2 Vintage Sports Guys - Episode 5

Episode 5: Join Joe and Paul as they agree, argue and aggravate each other as they discuss March Madness - Elite 8 and Sweet 16 games and college hockey.

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https://bzzr.com/profile/EwjIXH8NQJbDYtvgfxe27PE3BQ53?watch=true&videoId=Q7QGjwaGJlHim75BV9iy

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome everybody. It is Two Vintage Sports Guys. I am Joe Rendacci and I am here with my partner.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hey, this is Paul Gallagher in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

In Atlanta. What's the weather in Atlanta today? It's crappy and rainy here in Sarasota, Florida.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

No, it's dry. It's desert-like. It's uh sandstorms of pollen. Nobody likes to go outside. So we're we're trapped in doing podcasts. It's all great.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

So everybody everybody looks like the jelly green giant with their green dust on them.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Exactly. Exactly. It's a phenomenon like unlike anything else in the country, I think, but it's uh it's it's not good. Not good at all.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

It puts everybody more time to stay inside and finish watching the Elite Eight. And uh after we had the Sweet 16 Elite Eight this weekend, started Friday night with those uh four-letter word jukies beating my St. John's and sending Patino crying home. Uh and then it was followed up with what do we have after that? We had you.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I mean, Patino um he comes out to the press conference and he says, you know, you left us hanging for 30 minutes. Why don't you um change the entire way you do things and interview the losers first? Which actually went over pretty well. I think he he hit home with a lot of people and said, interview the losing team first, get that out of the way, allow the winners to to to celebrate and allow the losers to get the hell out of here.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

And uh and I agree because Petino and my Gianni said that, but like you wanna you wanna like make make it worse for them? They lost. Let them get up there, say why they lost, get the hell out of there, go shower, go home, and let the winners play we are the champions for the next two hours.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Yes, exactly. And it sounds like all the old school guys are losing, the vintage guys, if you would, are losing. Cal Parry's out, Patino's out. Uh the old guys are are going, dropping like flies.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

There's two Italians that are out, so this is this is this is all racist. That's what I got to say.

unknown 2:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

But I don't really follow it. I I think it's kind of boring. Uh all my all my buddies follow it. My my text chains are filled with betting and all kinds of fun stuff. But as I look through it, it's all number one seeds. One Arizona will probably play Michigan. The alumni will play either one or two. So it's it's the same old stuff. I I'm an underdog, I root for the underdog guys. So not really that exciting to me, a non-basketball, non-college basketball guy, but it's still I'll still probably watch a little bit of it.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

So here's what I'll say. I agree with most of that, and I literally didn't get into it until like two weeks before the contest started. And then I just think that first Thursday, Friday of all the games, the buzzer beaters, the split screens, you you it can almost be an EA sports game where like nobody's got a name. It doesn't matter. It's just you know, the old adage, the old joke in the NBA, give both teams 100 points in two minutes, and you don't have to watch anything else. It's the same thing. Give each team an NCAA uh watchmand this 60 points and two minutes, and that's your game, you know, because some of them are uh coming back from 18 down, 19 down, but at the end of it, they're tied with two minutes to go. So, you know, that's that's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, I I think you just summed up basketball, just watch the last two minutes and and we're uh and we're pretty good. I'm more you know, switching over. I probably don't want to you don't want to talk about it, but the frozen four tournament is currently going on as well, which is the NCAA uh Division I hockey tournament. It follows 16 teams. Some of the same schools have multiple teams going. Michigan's playing Minnesota Duluth, Michigan State lost to Wisconsin. My Bentley Falcons were 16th, going up against the number one seed Michigan, and and got wiped out. So it's a plug for the uh Bentley Falcons. But Denver's playing Western Michigan and North Dakota.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

That's college hockey.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

College hockey D1 follows the same kind of format, but it's 16 teams, and it's called the Frozen Four. So we're uh we're just finishing up the semifinals today.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

I've not never heard of that. So that that's I'll have to look into that. But let me ask you this, because I I find I actually used to be just a college basketball guy in the day and really never followed college football because as a North you know New Yorker, when I have ruckers, like there's nothing up there, like it's not like being in the SEC in the South or anything, right? So right now there's three guys in Jersey that are trying to like want to kill me because I mentioned ruckers, but you know, State University of New Jersey, way to go. And as you know, as a Philly guy moving to Atlanta, as I moved to Atlanta, I literally had to study college football in the South. I had to learn all the SET SEC teams, I had to learn all the rivalries. I didn't know what go time meant. I thought it was a you know a detergent commercial on TV. Right? Like, I don't know any of that stuff. So I I literally had to study. And as you know, from being a sales guy, most conversations friendly start off with HC the game this weekend before any business gets done.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Yeah, you have to you have to you have to fake it. You also have to do more homework because it's not go tide, it's roll tide. But anyway, you're back to the books for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

