Welcome Back To My Yankees Collection, Bernie Williams

Aside from Bobbleheads, I love collecting figurines. I used to pick up every McFarlane Sports Pick Yankees figure that came out. The quality of the figures isn't as good as when they first came out and have a tendency to lean. I have a Jorge Posada that is literately using his bat to stay up. I only buy the ones I really want now.

I do love the Yankees figurines that are given out every year. ever since 2006, when the Yankees gave away a figurine of Derek Jeter in his "Jump Throw" pose, the Yankees have partnered with Sports Authority to give away these beautiful pieces, usually to the first 18,000 fans. I was at the first give away and loved the Jeter I got, which I still have. Unfortunately, the only other one I was able to go to was the Yankee Stadium give away in 2008 when I got to add a statue of the second Yankee Stadium to my collection.

A few years ago, I was able to pick up the second figurine that was given out in 2007, Bernie Williams. I actually had gotten a great deal for it and it was proudly displayed on my shelf, right next to the Jeter. Unfortunately, clumsy is my second middle name (Right after hungry) and while dusting the shelf, I accidentally knocked over Bernie and his leg went crunch.  I knew at that point it would be a while before I could pick up another Bernie statue.

Well, today I was able to re-add Bernie back to the Yankee collection. Say hello to my little friend!

This is not a large figurine by any stretch, but it doesn't have to be. This thing is freaken killer! Love that it's in the classic Yankees home uni and Bernie is batting from the left hand side (He was a switch hitter, for the unknowing) and looks like he's about to mash a home run into the right field upper deck.

This figure was made by Alexander Global and if we know anything about Bobble Dobbles, then we know that they are close enough in the looks department. That is to say they are not 100% accurate, but close enough. This figurine is that exactly.

Base has the standard name of player, uniform number, sponsor and facsimile autograph. If I was into having my figurines autographed, I would definitely try to get Bernie to sign in the middle of the base in Gold Sharpie or Decco.

These are numbered out of 20,000. So I guess they gave away 20,000 of these. Mine is numbered 3005, but you can see that can't you?

The back has that familiar number 51 that will be retired by the Yankees later this season. At first, I wasn't sure if I was ok with 51 being retired, but the more I think about it, the more I am OK with it because, my opinion only, he is the third best Yankee center fielder in their history behind Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. I'm sure that remark will spark some debates.

Here's a comparison with the Don Larsen statue I got at the 2013 All Star FanFest.

And here's the figure comparison with the Jeter figurine I got at the first give away in 2006. Remember what I said about likenesses being close enough with these? That goes double for this Jeter. Also, do not do what I did. Save the boxes, I was stupid and threw out both boxes because I needed room. I now know you should hang on to them.

Now that I have the Bernie back in my collection, I think I will be going for the others in the series. Here's the checklist:

2006-Derek Jeter Jump Throw (check)
2007-Bernie Williams (check)
2008-Yankee Stadium (2nd) (check)
2009-Yankee Stadium (3rd)
2010-Mariano Rivera
2011-Jorge Posada
2012-Mark Teixeira
2013-Andy Pettitte
2014-Derek Jeter Batting
2015-Dellin Betances

Right now, the Teixeira and Pettitte are the more reasonably priced figurines, but with Pettitte's number also being retired this season, as well as Posada's, I can see these figurines going up in price.

I love it when I have a project to try and complete and I know there are other figurines that I will be going after. The Yankees also gave away some statues that resemble the Don Larsen I have. They were of the of players who were enshrined in Monument Park. Then, I want to grab the Heartland, Salvino and Sports Impressions (Not expensive) and Danbury Mint (expensive). Hopefully, I can grab as many of these pieces as I can and not have the dealers back the pieces away when they see me coming.

An Era Ends Today

It's no secret that I am an Islanders fan. My favorite player growing as a kid was Mike Bossy and I do collect his cards to this day. But ever since 1994, my all time favorite hockey player didn't play on Long Island. He played against them and beat the Isles on numerous occasions and for that alone he should have earned my wrath. But ever since I watched  a young Martin Brodeur play for the Devils I knew I was watching someone very special. So, when word broke that Marty was hanging up his pads, I felt pretty damned emotional.

