2004 Upper Deck Yankee Classics Phil Linz

Who is this? Yankees shortstop Phil Linz.

What is this? An autograph card from 2004 Upper Deck Yankees Classics , card number AU-24.

Where'd I get it? Flea market.

How much did it cost? The price sticker says $15, and I bought it either half off or 65% off. Half off is $7.50, 65% off is $5, let's split the difference and say $6.25.

Why is this so special? Two words: Harmonica. Incident. As immortalized in Jim Bouton's Ball Four, after a tough loss to Chicago in 1964, Phil was on the back of the Yankee team bus practicing on his harmonica. Manager Yogi Berra didn't think playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was appropriate after losing a game so he told him to knock it off. Phil was wrapped up in his playing and asked Mickey Mantle what Yogi said. Mickey's response? "Play louder". One harmonica slapped out of Phil's hands later and the press had a field day giving incompetent Yankee management their excuse to fire Yogi at the end of the season. The Yanks lost the World Series in game 7 to the Cardinals, Yogi was fired unfairly and the Yankees entered one of the most dismal stretches of their existence. Poor infamous Phil finished out his career with Philly and the Mets. Phil and Yogi were good sports about it though. Phil credits the incident with keeping his name in public's mind after all these years. "All my jobs have been because of that; people remember me because of that one incident". Phil currently works for a Title Insurance Company in New York City who are kind enough so sponsor Phil's Baseball-Reference page. This is a nice looking signature from Phil, and is a great addition to the collection of any Yankee fan, anyone who loves Ball Four, or any harmonica aficionados out there.

1992 Donruss Sam Militello

Who is this? Yankees pitcher Sam Militello.

What is this? An autographed card from 1992 Donruss "The Rookies", Card number BC-16.

Where'd I get it? Out of a large autograph lot won off of Yahoo! Auctions.

How much did it cost? Less than a buck.

Why is this so special? I don't have a whole lot of memories of Sam other than he completely tore up the minors, got called up to the Yankees, ended up on a bunch of rookie cards and then injuries ate him up. It's a shame, a guy with a name like Sam Militello should have had a long career with the Yankees. This is a really nice looking card of Sam but the gold foil is rendered invisible by the scanner. The signature is nice and clean though, a distinctive Smilitello with big swooping Ls. I wonder what those buildings are in the background. Sorry folks, the Yankees were completely off my radar in the early 90's and I just can't think of anything to write about today. There's probably a ton of Yankee fans with long tales of disappointment and woe out there, but I ain't one of 'em. I promise to have a more interesting post tomorrow.

2003 Upper Deck Yankee Signature Series Bobby Cox

Who is this? Yankee third baseman Bobby Cox, the Pride of New York.

What is this? An autograph card from 2003 Upper Deck Yankee Signature Series, card number PN-CX.

Where'd I get it? Online somewhere.

How much did it cost? It was a bargain at thrice the price.

Why is this so special? Why is this so special?? Are you serious???

2280 wins and counting.
15 Division championships.
5 Pennants.
1 world Series Championship.
8 time Sporting News Manager of the Year.
137 ejections without once acting like a complete baby.
Moved Dale Murphy to center field.
Traded for John Smoltz.
Drafted Chipper Jones.
Has been an sports icon in Atlanta longer than anyone except for maybe Hank Aaron and Furman Bisher.

Plus he was the starting third baseman for the 1968 New York Yankees, played alongside Mickey Mantle in his final season and was the 1968 Topps All-Rookie third baseman.

Why is this card special... why I oughta...

1993 Classic Best Derek Jeter

Who is this? Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.

What is this? An autographed 1992 Classic Best Blue Bonus card, number BC22.

Where'd I get it? In a large autographed lot from Yahoo! auctions.

How much did it cost? Less than a buck per card.

