Subway cameos

It's hard to believe that this is the 20th year of Interleague Play and The Subway Series. The Yankees and Mets first started the yearly tradition in 1997. Back then, it was only one series per season. Eventually a second was added, and now they do a 4-game series broken up into two games at Yankee Stadium and two at Citi Field.

I like the way it's done now. Get it all over with at once, although mid-August feels late. I'd like to see it played in May or June every year.

With the weird drama between the Yankees and Mets front office last week, I told my co-worker (a Mets fan) that this has the feeling of a four-game Mets sweep. Luckily the Yanks got on the board first last night.

On cardboard, I've noticed a lot of photos of the Yankees/Mets series finding their way into sets. I see it with a lot within my Tino Martinez card collection. Perhaps it was an easy assignment for a company photographer to get both NY teams at once.

I liked this Fleer Ultra a lot, as I remember watching a game where Fox cut to a helmet cam that Mike Piazza was wearing (remember those?). During the at-bat, Tino hit a homerun. I'm not sure if this is the exact photo, but it was at Shea Stadium, so this could be it.

This 1998 Upper Deck also celebrates Tino's walk-off single versus John Franco, giving the Yanks a 2-1 series win in the inaugural series. Very cool to have that moment captured. It was like a 1997 Topps Now...in 1998.

I'm sure I could easily find other card of Tino Martinez in the subway series, as these took me all of five minutes to find. That's how common of a cardboard occurrence it was.