Save The Crew

Last week, the soccer world got a pretty good jolt of craziness. Columbus Crew SC owner Anthony Precourt announced early in the week that unless the Crew got a new flashy new stadium in downtown Columbus, then he'd move the team to Austin, Texas in 2019. Needless to say, this pretty much turned the soccer world on its ear and riled up a bunch of the Crew faithful and media in response to it. 

According to the initial article on SI.com, it turns out that the owner of the Crew, who I might add lives in San Francisco, had already been negotiating with the City of Austin months before this news broke. Most of the other articles on the subject have echoed the sentiment that demanding a new stadium and moving the Crew if it doesn't happen is a horrible idea, especially considering that the Crew is one of the original MLS franchises. 

The stadium the Crew has now, Mapfre Stadium, isn't all that old having opened in 1999 as the first soccer specific stadium in the league and seems to be the de facto home of the US Men's National team as it's hosted ten matches from the team since it opened. It also hosts high school football, rugby matches, and concerts. But that's not the point. The point is that the owner wants taxpayers to pony up for a new soccer specific stadium to replace one that seems perfectly useful as it is.

I could go on a whole rant here about how this just irks me to no end but I won't. I'll just say that to me pitting the two cities against each other by a sports team owner is like a kid asking mom (Columbus in this case) for something and she says no. So the kid goes to dad (Austin, TX) and asks for the same thing. It's ridiculous.

As for myself, having never been much of a soccer person I was aware of the Crew and I always though it was pretty neat that Columbus managed to get a major league team in a new, upstart league in 1996. Even though I was aware of the Crew, that didn't mean I knew about the Crew. So, this announcement led me to do a little research on some of the Crew's top players. I googled "top ten Columbus Crew players" and that led me to their all-time stats page. I jotted down ten players from the list, then cross referenced that list for COMC for some cards. Three players didn't have cards so I took them off, thus leaving me with seven. 

So, here's a look at seven notable players from the Columbus Crew all-time leader list with card images taken from COMC. I won't say these are the best players from the history of the Crew because "best" can be a subjective term. These seven players, however, could certainly spark the discussion.

Chad Marshall is the Crew's all time leader in a number of categories, games played (253), games started (250), and minutes played (22,220). He was the second overall pick in the 2004 MLS Superdraft by Columbus and spent nearly his whole professional career there before being traded to Seattle in December 2013. In his rookie season with Columbus, he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting, helped the team to an 18-game unbeaten streak, and the MLS Supporters Shield, which is given to the team with the best overall record. In 2008, he led the defense on a team that won both the Supporters Shield and the MLS Cup along with being named MLS Defender of the Year. He was named captain in 2011 and then, as mentioned, was traded to Seattle in 2013 where he still plays.

Jeff Cunningham has the record for most goals (64) and most game winning goals (20) with the Crew. Not only that, but he's second all-time in the MLS for most career regular season goals (134) behind Landon Donovan. I'd say that's not too shabby. Cunningham had two different stints with the Crew, the first being from 1998, when he was the ninth overall pick in the MLS College Draft, to 2004, when the Crew traded him to Colorado for a first-round pick in the 2006 MLS Superdraft. After departing Columbus, he bounced around the league before being picked up again by Columbus in Stage 2 of the MLS Re-Entry draft. 2011 was his last year in MLS before becoming a free agent at the end of the season.

According to the official Crew records, Edson Buddle has the only four goal game in team history. While I was unable to secure the date of the actual game, that's still a pretty impressive feat. Buddle played for the Crew from 2001-2005 but was injury prone most of those years. However, he did manage to net nine goals and five assists in 1,304 minutes during the 2002 season, thus establishing himself as one of the top strikers in the league. Before the 2006 campaign began, the Crew shipped Buddle off to the NY Red Bulls and he bounced around the league for a few years there after, somehow always finding his way back to LA Galaxy for four different stints.

