Good Riddance

The Atlanta Spirit ownership group has gotten tired of losing money on the NHL franchise that they ran into the ground due to poor management and neglect, and are now trying to extort some sucker out of the cash necessary to keep the team in Atlanta. Let 'em go. Atlanta is not an NHL town and as long as there's a minor league franchise here, we'll be fine. Don't give me that b-b-b-but then we won't have four major professional sports franchises crap. The NHL hasn't been a major professional sport since they locked out the players and canceled a season over some minor details in a salary cap deal. Atlanta has NASCAR, two major college programs and the Georgia Dome hosting bowl games and tournaments on a regular basis. Don't tell me Atlanta isn't a true sports city because we don't have a pathetic NHL franchise that no one watches. Honestly, I'd much rather have an MLS team at this point. 

Yeah, I'm still traumatized by the Flames running off to Calgary in 1980, but the Flames actually won playoff games. This team doesn't. Maybe if the owners had been paying attention and didn't let Don Waddell trainwreck the franchise while they were off squabbling with Steve Belkin over the Hawks people in this town might care a little bit. Time to let 'em go. People in Canada would actually appreciate the team, move 'em to Winnipeg. Take the Lightning and Coyotes and Hurricanes and all the other misplaced NHL teams with ya. 

Four Cards, Four Teams

More card shop pickups here. Amazing how one trip to the LCS can generate 2 week's worth of posts. No bargains in this post though (a Kevin Brown rookie for a dime IS a bargain, dagnabbit!) just some cards from the local sports franchises.

Monday night's debacle not withstanding, Matty Ice is going to be the Falcons' franchise for a long time. It seems somewhat ridiculous to call myself a Falcon collector when I have dozens of cards of Chris Chandler but my Matt Ryans are in single digits. I dug through the dollar box of Falcons looking for a Ryan or two to add to the collection. While perusing through the stack I came to a realization:

I HATE PANINI'S FOOTBALL DESIGNS.

I really can't stand them at all. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Too busy, too random and the design overwhelms the picture. It's like Panini's mission statement is to emulate 1995 Fleer as much as humanly possible. I guess people must like it (or they simply discard the base and chase the hits instead) but it's not for me. Which sucks because a large percentage of Ryan cards are on Panini designs. Instead I got a football card from a baseball set where the subject is wearing a college uniform.

Panini's basketball designs I've got no problem with. Yeah, there's a lot of the same randomness going on, but it works better with the hoops. There was no way I was passing up a Crown Collection card of my favorite Hawk, Al Horford. He stayed in school, won a championship, plays hard every night, is an All-Star playing out of position, and Al has more leadership in his pinky finger than Joe Johnson and Josh Smith have put together. Al's the real deal.

I've all but given up on hockey. The local franchise has been a trainwreck from the moment they took the ice. Every last one of their big draft picks have flopped, crashed or have been squandered by crappy management. Now that the ownership troubles have been sorted out there's a very real chance that they might not even be here much longer (Winnipeg Jets take 2 perhaps?). The only reason I haven't bought a Gordie Howe sweater and jumped ship for the Red Wings is this guy right here. Evander Kane. This is my very first Evander Kane card after hunting for one for the past year. Even though the franchise is a complete mess (yes I know they are doing better this year) and might be in a different city soon Evander is the type of player I can latch on to to keep my fandom alive. Or at least help me forget about the Stephans, Heatleys and Kovalchuks....

Let's finish off with an Uggla. Wrong uniform, sure, but it will be a couple of months until he's in the right one. Besides, it's shiny and curvy. Everyone likes shiny, right? Curvy not so much.