Rose Bowl Stadium – Stadium Fantasium

(Who) Do Ya (Collect?)

Posted on May 25, 2019May 27, 2019 by BBCARDZ 3 Comments

Back on Saturday, May 18th, I was at the Rose Bowl (Pasadena) and saw that it was hosting two events simultaneously. The bigger event that drew vastly more people was the Amgen Tour of California bicycle race (stage 3 of the women’s race, stage 7 of the men’s race). Adjacent to the finish line of each race stage, there is a “Lifestyle Festival”. According to the Amgen Tour of California website:

While fans await the cyclists at each day’s finish line, they can partake in the race’s popular daylong Lifestyle Festival. Designed to provide and promote healthy lifestyle and cycling-related experiences, the Lifestyle Festival offers a day of no-cost entertainment and fun for everyone, from families to first-time race visitors to veteran fans.
Located adjacent to the daily finish line, the Lifestyle Festival is an engaging and interactive space with more than 40 exhibitors daily, family activities, food and drink, live race streaming on large video screens, cancer and cardiovascular awareness education and more…

The picture above shows a part of race’s accompanying Lifestyle Festival, held out in one of the parking lots of the Rose Bowl. Note the giant TV monitor which happens to show the racers cycling on the road between the festival and the hills in the background. You may have also noticed the helicopter in the sky, which provided aerial coverage of the race.

With all the bicycling fans, exhibitor booths, time and money spent on this event, it made me wonder…are there card sets out there for bicycle racing (past or present)? I’m pretty sure there’s a few cards of bicycle racers in products like Allen & Ginter. But a whole set?

Speaking of cards, as I first arrived at the Rose Bowl parking lot, I spotted this eye-catching vehicle which turned out to be the Panini mobile company van. How many of you Panini collectors wouldn’t mind having this bad boy for your own personal vehicle?

Panini van, front — Panini Mobile Vehicle

Walking from the parking lot towards the stadium, I came across the sign on the right. Later in the afternoon (after spending some time at Amgen’s Life Festival), I headed down toward the stadium field and saw the sign on the left. That’s when I knew for sure that it was the annual NFLPA Rookie Premiere event where a large group of NFL rookies take pictures on the field in their NFL uniforms for Panini. From a Beckett article on the NFLPA Rookie Premiere, here is a list of attendees:

JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Philadelphia Eagles – WR
Nick Bosa, San Francisco 49ers – DE
Miles Boykin, Baltimore Ravens – WR
A.J. Brown, Tennessee Titans – WR
Marquise Brown, Baltimore Ravens – WR
Hakeem Butler, Arizona Cardinals – WR
Parris Campbell, Indianapolis Colts – WR
Noah Fant, Denver Broncos – TE
Ryan Finley, Cincinnati Bengals – QB
Will Grier, Carolina Panthers – QB
Mecole Hardman, Kansas City Chiefs – WR
Damien Harris, New England Patriots – RB
N’Keal Harry, New England Patriots – WR
Dwayne Haskins, Washington Redskins – QB
Darrell Henderson, Los Angeles Rams – RB
Justice Hill, Baltimore Ravens – RB
T.J. Hockenson, Detroit Lions – TE
Andy Isabella, Arizona Cardinals – WR
Josh Jacobs, Oakland Raiders – RB
Gary Jennings, Seattle Seahawks – WR

Diontae Johnson, Pittsburgh Steelers – WR
Daniel Jones, New York Giants – QB
Drew Lock, Denver Broncos – QB
Bryce Love, Washington Redskins – RB
Alexander Mattison, Minnesota Vikings – RB
Terry McLaurin, Washington Redskins – WR
DK Metcalf, Seattle Seahawks – WR
David Montgomery, Chicago Bears – RB
Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals – QB
Tony Pollard, Dallas Cowboys – RB
Hunter Renfrow, Oakland Raiders – WR
Riley Ridley, Chicago Bears – WR
Deebo Samuel, San Francisco 49ers – WR
Miles Sanders, Philadelphia Eagles – RB
Devin Singletary, Buffalo Bills – RB
Darius Slayton, New York Giants – WR
Irv Smith Jr, Minnesota Vikings – TE
Benny Snell Jr, Pittsburgh Steelers – RB
Easton Stick, Los Angeles Chargers – QB
Jarrett Stidham, New England Patriots – QB

Ordinary casual fans were able to sit in the bleachers but were not allowed in the player/Panini area. Luckily I was able to get relatively close to some of the tents and players and snap a few photos for you.

