The SoapBoxers

Across most of America, students have headed back to school. This is significant in many ways. For the drivers out there, it means that there are school buses to watch out for and avoid, not to mention the kids getting on and off. On the positive side for drivers, there will be fewer children on the streets during school hours. There was also an up tick in retail sales as school supplies and new clothes were on the list over the last few weeks. Although it is only a temporary boost, any economic good news is important these days. Finally, and most import to some, college and professional football are on television again.

I for one am relieved that the diversion of football is back. Although I seldom go to games, I do watch on television. Baseball on the other hand, I will go to see live, but seldom watch on television. In baseball, the stadium activities are part of the overall entertainment. For football, the only entertainment you can watch that is not the actual game, is the half time show, but that is the time for bathroom breaks and food call.

This is the time of year where baseball is wrapping up with the excitement of the pennant, football is starting, the state fairs are underway, and politicians are kissing babies. Living in Iowa, I am in the center of all of those activities. We are bout four hours from four professional baseball team, with lots of minor league teams even closer. The same distance from five professional football teams with lots of college division I and II near by. We are currently the center of political activity with the straw poll and the jobs tour by the President.

In some ways this is a comfortable routine that we have every year (except for the politicians of course). We get to the school year and think back to our own school days. We start to reminisce about our friends and the good times we had. So, it is time to cheer on our school, or our kids’ schools, go to recitals and rallies. All of this will create new memories, mostly for the young people, but we oldsters will gain some as well.

When I purchased NCAA 12 Football for my PS3 recently, the guy that helped me at the game store said (yes, I quote) “This is the best football game I’ve ever played. If you’re a Madden addict, you won’t be anymore”. While I was skeptical, I thought to myself … Hmmmm, if this game is better than any Madden game, it’s must be REALLY good.

I could hardly wait to get home to play it. I have to say … I’m a little disappointed that he said that because it did nothing but raise my expectation to a level that were way too high. Don’t get me wrong, I think the game is good and I enjoy playing it. BUT, gameplay-wise, the game is very much equivalent to what NCAA Football ‘11 was.

EA did do some cool things with the graphics. Supposedly the grass on the field is 3D … but I honestly couldn’t tell a huge difference. There is a huge addition in adding in each school’s traditional game day routines, the LSU tiger in its cage for example. While that stuff is cool and overall they’re good additions to the game, it obviously doesn’t add anything to the gameplay itself.

When reading about the upcoming release of Madden, they’re seems to be a focus on a new tackling system. Playing NCAA 12 gave me a preview of that system, and I think it’s pretty cool. They’re calling it a collision system, but really it’s about making tackling/blocking/etc more lifelike. It definitely does that, but doesn’t take the game to the next level.

If you’ve read any of my other sports games reviews, you know I’m a fan of the Franchise mode in any game. Become a coach, and in this case, recruit players all while still playing the games. The big difference in this year’s Franchise mode is you have the ability to start off like most coaches do in real life, and that’s as an offensive or defensive coordinator. I haven’t played an entire season yet so I don’t know how it’ll play out, but it does add to the “cool” factor. If there is a downside to that, it would be that you then only get to play offense or defense, whichever coordinator you are. But in my eyes, that’s not much of a downside.

Overall, I’d give the game 4 stars on a 5 star scale, and that’s saying a lot. I guess I just expected more…..thanks a lot guy that helped me at the store!!

Maybe the most exciting part of my game buying experience … I gave my $5 to reserve a copy of Madden and CAN NOT wait until August 30th so I can get my copy!! Check here often for my review … because I am expecting BIG things.

This weekend I attended the Iowa Straw Poll. It was the first time I attended and didn’t have to “work” at the straw poll. Although I was tweeting for CAPE PAC and Soapboxers, so I guess I was working. But I didn’t have VIP Credentials like in previous years. It was also the first time my husband was able to attend with me. Four years ago he was in Iraq and missed out on all of the Straw Poll fun. He had no idea it was “such a big deal”.

Everyone was there, including Benjamin Franklin. He asked if I wanted a picture with him and I said, “Sure.” He put his arm around me and said, “Benjamin LIKES the ladies.” http://twitpic.com/65j85c Which is why my face is half scared, half laugh.

Before the results were announced, a friend asked who I thought would win. I said, “Bachmann one, Paul two, Pawlenty three.” My friend responded, “Interesting.” And then the results came down. “Bachmann one, Paul two, Pawlenty three.” My husband turned to me, jaw wide open and said, “How did you do that?” I laughed. Ten years in politics and you learn to read the crowds.

