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.

Sunday Showoff: Bobby Richardson

To me, Bobby Richardson is one of the unsung heroes in Yankees history. Sure his stats are not up there with Mickey Mantle or Roger Maris or Yogi Berra or any of the other Yankee stars in the years he played on the team. But he was one of the better defensive second basemen of his era, winning the Gold Glove award from 1961-1965. He also led the American League in his in 1962 with 209, while batting .302 with 8 Home Runs and 59 RBI's. He finished 2nd in the voting for the American League MVP to Mickey Mantle that year.

He won 3 World Series with the Yankees, winning the MVP of the World Series in 1960, becoming the first player to be voted as MVP from a losing team after hitting .367 with 12 RBI's during the Fall Classic. He also caught the final out of the 1962 World Series, which was a hard hit line drive off the bat of Willie McCovey. Had it been hit a bit higher, San Fransisco would have won the World Series. In the 1964 World Series, Richardson tied a World Series Record with 13 hits in a Series.

I have been lucky enough to add 3 different Bobby Richardson autographs in my Yankees collection. All three are items I cherish and would not part with for anything.

The first autograph I got was a through the mail signature, sent to Bobby's home address. Richardson has always been a great signer through the mail and I was able to get him to sign this 2004 Upper Deck Yankees Classic card. If I remember correctly, this card only took a couple of weeks to get back to me.

The second autograph was a gift from one of my fellow team collectors. Within a package of Yankee cards, sat this gorgeous 2012 Topps Archive on card autograph. I love this card because A-It's an on card autograph. B-It has that vintage look to it and C-Richardson has a terrific looking autograph and it shows beautifully on this card.

My third and final autograph is an in person autograph. Last year, Richardson was appearing at the Westchester Sports Card Show, so I decided I wanted to have a chance to meet Bobby and have him sign a baseball. Richardson was a little bit late, but when I met him he was very pleasant to talk to. We discussed that famous catch of his to close out the 1962 World Series. He told me he gets grief from McCovey whenever he sees him about that catch. McCovey always asks him if his hand has stopped hurting from making the catch. Richardson signed the baseball and added the 1960 World Series inscription without even my asking. He is a class act.

I will always be more than happy to add Bobby Richardson items to my Yankees collection. I am working on some sets and his autographs are missing from them and I am always looking for Yankees vintage cards to build my team sets and his cards are definitely on my radar. Richardson may not have been the most famous Yankee, but he was a solid player and as clutch as they came. He will always be welcome in my Yankees collection.

If I Played Poker, I Would Use These Chipz

I got a package in the mail today from a fellow Yankees collector in my team collectors club. He included some pretty cool Knicks, Jets and Yankee cards. But what peeked my interest was a handful of chips he included. Or to be precise, Chipz.

I had received a fistful of the 2013 Topps MLB Chipz in the package. Now, to be honest, I never thought about putting together the Yankees set of these. I didn't open a pack of these last year because I wasn't sure if these would make it to another year and I didn't know how to store these. Now that I have some, I will figure out how to protect them and I will now go after the team set.

To be honest, I had a couple already from the group break of 2014 Topps Baseball Series 1. Now that I got these, I can show them off at once.

Unfortunately, my printer/scanner decided to take a dirt nap, so until I can get a new one, I will be taking pictures of everything with the camera on my phone. So, without further ado...

The first Chipz I pulled out was Robinson Cano. Yes, I will miss the guy batting out of the 3 hole and his outstanding glove at 2nd base. Do I think he went to the right team? No, because a lot of the home runs he hit will now become fly outs and there isn't enough protection in that Mariner lineup. Do I fault him for going? No. For what he is making, you and I would have gone. I love Seattle. I love the ball park. I think he will enjoy playing in Seattle.

Another Yankee defector was in the package. I have no ill will towards Granderson. The Yankees were not bringing him back anyways. I just think he opened a can of worms when he said "the real New York baseball fans were Mets fans." Joking or not, he will hear it when he comes back from the Bleacher Creatures.

I also got a chip of the Captain. Anytime I get anything of Derek Jeter, it's a good day. Watched him play today and he looked pretty good out there. I hope he doesn't break down anytime soon.

The less said about A-rod, the better.

CC! He looked pretty good in his 2 innings pitched this afternoon. I predict he will have a bounce back year in 2014.

I even got a Teixeira for my Teixeira PC. This wasn't the only Tex I got.

I also managed to get the gold parallel Chipz of Teixeira. You can see that it has a gold "glare" to it, hence Topps calling it a gold parallel.

Now that I have seen these in person and held them, I will be going after the rest of the Yankees. I looked at the check list and I am missing only Nick Swisher. I am a bit surprised that there was no Mariano Rivera or Andy Pettitte. There was no Yankees in the autograph or game used Chipz.

I do like this product. It's different than the usual Topps products and I hope we get them every year going forward. I will be keeping an eye out for the 2014 set when they are released. I already checked out the tentative checklist and saw that that we will even get a Jeter game used Chipz, so I will be on the hunt for that.

A nice, different product by Topps. I look forward to the 2014 release.

Vintage New York Jets Mailday

If there is one team that rivals the Yankees for my affections, it's the New York Jets. While most of the people I know are Giants fans, I have loved Gang Green since I first watched them play at Shea Stadium back in 1980. I have gone through my ups and downs with this team (mostly down), but I have never rooted for any other football team save the 2 years when I followed my then best friend and rooted for the Steelers.

When I restarted collecting cards, I knew I wanted to have a Jets collection as well and started to hunt down different cards to fill my binder with. My Jets collection is not as large as my Yankees one is, but I am very pleased with the collection have amassed thus far. I grabbed cards through trades, eBay, card shows and from the kindness of strangers.

