Highly under-promising and completely over-delivering

It was all so innocent.

In an email exchange, Brian of Highly Subjective andCompletely Arbitrary mentioned he was looking to unload some of his extra cards, and asked if I wanted some of the Yankees. Sure, I said. I can always use them for TTMs and whatnot since I’m a disorganized collector who doesn’t have want lists. I gladly offered to pay for shipping, but Brian said I was doing him a favor.

Seriously, what kind of guy sends a flat rate full of Yankees, and says I’m doing him a favor? Brian, that’s who.

I was expecting a lot of cards I already had that would be great for TTMs, and to be fair, there is a ton of TTM fodder. But Brian also massively undersold a bunch of the cards he’d be sending my way. I was expecting a lot of dupes, but honestly, that was far from the case. The box had it all!

I’m not even sure where to start, so I guess I’ll show off some vintage first, which I wasn’t expecting in the least. The oldest card:

Yep, 1955 Bowman. Great set. The most surprising card?

Wow. A Munson 1976 Kellogg’s! Holy smokes. It’s in excellent condition too. I believe I only have one other Kellogg’s card in my collection, and definitely not Munson. This is a treasure.

Ok, fast forward from vintage to present:

Those 2016 Bowman’s Best cards are great. I didn’t even know these existed, but those are legit cards from 2016 that feature Sanchez and Judge in Big League uniforms talking about Big League accomplishments. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s getting harder to acquire Sanchez cards, so this is very appreciated.

Two Big Mikes I didn’t have! I was surprised to check my “haves” list and that the 2016 Gyspy Queen wasn’t on there. I guess I’ve been slacking on his newer stuff.

There were some great minor league cards too. Ruben Rivera and Mark Hutton were featured in a ton of products, by the way. 

Speaking of the minors, how about this managerial card??

 

I have fond memories of Tate Seefriend as a Binghamton Met. He was a great power hitter. I might try and locate an address for him to try and get a TTM autograph.

Refractors and shiny cards were aplenty as well! I really like the pink Dellin.

And a couple other personal favors, although I’m still not doing the package justice.

Brian, I know you said I did you a favor, but that just can’t be so. This was a classic case of under-promising and over-delivering. Thank you for all of these!

Feeling Chipper

When I was younger, I liked to enter contests. Contests back then took a little more effort, not like these ‘leave a comment on my blog’ or ‘retweet my post’ contests (by the way, don’t forget to enter my currentcontest – just leave a comment on yesterday’s post!). I never won anything big, but I always like to put in the effort.

Being semi-artistic, I always liked contests that involved sports artwork. I routinely entered those “your drawing could be on a sports card” type of contests. I cannot remember if it was Beckett or Tuff Stuff, but in 1996 or so, there was a contest for the best Chipper Jones drawing. Although he was a Brave, that was right up my alley.

I don’t have a photo of the artwork, but I do remember drawing a picture of Chipper, and he was pointing toward the sky. I also drew him on clouds instead of a baseball field. I don’t know, I was 12 or whatever. Not sure what my train of thought was. Kind of morbid, looking back.

My memory also fails me as to what the grand prize for winning was. I think it was a trip to meet Chipper.

Regardless, I finished my picture, using my finest colored pencils I might add, and sent it to wherever it needed to go. A few months went by, and I never heard anything, but then one day this showed up in my mailbox:

Again, details escape me, but I don’t think any letter or anything came with it, but I’ve always just assumed it was a consolation prize for my drawing. Regardless, it’s pretty cool to have a small signed photo of a future Hall of Famer.

Now go enter my contest.

TTM Success: Juan Gonzalez (and a contest)

Ok, I feel a little bad about this. I got another Juan Gonzalez TTM success.

Over summer, I got my first Juan Gonzalez TTM success. But then JBF had a tradeathon, and I snagged a Gonzalez from one of my favorite insert sets growing up: 1997 Studio Hard Hats. I requested the card with the sole purpose of getting it signed. It looks great, although it smeared just a tad. Still, cool to have it signed. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

TTM etiquette-wise, I really don’t like to re-send to players, unless it’s a guy I regularly write to, like Ty Hensley. I always throw in extras and whatnot if I do. My general thought is to not inundate someone with so much mail that they stop signing. I’m all about sharing the wealth a little bit.

