Doon Swoon

Over the 11-year history of this blog, a guy like Napkin Doon has been here basically for all of it. I remember our first trade was in May, 2011. Previously, I had won a few cards of him from the Big Fun Game that he used to run, a Yankee swap type of blog contest.

That first trade included a handful of Tino cards, and two autographs: Ramiro Pena and Mark Melancon.  Names from the past! He also threw in a bunch of Flair cards of Paul O'Neill and Bernie Williams. I remember being surprised by the package because we had only agreed on a portion of the cards, but he sent them all to me. That's just the kind of guy he is!

As he has started to reduce the size of his collection a bit, he's been setting aside non-keepers for me, especially of guys like Jeter and Rivera. He sent me a big old box of cards just a few weeks ago, and the contents definitely delivered.

See, that's a lot of cards.

But it wasn't all cards. He sent me three packing peanut NFTs of Jeter, Gallo, and Odor. If anyone tries to steal this image of my NFTs, then I will be pressing charges.

Right on top is my first Topps Holiday ornament. Fun cards. I mean, no Pacific ornament from back in the day, but I appreciate the concept.

The next card I pulled out was a Dave Winfield Kellogg's 3D stars. I don't really get these cards. They've never done anything for me at all. At least it's not curled to all hell.

The second card in the box might have been my favorite, a Bowman Platinum ice parallel of Yankees 2020 first rounder, Austin Wells. Well, that was my favorite until a Hope Diamond Curtis Granderson popped out! Numbered to 60, Topps just did so much right in 2011 with their parallels. 

Stacks of current Yankees included Gleyber, Judge, and Stanton.

I'm not surprised Napkin had a lot of spare Alfonso Sorianos, as he was the centerpiece of the haul that brought Alex Rodriguez to NY. Doon probably thought he was going to get rich of this guy.

As for Yanks of the past, there were plenty of Rivera, and Mattingly.

Poor Doon even decided to send me a few Rangers who called the Bronx home in 2021. Odor is no longer with the Yanks, but I now have an ungodly amount of his RCs. That's my first Gallo rookie, as well. I am betting he will once again hit .190 with 40 HRs. Baseball!

The bottom of the box had some odd-sized Mattinglys to top - or bottom - it all off. Man, that crouched batting stance is so cool.

This is the 45th post of mine where you're tagged, Nap. Thanks for all the fodder over the years.

A real Bru-haha

Right around Christmas, Marc aka Bru from the old school Remember The Astrodome and I made a nice swap on TCDB. It's really nice having someone to send crummy Astros to, and in turn, get Yankees I want.

It was around a 20 for 20 card swap, give or take. I helped him with a few Astros and set needs, he sent me some assorted Yankees from a bunch of brands. It was actually a really fun mixture of cards, especially because there were a bunch of Panini products I don't see a lot. I kind of hope Fanatics buys Panini as well, since they've been kicking Topps' butt with better designs and products the last few years. Although I guess it wouldn't be true competition if they all rolled up to the same mothership. 

Still, seeing Donruss and Prizm with official marks would be cool.

Regardless, back to the variety. I was able to add five Gleybers to the collection, including a couple with the RC logo...which apparently doesn't really mean what it used to a few years ago.

I also got my second card of Odor as a Yankees, and this one is pretty great at highlighting his fiery personality.

I won't lie, I laughed when I saw this mugshot. What a dopey card.

I still have hope for Clarke Schmidt being an impactful Yankees pitcher. It would be nice if a first rounder not named Judge panned out.

A few more Stantons. I need to do a count on his cards, but I must be approaching 175 or so. I like the Fire red foil a lot. Maybe my favorite card of the trade.

And here are the rest of the goodies.

Marc, thanks for the trade, and please enjoy your time with the beautiful baby girl you just had.

2021 Topps Yankees Project entry...for now

While I no longer actively send TTM autograph requests, I don't want my Topps Yankees Project to go by the wayside. 

The Series One checklist offered no real opportunities to check off 2021 in my quest to have a signed Topps Yankees card from each year. Series Two offered some slightly better options.

The first, and easiest, was a card featuring third base coach Phil Nevin and Giancarlo Stanton. Of course, Stanton doesn't answer fan mail, but Nevin is an outstanding signer. So while I'd prefer a traditional card being my entry for the 2021 season, this will be a solid placeholder in the binder for now:

I certainly hope to upgrade, both this card, and hopefully from a rostered player. The signature bubbled pretty badly. I definitely ran an eraser over the card prior to sending, but must not have done it enough if the marker tried so badly to evaporate.

However, I do like the card itself. Stanton's HR handoff is a pretty cool celebration when he is rounding the bases. Sadly, it just doesn't happen much anymore. Apparently he started this isn Miami and brought it to NY.

As for the Project, there's still a couple of other guys who might return a card, so hopefully I'll have another addition to this collection.

If you're interested in seeing past entries to the project, check this out here.