But yes, while I was there I tweeted the following:

“I keep having to remind DH that the candidate in last place’s name was “Thad McCotter” not “Scooter McGee”.”

“Ron Paul folks have left Hilton. Place smells a little better.”

“Overheard at the #IAStrawPoll “Ron Paul has brownies!” But what is in those brownies?”

Was I a little to harsh on the Ron Paul supporters? Maybe. They’re passionate and that’s good. But now they’re upset that Paul isn’t getting the media attention “he deserves.” I’ll let you in on a secret Ron Paul supporters, he’s not going to get the nomination.

Now, don’t get mad at me. That’s just the way it is. Ron Paul is what I like to call the “Drunk Uncle” (or “Drunkle” as my brother says) that everyone has at Thanksgiving. You know what I mean. It’s the guy you’re forced to invite, you never know what he’s going to say and you don’t know how to react when he goes off on one of his tangents. But it’s true.

So there it is, Ron Paul supporters. You’re passionate, and that’s awesome. That IS what we need in politics. But Ron Paul is not the guy. He’s not going to get the nomination. And getting second place in the Iowa Straw Poll is great, but if Paul runs as an Independent, he’ll only split the votes and we’ll get four more years of Obama.

It’s time to face the facts. He’s not going to get the nomination. There are too many other good candidates in the race. Ron Paul isn’t one of them. As my dad always told me before a big swim meet, “Second Place is the first loser”.

Photo credit: 401k

There is no debate that the rich pay a disproportionate amount of income taxes in the United States. Whether this is fair or not is a political discussion that I won’t address in this article. I’m more concerned about the reliability of statistics that are floating around.

You’ve probably heard that the top 20% of earners pay 80% the taxes and that the rich pay half the taxes. Are these comments true?  What percentage of taxes do the rich pay?

To answer this question, let’s to go the authority on tax statistics – the Internal Revenue Service. The data used in this article comes straight from the IRS web site.

Before we get started, I’d like to make a few points:

• These statistics are based on returns, rather than people. The lower levels of income tend to have fewer people represented by a return (single people are over-represented in these levels). This means that you can’t say that 8274 EARNERS had an AGI of more than $10 million or more. This could be a dual income household where each spouse earns $5 million.
• Data is from tax year 2009. The is the most recent data available at the time this article was written.
• I’m not exactly sure what to make of the returns with no AGI. I have included this data for the sake of completeness, but this group likely includes a hodgepodge of exception statuses and the stats for this group might not make much sense. Caveat emptor!

Let’s take a look at the first table. This lists the percentage of returns for each income level, as well as the group’s percentage of the nation’s aggregate AGI ($7.6 trillion) and individual income taxes paid ($865 billion). Dollar amounts are in thousands. What data can we glean?

• The top 20.57% of returns – those with AGI of $75,000 or more – earn 62.37% of the nation’s AGI and pay 83.96% of the taxes. So the much quoted stat about the top 20% paying 80% of taxes is true (assuming it means 20% of returns).
• What about the rich paying half the taxes? This depends on your definition of “rich”, but returns with more than $200,000 in AGI represent 2.79% of all returns, earn 25.76% of AGI, and pay 50.14% of taxes.
• Returns claiming AGI of more than one million dollars represented 0.17% of all returns, but paid 20.49% of all taxes.

Here’s the data:

OK, but what rate does everyone pay? In the next table, I’ve simply divided the taxes paid by the AGI to determine the effective tax rate.

• Returns with an AGI of $10 million or more have an effective rate significantly lower than several other income levels. Why? Capital gains. Note that this income level doesn’t have an upper bound, and the more extreme outliers are generally going to be the result of capital gains. It’s much more difficult to earn $1 billion in wages than $1 billion in capital gains (I’m speaking in relative terms; both are extremely difficult to do).
• There’s a noticeable jump between the 100-200K group and the 200-500K group. Not only are there some rate increases in these levels, but you will also see the effect of phase-outs of certain itemized deductions.

Here’s the data:

As a whole, the aggregate effective tax rate is 11.35%. For each $100 of AGI, the government will collect $11.35 in taxes. The 100-200K group is basically right at this level, but the other income levels drift far away from this baseline. What percent of the “expected” taxes are paid at each income level (based on the expectation of $11.35 in taxes paid on each $100 of AGI).

