New Cards And A Challenge

Whooo Hooo, problems fixed with my laptop. I can now blog again. Hallelujah! Praise The Lord!

Now that I'm done with the cartwheels and screaming, I can continue on with the blog post.

I've been neglecting my Mark Teixeira PC. That's not to say I've done it purposely or anything. I've not been able to add to the collection for various reasons. The other day, I was flipping through the Teixeira box where I keep my game used cards and autographs and thought there was a bit too much room in this box. So, I decided to challenge myself.

By the end of 2015, I want to have at least 100 different game used cards and 20 different certified autographed cards in my Teixeira PC. I decided to give myself an obtainable goal because I know myself. If I don't obtain a goal I may give up on it and woe is me and all that garbage. I mean, who wants to put themselves through that? I have enough going on in my life that makes me want to close my door and wallow in the dark. My card collection is supposed to bring me joy, so I say let it.

So, I have been adding some new cards to the Teixeira PC, trying to inch it closer to the numbers I set. If you read the last blog post, you may have seen that I did add a new certified autograph to the PC:

A 2003 Donruss Signature Series Teixeira autograph. I explained why this card means so much to me in my last blog post. I do wish that the card companies never decided to use sticker autographs on the cards back then. I'm glad we are seeing more on card autographs again. This is autograph number 12 in the PC.

I was also able to add 2 game used cards to the collection as well:

I received this 2007 Ultimate Collection Dual Prince Fielder/Mark Teixeira game used card from a friend in my team collectors group. It's numbered to 75 and I'm thrilled to have it. This is number 64 in the PC

Number 65 arrived today. It's a 2004 Ultimate Collection Ultimate Game Patch. It's a 2 color patch that's numbered to 75. I seem to have a thing for cards that are numbered to 75. Regardless of that, I got this card off eBay for less than seven bucks. I love me a deal. When I find one, I pounce.

I'm hoping that 2015 is a big year for my collection and for Teixeira. I want to see him stay healthy and return to numbers that us Yankees fans are used to seeing. If he can hit .250 30 HR and 100 RBI's and play a gold glove caliber first base, I will be very happy. Having a healthy Teixeira back will help the Yankees immensely in their quest for the AL East crown this season, especially with Boston and Toronto getting better. If I can reach my goals for my Teixeira PC, that would make me even happier.

All this talk is making me want baseball back, now! Hurry up spring!

Where Have You been?

I realize it's been over 2 months since I last posted a blog post. A lot has been going on the past few months. I was out of work, but have since found a temp job that will be a couple months work, my laptop has been on the fritz as I haven't been able to save any photo's to it as the memory has been full and no matter what I dump it still is full. It's frustrating that I can't save pictures to use on my blog because I have memory issues. I think this laptop is mocking me.

With all of this going on, I really haven't felt like posting any blogs. Doesn't mean I have stopped collecting. Lord knows I will never do that. I can't give up my precious cardboard, my awesome autographs, my beautiful bobbleheads, my stuff.

I've added new cards to the Sports room and even started a couple of PC collections (As if I didn't have enough already.) and have been organizing my cards, which is no picnic. I have also created new binders for my Yankees Allan & Ginter and Stadium Club cards. I'm going to create one for my Yankees Gypsy Queen cards next.

Question: Do you guys put the Panini Donruss cards with your older Donruss or have you started a new binder for Panini products? I'm toying with the idea of starting a Panini only binder for the newer releases.

I do need to buy some more binders. I have a bunch of cards in 9 pocket sleeves without binders so I need to pick up couple. Plus, I am running out of room in my 5 shelf bookcase, so I need to pick up another soon.

Well, that's what I've been up to. I'm still here and as soon as I can figure out the memory issue I can start posting pictures. I plan for 2015 to be a big year for the Sports Room and I hope you all stick around.

Tino Martinez Day

Today, The Yankees honored a player who was instrumental in winning 4 world championships in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 with a plaque out in the famed Monument Park. That player is Tino Martinez, who also just happens to be my favorite Yankee.

My earliest memories of Tino Martinez was watching him kill the Yankees as a member of the Mariners during the 1995 American League Division Series, batting .409 with a homer and 5 RBI's. When I heard Don Mattingly was taking a year off to decide his future, I wondered if the Yankees could get their hands on the guy from Seattle. Sure enough, the Yankees traded Sterling Hitchcock and Russ Davis for Jim Mecir, Jeff Nelson and Contantino Martinez. Highway robbery if it ever was. Jeff Nelson was a huge part of the championship teams as well as Tino was.

