Utz Happening Again

It's here again. A rematch of the 2017 ALCS, where the Astros beat a young Yankees squad in 7 games. Both teams are a little older and more mature now. I have to give the edge to Astros because of the starting rotation, and an offense that is on par with the Yankees.

However, it's certainly not a given, as we've seen throughout these Playoffs. Anything can happen, and I hope the Yanks are up to the task.

One very bright spot in the quick sweep of the Twins was the amazing play of Gleyber Torres on both sides of the ball. He was a monster at the plate, with a HR and two doubles in Game 3. Plus he made a terrific defensive play at 2nd to help the Yanks avoid danger.

He's just 22, and he's a complete star. The Yankees are very luck to have him.

On the other side of the ball, Luis Severino is looking for some redemption from a season lost to injury. He threw 4 shut out innings in Game 3, and while he wasn't great, he found a way to dance out of trouble a few times. That kind of step in the maturation process is important, especially in the Playoffs.

Both of these Utz cards came from the man, Mark Hoyle, over the summer. Thanks, Mark!

Go Yankees!

The PWEs are alive and well

I don't come home to many bubble mailers of cards anymore. I've slowed down my trading a bunch - I just don't buy enough product anymore to create a few teams bags and send them away.

Plus my post office situation stinks. There's one by my work but that means I have to schlep a card package into NYC and then duck out during the day. On weekends, the post office in my town is open 9-12, and I can think of a lot better things to do with my Saturday morning.

So the packages I'm sending are few and far between, and in return, the ones I receive are few and far between. And that's ok!

But alive and well are PWEs, either via trade or random acts of kindness. And I've got one of each to show off.

The first is a Mark Hoyle special, sent earlier in the summer after he seemingly delivered every blogger some of those hard to find Utz Topps cards. The was the second Utz PWE he sent me!

I say it a lot, but holy crap is Gleyber Torres an incredible talent. He's a 22 year old middle infielder with 33 homers. He plays a very solid 2B/SS as well. He's cut down on his mental errors and, to my untrained eye, his base running gaffes. He's a star and I'm not sure how much better he can get, but I'm excited to find out.

The second PWE was from a Twitter follow named Tommy. We've exchanged a few cards before, as I usually send him a few Mets for his nephew. Out of the list of cards he send me to review for our swap, I chose the two above.

Thanks to you both for the excellent additions!

Utz Utz Baby

In the past few weeks, I've seen a lot of card folks posting about 2019 Topps Utz promo cards. Essentially, this is a 100 card promo set inserted into snack pack bags of Utz chips. The cards look just like a 2019 Topps card, but with an unmistakable Utz logo on the front, similar to Topps Opening Day.

Also similar to Opening Day - no foil!

Mark Hoyle was kind enough to send me Didi Gregorius, the first card I've received from this promo. I'm all for food-issue and other oddballs, and given how few of them we get in modern times, this is a nice win for the card collecting community.

The rest of the Yankees checklist includes:

4 Aaron Judge
9 Johnathan Loaisiga RC
12 Gleyber Torres
37 Chance Adams RC
42 Aroldis Chapman
53 Didi Gregorius
54 Miguel Andujar
55 Luis Severino

And the complete checklist:

1 Buster Posey
2 Yadier Molina
3 Brandon Crawford
4 Aaron Judge
5 Lorenzo Cain
6 Aaron Nola
7 Whit Merrifield
8 Wade LeBlanc
9 Jonathan Loaisiga
10 Adam Jones
11 Dansby Swanson
12 Gleyber Torres
13 Javier Baez
14 Steven Duggar
15 Kyle Tucker
16 Shin-Soo Choo
17 Jesus Aguilar
18 Sean Reid-Foley
19 Nick Markakis
20 Kohl Stewart
21 Francisco Arcia
22 Khris Davis
23 Shohei Ohtani
24 Ryan Zimmerman
25 Nolan Arenado
26 Kris Bryant
27 J.D. Martinez
28 Ramon Laureano
29 Byron Buxton
30 Joey Votto
31 Blake Snell
32 Clayton Kershaw
33 Carlos Correa
34 Todd Frazier
35 Corey Dickerson
36 Ronald Acuna, Jr.
37 Chance Adams
38 Trea Turner
39 Mookie Betts
40 Paul DeJong
41 Austin Hedges
42 Aroldis Chapman
43 Josh Harrison
44 Rhys Hoskins
45 Max Scherzer
46 Willson Contreras
47 David Bote
48 Justin Turner
49 Miguel Cabrera
50 J.T. Realmuto
51 Robinson Cano
52 Starling Marte
53 Didi Gregorius
54 Miguel Andujar
55 Luis Severino
56 Jonathan Schoop
57 Jake Bauers
58 Trey Mancini
59 Kyle Schwarber
60 Salvador Perez
61 David Price
62 Dee Gordon
63 Nick Pivetta
64 Francisco Lindor
65 Joey Gallo
66 Corey Kluber
67 Jeff McNeil
68 Jake Arrieta
69 Freddie Freeman
70 Brad Keller
71 Jose Ramirez
72 Julio Teheran
73 Mike Clevinger
74 Cedric Mullins
75 Eric Hosmer
76 Matt Carpenter
77 Harrison Bader
78 Justin Verlander
79 Miles Mikolas
80 Mike Trout
81 Jacob deGrom
82 Corey Seager
83 Jose Altuve
84 Michael Conforto
85 Juan Soto
86 Charlie Blackmon
87 Johnny Cueto
88 George Springer
89 Marcus Stroman
90 Jose Quintana
91 Jake Lamb
92 Christian Yelich
93 Brian Anderson
94 Eddie Rosario
95 Matt Chapman
96 Edwin Diaz
97 Ryon Healy
98 Paul Goldschmidt
99 Ryan O'Hearn
100 Nicholas Castellanos

