If You Build It, They Will Come

 2022 was not a terribly successful year for my soccer collection.  I made exactly one addition to my collection, and it was a card I had already.  Let me explain. This is Celia Jimenez.  She played for Iowa Western and this card is from the NWSL Parkside set.  I had bought a couple of hanger boxes of these and this card was amongst the rest of them, but I never realized that Celia = Celia Jimenez.  Only when I was updating TCDB checklists did I recognize this card and thought, "Wait, I think I have that one!"  This card puts me on the board, and up to 15th place for her.  It is also my only Soccer Iowa Connection card. Marcus Hahnemann 0 0 17 0 0 14 Sioux City Ezra Hendrickson 0 0 5 0 0 5 Drake Celia Jimenez 15 1 19 0 0 9 Iowa Western

Profile Dan Johnson was a 1st baseman in MLB playing most famously for the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland A's.  Dan played his way up through college as well, starting at Butler and ending up at Nebraska after a stop at Iowa Western*.  He was drafted in the 2001 MLB Draft.** * Mentioned in his Wikipedia page as "a junior college".   ** My favorite note on the 2001 draft is that 2 UNI Panthers went back to back in the 12th round.  Like one team drafted one and the next team was like, "Oh yeah, forgot about UNI.  Totally drafting one now!" Personal Notes Longish career means that Dan has a few cards under his belt, just under 400.  However, I was late to the game in discovering his Iowa Connection, so I literally have 2.  And this picture is not one of them (although I do have the gold version of this one).  Collection Notes I have 2/380 (1%) cards in my collection.

Here's my initial cut at MLB players with Iowa Connections.  Much more sparse than the NFL, so I will just list the teams that have connections. Note: Coaches in italics . 3 - Los Angeles (Angels) :       Anthony Benboom (Iowa Western CC), Tony Watson (Sioux City), Jake Petricka (Iowa Western CC) 2 - Detroit :       Derek Hill (Des Moines),  A.J. Hinch  (Waverly) 2 - Kansas City :       Daniel Tillo (Sioux City), Cal Eldred (Iowa) 1 - Boston :      Ramon Vazquez  (Indian Hills) 1 - New York Mets :       Eric Langill (Des Moines Area CC) 1 - Oakland :       A.J. Puk (Cedar Rapids) 1 - Pittsburgh :       Mitch Keller (Cedar Rapids) 1 - Seattle :     Erik Swanson (Iowa Western CC) 1 - Tampa Bay :  Michael Wacha (Iowa City) 1 - Toronto : Nick Allgeyer (Iowa) 1 - Washington :      Dakota Backus (Sou...

    Iowa Western Community College This is a page where I will list all sorts of Iowa Western alumni who have trading cards.  This is not a complete list, but I will update as I move along. Baseball Jeff Barnard Marty Barnett Anthony Bemboom Joe Biernat Dustin Bolton Chris Botsoe Sam Bumpers Vicente Cafaro Ricardo Calderon Sean Chandler Jason Christiansen Kevin Dooley Tom Ebert Brian Feekin Dan Forer Chris Fye Tony Ghelfi Tyson Gillies Jeremy Horst Dan Johnson Grant Kay Klint Klaas Kirby Krueger Derek Landis Matt Lane Steven Leonard Matt Lloyd Rich Longuil Jerry Mack Tom McHugh Brett Mieras Russ Morman Jake Petricka Eric Porter Jextin Pugh Andy Roberts Justin Roelle Jake Scudder Chris Shanahan Keaton Steele Michael Strong Erik Swanson Dom Thompson-Williams Brandon Tierney Daniel Tillo Jimmy Tjader Mike Valla Casper Van Rynbach Tom Waldrop Dave Wall Shayne Willson Keaton Winn Basketball Ron Boone Football Geronimo Allison Rodney Coe Deon Long Sebastian Tretola Jake Waters

        Profile Keaton Steele is a pitcher from Iowa Western* (and Missouri) who was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 8th round of the 2014 MLB draft**.  Keaton is currently pitching for Sioux City  * Iowa Western won the 2012 NJCAA title in 2012 with a freshman Keaton as the MVP. ** Keaton was also drafted in the 29th round in 2012 and 40th round in 2013.  Personal Notes Keaton played in the minors with Cedar Rapids and in the Independent League with Sioux City.  Both of these are Iowa towns, and this brings a question.  With the assumption that a player probably lives in the area where they are playing (minor league seasons are typically April to September, 5-6 months), that means that there are all sorts of players who lived in Iowa who played major league baseball.  And you know what?  I'm totally going to ignore it.  I could try to justify it with logic (if I travel for work to Orlando, I'm not a Florida resident, eve...

        Profile Jon Lieber was a pitcher in MLB for 14 years with a number of teams.  His best season was his 2001 season where he logged 20 wins, an All-Star appearance and finished 4th in Cy Young voting with the Chicago Cubs*.  Jon was born in Council Bluffs and played for Iowa Western CC**. * Des Moines native Kevin Tapani also was on the team ** MLBers from Iowa Western:  Joe Bisenius, Jason Christiansen, Tony Ghelfi, Jeremy Horst, Dan Johnson, Russ Morman, Scott Pose and Erik Swanson Personal Notes If you are not from Iowa, you should know that Iowa has 4 seasons.  I personally think its the four seasons you are accustomed to, but some in Iowa will tell you the are early Winter, Winter, late Winter and Summer.  Regardless of which you believe, Iowa has some rough, cold weather for an extended part of the year, which is not ideal for baseball.   MLBers from Iowa are not overwhelming, and it seems that a majority of the players...

Here's the final list of players with Iowa Connections in the NFL in 2020.  For shame Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta and Carolina.  I mean 3/4 NFC West teams had 0 Iowa Connections (the one team that did won the Super Bowl, think about that!) Note: Coaches in italics Iowa Hawkeyes : 46 Iowa State Cyclones : 15 Northern Iowa Panthers : 8 Iowa Western Community College : 3 Drake Bulldogs : 2 Ellsworth Community College : 2 Des Moines : 3 Iowa City : 1 Ames : 1 Cedar Falls : 1 Marion : 1 Johnston : 1 5 - Green Bay : Christian Kirksey, Josh Jackson , Jerry Montgomery (Iowa), Allen Lazard (ISU), Dominique Dafney (W. Des Moines) 5 - New England :    Carl Davis, James Ferentz, Ross Reynolds (Iowa), Xavier Williams (UNI), Nick Caley (ISU) 5 - Chicago : David Montgomery,  Jay Rodgers  (ISU), James Daniels /  Mark DeLeone  (Iowa),  Mike Furrey  (UNI) 4 - Buffalo : Ike Boettger /  AJ Epenesa  / Micah Hyde (Iowa), AJ Klein (IS...