Niedermayer Brothers

If you grew up playing sports with a sibling, I'd bet at least one of these fantasy scenarios will sound familiar:

1. Your sibling has the basketball near the top of the key. He's double-teamed and passes you the ball in the corner with seconds remaining on the clock. You plant your feet, square your shoulders, and take the shot. Three... two... one... swish! You've won the championship.

2. Your sibling walks up to the line of scrimmage behind the center. You line up wide, knowing a long "Hail Mary" pass is the only play that'll work. The ball is snapped. You sprint toward the end zone while your sibling drops back, waits, and then heaves the football. Looking up, you track its flight, and diving across the goal line, you make the grab. Touchdown! You've won the championship.

3. You stand on the mound, wiping sweat off your brow. There are two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and you need one more strike. Your sibling crouches behind the plate and gives you the sign you're looking for: Fastball, high and inside. He opens his mitt and provides the target. You wind up, uncoil, and let the pitch go. There's no way the batter can catch up to it. Strike three! You've won the championship.

4. You and your sibling skate across the offensive blue line on a two-on-one. The game is tied with seconds to go. As you reach the slot, your sibling slides the puck under the stick of the lunging defenseman and right toward you. Your one-timer speeds past the outstretched leg pad of the goaltender and into the back of the net. Goal! You've won the championship.

So much excitement. So many recreated triumphs. 

 

That last scenario in particular must have been played out thousands of times by a young Scott and Rob Niedermayer on the ponds of British Columbia. But it didn't stop there.

Scott, the older brother by about a year and a half, exhibited enough talent in his teenage years to be taken in the first round (third overall) by the New Jersey Devils in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. Just two years later, in the 1993 Draft, young Rob was also selected in the first round (fifth overall). He'd go straight to Florida and sign a contract with the Panthers. Neither brother played a single minor league game before stepping onto NHL ice.

Here are both Niedermayers, looking quite sharp on vintage-inspired cardboard.

 

1994-95 Parkhurst Vintage #V22 Rob Niedermayer and SE Vintage #seV12 Scott Niedermayer

Scott and Rob both had early success with their respective teams, and as the years went on, Scott would really rack up the accolades in New Jersey. An All-Rookie Team award, three Stanley Cups, and numerous All-Star selections. Rob was no slouch either, playing solid two-way hockey at center and at times earning quite a good amount of Selke Trophy consideration (awarded "to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.") 

 

Scott continued on and on in New Jersey, while Rob was part of a couple of trades—first to Calgary in 2001, and next to Anaheim in 2003. Then something interesting happened.

In 2005, after 13 seasons with New Jersey, Scott signed as a free agent with that same Anaheim team.

The brothers had been reunited. And with the whole team taking shape (Teemu Selanne, Chris Pronger, and a young Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry), it wouldn't take long before the Niedermayers would recreate some of those childhood hockey fantasies.

The 2006-07 version of the team finished first in the Pacific Division, and rolled through the first two rounds of the playoffs, defeating Minnesota and then Vancouver, losing just one game against each.

Then, in Game 2 of the Conference finals against Detroit, this happened:

 

Not quite a game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Finals, but still pretty special for the Niedermayers. A few days later, Scott assisted on Rob's empty-net goal to wrap up Game 4.

And that wasn't all, of course. After the Ducks took down Detroit, they went on to the Stanley Cup Final and took down Ottawa, four games to one. Scott, the captain of the team, was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP. After that, he was given the Stanley Cup to hoist. After his turn with the Cup was finished, who do you think he handed it over to?

That's right, younger brother Rob. What a great moment.

