Washington Wednesday: RIP Redskins HTTR

WASHINGTON WEDNESDAY:

RIP Redskins: HTTR4LIFE

Redskins Super Fan Chief Zee crying (date unknown)

Well they went ahead and did it. The NFL's Washington Team The REDSKINS gave into the pressure to change their controversial Nickname. I won't go into all the history of the name and the periodic attempts from outside entities to force the team to change the name they have held for 87 years. all that can be found on the interwebs. Along with all the Pros and Cons. Sure some people are now not offended but now a different group of people have been offended and some angered.

I will say that I am far from happy about the whole thing. I've been a life-long fan of the team, growing up with an older brother who was a super true blue fan, even my father who wasn't much of a sports fan enjoyed watching the occasional Redskins game on the telly and kept track of them during the season from time to time (mostly I think to please his fan family). What ticks me off the most is it appears to be that the owners were being blackmailed by FedEx one of their biggest financial supporters, investors and others. The delivery service sent a letter saying basically "Change the name or move to another stadium", they have about 7 more years on the stadium's lease so that isn't really one of the pressing issues. Also several big named merchandise retailers such as Amazon, Target and Walmart to name a few have pulled all Redskins merchandise from their shelves and have stopped selling them.

A couple of weeks after announcing that the name was going to be changed and the old name dropped the team now has a temporary name for the 2020 season "The Washington Football Team". They will keep the maroon and gold colors, but will be logoless. The helmets will be plain maroon with large gold numbers on the sides. Apparently they will have a permanent as yet unannounced new name and logo starting in the 2021 season.

I guess to a non-fan the best analogy would be if the high school you and your siblings graduated from, maybe even one of your parents and their siblings graduated from as well, was forced to change their mascot's name and/or even the entire school name. That is how it has affected me. After several generations of history.  It just "always was the way it was". It is part of the fandom intangibles. You don't know exactly what it is unless you have it. Even then it seems to be different for every fan.

As a fan of the old team I am not in the mood to attempt to become a fan of whatever the new team will be. Collecting cards for this year/season will be bittersweet. I'm not sure what I will do for next season. Do I stay with the team trading group I am a part of once the new team is established and cards baring the new team name and logo are made? A big part of me doesn't want to. 

OK rant over for now here are some historic DC Football cards that are sure to offend some people.

Lets start with one of my fave QBs of ALL-TIME Sonny Jurgensen. This one is from 1991 a special Quarterbacks set. I chose to show it because of it's original old school looks, especially the back pic with the original arrow helmet design (not the 1990s retro version)

1991 Quarterback Legends: 24 Sonny Jurgensen Washington Redskins

These next two cards I picked to show are of the same Player Jim Lachey. Both are very cool photos the first is a portrait from the 1991 Pro Set Football set, 

1991 Pro Set Football: 381 Jim Lachey Washington Redskins

Next Card. Check out the cool up close and personal pic. I picked this card to show because of the peeling of the stripe stickers on his helmet. Thought it was very cool looking.

1991 Upper Deck Football - 102 Jim Lachey Washington Redskins

This next card I chose because of the retro looks with the airbrushing/photoshopping (or maybe it is just unbranded spring training gear). It is also close to what the "temporary" helmets of this 2020 season will look like, with the exception that the new temporary helmets will have the player's uniform number in gold on the sides.

2004 Score Football: 330 James Thrash Washington Redskins

The final card I'm showing is one of the cool retro cards from 2004 Fleer Tradition Football set. Not only is the card design retro but this was the year the Redskins were sporting an anniversary retro uniform with the Arrow Helmet and a retro looking jersey and their return to the mustard colored pants.

2004 Fleer Tradition Football: 196 LaVar Arrington Washington Redskins

*UGH Due to the recent formatting updating changes that Blogger did, on my ancient computer at home I can no longer edit posts on blogger. It just gave me a blank page, well it had part of the editing "frame" of the page but the part where content was supposed to be it was blank. An incomplete page. I think it is because of something with my outdated Chrome browser. I didn't think about checking with Firefox (or Internet Explorer) until after I had shutdown my ancient Windows XP laptop/notebook. I'll try seeing if my ancient Firefox or IE works sometime later. Probably not because I think they had problems ages ago preventing me from using them then. So I won't be able to directly upload from my laptop to Blogger. I will have to use other sites or do what I did this time and transfer the images to a thumb drive and do it old school. Not to mention I will have to use my work laptop to do all the post editing, not just some of the last minute corrections before the scheduled Noontime posting. Yeah Yeah Yeah I need to get a new up-to-date home 'puter/laptop.

