Another Former Yankee Is Added To The Sports Room

To be honest, I wasn't planning on writing this blog post tonight. I was going to save it for tomorrow because I am beat. I mean beat like a drum. I am so tired that nothing will wake me up tonight. Why am I so tired you ask? Well, read on and you shall find out.

Today, I attended the Staten Island Yankees ticket sale day. As much as I enjoy going to Staten Island Yankees games, and I try to attend at least 3 games a year, I wasn't planning on picking up tickets the day the tickets went on sale. I used to have a mini plan, then I just decided to g to the games I wanted to attend, which was cheaper in the long run for me. But really, why was I at today's ticket event if I wasn't planning on purchasing tickets until later?

If you said to meet Hideki Matsui, you win a pack of Pocki.

But, admit it, you guessed it when you saw the picture, right?

Yes, When I heard for the price of a 9.00 ticket, I could meet the MVP of the 2009 World Series, I knew I was going to be there. My friend said we had to be there early because it was probably going to be a mad house. It made sense to me. Matsui has not made any apperances to my knowledge and his autograph is one of the harder ones to get, so naturally, I expected a lot of people showing up meet him. So, we agreed to be at Richmond County Ballpark by 7 AM.

Which meant I was getting up at 4:30. And that I did. Ugh.

This is what I saw at 5 AM Saturday morning. At this point, I am thinking that I am out of my mind. I only had 3 and a half hours of sleep the night before. I was without coffee. I was the Walking Dead at this point.

The 4 train was going local and I was afraid I was going to be late because of it, but luckily, I made it to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal with about 15 minutes to spare. I met up with my friend and we boarded the ferry to make the boat ride to Staten Island.

When we got to the Ballpark, there was only about 10 people in line. most were friends of my friend, so for the next couple of hours, I hung out with them and we talked autographing. Which players they scored, who was a jerk about signing, so on and so forth. Little by little, people started showing up, but not the crowd I was expecting.

here's the line at about 8 AM. The line had about 50 people at this point. Final tally, I heard, was 125 people. Not nearly as many as I was led to believe. I probably could have slept an extra hour.

And there's the front of the line. In actuality, I'm fine with getting there uber early. When the ticket windows opened at 9 AM, I got my ticket for June 28th, Yankees vs The Cyclones, and walked into the ballpark and got on the second line that led into the team store where Matsui would be signing.

Once we were inside, we were entertained by the team mascot, Scooter, The Holy Cow who was getting his freak on, delighting the children with his antics, but also scaring the old ladies who came out for the signing.

Once inside, the line moved pretty quick and before you know it, we were meeting Hideki Matsui. He was very kind, but quiet. He really didn't say too much. I do understand that his English isn't great, but he seemed like he understood what we were saying as he would sign inscriptions as instructed and would say thank you at the end of conversation.

I asked him for a 2009 World Series MVP inscription. I made the mistake of holding my pen and he thought I wanted him to sign with that pen and signed my ball in black ink, which I didn't want. But, it was my mistake for not paying attention, so I can live with the black ink autograph. I thanked him and went on my way.

Once we left the team store, My friend and I looked at the line and decided we could actually buy another ticket and go back on line for another autograph before he stopped signing at 12:00. When we got back in line, it was only 10:30 AM.

So, this time, I bought a ticket for August 30th Against the Vermont Lake Monsters, bought a baseball at the team store and got back on line. The line seemed to be moving faster than before and before you could say "It's a Thrilla, By Godzilla", we were back in front of Matsui. This time, I made sure my pen was in my bag and I asked for a Godzilla inscription, which he obliged in blue ink. I shook his hand, thanked him for the years of service to the Yankees and was on my merry way.

So, as I finish this blog, at 12:41 on a Sunday morning, you can now understand why I am seeing vapor trails right about now. But, as tired as I am, I have these that will make me dream easier tonight. Number 42 for the Yankee Signed Baseball PC.

Staten Island Yankees Bobblehead Promotion Dates

The Staten Island Yankees have 3 bobblehead give away dates coming up this upcoming season. The Staten Island Yankees are the short season Single A affiliate of the New York Yankees and will be showcasing 2 players who played with Staten Island before ultimately making it to the Bronx.

Here are the dates and players featured:

Thursday, June 27th Vs Hudson Valley Renegades-Fransisco Cervelli
Friday, July 19th vs Batavia Muckdogs-Brett Gardner
Friday August 16th vs Lowell Spinners-James Molinaro 

I'm up in the air about the selection of players they used. Brett Gardner, I do agree with. Fransisco Cervelli, while is a nice backup catcher, is not one of my favorite players. Hate his hot dogging. James Molinaro?? I didn't even know who he was until I looked him up and found out he is the Staten Island Borough President. Almost seems like a waste of a bobblehead to make one of him when only he and his family will care about it. Maybe I am being too harsh here, but when you have players like Robinson Cano, Chen Ming-Wang and David Phelps, who have played on your team before, it almost seems like they are players who should have had bobbleheads made before the Staten Island Borough President had one made up. I will get Cervelli and Gardner and take a wait and see on Molinaro. I wish I could show you pictures, but the SI Yankees haven't posted any as of today, which worries me.

