July 14th MHCC Card Show Recap Part 4!

Hey guys, Drew back here! I have two more things to share with you guys in order to properly wrap up my card show review, and well, they both deserve their own individual post! I decided to save the best of them all, in my opinion, for last, but this one ain't too shabby either. Take a look:

Why if it isn't an autographed baseball of Tino Martinez! As a lot of you may know, Dad and I have lucked out to the max with the door prize giveaways at the JP's Sports shows. Our strategy works quite often, and we've been able to win autographed items of many great athletes such as Don Larsen, Robinson Cano, Tom Seaver, and that huge signed photo with over 30 Yankees signatures! The luck kept going at this show, as I was the second name drawn for this prize, after the first name wasn't there to claim it. 

Tino is one of a few Yankees greats that I really don't have a whole lot of in my collection. This is my first autograph of his, and I'm glad I got it for free because normally his ink sells for quite a bit, just because he doesn't sign that often. He's easily one of the biggest class act players of the late 90's Yankees dynasty, and his career wasn't too bad either. Over 300 Home Runs, 2 All Star Selections, and a plethora of clutch hits during one of the best time frames in Yankee history has earned him one of the biggest hands year after year at the Old Timers Games. While Cooperstown may not be in his future, baseball fans won't forget some of the moments he made during his career. And it's awesome to now be able to have his autograph. 

See Ya!

White Plains Card Show 1/22/12 Recap, Part Six!

Hey guys, Drew back here. I'm sure, most of you are sick of me blabbing on and on about how special this show was, and how lucky I am, etc etc. But, I promise you guys that besides a few small posts I have planned, I'm just about done and ready to move on with other stuff. Trust me though, this post right here is definitely worth the read, and I could use some help! So, without any further gibberish, here is Part 6, dedicated to my awesome door prize win!

PART 6: Door Prize Success... Again?

As most of you guys who have read my blog in the past know, the White Plains shows happen to give away door prizes every couple of hours, which requires just filling out a simple card and hoping to get your name pulled. Dad, Mike, and I have had a very good strategy with them over the years, and we've been able to win some things here and there! Today was no different. I took home this beauty, as a result of somehow getting my name pulled from the box again!

This photo is truly a thing of beauty! It's a 16x20 photo of Mickey Mantle, that is signed by 29 former Yankees players! There isn't any specific time span as to the players who signed the photo, but a majority of the players on here played on the Yankees pre-1980. Not all of them played with Mantle, for example Jesse Barfield and Chris Chambliss, but all of them had been pretty solid players over the years. I was so pumped up when they announced my name, and I'm pretty sure most of you can see why. 

As far as authentication goes, the photo came along with a letter of authenticity from JSA, explaining all of the exact details of the photo and guaranteeing its authenticity. It didn't name all of the players on the photo, but it says some of the key players on there are Moose Skowron, Ralph Houk, Gene Michael, Bill Virdon, Sparky Lyle, Johnny Kucks, Horace Clarke, Ron Blomberg, and Chris Chambliss! I identified pretty much all of those without having to look at the letter, but I can't seem to find Bill Virdon anywhere on this photo. I got him through the mail a while back, so I know what his autograph looks like, and I don't see it anywhere on here.

Now here's where I need your help. I've been able to identify a majority of the autographs on the picture already, but there are still some that I can't figure out yet. Besides the Virdon (mistake possibly?), can any of you name the autographs I don't know in the comments below? I numbered each autograph, and you can just tell me, for example: Auto 2 is Moose Skowron or something. I would greatly appreciate it, because some of these autos have me stumped.

1: Phil Linz (Played 1962-1965 for NYY)

2: Moose Skowron (Played 1954-1962 for NYY)

3: Art Ditmar (Played 1957-1961 for NYY)

4: Lee Mazzilli (Played in 1982 for NYY)

5: Ralph Houk (Played 1947-1954 for NYY, Managed 1961-63, 66-73)

6: Bobby Shantz (Played 1957-1960)

7: Ralph Branca (Played in 1954 for NYY)

8: Paul Blair (Played 1977-1979 for NYY)

9: Gene Michael (Played 1968-1974 for NYY, Managed 1981-82)

10: Cecil Fielder (Played 1996-1997 for NYY)

