Better Know a Blogger: SpastikMooss (from The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame)

1. Your name (or alias):  SpastikMooss

2. Your blog website:  Great Sports Name Hall of Fame

3. What kind of collector do you consider yourself (team collector, player collector, set collector, etc.). Why do you collect that way?  

I am mainly a player collector, and I think a lot of that has to do with me having an affinity towards certain memories or moments as opposed to general following something over time.  Most of my player collections started up thanks to a specific play, or a specific year, or a specific video game.  I think set collecting could fit under this specificity umbrella as well, and I do dabble in set collecting, but with set collecting you sometimes get players in the set who have no meaning to you and it has to be a pretty awesome set for me to overcome that.

4. In your opinion, what could the major card companies (Topps, Panini, etc.) do to make your style of collecting better for you?

They could put my guys in sets!  Seriously though, I've had guys who played plenty of games in a season who didn't sniff a card the next year.  I'd love the return of something like Topps Total so those end of the roster players come back into sets.    

5. What is your favorite part of your collection?  This could be one specific item, or a binder of cards, etc.  

Definitely my Seneca Wallace binder.  I have something like 90% of his cards if you don't include 1/1's, and over 80% otherwise, and there's a lot of good variety in the binder to keep it interesting.

6. Most of us have a favorite song that we like for no good reason – heck, it might even be embarrassing.  Do you have a favorite baseball card that might fit that bill?  

I'm trying to collect every copy of it because it's so awesome!  Samuel Deduno's 2006 Bowman #B36 - the best cup card ever.

7. If you were forced to part with your entire collection except for one card, which card would you keep? 

 This is tough!  If it's football, I think my favorite Seneca Wallace card (and thus the one I would keep) is the Senior Bowl patch /75 I found - it's one of the most colorful patches I own and it's truly game worn which makes it especially nice in today's iffy authentication:

If we're talking baseball, there's a lot of good contenders but I think I'd go with my Ken Griffey Jr. You Crash the Game exchange card that I actually sent in for as a kid after he hit a homerun:

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8. Many of the blogs (including my own at times) seem to decry Topps’ lack of vision and creativity.  Can you think of something creative that could be done for an upcoming card set?  

I like the idea of interesting die cut windows.  Not like Triple Threads words, but like different shapes.  Maybe a helmet shape with a helmet piece inside, or a batting glove shape with a batting glove piece inside.  It's been done from time to time but I think it's more interesting than the bland square shape.  I'd also say go back to those weirder materials - today it feels like it is all fabrics and bats - I want more helmets, gloves, bases, cleats, etc.

I'd also say make relics rarer again - not just by adding numbering, but by having fewer of them since that has killed their value in recent years.  Reduce print runs sure, but also focus on quality over quantity - have nicer patches of a few guys with better authenticity on the back rather than 10,000 plain white jerseys from 100 players.  Something like early 00's Donruss/Leaf where they photograph the item would be amazing.  Game dated stuff (which has happened occasionally in the past) would be OTHER WORLDLY.  I would definitely snatch that stuff up. 

Finally, more weird subsets on the less focused sides of sports.  I'd love a middle reliever subset, or a LOOGY subset, or a personal catcher subset, or a pinch hitter subset - stuff like that never happens anymore.  I know these things don't always sell well (Panini did a kicker subset that started hot but quickly fizzled out a few years ago) but I'd much prefer this kind of subset to something that adds 15 more Mike Trout and Bryce Harper cards to a set.  Even just one subset a year in flagship or Gypsy Queen or something would be cool.

9. What is your profession?  How did you end up there?  If you are in school, what do you plan to major in and/or what job do you hope to get after graduating?  

I'm a special education teacher.  My undergrad was psychology focused, and I took an autism practicum where we went into schools that really pushed me in the teaching direction.  A few jobs working with adults with special needs later I had my Masters and a teaching job and I've loved it ever since.

10. What is your favorite place that you’ve ever visited?  Why?  

I'd have to say Cinque Terre.  It's this trail along five coastal cities in Italy that my wife and I visited many years ago before we were married.  The trail itself is really cool, but each of the five cities also has a lot of personality and is fun to explore. We stayed in the first city for two nights (we walked the trail in one day in between) and it had some of the best views, food, and wine I have ever experienced.  I would go back in a heartbeat.

11. Many of us have favorite foods or customs that are somewhat local to where we live.  Do you have any such things that you particularly love?  A website link to specific products would be spectacular.  

 I love good food, and locally Cincinnati has a lot of it (Skyline excluded, that stuff is gross).  If any of you guys are ever in Cincinnati, two of my favorite places to try out are The Eagle OTR  and Taste of Belgium (get the chicken and waffles at the Short Vine location!).
Outside of Cincy, I would recommend Mother Bear's Pizza in Bloomington, IN (best pizza I've ever had in my life) and the Shewman's Special at Scotty's anywhere in Indiana (peanut butter, jalapeños, cheddar cheese, and bacon on a burger - it sounds weird but it is amazing!)

12. Do you have any other hobbies besides card collecting?  

I have a few different hobbies - collecting VHS and records (luckily my city has tons of record stores!), watching movies (seen over 10,000 so far), embroidery/cross stitch, playing/coaching lacrosse, fantasy sports (I play all four, usually 2-3 leagues each sport).

13. Tell me something interesting about yourself (that we haven’t covered in the first twelve questions).

 Favorite in person (like you were there at the stadium) sports moment (decided to pick something random).  I have two:
A. My brother and I got tickets to the lacrosse finals at Gilette Stadium a few years back, and Cornell had a fairly big 9-6 lead and all the momentum with 5 minutes left over Syracuse.  They had momentum too, and as people started heading for the exits my brother and I decided to do the same.
As we're walking, we hear a goal score.  So we slow.  A few minutes later, a second scores...so we stop and watch through a stairwell.  Then with under 15 seconds left, Syracuse ties it and the crowd goes wild.  Everyone who was leaving is now in the stairwells and the place is rocking.  Syracuse won it in overtime and to this day it is some of the highest energy I ever experienced in a stadium at one time.
B. Random Indians-Reds games a few years back with my wife.  Family favorite Jose Lopez came in as a 7th inning sub, and in the top of the 9th he got to face Aroldis Chapman with the game way out of reach.  I decided to video the matchup for my little brother since it was kind of a cool moment, and Jose has perfect timing and hits a homerun to dead center with 2 outs.  The Reds still won so all the other fans went home happy, but I was couldn't believe Jose just happened to drill a homerun off of one of the best pitchers in baseball as I was recording it.  I have the video linked in my Jose Lopez PC and it's definitely one of my favorites of all time.

Many thanks to SpastikMooss for yet another great addition to my Better Know a Blogger series!  Of all his answers, I'm most intrigued by the Cinque Terre trail.  I've been to Italy once but I had never heard of Cinque Terre...definitely reason enough for me to make a return trip someday!