Weekend Countdown: Cardinals Diamond Kings Cards

Here are my rules and a little housekeeping for my Weekend Countdown on the Cardinals Diamond Kings:

• I am using the Donruss Diamond Kings insert cards from 1982 through 1998, and also the 2001 through 2005 cards.  I am not using any Diamond King cards since Panini brought the brand back a few years back.  Nothing from the past decade.  

• During the late 1990s, Donruss did not make a Diamond Kings card for every team.  There was not a Cardinals Diamond Kings card in 1998, 1999, or 2003.  

• Donruss made multiple Cardinals Diamond Kings cards in 2003, 2004, and 2005.  They are all ranked.  

• Two cards are from spin-off Diamond King insert sets that were in packs of Donruss card, but no cards from the card 2000s stand alone product of Donruss Diamond Kings.  

• Ranking of the card is based on two factors.  The art on the card is the first and greatest factor, but also worthiness to be on a card.  

• Lastly, I did not own a copy of the 1995 Diamond Kings card of Gregg Jefferies, but I am borrowing a picture from the internet and using it for the countdown.  

Don't hate me for the ending of this countdown.  

23. 2002 Donruss Diamond Kings Albert Pujols 

Pluses- It's Albert Pujols.  

Deltas- I do not like the art.  That does not look like Albert Pujols.  Is the artist named Tang? Looks like the artist transported Ryan Klesko's fu manchu onto Albert.  

22. 1995 Donruss Diamond Kings Gregg Jefferies 

Pluses- Gregg Jefferies hit .325 in 1994. 

Deltas- Does Gregg Jefferies have facial hair on this card?  What's with the shadows on his face? Why is he yellow and orange?  Is he jaundiced?   If my children asked me what stuff looked like in the 1990s, I would show them this card.  

21. 2001 Donruss Diamond Kings Mark McGwire 

Pluses- That expression McGwire is making on the card is well done.  He did that all the time.  

Deltas- His hair is the wrong color.  Not sure it was ever that long in St. Louis either.  Jim Edmonds hit 42 home runs in 2000, won a Gold Glove, and finished 4th in the MVP voting.  Rick Ankiel almost struck out 200 batters, and he was 20 years old.  McGwire played half a season.  Not very deserving at all.  

20. 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Albert Pujols 

Pluses- It's Albert Pujols 

Deltas- He does not really look like Albert Pujols.  I see a little bit of Randy Winn in there.  

19. 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Scott Rolen 

Pluses- It's Scott Rolen 

Deltas- It kind of looks like Scott Rolen with a lot of neck rolls.   

18. 1993 Donruss Diamond Kings Bob Tewksbury 

Pluses- Bob Tewksbury walked 20 batter in 233 innings in 1992.  That's pretty incredible.  

Deltas- This art work looks like a cross between Bob Tewksbury and Vincent Di'Nofrio.  

17. 2004 Donruss Diamond Kings Scott Rolen 

Pluses- It's Scott Rolen, and he was good at baseball.  

Deltas- Fred Durst or Scott Rolen?  

16. 1991 Donruss Diamond Kings Pedro Guerrero 

Pluses - He deserved a Diamond Kings card before this one. 

Deltas- This does not look like Pedro Guerrero.  I guess maybe the hair is close.  I really hate the border design of 1991 Donruss.  Some designer was sitting on their Mac II Paint program thinking about how many different designs they could throw onto a card.  A yellow stripe, light blue stripe, another yellow stripe, on of the tire tread looking things......

 

15. 1984 Donruss Diamond Kings Bruce Sutter 

Pluses - This is some pretty decent artwork here.  Lots of good detail on the uniform and the Bruce Sutter himself.  

Deltas- This is the most undeserving Diamond King card of a Cardinals player ever made.  Sutter is a Hall of Famer, and was a great closer during his time as a Cardinal, except not in 1983.  He was terrible.  Negative WAR terrible.  The 1983 Cardinals weren't great, but there are were at least four offensive players who had good years, and Ozzie apparently caught everything that was hit on the left side of the infield.  

14. 2004 Donruss Diamond Kings Albert Pujols 

Pluses- It's Albert Pujols 

Deltas- Can someone please draw or paint a decent picture of Albert Pujols?  He's one of the best players of his generation, he had several Diamond King cards, and this is the best an artist could do?  This is better than the rest, but it pains me to put the last Albert card this low on the countdown, because he's better than every player on here, save for one.  

