A Carolina Hurricanes blog with occasional news about the rest of the NHL.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Weird hockey card #2: Pat Falloon

In what may or may not be more than a three-part series, RBH takes another look at a weird hockey card. Tonight's oddity: 1992-93 Pat Falloon (Pinnacle #238).
Click to enlarge


Pat Falloon was highly touted and was the second overall pick in the deep 1991 NHL entry draft. Unfortunately, he didn't quite live up to the expectations. In nine NHL seasons, he played for five different teams, amassing 322 (143/179) points in 575 games. Not bad, but not exactly what you would hope for out of a #2 overall pick.

According to the card, which is valued at about 20 cents, Falloon spent off-seasons "riding a tractor on his family's grain farm outside Foxwarren, Manitoba". Yeah. I'm sure Eric, Jordan and Marc Staal still help out on Henry's sod farm during the summer, too.

This card has absolutely nothing, NOTHING, to do with hockey. Not only is it absurd because of that, but it shows Falloon wearing a San Jose Sharks t-shirt/hat combo that he probably didn't even own, and a completely ridicuous pair of white shorts. The back of the card says Pat Falloon, FARMER. There is no way that there is a real farmer anywhere in the world who wears white shorts. Real farmers don't wear short pants at all. I know it was the early nineties, but that's just absurd. Way beyond my willing suspension of disbelief.

For some reason, this card reminded me of a funny parody radio commercial I heard a few years ago. Somebody put it up on YouTube, and I feel obliged to share it. Be warned though. The material within the YouTube link is not appropriate for most working environments.


The next "weird card" in this series (and maybe the last) will be Jeff O'Neill. Look for that in the next couple of days.

I've also got some "random" cards of some of the potential HOF inductees. They're not weird in any way, but I might use them as well.

1 comment:

Mike said...

Pat came back and worked every summer on the farm. He also spent most nights getting wasted at the golf course, and in only a few short season's earning the nickname "Fat Balloon" back home. Most guys from the prairies did indeed spend their summers back on the farm helping out up until the late 90s when the seasons started getting much longer. But even still, a lot of guys spend summers back home helping out.

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