Cards from a Sox fan ahead of Yankees/Red Sox

With the Yankees and Red Sox facing one another tonight, it’s a good chance to show off some cards from one of the nicest Red Sox fans out there – Mr. Mark Hoyle. I’m not thrilled with the Yankees going into Fenway right now playing as poorly as they are, but they need to turn it around sometime. I don’t love the “it’s early” excuse. I think every game matters. When a team is fighting for a Playoff spot in September and is a game out, you better believe I’m looking back at losing two extra inning games at home to the Orioles in April.

Anyhow, maybe a road trip is what the doctor ordered to right the ship a little.

Back to the cards. Mark sent me a surprise package recently, and the highlight for me was definitely an unopened pack of Upper Deck cards from the 2006 National Convention. While tempting to leave them in the shrink wrap, that’s not how I roll, so I opened them:

Nice, three Yankees! I like the Jeter a lot. Scott Podsednik was an interesting inclusion. I figured each Chicago team had a card in the set because the National was in Chicago…but Google tells me it was in Anaheim. So I’m not really sure, other than those cards will go to those team collectors I trade with.

This was a cool item! A Mickey Mantle HOF postcard. I know I had this at one point of my life, but have no idea what happened to it. Glad to have it back!

Speaking of Mantle, a really nice Topps Chrome of “the next Mantle”, Ruben Rivera. Of course things didn’t pan out, but he really was featured on some nice cards as a prospect. I like the “new arrivals” logo on this card.

Mark also included these Clint Frazier promo cards. These totally count as a unique card in my small Frazier collection. Mark your calendars for June 13 when Series 2 comes out!

Mark, thanks for the kind package. Take it easy on the Yanks this week.

Mail forwarding doesn't work

Those of you who have traded with me know I've moved a few times over the past few years. However, we're officially homeowners, and this should be a permanent address for a long time.

I set up mail forwarding this past July, where any piece of mail (outside of junk mail) should be forwarded to my new address for one year from the start date, which was in July. I've definitely thought about all the mail, including TTMs, that I've probably lost due to change of addresses over the years.

On Saturday, my wife told me that the current tenants of our previous address found her on Facebook and reached out because they had a stack of our mail. Luckily it's only about a half mile away, so we stopped by yesterday, and sure enough, they had a decent sized plastic bag of mail for us. There were some holiday cards, and notably, a few envelopes for me with...you guessed it...cards in them.

I felt bad because two of them were from November, and I never properly thanked the senders because, well, I didn't get them. There was also a TTM, which I'll share soon.

I'm just frustrated because I don't understand why these wouldn't have been forwarded? It makes no sense. I have opened up a claim with the post office to investigate, although I'm sure that won't get me anywhere.

Anyhow, I owe some belated thank yous! First off, Mark Hoyle sent some awesome cards. He always takes care of my with some old Knicks and Syracuse players too.

 

Thanks, Mark! This was from November, so better late than never.

Next up, Brian of Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary...also from November! Brian was nice enough to send three HOFers for Joey, and a few goodies for me as well. The Tinos are a great blast from the '90s past. I definitely didn't have that minor league Bernie, either. Never even seen it!

 

Thanks, Brian!

