I Finally Started.

Through out my collecting career (if you want to call it that), my cards have been in a state of chaos. Sure I have a lot of binders, but to be honest, I didn't know exactly what I had. I would go to card shows and pick up cards that I thought I need, but found that I already had once I got home.

Trades? Same thing. I would see a card that I'm offered, drool over my keyboard, pull the trigger, receive the card and find I already had it when I opened the binder.

Even my fellow collectors would ask me if I had a list and when I told them I didn't, I felt like the collector would be giving me a funny look behind the email. OK, maybe I'm hallucinating on this one, but that's how I felt, sniff sniff.

So, after a long discussion with the collector side of my brain, I decided I would start creating lists of my cards. Finally, I would be able to know what cards I have. I would be able to know what I really needed for my various collections. No more buying cards I already had. I finally would be in control!

Now, I originally was going to make my lists as Word Documents, but my buddy Kerry advised me to use Google Drive. I was familiar with Drive since I was making lists of my Spider-Man comic book collection. Kerry told me I could create a spreadsheet on Drive and I was sold.

So, I decided to start with my player collections. I could have knocked off the smallest collection of cards I have in a player collection which would be my Wayne Cherebet collection. But, NOOOOOOOOO! (That was me channeling my inner John Belushi) I had to start with one of my largest. That would be my Tino Martinez collection.

Constantino Martinez. That's Tino Martinez, to us common folk. He has been a favorite Yankee since he hit a late inning home run to win a game in Baltimore. As his career with the Yankees progressed, he became my very favorite. When I got back into collecting cards in 2002, I decided I would try to collect as many Tino cards as I could.

I'm actually glad I started with Tino. As I was looking up cards on eBay, comc.com and Becketts, I found I needed a heck of a lot of cards to even come close to having a good collection. It's not that I'm not proud of what I already own. I just always wanted to be THE Tino Martinez collector and I am not even close to being that. But the fun of the chase is still there for me and I am looking forward to it.

The drawback to this list is, I found quite a few doubles in my binder and the number of total cards, which I thought I had after doing a rough count, has dwindled considerably. So far, I am at 312 different Tino Martinez cards. I still have a few pages left in my binder to go through and I have my box of game used and autographed cards to list. If I am close to 450 cards, I will be a happy geek.

I'm really glad that I am doing this. I'm not even done with the Martinez list and I already feel a sense of accomplishment. Once I am done, I will make lists for my Mark Teixeira, Patrick Ewing, Mike Bossy, Wayne Chrebet, Chad Pennington, Martin Brodeur, David Lee and Derek Jeter collections. If that's not enough to keep me awake at night, there will be the time when I will want to make up lists for my Yankees, Jets, Knicks and Islander PC's. Just thinking about that is giving me grey hairs.Once I am done with each list, I will figure out a way to have them on the blog, just in case you guys are interested in seeing them

I know this is a project that may take months, even a year to finish. Maybe if I had been more organized from the very beginning, I wouldn't have to do this now. No use in crying over spilled cardboard. I just have to roll up my sleeves and get the job done. At least it's keeping me out of the pool halls and away from Miley Cyrus records.

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.

Recent Autograph Hauls

The past couple of weekends I have been fortunate enough to be able to add a few new autographs to my various collections. All have been free sigs, so that's always a good thing for my now light wallet. Like I always say, if it's free, it's for me.

The first autograph signing was about a week ago at Modell's in Time Square. Eric Decker, the new wide receiver for the New York Jets, was making an appearance so, I was absolutely going to be there. I am very excited that Decker is a New York Jet. He gives Geno Smith a target that is proven and I think he's going to help the open up the offense.

Decker was scheduled to start signing at 1 PM, so I made sure I got there early. The first 100 fans were guaranteed autographs. The only catch was you either had to buy something at the store and show the receipt at the front of the line, or take the free picture they gave with the autograph. I opted for buying a Jets mini helmet for Decker to sign. After I made the purchase, I got in line.

 
I knew the wait was going to be pretty long, so I bought a book and spent my time reading it. About a half hour before the signing was scheduled to start Modell's employees started handing out the tickets. I got mine and noticed I was number 76 in line. I was glad I got there when I did because the line got pretty long with Jet fans wanting to meet Decker and wish him good luck.

