Dick Perez, Sports Artist and Donruss Diamond Kings

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Rick has a few minutes with the legendary sports artist, Dick Perez.

Perez’s entry into baseball started in 1972 as a team artist for the Philadelphia Phillies. His paintings of all the Hall of Famers with ties to Philadelphia reside in a permanent collection at Citizens Bank Park.

While working with the Phillies, he also became the official artist for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Perez has painted every Hall of Famer’s official portrait.

In 1980, the popular Perez-Steele Hall of Fame postcards were released and updated every year with every new induction until 2002. By the end of the project’s run, there were 270 postcards. The larger postcards have become favorites among autograph collectors.

There were also the popular Diamond King baseball cards put out by Donruss.

“I loved doing them because I had the freedom,” stated Perez who was appearing at the Robert Edwards Auctions booth at The National. “(Donruss) got the license to do cards and they wanted to separate themselves from the pack.”

Steve Grad, Autographs, Grad Collection and Pawn Stars

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Beckett Principal Autograph authenticator Steve Grad is now bringing some of his own collection to market.

An autograph collector long before his job was to examine them, Grad has gained plenty of notoriety in recent years for his appearances on the hit show Pawn Stars.

Now, he’s excited to let some of it go to fellow collectors. He had much of it for sale at the National Sports Collectors Convention. Rick talks to Steve about that and more, including well over 100 appearances on the hit TV show, Pawn Stars.

Phil Dalhausser, AVP Beach Volleyball Pro, Four-time Olympian

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Rick is joined by AVP beach volleyball pro, Phil Dalhausser this segment. The 6’9″ hitter is still going strong in 2023 on the AVP Tour.

He and his former playing partner, Todd Rogers, were the 2007 AVP Tour and FIVB world champions.

Dalhausser and Rogers dominated both the domestic US tour and now the FIVB international tour winning #1 team honors on both tours in 2010. Dalhausser and Rogers were Olympic gold medalists at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics.

Dalhausser and Rogers failed to defend their gold medal at the London 2012 Summer Olympics. The pair was ousted in the round of 16 by the young Italian team of Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo, losing in straight sets for the first time in their Olympic careers.

He paired up with Nick Lucena for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, winning their debut match against Tunisia in straight sets.

At the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena made it into the quarterfinals match where they played against Brazil’s top-ranked team of 6-foot-8 Alison “The Mammoth” Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt. There they were eliminated by a 2-1 (21-14, 12–21, 15-9) scoreline, by the hometown’s favorite team.

Dalhausser and Lucena made it again to the 2020 Olympics where they finished 9th after a 1-2 against Cherif/Ahmed from Qatar.

Mike Moynihan, Baseball Collector on YouTube

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Rick talks with “Baseball Collector” from YouTube.

Mike Moynihan, Baseball Collector on YouTube took in the lead in organizing the Unofficial Content Creators Night at the 43rd National in Chicago. The gathering was attended by men, women and kids, all looking to share ideas about their thoughts on YouTube and podcasting and just have a great night talking sports collecting and more.

Mike has a great YouTube channel where he keeps viewers updated on his collection and many projects he has ongoing. He and other content creators are doing a great service promoting the hobby and educating those that tune in multiple times a week.

Here’s a two-minute segment with Mike, Baseball Collector.

Zana Muno, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Player

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The AVP comes to Atlanta, the first week in August and Rick is joined by AVP pro, Zana Muno this week.

Some notes on Zana:

She’s made an AVP semifinal five times with four different partners
Partners overall have included Kerri Walsh Jennings, Kelley Kolinske, Brandie Wilkerson, Crissy Jones, Toni Rodriguez, Allie Wheeler, Delaney Mewhirter, Sarah Schermerhorn, Savannah Simo, etc. All very different from her personality and style

First FIVB Title: 2021 in Leuven – Gold with Crissy Jones

NCAA: She competed in both indoor and beach volleyball at UCLA – winning back-to-back beach national titles

2016 FIVB U21 World Championships

Youth Olympic Games in 2014

She played soccer, track, softball, etc. in high school. Interest in fashion and swimsuits

We also talk about chicken ranching!

Morgan Wrublik, Illinois State Hammer Thrower and More

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Caught on with Morgan Wrublik at the NIL Summit in Atlanta back in June.

Morgan throws the hammer and shot put for the Illinois State Redbirds and is big on social media.

She competed in seven meets during the outdoor season where she finished third in the hammer throw with 48.35m (158′ 7″) at the 2023 EIU Big Blue…Set a personal-best in the hammer throw with 55.16m (181′ 0″) at the Wisconsin Classic and competed in the 2023 MVC Outdoor Track & Field Championship in the hammer throw and shot put.

2022-2023 INDOOR (Jr.) Competed in four meets during the indoor season where she finished third in the weight throw with 15.37m (50′ 5.25″) and finished third in the shot put with 12.68m (41′ 7.25″) at the John Couglan Invite. She set a personal-best in the weight throw with 16.27m (53′ 5.25″) while finishing fourth…Finished second at the 2023 EIU Friday Night Special in the shot put with 13.42m (44′ 0.5″)…

Morgan has aspirations of going to medical school to become a doctor…Member of NHS, 4.0 GPA Award Recipient, 4.5 GPA Award Recipient, four-year Honor Roll member, Illinois State Scholar and AP Scholar at Lemont HS