I followed Marty's career ever since I first saw him play for the first time during the 1995-96 season. I may have actually seen him play during the 1991-92 season when he played four games for New Jersey when Chris Terreri and Craig Billington went down with injuries, I can't remember. I do know I first took notice of him during the 1993-94 season when as a rookie, he took the Devils to the Eastern Conference Championship and nearly led New Jersey to the Stanley Cup Finals with a fantastic performance that series, which went to 7 games. Brodeur won the Calder Trophy as Rookie Of The Year and I had a new favorite player.

Over the next few years, I got to watch Brodeur win a few Stanley Cups, a few Vezina Trophies as the top Goalie in the NHL and even a few Gold Medals for Team Canada in the Olympics. Even though I rooted for Team USA, I was happy that my guy got a Gold Medal. Every time I watched Marty, it seemed like he made an impossible save that would ultimately win the game for the Devils. I was impressed with Brodeur's hybrid style of goaltending, which has led him to the accolades and records he would achieve during his career.

One of my favorite moments of his career was a moment that I was actually in attendance for. After waiting outside the Prudential Center for hours, I was able to get tickets to see Brodeur take a shot at history. On March 17th, 2009, I was in the stands, watching the Devils beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2 with Marty becoming the NHL's All Time Leader in Regular Season wins with 552. I had never been at an event where history was made. I never went to a game where a No Hitter was pitched, I've never been at a Playoff or Championship game, but the excitement that emanated from the crowd during the game and the pure joy that was felt after the game was something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

When I got back into collecting cards around 2003, one of the first players I knew I would be collecting would be Brodeur. So I collected as many cards of him I could get my hands on. My collection is more base and inserts than game used and autographed cards, although I do have those as well. As of this moment, my collection stands at 363 cards. That's not a lot, I know. I actually hd stopped collecting Brodeur because his stuff is pretty pricey. Getting an autograph will set you back $75-100.00. Even his inserts can go for a high price. But, I still pick up his cards whenever I see them for a good price and I will always. I would like to re-start my Brodeur collection once I get back to work.

Cards are not the only thing I collect of Brodeur. I have figures, bobbleheads, autographed pictures, a jersey, t-shirt, a puck, a mini stick, even a Wheaties box that I bought off eBay that came from Canada. I'm always looking for items to add to my Brodeur collection. I would like to have a shelf or display case dedicated to Broduer at some point, so I will continue to add to my collection whenever I can.

In the future, I would love to add a signed jersey, maybe a game used stick to my collection. That would take me either getting a six figure job or winning the lotto. I also have a Devils throwback jersey that I want to customize into a Brodeur #29 jersey, to make it look like the jersey he wore when he first came up. Getting the NHL 75th Anniversary patch is easy enough. Finding a Devils 10th Anniversary patch for the back is a lot harder. I would also love to get an autographed puck and have a Brodeur puck collection.

Over the next few days, I plan to show off pieces of my Brodeur collection as a tribute to my favorite hockey player,  It was a joy watching him mind the net for the Devils through out his career. And even at this late stage of his career, he still managed to stick it to the Islanders, this time as a member of the St. Louis Blues. All I could do was smile and shake my head. Somethings never change. I will be in attendance at the Rock when the Devils retire his jersey and raise his number to the rafters and say thank you number 30.

Collecting Goals For 2015

Before I begin, I would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year. May you get you all get everything you want out of life and I hope all your additions are plentiful.

Now, because I still am having issues with my laptop, this will be another blog, sans photographs. I really need to get a new laptop.

Since 2014 was not the year of the Sexy Geek, I decided not to look back, but instead look forward. I want to look forward to what 2015 could bring to my collections. I have been keeping my eye on certain items I would add and hopefully 2015 will bring some much needed additions.