I was a partial season ticket holder with the club for 5 seasons. Every year, when I was asked what promotions I would like to see, I always asked for bobbleheads and we never got them. I did get a mini Scooter The Holy Cow bobblehead as a gift from my ticket rep, but we never got any bobblehead promotions until now. I just wish the selection was better.

Update-

A picture of the Cervelli bobblehead has popped up on the Staten Island Yankees website:

It's a nice bobblehead. Doesn't really look like Cervelli, but I do plan to attend the game and pick up one for my bobblehead collection.

The Start Of A New Collection: Pocket Schedules

I recently embarked on starting 3 new collections; 2 for the Yankees PC and one of a player that never played a game for the Yankees. Today, I am going to discuss my new Yankees pocket schedule collection.

Collecting pocket schedules is something I have thought about collecting, but never really pursued them the way I would an autograph or a bobble-head. I always picked up a pocket schedule when I went to a Yankees game or was in a team store. I would pick it up, look it over then just casually put it aside, never really looking at it again.

I remember as a kid eagerly awaiting the release of the Preliminary schedules the Yankees would release in February. I remember going to Yankee Stadium with my buddies to pick up these larger schedules that would give you the dates of games, price of admission and would hawk their season ticket packages. As a kid, I would always look for the SGA dates, but those were never released on the preliminary schedules. I always saved them until my mom would tell me they were clutter and toss them out. I wish I still had them.

I have always wanted to collect yearbooks and programs, but with the prices on those being a bit high, I realize that pocket schedules fit my budget and also gave you a glimpse into where the team was at that point in their history. It's pretty cool looking through them, seeing where the team was on my birthday, what they gave out that year and the price of tickets at that point. The prices have skyrocketed from when I started going to games, I can tell you.

I don't have many in my collection right now, just 9 schedules, 6 of them are Yankees . I am pretty sure I have more somewhere, but here are the ones I have right now:

1970 Yankees Schedule. This I just picked up of eBay for a low price. I had seen other 1970 schedules go for as much as 20.00 and that was a price I was looking to avoid. I got this one for under 5 bucks and the seller included a 1966 Topps Yankees Team Card which I need for my Yankees card PC.

2004 Yankees Schedule. I had this one in a drawer with some other pocket schedules. The condition is not bad, but not great. There's fraying on the top of it. When I can, I will replace this one.

2007 Yankees Schedule. Another which falls into a less than perfect conditioned schedule. 

2008 Yankees Schedule. As with the others, the condition is not the greatest. Fraying on the bottom of the schedule this time. This season is near and dear to my heart. I got to the Futures Game for All Star Weekend and got to enjoy my final few times in a place I considered my second home. I am not ashamed to say I cried while watching the Yankees take the final lap around the Stadium as Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" played in the background. I miss that place to this day.

2009 Yankees Preliminary Schedule. Without a doubt this is in the worst shape of all my schedules. Would actually be in perfect shape if not for all the water marks on it. The good thing about collecting pocket schedules is that these are all easily replaced at a great price. 

2013 Yankees Schedule. Picked this one up at the Yankees team store recently. The Yankees have started printing up multiple schedules with different players on the cover. I have this Jeter.

And this Teixeria, which I keep in my Teixeria PC Binder along with the 2008 Braves Schedule with Tex on the cover. I also picked up an Andy Pettitte Schedule which I forgot to scan. 

I also have a few non-Yankees pocket schedules:

2012-13 New York Knicks Schedule with Carmello Anthony, Tyson Chandler and Amar'e Stoutmire on the cover. Grabbed this at MSG when I was in the area. I also grabbed a 2012-2013 New York Rangers schedule which is definitely for trade. 

2009 Staten Island Yankees Schedule. I was a season ticket holder with them for 5 years and this is the only schedule I managed to pick up. I will pick up this years when I take in a game, for sure.

2007-08 New Jersey Devils Schedule. It's beat up, that's for sure. But I won't be replacing it as it's from my very first Devils game. I have been a fan since the 1990-91 season and never made it out to the Meadowlands to see a game, but went to the celebration they had for the 2002 Stanley Cup, go figure. I had this schedule in my pocket the whole game and it came out in pretty bad shape because of it. Because of the sentimental value, it will stay in my collection. 

My goal with my Yankees pocket schedule is to collect from 1970 seasons to present day, same with the Jets and Knicks. With the Devils, I'll start with their first season and move on from there. I just need to find pocket pages that fit them as the nine pocket pages are too small for the current schedules.

I am looking forward to add to my pocket schedule collection. I think it's a fun and cheap way to enjoy your teams history as well as they are cool to look through. If you also collect schedules, leave the link to your collection in the comments below. I would love to look at your collection.