New York Yankees Sweet Spot Signatures

Some of my very favorite autographs to collect were the Upper Deck Sweet Spot Signatures. One of the very best ideas Upper Deck ever had was to take a baseball, have it signed by a ballplayer, cut out the signature and put it on a card. Very collectable and looks great displayed. Unfortunately, Upper Deck, in the end of it's run, got greedy and made Sweet Spot a high end product and cut costs on the manufacturing for the Signature cards by using a synthetic baseball which didn't hold the autographs well. As a result, you see a lot of these cards with faded signatures. Because of that, I had stopped trying to collect the Yankees in this set. But I recently got hit with the bug again and I'm trying to get as many Yankees as I can again. I am working on a Yankees only set that Upper Deck put out back in 2003, which I will show at another time. Here are the ones I currently have in my collection.

Jose Contreras. Yankees out bid the Red Sox for him, which may or may not have resulted in Theo Epstein trashing his hotel furnature in a fit of anger. Contreras never panned out for the Yankees as he was very inconsitant during his time in New York. However, his signing with the Yankees gave them a new nickname courtisy of Red Sox President, Larry Lucchino; "The Evil Empire"

One of my favorite Sweet Spot Signature cards is this one of Yankees Hall of Famer, Whitey Ford. Played with the Yankees from 1950-1967. Won 236 games and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Holds the Yankees all time record for wins as a Yankee.

"The Big Unit" Randy Johnson didn't have many signed cards as a Yankee, but had this Sweet Spot Signature card. I bought a lot of Yankee cards and this one was in the lot. Johnson pitched 2 seasons in the Bronx, winning 17 games in both years. While not a dissipointment, he wasn't the fireballing pitcher Yankee fans expected when he came over due to his back injuries.

Former Yankee Captain and current Dodgers manager Don Mattingly. Donnie Baseball has a few highly sought after Sweet Spot Signatures and after Derek Jeter, is probably the most popular Yankee. His Sweet Spot Signature cards often command a good price. I was lucky to get this at a steal for my PC. I am rooting for Mattingly to do a great job in Los Angeles.

Mike Mussina. One of the best Yankee free agent signings, Mussina has one Yankee Sweet Spot Signature card that I was able to grab for under 7.00 off ebay. Moose is a borderline hall of famer and I was surprised that I was able to get this card for so low. Mussina had a terrific Yankee career, retiring at the height of his career, winning 20 games in 2008. I think if he was a Yankee his entire career, he would have broken Ford's all time Yankees wins record.

Sorry about the picture on this one. This is a Sweet Spot Signature of former Yankees second baseman, Bobby Richardson. Richardson played on those great Yankee teams of the 50's and 60's. He won 5 gold glove awards, was an 8 time all star and won 3 world championships in 1958, 1961 and 1962. Always great to get the older players into the collection.

Finally, theres Javier Vasquez. This is one I have shown before. In two diffrent stints with the Yankees, Javier really didn't perform up to his capabilites. I feel he's better off in a smaller market where there isnt a lot of pressure to put up numbers. That's not a knock against Vasquez. He has shown that he can pitch and put up great numbers, just not in New York. Some people can play here, others can't.

After gazing over this collection over the weekend, I think I'm going to try and get the other Yankees that Sweet Spot made signatre cards of, if I can afford them. Then again, shopping for deals is my specialty.

Don Mattingly Bobblehead

Today bought me a bobble I have been meaning to add to my collection. I was so excited about this one that I couldn't wait to get home and take pics of it, so I used the pic off ebay. Not too sure how ethical it is, but no matter. I present to you, the newest add to the bobblehead collection, former Yankees first baseman ad current manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Don Mattingly, or as he's know in these parts, Donnie Baseball.

To us Yankee fans, when you think of Yankee Baseball in the 1980's, you pretty much think of Don Mattingly. Mattingly came up with the Yankees during the 1982 season. At first, he played more outfield than at first base because Steve Balboni was playing first at that time, but Balboni was traded to the Kansas City Royals in 1984, paving the way for Mattingly to open the '84 season there. What a season it was. he hit .343, beating out Dave Winfield for the American League batting title on the last day of the season. He also had 207 hits and 44 doubles, which lead the league in both categories. He topped that season in 1985 by hitting .324 with 35 home runs, 145 RBI's and 48 doubles, the latter tow lead the American League. he was awarded the AL MVP for that year. he also won the first of 9 Gold Gloves for his defense at first.

Matting would have an outstanding season in 1986, batting .352 with 32 home runs and 113 RBI's. He finished 2nd in the MVP voting that season to Roger Clemens, dispite leading the league in hits (238), doubles (53) and total bases (388). In 1987, he hit .327, with 30 home runs (including hitting a record tying 8 game home run streak and also hit a record six grand slams) and 115 RBI's. Sadly, this would be Mattingly's final solid year, statistically. In June of 1987, Mattingly seriously hurt his back wrestling in the Yankee clubhouse with Bob Shirley. Mattingly would never fully recover from this injury and his home run total would never approach 30 home runs again.

He missed time in the 90's because of his back and became a singles hitter rather than the doubles machine he was previously. His final great series was against the Mariners in the 1995 ALDS series where he batted .417 with a homer and 6 RBI. He hit a memorable home run in game two that had Yankee Stadium rocking. The saddest thing I have seen in all the years watching baseball was the sight of Mattingly, sitting in the dugout in the Kingdome, watching the Mariners celebrate. He took 1996 off and offically retired in 1997. When the Yankees won the series in 1996, he was the first person I thought of.

Mattingly came back to the Yankees as a hitting coach in 2004 and became Joe Torre's bench coach in 2006. When Mattingly did not get the Yankees manager position, he left the organization to become the Dodgers hitting coach and finally, manager. I can understand why I he didn't get the position, it's still funny to see Mattingly in any other uniform but a Yankee uniform. I wish him nothing but the best because if any one deserves it, it's Donald Arthur Mattingly.

This bobble was given away by the Trenton Thunder during the 2004 season and was sponsored by WaWa, which is a gas station/convience store in the east. Can't wait to get home and put him up on the shelf.