13. 1985 Donruss Diamond Kings Joaquin Andujar 

Plus- Joaquin was a good pitcher for the Cardinals, and a character of the game during the 1980s.  I like the smaller action photo on this card that shows his windup.  Feel like the artist did a good job of capturing his leg kick.  

Deltas- I don't love the portrait photo of Joaquin.  His face is way too round.  

12. 1990 Donruss Diamond Kings Joe Magrane 

Pluses- I have written several times about Joe Magrane on this blog.  If there was ever a Cardinals player who could have had a better career, but was absolutely let down by his teammates, it's Joe Magrane.  In 1988, he won the National League ERA crown, and had only 5 wins for the season.  How do you have an ERA of basically 2 flat, and only win 5 games?   The next season, he had 18 wins in August.  He ended the season with 18 wins.  The last two starts Magrane made in 1989, he gave up 1 run combined, and walked away with an 0-1 record in those games. He deserved a Diamond Kings card in the worst way.  

Deltas- I cannot stand the background on this card, and I don't love Magrane's larger picture either.  I don't remember him wearing his hat like that.  It looks like a rarity based on an image search on Google.  

11. 1988 Donruss Diamond Kings Jack Clark 

Pluses- The artwork looks like Jack Clark, and his 1987 season was certainly deserving of having a Diamond Kings card.  

Deltas- Are those rainbows in the background?  Not sure if that's a good look for a Jack Clark card. 

10. 1989 Donruss Diamond Kings Vince Coleman 

Pluses- I like the large portrait of Coleman, but the little art drawing/painting looks off somehow.  I cannot quite put my finger on it.  The double ear flap batting helmet on Coleman is a good start, but the body does not quite look right.  

Deltas- The background is so busy.  Paint the background a solid color, and I am putting this card higher on the list.  

9. 1996 Donruss Diamond Kings Brian Jordan 

Pluses- Brian Jordan was a good player on an otherwise terrible 1995 Cardinals team.  They were the second worst team in the Majors that year.  I like the change up from the earlier Diamond Kings cards with the dark background behind the player, and the pattern around the outside of the card.  

Deltas- Ray Lankford was a better player on an otherwise terrible 1995 Cardinals team.  I am not going to turn this into a rant about how too few people appreciated Ray Lankford because he played on really bad teams.  Brian Jordan's hat looks a little too big.  

8. 1994 Donruss Diamond Kings Gregg Jefferies 

Pluses- Gregg Jefferies hit .340 something in 1993, and slammed a lot of batting helmets into the astroturf at Busch.  I suspect he had more than one that season.  I like the blend of colors, and I like the picture of Jefferies wearing the blue Cardinals helmet.  The Cardinals have worn the blue hats/helmets since 1992, but they only appear on three Diamond Kings cards.  

Deltas- There are three different fonts on card.  

7. 2002 Donruss All-Time Diamond Kings Stan Musial 

Pluses- This is one of two Diamond King insert spin offs in the countdown. I originally had this card lower, there is an element here that really bothers me, but that's for the deltas.  I got over it, and starting focusing on the painting of Musial.  I really like the art work on this card.  Clearly a young Stan, and while the art work is done in sepia tones, you can see a lot of good detail work on the picture.  The hat looks right, the hands on the bat and the way Musial is holding it look spot on, and the uniform all has all the little details that go with the 1940s Cardinals.  

Deltas- That All-Time Diamond Kings logo at the bottom of the card feels clunky, and it's covering up the artwork.  That's what bothered me about this card.  Simple brown border, and this would be in my Top 5 easily.  

A quick break.  The last six cards are all excellent in my opinion, and I spent a lot of time ordering and rearranging the cards.  I think there could be an argument for any of these cards to be the best on this countdown.  There is so very little wrong with each of them, and a lot that the artist got right.  

6. 1997 Donruss Rookie Diamond Kings Dmitri Young 

Pluses- I love this picture.  If I were ranking the cards solely on the accuracy of art work, this would probably be in my top 2 or 3 cards.  Great painting of a young Dmitri Young.  It's also one of the few Diamond Kings cards with a Cardinals player wearing a blue hat. 

Now, for those wondering if I should have dropped Dmitri down lower for not being deserving, this is a prospect based Diamond King insert in the 1997 Donruss set.  He was a high draft pick, and a highly regarded prospect.  Baseball America had him in the Top 50 the entire time he was in the Minors.  Dmitri turned into a solid player, even if it didn't happen for the Cardinals.  Definitely deserved a spot in this type of set.  