Over the years, I got to watch Tino launch home runs over the right field wall at the old Yankee Stadium and make some beautiful plays over at first base. I always felt Tino was robbed of a Gold Glove or two, but because the AL also had JT Snow, Rafael Palmero and John Olerud, Tino never won a Gold Glove and I think that's a shame. He was a tremendous fielding first baseman.

Tino's best season was in 1997, when he hit 44 home runs and had 141 RBI's. He finished second in the voting for Most Valuable Player, losing out to Ken Griffey Jr. He also participated and won the Home Run Derby during that season's All Star Game festivities, which was a joy for me.

My two most memorable Tino moments were in 1996 and 1998 respectively. First, during the early part of the 1996 season, Tino had started off slow and was being booed by Yankee fans. The Yankees were in Baltimore and one of the games wen late into extra innings. Tino belted a game winning home run and was cheered loudly when the team came back to NY. The second, was obviously during Game 1 of the 1998 World Series when he hit a grand slam into the upper deck off Mark Langston giving the Yankees a 4 run lead. I will always remember seeing a shower of beer pop up in the air after the ball landed into the upper deck.

Like I mentioned previously, I started collecting Tino Martinez cards back in 2002. Because I have other player collections, my Tino collection may not be as large as others, but I am proud of it. Here are my favorite Tino cards, starting with the base and inserts:

Here are my favorite Game Used cards. Mind you, these were taken before I got a scanner and I never got around to scanning them. The scanner is now broken.

I also have this printing plate

And probably my favorite Tino piece

This was a gift from a friend who used to sell cards. He accidentally sent an order late for a secret santa I was participating in. Knowing that Tino is my favorite, he sent this to me as a gift to make up for the lateness of the order. I never met Tino and I hope to at some point.

There are other cards I need to pick up. I also have eyes on some other Tino items like bobbleheads, his Starting Lineup figures, a Danbury Mint statue and some programs with him on the cover. My ultimate would be a Tino game used bat and jersey. Maybe when I win lotto.

Congratulations, Tino.  You had a great career and you were a wonderful Yankee. I think the plaque in Monument Park is rightfully deserved. You sit with the greats now.

My Favorite PC Cards: Chad Pennington

When I first restarted collecting cards back in 2003, I knew I would be collecting players that I admired. I knew I would start a Tino Martinez PC at some point and had ideas on a Roberto Clemente. On the Jets, I like Wayne Chrebet and he was also a player I wanted to collect, but I didn't start a Chrebet PC right away.

My favorite position in football is Quarterback. It's the glamour position in the game and I have seen some great QB's in my time as a fan. Montana, Moon, Bradshaw, Elway, Kelly, Manning and yes, even Brady (hacking) are just some of the greats I have seen play and just enhanced my love of the position.

As a Jets fan, I have seen some good QB's play under center for my team. When I first started watching the Jets, Richard Todd was the teams QB and he took us within a game of the Super Bowl back in 1983 before the Dolphins ground crew and AJ Duhe took us out. Then there was Ken O'Brien, who I don't feel gets the due he deserves just because he was in that heralded draft of 1983. The same draft that had quarterbacks like John Elway and Jim Kelly. The Jets, drafted Ken O'Brien at pick number 24. 3 picks later, the Miami Dolphins picked Dan Marino. O'Brien was still a good quarterback, made 2 Pro Bowls in 1985 and 1991, was the highest rated QB in the NFL in 1985 and was the first QB to pass for more than 400 yards in a game, which he did against the Seattle Seahawks in 1986. We also had Vinny Testeverde who also bought the Jets within a game of the Super Bowl in 1998, even leading the game at halftime. But no one was stopping John Elway and the Denver Broncos, who were on their way to win their second straight Super Bowl. I still hold a grudge against Denver for that one.

But in the 2002 season, the Jets were 1-4 and Coach Herman Edwards decided to start a young player from Marshal University named Chad Pennington. Pennington lead the Jets to a 9-7 record, winning the AFC East Title throwing for 3,120 yards, 22 touchdowns, 6 INT's and had rating of 104.2, a Jets record. He then lead the Jets to a victory over Peyton Manning and  the Indianapolis Colts 41-0. From that season on, I had a new favorite player and since I had just restarted collecting cards, I thought why not collect Pennington, so over the years I picked up a lot of Pennington cards, even sacrificing an Aaron Rodgers autograph card to get a Pennington autograph into my collection. Ok, maybe I could have gotten more for that, but I didn't care. I wanted that Pennington autograph.

