Richard P. McWilliam is truly in the "Upper Deck".

Richard P. McWilliam 

October 20, 1953 – January 5, 2013

Mr. McWilliam left behind a wife and three children.

May you find peace in the arms of the Angels Richard.  

A small part of my collecting goals for 2013

Here is the top 5 cards that I would like to put into my personal collection for the year 2013.

 1. A Ken Griffey Jr autographed card. I had one at one point and time but I lost it in the fire.

2. A David Wright autographed card. This is one auto that I have not pulled yet and I've always hoped that I would! It seems to be eluding me and it's getting nerve racking!

3. An Avery Brooks autographed card. I was a big fan of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and I loved seeing Avery as Captain Sisko.

4. A Mark Messier autographed card. While I was so delighted to get Wayne Gretzky's autograph in person after a game at MSG I was kind of hoping I could snag Mark's as well. Unfortunately I just missed him by like 4 seconds.

5. A Magic Johnson autographed card. He is my favorite NBA player and my favorite LA LAKERS player! I wish I still had the pair of Lakers colored Converse Weapon sneakers. Loved em!

and finally a special card that I need to get for someone I love dearly:

A John Kruk autographed card. Actually what I would like to do is to find out where I could send a picture to him and see if I could get it signed and personalized to Kathy, my fiance who is a Phillies fan. Her Pap and her used to watch the Phillies games a lot when she was growing up and John Kruk was both their favorite player. I though it would be something to cheer her up and bring back back some good memories for her. She deserves it!

HAVE YOU SEEN ME? Kevin Ahrens Edition

Kevin Ahrens was drafted 16th in the first round of the 2007 MLB draft. Kevin has played third base in the minors for the last 6 years playing on the Single A Lansing Lugnuts and the Advance A Dunedin Blue Jays ball teams. 

 IF SEEN PLEASE CONTACT 1-800-MLB-FADE (NOT A WORKING NUMBER)

Chicken Scratch: Captain Kirk Edition

For this lovely edition of Chicken Scratch I have decided to look at one of the autographs of NY Mets outfielder "Captain" Kirk Nieuwenhuis.

When you look at this autograph you can easily make out the "K" in his first name and the "N" in his last name. He even added his jersey number which is clearly legible. As for the rest of the letters........good luck on figuring that one out. In his first name you have a "K" and it looks like an "A" almost at first glance. Take a second glance and you might even see, "HA". 

Here's another version of his "younger" autograph:

As for the last name portion.....well......the "N" is visible and the rest of it ends on a long loop. It could also be possibly going "NS" as well. Not really sure what he's communicating but it looks like, "HA NL". Maybe he's saying, "HA! I play in the National League." All I know is he's barely getting 2 sharpies for his poor penmanship!

Doe....a deer....a female deer.....bleeding all over the road

Well the score goes like this: Mother Nature (deer) -3  Tim's Envoy-0

Friday night when I was going to work I had a herd (about 6-7) of deer jump out in front of me. I'm already going 50 mph and I have three choices:

1. There was a car coming in the other lane so I had go straight in order to avoid a collision.

2. There was a hill to my right that I could go up and possibly roll the envoy and hit some deer.

3. Take my chances and slow down and try to go into between at least some deer.

I slowed down and tried to go into the middle of the heard where I saw a little space but then one doe stopped and the one behind her stopped and then....... POW BOOM SMASH.


The other guy that was coming in the opposing lane ended up hitting the back end of a spiked buck. He had sustained some damage to the front right corner of his Ford Taurus. He was okay though. He was surprised to see a "6 pack of deer" as he called it running like that. He asked if I was okay and I said, "yeah......but those two doe lying there on the road.....well......they won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Come to think of it neither will I probably." Basically the whole right front corner is missing from my vehicle. No headlight, no fog lights, no bumper, no signal lights, no headlight washer, and no grill. Everything was smashed. The funny thing about this (well not really) is last year the day before Christmas I hit a deer going to my children's Christmas program and did $3700.00 worth of damage on the driver side from one big buck. I can't wait to see the cost for this one one the passenger side. I have a Progressive agent coming this morning to see what the damages are going to be this time.

I'm glad we were both okay (the other guy and me; screw the deer). I'm glad the kids were not with me because my daughter would've been really upset and I can just imagine my son standing there saying, "can I gut them Dad can I can I" as he's at the first year stage of hunting and that is all he has been talking about lately. Then more thoughts rush my head like, "oh great Tim, you're supposed to go to Philly the end of the month. You have to take the kids to Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday. How will you get to work?" I stop and take a deep breath and just think to myself, "one day at a time Tim.......one step at a time." I love it when life throws screwballs at you. The nice thing is I have a good "on base" percentage. Hey Mother Nature........BRING IT ON! I'll hit you the same way Roger Clemens hit Mike Piazza with the bat chunk!

P.S. Yes that picture is from Carmageddon 2. Great Game!

I was out of commission but now I am "back" on track!

When you have bulging discs in the L2-3,4-S1 areas of the spine and the pain is so bad that it drops you on the floor and you cannot get up or move and you're having to lay there in miserable agony while feeling the nerves pulsate with agonizing pain that it leaves you feeling breathless......well it was time to have it taken care of professionally and medically. Things are so much better now and I have good mobility and I can bend pretty good again! Things can finally get back to normal again!

Sorry for the delay

To the Contest winners and to those who I have some trade packages going out and for those I have cards to fill out their checklists I must apologize for the delay in getting things out. Everything was set to go out in the mail on friday morning. However on thursday evening I had to deal with some serious health issues which ended up in a required 5 day stay in a place that I HATE but the doctors are good (Not going into the details of why I hate hospitals but not the docs). I'm home now and the recovery process is going good. Sometimes we just need to take that extra time and learn to breathe a little when we get overwhelmed. That is what I am definitely doing now. I will get the goodies out here soon guys and a big thanks for being patient and understanding! I'll throw some extras in for the delay guys! I'll be back on my feet in no time! I'm using my cell phone for writing this (samsung infuse) and I have been using it to surf the web while I was staying in the "freezer". Amazing how we've come so far with technology. It's good thing that technology saves lives as well as entertain!