Contest winnings from Padrographs

I've been a bit slow to post about some great card packages that came this spring, and my sincerest apologies to those who sent, namely Rod and Kerry!

The first I'll get to is Rod's from Padrographs, so Kerry's cards will have to wait for another day, although they are finally scanned. Rod held a contest, which ended up being a card draft of sorts. Here's the card I chose from the list:

There was no huge reason I chose this card. I picked towards the end of the list, and out of what was available, a numbered card of a team's Top 30 prospect seemed the way to go. According to MLB.com pipeline, Pavin Smith is Arizona's 15th best prospect, and is currently in AA ball.

Rod, being the generous dude he is, also sent some awesome Yankees.

This is the first 2019 Topps Total card I've received. This is a red parallel (I assume!), numbered to just 10. Luckily this card didn't have surface peeling like a lot of the ones I've seen.

Probably the coolest card - if you can call it that - is this card/coin combo of Aaron Judge from Baseball Treasure. It's cool, and puts those old Pinnacle Coin cards to shame. The Judge replica is pretty good, as well. What a unique card!

Speaking of Judge, here are a couple others that were new to me, both from last year's Big League.

While I've made it known I'm not the biggest Big League fan, I am happy to have these two Gleyber Torres cards anyways, especially with the 2018 being his rookie. He gets overshadowed a lot, but he's a special player and I'll take any of his RCs.

And another RC:

I liked this Grapefruit League insert as well. I thought the 2019 Series One Spring Training inserts were some of the better inserts this year, you know, for a 2019 set since none of them have good inserts anymore. I thought the designs were nice, but I wish they were less flat and could have used some shiny or sparkles or foil. But the concept was decent and the cards looked pretty great compared to the other inserts.

I think, although am not certain, that this is my first Paxton card as a Yankee. He's been pretty "meh" this season, but better as of late. The potential is there, but his control hasn't been good. He has a bad knee and that could be affecting him. Still, I like that he has the ability to shut down a lineup on any given night, I just hope we see it more!

Lastly, this is one of my very favorite Yankee cards, and I always smile when I get one.

Rod also included a 1986 Fleer pack. In addition to having the wrapper, which I still use for my various arts and crafts, here was the best card:

Thanks for the awesome package, Rod!

TTM Success: Tom Selleck

Last week, one of my cooler TTM successes arrived:

That's Tom Selleck, aka Mr. Baseball aka Jack Elliot. The card is cool enough in its own right, especially with Frank Thomas shagging grounders in a Yankee uniform. I wonder how something like that would go over now for a movie? Can you imagine the outrage if Bryce Harper filmed a movie in a Yankee uniform?

Magnum signed this card for me in about four weeks. His working address is c/o the National Rifle Association, so that's pretty weird. I like to picture Selleck sitting in a den with a bunch of mounted deer heads all around, smoking a cigar and having a grand old time with the boys. Something tells me this isn't quite how it goes around there.

The one downside is that the card came back pretty mangled. I've been preaching about sending cards unprotected and the fact that they usually come back fine, but I wasn't so lucky here.

Regardless, it still looks great and will have a place in my TTM binder. Thanks, Dr. Richard Burke!

SuperTraders #15: Night Owl Cards

My 15th #SuperTraders package arrived a month or so ago from Night Owl. Luckily I scanned the cards before I threw a bunch of unsorted bubble mailers in boxes while moving houses. I definitely want to thank Greg for sending some Yanks my way, as I know he likes keeping them in his collection.

NO included a note that 2016 Diamond Kings wasn't for him. I'm guessing it's because he pulled a bunch of Yanks. Seems like a fun break to me!

 

My favorite card is easily the Frank Crosetti. The Crow isn't included in many sets, so it's always special to get a new card of his. Fun fact: back in the late '90s I received a Crosetti TTM autograph. On my letter he wrote: "My memory doesn't allow me to remember much of my playing days, but I can say I was born to play baseball." Very cool. I cherish this photo very much.

Here is another 2015 Stadium Club I didn't have of Dan Mattingly. If this image is from what I think it is, then it's from the 1995 ALDS Game 2 when Mattingly went deep, providing us all with Gary Thorne's memorable "Hang onto the roof!" call. What a moment!

Love seeing Jeter on the top step celebrating, even though he wasn't officially on the roster.

Speaking of not on the roster...Robinson Cano. Man, he would look good as a Yankee. But you know what, they'd still be an average team.

This card is so freaking cool. Mr. Baseball himself, taking grounders as a Yankee. I love Frank Thomas there too. He looks good in Pinstripes! He's definitely marveling at Tom Selleck's mustache. Mr. Baseball isn't my favorite baseball movie, but I do like it. I'll probably see if I can get Magnum P.I. to sign this TTM.

What struck me about this card was "25 years of Topps Baseball Cards." Now we are at 65 years in 2016. How the heck did that happen? I'll say that I like this subset a lot more than Berger's Best! Don't overthink your odes to the past, Topps.

Lastly, this is one of the action photo variants from 2016 Heritage. Didi has turned himself into a very stellar shortstop. While he doesn't have the upside of guys like Seager and Xander and Lindor and Russell, somehow he's flirting with .300 and has 11 homers. I definitely didn't expect him to be quite this good.

Great package all around. Now I need to unpack my cards in the new house, a massive chore in its own right! Thanks for the cards, Greg.