Returning from Coors and opening some Stadium Club

Late last night, I returned home from Denver. I had a good trip, taking in the HR Derby, MLB All-Star Game, and everything in between. It was a busy few days, but I was happy to return home. I'm too old to gallivanting around a city during the work week.

A couple observations:

• Literally don't care if it's BP. Guys hitting the ball 500 feet is awesome to see. It doesn't make sense seeing a ball go that far from where it started, even if it started 30 feet from him and was being thrown 40 MPH by an old guy.
• The new HR Derby format is much better than any of the old formats. I hope it stays for a while and MLB doesn't tinker.
• Coors Field has horrible concessions and had no idea how to handle a full capacity crowd. Their urinals are also small and close together.
• MLB doesn't care if you don't like the jerseys. At all. A LOT of people were wearing them and spent good money on them. They were the most common piece of game merchandise for the thousands of people walking around. Your Twitter complaint means nothing. And no, I didn't buy one. I got my son a hat and my daughter a stuffed bear.
• Once the game started, the jerseys were easy to forget about. Blue was away. White was home. Baseball was being played, despite what someone was wearing. It felt normal, especially because the AL once again won.

Moving on. One benefit to returning home - you know, besides seeing my wife and kids - is that my two blaster boxes of Stadium Club were waiting for me. It was super easy to order them from Target.com. I don't mind ordering cards to open online at all. Saves me the trip of going to the store.

I actually crushed it with Yankees. My two boxes were packed from them, from inserts to base cards to parallels to special box toppers.

I don't have much to say about Stadium Club. They are excellent looking cards with a minimalist design and exciting photos. Although some of the photos are a bit dull featuring just running or swinging, they still look sharp and crisp.

The horizontal cards are my favorite, and I would be fine if the whole set was like these. They all seemed a bit more interesting than the verticals.

And of course, there's always a mixture of legends.

As for the aforementioned Yankees, it felt like every pack I opened had a card from my favorite team. The rarest was a Giancarlo Stanton Red Triumvirate, which fall 1:192. Not bad. What's disappointing about these is how flat they are. They need some color, shine, or texture!

Beyond that, three inserts I was lucky enough to get were Superstar Duos of Aaron Judge and Stanton, a reprint of Mariano Rivera, and a Virtual Reality of Luke Voit. According to the fancy metrics on the back, over 162 games Voit would have hit 59 homers. Sure.

Here are a few more Yanks base cards. I like the Mattingly quite a bit. I received THREE base card of Clint Frazier. And then also got a black parallel of Urhsela, but not showing it. Just imagine what it looks like with a black logo.

Speaking of parallels, I got several. I don't really get the point of just changing the foil color, but there they are.

The rarest card I got was a 30th Anniversary parallel of Kenta Maeda, a 1:318 pull! Always sad when you beat the odds and pull a dud. That's a Napkin Doon quote.

Here's a few more fancy cards.

Last but not least, each blaster comes with a loose Master Photo. I didn't even know this before purchasing, so that was cool to get them. I did well with a Bellinger and a Deivi Garcia RC,

I don't regret the $40 I spend on these at all. They were fun to open, and should provide me with some great fodder for TCDB. 

Oh, and go AL.

The rest of the Bru-haha

A few days ago I showed off a Tino Martinez A&G mini that Bru sent in a "fancy little holder."

That card was actually a throw-in within a TCDB trade we made. TCDB is a great place to trade if you're into that sort of thing.

Bru is always down to take Astros off my hand, and thank god. That team really is hated. The Yanks just took two of the three from them, which I appreciate. But losing the last game, one pitched by Gerrit Cole, and letting that little shell of himself turd Altuve beat them with a homer leaves a sour taste despite winning the series.

The two actual cards in the trade were those two unlicensed beauties. The Cole is very cool and colorful, while the Torres has a nice, embossed glove in the background. His glove work has actually been very good the last few weeks at short. Now if he could remember how to hit for power.

Now for a few of the extras. I almost missed that this is an Artist's Proof. I can effectively say I've never opened a pack of Gallery, so I always appreciate when I get some in a trade.

Giancarlo Stanton is the hottest hitter on the planet right now, which means I refuse to check Twitter because I know the Tweet that "he's experiencing soreness" or "he's being sent for an MRI" is coming. It's sad, but you have to know it's coming. I am a big fan of his, I hate the unnecessary expectations, and he seems like a good dude. I'd love for him to stay on the field and have a massive season.

I do appreciate this relic, with a nice pinstripe.

Topps Stickers have been pretty nice lately. I have no desire to have an album and put the stickers inside. But treating them as cards, they are nice looking, albeit flimsy.

Lastly, I'm not quite sure where this comes from, and my Google search is coming too empty, but it looks like a custom set from GOAT cards using the Rookies app card templates. The Ruth artwork is pretty cool, although I hope used with permission. The painting is a neat balance of realism with almost of hint of cartoon in Ruth's face. The card is glossy as well, which was never an option when I previously used the Rookies app. Perhaps this person printed these himself.

