JBF Epic Boxes: Pack 4

Here we go with team bag #4 of the Jaybarkerfan Epic Boxes! What will this team bag entail?

Brien Taylor minor league cards! He was supposed to be one of the best lefties ever. That didn't pan out, did it? Given his character and questionable make up, he probably would have ended up being a PC guy for me. See, Tino Martinez and Michael Pineda.

A Shane Spencer Bowman RC, which for some reason, always eluded me. Also, Fleer Metal. Holy crap. Fleer Metal, please come back. I'm not even joking a little. Who doesn't need pitchers breaking through stone walls?

And the card of the pack? Yep, for the second straight pack, a Don Mattingly oddball!

Total cards in pack: 39
Running total: 98

Top 5 TTMs of 2013

Admittedly, I don't love countdowns. I especially don't love year-end countdowns. I don't know why, just never have. Maybe it's because the Letterman Top 10 got so overblown and overdone. In high school or college, I'd listen to a presentation by a dean of "Top 10 Reasons to Stay out of Trouble" or something, and it was always so lame. Older people tended to use "Top 10 Reasons..." as a way to relate to young people and show how hip they were. It always bugged me.

Then, last week, I was in Maryland for the holidays, and the local guys were doing "Top 10 moments in DC sports for 2013." I just felt like the guys mailed it in because they didn't want to be working the day after Christmas. I don't blame them one bit. I care nothing about DC sports, so perhaps that's why it rubbed me the wrong way or just reaffirmed why I don't dig Top 10s.

Anyways, I'll be extremely hypocritical and do a Top 5 TTMs of the year post. I'm doing this because I'm lazy, but feel like I should do one more blog post this year. See? I'm mailing it in.

5. Eric Jagielo, Yankees Prospect

Eric Jagielo was the Yankees first round draft choice this year. A 3B out of Notre Dame, he was one of the draft's most polished hitters. He was assigned to short season Staten Island. I didn't have a Yankee card of him yet, but still wanted to try him TTM. I started sending these Yankee Stadium cards as a solution for that. I don't love the "signature" cards or an index cards, so I thought this was a cool solution.

4. Jerry Lumpe

Really, this card is on here because it's a 1958 Topps card. I love getting TTMs on vintage cards (eeek, or defacing them!), and I only got a few of them this year. Lumpe's signature looks great on the card, and his turnaround time was very fast. Just a really, really nice success.

3. Shane Spencer

Spencer, to me, really embodied those great Yankees teams of the 1990's. He came up and won a job on the magical 1998 team with a torrid September. I feel like many of the Yankees fringe OF prospects refuse to come up and win a job. Spencer played like he never wanted to go back to the minors. He was a key contributor in the playoffs as well, and was a very likable guy.

2. Bucky Dent

Memorable moment, on a fantastic card. Enough said.

1. Andy Pettitte

This is my first Pettitte autograph. I figured I'd never see this card again, so I sent a crappy Pacific card that I figured I'd never see again. Well, I did see it again, this time with Andy Pettitte's autograph on it. Damn! Regardless, I'm extremely thankful to add this to my TTM collection, as it's one of the best successes I've ever had.

There you have it, my best TTMs from 2013. I'll probably do this again in late December of 2014 because I love countdowns.

TTM Success: Shane Spencer

I love getting TTM success from the Yankees of my childhood teams...mostly 1995-2001. Shane Spencer was a hero in 1998. He came up in August and went out and won a starting job on a team that won 114 regular season games. No easy task. I feel like it's rare these days...when a player comes up and refuses to be sent down.

Shane was in the new the past two days for an unfortunate reason. A caller impersonating him called into an Albany sports radio show and admitted to dabbling in PEDs. Jeter actually heard the interview when someone played it for him and called BS. He called Shane Spencer's cell phone (he is currently coaching for Somerset in the Patriot League), and he said he felt sick after hearing it. Spencer issued a statement saying that it wasn't him, and I hope people believe him. It was certainly irresponsible of the radio station to air, especially because the call came from a number that wasn't associated with Shane's contact info.

Regardless, I was thrilled to get these to cards back signed!