Lastly, this one was just a week old, but Tony Burbs of Wrigley Roster Jenga sent a bunch of Holiday Yanks and a few others!

I'm glad these cards weren't lost forever. Thanks, guys!

TTM Success: Wayne Granger

Another vintage TTM success with another assist from Mark Hoyle!

In his 9-year career, Granger only pitched 7 games with the Yanks in 1973. He spent most of his career with the Reds and Cardinals as a reliever. He was one of the best relievers in the game, leading the NL in games pitched twice and saves once. He is a member of the Reds Hall of Fame. Not bad at all!

Thanks for the autograph, Mr. Granger.

TTM Success: George "Doc" Medich

In addition to a few spring training TTMs, I also sent out a few vintage cards for signatures. Per usual, the assist goes to Mark Hoyle, as the vintage I send out usually comes from him.

I like the 1974 Topps set. It's rather simple, but in a good way. So when Mark sent me a batch recently, I knew I wanted to send a few out.

In just 8 days, George "Doc" Medich returned my card signed. He pitched from the Yankees from '72 to '75, winning 49 games total for them. He certainly enjoyed the best years of his career with them, although the teams weren't great. The Yankees then used him in their infamous Ken Brett/Dock Ellis/Willie Randolph 1975 trade with the Pirates. The Yankees certainly got the best end of the deal due to Randolph alone.

It's also crazy to see him wearing #42 in this card. Obviously #42 on NY, while retired for Jackie Robinson, belongs to Mariano Rivera. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see who else wore that number as a Yankee. Notably, Jerry Coleman wore if from 1949 through 1957. It was also worn by a collection of coaches from 1977 through 1989. The last player to wear it for the Yankees before Rivera was Domingo Jean.

Anyhow, Medich later got his medical degree, although his medical license is suspended due to legal reasons.

Reagrdless, I appreciate him taking the time to sign for fans, and I'm very happy to add this autograph to my TTM collection. Thanks, Doc!

SuperTraders #3: Mark Hoyle

Man, you guys are kicking my butt at #SuperTraders. I haven't sent out a thing, but rest-assured I will. I'm still trying to figure out my strategy - PWEs? Bubble Mailers? Bust a box? I'm not sure. I have a few unique ideas as well, just have to find some time to implement. However, fellow SuperTraders, rest assured I'll be stepping up my game soon.

I got my third SuperTraders package in the mail, this time from the king of vintage, Mark Hoyle. Mr. Hoyle seems to have an endless supply of vintage. I figured he'd be tapped out by now, but somehow he keeps replenishing. Take a look:

Wait a second. Those are far too shiny to have come from Mark.

Ok, getting older, but still not the vintage Mark clearly prides himself on. However, this is one of my favorite cards of all time. Great set, great player.

A HOFer for my son's binder. This is starting to feel more like a Hoyle package.

Here we go. While may not vintage vintage, these cards are still older than me.

BINGO. You knew it was coming, right?! Some awesome '70s Yanks.

Mark, thanks sir. Can't wait to get some Red Sox out of my house!

Hoyle PWEs are like a box of chocolates

...you never know what you're going to get!

Seriously, Mark Hoyle is a PWE master. I always get really excited when I see one show up in the mailbox, and it never disappoints.

Check out this pre-Christmas one he sent:

Modern releases? Check.

Custom oddball? Check.

Vintage? Check.

Way older tobacco vintage? Check.

Wait, check? Yep! This PWE contained an actual tobacco card. It's a 1911 T205 Joe Knight Yankees card. It's the gold border, American Beauty Cigarettes version. I've never seen one of these in person until I received it. There were modern cards in this design awhile back, but that can't replicate how cool it is to actually own one from 1911. It's hard to believe this is 105 years old. That's crazy.

Mark, sorry it took me a while to post, but thanks!

Ok, back to shoveling snow...

Mark Hoyle POPS UP in my mailbox

Mark Hoyle sends some of the best packages out there. When he's not single-handedly doubling my vintage collection, he's sending along other completely cool items. Check out this blast from the '80s past:

Boom! Some Donruss oversizes cards and pop-ups. I feel like these pop-ups are all over the place now, but I love getting them fresh and unpopped. I'll probably give one or two of these to my son for him to play with.

With the NCAA Tourney starting tomorrow, I'm a bit depressed with no Syracuse to cheer for. They are banned from this year's post-season and got some major slaps on the wrists from the NCAA. However, that doesn't mean I can't enjoy some hoops cards. Mark knows I'm an SU guy, and frequently sends some cards of Orange greats.

 

Mark, thanks as always!