Card Show

A baseball card show that had been scheduled for tomorrow by the Brooklyn Park Broncos Youth Football Association at the Holiday Inn North in Glen Burnie has been canceled.

The folks at "House of Cards" sure love the Baltimore area. Not only is the majority of the political thriller filmed in and around the city (and, full disclosure, in The Baltimore Sun newsroom), now the show's head honcho, Beau Willimon, is slated to come to Towson University on Wednesday (April 24) to discuss how he developed the addictive series. According to a Towson University press release, Willimon will speak at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Van Bokkelen Hall, Room 204. The event is free and open to the public.

The Odenton Volunteer Fire Department's Ladies Auxiliary is holding a sport card show 10 a.m to 4 p.m. Oct. 3 at the hall on Route 175. Sixty tables are available at $20 each.Admission for the event will be $1 for adults, with children under 10 getting in free. To reserve a table or for more information, call Sharon Talbert at 672-3126.*Arundel Senior High School will have some new faces on its staff for the 1992-1993 school year: Karen Allen and Lawrence Mintline, English; Kathleen Chapman, Lynn Clark and Alexandra Ostrowska, math; Patricia Hertzler, special education; Melinda Larson and Eratta Morris, social studies; Sallie McCracken, home economics; William Schwarz and Annette Taylor, guidance; Page Thielemann, science; and Michele Tyrell, media.

Despite tightening school budgets and a perpetual rallying cry for more funding, Baltimore school administrators spent roughly $500,000 during the past year and a half on expenses such as a $7,300 office retreat at a downtown hotel, $300-per-night stays at hotels, and a $1,000 dinner at an exclusive members-only club, credit card statements show. City school officials defend the majority of the credit card expenditures - outlined in statements and receipts obtained by The Baltimore Sun through a Maryland Public Information Act request - as "the cost of doing business," saying only a handful of "outliers" show questionable judgment or disregard for taxpayer money.

In 1964-65, Parkhurst did not issue hockey cards, and Topps' cards grew to 2 1/2 by 4 11/16 inches. The "Tall Boys" are coming back this month, but they'll be Parkies.Last year, Brian Price, president of Parkhurst, created the "Missing Link" set, his conception of what the 1956-57 cards would have looked like had Parkhurst chosen to issue a set that season.This year, he's chosen the "Tall Boy" concept for another set Parkhurst never made, cards for the '64-65 season (the last original Parkhurst set was 1963-64)

The world of baseball cards has changed a lot since Jay Finglass got his first cards in 1954.What used to be child's play has become big business. In the process, Finglass went from a passionate collector and expert card flipper to one of the first dealers in the country.Now he sees a shakeout. The specialty-card store, once the collector's mecca, could be on the way out, reversing the trend of the past 20 years."Since there are so many places to buy cards and supplies, the specialized store is becoming obsolete," he says.

'Tis the season for Olympics. Next month, the Winter Games begin, but Summer Games fans can get a preview of the U.S. basketball team in NBA Hoops' Series II.The 32-card Team USA subset features NBA players and coaches on the 1992 team plus members of the 1976, 1984 and 1988 teams still active in the NBA. The '92 team cards include Magic Johnson, although he may not be playing. Card fronts are clean, with each player's name across the top in a red, white and blue striped banner, and the player poses with the ball in his Team USA uniform.

Anderson to appear at card showThe Oriole Bird and outfielder Brady Anderson will appear Saturday, as Boy Scout Troop 672 and American Legion Post 276 conduct a benefit Trading Card Show at Old Mill High School.The Millersville show, set for 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., benefits the Scouts and is sponsored by the American Legion. The show will feature dealers in baseball and other trading cards, as well as comic books."All proceeds from the show will go to support the troop's program of camping, community service, abuse prevention, leadership development and outdoor skills the coming year," says Dale Marshall, assistant scoutmaster for Troop 672. "This is the first Trading Card Show we have organized, and we hope everyone will come."

John Heim, the coordinator of the Babe Ruth Museum's centennial celebration, spoke with The Sun's Jamison Hensley about the weekend salute to Babe Ruth from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, which ends the yearlong salute to Ruth's 100th birthday.What will the weekend include?There will be a card show for the three days, a memorabilia show at the [Fifth Regiment] Armory and a gala on Sept. 30.Who came up with the idea of a year-ending celebration?The card show was my idea and originally planned from the start.

