Ramblings of an old collector

Wandering thoughts of an old collector.

* Baseball season is here. Spring training has started with games right around the corner. It's that time of year that always gets me excited about baseball! Right now, no matter who your favorite team is, they all have a chance at winning it all. Okay, there are a few who don't, but for now, the optimism is at an all-time high! 

* '25 Topps is out. I still don't have any, but I will really soon.

* I've still got to finish my '24 Topps sets for my grandkids. I've struggled with staying focused on finishing them. I think it will be easier when they get a little older and we can do it together. 

* I've noticed that my YouTube baseball card watching has declined. I think it's because the videos seem to be on repeat. Everything seems to be the same. It's gotten boring instead of informing.

* Went to the local Goodwill store and not a single card in sight. I keep hearing about people finding all kinds of cards at Goodwill, but I've never seen cards there.  

* My youngest grandson was at the house the other day and was looking at the piles of cards on my desk and asked about his cards. I had an extra Evan Carter sitting on top and gave it to him to take home...he thought about it for a second and then tossed it back on the desk(it was in a top loader!) and was done. Maybe one day...

* Shout out to Johnny's Trading Spot! I got 4 envelopes stuffed with Rangers! 

 

Nice additions to my Evan Carter collection.

 

Love all of these 582 Montgomery cards. I think now I'm going to try and get the rest of the Rangers.

 

I really appreciate the Holiday Nice List cards. I bought one and was gifted one of the Holiday balls and didn't get any Rangers in them. 

 

Several of these fit nicely into the collection. A couple are dupes but they fit right in the Rangers collection.

* Do you know what drives me absolutely crazy? When I know I have a card, or cards, and it's not where it's supposed to be and I can't find it. 

* I've been updating TCDB with my player collections and found the rankings link. I'm in the top 25 of Corey Seager (Don't think I'll ever catch Night Owl!), #13 of Wyatt Langford, #3 of Marcus Semien and #2 of Evan Carter. Not that it matters at all. I've got to be very careful about checking it now that I know about it. I'm too competitive and will try way too hard to win and I can't afford that. 

* Speaking of my player collection, I've had them in top loaders and stored in boxes, but I've decided to change and put them in binders. Right now, I've only done Seager, Semien, Carter and Langford and they are all in one binder. The plan is for each to have their own, but I want different binders than what I put my completed sets in, but I don't know what I want.

* I keep seeing that there are more cards being graded than ever. At the same time I keep seeing more and more people say they are done with grading cards. I think graded cards will be around, but I'm pretty sure it won't be as prevalent in the future or at least a lot different than it is now. 

* I'm still looking for that sweetheart deal at a garage sale or estate sale. So far, no luck.

* Still working on my "Players that I like but don't collect" posts. It's really harder to do than I thought it would be. I do think that I'm limiting each team to only 9 players. 

* I have officially completed my 1986 Topps set. After a trade with bkrementz on TCDB, I was down to two cards. Off I went to buysportscards.com and picked up the last two cards for my set for 25 cents each. Now they do have a $3.00 minimum so I grabbed a couple of Clayton Kershaw's and an '82 topps Garry Maddox for my '82 set. 

All of that to say that I couldn't have completed the '86 set without the help of several trades over the last year. Now I'm looking forward to see what else I can complete.

For a bunch of ramblings, this turned into a much longer post than I anticipated. I guess it's time to call it! 

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

My favorite players that I don't collect: Yankee edition

 It doesn't take much from me to figure out that I do not like the Yankees. I'm not sure where this dislike comes from. Maybe it's because they kept knocking the Rangers out of the playoffs early on. Maybe it's because they were always winning and they weren't my team. Maybe it's because one of my best friends was a Yankee fan and was always rubbing it in my face when they won. 

Whatever it was, it worked...I'm definitely not a Yankees fan. 

However, being a baseball fan there's no way you can leave out the Yankees from your collection. So, I decided to start my "Favorite players I don't collect" collection with the Yankees. 

