1 of 1

Recently Steve from The Easy Life gave me a couple 1 of 1 autographs. For absolutely nothing. I couldn't believe it. I'm going to do a post on each of these. Thanks again Steve. You're the man.


We'll start with the first one he gave me. This is Montell Jordan. This guy has had one remarkable life. He grew up in the tough streets of Detroit, Michigan. He was raised by his mother after his father was killed in a freak lawn dart accident. Following his fathers death Montell fell in with a bad crowd called the E Street Band. This however did not last long. One day while Montell was out selling crack, Bruce Springsteen showed up and took the whole crew on the road with him. That is except for Montell.

By now Montell became very depressed. He had severe abandonment issues. At this point he decided that he would concentrate on his schooling and hoped to one day become a TV talk show host. He later got his wish and worked daily with the constant drama of baby daddies and transvestites. At first he was happy, however as time went on he felt this emptiness inside him. He finally snapped one day when Oprah Winfrey guest starred on his show and asked Montell to play a game of lawn darts. Montell picked up a baseball bat and beat Winfrey within an inch of her life.

Since his show aired live this was seen throughout the world, including Philadelphia. And it was in Philadelphia that some Phillies executives marveled at the way he could swing the bat. After his trial, which ended with the jury somehow finding him not guilty, he was invited to Phillies Spring Training in 1991. At first it looked like his career would be over before it really got started. He was batting .074 midway through spring training when manager Jim Fregosi told him to envision the baseball as Oprah's head.

And just like that he was a changed man. His batting average shot to over .300, his play in the field however was to say the least unique. Since he was picturing the ball as Oprah's head he would actually kick the baseball instead of throw it. When asked by reporters why he did this he replied in what would become his and the teams motto "This is how I do it"

Unfortunately he was not able to "do it" very long. He played just the one season in the Majors before he failed a psych evaluation. He was sent and still resides at the Keystone Center Psychiatric Hospital in Chester, PA.

Steve I have to thank you again for this as well as the other cards you gave me. I will be posting them as time goes by and sharing these players unique stories with everyone.

**The events and characters depicted in this post are entirely fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental**

Horrorfest 2009 - Saturday

Well all good things must come to an end. I had a blast doing this and I have so many more horror movie which did not make the cut this year I'm sure to do it again. Here's the lineup for day 6:

10:00AM - Freaks
11:05AM - The Ring
1:00 PM - Fido
2:30 PM - Vacancy
4:00 PM - I Spit On Your Grave
5:40 PM - The Number 23
7:20 PM - Devil's Rejects
9:10 PM - Catholic Ghoulgirls
10:10PM - The Shining

Ok before I catch any flack, I know the Number 23 isn't exactly horror but its a really good thriller. By the way my full name is Joseph Christopher Stofan = 23. Erie huh? I know not really.

I wish I could find a trailer for Catholic Ghoulgirls to show. The movie had to cost a total of $20 to make. I'm not kidding. Its absolutely horrible. The first time I saw it I thought it was a college film. But apparently its just a very low budget film. I bought a dvd with 6 movies on it from Circuit City for $6.99 and this gem was one of them. I knew the movies would be bad but thats what attracted me to them.

I have two trailers today. First we have a trailer for Fido. I want to show this because its a very good movie that I'm sure most people have not heard of. It stars Carrie Ann Moss of Matrix fame. This movie takes place in the 50's when the "Zombie Apocalypse" takes place. A company named Zom-Con, yes Zom-Con, figures out how to kill then and of course this makes them the biggest company in the world. They also produce the technology to make zombies docile in the form of a collar that they wear. The zombies become servants for the living. One young boys family gets a zombie and he names it Fido. Unfortunately his collar has a penchant for malfunctioning and eating the neighbors. Here's the trailer. I highly recommend this movie



And finally, The Shining. I knew I had to end this thing with a classic. Originally I wanted to end it with The Exorcist but it got a lot of votes for earlier in the week. Thats when I decided on The Shining. Jack Nicholson is one amazing actor, and who hasn't wanted to take an axe to Olive Oil?



What do you mean that isn't the real trailer???