Since I do collect four teams and various players, I think I'm just going to concentrate on the one team I collect heavily, The Yankees.  Don't get me wrong, I love collecting the Jets, Knicks and Islanders, but since this is the largest part of my collection, I will be concentrating on them most in 2015.

Here's what I hope to accomplish with my Yankees collection in 2015:

1-Collect More Vintage

My Yankees team sets are filling up nicely, but there are a ton of holes, specifically in my 1950's and 1960's sets. Actually, there are no completed team sets in either decade in my collection. It's something I really want try to complete at least 2 sets sometime in 2015. That will be a difficult task, I know. Cards of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford and Elston Howard do not come cheap. But if I want a real nice Yankees card collection, I know I have to add the nice vintage cards. I'm not ever thinking I will own a 1952 Topps Mantle, but if I can add some nice later vintage of the Mick, I'll be a happy man.

The cards aren't the only vintage items I would love to pick up. I have wanted to start a program collection for a long time. I have seen some great vintage programs that weren't too expensive that I'd love to grab. I also want to pick up a couple of vintage pennants and I have had my eye on a vintage Yankee Stadium game that I come across on eBay from time to time, but is priced out of my price range.

2-Organize, Organize, Organize 

This past year I finally got off my butt and started organizing my cards. I've moved some into binders and others into boxes. My ultimate goal is to one day have all my cards in binders, but because room is at a premium right now, So, for now, I will just have the main sets in binders (Topps, Allan & Ginter, Heritage, Upper Deck, etc) while I will have sets that 4 or less cards in toploaders, penny sleeves and in boxes.

I've also started to catalog my cards, starting with my Tino Martinez PC on Google Drive. It took a while to get the cards logged in, but now I know just what I have in that particular collection. I'm currently working on the Mark Teixiera PC. I will probably start the Yankees team sets once I have every card where it's supposed to be and I hope that happens sometime in 2015. I will probably start with the Topps team sets and work from there.


3-More Bobbleheads And Figurines  

In 2014, I wasn't able to really add to the bobblehead or figurine collection. I did get the Curtis Granderson Mets SGA bobblehead ( I will be getting it repainted to a Yankee ) and nothing else. I'm a member of a couple of bobblehead groups on Facebook and I drool over some of these collections I see. When I started collecting bobbleheads, I was strictly a McFarlane collector, but I felt the quality of the McFarlane figures were starting to lack. When my Jorge Posada figure started leaning down so far that his bat was keeping him from falling over, I stopped buying them and switched to bobbleheads. I wish I had done that years ago.

Some of the bobbleheads I really want to pick up are the Yankee Stadium SGA's from the past two seasons. I do have the Mark Teixiera and the Yogi Berra, but Yogi's throwing arm is broken and needs to be fixed. I would like to grab the Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Lou Gehrig and Hideki Matsui bobbleheads first, but those are the most expensive. I also want to get the Charlie Brown and Lucy bobblehead as well as the Hello Kitty that was given out this year and the Cubs gave out a "Called Shot" Babe Ruth bobble that needs to find it's way into my collection.

I have a few statues and figurines in my collection also. I have really wanted to start a Danbury Mint Yankee collection as well. Again, an expensive hobby, but some of those statues are pretty sweet. My favorite isn't even of a player. I love the vintage Yankee Stadium that was released a number of years back and have been wanting to add it to my Yankee Stadium collection for quite some time. I hope that happens this coming year.

4-Add More Yankee Oddball Stuff

One thing I love about collecting the Yankees is there are so many things you can pick up to add to your collection that doesn't have to be cards. I have seen people add lighters, pens, fans, keychains and other goodies to their collections. I do have a few things that may be considered oddball.

I have wanted to pick up the vintage Topps and Dell stamp collections. I used to collect the Topps sticker albums in the 80's, but these are more team oriented and that would fit in my collection perfectly. Another odd ball item I would love to add is the 75th Anniversary of Yankee Stadium record album as well as as add more pins to my Yankees pin collection.