 

Here are some numbers for both brothers:

CAREER TOTALS

	SCOTT (18 seasons)	ROB (17 seasons)
GAMES PLAYED	1263	1153
GOALS	172	186
ASSISTS	568	283
POINTS	740	469
PENALTY MINUTES	784	904
GAME-WINNING GOALS	39	29

 

 

BEST INDIVIDUAL SEASON
(Career highs in bold)

	SCOTT (2006–07, Anaheim)	ROB (1995-96, Florida)
GAMES PLAYED	79	82
GOALS	15	26
ASSISTS	54	35
POINTS	69	61
PENALTY MINUTES	86	107
POWER-PLAY GOALS	9	11
GAME-WINNING GOALS	3	6

 

Rob was a little on the chippy side, as you can see by his 904 penalty minutes in 1,153 games. He was a very smart player though, capable on both the penalty kill and the power play. He suited up for Florida, Calgary, Anaheim, New Jersey, and Buffalo across his 17 NHL seasons.

 

In that 2006-07 Stanley Cup playoff run with Anaheim, he posted 5 goals and 5 assists for 10 points, and added a league-leading 39 penalty minutes. For his career, in 116 playoff games he totaled 18 goals, 25 assists, 43 points, and 111 penalty minutes. (4 power-play goals and 3 shorthanded.)

 

Also notable is that Rob earned two gold medals with Team Canada: At the 1993 World Junior Championships and the 2004 World Championships.

 

As for Scott, he played in a remarkable 202 playoff games across his career, which puts him in the top 25 all time as of this writing. In those games he scored 25 goals and added 73 assists for 98 points. He was a plus-20 overall, and scored 12 of those 25 goals on the power play and 3 of them shorthanded—as a defenseman!

In the 2002-03 Stanley Cup playoffs with New Jersey, he led the league in assists (16) and tied for the lead in points (18). He suited up for the Devils and Anaheim across his 18-season career.

 

One more interesting fact on Scott: He's a member of the "Triple Gold" club, having won the Stanley Cup, plus a World Championship title (2004, with brother Rob) and the Olympic gold medal (2002, 2010) with Canada. For good measure, he was also part of a World Junior Championship team (1991), a Memorial Cup–winning team (1991-92), and a World Cup of Hockey championship-winning team (2004). Corey Perry is the only other player to have won all six of those titles. 

 

So here's to the Niedermayer brothers. Two great careers, and some childhood fantasies played out for real on the highest stage.

 

Custom Card Store: The eBay Option

Quick post today.

 

First things first, thank you very much to the folks who've already purchased some custom cards from my new bonanza store! The site offers some good analytics tools, and it's been fun looking through the stats to see which cards are being viewed and purchased the most. To this point, the Beastie Boys Future Stars card has been the biggest hit, far and away.

 

But for those who might not want to go through the trouble of setting up an account on bonanza.com just to make one purchase, I totally understand. That's why I've decided to take some of my stock and post it on eBay as well. 

 

 

 

Being that a lot of collectors (myself included) already do a good amount of buying and selling on eBay, and sometimes even receive special discount codes or eBay Bucks, I figure the platform might be more convenient to use.

 

As for the base price of each card, it's a bit higher because eBay charges about 5 times more in seller fees than Bonanza. However, I've tried to combat that higher base price by offering discounts if more than one custom card is purchased. Here's the rundown:

 

1 card is $4.00

2 cards are $3.40 each

3 cards are $3.20 each

4 cards or more are $3.00 each.

 

So, if you want to use Bonanza, absolutely do that. But if you already have an eBay account and would rather use that site, you also have the option now. Check out the Nine Pockets eBay store here.

 

Thanks again for the support and enthusiasm so far. It's definitely given me a boost of inspiration and energy to whip up some new custom cards. In fact, I'm working on a couple right now.

 

Stay tuned!

Game Ball

Here's a special item I found during a visit to my mom's place:

 

 

 

You're looking at a baseball from my Little League days. Specifically, it's an example of a "game ball" that our coach would sometimes hand out to a player who'd earned it on the diamond that particular day. And I think I remember why I received it all those years ago. Here's the quick story:

I was playing second base that day. Earlier in the game, I'd committed a real bone-headed error on the easiest of ground balls. It was a 5-hopper that was slowly making its way through the infield grass and onto the dirt. I moved in to make the play, but took my eye off the ball at the last moment to see how close the runner was getting to first base. (Dummy.) The ball scooted right under my glove and the runner made it safely to first. 