Horrorfest 2009 - Friday

Today is by far going to be the goriest day of the festival. No comedies today. Well sort of. I guess there is one but its one of the goriest movies ever made. This is going by way too fast. Just one day to go after this. Here our lineup for day 5:

10:00AM - Night of the Living Dead
11:40AM - Grindhouse
3:00 PM - Dead Alive
4:25 PM - Nightmare on Elm Street
6:00 PM - Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Original)
7:25 PM - House of 1000 Corpses
9:00 PM - Audition
10:55PM - Descent

Scott will be joining me again today. He insists that when Rob Zombie made House of 1000 Corpses he completely ripped off Texas CHainsaw Massacre. I disagree. Therefore I had to put them back to back so we can debate this fact. Also today we have Night of the Living Dead. My personal favorite zombie movie of all time. Grindhouse is a Gorehouse, and Dead Alive as I said before may be a comedy but its gorier and more disgusting than most of the movies I'm watching. Anyway today I am going to leave you with a trailer for what is one of my favorite horror movies, Audition. This is a Japanese film which is in subtitles but it is one messed up film.



In this movie the main characters wife dies and years later his family and friends convince him to start dating again. His friend works in the movie business and they decide to set up a phony audition for a movie for him to meet women. The one he falls for though is a little more than he bargained for.

Horrorfest 2009 - Thursday

Three days down, three more to go. So I guess technically, now we're half way through. I tell ya I'm getting a lot of ideas here. Don't worry I don't mean for real. I'm actually trying to write a script and this is all really helping. Here's day 4:

10:00AM - Silent Hill
12:05PM - Hostel
1:40 PM - Return of the Living Dead Part 2
3:10 PM - Army of Darkness
4:30 PM - 28 Days Later
6:25 PM - 28 Weeks Later
8:00 PM - Shaun of the Dead
9:40 PM - 1408

Would you believe that the movie that got the most votes was 1408? I didn't. Don't get me wrong, I love the movie but I can't believe that more people picked it than say The Exorcist. It was a big shock to me. My friend Scott will be joining me today and he loves the 28 saga so I had to put them together for him. We've been fairly serious so far so today I will leave you with the following trailer.

TTM - Charlie Hough

Yes Steve this will be the 2nd autograph I am sending you. I'm just gonna start by saying that because I'm a lazy bastard and I still haven't mailed out my packages that I have set to go. And with Horrorfest going on right now I'm not sure when I will be able to get them out but I promise, everyone who has cards set aside by me, they will be mailed.

Now on to Mr. Hough. Charlie Hough was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1966 amateur draft out of Hialeah High School. He pitched in the low minor leagues of the Dodgers organization from 1967 -1969 with minimal success. During spring training in 1970 however he learned how to throw a knuckleball and his career immediately took a turn for the better. He led the Spokane Indians and the whole Pacific Coast League in saves and posted a 1.95 ERA.

He made his Major League debut on August 12, 1970 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, pitching 1/3 an inning with a walk and a strikeout to earn his first save. He didn't join the Dodgers bullpen on a full-time basis until 1973. He became a top reliever for the Dodgers until he was sold to the Texas Rangers in 1980. While with the Dodgers he has the distinction of being one of the pitchers to give up a home run to Reggie Jackson in game 6 of the 1977 World Series where Reggie hit three home runs in one game.

In Texas he was converted to a starting pitcher. He pitched for the Rangers from 1980 to 1990, making his first and only All-Star appearance in 1986. He left Texas as the leader in wins, strikeouts, complete games and losses. He was well known for throwing complete games and in 1984 finished the season with 17 complete games.

At the age of 43, in 1991, Charlie joined the Chicago White Sox where he pitched for two years. In 1993 he joined the expansion Florida Marlins and was the first starting pitcher for the team. He retired at the age of 46 after the 1994 season. He finished his playing career with a record of 216-216 with 2362 strikeouts, and a 3.75 ERA over 3801 and a third innings.

Comments on Horrorfest so far

Right now I'm watching One Missed Call and I thought I'd share some thoughts on the comments Horrorfest has been receiving.

We'll start with DayF. Susperia is one of my favorite movies ever. Dario Argento's use of color in the film was phenomenal. The story and acting aren't the greatest but the cinematography is just insane. I will admit watching Saw afterwards is slightly disappointing but I do like the original. The rest are good for filling space but the original had that little extra something. All the sequals just became another way to cash in. Not that they were bad but they certainly weren't all that good either.

Writers Journey, sounds like you got a heck of a collection going for yourself. I bought the very same My Bloody Valentine/April Fool's Day DVD a couple months back. I'm really hoping they show the remake in 3D where I live. Binghamton, NY likes to think they're a city but they never get anything good, when it comes to movies at least.

