Sports Card Tour 2018 - Tampa

The Collector's Sports Card Tour  is making one more stop in the Sunshine State. Today we're in Tampa. 

Tampa is home to two pro sports teams - the Lightning and the Buccaneers.

The Rays play across the bay in St. Petersburg..but you know the deal by now.

Each Tampa team has played for a title at least once. The Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, defeating the Calgary Flames in seven games (they lost the 2015 SCF to Chicago.) The Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII after the 2002 season. Even the Rays won a pennant in 2008, before losing to the Phillies in a rain-soaked World Series.

 

Change seems to benefit Tampa teams. Tampa's baseball team finished last in the AL East in nine of their first ten seasons, then dropped the "Devil" from their name in 2008 and went all the way to the World Series. The Buccaneers had a losing record for 14 straight seasons while wearing bright orange uniforms (a lot of football fans called them the "Yuccs".) In 1997 they switched to a red-and-pewter color scheme, started the year 5-0, and made the playoffs. I was in Ft. Lauderdale visiting my sister that September; they were the talk of the town. Warrick Dunn was on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

 

Dunn and Mike Alstott were like thunder and lightning (no pun intended.) I became an Alstott fan that year; at one point I had about 50 of his cards in my PC. My sister bought me a white #40 jersey for Christmas that year. I wore it so much the red painted numbers started chipping off. 

I've mentioned before that I keep all my cards of running backs with 10,000 career rushing yards in my star player box. That's not a hard and fast rule, apparently - Warrick Dunn's cards are still in my commons binders, along with a couple other backs I've missed such as Thomas Jones and Corey Dillon. Someday I'll straighten out my football card collection...

 

These Bucs are in my binders as well -- except Jameis Winston. He's the only QB pictured here that hasn't won a Super Bowl (and if he doesn't get his act together quick he might not get a chance.) John Lynch is a borderline Hall of Famer and the current GM of the 49ers. Ronde Barber is the twin brother of Giants great Tiki Barber.

Hall of Famers Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks are two of the Bucs' all-time greatest players. Back in the late '90s, ESPN did a story about Sapp and other athletes who were trying to register their own domain names-only to find out someone had bought the rights to them already. Which meant that warrensapp.com was a dummy site set up to squeeze money out of Sapp (he refused to cave and called his site BigSapp99 instead.)

I think he got a raw deal at the draft, slipping to the 12th pick because he smoked a little weed in college (who hasn't?) but it was hard to like Sapp as a pro-especially after the dirty hit against Packers' lineman Chad Clifton and the shouting match with coach Mike Sherman.

I've somehow managed to accumulate three versions of Doug Martin's 2016 Donruss cards. There's only about fifteen more parallels of the "Muscle Hamster" between these two sets.

My best Buccaneers card is probably this O.J. Howard patch card from 2017 Panini Origins. Even though it's probably from a photo shoot, the breaks on this immediately caught my attention when I spied it on COMC. I had it on my watch list for a few weeks, and other cards were a higher priority. But when the Black Friday sale dropped the price to $6.50 I grabbed it.

The rest of my Bucs hits, including a John Lynch rookie card and a Warrick Dunn E-X insert. I always try to sort the cards in these scans chronologically-except in the case of reprints like the Steve Young insert.

Tampa teams have frequently drafted #1 overall. The Buccaneers drafted Bo Jackson 1/1 in 1986 but he refused to sign because Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse lied to him about his baseball-playing eligibility. Perhaps not surprisingly, they had the 1st overall pick again the next year, drafting Vinny Testaverde 1/1.

Overall the franchise has picked first five times - including 1976, 1977, and 2015.

The Devil Rays nearly matched that - in twenty fewer seasons. Their first first overall pick was in 1999, when they selected Josh Hamilton over Josh Beckett, who went #2 to the Marlins. (Tampa didn't draft Beckett because they thought he'd be trouble.)

The Rays have also drafted 1st overall in 2003, 2007, and 2008.

Roman Hamrlik was the first-ever draft pick of the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning and the first overall pick 1992. Six years later the team drafted Vincent Lecavalier #1 overall.

2008-09 OPC box topper

Upon drafting Lecavalier, Lightning owner Art Williams declared he would be the "Michael Jordan of hockey." That may have been a tad ambitious.. but Vinny was far from disappointing. He captained the Lightning for seven seasons, won a Stanley Cup in 2004 (in which he fought the Flames' Jarome Iginla) and led the league in goals with 52 in 2006-07.

