Welcome

I've been a diehard Chicago Blackhawks fan my entire life. I started collecting baseball and hockey cards as a youngin' in the late 80's.  After a few years of crazy obsession, my love of the hobby waned when the mid 90's came about.  There were many reasons for this, I suppose. Both my teams (Hawks and White Sox), were terrible, so I wasn't paying as much attention to the sports as I used to. Other reasons, like becoming a teenager and all that encompasses that part of life, also played a big role.  The biggest reason was that the hobby generally sucked at this point in time. So one day I just stopped collecting and it seemed like that part of life was over.

Things changed big time in 2005 when my beloved White Sox finally won the World Series after an 88 year drought.  I bought the special World Series card box that Topps put out, and the addiction was reborn!

I originally planned to only collect baseball, and more specifically, White Sox cards.  I didn't feel like spending the time, energy, and more importantly, cash, on collecting multi-sport stuff.

But like what happened to the White Sox, something womderful has happened, the Blackhawks, my favorite sports team of them all, are relevant again.

A few years ago, ESPN magazine put a list together, ranking all the major US sports franchises from top to bottom, and the Blackhawks were picked dead last.

Imagine that, an original 6 NHL team, in a vibrant sports crazy city like Chicago, a team that Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Tony Esposito, Glenn Hall, and other all time greats wore the Indian sweater for.  A team with the best logo BAR NONE. That team was picked as the worst framchise in sports. Worse than the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Detroit Lions, even worse the the LA Clippers!!!!

ESPN did have a valid point, however. The owner of the team, "Dollar" Bill Wirtz, was one of the cheapest owners in sports, and hr refused to spend any money to get good players.  His biggest mistake was refusing to allow Hawk home games to be televised, losing a bunch of fans in the process.

It all changed when the old man died.  His son, Rocky Wirtz, took over the team, and things haven't been this good for Chicago hockey in forever.  Home games are on TV.  Money is spent on players. The Blackhawks have one of the most exciting teams in the entire NHL.  Life is good.

With a renewed passion for the Indian, I broke my rule and began to buy hockey cards again.  The collection is still small at the present time, but hopefully I will stick with it.  I plan on sticking mostly to Blackhawks cards, but I'm not going to limit myself.  I have a few projects going that I will get to at a later post.  If anyone out there (if there is anyone out there) has some Hawk card they wouldn't mind parting with, let me know, we'll see if we can work out a trade or something.

Thanks and GO HAWKS!