I’ll let you peruse this data without any observations, other than pointing out that 100% would be equal to the expected 11.35% effective rate.

A major milestone occurred yesterday in Major League Baseball.

Six Hundred Home Runs were hit by Jim Thome of the Minnesota Twins. He became just the 8th player to reach this significant milestone, although most now on this list have done it very recently. Even with that said, the list of folks in front of him as members of the 600 club is quite impressive.

Aaron, Ruth, Mays, A-Rod, Sosa, Bonds, and Griffey.

A couple off of this list are considered the best to ever play the game regardless of what era you are talking about in the history of baseball – Yet others have the tainted cloud of steroid use hanging over them.

I think it is safe to say that NEVER has a player who has hit 600 homers done so with so little fanfare or media attention. Thome played the most years in Cleveland, where he played 12 seasons. Since then he has had brief stops in Philadelphia, Chicago with the White Sox, Los Angeles with the Dodgers and now in Minnesota.

Thome has been consistent only hitting over 50 homers one time (he hit 52 blasts in 2002) , but having many years in the mid 30 to mid-40 home run totals. When you do this for a span of 20 years, do the math….you basically get to 600.

Most power hitters by their nature have a short shelf life in the majors. Swings get slower with age, younger players are always showing up to push you out. Many times the media attention that comes with being a slugger in the bigs is the same media coverage that starts to throw a player under the bus when they get into the twilight of their careers – and the production numbers start to wane.

After all, chicks dig the long ball…..

But Thome has seemingly escaped much of this. A popular player – but not necessarily a household name outside of the venues he has played in. He appears to be fairly quiet and un-assuming. Most casual observers would have no idea that he is a career .277 hitter (better than most big time power sluggers to be certain)

A lot of debate will happen over the upcoming weeks as to his all-time status in the game. Before the McGwire, Palmeiro and Sosa debacle of Performance Enhancing drugs, 500 Home Runs Pretty much got you into the Hall of Fame. 600 dingers I would think would make you a lock, yet questions abound on a variety of on-line sports sites as to if Thome deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Since I am not a member of the Baseball Writers Association of American no one really cares about my vote. With that said, I will take the quiet 600 Home Run guy who seems to be a throwback type of player any day of the week.

Congratulations Jim Thome

Until Next time,

Stay Classy Peoria, Illinois

Once again, Carlos Zambrano is persona non grata in the Cubs clubhouse.  He was suspended for 30 days without pay following his most recent blowup.  After giving up five home runs against the Atlanta Braves, he began using Atlanta icon Chipper Jones as target practice before getting ejected from the game.  Mind you, Jones wasn’t even one of the guys who hit a homer.

Cubs GM Jim Hendry took the somewhat unusual step of apologizing to Jones (via Braves GM Frank Wren) for the incident.

This isn’t the first blowup for Zambrano.  He has a long history of failing to control his temper.  The problem with baseball’s guaranteed contracts is that it’s very difficult for a team to part ways with a problem player.  If the Cubs were to release Zambrano, they’d still be on the hook for his contract of $18 million+ next year.

Zambrano’s statistics put him in the “potential hall of famer” category.  If he pitches until he is 40, he could surpass 250 career wins and even make a run at 300.  However, he needs to stay focused and remain on the field for this to happen.  I sincerely hope Zambrano can put his anger issues behind him.  He’s making $18 million per year – hire a personal psychiatrist to travel with him during the season.

Sad day for the Huskers

Last night was the deadline to sign baseball draftees.  The future of Nebraska football took a hit when multi-sport star Bubba Starling signed with the Kansas City Royals, dashing the dreams of Husker fans who envisioned him behind center for the Nebraska football team.  Starling, the 5th overall pick in the draft, used his status as a football player as leverage in negotiations and was able to secure a $7.5 million signing bonus.  I have suggested the nickname of “Clarice” for the newest member of the Royal family.

The Pirates signed top overall pick Gerrit Cole to an $8 million bonus.  Interestingly, Cole was drafted in the first round by the Yankees in 2008, but failed to come to terms with the team and elected to go to college instead.  Imagine that – the Yankees losing a player to the Pirates because they wouldn’t pay the money.

