On the Path to The Impossible

As some of you may or may not know, I am focusing my collection on getting the autograph of every living Yankee and Giant.  This task is impossible since people like David Wells, Derek JEter and Alex Rodriguez are impossible to get.  David Wells for instance is doing a show in NJ soon but has a standing order that he will not sign cards.  Well, that sucks.  

Still, despite the impossible feeling around it I can't help but feel encouraged, especially after a mail day like today.  Today I received Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, Mark Whiten, Brad Arnsberg, Horace Clark (you remember the Horace Clark Years references), Bill Burbach, Billy Traber, and some eBay pickups of Roger Clemens (yep it is real as far as I can tell), Joe Girardi (he has been a bit of a white whale for me as he doesn't sign TTM), Larry Milboune (he charges for his auto and I got it for less with shipping on ebay), and Dioner Navarro and Donzell McDonald.  Total haul cost was less than $17.  

I have over 200 Yankees now on cards which includes some guys who never made it out of the minors like Raul Chavez and Omir Santos.  When coupled with balls, jersey's, and 8x10's I can push that total up to about 250 different players.  It is painstakingly fun and I love the chase.  

My New York Giants collection is not as robust as my Yankee one.  However, there are quite a few gems in this one as I have gotten Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, Eli Manning, Tiki Barber, Jeremy Shockey, Mark Bavaro (jersey), Pepper Johnson, Gary Reasons, Brandon Jacobs, Antonio Pierce, and many others on cards and 8x10's.  I have received several letters wishing me luck from former Giants players like Joe Danelo, Tom Mullady, and Gordon King.  Those are always interesting and fun.  It is always amazing when a player takes the time to write a letter thanking you for being a fan.  

For those of you who are wondering how I get the home addresses of all these players I use the Harvey Meiselman lists.  I also use the database of Sportscardforum.com under the Autograph Central Link.  There are many tools out there on the internet to use.  However, I have heard some disturbing stories lately about fans actually calling players using numbers they find online.  This is disturbing in several ways.  I do not condone such behavior as this intrudes on the personal space of the players.  I also do not use personal email addresses as some others have done.  I will, however, use a work email address which I have done to get some of my most prized autographs.  When using an email address, which for me is very rare, I always put "Autograph Request" in the subject line.  This way the personal can open it at their leisure or forward it to a secretary who puts pre-signed photos in envelopes and send them off.  The world of autograph collecting is not unlike the real world.  There should be morals and ethics involved and the collector must always respect the player's privacy and their decision on whether to sign or not sign.  If anyone would like a link to Mr. Meiselman's list of home addresses I can provide that for you if you desire.   Happy Hunting to you and your collection.

2009 Baseball Card Season Now Open

I finally got my 2009 card fix in the form of two boxes of 2009 Topps.  The first card I saw was Andy Sonnanstine of the Tampa Bay Rays.  All in all I was pretty happy with this set.  Topps finally got its head out of its rear end and finally made the card about the picture instead of the border.  I just wish they had the crispness of the photo that Upper Deck has.  There are some spectacular photos in the Topps set that just aren't as crisp as they could be but overall it isn't a major problem.  I pulled an interesting card, probably the most intriguing one I have ever pulled.  It is an Ian Kinsler Silk Collection card numbered 12/50.  It is a standard size card that has a small silk card of Ian Kinsler inside of it.  There is a small opening in the plastic which you can feel the silk through.  I also pulled a Prince Fielder jersey card.  The best part of this card is that the jersey piece came with a stripe.  Joining the Fielder is a Justin Morneau game used bat card.  Not bad pulls if you ask me.  Both will go in my game used collection.

Two other interesting pulls were World Baseball Classic redemption cards.  I entered the code found on the back of the card on Topps' website and registered so we will see what two cards I get in return and what they look like.  Something to look forward to.

As for the Yankees in this set, well it is an interesting mix.  First off, there is no Derek Jeter.  It looks like Topps is holding him back until Series 2.  What they should have done is hold back the big free agent players like C.C. Sabathia (who is pictured in his Brewers uni) and Mark Teixeira (who is pictured in his Angels uniform) until Series 2 and let them be the reason to dig into Series 2 instead of random stars being left out of series 1.  There were plenty of Yankees rookie cards in this set though which made it fun for me.  Francisco Cervelli, Humberto Sanchez, Juan Miranda, and Phil Coke round out an interesting class.  Cody Ransom, Hideki Matsui, Xavier Nady, Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina, Chien Ming Wang, Carl Pavano, Ivan Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, and Mickey Mantle rounded out my Yankee pulls.  I also managed to grab a Darryl Strawberry and David Justice Ring of Honor cards.  It was a nice and interesting Yankee grab.  Plus, I can look forward to Series 2 cards of Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Johnny Damon, Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher, Andy Pettitte, and possibly Edwar Ramirez, Brian Bruney, Damaso Marte, Jose Molina, Brett Gardner, Melky Cabrera, Dan Geise, Alfredo Aceves, Jose Veras, David Robertson, and Phil Hughes.  This should be a fun collecting season.

Some Photos of My Collection

I took some pics of some of my collection.  Right now it is mostly baseballs and 8x10's and the some jerseys.  Drop by and let me know what you think:

http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m5/203gunner/My%20Collection/

My Mission gets a boost

Well on my way to collecting every living Giants and Yankee, I received some pretty good returns in the mail over the past couple of days.  I will post a list in the future of every Yankee and Giant autograph I have.  I won't post multiple returns from the same player, just the name of the player for the sake of space.  Stay tuned in the coming days for that list.

On a side note, I have never been as disappointed in an athlete as I am in Michael Phelps.  Poor judgement like this is usually reserved for politicians and is not something I have come to expect from national heroes.  Perhaps I am too idealistic and should come to expect these things.