 

I took a lot of pride in my fielding back then, and I definitely looked up to our coaches, who worked hard with us, so I wanted badly to redeem myself.

 

Now it was late in the game, and we were back on the field with two outs in the inning. The next batter was a big right-hander who could hammer the ball, but he'd been late with his swings all game. (He was using a wooden bat instead of aluminum for some reason, so maybe that had something to do with it.) This crossed my mind, and as he got into the batter's box I covertly took a few steps toward first base. Fast-forward just a couple of pitches into the at-bat, and sure enough, the guy was late on his swing again. He connected hard and hit a line drive to my left that I reached out and speared, going down to a knee, almost like a hockey goalie making a glove save. 

 

If I hadn't crept over to the left beforehand, that ball would have gone through the hole and kept the inning going. Instead, the inning ended and we retained our small lead. The next inning we held them again, and won the game.

 

Redemption. And a game ball.

It's funny how all of those details can come back as soon as you see a certain object, isn't it?

And those detailed memories caused me to go straight for a particular box full of cards when I got home, in order to take out a related item:

 

 

 

 

I don't have any video from my Little League days, but the game ball and this card are two special items. Man, those were good times.

 

How about you readers? Do you have any childhood cards of yourself, whether it was from a baseball league or any other sport?

 

Share in the comment section, and if you're a blogger, why not create a blog post that features your card? I'd love to see what these types of cards might have looked like in other regions of the country.

The 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Dating Game (Episode 20)

 

 

Welcome back to The 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Dating Game, where we'll randomly select three eligible bachelors from the set and you, the reader, will choose which one wins that date with a special lady. How do we know they're bachelors? Why, it says so right on the back of their hockey cards, that's how!

Previous episodes are available here.

The big winner of episode 19 was 1980 Olympic gold medalist Mike Ramsey. (U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!)

Now, let's start the 20th round and introduce the bachelors chosen by the randomizer! [APPLAUSE]

 

Bachelor number 1: Goalie from the Edmonton Oilers, Grant Fuhr
Bachelor number 2: Goalie from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vincent Tremblay
Bachelor number 3: Center from the New Jersey Devils, Steve Tambellini

 

We haven't had many goalies on the program so far, but now we've got two in the same episode. It's a goalie battle!

Let's find out more about all three gents from the back of their cards.

 

Well, two bachelors were so bashful that they just couldn't share any hobbies. Grant Fuhr responded by revving his engine. Will that affect the outcome this week? Time for you to decide!

 

Who's going out on a date with our nice young lady?

 

Bachelor number 1: Speed racer Grant Fuhr.

Bachelor number 2: Vincent Tremblay, Quebec guy through and through.

Bachelor number 3: Nearly a 30-goal man last season, Steve Tambellini.

 

 

This Custom Card has Gotta Get Back, Back to the Past. . .

I enjoy good animation. And a good story. And creativity.  

 

Not surprising, then, that I was intrigued by the Samurai Jack series when it hit Cartoon Network in the early 2000s. Admittedly, sometimes I thought it was weird; other times cheesy. And there were episodes I wasn't exactly enthralled with. But there were special times when the whole production team would just nail an episode. The combination of animation, backgrounds, audio, story line, and creativity hit the highest mark. The following clip provides an example.

 

And so I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that when I discovered menko a couple of years ago, they also intrigued me. The artwork and colors on many menko from the old days are just fantastic. So much so, that when I recently came across a book called Sayonara Home Run—which told the story of baseball and menko in Japan—I snatched it up and read it, cover to cover. 

During that reading, I came across a particular Japanese baseball player whose profile reminded me of Samurai Jack.  