So that’s my rather brief close encounter with Panini (#whodoyoucollect) and NFL rookies. This day for the rookies was part of a multi-day event. For more in-depth information about the NFLPA Rookie Premiere, check out this other Beckett article.

As summer approaches, my workload has been increasing substantially. That’s why new Stadium Fantasium blog posts have slowed down even more than before. I’ll still be posting but not nearly as often as I would like. I’ve got at least four blog posts in the works that I hope to create sooner rather than later. Until then, stay tuned…

Shop Around (the Flea Market, Part 2)

Posted on January 15, 2019January 18, 2019 by BBCARDZ 2 Comments

Stuff I Actually Did Buy

Continuing our shopping adventures at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena CA, we finally came across a few cards that fit into the Stadium Fantasium collection. I even managed to pick up some significant vintage tradebait:

You may be shocked to learn that the 1966 Harmon Killebrew is now part of Stadium Fantasium’s Trading Block. I don’t collect any sets before 1969 so that’s why (it’s one way I limit the scope of my collection). Hopefully it will help me acquire a comparable post-1969 card. For a 1966 card, the condition is pretty decent.

The 1971 Dick Butkus card is in a bit rougher condition and may also end up on the Trading Block. I do collect 1971 Topps football cards and I do believe I already have this card.

I love the 2008 Topps baseball set and have quite a few of the Highlights Autographs. This Daric Barton auto is definitely staying in the Stadium Fantasium collection. It appears to be in perfect condition.

I also picked up a couple of sealed packs of 1992 Donruss that could only be found in Coca-Cola 12-packs with a special Nolan Ryan card. These Ryan cards are most likely keepers as I have only a few other Ryan cards from this set.

The 1993 Pippen card folds down to reveal a larger picture of Scottie Pippen. This card will also go on the Trading Block.

And the last card I picked up is this 1986 Jeno’s Pizza Rolls NFL Action Stickers #12 Walter Payton. This too goes on the Trading Block.

You may be wondering how much I paid for this batch of cards. I think I got a pretty decent deal seeing as I paid $10 for the seven cards. What do you think?

Stay tuned for our next post as we check out the 2019 NFLPA Collegiate Bowl to be held Saturday January 19th at the Rose Bowl (and you thought the college football season was over, didn’t you?)…

Shop Around (the Flea Market, Part 1)

Posted on January 14, 2019January 15, 2019 by BBCARDZ 7 Comments

Stuff I Didn't Buy (but caught my attention anyway)

Just wanted to share my day at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, CA this past Sunday. I posted on my Twitter account a lot of uncropped pics of cool things that I didn’t buy but I also saw some cards I really wanted and actually did buy. I’ll show those in the next post.

These Grid-Star static-cling stickers/decals apparently were produced between 1988 and 1992 (according to one ebay seller). On the COMC website, one seller had like 38 different NFL players in his portfolio going for $2.95 and up. They’re listed on COMC under 1990 Grid-Star Premier Edition – [Base]. The flea market vendor was asking $1 each but only had multiples of these three players.

The same flea market seller also had these bobbleheads: former Dodgers pitcher Joe Beimel (a June 2008 stadium giveaway), former Angel Josh Hamilton (a May 2014 stadium giveaway) and former Angels manager Mike Scioscia (an April 2008 stadium giveaway).

