Napkin Doon defaces the card of the year

Napkin Doon has defaced the Card of the Year ™, a crime punishable by banishment from the blogging community. However, he hasn’t done a blog post in over two years, so I guess that isn’t going to work. Next worst punishment: being featured on my blog.

Why he did it, we’ll never know. Actually, I do know. He is a Rangers fan, and hates Jose Bautista. He hates him so much he asked me to get him an NY Post from the day that Rougned Odor punched Bautista in the face. I obliged, and Napkin Doon sent me some cards in return.

Outside of this custom work of art, there were great Yankees in the batch:

Three Jose Canseco Yankee cards for my Unofficial Jose Canseco Yankees PC. I needed these.

My favorite card of the bunch is easily this framed Gypsy Queen Gary Sanchez. Little did Nap know he was sending me a cool parallel of a one day AL MVP.

Here is another future MVP, Jorge Mateo, on yellow Bowman parallel. His prospect status has cooled down a lot, but I’m still going to gobble up his cards.

Wow, another MVP. This time, MVP of the 1999 ALCS. This is not one of the cooler insert sets of the 1990s, although I’m sure Adidas would disagree.

I like Oscar Gamble. A lot. He had some goofy hair. But why can’t I get Tino in an Archives set?

Speaking of Tino!

Boom. Love this vintage. Elston Howard, one of the most underrated Yankees of all time.

This Bernie is sweet. Eat your heart out, Mike Trout.

And the best of the rest!

Napkin Doon, next time put your high-end artistic skills to work in a more positive way, ok?

Playing some Jenga in the Burbs

I'm sure the horrid post title as been used. If not, no one use it ever again.

Jenga is a great game. I haven’t played in a long time, but I always enjoyed it. I’ve been to a couple bars in NYC that have board games, and it’s always fun to hear a Jenga tower falling over every five minutes.

Tony Burbs of Wrigley Roster Jenga sent me some great Yanks last week. It was our first deal, and I’m glad to have had the honor of being the first Yankees collector he has traded with. He mentioned that in the note, and also said he hopes I find these cards to be productive. He also used some sweet orange tape on his mailers.

The very first card behind his note was a James Kaprielian, so yeah, off to a great start, Tony Burbs. 

Now before I get too far and show some other cards, I needed to get to this card while I hopefully (maybe?) have your attention. Feast your eyes on this:

Holy smokes. This Pinnacle Clear Vision of Ichiro is truly awesome and one of the coolest cards I've gotten in a long time. From its refractory shine to the clearcut portion of the card, this is so pretty it makes me forget there are no team logos on there. It’s just a very special feeling card. At first, I scanned it against a dark background, but then decided to put some white against it, and the results were even more stunning, with a hidden sky type of effect. Ichiro is awesome (and a ninja), so I gotta say this is my favorite card of the package. I know that Tony agreed as well.

There was some other prospects too - past and present, which is always appreciated since I shelp these off for TTMs and often forget to replace them.

By the way, Nick Johnson was a beast in the minors. I can't even imagine the type of hype he would create now. In A+ ball he hit .317/.456/.538 and followed it up in AA with a line of .345/.525/.548 and 123 walks! 

This is my first look at 2016 Pro Debut, which is always a favorite set of mine. I like Degano, although I’m surprised he hasn’t pitched yet this season. I also like the light blue color.

So this card is exceptionally cool and I had ZERO clue it existed. I’m a little mad at myself because I actually made a Billy Crystal custom to send to him TTM (request is pending), but I would have much rather sent this card. Maybe I still will. I love this Tristar set. The cards look beautiful signed.

A new Yankees Jose Canseco! I didn’t have this one. I am definitely starting a mini Canseco Yankees PC.

Holograms need to come back. Where the hell did they go? Denny’s needs to have cards again too.

These are originals. Tony, you shouldn’t have!

There was plenty of shiny to go around as well.

I like this Jorge Posada card commemorating the first HR at new Yankee Stadium. I was at the game and remember the homer. They lost 10-2, so kind of a damper, but still cool to know I was there.

I’ll end this with a card of the Mick. I wasn’t collecting back in the late 2000s when Topps was putting out those massive Mantle sets, so I frequently receive them in trade packages. However, I haven’t seen this one. It’s a refreshing image of his. I don’t recognize it, so nice change-up there.

Tony Burbs, thanks my friend!

More Canseco? More Canseco.

I had fun posting about Jose Canseco cards last week. Yes, he barely played for the Yanks. Yes, his career is tainted due to admitted PED usage. But growing up, he was a big name with big power and was fun to watch. Any at bat could have led to a massive homer. So when the Yankees added him to their roster in 2000, it was awesome to see Jose Canseco put on the Pinstripes, even for just a short time. He even got an AB in the World Series as a pinch hitter.

After showing off two cards of his I found, I did a little searching and was surprised by how many sets he actually appeared in as a Yankee. On COMC alone, I count 23 different cards of him as a Yankee. Crazy! I want them all.

Well, I found this guy for a good price, so I had to. Fun fact, this set is the first Tino bat relic I ever owned as well. I thought the piece of bat was kind of cool too. I'm not sure what the dark stain is on the upper left. Then, there is some dark shading on the right. Interesting.

Now, I guess I am on a chase for Jose Canseco Yankee cards. I didn’t intend on this to be a mini PC, but I think it could be fun. I’m not going to go nuts, but maybe I’ll throw in a couple every time I make a COMC order.

I'm Jose Canseco! I'm Jose Canseco!

One of the best scenes at the end of Liar Liar is when Jim Carrey, getting dragged out of court, repeatedly yells "I'm Jose Canseco! I'm Jose Canseco!"

I've been undergoing a massive card organization project. Honestly, I sort of started without knowing where I'm going with it.

As a result, I have a massive box just filled with Yanks. Thousands of Yankees, completely unsorted. Oy. It's a headache.

It's mostly cards from around 1998-2016, all mashed up and blending together. But when flipping through the never ending stacks, sometimes a player or card sticks out. Sometimes it's both.

Jose Canseco.

I probably only own about four or five different Jose Canseco Yankee cards, but man, the ones I do have are super cool. These two were located next to each other in one of my stacks, and they really just sort of stopped me dead in my tracks so that I could admire them.

Shiny. Obscure. Loud. A perfect example of Jose Canseco's random tenure with the Yankees in 2000.

I still think it's pretty cool he spent a few months with the Yanks. I think they claimed him off waivers to block another team, and ended up getting him from the Rays. I remember watching live on TV when he did this:

For some reason, I've always loved cards of guys who barely spent any time with the Yanks. I'm not sure why, but I guess I find it cool when thei short-term stop is immortalized in cardboard.

If you come across any more Canseco Yankee cards, let me know. I'd be interested in trading for them!