Bru also threw in some nice Heritage cards from the last two years.

Good trade. I've already got a stack of Astros building up for you, Bru.

Trying to hold up my end of the bargain

Each Sunday, Johnny from Cards from the Quarry has been holding a PWE trade event. Usually he posts a card from each team, and all you have to do is claim it, and send him one back from his wantlist. Simple, right?

The problem I keep running into...he has every Rockies card known to man! I keep thinking I came across a good one - a numbered insert or a parallel from some random Bowman set no one bought. Then I check his wantlist...

Nope!

I have a stack of Rockies I've come across over the last few weeks, and each time I think I got a good one, I come up empty. Which makes me feel bad because I've been claiming away each week. And while he makes it easy by also requesting cards from teams he is low on for trade bait, I feel like I'm having a hard time keeping up my end of the bargain. Plus, I don't want to just send him cards of other teams!

So I'm continuing to scour my unsorted boxes in hopes I can finally land a few Rox for him. I did just send him an older Stadium Club First Day Issue I think he needed. But I'm still behind by a couple cards due to a few cards I claimed over the last few weeks:

The first was a nice Gary Sanchez Bowman parallel. Gary has gotten off to a good start so far, thank goodness. I'm kind of tired of hearing about his struggles, so I hope for his sake he has a huge few months and everyone can focus on other things, like why can't the Yankees score runs, why can't they stay healthy, why do they suck at situational hitting, and why on earth did they trade for Rougned Odor. I'd rather focus in all of that over Gary.

Another guy who is off to a slowish start...but at least he's on the field? Sad that that's the positive, but it's how it goes. As long as he is on the field, he'll put up numbers when all is said and done. Speaking of numbers, I couldn't turn down a low-numbered Giancarlo numbered to 50 from one of those expensive Topps sets!

Lastly, this isn't a card I needed, really. But Garrett Mitchell seems to have a bright future, and even if he never sniffs the bigs (unlikely...he showed in the spring he's not far off), he dates Haley Cruse. So I admire him quite a lot for that.

Also, this dude graces the back of that same card:

Johnny, thanks for all the fun trade bait Sundays. I'll do my best to keep finding stuff for you to hold up my end of the deal. I'm trying, I promise..

Grizzly bears and snakes

One of the best inserts I've seen in the young 2021 cards season is Donruss' Unleashed. I saw Colbey pull one is his 2021 Donruss break (Mike Trout), so figured I'd check which Yanks are available.

After a quick eBay search, I found a low-priced card of Giancarlo Stanton. It felt appropriate.

Grizzly bears and snakes. Yes!

Stanton's swings can best described as 'unleashed'. The man swings and and unleashes his wrath on baseballs like no one else in the game. One doesn't really see how hard he hits balls until you see him on a regular basis (insert joke that no one sees him on a regular basis because he is on the IL). The compact stroke and - bam - the ball is out of the TV frame in a way that other players just can't replicate.

The creativity and design is refreshing in a time when Topps' inserts are just reprints and other boring subjects that allow them to shove as many players into a set as possible. I know there are some who don't care about inserts and don't care for innovation. This isn't innovation; it's creativity. And we don't get that from the officially licensed brand right now.

I haven't opened any Donruss this year. If I can find some, I will. But for now, I'll do what I can to pick up a few more Unleashed inserts. 

Phenomenon

When Collecting Cutch challenged us to post about our favorite John Travolta movie, I wasn't sure which direction to go. 

Pulp Fiction is an obvious choice. I like it, but wouldn't say I love it. Randomly, I really like Look Who's Talking, but I think that more has to do with watching it as a kid. Can't really miss with Grease, but I've seen it so many times (family favorite so it was on A LOT), that I actually sort of despise it now.

But when PWE showed up yesterday from a TCDB, it hit me like a bolt from the sky. Phenomenon. 

That's my favorite. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I certainly remember the story well. An average guy who can do extraordinary things. I sort of relate that back to this guy, who impresses me more and more by the day:

The story starts when George Malley, Travolta's character, sees an unexplained bolt of light from the sky. It sort of looks like this when it hits him:

Bam! The story goes on to show George suddenly being in touch with parts of his brain that most aren't, from quickly learning languages to being able to move objects to predicting disasters. He became a true phenom in every sense of the word, which is the name given to many young players in baseball. First-year phenoms or future stars:

(Although I must admit that it's quite a stretch by Topps calling Mike Tauchman a future star)

Ultimately the story has a sad ending, which I won't spoil. 

And while unconventional, I definitely think that this movie is my favorite of all of Travolta's hits. And if you want to read more on Travolta and how he unfortunately lost his wife to breast cancer, take a look at Collecting Cutch's contest post here. And let's continue to raise awareness for breast cancer.