5-Add More Autographs

One of my goals for 2014 was to get my Yankees signed baseball collection to 50 different players, but I fell short in my quest, finishing at 46. I was able to add players like Hideki Matsui, CC Sabathia, Johnny Damon, Ron Guidry and Willie Randolph to the Yankees Ball PC. This year, the goal is to get to 60 signed balls, Lowering my expectations a bit, I know. But I guess by giving myself an attainable number, I can push past it and exceed my expectations. I hope to get players like Tino Martinez, Mariano Rivera, Carlos Beltran and others to sign balls for me throughout the course of 2015.

6-Have Fun Again

2014 was a tough, tough year for me. I lost a lot, some people I care about, jobs and most of all, my smile. 2015 will be a year where I rediscover myself, regain my confidence and live life. I love collecting the Yankees. They have bought me great joy ever since I discovered them as a 5 year old. I plan to jump back into the collecting game head first and get back to what I enjoy the most out of life. Collecting cards, bobbleheads, autographs, jerseys, caps, anything that has something to do with the Yankees is what I am going to collect. I mean, if you can't have fun collecting your favorite team, then what will make you happy?

I am all about making yourself happy. Collect what you want. Buy that card if you want. Over spend for the autograph of the back up shortstop from the mid 80's who hit a buck ninety, only because he lives out of the country and you need his autograph for your collection. Do whatever you want that will make you happy because, no one is going to make you happy except yourself and family. So, Have a very Happy New Year and collect.

Goals For 2014

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've blogged here in. So long that it feels like there's cobwebs in here.

OK, now that we got that bad joke out of the way, we can move on.

Just because I have not posted a blog here in the Sports Room in a few months, doesn't mean I haven't been picking up new additions. I just haven't shown them off. But I promise that I will.

I spent a lot of time working on the sister blog, The Sexy Geek's House Of Swag that the Sports Room got a little neglected. And if truth be told, I kind of lost interest in sports collecting for a bit. But I got bitten once again by that bug (probably when I was cleaning up the cobwebs here) and the passion is brewing once again. I don't think I fully lost it. I just think I concentrated on one aspect of my collection and put another away for a bit.

Since we are in mid January, I thought I would share my collecting goals for the new year. Things I want to add to my collection, stuff I'd like to pursue and what I would like to concentrate on in 2014.

1-Re-start sending TTM requests

Much like the collecting, I had put aside sending out requests for autographs through the mail. To be honest, I actually got tired of writing letters and looking for something to send out. Then I started watching successes on YouTube and I joined a few autograph forums on Facebook and all that lit the fire in me to try and add more autographs of former and current players. I do have a few ideas on how to make things easier on me when sending out requests, but I am always open to suggestions.

2-Add Some Yankees Vintage Cards

It's not to say I don't have a few cards from the 50's and 60's, but that's the problem. I only have a few. I would absolutely love to have complete Yankees team sets from those decades, but as you all know, that could get very expensive. When those teams had players like Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Roger Maris, Phil Rizzuto, Elston Howard and Billy Martin, your talking cards that can cost a pretty penny. But, where there's a will, there's a way. If I look hard enough, I'm sure I can find some vintage at some decent prices.

3-Pick Up Some Vintage Yankees Pieces

By this I don't mean just cards. I also collect anything that is Yankees related so there are some pieces that I would love to add to my collection.

This is a game that was put out for the 1964 and 1965 seasons by Hasbro. It came with a game board, score board, strategy and results card and 50 picture playing cards (25 Yankees and 25 All Stars) as well as a pair of dice. Die rolls indexed on each batter card determines the result of the "pitch". Seems kind of like Stat-O-Matic. According to keymancollectibles.com, the game can go for anywhere from $350.00- $1,200.00 for the '64 version to $450-$1,500.00 which means I won't be adding this game to my collection anytime soon.

Here's a Yankee Stadium model kit from the 1960's. I have never seen this before, which probably means it's uber expensive as well.

I can go on and on about vintage Yankees memorabilia I would love to add, but I will save that for another blog post.