I finally got inside the store and after a 10 minute wait, I got to the front of the line and got to meet Decker. I welcomed him to NY and wished him the very best of luck. He thanked me and told me he appreciated the well wishes as he signed the mini helmet and I was on my way.

You can see my helmet waiting on the table to be signed.

And here is the helmet signed. The signature is better in person, trust me. Another addition to my Jets collection.

Yesterday, I was able to meet former New York Knicks John Starks and Charles Oakley. The signing was at a car dealership in Queens. It's was in a place I wasn't too familiar with, so I made sure I left my home extra early. I had Googled the directions to the dealership by subway, so I was looking at a hour and 20 minute ride there. Of course, I arrived there in an hour, but it took me a few minutes to locate the dealership. I actually started to go in the opposite direction. But, thanks to GPS on my phone, I found the place without any other issues.

ESPN, which sponsored the event, had set up a tent out back of the dealership. Starks and Oakley sat at a table inside the tent and was signing autographs for the fans that were lined up. The line wasn't too long so I got my stuff ready for them to sign. Starks didn't say too much as he signed for me. Oakley was talking to someone as he signed my items.

Here's where I get on my soap box and rant for a few. I absolutely despise it when the person in line before you or one of the representatives start talking to the athlete while your there, waiting to say something to the person and get a hand shake. I feel it's rude and makes me feel ignored. Needless to say, Oakley didn't really say much to me as he was busy talking to someone else and I walked away a bit perturbed. At least I got my items signed.

 
I printed a 11x14 photo of Starks dunking over Michael Jordan and Horace Grant during Game 2 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals in a play that is now known as "The Dunk". This came out great and I cannot wait until I have it framed and hanging up.

I printed out a 8x10 of the Knicks logo and had Starks and Oakley sign it. I want to get as many players who played for the Knickebockers to sign it. I haven't decided it I am going to send it out TTM. If I do, I can try to have Richie Guerin, Harry Gallatin, Dick Van Arsdale, and Kenny Walker to sign it. I would hate to lose it though.

I'm also working on having a Knicks picture book signed by as many players, so I had Oakley and Starks sign pictures of them inside the book.

I had a lot of fun graphing again. I haven't gone out to meet players as regularly as I'd like to, but it feels pretty good when you get the autographs you have been wanting for your collection. I'm hoping I can add more autographs this summer to my growing collection as long as I'm not mushing a dog sled team across the Antarctic, riding a camel through the Sahara dessert or swimming across the Gulf Of Mexico...  OK, maybe for the right autograph.

I Love To Get My Balls Signed...Baseballs, That Is.

One of my hobby goals for 2014 is to get more autographed baseballs in my Yankees collection. In fact, I have made an ambitious goal for myself and that is to get as close to 100 signed baseballs from Yankee players, former and present, for the collection. I say it's pretty ambitious because I'm not what you would call an autograph hound. I don't go chasing players or wait at their hotels or hang out the ballparks before players arrive. Of course that's because I don't know where the player hotels are and it's difficult to graph at Yankee Stadium.

So, how do I add signed baseballs to my collection? Player appearances is one way. That's how I was able to get players like Hideki Matsui, Darryl Strawberry, Bucky Dent and David Cone to sign baseballs for me. Another way is card shows. The card show I go to usually will have 1 free player and if that person is what I deem "ball worthy", I will get them to sign or I will pay for the player if he's not too expensive. Some of the players I have gotten this way is Ruben Sierra, Bobby Richardson and Gaylord Perry. Then there is the TTM route. To be honest, I have lost more baseballs than gotten back, but a couple of the players I have gotten back were Mike Mussina and Jimmy Key.

So, here is the signed baseball collection right now:

I have them on a shelf right over my bobblehead collection. I kind of think I'm running out of room. I probably have just that row to finish and that would be it. Another row might be pushing it.

So, which players do I want to add to the collection? Well, I have more than a few players in mind.

