The Derby

This year's Home Run Derby definitely feels a lot different than last year's. It seems that the HR Derby is starting to go the way of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, where the big-ticket players will choose not to participate.

I see both sides of it, and I'm not disappointed that no Yankees are in it tonight. Being 29 games over .500 at the break is more important, and whatever players can do to gain a little more rest at this point is totally cool with me.

Still, it's fun to look back at the four Yankees who won the derby, especially in 1997 when Tino Martinez won it. That's still a highlight of my childhood fandom.

1997 - Tino Martinez at Jacobs Field in Cleveland

2002 - Jason Giambi at Miller Park in Milwaukee

2011 - Robinson Cano at Chase Field in Arizona

2017 - Aaron Judge at Marlins Park in Miami

If I had to guess, I'd say Bryce Harper puts on a show for the home crowd and takes home the win tonight.
 

A positive Facebook marketplace experience

Last week, I got the hunkering to sell a couple of duplicate cards. I have a big stack of Jeter duplicates and even triples, and figured I'd run an experiment with Facebook marketplace. This is the general buy/sell marketplace, not those cringe-worthy card groups.

My wife frequently uses it to sell old kids clothes and other household items. One time, she sold a clock for $20 that she originally paid $8 for. I think it was a clock from Homegoods too, not some rare antique. The woman who picked it up explained that she collected clocks and showed my wife photos of her house, all decked with clocks.

Back to the Jeters. I pulled a lot of 25, all pretty much common base cards versus anything fancy, and listed them for $15.

Here's what we're talking. Nothing fancy, but a few solid cards for any Jeter or Yankees collector.

After a couple of days, I was a little disappointed. I got three bites total and only about 40 views.

I expected a few inquiries, mostly from people asking me to come down on the price. I also expected a few kooky people. This is Facebook, after all.

One guy told me "nice lot, but these are very common cards." Ok. Not helpful. I responded that I wasn't your average poster who lists my collection of rubber-banded 1987 Topps for $150. I also said that around $.50 per Jeter is pretty fair. He never got back to me. Part of me thinks it might have been Napkin Doon pranking me.

After almost a week, I lowered the price from $15 to $13, and one of the guys who originally reached out messaged me said he'd take them.

We agreed to meet at the community center in my town because I'm not comfortable having a stranger drop by the house to buy something. My wife does the same. The community center is right next to the fire station as well, so feels pretty safe.

The buyer said he was coming from his son's little league game as well, so I put together another team bag full of random Yankees and gave them to the buyer at no charge. He later messaged me thanking me for the extras, saying that his son was psyched. That made me feel good. I know it's common for all of us to throw in extras, so this came as a pretty common courtesy for me. However, not something that most buyers might be used to. It's all about making someone's day!

The transaction ended up being pretty quick and easy, and it was nice to take in $13 cash and not worry about fees or going to the post office. I'll probably list another lot of dupes at some point soon, maybe find 100 or so and see what that can net me.

First TTM success from 2018 Yankees Draft Pick

I have a couple of TTM requests out to members of the Yankees 2018 Draft Class. Zippy Zappy has already been dominating in this area, but I'm finally on the board:

Yankees 2018 3rd round pick Ryder Green signed the card I sent to the Gulf Coast Yankees rookie ball squad. The Yanks went catchers in round 1 and 2, and then snagged high schooler Green in the third round. He was committed to Vanderbilt, but luckily NY was able to convince him to turn pro by offering him a cool mil. I'd turn pro too.

In this card, he's shown as a pitcher, where he certainly made his mark growing up. However, the Yankees drafted him as a power hitting outfielder, something they could certainly use with the graduation of several top offensive prospects to the Bigs over the last few seasons.

He's already hit his first pro homer, and is showing a good eye at the plate with a .400 OBP through his first 80 PAs. I definitely look forward to watching Green grow over these next few seasons.

Thanks, Mr. Green!

Mmmm, lasagna

No, this is not a post about Garfield the Cat.

I do love lasagna though. In fact, one of my favorite New York City restaurants is actually called "Lasagna." Guess what they serve?

They have a ton of different types of lasagna, such as ground sirloin lasagna, short rib lasagna, lobster lasagna, spinach lasagna, and so on.

The Yankees recently promoted a pitcher named Jonathan Loaisiga. He's become affectionately known as Johnny Lasagna due to his last name. He has a decorated injury history with the Giants organization, but the Yankees took a flyer on him and he rewarded them by shooting through the system.

On June 15, he made his ML debut despite never throwing a pitch above AA. He promptly beat the Rays, throwing 5 shutout innings and earning a Topps NOW card, which I scooped up:

He started three other games before being sent down, and unfortunately experienced shoulder discomfort. He received a cortisone shot, and will trying pitching again in a few weeks. Perhaps the Yankees will still get something out of him down the stretch, but even if not, he pitched in four effective games for the Yankees, throwing 18 innings with a 3.00 ERA and 21 Ks.