 

I have two Lecavalier relics in my collection - including a Milestone Memorabilia card from 2013-14. These cards salute players who have scored 50, 60, 70, or even 80 goals in a season.

Lecavalier's base cards are in my star box despite that fact that he's a retired player with little chance of making the Hall of Fame. The Black Diamond myriad insert was part of an eBay purchase many years ago, in which the seller reimbursed me for damaged cards.
 

Steven Stamkos was Tampa's most recent first overall pick, going 1/1 in 2008. "Seen Stamkos?" signs popped up all around the Tampa-St. Pete area at the time. 

 

Victor Hedman was drafted #2 overall in 2009. The franchise defenseman won his first Norris trophy last month. Both of the Future Watch rookie cards were featured in my blog skate around all-autographed team post.

I was able to pick up this Ultimate Hedman relic on COMC for only a couple bucks because it was part of the ePack program.

Same with this Stamkos Materials; the Exquisite base card next to it cost more than the $1.37 I paid for the relic card.

A lot of the 30 cents-and-under cards I purchased either through ePack directly or on COMC were Lightning stars. Hedman and Nikita Kucherov recently "graduated" from my binders to my box. The Trilogy blue parallel was not part of ePack, thought it was a COMC purchase. I think I paid about 50-60 cents for that one.

Martin St. Louis was not drafted first overall. In fact he wasn't drafted at all. The Lightning's all time leading scorer led the NHL in points twice, won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP in 2004, and was recently elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The rest of my Bolts hits (actually the '90s inserts belong to my wife.) There's some talk that Tampa plans to acquire Senators star defenseman Erik Karlsson. If so, they will need to make a corresponding move to clear cap space... and no one has more salary room than the Devils. 

As for the Devil Rays, the franchise began with a roster full of veteran sluggers like Jose Canseco, Greg Vaughn, Vinny Castilla, and Fred McGriff. Unfortunately none of them could pitch (not even Jose.)

Wade Boggs finished his Hall of Fame career in Tampa Bay, collecting his 3000th career hit as a member of the Rays. The team retired his #12 as a result. Manny Ramirez also concluded his career with the team...in a much less celebrated manner.

Plenty of Rays players have ended up on the Red Sox - and vice versa - including Johnny Damon, Jonny Gomes, David Price, and Rhode Island's Rocco Baldelli.

Oh, and this guy. Can't forget about Carl Crawford..no matter how hard I try :/

Franchise stalwart Evan Longoria played ten seasons in Tampa Bay after signing a team-friendly contract just days after making his major league debut. "Longo" was traded to San Francisco in December.

Similarly-named actress Eva Longoria bought Evan a bottle of champagne as a gift for winning Rookie of the Year in 2008. I've never actively collected Longoria cards but I do have a few favorites. The 2017 Heritage card cost $2.75 on COMC.

As you may know, I'm a big fan of color-matching parallels - which is the primary reason behind purchasing most of these. Only the Kiermaier Topps rainbow was pack pulled.

The best of the base binders. I collected Robert Smith cards (though he was usually listed as Bobby) because I was a fan of The Cure. Blake Snell was rightly rewarded with a spot on this year's American League All-Star team. And Fernando Rodney does his Katniss impression after another save.


Before I list my favorite Tampa Bay-area athletes I have a question for you. Who would you say is the greatest athlete in Tampa sports history? Can you make a "Mount Rushmore" out of Rays, Bucs, and Bolts? I'd be interested to read your thoughts in comments (you can share your favorites too, if you'd like.)



Favorite Rays player (current): Kevin Kiermaier I guess? Maybe Chris Archer, I dunno
Favorite Rays player (all-time): Evan Longoria
Favorite Buccaneers player (current): It's either JPP or Gerald McCoy. Or Riley Bullough..I liked him on Hard Knocks
Favorite Buccaneers player (all-time): Mike Alstott
Favorite Lightning player (current): Victor Hedman (Steven Stamkos is a close second)
Favorite Lightning player (all-time): Manon Rheaume counts...right?

 

Next tour stop: Three of the final four are in Canada, starting with Toronto



Have a great weekend everyone. Thanks for reading!