The Core Four

Derek Jeter
Mariano Rivera
Andy Pettitte
Jorge Posada

The Champions

Paul O'Neill
Tino Martinez
Scott Brosius
Orlando Hernandez
Ron Guidry
Sparky Lyle
Cecil Fielder
A.J. Burnett
Mike Stanton
Brett Gardner
Willie Randolph
Tim Raines
Bernie Williams

The Hall Of Fame Players

Dave Winfield
Rickey Henderson
Joe Torre
Reggie Jackson
Rich Gossage
Phil Niekro
Phil Rizzuto (I know he's passed on, but his autograph are still out there)

The Managers

Lou Pinellia
Buck Showalter
Ralph Houk (See Phil Rizzuto)

There are other players I want as well like Aaron Boone, Dave Righetti and Bobby Murcer. Players who may not have had hall of fame careers or won a championship here, but still made a difference in Pinstripes.

So, as you can see, I have some players to chase around if I want to get to my goal of 100 signed baseballs by the end of 2014. Right now, I'm at 42 baseballs, so if I'm going to get to 100, I better get my butt in gear. I consider myself rather fortunate that I am lucky enough to have the autographs that I do own. Hopefully by the end of the year, I will be wondering where am I going to display all the autographs. Then I will know that I reached my goal and can set my next goal. 200, here I come.

More Vintage In My Jets Collection.

I may have been only one of a few Yankee fans who was saddened when Shea Stadium was leveled back in 2009. I mean, as a Yankee fan, I should have been dancing a jig when that old place crumbled to the ground. In it's final years, Shea wasn't exactly a great place to watch a baseball game. It was outdated, the bathrooms were terrible and the sound system was horrible.

Still...

I spent a lot of time at Shea Stadium, especially as a kid. My buddy's father took me to a lot of Met games, even getting to meet some of the players in between the dugout and locker room. I got to see the '86 Mets play there. I got to see players like Hubie Brooks, George Forster, Dave Kingman, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez, Bobby Bonillia, Mike Piazza, Jose Reyes and David Wright grace the Shea Stadium grass. But that is not why I wasn't too happy to see Shea go down in a pile of dust.

My first Jets game was at Shea. I don't remember the score. I do know the Jets lost to Buffalo, I think. I remember Richard Todd throwing a couple of picks that game and the defense getting burned on a couple of touchdowns. The crowd wasn't like any baseball crowd I've seen. They were a bit more loud and raucous. I was sitting in the upper deck, just above the Jets sideline. I may have been high up, but I felt like I was a part of the team and it cemented my love for the green and white.

The Jets played in Shea for only a couple seasons after, but Shea will always have a place in my heart as the home of the Jets. Whenever I find a piece of Jets memorabilia with Shea Stadium on it or having come from Shea, I always try to add it to my Jets collection. I have a Jets pennant with Shea pictured on it as well as a program from Shea.

I have actually had this post card in my Jets collection for about 2 years now. I had been trying to win one off eBay, missing out a few times. I finally won one in really good shape for under 10.00, if I remember correctly. I have never been a post card collector before, although I had considered picking up some vintage Yankee Stadium post cards, but never pulled the trigger on any.

The post card above is dated 1964 and was released by Dexter Press, Inc. I'm guessing the picture was taken sometime during that '64 season as the stadium opened on April 17th, 1964. The post card gives you an idea what Shea looked like in it's first season in it's existence. The one thing I always liked was the hovering "speckle" Shea had in those days. I don't think they were still there when I started visiting the ballpark. I liked them more than the neon ballplayers they put up in Shea's later years.

The back of the post card gives you a little bit of information about Shea; where it was located, how many it seats for both baseball and football, who played there and who added color to the photo (It was a company named Scholfield).

The reason why I picked up this post card was because there is a Jets presence on it. If you look on the upper left hand corner, there is a football player in a green jersey, running and carrying the pigskin with the words The N.Y. Jets underneath. Without that football player, I would not have picked up this piece. I am glad to own it as I am fascinated with Jets history and the post card is a unique piece to add to any Jets collection.

I will always look for vintage pieces to add to my Jets collection. If it has something to do with Shea then I will be quick to jump on it. There's not a lot of pieces left that connect the Jets to Shea Stadium, aside from programs and yearbooks. It's been 31 years since Leon Hess took the Jets over to Giants Stadium, so finding anything that has t do with the Jets and Shea is hard to find. But when I can add something like the post card, then I'll always do what I can to get it because Shea Stadium will always have a place in my heart. Just don't tell any other Yankee fan I said that.