 

1948 Hiroshi Oshita

 

Soon a formula worked itself out in my mind. 

 

Menko + Samurai Jack = Custom Card. 

So I got to work. Here's how it turned out. (Front and back shown.)

 

 

 

Design elements on the card front: The Japanese kanji character at top left is for "samurai". The phonetic "Jakku" ties the card to phonetic spellings used on baseball menko of the late-1940s, and indicates how a Japanese speaker might pronounce the American name "Jack" using the syllable sounds of the Japanese language. A famous example from the era is a Babe Ruth menko that spells his name "Bebu Lusu" on the front. 

 

As for the card back, the image of Jack is from an episode that was set in outer space (season 01, episode 05). The number 0105 on top is a little reference to that. On the bottom, the Japanese katakana characters spell out the word "spaceman" (su pe - su man).

 

PS: Ryan at Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko, thank you for verifying the kanji and katakana characters for me. I'm going to send a copy your way.

 

Thanks for reading!

From the Favorites Box: Glenn Healy, 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee #368

A series where I post some thoughts about favorite cards. Previous cards in the series are available here.

Here's Glenn Healy, minding the net at Nassau Coliseum.

 

 

The old Coliseum, the classic home white uniforms, the advertisement on the boards behind him, it all reminds me of a Glenn Healy story from a game I attended back then—probably around the same year this card was released. 

 

Toward the end of pre-game warmups, Mr. Healy was still on the ice and noticed a few kids standing 15 or 20 rows back from the glass, behind his net. No one else was in that section of seats. (The Islanders weren't very good at the time, and weren't drawing huge crowds during pre-game warmups, especially on a weeknight as it was.) It became clear to me that he was trying to figure out a way to get a puck or two up there so the kids could go home with a souvenir. But how? 

Well, he got the attention of a couple of his players and pointed them toward the kids. Then he moved to the side of the goal, tapped the blade of his goalie stick on the ice, and tilted it back, effectively producing a ramp. (Can you see where this is going?) 

The players picked up on it. They began deliberately shooting pucks hard and along the ice, right toward Healy's stick-ramp.

Unfortunately for Healy, he'd angled his stick perfectly wrong. Instead of going up and over the glass, the first shot went straight into the top of the goal!

He threw his head back as if he were saying "D'oh!"

It was a funny moment. And as I look back now, it's impressive. Think about it. There was Glenn Healy, professional NHL goaltender, having fun like a kid—during warmups of an NHL game. 

When most players were busy getting their game faces on, Healy was busy trying to get a hockey puck to a few kids in the stands. Now it could be that he wasn't the starting goaltender that evening, and that's why he was goofing around a little bit. I don't know. But in any case, the moment stuck with me.

And if you know anything about Mr. Healy, it will all make perfect sense. 

He was quite a lighthearted guy during his playing career (as evidenced by a little TV comedy spot he'd occasionally do with teammate Patrick Flatley called The Heals and Flats Show. In this particular segment they discuss the differences between the NFL and the CFL). 

Not surprisingly, after his playing career ended, Healy continued to amuse hockey fans as a color commentator and analyst for various Canadian television networks. Currently he's the President and Executive Director of the NHL Alumni Association, and despite the lofty job title, I'm sure he still keeps everyone laughing.

Here are his career numbers across 15 seasons: 437 GP, 166 W, 190 L, 47 T, 13 SHO, 3.37 GAA, .887 SV%

Although he didn't spend much of that time as his team's outright number-one goalie, Healy had some pretty good individual seasons, winning as many as 25 games with the Kings in 1988-89 and 22 games with the Islanders in 1992-93. He also played a big part in taking the Isles to the Conference Finals that season, dethroning the two-time defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins along the way. 