Ben, I agree with you as well. The Exorcist really isn't all that scary. It's just a great movie. I read the book recently and its almost identical word for word. Keep in mind though when that movie came out. At the time I'm sure people freaked. As for Silent Hill, that actually made the list for tomorrow. I'll have that list up in the morning. Also I hate to disappoint but I've never heard of either Carnival of Souls or Messiah of Evil. But I can assure I will be looking to buy them now. I'll take your word on 'em

Thanks go out to everyone for taking an interest. I know this is slightly off topic of collecting cards so its nice to see some people interested in horror as well. If anyone has any movie suggestions please let me know. I may love horror movies and I may have about 150 of them but that doesn't mean I know them all. Please feel free to let me know some of your favorites. I'm always looking to add to the collection.

Horrorfest 2009 - Wednesday

Welcome back. Lots of blood and guts down but we're only half way through now. By the end of this I may be officially insane, I'm not sure but we shall see. I should've got a scientist to watch me for the week. Nothing but beer, greasy food and horror. Would make for an interesting experiment. Anyway on to Day 3:

10:00AM - Return of the Living Dead
11:30AM - The Messengers
1:00 PM - Rosemary's Baby
3:20 PM - One Missed Call
4:50 PM - Amityville Horror (original)
6:50 PM - Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
8:30 PM - Evil Dead 2
10:00PM - The Exorcist

Got some great classics here and some descent new stuff. But any time you have the Exorcist on the list you know you got a good list. More new Texas Chainsaw along with two movies obviously based on Japanese predecessors in One Missed call and the Messengers. However for todays trailer we have Rosemary's Baby. Not a horror in the traditional sense with gore and jump moments. More of a, Oh my god how could this possibly happen, horror movie. Enjoy

Horrorfest 2009 - Tuesday

Back for day two of Horrorfest. Here's todays lineup:

10:00AM - House on Haunted Hill (original)
11:15AM - The Birds
1:15 PM - Pulse
2:45 PM - Last House on the Left
4:10 PM - See No Evil
5:35 PM - Blair Witch Project
7:00 PM - Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake)
8:40 PM - Evil Dead
10:05PM - Psycho (original)

Got some really good movies today including a couple Alfred Hitchcock classics with the Birds and Psycho. The original Psycho not that piece of crap Vince Vaughn remake. Also including the original House on Haunted Hill. The remake to this classic wasn't too bad but I had to go with the original here. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre will be shown later in the week. Not sure how anyone else feels about it but I always loved the Blair Witch Project. Great concept and done exceptionally well. However todays trailer is for one of the best horror movies ever. At lease according to the cult following it has that just gets bigger and bigger every day.



Yes that is correct, The Evil Dead, written and directed by Sam Raimi. Director of such films as The Quick and the Dead, and the Spiderman movies got his start with Evil Dead. He also produced both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.

TTM - Xavier Hernandez

"The X Man" Xavier Hernandez is the latest acquisition to my autograph collection. He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 4th round of the 1986 amateur draft. He made his Major League debut on June 4, 1989 as a starter. He pitch 6 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs on 8 hits, 3 walks, with 2 strike outs. Xavier has pitched for many teams throughout his career. He has pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds and the Texas Rangers before his career came to an end in 1998. He was a reliever for most of his career who finished with a record of 40-35 with 35 saves and a 3.90 ERA. He is currently the pitching coach for the Durham Bulls. They are the Triple A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Gary Gaetti is their hitting coach.

Horrorfest 2009 - Monday

Today is the first day of my vacation. It is also the first day of Horrorfest 2009. I have a bunch of people coming to my place over the next week with the sole purpose of watching horror movies. I gave everyone a list and asked them to choose the movies they wanted to see. Unfortunately no one voted for the oldies but goodies. So there is no Wolfman, no Creature from the Black Lagoon, no Nosferatu. But I did work a couple in anyway. I figured I would throw up a breakdown of the daily schedule so you can see what we're watching. I will also include a trailer to one of the movies everyday. Here we go:

Monday 1-5-09

10:00 AM - Halloween
11:35 AM - 13 Ghosts
1:10 PM - The Blob
2:45 PM - Wrestlemaniac
4:00 PM - Idle Hands
5:30 PM - Slither
7:05 PM - Freddy vs. Jason
8:45 PM - Susperia
10:25 PM - Saw

