Charlie Bucket would approve

 

Thanks to Paul for the 2015 Topps Gold Michael Pineda, my 98th different card of Big Mike.

Random Yanks from Paul's Random Baseball Stuff

A few weeks back, and awesome assortment of random Yanks showed at my door. Appropriately, they came from Paul at Paul's Random Baseball Stuff. If you don't frequent Paul's blog, you should. He shares some great baseball insights, as well as cool promotions from around the game. While the majority is Mets focused, Paul also frequents the local minor league games, such as Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Trenton, to name a few. He truly is a fan of the game.

One of the coolest things Paul sent was an assortment of pocket schedules, notably from Trenton. Two of them depict Jeter during rehab stints, while another shows Cano. The Jeter in the stars and stripes jersey is just too cool.

I've never seen this Upper Deck card of Jorge Posada. I don't own too many cards from this set. It's from a time I wasn't collecting. It's a pretty cool card. It looks like Posada slid after a ball near the wall in foul territory (and made the catch!).

A bunch of Jeters are always welcome. That Diamond Tributes card is sooo Fleer, but in a good way.

Look how young and innocent Melky looks. Then he did PEDs and still ended up making a ton of money.

Chien-Ming Wang. Stupid interleague play ruined his career. Pitchers don't belong running the bases. While this looks like a Topps base card, it's actually one of those fancy cardboard ones with the old school Topps logo.

A few Sheffs, whose time in NY with the Yanks was very underrated. He got hurt in the third year of his deal, but in the first two, he hit .290/.393/.534 in 2004 and .291/.379/.512 in 2005. In fact, the closest he ever came to winning an MVP was in '04, when he finished second to Vlad. I had no idea.

Mo just looks good on classy cards, such as Turkey Red or Masterpieces.

These Fleer Tradition All-Star cards are cool. I wish Topps would make the current All-Star cards look a little different than just slapping the game logo on them.

There was a bunch more great stuff. Paul, thanks again

Feeling blue and seeing red

Two different trades brought me two different colored parallels of 2013 Topps. I have never really sought out the retail-store variations, but for some reason I’m really liking these more and more of late, and appreciating each one I get.

Night Owl sent me a few cards, and included was this Ivan Nova Walmart Blue Parallel. I would have thought that the blue looked better on Yankee cards, but it’s actually a bit of a blue overdose. The Navy Blue interlocking NY + plus the royal blue sea turtle + the light blue border = a little too much blue.

Upon looking at its red brethren from Target, I found myself preferring the red version. The red made it feel a little more Yankee-esque in the absence of the usual hat/bat primary logo. Thanks to Paul of Paul's Random Baseball Stuff for sending these 

As for the rest of the loot, here is what Night Owl included:

I love the CC mini, and think I’m now close to having all the Series One Yanks. I need to take an inventory though.

Night Owl’s favorite Mark Teixeira card, plus two Reggie Jackson inserts from this year. 

Finally, this awesome Phil Rizzuto. This was a set I missed back in the fall or whenever it came out, and this is a great addition to my growing Rizzuto collection. 

Paul sent me some Yanks in exchange for some Mets. It wasn’t quite Robin Ventura for David Justice, but pretty close. In addition to those sweet red borders, he sent me three Chasing History inserts, including a shiny foily Reggie! 

Thanks, guys!

Trade Review: Paul's Random Baseball Stuff

Paul over at Paul's Random Baseball Stuff is trying to collect a signed card of every player to have played for the Mets. And I thought my Topps Yankees Project was daunting! I had an autograph that I figured would help Paul's collection more than mine - a signed card of Corey Lidle from when he played for the Binghamton Mets.

Paul was nice enough to send me a Sparky Lyle signed card, which is cool because I didn't have a Sparky in my collection of Yankee autos. I love the lefty slant to his signature.

Thanks, Paul!