My goal is to get one card of my favorite players that I don't collect on a regular basis. I want it to be a playing days card, but it some cases that just won't be fiscally possible. In that situation I'll find a reprint or one of these modern cards that have become pretty popular showing these old school guys. 

I'm going to do the Yankees in two posts. I will probably do teams that have several players in two posts. 

My first Yankee that I don't collect but want at least one card from their playing days is Mickey Mantle. Mickey Mantle has always been larger than life for me. He's definitely the guy that I ignore the fact he was a Yankee. He moved to the Dallas area and that is probably why he first came on my radar when I was a kid before I became a baseball nut. 

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what card of Mickey's I want to have. It changes quite often. 

Right now, I've narrowed it down to these four cards for my Mantle card. 

    

    

My guess is that when I find the one that I like that meets my budget will be the card that I settle on. 

My next favorite Yankee (Man, that's hard to type "favorite Yankee"!) has to be Yogi Berra. Yogi is most famously known for his Yogi-isms like "He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious" or "Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical". I think those are my two favorites. 

What most forget is he was pretty good at baseball too. A 3 time MVP, 18 time All-Star and 10 World Series winner. A career .285 hitter. Yep, pretty good at baseball. I think the Yogi Berra card that I want would be the '54 Topps.

I really like the '54 card because it features him as a catcher and I love the background shot of him swinging. The more I look through the '54 Topps cards, the more I like them. Like Yogi said, "You can observe a lot just by watching". I don't think I'll ever go after a set like that but I do think I'll own a few one day.

Next on the list is The Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout, the Great Bambino, Babe Ruth. Now, I'm sure that I'm going to upset some baseball purists, but I don't have The Babe as the greatest of all-time. That title, for me, goes to the Great Willie Mays. That's a whole other post and discussion. 

There is no doubt that Babe Ruth is one of the absolute greatest. His feats during his playing days helped build the game to greatness and what it is today. For that reason, he's one of my favorites. If I had the opportunity I'd choose the '33 Goudey or the '48-'49 Leaf for my Ruth card.

     

Maybe someday. More realistic for me, my Ruth card of choice is the '61 Topps #401

Such a cool card. So far, I don't own any Ruth cards other than those in a Stadium Club set or some insert, but to me, those don't really count. The '61 card is pushing it, but at least it's 60+ years old. 

Lou Gehrig is next on my favorites from the Yankees. I think his playing story of taking over for Wally Pipp is one of my favorites. I love the fact that he didn't take a day off for 2,130 games. You know as well as I do that he had those days of being sore, tired and just not feeling well, and played anyway. As a coach, that's something that I wished this generation of ballplayers had just a little bit of. Probably why I'm such a Marcus Semien fan. 

 My Gehrig card, of course it's way out of my price range, would be the '34 Goudey.

I love this card. Simple. The smile. Just a great card. The only way this happens for me is if I fall into a attic find somewhere. I'm probably going to find a reprint of this card (might just do the same with the Ruth too!) for my collection.

The last player for Part 1 of my favorite Yankees (there's that funny taste in my mouth again!) is Joltin' Joe DiMaggio. He was a .325 hitter, 2,000 hit club, 361 home runs and of course, the 56 game hit streak. How crazy is that? You'd figure in 56 straight games there'd be one 0 for 4, or an 0 for 2 with walks, something! I know if I was pitching during that streak, I'd pitch around him. Way far away around him. Just like I'd never throw Barry Bonds a strike either.

I'm struggling with what card to do for the Yankee Clipper. Obviously the '41 Play Ball is out of my price range. Maybe a reprint though?

Maybe the '83 TCMA #10. 

I like this card. He looks relaxed and I love the ballfield in the background. Yep, I think this is my choice for my DiMaggio. 

Looks like I've got some cards to put on my want list. 

That's it for Part 1 of the Yankees. Part 2 to follow soon!

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31