I'll be curious to see if he makes it into Topps Update. I assume he will since this card featured the RC logo versus the RC logo-less call up cards, but we shall see!

Happy Trails, Wes

I feel bad.

My epic packages from Wes always seem to take too long to post. It's not that I don't want to. They are always just so daunting.

They usually sit in the mailer for longer than they should because I know I have to scan them and that's going to take awhile.

Then the scanning is done, but then they sit in my scanned folder because again, I scanned a lot of awesome cards.

Well, the time is here. I am going to power through. A while back, Wes aka JBF sent out his retirement packages. I was a lucky recipient. I've always been a lucky recipient of his, and I'll always be grateful for that. Here we go...

My favorite card of the group was this Derek Jeter relic. I have very few Jeter memorabilia cards, and while I don't know if I'll ever have an autograph of his, any jersey swatch will always be special.

There were a few other fun jersey cards too, including a Tino and a great-looking Paul O'Neill pinstripe!

There were a couple of autographs too! I didn't know Spring Fever cards (what happened to those?!) had auto versions, so the Boone Logan is neat. JR Murphy was forgotten for awhile but seems to have found a home in Arizona. A refractor autograph?! Sure, why not!

Judge Chrome RC! I didn't have this one.

Here's a card to making Zippy Zappy swoon:

And here's a card to make me swoon because I needed this Tino, which is limited to just 100 copies!

There were a TON of other serially numbered cards too:

As well as some oddballs. A .999 silver Babe Ruth?! How cool is that. When my kid asks me for a Babe Ruth card, he'd definitely not getting this one.

Anyone have a hunkering for Cracker Jacks?

And of course, Wes had to throw in some vintage.

Vintage is a fitting way to end this post, because these cards were just vintage Wes. The guy has done more for my collection than anyone out there, and I'll always appreciate it. Happy trails (for now), Wes!

Samsonite! I was way off!

I bet many of you know this movie clip:

I'm sure if I watched Dumb & Dumber for the first time now, I wouldn't get it. But the movie came out when I was in 5th grade, and has remained a sophomoric classic for my generation.

In this scene, Lloyd tries to remember the name of the girl he is trying to track down. He reads the piece of luggage, which is obviously from the brand Samsonite. In actuality, the girl he is looking for is named Mary Swanson.

And speaking of "Swanson", my latest TTM success is from a player with that name currently in the Yankees farm system. I'm talking about Erik Swanson!

Swanson was acquired by the Yankees in the 2016 Carlos Beltran trade with the Rangers. He had a great start to 2018 season, dominating AA and earning a promotion to AAA. Currently, he's rehabbing injury at rookie ball Staten Island, much to the delight of Zippy Zappy.

Swanson was kind enough to sign the two cards I sent him back in May:

Keep an eye on this guy! Thanks, Mr. Swanson.

The surprise PWE is the best

One of the best parts of our community here is the surprise PWE. It shows up out-of-the-blue, unannounced, packed with a few cards someone else thought that you'd appreciate more than they would.

It's easy to get excited about a trade package or an eBay purchase coming in, but when the unannounced PWE shows up, I get even more excited and certainly more appreciative.

Earlier this past week, a perfect 9-card PWE arrived from Oscar over at All Trade Bait, All The Time. Oscar, as many do (including myself), filled up row from a binder page, with three cards per row. Love this format.

Gotta start with Aaron Judge, as he doesn't show up much in packages anymore. We'll call it 2.5 Judges because one is a team card. I'm very happy to add the Superstar Sensations insert, as that is one I missed when I opened Series One.

I also didn't find much 2018 Donruss, so I appreciate a new Gary Sanchez. Hope he's back from injury very soon.

A pair of lefties! One who starts games, one who finishes them.

I absolutely love this 2018 Heritage Rookie Stars featuring two of the Yanks best young players. Miguel Andujar has been very good in his rookie campaign, and Clint Frazier just needs a chance to play. He's too good for AAA, and I really hope he's not traded unless it's from a top of the line starting pitcher.

I'm always willing to take these Jeters off anyone's hands!

Lastly, a surprise autograph from former Yankees prospect Mitch Jones. He was drafted by the Yankees, but never made it with them despite showing massive power, including 39 HRs in AA in 2004. He latched on with the Dodgers and had an 8-game cameo in 2009, his only MLB action. He hit .308 but didn't homer. In all, he hit 254 minor league homers. Sad he never got one in the Bigs.

Oscar, thanks so much for a great PWE and making my day.