You'll have to learn, you know. I'm saying what I thought it was. I obviously know what. But my question is having then gotten deep into college football and kind of faded off of college basketball, you didn't really have a university that had a great team in both college football and college basketball until recently with the portal and the whole NIL stuff. Like we were talking about on a podcast a few days ago, the SEC was not any good in college basketball. Now Alabama made it, Georgia made it, Tennessee is still in it. Now you have universities that are good in both college football and basketball. Yes, there's your frozen four of hockey conversation. And I don't really know if there's a school that's good in all three like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Michigan, but Michigan uh is probably the one out of anything that's good in all three. They're a one seed in hockey. They've got basketball, they've got football. So, yeah, there's a few where the money gets spread around. Uh, and that's really what it's all about, I think, is the money spread around. Um, you know, even in even in cards, you can look at it, you know, where the money goes and the licensing goes, so goes the values of of the cards. It's all kind of interrelated into in the value, but you're right. SEC is now huge. It it encompasses schools like you know, Missouri. I mean, football has gotten so big and the SEC.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Vanderbilt's good now.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yeah, Bandy's good with it. Yeah, well, they were, so they lost this little 5'9 quarterback who might even be 5'8, I'm not sure, but we'll see, you know, when he comes out. But uh, yeah, there's all kinds that maybe NIL makes it more fair, or I think in the case of football, NIL will probably break up college football into the top 20, breaking away from everybody else. Because there are schools that I think because of the NIL and where all the money's going, they have to drop certain programs. There was a program this week who dropped Division I hockey, and that's really all they had. So we'll see what the long-term effects are. They won't be good, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

All right. So just to cap up on the NCAA with the Elite Eight, as you were saying, we're gonna have it's Duke versus Yukon, right? It's it's Arizona. Uh uh, Arizona beat Purdue. So then today we got Michigan, and really the only Cinderella left, going back to the SEC, is Tennessee, who's a sixth seed. I think Michigan should easily beat them. They're given eight and a half points there. And then so if Michigan wins, you're gonna have Michigan, Arizona, uh most likely, I think Duke beats Yukon. You're gonna have three number ones and uh Illinois, a three-seed as the uh the final fourth.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

That that sucks. Um, as a guy who roots for underdogs, that sucks.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

But root for Tennessee then.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah, we will do that. Well, the Go Volunteers, go vols.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

So let's go back to just finish up your frozen fourth thing. So I don't nothing of college hockey. I'll have to get into that. Who has been the traditional legacy powerhouses? Give me the top three over the last 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Yeah, North Dakota's there, uh, Michigan, uh, even Wisconsin, uh, all of the located in the um in the Great Plains, and and Denver's always there. That's a perennial powerhouse. So the Michigan schools, Western Michigan, Michigan State, and Michigan are all there. Uh, Wisconsin's there. Some smaller schools like my Bentley, Penn State had the number one overall NHL Gavin McKenna player for him, but they lost to Minnesota Duluth. So Penn State tried to get back on the map with him, uh, couldn't quite do it. You've got some smaller schools like Minnesota State, but hockey's a um centrally located um sport, you know, and so all of the powerhouses belong in the Great Plains states, the upper um part of the country in Minnesota, all the winter states. So, but they're all back, and it's gonna conclude today. One last game at three o'clock, and then we'll get set up for the uh semifinals and finals the week of the ninth through the 11th.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

All right, so what I got out of that was Michigan. That's the big Michigan really powerhouse across all three sports, and North Dakota and North Dakota. Yeah, but not North Dakota doesn't really do the football and and not the basketball.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Right, right, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah, no, I'm saying one that that that goes across the three. We'd say Michigan is a good one.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

We could give some to Wisconsin. They typically have a decent team in uh in in the other sports as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

They do. What about I always think when I think Wisconsin, I always think Nebraska for whatever reason is Nebraska have a hockey team?

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Your geography is is kind of way off. I know where it is. No one knows why you would think of Nebraska when you think of Wisconsin. So that's a mystery. That's a mystery.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Think of Mickey Mantle, think of Nebraska on an uh agenda list podcast one day. Yeah, well, there we go. There we go. All right, so now based upon what we just talked about, let's let's throw some card information. I know you had shared a great link on some hot topics. Talk to me about some cards.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Yeah, what I'm looking at is I'm looking at the uh at the Beckett hot list, the March 23rd. It's uh an email that goes out every week and it shows you the hot and cold cards, and and of course it's baseball season, like you just said. So Topps Heritage Baseball has you know, Otani and Judge are always the favorites there. In basketball, we've got Cooper Flag still going, um, and Victor Wembayana. And hockey, we've got Cole Caulfield and one of your guys, Nikita Kucharev. Um, and that's from Upper Deck. And then they even spotlight some football, you know, back to basketball for a second. Luka Doncic uh is featured, and then in football, they they say Tyler Schoff uh show for the New Orleans Saints. Man, maybe he'll make maybe he'll make it this year. Who knows? But yeah, it's uh it's a good little list, it keeps you engaged week to week, it shows you what's hot. A lot of it is seasonal, like with the sports. So um, you know, the heritage. I got a box of heritage cards yesterday that I pulled, and that's that's a fun box to pull. You've got um inserts in there that are fun. And I didn't get any shoheys, but I got a couple of Phillies and some other cards, so it's all good.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Are they all worth money, or is it this point is the market so flooded with anything with Shohei that it's really his early cards?