The following year he was traded to the Rangers, just in time to provide solid backup to Mike Richter across 29 games of the regular season. He also helped the team hoist the Stanley Cup that year, appearing in parts of 2 playoff games and posting a robust .941 save percentage (16 saves on 17 shots) along with a minuscule 0.89 goals-against average.

I'm sure he played a big part in keeping his teammates loose during those intense Stanley Cup games, too.

And for reminding us that it is indeed possible to have a little fun despite the pressure of playing a professional sport—or perhaps because of the pressure—1991-92 O-Pee-Chee #368 has a spot in my box of favorite cards.

Here's to the new hockey season.

Stanley Cup Championships, Fortune, Fame, and Chocolate

In my teenage years, I lived close enough to our high school to walk there and back. If I remember right, it took about 15 minutes each way. And about halfway between my house and the school there was a cross-street that boasted a pizza place, a green grocer, and a little stationery store we called "Bill's".

It had everything you'd expect. Greeting cards, school supplies, magazines, essentials for the home, knickknacks, and near the cash register in the front, the ever-present racks of candy and chewing gum.

Many of us were little balls of energy back then, fueled by the vigor of youth and topped off by sugary snacks that we certainly didn't need, but burned off quickly. And so whenever a bunch of us stopped by the stationery store during lunch or after school, it's likely that we picked up something from those candy racks. The treat of choice for me usually included chocolate in some way.

I remember a few standards: Nestle Crunch. 100 Grand. Mounds.

But in the early 1990s, coinciding perfectly with my burgeoning hockey fandom, a new option appeared on those candy racks:

 

 

THE MARIO BUN!

 

For the confectionery aficionados among us, this candy bar, created by the Clark company, was kind of like a big "turtle": a mound of caramel and pecans, all covered in chocolate. (Just replace the pecans with roasted peanuts.)

 

I'm sure it was a tasty treat. But this is a trading card blog, so now I'll have to mention the real reason I ate a few of these things back then:

The Mario Bun came with one of three collectible Mario Lemieux cards inside!

 
The cards measured 3" x 3". The bun sat atop the card in the package, and if I remember right, took up a decent amount of the space, which means it was quite a hefty snack. 

 

Each of the three card fronts features a different image of Mr. Lemieux, along with a facsimile autograph and the very noticeable Bun logo. Card backs provide various details about Lemieux. The first card back, shown above, contains stats from his junior and NHL career.

 

 

 

The second card back lists honors and awards Lemieux had earned up to that point (1992-93). I find it interesting that his Conn Smythe trophies for playoff MVP in both 1991 and 1992 are mentioned, but not the corresponding Stanley Cup trophies.

 

Another honor not listed on the back of the card? Getting a candy bar named after you!

 

Looking back at those Penguins teams, quite a few other players could have easily had candy bars named after them, too. There was Ron Francis, Kevin Stevens, Mark Recchi, Joe Mullen, Bryan Trottier, Paul Coffey, Larry Murphy, and a budding young star named Jaromir Jagr. 

 

All of those guys aside from Stevens and Jagr are now in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Jagr will be one day. (If he ever stops playing professionally, that is. He currently plays for Kladno in the Czech league, and owns the team as well!) 

 

As for Stevens, he was no slouch either, putting up 54 goals and 69 assists for 123 points in 1991-92, finishing second in team scoring to Lemieux, who went 44 G, 87 A, 131 PTS.

 

Here's the final card, which offers a nice little paragraph that describes a little bit of Mr. Lemieux's magnificence. (Bryan Trottier and Bobby Orr were the other two players who'd won the Art Ross, Hart, Calder, and Conn Smythe trophies. Since then, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Patrick Kane have joined the list.)

All three of the cards you've seen here are originals from my collection, which enhances the fun memories for me. I wonder how many of these candy bars I bought and ate before I completed the three-card set. Hopefully not too many.

Thanks for taking a little trip back to high school with me. Do any of you have favorite candy bars from those good ol' days? Remember any other sports stars with candy bars named after them?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!