Other Recent Yankee Adds

During the past week and a half, a few of my fellow team collectors sent me some packages of Yankees goodies. Here are some of the highlights included in the packages

Here's a 2003 Upper Deck Yankees Signature card of Ryne Duren. Duren was a fixture in the Yankees bullpen in the late 50's/early 60's. He was a 4 time All Star with the Yankees and led the American League in saves in 1958 with 20. He won a World Series with the Yankees in 1958. For you Heavy Metal fans, his nephew is Blackie Lawless, lead singer of WASP. Duren passed away this past January at age 81.

I also got an Upper Deck Piece of History Juan Miranda auto

And from Upper Deck Timeless, this sweet Jorge Posada game used jersey card with a pinstripe. When collecting Yankee game used cards, I always prefer the home swatches to have a pinstripe in it. Patches, especially Yankee patches, are pretty expensive. This is a low cost alternative to adding some color to the white swatches.

Last night, The Yankees beat the Orioles 7-4, backed by home runs from Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada. Mark Teixeira had 2 hits as well as Derek Jeter, who is now 65 hits away from 3,000. AJ Burnett pitched a good game, although he did allow a pair of home runs to Matt Weiters and Brian Roberts in the 7th. The bull pen trio of Dave Robertson, Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera finished the game.

Tonight, Phil Hughes (0-1 16.50 ERA) will try to get his season back on track as he opposes Jake Arrieta, who is 1-1 with a 8.68 ERA so far this season. Game time is 7pm at the Stadium.

Let's Go Yankees!

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.

Post Number 100, A Ruthian Achievement

This post marks my 100th post here. It took me a bit longer than I thought it would, but nonetheless, here I am. I'd like to take this time to thank those who read, comment and follow this blog. As much as I enjoy blogging, its you guy who inspire me to continue with this blog through your own terrific blogs and encouraging comments. I have been blessed to have gotten some positive feedback from some very talented writers here and I can only hope that the next 100 posts here will keep you all coming back to read it.

So, for my 100th post, I wanted to share an autograph that is the centerpiece of my autograph collection. For this story, I have to take you back a few years to 2007. I went to the Westchester Card Show. I had gotten a pretty good return on my taxes and was looking to spend. I believe that day, Mike Myers (the pitcher, not the actor or serial killer) and Scott Proctor were signing. I needed both for my Yankee baseball collection, so I decided to get them. While perusing the tables, I noticed a dealer selling 2005 Upper Deck Baseball tins for 25.00 a piece. I bought two, hoping for some Yankee legends to add to the PC. I walked to the back of the line and waited for the signing to begin. While there, I decided to open the tins. Now, when I go to a card show and buy any boxes, I usually wait till I get home in case of a huge pull. I wouldn't want to lose it during the day.

I open the first tin and lo and behold, I get a Yogi Berra autographed card. Sweet! Always nice to get a Yogi auto. I also pulled a Brooks Robinson auto, which was weird as I thought it was one hit per tin. The second tin produced nothing. Nice Babe Ruth insert though, me being the insert loving SOB that I am. Oh well, I thought. I hit with two autos on the first tin, I guess I can't complain. I glanced over the cards from the second tin again, passing the Ruth insert again when it it me. Why is there a facsmile auto on it? I went back and looked closer at it and realized something. This was no insert. It dawned on me that I just hit the pull of a lifetime. A 1/1 Babe Ruth cut autograph. Normally, I like to think I do act with a bit of decorum, but I allowed myself a loud HOLY S#!t!!! People looked at me like I was a weirdo. Then someone glanced over my shoulder and yelled out "this guy just pulled a Ruth auto!" People on the line offered their congradulations and went about their business.

As side from letting a father and son look and hold the card, I jumped off the line and bought a magnetic protector and put the card away. This baby was going to be kept in the most prestine condition I could keep it in. As soon as I got home, I took a picture of it and put it away in the family safe deposit box where it still resides.

I have had offers for the card, but I declined all of them. Some of my friends have told me to sell as it would help me financially, but no. As a Yankee collector, I know I would never be able to afford another at a later date and plus my Yankees collection looks really awesome with it in there. I guess I would sell it later if I need the money for retirement or if I ever kids and need to put one through college. But if I had my choice, that baby will be buried with me.

So, for the curious, I show you, my prized possessionThis card rules all others that came before it. Long live the cut!

2010 Mark Teixeira Cards

With The 2011 baseball cards set to be realised within the next month, I wanted to take a sec and reflect on the 2010 Mark Teixeira cards I was able to add to my Teixeira PC during the past year. The collection stands currently at 222 cards and I'm anxiously waiting for the new releases so I can add more to the growing collection.

Here are the cards I bought, traded, begged, pleaded and cajoled for in 2010:

Topps


Topps Finest base

Topps Legandary Lineage Teixeira/Gehrig insert

This was an insert I picked up at a card show for a penny. Love that price

Topps Peak Performance

Allen & Ginter base

Topps 206 base

Bowman base

Topps 206 Gold Border Paraell

Topps Attax

Allen & Ginter This Day In History Insert. Teixeira's bithday is April 11th, same as mine.

Topps 206 mini

Topps Legandary Lineage Teixeira/Mantle

Topps Heritage All Star

Topps National Chicle base

Topps Opening Day Toppstown card

Topps 206 base 2

Topps base

Topps Heritage

Topps Turkey Red insert

League Leader cards

Now for the Upper Deck cards. Bear in mind there wasn't much due to UD losing the MLB license:

Pure Heat insert

Upper Deck base

Biography inserts

Obviously, this is not all the Teixeira cards that were released in 2010. I am still working on getting to as complete as possible. I would most likely have to pass up the high dollar cards, but that's fine as long as I'm happy with my collection.

I'm sorry for the cruddy pics. I really need to get a new camera or buy a scanner.

I will also be working on getting my Teixeira have list on here. I'm always looking for Teixeira cards, GU, autos, posters, bobbles, figures, etc.

Bring on 2011 Topps!

8/2/2010-The organization continues

So, I'm a week into the card organizing and I have to say, it's more work than I imagined and I'm only working on Topps main sets. It's a bit frustrating, but fun at the same time as I am finding cards I didn't even know I had.

I had decided to start off with just organizing the Topps sets I have. I have cards from these sets that go back to 1956. Mind you, not all these sets are complete, nor do I have cards from every year. But completing these set will be a fun challenge. Only problem I see is that not all these sets will ever be complete. Unless I hit the lottery or find a very generous benefactor, I will not be adding a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card to my collection or any of his cards for that matter. Heck, all his other cards would put a serious hurting on my bank account, so unless I find a deal, Mantle's 1950's and 1960's cards will probably not be added to my collection anytime soon. Doesn't mean I can't have a nice collection. Right now, my main focus is on cards released from 1970-present. whenever I can add a nice vintage card, at the right price, I will.

I started looking through all my boxes and pulling out all Topps main set cards. and organizing them in piles by year. After pulling the duplicates, I placed the cards in 9 pocket sleeve pages and placed them in order by year. So far, I have most of the 1970's done. I have cards from the 80's, 90's and new millenium already put in pages, I just have to go through them and make sure there are no inserts or dups. Then I have some 60's cards to organize. I hope to be done with all this within the next week or so.

After, it will be on to the other Topps sets like Allen & Ginter, Heritage, etc. That will take a while. I'm so not looking forward to tackling Upper Deck. at this rate, it will be the start of the 2011 season before I'm done.

Stay tuned....