A Super Jet Addition

Anytime I go to a flea market, I always find at least one item to come home with me. The flea market I attended this past weekend, I found two things. The Yankees Baseline Bopper I showed in my last post and I managed to find something I've wanted for a long time that is related to the New York Jets Super Bowl III team. It's not in the best shape, but I actually really don't care, since I didn't pay all that much for it. In fact, I bought it from the same table I bought the Bopper from.

This is the record album chronicling the 1968 New York Jets season, a season in which they upset the Baltimore Colts 17-6 to win the franchise's only Super Bowl, which happened two years before I was born. Figures they would win a Super Bowl when I'm not even alive to see it. I just hope they win another before God tells me my table is ready.

Now, I don't own a turntable, but I am guessing this record has play by play highlights of the 1968 Jets season from their radio broadcast team from WABC radio.It has the voices of Merle Harmon, who was the Jets main radio voice at the time and also narrated their season highlights videos, and Sam DeLuca, who played three seasons with the Jets and was on the IR during the championship season and would provide color commentary for years after his playing days were over.  It was pretty cool to know what radio station was the Jets broadcast home during that championship season. I'm a nerd for details like that.

The back of the album cover has a brief synopsis of the 1968 season as well as the 1968 schedule and results. It also has a picture of the championship team as well as a picture of the coach, Weeb Ewbank. Now, as I said before, the album cover is not in the best shape and if you look at the lower left corner you can see some crinkling of that corner as well as a chip p that same side of the album. It gets much worse on top though.

As you can see, the top of the album cover is split all the way across it. Too be honest, I didn't even realize that until after I walked out of the flea market and got into my buddy's car. If I had noticed it, I may have haggled a bit or not even bought it at all. I am a bit disappointed in myself. I always look carefully at a piece before buying it and I failed to do so with this. I guess I was too excited that I actually found this record at a great deal and didn't even give it once over.

The record itself looks like it's in pretty decent condition. I did look it over once I got home and I could not find a scratch on the record at all. Now, I come from an age where I actually used to play records before CD's became the norm. I know from experience that just because you don't see a scratch doesn't mean it's not there. Since I don't have a turntable, I doubt I will even play this record.

Even though the cover is in worse shape than I initially thought, I am still really happy to own it. I was going to put it on my Jets shelf, next to my Joe Namath puzzle, I think I will take my buddy Kerry's advice and frame this and hang it up when I get things situated. Hopefully, I can locate a CD copy of this record as I would love to listen to the radio broadcast highlights of the '68 season. Hopefully, us Jets fans don't have to wait much longer for the Lombardi Trophy to come back to the Green and White and maybe we can get another highlight CD to listen to over and over again.

Small, But Very Cool.

I am always looking to add new bobbleheads to my collection. Especially Yankees bobbleheads. I haven't really picked up any new bobbleheads for the collection lately, so I am pretty behind on additions. Unfortunately, work is slow right now, so I have to watch what I spend my money on. Until things pick up, my bobblehead additions will be few.

But things can sometimes go in my favor. Case in point, this past Saturday I was hanging out with my friend at a flea market in Fishkill, NY. I had been there before looking stuff to pick up. The Yankee items I see in various booths are either in poor condition, something I already own or too pricey, so I usually pass on what the dealers are peddling.

I visited this one table that I had purchased items from before. This dealer usually has a wide variety of goodies for sale. From sports items to pop culture items, this dealer has some pretty nice stuff. Problem is all his good stuff is pretty expensive. I did see this one small Yankees item that I became very interested in, especially since I never seen it before. The price was a whopping $2.00.  Easy decision. It came home with me.

What I had bought was a Baseline Bopper. It was made in the late 1990's by a toy company called ERTL.  I had seen these before, except made as cars. I had never seen them in an airplane before, which is why I snatched it up quickly.

Here is an example of the the cars look like

I have been looking for the car at a decent price for a while and instead, I find the airplane.

Here are some shots of this tiny beauty:

The propeller actually work.

I love finding pieces like this to add to my Yankees collection. It's something like this that makes the hunt so exciting and gratifying when you come across unique items. Yeah, I know it's not much, but anytime I can diversify my collection with different items, all relating to the Yankees, then I'm a happy man.