Deltas- They put the Donruss stamp in the middle of his hat.  

5. 1983 Donruss Diamond Kings Keith Hernandez 

Pluses- Hernandez was an important player on the 1982 World Series team and deserved a spot on a Diamond Kings card.  I think the art work on this card is generally very good.  The large portrait of Hernandez looks good, and the smaller picture of him batting looks excellent as well.  It's hard to notice, but I like that the artist put his uniform number on his sleeve.  The Cardinals wore uniforms like that during the late 1970s and early 1980s, not necessarily accurate for the 1982 Cardinals, but a small detail that I like anyway.  

Deltas- The STL on his batting helmet is off.  Should have a blue trim line around the letters.  That's all I've got.  

4. 1987 Donruss Diamond Kings Ozzie Smith 

Pluses- I love the art work here, especially the little picture.  If you ever go watch old videos of Ozzie fielding ground balls, this is a really accurate piece of artwork.  I also like the design of the 1987 Donruss cards.  I know that there is nothing that the artist can do about the border of the cards, but the black borders and grey and yellow baseball design in one of Donruss' better efforts during the second half of the decade.  

Deltas- The background is still a little busy, better than the Coleman and Magrane card.  Not as simple as some of the early 1980s cards though.  I do at least like the color scheme on the background with the different hues of blue, orange, and the edging from the Utah Jazz uniforms running across the middle.  

3. 1986 Donruss Diamond Kings Willie McGee 

Pluses- It's Willie McGee and it looks a lot like Willie McGee.  I like the large picture with the powder blue Cardinals uniform.  In the mid 1980s, Willie McGee actually used to write all on the underside of his hat brim, would have been cool to see that included in the art work.  There are lots of other small details though that the artist nailed in the small picture.  I like that his pants are a little high, McGee wore them that way.  I also love that he is only wearing one batting glove, which was a long running McGee quirk.  I believe it was only on his bottom hand.  The 1986 Donruss borders are also one of their better efforts.  

Deltas- I don't love the purple in the background, but it does not ruin the card by any stretch.  

2. 1982 Donruss Diamond Kings George Hendrick 

I already wrote about this card last week.  Great card.  

1. 1992 Donruss Diamond Kings Felix Jose 

Pluses- I wish that Donruss had gone with this design for the cards a longer period of time.  Clearly the formula for these cards changed in the early 1990s, but this was where they should have stopped.  Simple background, no crazy color combinations or weird designs, there are not three different fonts on the card, and a good painting of a player.  This is a really accurate painting of Jose too, with good details around the uniform and hat.  Even the facial hair with the mustache and beard stubble fits with pictures of him on the Cardinals.  

Was Felix Jose deserving of a Diamond Kings card?  I think the 1990s were generally a dark era for the Cardinals, but some of the players don't look as bad in retrospect.  Felix had some quirks, like he sat by himself away from other players in the dugout, but he was better than most people remember.  I think Cardinals fans sometimes got hung up on the fact that he looked like someone who should be hitting 40 home runs, but hit 40 doubles instead. 

He was offensively the best player on the 1991 Cardinals.  Better than Ray Lankford, Ozzie Smith, Todd Zeile, and Pedro Guerrero.

Deltas- I guess they could have made one of Milt Thompson.  He's was really good as a part time player.  

The Super Utility Team Part 1

Have you watched a Rays game in the last few years?  Is it just me, or is the team filled with utility players?  The answer is yes, they are everywhere on their roster.  Two weeks ago I posted a bunch of cards of players from last year's Durham Bulls team.  I know a lot of people do not necessarily follow the Minors outside of the big name prospects, so I gave a little blurb about each of the players.  

They sounded pretty ordinary.  

Like for Nick Solak...... 

I wrote that I saw him play in college, he went to Louisville, and that he was traded to the Texas Rangers.  What I did not mention was that Nick Solak played four different positions while he was in Durham last year. Seems to be a common practice with the Rays these days with the Minor and Major Leaguers.  Teams are using more relievers and have shorter benches, so who can blame them for getting players time at different places on the diamond while they are in the Minors.  

I decided to single out a couple of my recent trades and purchases for their own posts highlighting all of the utility players that appeared in Durham last year.  It was like watching a team of Jose Oquendo's, only it's less surprising when they hit a home run.  

Up first for my utility players is Michael Brosseau, who played every infield position and left field for the Durham Bulls.  He also played 51 games in Tampa where he played every infield position, left and right field, and he pitched in three games. Sure, all the pitching appearances were in lopsided losses, but he's got an ERA of 4.50, so he's better than Brett Cecil.  