Stern John only had two campaigns with the Crew but in that time he managed to become the Crew's leader in hat tricks (5) and multi-goal games (12). He had 26 goals and 57 points in 1998 which was his best season in the league. He was won the MLS Golden Boot and MLS Scoring Champion titles, and was named to the MLS Best XI that season as well. He played the 1999 season with Columbus as well but it wasn't as prolific and was acquired by Nottingham Forest after the season. From there he spent the next decade plus in English football.

The only player on this list to both play for and manage the Crew, Robert Warzycha is the all-time leader in assists (61) and game winning assists (16). Having played mostly in Poland for most of his senior career, he joined the Crew for their inaugural season in 1996 and spent the next seven years with them before retiring in 2002. After his retirement, he stayed on with the Crew as an assistant coach and served as interim coach in 2005 after Greg Andrulis was dismissed. In 2009, he was promoted to head coach and in that first year, the Crew won the Supporters Shield.

Brian McBride was the inaugural member of the Crew's Circle of Honor in 2011 for his high standard of play. He leads the Crew in shots (460) and shots on goal (206) and was the first overall pick in the MLS Inaugural Draft. In eight seasons with the Crew, he scored 62 goals and had 45 assists. During his time with the Crew, he was loaned to Preston North End and Everton in the Premier League and eventually joined up with Fulham for four seasons. In 2010, he came back to MLS with the Chicago Fire and retired after the season.

I'll wrap this up with possibly one of the top goalies the Crew ever had, that being William Hesmer. The Crew's all time leader in games played by a goalie (130). At the beginning of his MLS career, he had a handful of appearances with Kansas City and was loaned to Richmond as well. He was selected by Toronto in the 2006 Expansion Draft but was traded to the Crew shortly thereafter where he blossomed. He became the Crew's all-time shut out leaded in 2010, made his 100th league appearance the following year but the injury bug caught up with him and by 2013 he had retired.

So there you have it, a look at seven prolific players from Columbus Crew history. I really hope the Crew doesn't pack up and leave town. They're synonymous with MLS in this region and hopefully there can be a way to #SaveTheCrew.

Nutter Center 25th Anniversary Card Show Recap

This past Saturday was the 25th anniversary of the monthly card show at the Nutter Center. Lately, this show has become my show of choice to attend simply because it's easy to get to and it's not overly crowded. A while back, I specifically earmarked this show to attend since it was the 25th anniversary show and I knew the promoter was going to go all out. For this show, he doubled the number of usual tables to 99, gave away some big prizes, and, as always, made sure to personally thank and chat with every person he saw come through the doors.

I've already sorted and organized my purchases so I don't remember what cards came from what table but these came from one of the first tables I visited. Along with a bunch of high dollar inserts and what not (which I wisely strayed away from), this particular dealer had a bunch of cheap vintage cards he said he picked up at an auction recently. A quick thumb through the box yielded these for about 25 cents each. 

These came from the same vintage box that the 75 Topps cards came from, again at 25 cents each. At that price, you really can't pass up names like these on 70s cardboard.

Continuing with the vintage, these were the only two cards I purchased out of a showcase all day, at a cost of $5 for the pair. This is my first card of Billy Williams and maybe only my second or third of Rod Carew in his prime. 

A few more bargain vintage cards. Robin Yount is severely under represented in my collection and an old school Fleer card will fit in nicely. The bottom two cards I just absolutely couldn't pass up. The dark blue card is a 1981 Fleer Star sticker of longtime Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman in a Twins uniform of all things. The other is a wonderful Drake's card of Gary Carter.

The bargain bins were not plentiful but there were still some decent deals to be had. I found a few that were nothing but Reds cards at various tables and also some good deals in a few dime boxes. The top three cards came from the same place the 75 and 77 cards from earlier did, the Foster Drake's card was from a 50 cent bin, and the Duvall and Morgan were dime box finds.

Some more Reds dime box finds. Two new cards for the Bronson Arroyo collection, some mid-90s action with Bret Boone and Jeff Shaw, plus Edwin Encarnacion and Dave Concepcion!

