Blog Bat Around: My All Autograph Team

Kudos to Zippy Zappy for a very fun and creative Blog Bat Around.

My all autograph team! Being a pretty big autograph collector, I felt like this was one I definitely wanted to think about pretty heavily.

ZZ gave a few guidelines, but I also imposed a restriction on myself: all autographs must have been obtained by me via TTM. I don't have a huge certified autograph collection, but that does remove a few players from consideration, like Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks. Sorry, guys.

Now that those parameters are in place, I decided to not only list out my starting line-up, but I blew it out a little more and created a full organization.

• Full 25-man roster, including: Starting lineup, Bench, Starting pitching staff, Relievers
• Major League Coaching Staff
• Suspended/Inactive
• 40-man roster: 15 Additional Players yet to make their MLB debut
• Front Office
• Play-by-play TV/radio teams
• Celebrity Fan
• Opposing Team

So this shouldn't be too hard, right? Remember, these were all obtained by me via TTM:

Catcher: Yogi Berra

Hard to argue with one of the greatest catchers ever behind the plate.

1B: Tino Martinez

I have better statistical 1B I could have chosen. Mattingly. McGwire. Konerko. But I have to give the nod to my favorite all-time player as my starting 1B.

2B: Joe Morgan

This was a tough decision for me. Originally I penciled in Bobby Richardson, but this really isn't as close as I tried to make it, despite how annoying Morgan was on Sunday Night Baseball. Did you know he played for the Big Red Machine and that they would have beaten the '98 Yankees?

3B: Adrian Beltre

Graig Nettles would have been a strong contender for this spot, but he was mean to me when I met him in person. No place in my organization for that. So I'll go with a future HOFer in Beltre.

SS: Phil Rizzuto

Another HOFer at short. I wish it was Jeter or ARod, but not a bad consolation prize here.

LF: Tony Gwynn

Ok, so he only played 51 career games in LF. Good enough for a spot in my OF.

CF: Mike Trout

Iconic RC (not a reprint) of the best player in the game. Was lucky enough to get this c/o the Arizona Fall League a while back.

RF: Aaron Judge

I may have autographs of more accomplished young hitters, but Judge is turning into a terrific all-around hitter and outfielder. I need some power and OBP in my lineup, so he gets the start in right.

DH: Hideki Matsui

I was at the 2009 World Series Game 6 when Matsui had 6 RBIs, leading the Yankees to the clinching victory in their last WS. He brings the clutch gene to my lineup.

Here's my bench, consisting of a backup 1B, backup 3B (and knuckleballer), RH pinch-hitter/outfielder, and backup catcher.

Bench: Don Mattingly

Bench: Jorge Posada

Bench: Juan Gonzalez

Juan Gone provides the power as a pinch hitter.


Bench:  Wade Boggs

SP1: Clayton Kershaw

While not the greatest signed card (still no idea how I got this one, as it wasn't the card I sent), it still counts. Kershaw gets the Opening Day nod, although maybe wouldn't start Game 1 of a playoff series. (bad joke, I know)

SP2: Ron Guidry

Lefties go back-to-back in this rotation.

SP3: Roger Clemens

You could slot any of these guys anywhere in the rotation. Clemens goes 3rd to split up lefties on each side.

SP4: Andy Pettitte

This was a tough call, but Pettitte is a warrior and shuts down opposing teams after any loss.

SP5: Whitey Ford

I guess this is W. Ford versus Whitey Ford. He is the fifth starter because of his cranky TTM response to me, and he's getting skipping in the rotation if we have any games postponed for rain. CHECK OUT THE CRANKY TTM RETURN HERE.

Spot Starter/Long-Man: CC Sabathia

Closer: Mariano Rivera

Reliever: Andrew Miller

Reliever: Dellin Betances

Reliever: David Robertson

Reliever: Rafael Soriano

Reliever: Lee Smith

SSPD/Inactive: Goose Gossage (suspended for season without pay for constant remarks detrimental to the organization)

Manager: Ralph Houk

Bench Coach: Joe Girardi

Pitching Coach: Larry Rothschild

Hitting Coach: Chris Chambliss

3B Coach: Phil Nevin

Did you know he's the current Yankees 3B coach?

1B Coach: Roy White

40-Man:

15 players yet to make their MLB debuts, or never made it to the show.

Front Office:

GM: Brian Cashman

Ass't GM: Bob Watson

Ass't GM: Al Rosen

Play-by-play TV: Harry Doyle

Color Commentator TV: Jerry Coleman

Play-by-play Radio : Michael Kay

Color Commentator Radio: Paul O'Neill

Celebrity Fan: Billy Crystal

There's my organization!

Instead of honorable mentions/just missed, I created an opposing team, because my squad needs someone to play, right?

Catcher: Sandy Alomar Jr.

1B: Mark McGwire

2B: Ryne Sandberg

3B: Eddie Mathews

SS: Gil McDougald

OF: Al Kaline

OF: Pete Rose

OF: Vladimir Guerrero

DH: Albert Belle

SP: Mike Mussina

Manager: Tony LaRussa

So here's how the lineups stack up.

Who you got?

Oh Happy Gley!

Today, top prospect Gleyber Torres will make his Yankees debut. Second base has seen a lack of production, with Neil Walker hitting .179 and Tyler Wade hitting .086.

Wade bums me out, as he's always been very good in the minors, struggled briefly in the Majors last year, had a great spring training, but has been putrid in the Majors once again. It's a small sample size, 101 PAs across 43 games, but he had a big opportunity to take the job and run with it this April, and he hasn't done it. Hopefully it'll click for him at the Big League Level soon.

