a few notable rookies and stars. I mentioned to my brother that Mr. Garpenlov went on to have a serviceable NHL career after coming over from Sweden. He replied by saying that those uniforms definitely looked Swedish. In the middle there we have goalie Bill Ranford, who won the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff MVP) with the Oilers in 1989-90. As for Russian legend Igor Larionov, look—he's doing battle with another legendary Russian player, Sergei Fedorov! Great action shot from a pretty cool and unusual angle.

Next up we've got Rob DiMaio. Yvon Corriveau, and yet another great Russian player in Sergei Makarov. More excellent action, don't you think?

Dan Quinn was a very good hockey player (and golfer). He even played in some professional golf tournaments after finishing his hockey career. In the middle, Mr. Zalapski shows off the classic Whalers logo, and look on the right! It's a Russian legends hot pack with the addition of Alexander Mogilny! My brother actually saw the back of the Mogilny card first, and got a kick out of the subject matter, considering where we were standing at that moment:

He's on the golf course!

Last three cards of the pack: Marty McSorley was a protector for Wayne Gretzky, both in Edmonton and Los Angeles. I like how Upper Deck showed him doing what he did best on the card front. And we finish off the pack with two looks at team Canada's uniforms. Two very solid players, as well.

 

Oh, and at the back of the back, you have the NHL All-Star fan ballot insert. As you can see by the text on the front, this card takes us back to a time of 1-900 numbers. $0.95 for the first minute, $0.55 for each additional minute. Yeesh. You'd better choose your all-stars quickly.

Now here's my pack.

 

 

We started off hot with a Zigmund Palffy rookie card and a Brett Hull/Eric Lindros Canada Cup checklist. Palffy was a superstar on Long Island during my college hockey days in the late-1990s, putting up 40+ goals a year for a while there.

Nothing too memorable here, although Dave Tippett was an excellent defensive forward who had a long playing career. He coached in the NHL for more than 20 years, as well.

Adam Graves helped Bill Ranford and the Oilers (see above) win that Stanley Cup in 1989-90. He then went on to the Rangers, where he was a big part of their 1994 Stanley Cup season. Ulf Samuelsson was known to be a big hitter and rough guy. See that Stanley Cup patch on his right shoulder? He helped the Penguins to their back-to-back cups in 1990-91 and 1991-92. As for Michel Petit, I remember him playing for the Rangers when I first got into hockey around 1989 or so.

That Brett Hull insert came out of the pack with the back of the card showing. Before we started the rip, I'd told my brother that Mr. Hull had signed a small number of the cards, which were then randomly inserted into the packs. We were hoping this would be one of them, but alas, it wasn't to be. Nice Cooperalls, though. Tom Barrasso was the starting goaltender on those Cup-winning Penguins teams with Ulf Samuelsson. As for Tomas Forslund, he played just a couple of NHL seasons in Calgary before going to Europe and playing in the Swedish and German professional leagues.

Pretty good pack, overall. And instead of the All-Star fan ballot, I found this at the end of the pack:

 

One of the randomly inserted holograms! You can't go wrong with Ray Bourque, who won the Norris Trophy (top defensive player) five times during his career.

This was a pretty fun pack rip. I think my brother and I might have to make this an annual tradition—at least one pack per year, that is.

Do any of you have a pack-ripping tradition, either on your own or with family and friend collectors? What's your favorite card from the two hockey packs?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!