My collection is not just cards. I have figures, bobbleheads, autographs, books, pins and a vintage pennant in my Jets collection. As long as it has the Jets logo on it, I will always try to find a way to add it to my collection. There are things I would love to add to my Jets collection like vintage yearbooks, programs and cards, but I know I will have the opportunity to add them to my collection at some point.

Thanks to Mark over at Mark's Ephemera, I was able to add two pieces to my Jets collection, and they were two pieces I have been wanting to pick up for quite some time.

Mark's Ephemera has quickly become one of my favorite blogs to read and I never miss a post of his. One particular blog post was about the old Sunoco football stamps. I mentioned in the comments section that I have been wanting to pick up the Jets stamps from those sets. Mark reached out to me via email and offered me a packet of Jets stamps and another vintage item I have been wanting for a while. After a few emails, I got a package from him in the mail. When I opened the package, I saw this first:

A packet of the 1972 Sunoco NFL Stamps. I just love, love the lithography on the envelope. As tempted as I am to tear it open and check out the stamps, I made a decision to keep it as is. I do not want to ruin the packet, thus ruin the lithography. It will stay as is for me to admire whenever I want.

Then I saw this tucked in behind it:

A 1971 Topps Pin Up of Joe Willie Namath! I knew Mark was sending this over, but I was still floored when I saw it. Namath is one of my all time favorites, despite my never seeing him actually play. But I have seen enough video to know that the man had an absolute cannon for an arm. I love this mini pin up. It just screams 1970's with the color scheme to the fact that Topps couldn't show the players in their helmets. It's a thing of beauty.

After watching that awesome Namath HBO special I have started a Namath PC (like I need another player to collect). It's pretty small at this point, mostly recent product. Namath's cards can get pretty pricey, so for now I will add what I can here and there and anything helps. I also have the new Namath McFarlane and a couple Namath books, even a vintage Namath picture book that I assume a 5 year old read back in the day. I will look to add more Namath to my PC and show off what I do add right here.

I want to thank Mark for the awesome mailday. I have to return the favor and I hope to soon. In the meantime, if you haven't had the chance to read Mark's Ephemera, do so right here: http://marksephemera.blogspot.com/. Check it out, it's a great read.

Yankee Stadium Tour

It's cold outside. It's snowing. So, what do I do? Do I curl up in front of the T.V. and watch some Yankeeography? Do I go and build a snowman? How about none of the above. When it's colder than cold and the snow is blowing in my face, I want to be reminded how soon it will be warmer than Hades so I go to my summer home. I take a trip to Yankee Stadium.

My girlfriend, Gina, was in town for Valentine's Day Weekend and one of the places we both wanted to visit was the home of our favorite team. So, we went on Saturday afternoon to see if there was any tickets available for any of the remaining tours that day. Luck was on our side and we were able to score tickets for the 3:20 tour.

Before the tour started, we walked around and took some pictures outside the ballpark.

Once we were let inside, we were treated to a fantastic view of the Great Hall.

And The Hard Rock Cafe

And The Yankees Clubhouse Store right next to the Hard Rock

Once the tour started, Carlos, our tour guide, led us up to the Yankee Museum. We stopped by the Mickey Mantle Exhibit first. Mantle is one of my favorite Yankees, so this was a real treat for me.

There are a lot of those pieces on display I would just love to add to my Yankees collection, especially those vintage magazines, the movie poster and pin collection. I just wish I got a better picture of the pin collection.

After the Mantle display, we got a look at all the Yankees World Series rings. The Yankees got pocket watches instead of rings. The first year the Yankees got a ring was 1927 when they swept Pittsburgh. Due to the crowd, I was unable to take pictures of all the rings. I just got a few quick shots of the more current rings.

After the rings, we were bought to the Babe Ruth exhibit.

Lou Gehrig Exhibit

After the Museum, We were then taken to the Press Box. The view of the field from there is real nice. Makes me wish I finished my journalism degree so I could have worked from there as newspaper reporter.

Then we went down to one of the suites. This particular suite goes for 385.00, which includes an all you can eat buffet. A great view and food makes me consider this deal.

Yes, they serve Blue Moon here. Deal maker.

Gina and I even got to take a picture on the Suite deck.

After this they took us to a more expensive suite, which was pretty unimpressive. Just a couple of tables and pictures. I didn't really take any pictures in this suite. I was too busy talking to Carlos, our tour guide. We found out he is a 19 year old who is a student at St. John's University, taking Sports Management as his major. He's working his way through college by being a tour guide at the Stadium. Carlos seemed to be pretty smart person. I hope he goes pretty far in life.

OK, I lied. I did get to take a picture with the huge Tino Martinez picture in the suite.

After, we were led back downstairs and given wrist bands and that was the end of the tour. A bit disappointing because we couldn't go into the players locker room, dugout and on to the field. Carlos told us that because they were still dismantling the hockey rink we couldn't go down there. Great. First my Islanders lose to the Rangers, now we were denied access to the field. I was told to come back for a later tour during the season and we could go to the locker rooms and field, so I'm thinking that's what Gina and I will do.

Afterward, Gina and I picked up a few items at the Clubhouse Store and left the Stadium.

Outside the Stadium, I noticed a life sized bobblehead. I have this same bobblehead on my shelf, which is an all star bobblehead. I don't remember which All Star game it was from though.

Then Gina and I decided to hit the Yankee Tavern. Rumor has it that Babe Ruth actually used to get drunk here so I thought it would be a great place for Gina to visit.

It's a nice little place. In between drinks and some Motown on the jukebox, we got to take a quick picture.

Dispite the snow and the fact we weren't able to visit the locker room or field, this turned out to be a great day at the Stadium. I now we will take the tour again and now Gina can say she had a drink in the same bar that Babe Ruth did. Isn't that what dreams are made of?