Thome Hits #600

Jim Thome of the Twins reached the 600 home run plateau last night.  There wasn’t much publicity leading up to the event, other than a handful of articles pointing out that there wasn’t much publicity leading up to the event.  Thome is generally regarded as one on the nicest guys in baseball, and this might be working against him.  You never read news stories about him criticizing teammates or getting into a fight at a strip club.  He just goes to work and does his job every day.  Congratulations to the most low-key future Hall of Famer you’re likely to encounter.

49ers Add Seasoning With ‘Pepper?

The 49ers worked out quarterback Duante Culpepper on Monday, with an eye toward possibly adding him to the roster.  I was a fan of Culpepper when he was leading the high octane Vikings offense, and I still like the guy.  I think it would be smart for the 49ers to add Culpepper to their group of quarterbacks.  It’s a low risk, high reward situations.  Hoping for a triumphant return for Duante!

There is a place dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds for gardeners all over the world. Heirloom seeds are handed down from generation to generation on small farms for unique types of flowers, vegetables and berries. They are different from the mass produced seeds that you can pick up at any garden center or super store like Walmart, Kmart, Home Depot, or Lowes. Heirloom seeds are not hybrids, the seeds of the plant can be harvested to be used again next year.

There is nothing wrong with hybrid seeds. Hybrids have made food available in a greater abundance than the world has ever seen. Heirloom seeds allow the gardener to be freed from the need to return each year to the box store. In addition, the maintenance of these seeds and plant provide the basis for all hybrid development. If there were to be a disastrous year for the seed industry, having this repository of the basic plants will be invaluable in restarting and creating food and flowers.

The place is called the Seed Savers Exchange. They have a farm located outside of Decorah, Iowa. As the name suggests, they continuously look for sources of heirloom seeds, and exchange with those gardeners to broaden the inventory that they keep in protected storage to preserve garden biodiversity. They exist through several avenues of funding, including memberships, donations and direct sale of the seeds. There are reportedly only two organizations currently perusing the protection of our crop heritage, the Seed Savers exchange and a similar organization in Norway.

The farm is open to visitors and has several active gardens to tour and walking trails, along with a store where seeds, books and experiences can be exchanged. Walking those gardens is especially pleasant during the late summer, when the season starts to cool in far northern Iowa. There are numerous herbs, flowers and vegetables. Although they host activities all year, the beginning of September brings the Tomato Testing event. The gardens add a twist as the plants are not grown to harvest the fruit, but to harvest the seed. The onions are huge, but the seeds are what are prized. The squash, zucchini, cucumbers, bean and peas are over ripe, but perfect.

The whole idea is to preserve. Pursuant to this mission, the people at the exchange teach. They have pamphlets and books to teach anyone how to grow their own garden anywhere. The customers exchange stories; what works, what does not, what has been tried, and what would be interesting to try. This effort has apparently gotten some well deserved attention. The President of the United States, Mr. Barak Obama, is planning a visit to the farm. The people of Decorah are excited about his visit, as are the people who work and the farm. It is worth the effort to visit, if not in person, like the President, then on line, where much of what is available at the farm can be viewed and purchased.

In last week’s article (read it here), I mentioned that both Rachel and Brendon were on the eviction block, with the power of veto to still be played. Bad news for all of us Brenchel haters….Brendon won the power of veto, which meant he’d remove himself from the….oh wait, he’s a completely moron and removed his bigger moron of a fiancé off the block (Yes, I’m a Brenchel hater). Danielle replaced Rachel with Jordan, who really had no shot at being evicted.

After voting, Brendon left the house, and the next HOH was played. Pretty non-eventful HOH, with Kalia winning the head to head trivia competition….I never really had an opinion on Kalia until she won HOH and immediately became Danielle’s muppet. I know Kalia said several times she’s making her own decisions as HOH, but I just don’t believe that’s true.

Earlier this week, Kalia revealed her eviction nominee plans, which included nominating Rachel and Jeff for eviction. As you can imagine, Jeff wasn’t a big fan of hearing it, and vowed that if he won the power of veto, or got evicted and got to come back as part of the “twist” that he would target Kalia. Undeterred by Jeff’s promise, she did in fact nominate Jeff and Rachel with the power of veto to still be played.

At the power of veto competition, Jeff and Rachel competed against Adam, Kalia, Shelly, and Jordan. Jeff eventually won…..thankfully! Back inside the house in the HOH room, Kalia was scrambling for a replacement nominee…..and enter Lawon. Pretty much a floater from the beginning, he told Kalia that he would go up as the replacement nominee, and also swore that he’d be back in the house with a “special power”…..which is in relation to the “twist” where one evicted houseguest gets to rejoin the game.

