USA! USA! USA!

No, this is not a political post. I’ll spare you. If you want political posts, just go on your Facebook and read the post of your best friend from fifth grade who you haven’t seen from seventh grade. I’m sure he has some great, unbiased political insights.

This is a post to say how thankful I am for USA baseball, and because of his role on the 1988 squad, Tino Martinez is still included in some newer releases that center around these teams of the past.

I keep waiting for him to make an appearance in Archives or something – it’s not a stretch when you see guys like Bret Boone and Tony Fernandez and even Paul O’Neill included – but alas, each year passes without finding Tino in a current release. However, the non-Topps products have been a bit more generous to him over the past few years.

This was a cool set from Panini in 2013 – USA Baseball Champions. This exact card has several color, numbered parallels. This gold #’d/25 popped up for a very affordable BIN on eBay, so I snagged it, not knowing when I’d see it again. I believe all I need now is the Mirror Blue parallel /199, which shouldn’t be too tough.

Hopefully I’ll see Tino in a 2017 product, but until then, I’ve got cards like this to keep the hunt going.

SuperTraders #20: The Angels in Order

While it’s been a little hard to keep up, I will say that #SuperTraders has allowed me to trade with some collectors I haven’t traded much with in the past. I had a healthy stack of Angels, so I was happy to send those along to Tom of Angels in Order. Tom also sent me a great batch of Yankees from some sets that I definitely hadn’t seen before, which is always fun.

One card of note was from Upper Deck Flyball. I certainly hadn’t heard of this product. Baseballcardpedia tells me it was an interactive set issued in 2005. I was a senior in college then, so I definitely missed a lot of sets around this time.

Here is the back of the card. Do you ever notice how confusing baseball card games seem to be?

Another set I hadn’t seen were these Toys ‘R’ Us issues. From what I can tell, each card was either a future star, young star, or rookie star. They got Bernie’s right!

Again, an oddball I hadn’t seen, this time from 2001 Topps along with Post cereal. I’m surprised El Duque was included as the Yankees representative in this 18-card set, although I am a big fan of his, so no qualms from me.

Salt Lake Bees baseball cards! What a cool looking set! I’m not entirely certain why Yankees are featured on this. Does any know? I think they are great, and clearly a promo item.

Topps Turkey Red are some of the coolest cards out there. The vintage backgrounds look great. This is actually a shiny, glossy version, which I didn’t know existed.

These are so bad they are awesome. Not the card, the photos! Check out the school pictures of these 1991 Yankees draftees.

1993 Upper Deck. The best!

Tom, did you secretly collect Matsui?

I’ll end with a Yankees Wacky card. This one is kind of perfect for me. My name is AJ…apple juice…on a Yankees card? It works!

Tom, thanks for a great package!

TTM Success: Mike Blowers

The Yankees and Mariners have traded a lot, it seems. You’ve got modern day deals like Pineda, Ichiro, and Shawn Kelley all coming to NY in various deal, while the Yanks tend to send the M’s some spare parts from time-to-time, such as the recent Ben Gamel trade.

Then you’ve got the greatest deal ever, Tino Martinez and Jeff Nelson for Sterling Hitchcock and Russ Davis. Oh yeah, and there was some guy named Buhner before that.

I’m sure I’m missing a few, but I can easily recall the Yankees and M’s hooking up for trades over the last 30 years far more than I can most other teams, outside of maybe the Pirates taking all of the Yankees catchers.

Here’s one that backfired on the Yankees. It wasn’t franchise-altering or anything, but the Yankees sent a young Mike Blowers to Seattle for Jim Blueberg, a pitching prospect. Blueberg stalled out in AA, while Blowers played for M’s through 1995 (and a few more reunions afterward). He hit 23 HRs for the 1995 Mariners, the team that knocked the Yankees out of the post-season. Fate!

Blowers now works as a broadcaster for the M’s, where he signed three cards for me in about 6 weeks turnaround time.

TTM Success: Richard Petty

While I do focus on baseball TTMs for the most part, once in a while I will step outside and send to someone from another sport. This person just happens to be one of the great NASCAR drivers to ever live.

Richard Petty is a legendary TTM signer - right up there with guys like Bobby Doerr and Bobby Shantz. I've been wanting to send him some cards for a while and I finally got around to it. One of these is definitely going into Joey's HOF binder. Little does he know that "The King" from Disney's Cars movie is voiced by Petty and features one of his iconic car designs.