Random Steeler Monday - Or Not

I have been trying to publish my obligatory Monday post of my random Steeler cards all day but Blogger seems to be trying to thwart my success.  They even went as far as deleting my post twice without the normal "draft saved" comments.  I guess they don't want the world to read about Larry "The Stomp" Foote.

For some reason, they took this post though.  Oh well, tomorrow is another day.  In fact it's a holiday.  It's

National Over-hyped Potential Rookie Bust Day!!

Got Bowman?

I will admit, I have gone off the deep end with Bowman so far.  I say so far because I can't really stop myself when I see them in the store.  Although at this point, I am pulling nothing but doubles.  It reminds me of back in 2004 when I bought up more football than I could handle searching for all the Manning and Roethlisberger rookie cards.  I think I am still paying for some of those.  So why doesn't this surprise me?

So far I have busted a retail box (just opened by the card rep), 2 blasters, and 15 rack packs.  You would think that the odds of pulling at least one Strasburg card out of all of that would be pretty good.  Well one is exactly what I got.  It was a base card.  Nothing special. 

I have also pulled 1 orange parallel /250, 2 blue parallels /520, 2 autographs, 10 purple Chrome refractors /999, 2 Chrome refractors /777, a pile of gold parallels, and a host of Top 100, Expectation, and Throwback cards.  I am not going to post everything that was in here simply because you can go on 100 other locations to see what these look like and find checklists.  I will say that as of now, I am collecting the base set and the base rookies.  I have my needs posted on my set needs page at the top if anyone has some to trade.  I also have quite a few doubles that I am more than happy to unload in trade.

Let me know if you have anything I need.

Stay Classy Philadelphia

Every self-respecting human on the planet Earth knows that there are no real fans of Philadelphia teams outside of Philadelphia.  Now you can claim to the contrary all you want but the rest of us know better.  Quite frankly, I am not going to listen to arguments about it because those are the same people that are Pittsburgh haters and will say anything to get under my skin.

It is also widely known that teams from Western PA are not too keen on the cross-state Yin to their Yang.  With that said, I am not going to sit here and give Phily the benefit of the doubt.  I know what their fan base is capable of.  I have seen it in action in person way too many times to count, each time a little worse than the next, but no less surprising.  Whether it is the constant booing of their All-Pro quarterback, or the Phillie fan deliberately puking on the 11 year old earlier this year.  Don't get me wrong, there are fan bases all over the continent that have that "fringe" contingent of drunkards and miscreants that wreak havoc after games, before games, during games, etc (See New York, Chicago, LA, Atlanta, Boston).  But in all those cities, I can't say I have ever seen another irreverant fan gets tazed by security guards.

With game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight in Phily, I thought it was interesting, to say the least, when I read earlier about the latest in their attempt at welcoming an opposing team to town.  Apparently, Fox 29 is reporting that there is a social blast floating around Facebook and Twitter urging Flyers fans to participate in a flash mob this afternoon in Center City to "attack the Blackhawks’ bus as it leaves for the Wachovia Center."

What?  I can't believe this is even real but, alas, it is...look it up.


Starting at the Four Seasons, where the Hawks players are registered, they will "bike" their way through town, following the Chicago bus on route to South Phily and the stadium.  Though I am not sure whether it is bicycles or motorcycles, does it even matter?  In today's day and age of terrorism and fear of un-permitted assembly, does anyone really think this would be a good idea?  Something tells me there will be a caravan of police giving the Hawks an escort. 

This only added to my disdain for the Flyer fanbase even more, not that it really could, when I read a, slightly biased report from my good buddy Danny Mac in the Chicago Tribune.  I don't normally like the things that Dan McNeil says on his show, or agree with much of what he writes.  Nor, as most of you already know, am I a Chicago fan.  But I know exactly what he is talking about because, as I said, I have experienced it all too often. 

I am not going to post the article...only link it with the instructions to GO READ THIS!!  Apparently rather than sit in the press box, Dan McNeil took a seat amongst the residents of the City of Brotherly Love.  In a quote to summarize the article...

"This city relishes its tougher-than-a-$2-steak image. They take pride in being as warm as a freshly neutered Doberman."

Stay classy Philadelphia.  We wouldn't want the rest of the world to think you are civilized.

And now for something completely different...

Now that the Penguins season is over, I am hard pressed to find anything interesting to talk about on their home front.  I am not big on the "let's run Malkin out of town" bandwagon, nor am I going to bring anymore speculation and conjecture to the "will they or won't they" keep Sergei Gonchar argument.  No, I am interested in something entertaining.  Something news worthy.  Something that involves...toilets.

Everyone in the "know" of Pittsburgh Penguins ticket buying is familiar with the Student Rush lines that form around Mellon Arena on game day.  Basically, any current high school or college student with a valid student ID has an opportunity to buy game-day tickets.  These tickets go on sale about an hour before puck drop but the lines start forming anywhere from 3-5 hours prior.  It will happen the same way when the Pens move into the CONSOL Energy Center next season. 

But in the process of building a new arena, one area that gets overlooked sometimes is the bathrooms.  I have been to many stadiums around the country and have noticed the lack of concern or effort put into designing an efficient system of processing thousands of people through in short amounts of time.  Bring in the Student Rush members!

In order to test the plumbing in the new facilities, the Pens Student Rush text alert members will have the opportunity to enter to win a chance to simultaneously flush all the toilets in the CONSOL center (reminding me of the "flushing during Super Bowl halftime" wives tale).  125 random members will be invited to bring a friend along and join in on the mass flushing. 

The Details:
CONSOL Energy Center Student "Flush"
June 10th at 4PM EST.
400 flushers including 250 random Student Rush members
MC'd by former Penguin and current radio announcer Phil Bourque.
Pizza party on the floor after the even sponsored by Pizza Hut and Snapple.

If I'm lying, I'm dying.  I can't make this stuff up.  Hopefully someone out there will be taking some pictures of the event.