This is a good looking card.  

I got this off of Ebay.  It's out of this year's Inception set.  I always like this product, but usually have to wait a few weeks to buy the cards.  I understand that people spend a lot of money to buy boxes of Inception, but I am not spending $40 on a card of Michael Brosseau.  

Yes, I really like him as a player.  Just not $40 worth of appreciation.  

Brosseau was signed out of Oakland University, the one outside of Detroit, as an undrafted free agent.  I am not sure that I have ever really seen him mentioned on any prospect lists, so he does not have many baseball cards before this year.  Since the 2020 releases have started to come out, Brosseau has appeared in the base Topps set, Heritage, and Inception.  Looking forward to finding more of his cards.  

A 1980s Card Part 38 - 1982 Donruss Diamond Kings George Hendrick

I am making a weekly post about the 1980s Cardinals cards in my collection, and I have made it almost a year without once writing about a Diamond Kings card?  My bad.  I definitely need to improve the ratio a bit while I have some time at home.  A Diamond King heavy post is coming this weekend, but until then I have this George Hendrick card to offer you. 

Let's get a little housekeeping out of the way in regards to my copy.  It's horribly off-center.  Let's move on to some other aspects of the card. 

The best thing about this card is the fact that Dick Perez, the artist of the Diamond King series, made the picture of Hendrick wearing a jacket underneath his uniform.  George was a big fan of the red satin Cardinals jackets.  Take out your George Hendrick cards, flip through them, and there are more cards with Hendrick wearing a red jacket than those without one. 

His base card in the 1982 Donruss set?  Red jacket. 

Newer cards? Red jacket.  

Older Cards?  Red jacket. 

Game cards?  Red jacket. 

All-Star cards?  Red jacket.  

Most people who watched baseball in the 1980s probably remember George best for wearing his pants all the way down to the tops of his shoes.  That was sort of his trademark fashion statement at the time.  Here he is in the 1982 World Series, barely any sock showing in this picture.  

A rarity in those days.  The pants and socks on Hendrick are my one criticism of Perez's artwork for this Hendrick card.  Clearly too much sock in the picture.  Blown up a little bit below.  

The back of the card is typical of the Diamond Kings, which usually featured a blurb about the player rather than any sort of stats.  The back is off-center to match the front. 

Nice little run down on George Hendrick.  I thought those home run and RBI numbers looked a little low at first, but I remembered that the 1981 season was shortened due to a strike.  So, 18 home runs and 61 RBIs in just 100 games is actually a pretty good clip.  In fact, Hendrick was in the top 10 in both categories in the National League.  

Good song from 1982?  

Duran Duran.  

Weekend Countdown: My Favorite College Basketball Cards

This was the weekend that we were supposed to be watching the NCAA Final Four.  I spent my weekend sorting cards, planning some online lessons for my students, and also wrangling my own kids.  Somewhere in there, I had a little bit of time to sort through my basketball cards.  

Here is this week's single rules:  

• Cards have to show the player in their college uniform, no airbrushed out logos, or NBA cards. 
• Multiple universities are represented on my list, it's not just my 10 favorite NC State cards.  

Let's go.  

10. 2009-2010 Upper Deck Brandon Costner 

He played at NC State while I was in college there.  Good player.  He was a power forward who had a nice outside jumper, even shot some threes.  He ended up playing in Spain, China, and the G-League after college.  His claim to fame at NC State was that Tyler Hansbrough once got a technical foul for trying to slap him after grabbing a rebound.  

  

There is an autographed version of this card out there somewhere.  I don't own it.  

9. 2016-2017 NC State Basketball Card Set Dennis Smith 

There is a table at all of the NC State sporting events that is covered in posters, schedules, and all sorts of free stuff.  For a long time they gave away basketball cards, though they have stopped in recent years.  Generally they did one or two players per game, each player was available for a game or two.  

Here is the card.  

Never quite sure how to view Smith.  He was a great player, but State was a terrible team the year he played there.  Plus, he took money on the side from Adidas, and is likely going to get State put on probation here in the next year or two.  

8. 2012-2013 UD Black Lorenzo Brown Autograph 

Lorenzo was a freshman the last year that I was in college.  Great point guard.  Great vision.  He was on a team that ended up in the Sweet 16, and probably did not get the credit he deserved.  Plays like this......