Why is this so special? I've mentioned a few times that I've gotten cards from a huge Yahoo! auction lot and this is one that I got. I don't remember the details of the auction, just that there were a whole bunch of autographed cards (75 to 80 at least) for not a whole lot of money. It seemed like some one was just liquidating a collection, and I had a little extra cash so I pounced. Yahoo! auctions has been dead for a while now, but if anyone remembers the good ol' days when they had free listings, it was a haven for cheap cards. Lots of commons auctions, lots of deals and many sellers blowing out stuff cheap because they didn't have the overhead that eBay charged. Yahoo! killed the golden goose though and started charging listing fees and kaboom, the auction site was dead in a couple of weeks. They finally shut down for good a year or two ago.

This lot had a couple of really good cards (Jeter being one of them) a bunch of non-certified on-card autos, a bunch of minor league autos and a few late 90's one-per pack autos. The Jeter was a nice surprise, but I couldn't figure out where it was from. The Classic Best set inserted these blue prospect cards one in each specially marked jumbo pack (there was another type of jumbo with red foil inserts) but none were inserted with autographs. I do remember seeing some packages for sale in the early 90's with one autographed card for 10 or 15 bucks at book stores. The packages featured such luminaries as Sam Militello and Pat Listach, but there was also signed cards of Ryan Klesko (still kicking myself for not getting one of them) and Good 'ol Derek. There was no COA for Derek in the lot so I couldn't be sure if it was from one of those packs or not. There was quite a few non-certified cards in the lot, so I just assumed it was had signed in person. Maybe the guy I bought it from got it in person, maybe not. I compared the sig to some other Jeter autos and it looked legit to me, so I stuck it in a top loader and filed it away.

Fast forward from the early 90's to a couple of months ago. Mario at Wax Heaven made me a trade offer of a bunch of Braves cards for all the Cansecos I could find. Sure, I said and started plowing through boxes. Goddamn, I got a lot of boxes of cards. Mario said take your time and sent a sweet package of stuff, including one really nice card. (I'll show that one off later) I scrounged through my cards, pulled all the Cansecos I could find and started sending them off. At the same time his wife Tatiana started getting into cards, and became a big Derek Jeter fan. While I was looking for cards to post here I found this card. Thing is, I had also recently pulled a redemption card for an Upper Deck Artifacts Jeter autograph just a few months ago. One Jeter autograph is plenty for someone who doesn't specifically collect Jeter, so I slipped this card in a package for Mario and sent it off. Apparently Tatiana enjoyed the card. Now I got cool cards, Mario has cool cards and Tatiana has a cool card. Trades where everyone wins are one of the best parts of this hobby.

2004 Upper Deck Yankee Classics Joe Pepitone

Who is this? Yankees first baseman Joe Pepitone.

What is this? An autograph card from 2004 Upper Deck Yankees Classics , card number AU-38.

Where'd I get it? From a card shop, but I don't remember which one.

How much did it cost? A few bucks at most. Let's say five.

Why is this so special? Ball Four tie-in post. Details later no time. White hole spewing time engines dead air supply low advise please.

Ok, Holly's back online and things are (more or less) calmed down. Now, let's talk about Joe here.

The Braves are my team, and they always will be. I like 'em all, from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta. Every team from when Harry Wright was in charge of the club, to the Frank Wren era. The Bravos will always be my #1 love in baseball. That's not to say that there aren't other teams I like. I have relatives in Pennsylvania that got me interested in the early 80's Phillies with Lefty, Schmidt and Rose. I had a lot of '81 Topps cards and they were the Worlds Champs, it said so right on the card. I also loved the White Sox of the early nineties. Black Jack, Big Hurt, Pudge, Bo, Rock, One Dog, Robin, Ozzie, Joey and those slick black caps. One of the biggest disappointments in sports is when we ended up with a Phillies vs Blue Jays World Series instead of my Braves/Sox dream matchup. The first team that fascinated me though was the Yankees.