When the Jets released Pennington in favor of Brett Farve, he signed with Miami and led them to the AFC East Title. As happy as I was for Pennington, I couldn't root for him due to my hatred of Miami and my Pennington collecting stopped that season.

Just recently, I was looking at my Pennington cards and wondered if maybe it was time to re-start the Pennington collection. My collection has some really nice cards and I would love to add more to it. But before I do, I'd like to show off some of my favorite Pennington cards in my collection:

I grabbed this 2006 Donruss Threads card off eBay for a whopping $4.00. I just love the lettering on the piece of the football in this card.

I love patch cards and this card has a piece of Pennington's name plate off his road jersey.

I just love this card for the picture alone. In a game against the Texans, Pennington scrambled for a first down and decided to let Houston know.

Probably my favorite Pennington card. I love this piece of game used helmet and love that you can see the T and S of the JETS logo.

Simple, but I love this card.

I have always been a big fan of these Upper Deck Sweet Spot Signature cards. I was thrilled to see that there was a Pennington card and added it to my Pennington collection.

My very first Pennington autograph. Of course it was going to make my list.

Looking over my Pennington collection reminded me just how much fun I had hunting down cards on eBay, card shows and trading for them with other collectors. I really wanted to be THE Pennington collector and try to get every Pennington card ever made. I obviously fell way short of that goal, but I loved the pursuit.

I have been a Jets fan since the 1980 season and have seen a lot of great Jets, but Pennington is my favorite. He may not had the greatest arm, but when he played and was healthy, the Jets won. I often wonder had he stayed healthy where he would be among the the Jet QB's in Jet history. I believe he would have been right under Joe Namath as an all time great Jet quarterback. He had the smarts and I really think he could have won a title here. I would love to see him come back here as a coach a I think he would do very well. But whatever he decides to do, I will always be a Chad Pennington fan.

Tuesdays With Teixeira: 2005 Donruss Zenith Patch Card

So, the 2014 season has started out like the 2013 season did. Teixeira winds up on the DL. Thankfully, it's not his wrist, just a hamstring issue and thankfully it's not for the whole season, just 15 days. Still, I was really hoping for a bounce back season from Tex. Not that his spring training numbers left me with a whole lot of confidence, especially when he said his wrist may never be 100% again. Sheesh.

I haven't really been picking up any game used cards as of late, with the whole rumor going around that some of the jerseys may not be game used at all. But when I saw this 3 color patch card on eBay, I knew I had to have it. It's also numbered to 100, so that made it even more appealing to me. Plus, I loved the Zenith cards. The foil can be an issue though. They peel off rather easily, so you have to handle these cards with kids gloves.

The Yankees got slaughtered at home today, 14-5. Ivan Nova was rocked early and the bullpen just couldn't stop the Orioles onslaught all day long. Hopefully, Teixeira can get back soon because the Yankees are going to need him in the middle of that lineup sooner than later.

I Want Your Islanders!

As of late I have been working on getting my card collection in some sort of order. I went out and bought a 5 shelf book case from Target to house my 41 binders of Yankees, Jets, Islanders, Devils and Knicks collections. I also have binders for my Mike Bossy, Martin Brodeur, Mark Teixeira, Tino Martinez, Wayne Chrebet and Patrick Ewing collections. And I still need more binders for more cards and I will be starting a Joe Namath and John Tavares collections at some point.

On Sunday, I started moving my Islanders collection into a binder and I realized I didn't have as many Islander cards as I thought I did. I am missing sets I thought I had but didn't. I always try to complete the Topps sets and I barely have any Topps Islanders cards. Most of my "Topps" cards are really O-Pee-Chee cards from trades I had made in the past. Plus, I haven't really been buying any hockey cards lately, so I am missing current players as well.

So, I am looking to make some trades. I have base cards, maybe some inserts, game used and autographs to trade. It would probably be mostly base though. I am looking to trade team for team. Your team for my team. Just tell me in the comments below which team you collect and I will get back to you with what I have. If I have any game used or autos, I'll let you know. I can tell you, I don't have any Ducks because my buddy gets all my Ducks cards.

I also don't want to look for anything specific. That may take way too long for me. If you just collect a specific player, I will try my best to see what I have for you.

Hopefully, I can make some trades with you guys and we can help each other build our team sets together, so let me know what you have and let's make a few deals.