He also had a good stack of these 1980’s era Smokey the Bear and the Los Angeles Raiders coloring books. Inside are coloring pages of Marcus Allen, Howie Long, Todd Christiansen and other Raider players.

Coloring book featuring Smokey the Bear and the Los Angeles Raiders

There was also this large framed poster of the NFL Hall of Fame.

Another seller had this early 2000’s autographed Green Bay Packers helmet. He said Brett Favre’s signature is somewhere on top and was asking $600 although I’m sure the price was negotiable. How many autos can you identify?

Here’s binder of junk-wax era baseball cards. There were a few Topps gold insert cards in this binder that I wanted but the seller was asking in the neighborhood of $1 per card–not exactly a bargain.

Pins! Another seller had loads of pins and not just sports pins but buttons too. Unfortunately, he did not have a Super Bowl VII pin available. I would have loved to have one of those.

That’s wraps up our look at things most of us would love to have if we had the money and the space (or use for tradebait). In the next post, I’ll show off what I did buy and I promise it will be a much shorter post. Stay tuned…

Love Is A Rose (Bowl Contest Winner)

Posted on January 3, 2019January 3, 2019 by BBCARDZ 6 Comments

The 2019 Rose Bowl Game came and went with the Ohio State Buckeyes crowned the 2019 Rose Bowl Champions. Ohio State dominated Washington for most of the game. Washington did score 20 points in the fourth quarter but Ohio State held off the Huskies to win 28-23.

This brings us to the part of the blog post where we declare the winner(s) of the Stadium Fantasium 2019 Rose Bowl Contest (I hope I did the math right–see original contest post here).

Gold Contest Winner: Fuji (The Chronicles of Fuji)! Contestants were to predict which team would win the Rose Bowl and the margin of victory (without going over). Each contestant’s prediction of the margin of victory actually went over but Fuji’s guess was the closest (Fuji guessed 6–nice job!). Fuji will receive four 2019 Rose Bowl Souvenir cups (two of each size, pictured in the original contest post), one 2019 Rose Bowl official game program (pictured on the right, and his choice of three items of the 42 listed in the original contest post. (Fuji, please list your choices in a comment below.)

Silver Contest Winner: It’s a tie! Both Jon (A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts) and ketchupman (Rekindling the Cardboard Flame) predicted Ohio State to be leading at halftime by 10 points. Ohio State actually led by 18 at halftime. Both Jon and ketchupman will receive two 2019 Rose Bowl Souvenir cups (one of each size, pictured at right), one 2019 Rose Bowl official game program, and his choice of two items of the 42 listed in the original contest post after the Gold Contest winner has chosen. (since Jon posted his predictions before ketchupman, Jon will choose his items after Fuji.) Way to go guys!

Bronze Contest Winner: ketchupman again! Contestants were to predict how many total points would be scored in this game (without going over). A total of 51 points were scored and ketchupman predicted 48–impressive! In addition to what he won in the Silver Contest, ketchupman will receive two 2019 Rose Bowl Souvenir cups (one of each size), one 2019 Rose Bowl official game program, and choice of one item from the prize list after the Gold Contest winner and Silver Contest winners have chosen.

Congratulations to all of our winners! I already have email addresses for Fuji and Jon, just need ketchupman’s.

By the way, if anyone else is interested in acquiring their own 2019 Rose Bowl Program or the Souvenir Rose Bowl cups (initially available only to Rose Bowl Game patrons who purchased a beverage at the game) or any of the unclaimed prizes, let’s work out a trade.

Note: It looks like the Rose Bowl programs and cups are pretty hot commodities on ebay.