I knew and loved Hammerin' Hank at an early age, and Hank is forever associated with Babe Ruth. I found that I liked Babe just as much as Hank and got really interested in the powerhouse teams of the 20's. Gehrig, Lazzeri, Hoyt, Dickey, Lefty, Meusal. Then DiMaggio showed up and brought Heinrich, Crosetti and King Kong Keller. Now it's the 50's and you have the Mick, Whitey, Scooter, The Big Cat, Allie, Larson, Elston. And don't forget Yogi, who's practically my spiritual adviser. Then the Bronx Zoo gets thrown on top of all that crazy good baseball history. One of my first baseball memories was Reggie hitting three freaking home runs in the World Series. That really impressed this five year old. I know Red Sox fans out there are puking their guts out right now, but hey, I'm from Atlanta. The only Yankees I have any reason to have animosity towards are Grant and Sherman. Ok, I'm not fond of Leyritz either. But I have nothing against the '99 club that whipped our ass, they were just the better team. I'm a baseball fan who loves baseball history, and the Yankees are just stinkin' with history.

Part of that fascinating history is how the mighty Yankees crashed and burned in the late 60's. My theory is is was payback for firing Yogi. Who fires a manager after losing game 7 of the World Series (to Bob Gibson, no less) anyway?? You'll notice they burned again after firing Yogi a second time in '85, but I digress. A non-supernatural reason could be because a lot of the young studs that came up to the Yankees in the sixties just couldn't quite replace all the retiring legends from the 50's. One of those almost superstars was Joe Pepitone.

Joe was a bonus baby with a great glove and some serious pop in his bat. His arrival forced the Yanks to trade long time first baseman Moose Skowron to the Dodgers ( a move that really bit them in the ass in the 1963 World Series, but that's another story). Joe was productive for the Yankees and was an All-Star and Gold Glover while hitting a bunch of home runs in New York. Joe was a very popular player in New York, and is kind of an underrated player. He's more well known today for his carousing in New York nightclubs then for baseball. Joe gets a lot of ink in Jim Bouton's Ball Four, and Joe wrote an autobiography that goes over a lot of his extracurricular activities while in baseball that held him back from being the player he could have been. He was traded to the Astros in 1970, again to the Cubs that same year and finished his Major league career with three games as a Brave in 1973. He also had a disastrous stint with a Japanese club in '73 and became synonymous with a high profile bust in Japan. Joe also got into some legal trouble after his playing days were over, but has been walking the straight and narrow for a while now. Joe has been mentioned in Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm and is a big autograph signer now. One of those autographs is right here on this card, and it's a nice one. That's one classy signature, perfect for a young Yankees superstar in the 60's.

2006 Topps Chrome Darrell Rasner

Who is this? Yankees pitcher Darrell Rasner.

What is this? An autograph card from 2006 Topps Chrome, card number 338.

Where'd I get it? Bargain bin.

How much did it cost? Not much.

Why is this so special? Originally out of the Expos organization, Rasner started six games for the Yankees last year. While he only went 1-3, he didn't embarrass himself either. Darrell is pretty far down the Yankees' depth chart, but could end up pitching in the bigs somewhere this season. I normally don't mind sticker autos, but they don't really work well on this design. The curve bumps it up into the photo and Topps would have been better off trying to get the sigs on the nice white space available under the photo. Darrell subscribes to the minimalist signature theory, and his auto consists of three lines, a curve, an arc and a backwards s. John Hancock it ain't.

2003 Topps205 Second Series Eric Duncan

Who is this? Yankees prospect Eric Duncan.

What is this? An autograph card from 2003 Topps205 Second Series, card TA-ED.

Where'd I get it? This was one of the hits from a box of Topps205.

How much did it cost? One twenty fourth the price of the box, which I can't remember.

Why is this so special? I really like Topps205, although this is the worst of the three autographs I have from the set. Duncan was once a hot prospect, but he has not yet advanced past Triple-A. Eric plays third base, so advancement opportunities are slim unless he changes organizations. The auto looks more like abstract art than a signature, although his autograph appears to be consistently obtuse.