4-More Jets

Although the focus of my collection is the Yankees, I do have a collection for my other favorite teams. The New York Jets are my 2nd favorite team and to be honest, they're almost my 1-A team. I also have a pretty decent sized Jets card collection, although nowhere near the amount of Yankees I own. I also have bobbleheads, autographs, figures and other trinkets that I cherish. For my Jets collection, I would like to:
                              A-Work on my team sets. I have some complete sets, but nowhere near what I'd like to                                    have.
                              B-Pick up some McFarlane's I'm missing like Thomas Jones, Curtis Martin, Kevin                                           Mawae, Shonne Greene and yes, even Tim Tebow. (shudders). Plus I need to re-buy                                   the Wayne Chrebet figure.
                              C-Add some cool vintage pieces. The Joe Namath Mego figure is a holy grail of mine.

5-Organize!

Last, but definitely not least, is to organize my collection. I have my cards in boxes when they should be in either binders or organized in long boxes. I have so many shoe boxes that you would think I lived in Payless. But there's not a shoe to be found, but cards and lots of them. It's high time I get off my booty and get my collection organized so I can catalog it and put it up on shelves. I would also love to either have shelves built or get myself some curio cabinets for my bobbleheads, figures, autographed baseballs, mini helmets, basketballs and hockey pucks. I have all these in Rubbermaid boxes or cardboard boxes and it's time they see the light of day. I will probably wait on the displays until I make my big move, but the cards should be organized and cataloged. I'm tired of going to card shows and re-buying what I already have.

Obviously, there are other things I will do this year, like add to my bobblehead, Wayne Chrebet, Patrick Ewing, Mike Bossy, Mark Teixeira and Tino Martinez collections. I would also like to blog more often, like in at least a couple times a week.

If I can accomplish all this in the span of one year, then I would probably feel like I can conquer the world. Or at the very least the block that I live on. I used to be very goal oriented but somewhere along the way I got sidetracked and all I now have a ton of things I need to handle. So, it's time to roll up my sleeves and get my helmet on. 2014 will be the year that I handle my goals so that way I can come up with new goals for 2015.

Yankees Zombie

Even Zombies like sports. At times even, some sports teams resemble zombies, trudging along a season as they play emotionless ball. The only difference is the players won't eat your brains. Unless your Dennis Rodman.

Just in time for Halloween, Forever released a set of Zombie figurines dressed up in your favorite team colors. They released sets for MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL. Modell's here in NYC has them for $5.00, so I managed to grab the Yankee figurine and get it home as it was moaning "Brains" and "Arod".

Here is the zombie, which I have dubbed Zack, in it's package. Nice colors on the package, depicting a sunset as Zack the zombie is wandering around looking to score tickets and munch on some brains.

Here is one side of the box. Wonder if the zombie is reaching for the eye to reinsert it or eat it.

The other side of the box. I guess their team won. Or maybe they're at Sears taking the family portrait.

And the back of the box. The hand coming up from out of the grave reminds me of the old horror movie show Chiller Theater when at the beginning of the show, a hand would come out of the grave and feel around. I don't remember the rest because I either ran out of the room or fainted. I'll be right back.

And here is Zack in all his zombie glory. Uh oh, looks like someone forgot his other shoe, For shame Zack, for shame.

Would you look at the kisser on Zack? Suddenly, that person your buddy wanted to hook you up with doesn't seem so bad all of a sudden, huh?

Check out the Property Of The Yankees sweatshirt Zack is sporting. Looking sharp. I used to have the same sweatshirt. Hey, wait a minute...

The back of the figurine. Zack, you really need someone to sew up that sweatshirt for you. And get some color while you're at it.

The bottom of the figure has the Forever and the MLB logos stamped under Zack's feet. After a long day of wandering around and munching on brains, we find the zombie, lying down and trying to get some rest.

I think Forever did a great job with this figurine. The sculpting was outstanding and the paint job was flawless. I would definitely pick up the figurines of my other favorite teams. I will be displaying Zack on my Yankee bobblehead and statue shelf. I would definitely recommend these for your collection before they go wandering off.

And if you wake up and find bite marks on your figurines, I would suggest you run out of your place and not come back.