Everyone is looking at the result, which was a dunk over a defender, but miss the fact that the pass was threaded through 3 defenders.  

  

This is a nice card.  

Lorenzo played on the 2018-2019 Toronto Raptors NBA Championship team, but has bounced around the NBA and a few other professional leagues.  I believe he played last season in Europe.  

7. 2009-2010 Upper Deck Courtney Fells Autograph 

The sad part about NC State's basketball team while I was in college was not the fact that they were bad, it was the fact that they were bad and they had talented players.  Courtney Fells only averaged a dozen points or so during his time playing in college, but he was the player on the team that would make plays that would have to watch a few times when you got home to figure out how he made the play.  

I have no idea how he blocked this shot.  

Fancy in game dunks.  Steph Curry bricks the shot that leads to this fast break.  

 

Loved watching Courtney play.  

6. 1995 Classic Rookies Autographs Erwin Claggett 

The last few years I was in high school, Saint Louis University was really good.  SLU played in the Kiel Center with the Blues, so there were always plenty of tickets.  They were coached by Charlie Spoonhour, who played four guards and a forward, and the offense relied heavily on three pointers.  They made the NCAA Tournament a few times, and played a really good game against Wake Forest in the second round while Tim Duncan was in school.  Claggett was one of the better players on the team.  I am not sure if I would classify him as a shooting guard or point guard, but he was a good player. 

I wouldn't watch the whole clip, but he is in here a few times if you watch it for a minute.  

 

I did not even know this card existed until a year or two ago, when I saw someone I follow for Cardinals cards tweeted out a picture of it.  I thought it might be a custom card of some sort.  Nope, it was real.  

5. 2017 Panini Contenders Dennis Smith Autograph 

Again, mixed feelings about Dennis Smith and his time at NC State, but this is the only college basketball card that I have ever really tried to chase down.  The rest of the cards on this list were just sort of there, and I bought them for small amounts of money.  This was an expensive card for a long time, and then he got traded to the Knicks.  

As the only college basketball card I have ever worked hard to add to my collection, I can rank this card in the middle of my list.  If NC State gets a punch of penalties, I will never speak of this card again.  

4. 1992 Classic Anthony Peeler 

I get frustrated talking to people in North Carolina about Anthony Peeler.  What do most people remember Anthony Peeler for?  Punching Kevin Garnett in the face.  

 

I assure people he was a great college player, not just an NBA role player who punched a really good player once during a playoff game.  He was the Big 8 Player of the Year, an All-American, and I believe he is the school's all-time leader in a few different categories, maybe steals and assists.  I think Steve Stipanovich might have scored more.  There is a name for you.  

Long highlight, but here he is dropping 43 on Kansas.  

and here is the card.  

I have no idea how his jersey is not retired, or honored by Mizzou.  

3. 2014-2015 SPX T.J. Warren Autograph 

Easily my favorite player I have watched at NC State. T.J. Warren won the ACC Player of the Year his sophomore year, which was his final year in college.  He scored a ton of points, that was his thing.  Warren was nicknamed "Tony Buckets: in college.  I don't think its stuck in the NBA.  Kind of a throwback player in that he scores a lot of his points on jumpers and runners inside the three point line, but he is not someone who is really aggressive driving at the rim. 

I think this basket kind of exemplifies what he does well.  He is doing this same stuff for the Indiana Pacers, only he's gotten better at shooting 3s since going pro.  Scores just under 20 a game in the NBA.  

This was one of my first cards I got of T.J. Warren 

2. 2016-2017 Panini Black Gold Collegiate Basketball Cat Barber Autograph 

Cat is my second favorite NC State player after T.J. Warren.  He was on a Sweet 16 team while he was at State.  Barber was the point guard on the team that upset Villanova, which led to the crying piccolo player.  

Classic.  

Barber was quick, had a nice jumper, and a good feel for the game.  

I think he is too small and slight for the NBA, but he has played professionally in Europe and the G League since leaving State.  Great college player though, and I am happy that Panini gave him a college basketball card.  

All of his autographed cards are signed "Cat".  

1. Upper Deck Exquisite Collection T.J. Warren Autograph 

I know there has already been a T.J. Warren card on the list, but this one is even nicer.  

Does anyone else collect college basketball cards?  

What are your favorite college basketball players?  

My First Tattoo

No, I do not actually have a tattoo.  

I really do not have anything that I want etched onto my body.  

I have plenty of friends with tattoos, no problem with them in general, but they are not my cup of tea.