The Dilemma

Yeah, I see you. The guy who is a huge baseball card collector. Maybe your a player collector. Maybe your a team collector or even a set collector. The point I'm trying to make is you collect sports cards, just like I do.

Here is where we differ, and believe me, I wish it wasn't so. I see you on different card forums or posting on your blog pictures of how well kept your collection is. You either have them in binders by either year or brand; in boxes with rows. You obviously know what you have and what you need. You have a want list, a trade list and maybe even a holy grail list posted somewhere so someone, anyone, can read it and offer you what you need.

You have pictures of your man cave as well. Pictures of your signed baseballs, framed jersey, bobbleheads in cases, game used equipment and other goodies adorn your room. Your cave may be painted in the colors of your favorite team or there may be a bar somewhere in there with a large HDTV and a comfy sofa to sit in to watch your teams play.

Me? I look at those pictures and just drool all over my keyboard.

Where I currently live, I do not have the room to display all my stuff. I have 2 shelves up. My Yankee bobbleheads are on one shelf (and I've just about run out of room to display anymore) and my Yankees signed baseball PC is up on the shelf above it.

That's it.

Not that I mind. It is what it is for the moment. I have no doubt in my mind that one day I too will have a sanctuary where I can display my memorabilia, watch sports and drink beer. No, no. That's not what's bothering me.

Here is what is bothering me and has been for a long time.

That my friends is boxes upon boxes of sports cards...with a Dirt Devil thrown in between a couple of boxes. Btw, there are even more boxes that are not pictured above.

I didn't mean for this problem to arise. It just happened. I get cards from my team collectors or through trades and I will put the cards in boxes for safe keeping, until I have time to go through them and put them in the monster boxes I have waiting. Once I have them in their monster boxes, I plan to put the base cards into binders and keep the secondary releases in the monster boxes.

For example, I have monster boxes for Yankees Topps, Yankees Donruss, Yankees Upper Deck, Yankees Fleer, Yankees Panini and a box for just everything else. I also have monster boxes for my Jets, Knicks, Islanders and Devils cards. Once I have everything in the proper boxes, I would then take the main Topps release and put them in 9 pocket pages and stick them in binders. I would leave sets like Allan and Ginter, Turkey Red, etc in the boxes. I'm debating to have a Topps Heritage binder also.

Sounds like a good plan, right? Well, try and go through full box after full box and see just how far you go before you go mad.

See that? That's what I have to look forward to. Hours and hours of cardboard to sort through. This is something I never should have let get out of hand.

Now, it may seem like I'm complaining,,, OK, I am complaining a bit. But to be honest, I do love to spend a Sunday afternoon shifting through the boxes and organizing them. I may have a game on or music playing in the background as I do. Maybe have a drink while I work. I try to make it as relaxing a task as I possibly can.

I know I have a lot of work ahead of me. But, it needs to get organized. I too, would like to know just what I have, what I need and what I can trade. I am pretty sure that once I get everything organized, I will see that I have a pretty awesome collection, one that I can be proud to show off. I just need to figure out a game plan to get me to where I need to be.

Hey, I'm open to suggestions. Also, any quick and easy storage options you may have would be appreciated as well. If you have a blog post where you showed off your organized collection, I want to see that too.

I may also post a blog of any interesting cards I find in any box I work on. That way, I will be motivated to not only get my cards in order, but to continue to regularly post blogs here. I know I have been slacking and I apologize for that.

So, go ahead. Continue to post those pictures of your sweet collection. Show off how well organized your cards are. Let me know how many 1959 Topps cards you have. One day soon, I too will have my cards in tip top shape and will be able to tell you just how many of those 1959 Topps cards I need for my Yankees PC. That day will come and when it does, I will just add more cards to the collection because I will know exactly where to put them.

The Start Of My Roberto Clemente PC

As a Puerto Rican American, I am fully aware of big baseball is in our culture. In Puerto Rico, Baseball is king. The first Puerto Rican born player in the Majors was Hiram Bithorn, who pitched his first game for the Chicago Cubs on April 15th, 1942. Since then, Puerto Ricans have played and flourished in the Majors. Players like Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Ivan Rodriguez, Roberto Alomar, Carlos Beltran, Orlando Cepeda, Edgar Martinez and the catching Molina Brothers. But to me, and most Puerto Rican baseball fans, the man is and will always be Roberto Clemente.