At the eviction ceremony, Lawon was indeed evicted, and the summer twist was announced. Lawon would face off against a former evictee (Brendon, Cassi, Dominic, or Keith) who received the most votes from “America”. Of course, it was Brendon…which is disappointing because the thought of him being back in the house with Rachel makes me want to puke.

It will come as no surprise that Lawon was terrible in the competition against Brendon (throwing 14 balls into a hole, in short summary)….and that means Brendon is back in the house…..BOO!

The moral of this week’s recap is….LAWON, you idiot! This could go down as the worst Big Brother move in history! You basically evict yourself, thinking you’re going to come back with a special power?!?! Really? Did you really think you’d automatically be back in the house THAT easy? Hope you learned your lesson….have fun by yourself the rest of the summer.

For those of you that are concerned with my DirecTV Sunday Ticket situation (read it in the link above), I’m getting nowhere with my demands. I’m beginning to wonder how far I need to go with my threats to cancel…..and hopefully they don’t call my bluff. They can’t lose MY business, right……?

For as long as I’ve been born the United States of America has had a policy of not negotiating with terrorists, even in a hostage situation. The thinking is that rewarding people who take hostages will just entice them to take more hostages. It’s a pretty common and widely accepted theory in psychology – we see it’s applications on things a lot more prevalent than hostage-taking; reward the dog for sitting down and the dog is more likely to sit when you want it to. Go pick up the baby when it cries and the baby will learn that crying leads to parental attention. In the same way, our current broken political system THRIVES on 11th-hour “crisis” situations.

The recent debt crisis is a glaring example of the extremism in politics, and in my opinion it is closer to a hostage crisis than we’ve ever been. Hostage situations almost always arise from the routine; it’s easier to both take hostages and shock and terrorize people when you disrupt their daily lives in everyday situations. In that same way, this debt crisis arose from something that’s so routine it’s been done 102 times before and never with stipulations attached. In the same way our financial system was shocked when it was held hostage despite the wishes of the majority of US citizens. After George Bush cut taxes in the biggest revenue loss in US history, despite having some of the lowest tax rates in the industrialized world, congress was so concerned that they … that’s right, raised the debt limit with nary a debate.

Had we handled raising the current debt ceiling the same way that was done George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and every other president this would have been done weeks ago with almost no attention from the public. What was different this time? Well, just factually speaking, this was the first time the “Tea Party” had any kind of say in congress. This was the first time that Obama didn’t have a majority in both houses. Those are the only significantly relevant issues that apply to this specific debt increase. As a percentage of GDP, we’ve had more debt – this was back in World War 2, and we’re fighting 2 wars right now, both started by George W. Bush.

The combination of the Tea Party influence and Obama not having a free pass in both houses gave Republicans a prime opportunity to hold the possibility of a default over Democrats’ heads. As usual, the Democrats had no spine and caved in and as usual the Republicans went against the wishes of a majority of Americans to push a horribly misguided philosophy of “trickle-down” economics that has been proven to not work.

All through this situation I heard Republicans pandering to the camera and saying how they wouldn’t let Obama and the Democrats raise taxes on America. Yet from the moment this situation was labeled a crisis the Democrats did not want to raise taxes on 98% of Americans, only on the richest 2%. Your average Republican will immediately knee-jerk and come back with “but … but … but … if taxes are raised business won’t hire people.” I will point out that corporate tax revenues are at an all-time low (mostly thanks to loopholes).  I will also point out that despite corporate profits being up 22%, the unemployment rate has only slightly improved and that’s not counting the hundreds of thousands who have simply stopped looking. All that is in addition to payrates for the average American decreasing, in relation to inflation. The bottom line: The Democrats wanted to raise taxes more or less on just those very people benefiting from the 22% increased profits, and the Republicans held our economy hostage because they opposed that. Once again, I will point out that the Republicans are getting lots of campaign finance from the very companies that have flourished the past decades, and it has been Republicans in the past to oppose campaign finance.

Back on the 2010 campaign trail all we heard from Republicans was how we needed to turn around the economy by creating jobs, specifically by making it easier for business to hire people by lowering taxes and creating more loopholes. Yet, they were so concerned about the jobless rate that as soon as the debt ceiling deal was done, Eric Cantor called for the Summer recess for congress despite the fact that the FAA was shut down due to disagreement over the ability to make it easier for FAA employees to unionize.  Think about it this way: After crying for weeks during the debt limit crisis that they weren’t getting their way, Republicans were so concerned about the average American that they were letting millions in non-controversial tax revenue go each day and putting 90,000+ people out of work while they went on a SIX WEEK vacation. Aren’t you glad they represent you so well?