Above is a picture of the Rose Bowl’s southern scoreboard–notice the number beneath the scoreboard? Stay tuned…

New Year’s Day

Posted on December 31, 2018January 3, 2019 by BBCARDZ Leave a comment

Happy New Year! It’s been a very busy week in Pasadena preparing for the 105th Rose Bowl game. Here’s a glimpse into some of the preparations…

As day turned into night here on New Year’s Eve, it got windier and windier. At home, the lights even dimmed for a second and we almost lost power. Hopefully the wind didn’t affect the stadium and the various crews. Next post, I’ll share more of the happenings at the 2019 Rose Bowl. Stay tuned…

The Rose (Bowl Contest)

Posted on December 28, 2018January 8, 2019 by BBCARDZ 7 Comments

Background

So who’s ready for The Granddaddy of Them All? It appears that the statue of Jackie Robinson (right) is so ready. (Yes, it’s that Jackie Robinson!) In case you didn’t know it, pre-UCLA Jackie was raised in Pasadena and played football at nearby Pasadena City College (known as Pasadena Junior College back then). And recently (November 29, 2017) this statue was unveiled in a ceremony hosted by Vin Scully. It’s really an awesome work. What’s that in his right hand? Is it an old game credential or maybe an old game ticket? And why am I featuring the Rose Bowl in my hobby blog? That’s because the game is being played practically in my backyard and I have more than a casual connection to the venue.

The Contest

So this will be the 105th Rose Bowl and features the Pac-12 champion Washington Huskies (10-3, 7-2 in conference) vs. the Big Ten champion Ohio State Buckeyes (12-1, 8-1 in conference). This is also Stadium Fantasium’s first-ever contest, so please bear with us.

There will be three winners (or more depending on ties).

Gold Contest: Leave a comment below with your prediction of which team will win the Rose Bowl and the margin of victory (without going over). Winner will receive four 2019 Rose Bowl Souvenir cups (two of each size, pictured at right), one 2019 Rose Bowl official game program, and choice of three items pictured below.

Silver Contest: Leave a comment below with your prediction of which team will be leading at halftime and by how much (without going over). Winner will receive two 2019 Rose Bowl Souvenir cups (one of each size, pictured at right), one 2019 Rose Bowl official game program, and choice of two items listed below after the Gold Contest winner has chosen.

Bronze Contest: Leave a comment below with your prediction of how many total points will be scored in this game (without going over). For example, if the final score is 50-49 then 99 total points were scored in this game. Winner will receive two 2019 Rose Bowl Souvenir cups (one of each size, pictured at right), one 2019 Rose Bowl official game program, and choice of one item listed below after the Gold Contest winner and Silver Contest winner has chosen.

Bonus winnings: For each contest above, if you mentioned this contest in your blog before 2:00 pm Pacific Time December 31, I will double your prize! Even if you don’t win one of the three contests, mention this contest in your blog before 2:00 pm Pacific Time December 31 and I’ll still send you one 2019 Rose Bowl Souvenir cup of your choice. (EDIT: These are the cups Rose Bowl customers get when they buy a soda or beer at the game.)

Feel free to enter all three contests. You can even copy other entrants’ predictions without hurting their chances of winning. In the event of a tie, each tied winner will both receive the prized specified. The earlier (tied) comment entry time stamp will get the earlier choice from prize list below.

Deadline to enter is 2:00 pm Pacific on January 1st.

