A Puma auction, Bill Carter, and the #TremendousStubble drive

I have a proposition…. a "let’s make a deal", of sorts. I’ll donate based on either scenario, depending on which brings more money:

Scenario 1:
$5 per Mizzou win
+$5 more for a run-rule victory
$2 per Mizzou HR
$1 per K for Mizzou pitchers
$1 per error-free game from Mizzou
$10 per RMN mention in broadcast media that anyone can verify

Minimum $50

Scenario 2:
Bill C. auctions off a pair of his Puma shoes and donates the money to the Stubble Drive. I will match the winning bid up to $200.

What’s it gonna be, Bill?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's the first time my Puma obsession has been called out on a fundraising thread. But called out I was.

Rock M Nation has crafted too many inside jokes to account for through the years, and the Puma collection has certainly become one of them. So consider this an auction thread. The highest bidder gets the pair of his or her choice from the three pairs shown above. Some quick details, not that they're actually necessary:

• The orange and blue pair are Lab IIs -- they're pretty old but not very worn (they're, ahem, special occasion Pumas ... at least by my standards). That makes them vintage, right?
• The black, orange, and blue pair are Bioweb Elite, pretty good workout shoes that are designed to give you proper posture and work the hell out of your calves.
• The black and yellow pair are general running shoes have been to quite a few Mizzou games for obvious reasons. The base is a bit on the narrow side compared to other Pumas, but they're solid and reliable.

Either place an overall bid, or make a specific bid for a specific pair. Any pair that gets a bid of $200 or more will go -- that means that all three pairs could go if the price is right. This could get messy and confusing, but ... I can't really say I care! Whatever ends up generating the most possible funds will be the way we go!

I don't know why anybody would want to own a pair of size 11.5 shoes that I've worn, but the cause is too good to ignore. We do this for Children's Hospital, which is good enough. But this year we're also doing it for Bill Carter, our beloved friend and photographer who passed away suddenly last August. He was the hidden force behind the Stubble Drive's success. He was always bidding as much or more than anybody else on this site.

Last year's Stubble Drive easily set a record despite the softball team failing to advance past regionals, and while I'm sure a growing reader base had something to do with that, I kind of just assumed its success was also because Bill dropped some ridiculous sum down to make sure we didn't regress. That's what he did. He didn't call attention to his actions, but he did them nonetheless, and it was one of about 100 reasons why we loved him. So whether you want a used pair of Pumas or not, here's an added opportunity to honor Bill Carter and help Children's Hospital at the same time.