These Kellogg's cards were four of my best finds of the day and they only ran me a quarter each, since they suffered from some severe curling. As soon as I got home, I stuffed them in top loaders and penny sleeves to (hopefully) flatten them out. Curling issues or not, I just couldn't pass these up.

Last year's Diamond Kings cards have already found their way into the dime boxes as well. The Griffey Jr. card was going to cost me $4 last year, eight months later though? Purchased for mere pennies.

I'll wrap up the baseball portion with a bunch of random cards I purchased at various points throughout the show. My favorite of this batch just has to be the card of Metropolitan Stadium. I might have to consider putting together that whole subset from Allen & Ginter.

With the Blue Jackets doing so well this year, the number of vendors selling hockey cards was pretty much crazy. Last time I went to this show, the closest person selling hockey cards was probably in Kalamazoo. This time, every other vendor had something hockey related. These I picked up for a buck each from a guy who kept trying to push Blue Jackets relic cards on me. The top three cards are from the 1973-74 Topps hockey set. I just had to get them because they featured two defunct teams, the North Stars and the Golden Seals. The bottom two cards are 1972-73 Topps cards. While I'm not familiar with the players, they are definitely some fun looking cards.

Some more random hockey cards, including two from the 2015-16 SP Authentic line. All the cards on the top third are UD Canvas cards that were acquired again for a buck each from a 10-year old kid that was there selling cards with his dad.

Two new cards for the Brodeur collection. As soon as I saw that the one on the right was a National Hockey Card Day card from Canada, I knew it must come home with me.

Here's something pretty unique ... a six card set of the 2009-10 Dayton Gems. If you're not familiar with the Dayton Gems, it's quite alright. The Gems were a short lived team that replaced the long running Dayton Bombers. They debuted in the 2009-10 season as part of the original IHL and then played two more seasons in the Central Hockey League (CHL) before folding. In time, I'll go through these players one by one as these are just too unique to just gloss over here.

I don't really collect basketball cards but I couldn't pass these up, especially the Prizm cards, for a dime each. Old school players on current cards is always a winner.

More cards from the dime boxes, this time of the Bengals variety. I tried to focus on players from the 90s but the A.J. Green card was too good to pass up. I think my favorites were the Topps Finest cards of Darnay Scott and Corey Dillon.

Ok, moving on from the dime box cards now. This was my most expensive single card purchase of the day at five bucks. I'm not a soccer card collector at all and don't follow it but this is a big, yellow swatch and I just couldn't resist.

Now for my best finds of the day. First was this Martin Brodeur Starting Lineup figure for just a buck. That's right, this only cost me one whole dollar for a figure of one of my favorite players ever.

At one table, there was a box full of packs listed at two for a dollar. Did I comb through that box numerous times? You bet I did! There was all kinds of random baseball packs, mainly from the late 80s to the early 90s but I found some gems ... just look at this pile! There's a rack pack of 1989 Topps, a jumbo pack of 1983 Topps, a jumbo pack and a wax pack of 1986 Topps, a pack of 1986 Donruss, plus some random stuff from the mid 90s and 2000s. I plan on opening these one by one and sharing the contents of each on the blog.

Finally, my best finds of the day ... two WHA media guides for $5 each, which I managed to talk down from the asking price of $8 each. I haven't really had the time to dive deep into these but just flipping through them on the surface, there's all kinds of team rosters, stats, and lots more. There are two interesting tidbits on these you can see just by looking at the covers. First, one the 1977-78 guide, WHA MVP Robbie Ftorek wearing a Cincinnati Stingers uniform. Second, is the 1978-79 guide by itself. That season was the final season for the WHA as they merged with the NHL after that season.

While most dealers had lots of cool stuff, most of it out of my price range, I still think I managed to find some pretty good deals. Most of the cards I was able to get for less than a buck each and my biggest purchases were the media guides. After the show, I stopped by the card shop ten minutes from the show venue but that's another story for another day.