Keeping My FOMO In Check (Part 2)

Hello again, want to see some more stuff I uncharacteristically bought on a whim?

Okay let me preface this post by saying that I decided to also just bite the bullet and picked up a some non-baseball stuff I was after too. These were cards I mulled over for months and months before being like "sure, why not?". Don't be too nervous/excited though, there's only four of them. One non-sport and three hockey cards.

The non-sport card was this Bella Thorne Heartbreakers autograph from 2019 Leaf Pop Century product.
I bought this because I watched a lot more Disney Channel shows than I'd care to admit in my high school years when I was supposed to be watching something more age-appropriate like, I don't know, Glee or The Wire or something. One of those shows was Shake It Up!, which basically launched Ms. Thorne's career. It also launched the career of Zendaya Coleman, who you all probably know better as "MJ" in all of those MCU Spiderman movies.

Thorne's post-Disney career's been a little bit more like what you'd expect from a former Disney child-star (and unfortunately I mean that in the negative connotations you'd have). She's done some modeling, acting and singing but none of those ventures have really taken off. The fact the demographic she'd appeal to the most (kids who grew up watching her on Shake It Up!) is still super young and has virtually zero/little buying power isn't really making it easier.

She's also gone through the typical post-Disney child actress procedure of awkwardly transitioning into adulthood. Though how much of all of that is (for lack of a better word) "genuine" and how much of it is her/her handlers trying to follow the formula that's kept the likes of Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato popular I'm not sure. It's probably both.

And now I'm uncomfortable given how I'm focusing too much on the negative post-Disney stuff as opposed to the positives. There are positives, and I'm sure Thorne's just trying to define herself better until her demographic has some expendable income and she can start profiting off of nostalgia. And yet this all made me realize that the less-than-rosy image I tend to associate with former child stars following their time as cute kids on the screen kind of permeates a lot of things. It also doesn't help that her co-star Zendaya has gone in a different/more successful direction and I'm sure that puts Thorne in the really rough spot where she's tired of constantly being compared with, but any comments in response can be misconstrued as criticism of her former co-star. I saw this happen to Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson, I can see it happening again and again for as long as you have a duo in place. Unless both go the Drake Bell and Josh Peck route and they both fall out of relevance.

In any event I do wish the former children's show entertainer well as she seems to be up for a bit of everything, she even directed a film for PornHub. Where that direction goes next remains to be seen but hey at least we'll all still have this.

In retrospect one of the biggest things I liked about the show was the pretty catchy music. I'm very weird, I'll write off entire soundtracks for Disney films that adults would consider to be untouchable or classic (Lion King's soundtrack isn't all that folks), but I'd listen to songs made for Hannah Montana or Austin & Ally, despite being the age group where I'm like 1-4 years older than the kids performing and should be mocking them. Still, I have a soft spot for dead-on-arrival pop songs that sound like no one else has heard them in over five years.

Alright so that was the lone non-sport addition. What else did I scoop up?

A Hartford Wolf Pack card of Ville Meskanen.
Meskanen is a winger from Finland who is the New York Rangers' 29th best prospect according to SB Nation's Adam Herman. Meskanen had played in Liiga over in Europe prior to coming stateside and when he did come over he spent the 2018-19 season in Hartford. He's an offense-first guy in that he takes his shots when he can and many of those shots end up in goals. Though many will point to how he was held scoreless for a big chunk of the 2018-19 season. He's got the big frame and ability to make plays happen to still be an interesting prospect for the Rangers. Despite his struggles, the consensus appears to be that grading what happened in Hartford last season is difficult for not just him but any of the other notable prospects due to how the team was terrible and dismantled by trades that turned it into a pretty shitty team to watch after the trade deadline. Somehow the Rangers still went into the 2019-20 season with one of the top two farmsystems in the NHL (Kaapo Kakko!). Meskanen's long term outlook is tricky to figure out given how nothing he did last season raised his status above "lottery pick" just yet. But there's still just enough time for the young-ish (dude's closer to my age than he'd probably like) winger to make a big statement this upcoming season about how he can be a total factor in the Rangers' post-rebuild plans.

My second hockey pickup was this Young Guns rookie of winger Matt Beleskey. Though this is his rookie card with the Anaheim Ducks, Beleskey is currently a member of the New York Rangers organization. Beleskey was originally drafted by the Ducks in the fourth round of the 2006 NHL Player Draft. The Ontario native was coming off of a few seasons in minor league hockey leagues like the OHL and made his NHL debut in the 2008-09 season, getting about two games of action. After that he'd get more playing time at the highest level but he'd also end up being assigned to the minors much of the time. Following a pretty good playoff stint, Beleskey signed with the Boston Bruins to a five year contract before the 2015-16 season. Though he spent the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons with the big league club, by 2017-18 he was back in the minors before being traded to the Rangers for Rick Nash. With the Rangers he's seen most of his playing time come in the minors with the Wolf Pack. Unfortunately for him it looks like it will be more of the same come this upcoming season. Mainly for salary cap purposes. After signing Artemiy Panarin and Jacob Trouba to massive deals this pastoffseason and finally re-signing Brandon Lemieux and Tony Diangelo to one year deals, the Rangers cap situation is very, well, rough. Rough for Beleskey at least because the Rangers are basically going to have to bury him at Hartford to make sure his salary doesn't affect the cap too much. Sucks for Beleskey honestly since this guarantees that he's not seeing ice time at the highest level this year, unless he gets traded. Also he survived waivers earlier in September after the demotion was announced so yeah, he's still with the org and likely preparing to be a veteran winger for the Wolf Pack again.

My last hockey pickup was this minor league hockey card of Ty Ronning from the 2018-19 Hartford Wolf Pack team set. I like Ronning but I wanted a card of him wearing something other than Vancouver Giants colors so I got this, which is as close to Rangers colors as he's going to get until he makes his NHL with the Rangers (if he does at all). I've already gone on record saying Ronning is one of my favorite sleepers/lower-tier prospects in the Rangers system. Hoping for big things from him this season even though he's been demoted back to the ECHL.

And normally I don't bother scanning backs but the fact that this is so packed with info and stats made me want to do it out of pure obligation. I had no idea the Canadian Ronning was born in Scottsdale, Arizona. And yes, he is the son of Cliff Ronning. Unlike MLB, hockey offspring do not have to worry about their talent being poached by other sports apparently.

I picked up all three of these cards with the fullest intention of giving TTM's a try this upcoming season in Hartford. Wish me luck. Don't be surprised if this is the last time you see these cards.

There were some more hockey cards I was planning to buy but the $3.50 s/h fee's has crept into the hockey listings too. Negotiations to restructure a deal so that a simple PWE could be used instead fell flat so this is as far as things got. Probably for the best.

And that was another edition of 3 cards. Er, I mean three cards I bought using money that would add up to an amount that probably could've gotten me a Deivi Garcia BoChro auto.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).