Prize List

One sealed 2-card pack of Solo: A Star Wars Story, (part of a Denny’s 12-card oddball set), 11 packs available
One sealed 21-card pack of 1989 Pro Set Final Update football cards, 1 available
One sealed 14-card pack of 1990 Pro Set NFL Series 2, 2 available
One sealed 14-card pack of 1991 Pro Set NFL, Series 1, 1 available
One sealed 15-card waxpack of 1988 Topps flagship baseball, 2 available
One sealed 15-card cello pack of 1989 Topps flagship baseball, 2 available
One sealed 15-card pack of 1991 Topps baseball, 1 available
One sealed 3-card pack of 1983 Donruss Action All Stars double-size cards, 4 available
One sealed 18-card set of 1992 Score Proctor & Gamble All-Stars (baseball)
One 7-card stadium giveaway pack of 2018 Dodgers 60th Anniversary (1965 Topps design including Sandy Koufax), 2 1 available (Won by The Chronicles of Fuji)
One 7-card stadium giveaway pack of 2018 Dodgers 60th Anniversary (1977 Topps design including Don Sutton), 8 available
One 7-card stadium giveaway pack of 2018 Dodgers 60th Anniversary (1985 Topps design including Tommy Lasorda), 1 available
~~One 7-card stadium giveaway pack of 2018 Dodgers 60th Anniversary (1994 Topps design including Mike Piazza), 1 available~~ (Won by The Chronicles of Fuji)
~~One 7-card stadium giveaway pack of 2018 Dodgers 60th Anniversary (2001 Topps design including Clayton Kershaw), 2 available~~ (One each won by The Chronicles of Fuji and Rekindling the Cardboard Flame)
One 1969 Topps #456 Bud Harrelson (Mets) worn corners, 1 available
One 1969 Topps #523 Bob Chance (Angels) worn corners, 1 available
One 1969 Topps #505 Bobby Bolin (Giants) worn corner & crease, 1 available
One 1969 Topps #606 Gene Mauch (Expos manager) worn corners & crease, 1 available
One 1969 Topps #633 Harry Walker (Astros Manager) worn corners, 1 available
One 1972 Topps #428 Tito Fuentes (In Action) worn corners, 1 available
One 1979 Topps stamped buyback #633 Rob Wilfong (Twins), 1 available
One 1984 Topps stamped buyback #316 Mark Bradley (Mets), 1 available
One 1991 Upper Deck Denny’s Grand Slam #4 Eric Davis hologram, 1 available
One 1983 Kellogg’s 3-D Super Stars #55 Gary Carter, 1 available
One 1990 Post #25 Rickey Henderson, 1 available
One 1989 Topps Cap’n Crunch #16 Mike Schmidt, 1 available
One 1993 Hostess #22 Tom Glavine, 1 available
One 1993 Hostess #28 Don Mattingly, 1 available
One 2016 Topps Series 2 insert card Hallowed Highlights #HH-6 Mark McGwire, 1 available
~~One 1995 Upper Deck Denny’s Holograms #11 Ken Griffey Jr., 1 available~~ (won by Rekindling the Cardboard Flame)
One 1995 Upper Deck Denny’s Holograms #12 Tony Gwynn, 1 available
One 1996 Pinnacle Denny’s Holograms #10 Hideo Nomo, 1 available
One 1996 Pinnacle Denny’s Holograms #18 Cecil Fielder, 1 available
One 1997 Pinnacle Denny’s 3D Holographic #4 Frank Thomas, 1 available
One 1997 Pinnacle Denny’s 3D Holographic #12 Juan Gonzalez, 1 available
~~One sealed 9-card cello pack of 1993 Score Football cards (John Elway showing on the front, Brett Favre in back), 1 available~~ (won by A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts)
One sealed 9-card cello pack of 1993 Score Football cards (Troy Aikman showing on the front, Neil O’Donnell in back), 1 available
~~One sealed 6-card pack of 1998 Collector’s Edge 1st Place FB, 1 available~~ (won by A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts)
One sealed 3-card cello pack of 1991 Jimmy Dean (Rickey Henderson showing on top), 1 available
One sealed 7-card pack of Panini Triple Play
~~One 2010 Bowman Prospects BP-1 Stephen Strasburg, 1 available~~ (won by Rekindling the Cardboard Flame)
One 2019 “76 Dodgers” pin, 2 available

And there you have it! Good luck to you!

Mystery Solved

So what is Jackie’s statue holding in his right hand? Upon closer inspection we see that it is a 2017 Topps Update #US50 Jackie Robinson shortprint card! In fact, it is the actual card that Greg from Night Owl Cards sent to me for his blog’s 10th anniversary. With that, Greg gets a hearty Stadium Fantasium standing ovation! Thank you Greg!