From the looks of AW Sports' CFL set, it is getting its money's worth out of the exclusive agreement it signed with Raghib "Rocket" Ismail.AW obtained an injunction last month in Ontario court against longtime CFL card-maker Jogo Novelty that prevents Jogo from including Ismail cards in its set.Ismail appears on nine of the 110 cards in AW's set -- and on three sides of the box. The front of the box has a sunburst with the words "featuring 'Rocket' Ismail."...

When Don Berkus set up his first baseball card convention 41 years ago, a few dozen collectors gathered inside a Los Angeles hotel room at 10 a.m. and within an hour had spent pretty much all the money they had. This weekend, the National Sports Collectors Convention he started 10 years later is holding court at the Baltimore Convention Center through Sunday, and Berkus expects upward of 35,000 people to show up. Times change, Berkus admits....

Development in Howard County is experiencing a mild rebound after hitting a historic low last year, suggesting the worst of the recession might be over, according to an annual government report that tracks building activity in the county. Only 1,163 new residences were completed in the year ending Sept. 30, 2009, the lowest number since 1982, according to the recently completed Development Monitoring Report. But the number of issued building permits increased, and continued to climb in the final quarter of 2009, after the reporting period ended, planners said.

Maryland was one of just 11 states to earn a grade of B for its efforts to combat obesity, according to the University of Baltimore's second annual report card. That wasn't bad, because no state earned an A and Maryland improved from its C rating in 2004. The grades are based on legislation enacted to help control obesity. Maryland's improvement was the result of three measures. One requires time locks limiting access to school vending machines. Another authorizes a state physical education director to oversee school programs.

Nearly two years after its debut, Maryland's online report card on hospital performance appears to be fulfilling a key mission: driving hospitals to improve. The hospitals, for example, are getting better overall at taking commonsense steps to help patients with heart failure and pneumonia. Evidence includes higher rates of pneumococcal vaccinations, according to the state agency that compiles what is formally called the Maryland Hospital Performance Evaluation Guide. But as the updated report card showed yesterday, individual hospitals still have lots of room for improvement.

WASHINGTON - While some seniors can save money with Medicare drug discount cards, many of those already enrolled in state assistance programs aren't likely to see any major saving, according to a study released yesterday. "There's nothing particularly that has changed for them," said Michael Hash, an analyst at the Health Policy Alternatives Inc., which conducted the study for the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care group. Still, he said, states are likely to save lots of money by shifting costs to the federal government.

WHY AREN'T we moving faster to clean up Maryland's environment? Republican legislators and pro-business politicians. Why doesn't Maryland have a better business climate? Elected Democrats and pro-environment politicians. I base this on the latest legislative score cards from the nonpartisan Maryland League of Conservation Voters and the nonpartisan Maryland Business for Responsive Government (MBRG). Both organizations, along with just about everyone breathing, subscribe to the mantra that a healthy environment and a healthy economy go hand in hand.

In its fourth season, Upper Deck resisted the temptation to put its migrating line in the final position to complete a square.Instead, it ditched the line and gave the cards a different, more sophisticated look.The card-front picture is offset by a shadow strip on two sides, creating a three-dimensional effect. Team logos are free-standing. The Upper Deck logo has a speeding baseball coming out of it and shares the top of the card with the player's name. For his position, you have to turn over the card.

As expected, Score will be extending its premium Pinnacle line to hockey and baseball cards, spokeswoman Julie Haddon confirmed last week.According to Haddon, Score expects to ship its Pinnacle hockey in late March. It will consist of 420 cards and will come in English and French versions. Details will be released later this month at a large card show in Montreal."We have plans to issue Pinnacle baseball," Haddon said, "but we have no date."The first Pinnacle issue was an NFL set, which came out in early winter.

BOSTON - The next time the government comes up with a program for senior citizens, may I suggest testing it on some human subjects? If the planners can't find any elderly volunteers, I could lend them some of my nearest and dearest. The plan that is up and (not) running now is something just short of a disaster. The administration decided to offer discount drug cards as an election-year party favor to Medicare recipients waiting for the prescription drug plan to begin in 2006. Folks 65 and over were told they could pick the best deal from a list of competitors, pay an annual fee and save as much as 25 percent on pills.

Will anthrax be the Grinch that steals this year's Christmas cards? With the mysterious spread of anthrax through the mail and, most recently, the unexplained contraction of the disease by an Oxford, Conn., woman who died Wednesday, there is reason to wonder just how much Christmas card-sending will go on this year. And what about the receiving end? Will people be less than thrilled at the prospect of opening dozens, or hundreds, of cards this year? If you talk to people in the card industry and at the post office, consumers won't let any such fears stop them.