If You Build It, They Will Come

  The theme of pretty much all my non Baseball/Football/Basketball posts has been, "Added a few cards to the the checklist, but only 1 to the collection".   Well, Hockey will be no different. The above Cal Petersen is the only addition in the past year.  Room for growth! Name ICDB Rank Have Total ICDB 2022 Have Total Born High School Chris Collins 0 0 34 0 0 33 Valley Scott Clemmensen 108 4 308 91 4 305 Des Moines Walt Kyle 0 0 2 0 0 2 Waterloo Tucker Poolman 115 1 92 0 1 83 Dubuque C.J. Smith 42 0 63 42 0 63 Des Moines Chad Costello 0 0 20 0 0 20 Johnston Landon Wilson 0 0 110 0 0 111 Dubuque Senior Michael Annett 0 0 1 0 0 1 Des Moines Cal Petersen 251 1 173 0 0 99 Waterloo

    We are down to the final four teams in the NFL playoffs.  The Bengals face off against the Chiefs for one spot in the Super Bowl and the 49ers and Eagles play for the other spot.   However, just because we are 95% done with the season doesn't mean won't get an Iowa Connection update!  Late breaking news, there were two more Iowa Connections discovered today on the Philadelphia Eagles.  Coaches D.K. McDonald and Tyler Scudder are both former Cyclone coaches and are now helping the Eagles.  This bumps up Philly from 2 to 4 connections, but will it be enough to get them to the Super Bowl? D.K. McDonald 6 - Baltimore :  Mike Devlin  /  Tyler Linderbaum  / Geno Stone / Kristian Welch (Iowa) , Charlie Kolar (ISU), John Harbaugh (Iowa City) 6 - Miami: Steve Ferentz (Iowa),  Darrell Bevell / Tyron McKenzie (ISU),  Elijah Campbell (UNI), Andrew Van Ginkel /  ZaQuandrew White  (Iowa Western) 6 - Buffalo : Ike Boettger /  AJ Epenesa  / Micah Hyde (Iowa),  AJ Klein,  Leonard Johnson

  So, I have to admit that I don't really watch MMA.  I watched a few UFC matches back in its earlier years (and my earlier years too.)  Thus, I really don't collect the cards, and haven't really put much thought into them.  However, after going through the update this year, I think it would be safe for me to buy a blaster box of UFC cards and have a pretty good shot at hitting an Iowa Connection. In the 2022 Donruss UFC set, I see Jon Jones, Colby Covington, Robbie Lawler, Cain Velasquez and Jeremy Stephens.   Plus if I buy a box, now I have cards to trade as well.  I don't know if the names above are any good, but for my collection that doesn't matter so much. Checklist had a bunch of updates, but only one card added this past year, a 2021 Select Joseph Benavidez.  Hopefully 2023 will be more fruitful. Name ICDB Rank Have Total ICDB 2022 Have Total Josh Neer 0 0 32 0 0 32 Drew McFedries 0 0 8 0 0 1 Sam Hoger 0 0 7 0 0 7 Pat Miletich 0 0 60 0 0 60 Kevin Burns 0 0 1

 I recently bought a hanger pack of 2022 Panini Absolute Retail at Target, hoping to snag a few Iowa Connections.  I bought it without reviewing the checklist beforehand but figured I had chances at 5-11 different connections.  There were in fact only 4 (Burrow, Montgomery, Hockenson, Hall).  No Purdy, Linderbaum, Kolar, Goodson, Winfrey amongst the rookies, or Fant, Johnson, Kittle, Hyde or Wirfs amonst the veterans. I also pulled 0 of the 4. This can be ok if I pull enough trade bait to pick up the others, but I may have opened the worst pack.  Stafford and Kelce were the inserts and the only saving grace was a Hutchinson Introductions card and a Kenneth Walker RC.  

 2022 did not bring many wrestling cards to the collection.  Four Seth Rollins cards and 5 Big E cards was all that she wrote.  However, one was this beautiful card with the Red, White and Blue. The only thing that would be more beautiful would be the Black and Gold of the Hawkeyes.  (Panini, get on this). One additional name was added to the checklist, Earl Caddock, World Heavyweight Champion in 1917 and the first to don the name "The Man of 1,000 Holds". Big E added about 400 cards and Seth Rollins added nearly 500.   Name ICDB Rank Have Total ICDB 2022 Have Total Seth Rollins 44 18 1882 49 14 1388 Big E Langston 62 7 1064 115 2 654 Bob Backlund 81 1 171 69 1 162 Jeremy Borash 0 0 136 0 0 136 Jessie Godderz 8 1 64 4 1 64 Lance Cade 0 0 28 0 0 27 Frank Gotch 3 1 16 3 1 16 Matt Bentley 0 0 3 0 0 3 Bob Geigel 0 0 3 0 0 3 Lee Henning 0 0 3 0 0 3 Sonny Onoo 0 0 2 0 0 2 Clarence Mason 0 0 1 0 0 1 Mad Dog McDowell 0 0 1 0 0 1 Matt Murphy 0 0 1 0 0 2 Earl Caddock 0 0 1

 Every card company attempts to fill a need in the card world and provide value to collectors in their own way.  It's kind like the streaming services of the world, in fact I bet they match up pretty well. Topps  = Netflix.  Biggest name, longest history, and most likely to be here in 5 years Panini = Hulu.  Provides a bunch of programs, but in all likely hood will be bought by someone soon Upper Deck = Apple TV.  High quality programming, but other than Ted Lasso do you know any shows  they have? Parkside = Shutter.  Covers the niche programming Sage = Freevee.  Sure I can get the stuff cheap, but do I even want it? Leaf = ? My confusion with Leaf is that I don't know what to think of it, but I do think about them.  Today's entry point to my Leaf conundrum is the actor Tom Arnold.  You may remember him from a bunch of 90's movies, most famously True Lies, directed by James Cameron.  Most importantly, he is from Iowa and the reason this is here. Tom Arnold has 113 cards

 Non-sport cards have always been weird to me.  I think it was when I was younger, and there would be packs of cards from some TV show that just wasn't any good and I wondered who these cards were for. Not me!   Guess who those card were for.  For me!  Well, if there is an Iowa Connection of course.  I'll get to the Hollywood cards in a different post, but here are the non-sport, non-Hollywood checklist that I have built up.  Up top is Hebert Hoover, former President of the United States.  You have the infamous (Buffalo Bill), the historical (Wright Brothers) and a mixture of them the rest of the way.  Safe to say the easiest way to get cardboard made of you is to be a politician from the last 20 years or so as more political sets are being made.   The biggest additions this year however come from the 2021 Famous Americans set. I went through that checklist and researched everyone (find Wikipedia page, search "Iowa") to see if they had an Iowa Connections. Among the n