SPEAKER_00 12:25

I mean, Shohei has just blown away the doors of everything. I was talking to somebody yesterday, and um, he had been purchasing Japanese Shohei Otanis for the last few months, and that market has exploded. So the beginning of baseball really uh showcases um the standards like Shohei, like Judge, like some of the other guys, and some of the rookies too. So the beginning of baseball, it probably your your values are peaking right about now. So, and then I went to a card show yesterday in Georgia, jam-packed. Pokemon sports. So the hobby is definitely alive with um with the beginning of baseball season and and everybody going after everything.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

What was the demographics there yesterday?

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Uh it was it was very diverse. So it was heavy Pokemon, so you had the mix of Pokemon and the sports world, young and old, vintage guys, uh, young people. It was really, you know, fathers and sons, so there's a lot of kids going around with their parents. It was really encouraging uh that uh in Cobb County, Georgia, uh the uh the the market's alive and well, and and even talking to some of the vendors, it was one of their best shows that they've had in a month or so.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Who'd you say from um the traditional brick and mortar stores there in Atlanta that was at that had a booth or a table?

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Yeah, I mean most of them were. You know, the largest uh shop here is Cards HQ. They had they had a healthy buying section, and they were actually right next door to the to the card show. Um, and then a lot of independent folks buying as well. So it's a great place to network and and find new sources for cards and talk to a few people that uh that'll source for us. But yeah, it's all good.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Did you see a lot of um mystery boxes built? I did not actually.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

That's a good one. No, I didn't. I'm not a huge fan of those uh to begin with, uh, but I did not see a lot of mystery packs and whatnot. I I can't stand those. Um, but um, you know, I did see I did see vintage boxes of cards that were selling for 10 bucks a pack from 83 and 84, which I thought was too high a price to go with. But there was uh there was literally everything there, so it was a good diverse crowd.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Yeah, I had gone to one here in Tampa a few months ago, and it was cards, comics, and collectibles. So they had like the Back to the Future car, they had they had all different weird, wacky things, and it looked like one of those cosplay conferences where half of them addressed to somebody. But they had a lot of card boots that had not so much mystery packs, they had mystery boxes, they looked like big, big as a toaster, like with a little bow on it, and it would tell you what was in it, like six decks of this and that. And uh, that's why I was curious if you saw a lot of mystery boxes, like bigger things.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Yeah, no, gambling 101. I'm not a huge fan of those, but um, you know, I can see the allure. I just don't, I just don't like it. I think I think if you walk away with a you know not happy, then you walk away not happy, and that's not a good customer engagement. So that's my perspective.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

So, what'd you buy?

SPEAKER_00 15:45

I actually didn't buy anything. I I looked around, I had a pocket full of cash ready to go, and I decided that um you know I would wait. It's not always the best place to buy outs for if you're if you're not buying for your personal collection. Uh, we did go to a to a store next door and bought uh Jack Hughes Olympic card, and then I bought some wax. I bought an upper deck tin that's out uh for hockey, and then I bought another box of Heritage Hobby Box.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

So give them a give them a uh terminology 101 when you say wax to those that have no idea what you're talking about on this.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Okay, so so wax is referred to as as the sealed products, so the boxes of cards, and you can get those at Dix and Target and what they call blaster boxes, or you can go to your card shop and you can get hobby boxes, and on those, it tells you what you're gonna get. You're gonna get a relic or auto in in the hobby boxes, um, the tin. So it's any any sealed product that you're going to buy and and rip packs open for.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

All right, cool. All right. Well, we are at our mark. We want to keep the uh listeners uh short and sweet so they get on with their day and enjoy the final four, the frozen four, and four of something they want to eat while they watch it. Any final thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 17:04

No, that's it. We'll we'll deal with just a quick one today, and I think as we go forward, we'll we'll just try to teach everybody a little bit about the collection, about the hobby, about sports, give you a little bit of insight on what's going on and what to look for, and and and find out what kind of hobbyist you are.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

All right, very good. Well, wrapping up, this is Joe Rendacci and Paul Gallagher.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Enjoy your grandma's, Paul.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

See ya.