Clemente is widely considered to be the greatest Puerto Rican born baseball player who ever lived. Clemente is the first Hispanic born player to win a World Series as a starter, win a MVP award and a World Series MVP. He was a 15 time All Star, won 12 Gold Gloves and was a 4 time batting champion. He had a rocket for an arm and had 3,000 hits during his 18 year career, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

With all the accomplishments Clemente has on the baseball field, it's his charity work that I respect more. Clemente was very active in various charities and when he heard that supplies that were intended for the victims of a massive earthquake in Managua, which is the capital city of Nicaragua, never made it to them, he went on a charity mission to personally make sure the supplies would make it to the people who needed it most. Unfortunately, the plane, supplies or Roberto never made it to it's destination as the Douglas-DC7 that was carrying Roberto crashed into the ocean almost immediately after take off on New Years Eve 1972. Roberto's body was never recovered. He gave his life to help others and that is why Clemente deserves all the accolades he gets to this day and I feel his number 21 should be retired around the majors, but that's another discussion for another time.

I grew up idolizing Clemente, despite never seeing him play a baseball game, he died when I was just 1 year old. I read all the books that came I could get my hands on, I watched any documentary about him I saw on TV. At times, I would root for the Pirates when I watched Mets games, just because Roberto played for them. I even traded 10 baseball cards for a 1973 Topps Roberto Clemente card, which mysteriously found it's way into a former friend's baseball card collection, denying any wrong doing of course.

When I got back into collecting cards, one of the things I wanted to collect was Roberto Clemente. Of course, as I always do, I got side tracked building my Yankees, Jets, Knicks collections as well as my various player collections. Plus, prices for Clemente cards are pretty high. But I think I can build a really nice Clemente collection without spending a great deal of money. Here is what I have so far:

I bought this Clemente McFarlane figure when it was released. Unfortunately, the packaging was crushed under a heavy box. Stupid me. But this will be opened and displayed on a Clemente shelf I am planning on building.

Now, the cards. The cards I have are from recent releases, so I don't have anything mind blowing. But, they are very nice cards nonetheless:

I see Topps used the same picture twice. I'm sure that is not the only time they pulled this stunt.

What did I tell you?

This card is my prized possession in my Clemente Collection. I pulled this card myself from a pack of 2005 Donruss Greats. You couldn't get card off me at no price. It's not worth much, monetary. But it's priceless to me.

I hope to one day be able to add the following in the upcoming months:

- A Mitchell & Ness Clemente Jersey
-Some vintage Clemente cards, if I can find them at a good price
-Some of the Clemente SGA bobble-heads and statues. I have seen some nice figurines and bobble-heads that the Pirates have given away over the years that are affordable. I would love to add them to my collection.

That is just the beginning of what I hope to be a wonderful tribute to a man who gave us his all. It's been 41 years since he left us way too soon. Not a day goes by when I hear his name being mentioned by a sports announcer, a player or someone who is just talking sports. Clemente left behind a terrific legacy, both on and off the field. One that lives to this day through the Roberto Clemente Award, through the Hispanic born players who cite Clemente as an influence and through fans like me who knows a great man when they see one.

New Teixeira Cards For Me

This week, I was able to add 5 new game used cards to my Mark Teixiera collection. 2 of them came off eBay, while the other 3 came from one of my team collectors, so a big thanks to you Todd for the the new additions.

I picked this up this 2005 Donruss Prime Patches Triple Game Used Portraits card off eBay. The card has game used pieces of his glove, shoe and bat and is numbered 71/150. I got this bad boy for under 10.00 shipped.

Here's another eBay purchase for the Tex collection. I picked up this 2012 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection game used card with pinstripe for under 5.00 shipped. There is a slight problem though. If you look at the card, right under the lower corner, above his name, you will see a crease. There is a matching crease running right through the Clubhouse Collection wording. This might have happened because the seller shipped the card in a plain white envelope and in a penny sleeve. What a dork. I'm contemplating leaving negative feedback on eBay for him. I know I paid less than 5.00, but maybe the seller will learn for future reference in case they ship a high dollar card out.

The next three cards came from my buddy Todd. He sent me a bunch of stuff and these were for the Teixeira PC. Up first is this 2002 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Freshman Fiber bat card.

Next is another Donruss 2005 Prime Patches Portraits card. This bat card is numbered 12/100.

And finally, this sweet Leaf 2003 Certified Materials Blue Mirror bat card numbered 34/50. I have been eyeing this on eBay, as well as one similar for my Tino Martinez PC. This card is a great addition. Thank you so much Todd. Hope I can add more to the collection in the upcoming weeks.