The Beckett Blog

I am a little slow and thick-headed, and I also just got back from a three-day memorabilia binge that still has my head spinning, so I just did something very frustrating and idiotic.

I tried to post stories on the Beckett.com site through our news admin system, a process that takes some time with all the image links and formatting, ect.

No problem, I do it all the time.

Well, I forgot that we are launching the new site–How could I be so brilliant?  Our news admin system is now our OLD system…so I just spent a ton of time uploading photos and writing news stories, all for something that soon will no longer exist.

How did I ever even get this far?  Well, since the launch is happening right now and Beckett.com (both old and new) are currently down while they are doing something involving switching everything over, I am going to post the stories here and hit the sack.  I am not happy that I get to erase all these HTML tags.  Some of this may be redundant, so bear with me.

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Eric Jahnke’s thoughts on his first National

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Wow.

That was entirely too much fun. Not only did I get to attend my first National, but I also got the assignment of my life when Tracy Hackler sent Al, Brad and me to cover an Upper Deck Diamond Club event…at historic Wrigley Field.  That was my first time to ever get to go there.

I haven’t worked so hard in my life. Thank you, Tracy, and thanks as well to Upper Deck, and Dave and Adam’s, who hosted the after-game event at the Cubby Bear across the street from Wrigley.

More details on the day coming soon on Beckett Behind the Scenes.

Issues

We had planned carefully for the National and once we got there everything was going smoothly, but something was bound to happen, and it did. Somehow we lost our wireless connection Thursday, so Al Muir and I did not get to continually update the news like we should have. Expect a flood of stories and videos in the coming days.

First time for LOTS of things

This National had so many firsts that I don’t have a clue what to <i>write</i> first. This one seems as good a place to start as any: During the National, Beckett Grading Services graded it’s first ever Pristine 10 Joe Montana rookie.

The owner wished to remain anonymous, at least for the time being.

“I really don’t want all the publicity right now, my cards speak for themselves,” he said.

He was extremely nice, and handed Al and me the card so we could take photos of it. He must have figured we wouldn’t be hard to track down if we made a mad dash for the door with it.  Wearing a Beckett shirt is not the best way to start off a criminal career, especially when you work there.

I can say this, his booth had some of the best high-grade cards I have ever seen all in one place.  This Montana is extra-special though, since there is not another BGS like it out there.

Heroes

One of the many great athletes signing autographs at the show was the legendary two-sport hero, Bo Jackson. It was great to see him there, and the line was full of people with Raiders helmets, and of course, White Sox jerseys.

Al and I were nearly run over and killed by an overly pushy mother who, for some strange reason, was yelling at her young teenage son to join her as she shoved her way to the rail to get a glimpse of Bo.

Her meaty elbow violently striking me in my side explains this awful picture. Her son was not interested, and continued to play his little video game in the back of the crowd. Undeterred, she screeched at him (right in my ear) for a while, until we gave up and left.

You win this one lady, my ears are still ringing.

Shopping?

Normally I would rather go to the dentist than go shopping.  When I die, if they don’t let me in upstairs, then I know where I will spend eternity…a mall, during the Christmas frenzy.

The National was an exception to that.  I “window” shopped as much as I could, never once getting bored since there was always another incredible item to see.

I came home with a very interesting piece, a game-used Astros hat, worn by Roger Cedeno, I think, during Spring Training in 2000.  Since we were not able to research using the internet, I am completely guessing right now, but I am sure it is game worn, since it smells so good.  I think he wore #19 with Houston though, but #14 is written inside the hat.

I am not shy about declaring my love for the Astros, even the guys who were only in Houston for one season, but that is not why this hat came home with me from Chicago.

When I flipped the hat over to look inside of it, I saw something written on the bill that made me pause for a moment and remember these guys are not only incredible athletes, they are human beings, too.

I will do some research about this hat, and post it on Beckett Behind the Scenes in the near future.

Benchwarmers

Not too much to say here, I think the picture says quite a bit.  This is Mary Riley, one of the Benchwarmer girls, showing Al and me one of her “kiss” cards that a collector had just pulled out of a box he was busting at their booth.

We will post the video interview sometime soon.

Spending time at the National, looking at ART?

You heard it right, Al Muir and I spent a bit of time casually strolling around looking at paintings.

These were no every day ordinary paintings.  Nothing boring like Picasso, or silly like Monet.  No sir, these were true works of art, and we enjoyed them thoroughly.

We even got to watch the artist while he worked on a masterpiece featuring two of the greatest human beings to ever live.  I don’t want to ruin the video interview we have coming, so I won’t tell you who they were.  However, I will gladly show a picture of just one of this man’s beautiful work.

#34, #34, and #34

Stunning, isn’t it?

The camera work is not excellent, but if you look closely above Hakeem’s head, and at Nolan’s waist, you can see where they have signed the painting.  We also got to see the photographs of the players signing the paintings.  If you got to see the painting in person, the signatures stand out very well.

There is much more to come, especially when the videos get edited.

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3 am side note-update:  I am going to be terribly late to work tomorrow due to this wireless debacle, and staying up to get something done, but it was killing me about the hat.  Thank God Google was good to me.  Who would imagine I could find a Spring Training shot of Roger Cedendo that quickly?

Sure enough, he’s wearing #14 in a 2000 Spring Training game against the Yankees.  My condolences Roger, at least eight years too late.