I did recently pick up a Tattoo though.    

I actually splurged a bit recently for a vintage card of a former Durham Bulls player who has a card in the 1933 Tattoo Orbit Baseball Card set.  It was an early bubble gum set put out by the Orbit Gum Company.  There are a couple of Cardinals in the set, which I would not mind finding, but the former Bulls player, Charlie Grimm, is one of the cheapest cards in the set.  

Last year, I added two other cards of Charlie Grimm.  One was a Goudey....

I also found a 1922 American Caramel card.....

which is 99.9% likely a trimmed card.  Got a pretty steep discount for a 1920s cards with some square corners.  Still happy it's here.  

As a player Grimm spent 20 years in the Majors, recorded more than 2,000 hits, and 1,000 RBIS.  He played most of his career playing for the Pirates and Cubs.  As a manager, he guided the Cubs to three different National League championships, and later managed the Milwaukee Braves in the early and mid 1950s.  He did not get the Braves into the Postseason, but made the decision early in his tenure as the team's manager to ditch veteran players like Andy Pafko in favor of young players like Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews.  The Braves fired him in 1956.  

Here is my newest card.  

Love that discoloration around the edges, and the round corners.  There is a little bit of paper loss around the top edge and top right corner.  Overall, not bad for a card that is almost 100 years old.  The Tattoo Orbit cards are always really easy to recognize with the bright backgrounds behind an almost black and white photo.  

The coloration on Grimm's face sort of surprised me.  I also thought the pictures were completely black and white.  I did not realize that there is color on the face.  I had to go back and look through photos of other cards on Ebay and Google Images to make sure I was not getting the Turner Classics colorized version of a baseball card.  

I Miss March Madness

If we were living in normal times, I would be watching the Final Four this weekend, and the National Championship game on Monday night.  Whether your team makes it to the final or not, it's still always a fun event to watch.  I was especially looking forward to the tournament this year.  

My son and I have been attending NC State games for the last three years.  

He has always paid attention to the games, followed along with the action, and kept track of the score.  This year was a little different in that he actually paid more attention to the individual players on the teams, and also followed the standings.  As long as they were not on late during a week night, we also watched many of the games that we did not attend. 

Favorite NC State player on the men's team is Markell Johnson 

Favorite NC State player on the women's team is Aislinn Konig.  I cannot find a short clip of her playing for NC State, but here is a video of her breaking the single game three point FIBA record playing the Canadian National team.  

 

In all, we went to ten games this year, six men's games and four women's games.  

The women's basketball team plays in Reynolds Coliseum, which is on the NC State campus.  The men's team played here too until the late 1990s when they moved down the street into their current arena, which is actually on the state fairgrounds.  The men's team still plays two games here every year.  Reynolds is smaller and you can hear the players and coaches talking.  The women's basketball team was ranked in the Top 10 for most of the season.  

The women's team actually got to play in their conference tournament before the NCAA canceled the season, and they beat Florida State to win the ACC title.  

 

I have never had the chance to see one of my rooting interests win a National Championship, but I was excited about NC State's chances this year in the women's tournament.  Last year they made the Elite Eight.  I had high hopes.  The little man was looking forward to watching them too.  

They are probably the best team I have followed since the 1993-1994 Missouri men's team, which went through the Big 8 undefeated, and made it all the way to the Elite Eight where they lost to Arizona.  

Melvin Booker, Devin's father, was the best player on that team.  

There is my card for this post.  Amazing.  

The men's team finished fifth in the ACC this year, pretty sure they were going to be in the tournament, but I am not sure how well they would have done.  We went to go see them play several conference games this year.  

They did not play well at other times.  My glimmer of hope for them making a deep into the tournament was the fact that the destroyed Duke this year.  They had them down by as many as 25 points during the second half, and ended up winning the game by 22.  

It was too late for my son to stay up and watch until the end, but he watch the condensed game the next day.  For whatever reason, Duke always has problems playing on the road at NC State.  Is it the rough thirty minute commute to Raleigh?

I am not sure.  State was terrible while I was in school, they still beat Duke at home. 

At least half of the NC State roster had career performances during this game.  

I am happy to be at home, seems like a better option than being at work, and possibly getting sick.    I am happy to have a job.  I am happy to have a little more time with my kids during the day.  I miss March Madness.  

I miss the last second shots.....

Crying piccolo players..... 

Most of all, I am miss watching some basketball my son.  

No, he won't watch replayed games.  "We already know who won this game."