With the lack of production, Gleyber Torres finally gets the call. It would have happened last year except he required TJ Surgery after an awkward slide.

He had a rough spring, but then went out and hit .347 in AAA to start off the year. I except him to be slotted right into 2B, as Miguel Andujar has taken a hold of 3B with a very strong last week, going 9 for 20 with 5 doubles, a triple, and a homer. Pretty good for a rook!

I hope Gleyber can come up and take the job and run with it, but there will be some growing pains I'm sure. Still, it's exciting and hopefully he can help spark the Yankees to find some consistency.

I just hope the fans don't boo him if he goes 0 for 4 today.

Welcome to the show, Gleyber! Make yourself comfortable.

Sometimes red ink is ok

I remember being a student and getting a paper or test returned. A lack of red ink usually meant I did pretty well. The more red ink, the worse it was going to be. I remember a biology test once where it looked like my teacher cleaned up a murder scene with my paper.

But there are times when red ink can be ok. In fact, it can signify an A+. In this instance, this is my first red ink autograph of anytime, and it comes to me courtesy of Collecting Cutch:

Look at that beaut! That is a card I've wanted for a long time. The red ink as part of a Team USA card makes it even cooler in my opinion.

Equally as cool for me is a card I never thought I'd find, let alone own. This is when relics were still pretty new, and having three star members of the Yankees on one? Good luck. It's still a hard card to locate, and I'm not sure how Mr. Cutch tracked one down and sent it my way.

Part of me thinks Brian (the mastermind behind Collecting Cutch) looks out for me because I'm a fellow player collector, but I know he's helped my collection far more than I've helped his.

He also sent me a few cool Yankee cards. This card stuck out to me. Is Clemens about to throw the bat at Piazza here, only to be blocked out by the Upper Deck Vintage logo???

Also, the back tells me Tino had three hits! Cool. I don't remember that.

A Stanton base card! This are still new and rare and exciting to me. It's my second after Heritage.

A few more from 2018, including a rookie of Miguel Andujar. He has 9 hits this year, and 6 have gone for extra bases. Once he settles in, he's going to be a good one.

Oh, and this guy is really good too. Just gets better by the game, it seems.

Brian, this was a beyond generous card package, with two big old whales I never thought I'd get. Thank you!

Queen for a day

On Friday night, after a particularly stressful end of the week of work, I skipped out to Target after the kids went to bed. Saturday was the first day of tee ball, and I hadn’t bought my little guy an aluminum bat.

I went straight to sporting goods, which is basically an aisle near, but not in, the toy section and found a bat. No sense going to Dick’s and spending at least $30 for tee ball. Nope, a Rawlings at $14.99 will do. He had a few good rips during batting practice the next day and kept talking about how powerful his bat is. Pretty cool.

As one might expect, after I found the bat I just happened to take the long way to cash register and just happened to pass the card aisle. Quite a coincidence.

There really wasn’t much there except loose packs of Opening Day and two blasters of Gypsy Queen. I figured there wouldn’t be any Heritage, and I was right. Still, I hadn’t bought any retail since flagship, so snagged one of the blasters of GQ.

For someone with next to no luck within retail, I think I did ok! The first pack I opened was the back of parallels, which I guess are purplish? I’m not really sure. The best of the group was this Goldy.

In pack #2, these two cards were back to back.

I was really happy to get an Ohtani, of course. I’ll probably hang onto it, although it probably would have paid for the blaster.

As for the Devers, of course I get a Red Sox. But as many have noted, these cards are very awesome. Does anyone want to swap this for a Yankees tarot? If not, I’m sure this will end up with one of my Red Sox friends.

The next pack had this (odds 1:68), which is cool because I NEVER pull autographs. This is going to Zippy Zappy. The card was backwards in the pack, and I really hoped for Ohtani when I turned it around. Still cool to get some ink though.

In the next pack was my lone Yankees, Mr. Sanchez.

Lastly, I didn’t notice either of these until I was scanning the cards above. The codes are the same so they didn’t stick out when I did a code-check. Not bad pulls with the no nameplate Giolito and the logo swap Kimbrel. 

Overall, I gotta say it was a decent blaster, and a pretty fun rip. These cards are really nice, and I definitely think are one of the best products I’ve seen in a while between the base card design and attractive inserts.

Opening Day seems like forever ago

Maybe it's because the season started in March, but Opening Day feels like it was more than 2.5 weeks ago.

Since starting out of the gate with two homers, Giancarlo Stanton has only gone deep one time. Coming off of 59 homers, it would be easy to expect the number to be twice that so far. But he endured a pretty brutal slump and has only recently started to turn it around.

I'm not particularly worried. It's a 14 game stretch, and he was definitely pressing to impress the home fans for the first time. It feels a lot like Alex Rodriguez in 2004.  In his first April in NY, he only hit .253 with 4 HRs and 8 RBI. Even for the year, he hit 36 Hrs and drove in 106. While respectable, that was coming off of three straight huge years in Texas, and then in 2005 followed by an MVP-season with 54 homers. There's no doubt there's an adjustment period.

As long as he stays healthy, Stanton will put up solid numbers and be an asset to the team. He won't replicate 59 homers I assume, but what if he hits 42? Hardly something to sneeze at.

Regardless, I loved his Opening Day performance, and it was an easy decision for me to pick up the Topps NOW card commemorating the day.

Topps also added a holographic technology to the back of the card, which is new this year. I didn't know Topps NOW counterfeiting was an issue, but I assume this will help combat that.

Pretty cool card, and I expect to add a few more of these this season.