High Five, Marcus!

Unabashed in my love for most things Seattle/Washington and Hawaii, I was overjoyed when Marcus Mariota performed so well at the University of Oregon and was drafted by the Tennessee Titans.  In fact, I saw him as replacing Jake Locker, who was one of my favorite players at the University of Washington, but whom injuries robbed him of his career as a professional.  Unfortunately, something that seems to happen a lot to the UW Alumni.

Mariota, like many other Hawaii kids, tended to be really popular among the Hawaii sportsfans.  It's not just because he was an outstanding player, but that he was a tremendous young man and person, and was a consummate professional.  His teammates loved him, and his home state loved him even though he went off to the West Coast for College.  So when I was looking for neat Mariota stuff to collect, I of course focused on his Contenders Rookie Ticket autographs and his Topps Chrome autographs, a set of which is sadly no defunct.  But everyone has those things.

Along comes Topps Triple Threads.  Again, I really hate stickers, and I don't care for the gimmicks like funny phrases spelled out in event-worn jersey.  But they had some really neat redemptions for oversized cards, including one with an inked hand stamp of the players on it.  Now not only could you touch the same card they touched to sign, but you could compare your hand print to theirs.  I know there are some other sets and works of art,  most notably the Tegata (Japanese for signed hand print) series from Upper Deck Authenticated, if you're into this sort of thing.