Now I’m going to share the wealth with you. You see, I included an extra card and Mr. Juan Gone was nice enough to sign it as well. But I don’t need it. I got what I wanted. So, leave a comment on this post to enter, and I’ll randomly draw someone’s name and will send the card out via a PWE. Please keep in mind I cannot guarantee the authenticity of the signature, but I'd like to believe it's authentic, of course.

Feel free to share, although I’m not going to award bonus entries. One per person. Entries close at 11:59pm ET on Sunday night. Good luck!

Tom, I wish I knew...

On Saturday, I received a PWE from P-Town Tom with three 2017 Topps Series One cards - Billy Butler, Tyler Austin, and Gary Sanchez. In his note, Tom said that maybe I could explain why Billy Butler has a Series One card.

Tom, I honestly can't.

Butler signed with the Yankees in mid-September and had 32 plate appearances in 12 games. He is a free agent and (as of writing this) remains unsigned.

I'm not positive why his name would have come up as a player to be included as a 2017 Yankee. I know that Series One tends to be a "look back" at the the prior year, but this still doesn't make much sense. The only real reason I can think of is that he joined the Yankees too late to get a card in Update, and Topps wanted to give him one in 2017. Maybe a stretch, but that's the best I can do.

There are a few others I would have rather seen as a Yankee if we are going to select someone random, such as Ronald Torreyes or Tommy Layne, both guys who spent far more time with the Big League club than Butler.

I also can't help but notice there was no Alex Rodriguez or Mark Teixeira farewell cards. Both guys made their retirement announcements long before Butler was a Yankee. Will they be saved for Series Two? Will they get one at all? There's over 1,000 homers between the two of them. I know Rodriguez is controversial, but it's surprising Teixeira wouldn't be given a final card. Considering that Nathan Eovaldi got a card after missing the final two months with TJ surgery going into a free agent off-season, it's a little odd not to see a guy like Teixeira in there.

Honestly, there are a lot of head-scratchers with this checklist, and Butler is right up there. I'm sure the checklist has to be finalized by a certain date, but it's still a bit odd to try and piece together. I'd assume this will be Butler's only appearance as a Yankee on cardboard, but who am I kidding? Heritage is out in three weeks, so we shall see soon enough.

Dr. K

One of the best guys out there, @YanksandBeans, recently sent me a surprise PWE with one card in it last week. I sent him one with a Charlie Hayes auto, and he may have felt the need to even the score, which he didn’t need to do. I was happy to send along a dupe to him.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I have to say, I was pretty damn thrilled to add the above Dwight Gooden autograph to my collection!

I didn’t have any Doc Gooden autos, so this on-card beauty was very welcomed. Doc was obviously a polarizing figure, but he really contributed to the Yankees 1996 run. I actually remember in 1996 (I was 12 at the time), driving somewhere with my friend and his dad. I remember two things his Dad asked me in the card, knowing I was a big Yankees fan (and so was here):

1. Why do you suppose the Yankees needed to trade for Luis Sojo?
2. Boy, where would the Yankees be without Doc Gooden?

Overall, his numbers weren’t spectacular, but he really kept the Yankees afloat with valuable innings. David Cone was lost for much of the year with his aneurysm, and Gooden filled in admirably.

His numbers were poor at the beginning of the season (despite his no-hitter) and he tired down the stretch, but in those hot summer months, he gave the team a huge boost that is easy to overlook. In fact, in three starts from July 23-Aug 2, he threw 24 innings and only gave up 2 ERs, including a complete game shutout of the Royals on August 2. On August 12, his ERA sat at a tidy 3.88 (keep in mind offensive numbers during these years). He was reliable, effective, and ended up tossing 170 innings the year after he was suspended from the game.

While he was left off of the post-season roster, Doc helped that 1996 team win a World Series as much as anyone.

Nick, thank you for the awesome card!