Yanks and Beans!

For many of you newer bloggers, you may not know Nick (aka Yanks and Beans) of The Cardboard Duggout. He used to run a Yankees card blog (maybe he still does) and do some hilarious box breaks. I always looked forward to them. Nick and I go back and forth on Twitter here and there, so it's great to stay in contact with him.

Also, he goes by, "Yanks and Beans," is the greatest Yankee-themed user name out there. I'm so jealous I don't have something that awesome.

Anyhow, Nick is a Yankee fan (obviously) and used to be a Teixeira super collector. Now, he is focused on Mariano Rivera and Rickey Henderson. Nick showed me an awesome Tino autograph and was willing to give it up for a few Mo's and Rickey's he needed.

It's honestly the coolest Tino I own. The gold autograph is awesome, and I realllly hope it doesn't fade over time (anyone have advice on protecting these cards? I've seen many with faded sigs). The gold stitching on the ball is the perfect touch. I've got several Tino autographs, but none hold a candle to this one. What. A. Card.

Nick was awesome and threw in some extras. I mean, who just throws in a Reggie Jackson jersey card unannounced?

He also hit on two of my PC guys - Michael Pineda and Phil Rizzuto. Both of these were new to my collection. Nick is the owner of some ridiculous Pineda cards of which I'll spend the rest of my life trying to come up with the cards to pry them away from him.

Nick, thanks for the cards. Please bust another box on your blog soon. The blogging newbies need to experience this.

Play Ball!

Happy Opening Day!

Even though my team doesn't open until tomorrow against Houston (weird), I'd like to wish you and your respective teams good luck this season. Except for Boston.

Enjoy the day! PLAY BALL!

Die cut? More like Ty Cut!

After not going anything interesting with their cards for a long time, over the past two or three years Topps has busted out some serious die cuts into their products. In fact, they might have overdone it a bit between Finest, Chrome, Bowman Chrome, Diamond Giveaway, etc. We went from no die cuts to die cut overload. However, that’s fine by me. I love asymmetrical cards.

This is my first Ty Hensley die cut, and it’s sharp as hell. It’s from 2012 Bowman Chrome Bowman’s Best (or something). The colors are vibrant, and the design is very visually pleasing. Lots of rounded edges. The yellows and greens really jump out. The card is numbered to just 99 as well.

Upon Google searching, someone pulled an Atomic Refractor 1/1 of this card and had it up for sale for $300. No idea if he sold it. Pretty damn cool though.

A Holoday before Opening Day

I’ve said it a few times. For as much as I hate the Red Sox, their bloggers and collectors that I’ve interacted with have all been generous and fantastic to deal with. They all send great packages, and I really do enjoy setting aside our rooting interests and coming together as collectors.

So before the season starts and the hate takes over, here’s a bunch of cards sent to me from Matt of at Doc Holoday Cards. Matt always sends awesome packages. He really goes above and beyond.

He sent a few team bags, and he’s s snippet of some I particularly enjoyed:

Ok, not a card, but a cool Jeter item. This was from Topps Chipz. I appreciate Topps doing something to try to attract more kids. Not sure how it did, but they definitely make cool looking chips.

I was really excited to see this Anderson Feliz autograph! I sent a TTM request to him last year, and I’m pretty sure the card fell out of the envelope on the way back to me. I got an open, empty envelope back. I’m not 100% sure it was from, but I think it was.

These two cards are just very tasteful. Love the Jeter diecut, and the mantle is really nice. It didn’t scan well, but the shiny light blue vs the white area looks gorgeous.

Paul O’Neill! Paul O’Neill! Love this manupatch of the former heart and soul of the Yankees. I miss Paulie more and more every year. I was find it funny how he was criticized for throwing water coolers (which was not ok, for the record), but David Ortiz bashes the hell out of things and it’s so endearing. 

Yes! A new Pineda I didn’t have. This is a Target red parallel. Add it to may “have” list, which is now over 50 unique Pinedas.

Thanks goodness Matt labeled this card “SP” with a post-it, because I wouldn’t have known. It looks exactly the same as the non-SP.

Few more GQ’s. These white bordered cards are awesome. I think they came in a three pack with three regular packs. The Dellin mini is going into my small Dellin PC.

Lastly, some Prizm from this past year.

Matt, thanks again my friend. Really appreciate everything you sent.