Blogged But Not Blogged: Redemption Freed From Fed-Ex Prison

This is the type of post that I have probably done many times before, I call this type of post "Blogged, But Not Blogged". Long story short since Aug 2007 I have been blogging about my card mail days over at TCC on my blog over there, and since July 2012 duplicating those posts in a mail day thread at the TCZ forums. There are many cards I have mentioned in detail at those sites that I have never blogged about here on what I consider to be my official trading card blog. A few times, mostly in the early days, I mentioned a card in my mail day and even scanned it (at least the front) but never blogged about it over here.

This is the story of one such card:

16 Feb 2009:
From TCC Mail Day Forum Post "Finally From Fed-Ex Foulball: A Redemption":

This is quite a story. From the Official TCC Baseball Box Breaking Group I had gotten a redemption card from 2007 SWEET SPOT BASEBALL I don't recall when I logged in the request for it online, but here is it's story.

Back of redemption card

The thing was being delivered via FedEx with SIGNATURE REQUIRED Delivery. Well long story short FedEx attempts to deliver it 3 times when I'm not available.

So about a week or two ago I contact FedEx and take a day off of work (since I had to accept a UPS package with the same sort of deal) and wait. FedEx didn't try delivering that day. The package didn't get on the truck or something. I arrange for a special delivery to my Apartment's Management office on a Friday (which would screw things up some more) only to find that my Management office doesn't sign for any packages, when they had told me on the phone they did.*

I arranged another delivery and take off Monday to wait. Their operator calls in the morning to verify that they will be sending it out and it was on a truck. I wait and wait and wait. When I finally go out to check my regular mail I notice a door tag that says they had attempted to deliver it at 10:00 AM (the other times they had attempted to deliver it was afternoon times 1:30 PM,3:00 PM etc) well I was really really PO'd. I had taken off of work and they try to deliver in the morning around the time I was in the bathroom showering (I should have not showered until after getting the dang thing).

Well I contact them and get directions to their station where they are holding the package. I get there about 15 minutes before they close and they can't find the thing. The system says it's still on the truck. They said they will call me when they find it. Um yeah sure. As it turns out that particular time it was a Manager who had tried to deliver it so it didn't go into the system as it normally would (I found that out today)

Finally today (16 Feb 2009)  I get a call saying the package is waiting and I can pick it up anytime. Fortunately I had the day off for Presidents Day and FedEx was open, that surprised me. OK so I went back out to their station and sprung the package from it's FedEx prison.

I don't have a scan of the card (Not sure when I'll get my scanner hooked back up**) but it is a:

2007 UD Sweet Spots Baseball Dual Signatures of Alex Gordon Royals and Cal Ripken Jr. Orioles Glove Leather black sharpie 4/5.

This puppy ain't going anywhere (Cal Ripken Jr PC) so don't ask to trade for it. Not sure what it's BV is or if it is even listed as having one.

UPDATE: 26 NOV 2009 Added the scan. Hadn't gotten round to posting the scan here (meaning TCC as this is a cut/paste copy of my original post there), but it has been in my Photobucket# for a few months.

From TCC Blog post "Redemption Freed From Fed-Ex Prison":

After a long game of cat and mouse with FedEx delivering the package with "REQUIRED SIGNATURE" I finally got my redemption. In the mail day page  I gave most of the horrid details of trying to get the thing. (as reposted up above) Anyway it is:

2007 UD SWEET SPOT BASEBALL Sweet Spot Dual Signatures

ALEX GORDON (Royals) and CAL RIPKEN JR (Orioles)

Glove Leather Black Sharpie #4/5

Not bloody likely for trade at anytime. If I ever get around to finding a price for it, I might consider selling if I like the price, or if someone offers a really ridiculous amount for it.

Notes:
* When I first moved into my Apartment 01 Aug 2008 the management office would accept and sign for packages for tenants and then notify them of the package. I think by a notice shoved onto your door. They quickly stopped sometime within my first few months of living at the apartment complex. Looks like I was in my apartment for just 6 months when this package arrived. Update since around the holidays of last year (2017) the leasing office accepts some FedEx packages on behalf of residents now.

** Wow I had forgotten I had gone a while (several months it seems) without my scanner hooked up. I probably hooked it up shortly after this mess. I still don't have a printer hooked up, or my regular stereo set up. I have been in my apartment for nearly 10 years (come Aug 01). Yeah 10 years without a printer and a stereo. I print stuff at work when I need to and scan papers there. The lack of stereo only means I can't play vinyl records. I have portable and other tape and CD players to use. I don't listen to music as intently or as often as I used to several years ago. Those are stories for another time if at all.

# Photobucket has banned free 3rd party hosting. So any attempt at linking images at PB look like this:

This image is intentional this time only. If it appears anyplace else on my blog it is not intended.