Friday the Zapteenth

A week or so ago, I got a nice bubble mailer – or a mini zapping – as he referred to it, from Zippy Zappy himself. While I don’t think it’s fair to classify it as a “mini” anything, I have been on the receiving end of his major zaps before, so I understand what he’s saying.

Still, it was a fun, generous package.

The highlight for me was this IP Domingo German autograph. I believe Zipster said he got this from an acquaintance who knows German, and he had two cards signed. He immediately said one was for me, which was so cool.

German has a lot of talent. He came to the Yankees from the Marlins in the Martin Prado/David Phelps for Nathan Eovaldi trade in 2014. After undergoing TJ Surgery in 2015, he made his big league debut last year and was called up to the Majors again last week. He had a nice outing in mop up duty of Sonny Gray last night, firing three innings of one-hit ball while striking out three.

 

Keeping it to autographs, we’ve got two: Mark Melancon and Nathan Mikolas. The Melcancon tricked me. It looks like a sticker but it’s not…it just has the outline there, I guess for the other stickers or so they all look the same, I don’t know. But the outline definitely make me believe it was a sticker autograph until I took the card out to scan it.

I just came across this great article that Mikolas is now acoach in the Marlins system. I hadn’t heard of him since the Yankees released him after the 2016 season, so cool to see he’s now on the other side helping to prepare young players.

Sweet relic of Chien-Ming Wang. I will never forget how running the bases ruined his career.

 

TTM fodder! I am definitely going to send these three cards out for a signature. I love the Bristro card from 2017 Choice. Also, Otto and Bristro have some very pun-able names, so I hope we get to see them with the Yankees one day.

And two cards of the Baby Bombers! While the Topps NOW inserts were a bit of an odd inclusion in 2018 Topps, it’s still a new Judge card. And Topps Fire was straight <fire emoji>, so that’s a great RC of the Yankees new villain Tyler Austin.

So sure, maybe it was “mini” compared to some previous zappings, but it still packed a big punch. Thanks, ZZ!

Who needs The Fugees when we've got Fuji?

There have been rumors for the last few years that The Fugees will get back together. Frankly, I don't care if it ever happens. As long as we still have our San Jose Fuji, I'm good.

Recently, Fuji posted like 30 bubble mailers that were heading out. Luckily, my name was one on of them. I emailed Fuji about my new address, which made me feel a little bad. "Yo Fuji, thanks for the free cards, just send them to the right place." It wasn't quite like that, I just knew we hadn't traded since I moved.

His package did not disappoint. It was quite spectacular, actually. Check out these Tinos!

The Ticket Masters is one from 1998 Leaf Rookies and Stars. It has Chuck Knoblauch on the other side. I've know it has existed, I just never snagged it.

I was after that 2002 Upper Deck Reverse Negative Gold Jersey forever too.

And that wasn't it! He also included a brand new CC relic, and a sweet Mark Melancon 1/1 printing plate!

Great, great package. Thank you, my friend.

TTM recap - 2012 Spring Training

This spring, I sent 41 TTM requests out. I received successes from 17 of them. I also received one failure (a card returned unsigned). Therefore, 23 went unanswered. Now, I will never write any of these off. They could still trickle in, but for the most part, it looks like I batted a little under .500 this spring. I know that’s part of the game, so I’m not upset. A few players were reaches and I knew that going in.

Here are my successes from 2012 Spring Training:

Ackley, Dustin

Adams, David

Brackman, Andrew

Higashioka, Kyle

Kuroda, Kiroki

Laird, Brandon

Martinez, Tino

Melancon, Mark

Nix, Jayson

Noesi, Hector

Pendleton, Lance

Rivera, Mariano

Romine, Austin

Soriano, Rafael

Stoneburner, Graham

Taillon, Jameson

Warren, Adam

TTM Success: Mark Melancon

Former Yankee and current Red Sox (boo!) Mark Melancon signed a card for me sent to Boston spring training. Mark went out of his way to personalize the card. I don't love personalized 'graphs on cards, but it's not like I sell these anyways, so it's no big deal. I always liked Melancon when he was in the Yanks' system, and I thought he never got a fair chance before being traded. I'm sure he'll do well in Boston, just hopefully not against the Yanks.