Cards on Cards on Taye Diggs on Michael Pineda on Knicks on Paul O’Neill

What an idiot title. But you clicked, so the joke is on you.

Kerry from Cards on Cards reached out and mentioned he had some stuff to send my way. Now, a year or two ago, Kerry was busting some basketball cards and I said I’d take any extra Knicks. I haven’t collected basketball cards since I was kid (but DID collect basketball more than baseball growing up), so I really just thought it would be cool to sample some current basketball products and grab cards of my favorite team, the dreadful Knicks.

Here are two favorites from Kerry. He sent way more than this though. The Robinson is pretty damn cool. It’s from the dunk contest, obviously. I like this card of Melo too. This wasn’t a common shot on a card back when I bought basketball cards, but I assume this is fairly common now with the cameras behind the backboards.

Kerry also threw in some Yanks and PC guys, including this Taye Diggs card. I hadn’t see this Upper Deck set, but it looks like a celebrity-focused set based on their team affiliations? Also, I went to the same college as Taye Diggs (but not at the same time). So, yay.

Here are two Pinedas I didn’t have. I’m surprised I didn’t have the Hertiage, but when I checked my ‘have’ list, it wasn’t there. So that’s cool. I’m up into the 50s now for different Pineda cards. 

I also really like this Paul O’Neill Fleer Ultra League Leaders insert card. It’s actually a Gold Medallion parallel as well, even though the medallion is silver. This was from the strike-shortened season in which Paul lead the AL in hitting. 

 

Kerry, thanks for thinking of me!

TTM Success: Lyle Overbay

Last year's Topps Update set included a bunch of stop-gap Yanks. With all of the injuries and offensive ineptitude, the Yanks took a lot of chances on players. One of the better pick-ups was Lyle Overbay. He played good defense and was a solid clubhouse guy. I liked the way he played. He certainly couldn't come close to matching what Mark Teixeira gives you when healthy, but the man put his head down and played hard. I respected that about him.

He even played a few games in right field when Teixeira briefly came back from injury.

Overbay is now with the Brewers, but was nice enough to sign this card for me. I sent it to Brewers spring training, and it came back in just over a month.

A tainted memory. A tainted relic.

On August 4, 2007, I was sitting in Yankee Stadium when Alex Rodriguez hit is 500^th HR. It was a hot day, but I was lucky enough to have a seat in the shade on the lower level 3^rd base side. I paid $10 for a scalped ticket which was surely in the upper deck, but I was alone that day, and snuck down to find an open seat.

I actually did that a lot. I went to games alone all the time. When I first moved to NY, I had very few responsibilities. My work schedule wasn’t bad at all. I had no girlfriend, no kid, no dog to look after. In 2007, I want to about 40 Yankee games that year, most just on a limb when I was bored after work or on a weekend. I’d take the 4-train up to the Stadium, scalp a cheap ticket (I usually paid $5 or $10), and enjoyed the game. Ahhh, simple times. It was much easier to scalp tickets back then, and I had an effective system. Many times, I paid nothing for the ticket and found someone getting rid of an extra. People get pretty desperate when the game is starting and they have a spare ticket.

Anyhow, sensing this was the day, I made my way into the old Stadium, found an unoccupied seat, and sat back as ARod blasted a 3-run shot to left. It was probably the coolest moment I had in-person at a game up to the point. The crowd went nuts as Alex became the youngest player to hit 500.

I saved my ticket stub and an NY Post from the game. It means very little to me now, but it was still cool to attend. Since then, this memory has been eclipsed by a bunch of others that I’ve witnessed in person at Yankee Stadium (2009 WS Game 6 clinching win, 2008 ALCS Game 6 clinching win, the Ibanez 2-HR game vs the Orioles in the ALDS, Johnny Damon’s 6 for 6 game, Opening Day at the new Stadium…the list goes on), but I still feel a little connection to this game.

A while back, DHoff over at Coot Veal and the Vealtones put this ARod relic up for trade. It’s (supposedly) a piece of the wall from his 500^th HR game. I have no clue how true that is, but I like non-traditional relics, and this certainly fits the bill. I expected the blue to be softer, but it's actually not soft at all. It must be just the top layer of the wall padding. The scan is bad, but there are some cool markings and indentations on it.

He also threw in a team bag of other Yanks, and here are a few personal favorites. Thanks for the trade, Dhoff!