As you can see I am including not just horror but horror comedies as well. We need something to break up the tension. Overall, Monday is not one of the better days for the festival but there are some really good movies on the list. However I also included the absolutely horrible, Wrestlemaniac. You can view the trailer below





The movie follows a group of people traveling through Mexico who plan on filming a porno. Yes thats right they just decided hey why not, lets go to Mexico and film a porno. You can already tell this is gonna be bad. Anyway they come across and old abandoned town and decide thats where they will film it. When suddenly the cameraman realizes they are in El Sangre de Dios. This is where they left El Mascarado, a Mexican wrestler who went insane and gouged his opponents eyes out during a match and killed numerous others. And of course one by one they disappear only to be found with their faces ripped off because in Mexican wrestling that is "the ultimate humiliation". For the record in Lucha Libre many wrestlers do wear masks and removing them is a no-no. Most wrestlers will actually go about their normal daily lives with them on to keep there identities hidden.

Now there are three things in my life that I love besides the normal obvious stuff. That is baseball, wrestling and horror movies. So I thought what the hell i'll get it. But anytime I watch it I just laugh at how amazingly bad it is. Sometimes though its how bad a horror movie is that makes it great.

TTM - Rick Luecken

Today we have two autographed cards I received through the mail from Rick Luecken. Mr. Luecken was nice enough to personalize these cards for me as you can see. Though his career in the Majors only lasted two years you have to show respect to someone who made it all the way to the big show. Rick was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 27th round of the 1983 amateur draft. He made his Major League debut for the Kansas City Royals as a relief pitcher at the age of 28 against the team that drafted him, Seattle, on June 6 1989. He pitched 2 innings giving up no runs on 2 hits with 1 strike out and 1 walk. In his brief career he also pitched for the Atlanta Braves and the Toronto Blue Jays. He finished his career pitching only 77 2/3 innings with a 5.10 ERA and a record of 3-5 in 56 games.

Trade with Cheap Seats

A Very big thank you goes out to Krill over at Saints of the Cheap Seats. I got a HUGE package in the mail last week with at lease 200 cards for at least 7 or 8 different sets. You can believe I will certainly be monitoring this site like a hawk to help with anything you need Krill. I've updated all my lists and here are just a few of the many cards I got.


First we have a group of 89 Donruss. I have chosen these four due to there either past of future (at the time) with the New York Mets.

We'll start first with Jesse Orosco. Orosco holds the record for career pitching appearances. He also has pitched in the majors over 4 decades, 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's. He retired at the age of 46 but the thing I will always remember about Jesse is the glove that never came down. He recorded the last out of the 1986 World Series with a strike out and after that out he tossed his glove in the air and dropped to his knees. You never see that glove hit the ground.

Next we have Hubie Brooks. Hubie is actually a two time Met. He made his Major League debut with the Mets in 1980 and played in New York until 1984. He returned to the Mets again in 1991. While his best years were certainly not as a New York Met he was part of the trade that brought "The Kid" Gary Carter to the Mets in 1985 so I will not complain about having him.

One Dog!!!! Lance Johnson came to the Mets in 1996 and had the best season of his career with us. He had 227 hits, 21 triples and a batting average of .333. He is one of only a handful of players to hit 20 triples in a season since the Major Leagues integrated in 1947. The others are Willie Mays (1957), George Brett (1979), Willie Wilson (1985), Cristian Guzman (2000) and Curtis Granderson (2007). Pretty good company.

Finally we have Andres Galarraga. He never really did anything special for us. As a matter of fact he spent most of his time with us in AAA. But he had a great career and it was nice to include him on the roster even if it was at the tail end.


I also got a good chunk of 08 Topps Updates and Highlights. I chose Joe Blanton here because for a very long time the trade rumors said the Mets were going to pick up this fat ass. Now I certainly cant complain about what he has done over his career and unfortunately him and those Freakin' Phil's, as I will call him for this blog (trying to keep it PG-13 here), did win a ring last year but this guy will just keep growing until he looks like King Kong Bundy trying to pitch.



And finally we have Mack and Me. Mackey and Mookie. I will call them the Odd Couple. I smell a sitcom!!!! Come on tell me you can't see them replacing Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. Hell I'd pay to see it and it would be much more interesting then half the crap on tv today.

Again I have to send many many thanks to Krill for everything. I'll keep my eyes peeled for anything you need.