I love the 90's

Even for a side blog, Returned to Sender has been woefully neglected recently.  It's not for a lack of interest in the cards posted here.  And it certainly isn't for a lack of returns filling up my mailbox.  In fact, the last month or two have yielded a steady stream of TTM returns and some great dimebox finds at recent shows.

The problem, more simply, is one of time and space. All my TTM returns get sent to my parent's address, since I worry that one of those mysterious thousand day returns would get lost in the address shuffle I've been doing far too frequently over the last few years.  On top of that, wedding planning, work, and research have eaten up much of my time.

But I'm hoping to start posting more regularly here, and the current batch of TTM returns certainly give me enough reason.

Growing up during the 90's was a great time to be a sports fan.  I don't have much memory of Bo Jackson or Barry Bonds as a Pirate, but everything after that made for a glorious sports childhood.  There are some great looking cards from those years to boot. 

The downside is that far fewer players from the 90's/00's seem to sign than previous decades, particularly among the bigger names.  But I was thrilled to see decent success rates for two of my favorite 90's players.

 Simply put, Ed McCaffrey just seemed like a total badass.  I loved the Broncos growing up, led by Elways and TD.  McCaffrey seemed like that steady, but not flashy, player who was tough as nails and got the job done.  And though I've tired of the Broncos strange striping over the years, in the late 90's it was awesome.

If that wasn't enough, my mailbox also yielded a couple autos of recent HoF'er Willie Roaf.  Roaf was one of my favorite linemen, probably because the sports media told me he was good.  And he was one of the few o'linemen to be immortalized in plastic by Kenner's Starting Lineup figures (and later McFarlane).  I can't imagine I watched a lot of Saints games on tv in Western PA as a kid, but I do remember him being the top rated lineman on Quarterback Club 97.

Ah, to have your entire frame of reference for something be toys, video games, and Sportscenter.