So, over the past 1+ decades my long-view take on US economics is this: Republican politicians relax Wall St. oversight rules and regulations. Wall St. takes too many risks and ends up crashing, dragging the economy down with it. Government knee-jerks and saves Wall St. Too many corporations lay off people as part of the crash. People stop spending in fear. Government revenues go down. Government lays off people. More people stop spending in fear. Private agency that’s funded mostly by Wall St. banks decides that the US might be a risky investment despite the fact that statistically it’s better than many others that were labeled as safe by that same private agency – despite the fact that as of this writing the stock market is tanking and US Treasury bills can’t sell fast enough.

The basic problem is not that the US Government spends too much. The problem is the US Government spends more than it earns. There are three ways to correct that problem: decrease spending, increase earning, or both. To determine which method is best requires one to prioritize spending needs. THAT is where the real issue is. Our representatives and, indeed, our people cannot come to an agreement on what the purpose of government is.

Heck, if we can’t even agree on that, how do we expect to move forward? Well we’re certainly not going to now that the hostage-takers have gotten their way – they’ll simply think that they can just take hostages to get what they want. Keep your eyes open, because they have their eyes on Medicare and Social Security.

(Continued from yesterday’s article)

I awoke early for the 2nd day of the National Sportscard convention. I was not one of the folks that ponied up the extra money to get the early pass so I had to wait until 10 AM to get into the show.

I grabbed a quick and tasty bagel sandwich at the Aloft Hotel lobby and then made the block and a half walk to the Rosemont Convention Center. The lines were already about 700 people deep to get into the show.
 
 

I felt less hurried and much more refreshed than I had in my hastened arrival the day before. I had eight full hours to check out the merchandise and a lot of money burning a hole in my pocket.

One of the first stops I made was this booth that had a bunch of Heartland Figurines, various ceramics, and BOBBLEHEADS! And I mean Hundreds of them. Must have been tough to get those all to Chicago but the display was quite nice

One of the next stops I made was a booth that had a bunch of vintage pennants. I am sure these are expensive as the material they are made out of is cheaper, and the fact is most were likely tacked to a young boys wall many moons ago. This booth had this unique “pinwheel” type of display of pennants but I could not figure out what they all had in common. Still a cool piece and I snapped a photo of it

Platinum Promotions had an impressive display of Hockey Cards – mostly graded by authentication services. I am not a hockey guy, but if you were this was probably like visiting Mecca.

Speaking of authentications services, I visited the Professional Sportscard Authenticators Booth ( PSA) I get most of my golf cards encapsulated by these folks. They only do a handful of shows that are on site grading, and the joint was jumping. They offer show specials which some folks like to take advantage of. One person I ran into even brought 200+ cards from England to get the same day service ( that is like $5K in grading fees alone) because in the long run it would save him a lot of money versus having it shipped through customs.

I took a photo of this guy but I did not get a business card or anything, so if anyone else was there and can identify this persons business that would be great. He had a small albeit famous photo of Ty cobb sliding hard into 3rd base. He was doing a airbrushed rendition of the photo on a massive canvas. When I first walked by I thought it was just a blow up poster of the photo until I saw him working on it. He said it only cost 25….I am assuming thousand. It was mega cool and one of the nicest things I saw at the show.

And in case you are wondering I did spend a little money at the national. I bought a few Nebraska related football cards for a buddy back in Nebraska, I also picked up a few newer golf cards including a SP Game Used Phil Mickelson Rookie Autographed card numbered to 250, a 1948 Kellogg’s Pep Cereal Sam Snead Rookie card, and a vintage Bobby Jones Men of America Booklet. Here is a photo of what one looks like, although mine is in basically perfect shape, and the dealer even cut me $25 off of his asking price!

I wrapped up my show experience and waited seemingly forever for a cab to take me back to the airport. I was not flying back out to Omaha for a few hours so just enough time to grab something to eat and a beverage (or two) in the airport lounge!

Overall it was a great time in Chicago, and I look forward to when Goodman Jr. is old enough that he can go with dad on one of these trips.

Until next time…Stay Classy Chicago!

 Click on images to see a larger version.