11: Jim Beattie (Played 1977-1978 for NYY)

12: Tippy Martinez (Played 1974-1976 for NYY)

13: Don Gullett (Played 1977-1978 for NYY)

14: Chris Chambliss (Played 1974-1979, 1988 for NYY)

15: Jesse Barfield (Played 1989-1992 for NYY)

16: Ron Davis (Played 1978-1981 for NYY)

17: Dennis Sherrill (Played 1978-1980 for NYY)

18: George Zeber (Played 1977-1978 for NYY)

19: Sparky Lyle (Played 1972-1978 for NYY)

20: Dan Pasqua (Played 1985-1987 for NYY)

21: Dennis Rasmussen (Played 1984-1987 for NYY)

22: Tom Carroll (Played 1955-1956 for NYY)

23: Lee Thomas (Played in 1961 for NYY)

24: Eli Grba (Played 1959-1960 for NYY)
25: Johnny Kucks (Played 1955-1959 for NYY)
26: Horace Clarke (Played 1965-1974 for NYY)
27: John Montefusco (Played 1983-1986 for NYY)

28: Ron Blomberg (Played 1969, 1971-1976 for NYY)

29: Rafael Santana (Played in 1988 for NYY)

I was able to name 21 of the 29 autographs, but again any help with the remaining 8 would be greatly appreciated. Also, I know a lot of you guys have experimented with these large photos signed by multiple players, and I wanted to know what your take is on whether I should start to add more players to it and fill it up more, or if I should leave it as is, frame it, and call it a day. If I do decide to continue the quest for autographs, I don't think I would include current players, because they simply wouldn't really fit in. I think that majority of the players on here were born before Mantle retired, so maybe that could be a good way to arrange it by. 

This will definitely go down as one of the best card shows, if not THE best one yet! I wasn't the only one to win, however, as my friend Mike came home with something too. I'll save that for a later post! We are so lucky, and I'm really fortunate that my Dad was able to take me to the show. It means a lot. 

See Ya!

**UPDATE: Got them all, thank you to everyone for the huge amount of help! Couldn't have done it without you all!**

October 1st White Plains Card Show Recap! Part 6!

Hey guys, Drew back here. So, there was one thing that hadn't been posted yet that I thought deserved it's own little special post! Well, a lot of you know about Dad and I's hot streaks in the past, winning the door prizes at the shows. I mean, between Mike, Dad, and I now, we've won them 5 times. We haven't cheated, but we've just gotten an extreme amount of luck. Just before we met our Jets players, we heard that a certain Joe won the first door prize! Dad took off out of the line, claimed it and came back with time to spare! Check it out:

Yep, we won an autographed bat by Don Larsen, with the perfect game inscription! At first thought, I wondered, why the heck did they want Larsen to sign a bat, I mean, he was a pitcher after all! But then, I remembered that maybe while he wasn't known for his bat, there was no DH rule when he pitched in the 50's and 60's, meaning that he did have to hit every fifth day. And actually, after having talked to William about it, and after him doing a little research, it turns out Larsen was a career .242 hitter, with 14 career home runs! Not too bad for a pitcher! He batted .306 in 49 total at bats in 1958, clubbing 4 home runs!

Of course, the point of the piece was not to emphasize Larsen's decent hitting career but to just have a nice piece signed by a Yankees great! I'm not disappointed with this whatsoever, and I'm glad because it came with JSA Authentication and a bat tube. This is my 1st of hopefully many more signed bats to come, and I guess it's a pretty darn good start for a Yankee fan like myself!

All in all, this card show lived up to the hype I had for weeks, about meeting some former great football players, and to have a good time. Thanks so much again to Dad for taking me and treating me all day as usual, and for my good friend Matt too for coming along and checking out the hobby from our angle!

See Ya!

August 20th White Plains Card Show Review Part 5

Hey guys, Drew back here. Keepin' with the recent flow, lets jump right back into the review. In this post, we have one thing that is great news, and one thing that is bad news. I guess we'll start off with the bad news...

Part 5:

Autographed Photos

Oh hey remember me? If you all remember, back in January I bought this signed 8x10 autograph of Mark Sanchez, which was authenticated by "Left Field Sports Memorabilia". According to this company's website, they get their autographs checked by big name companies as well, such as PSA, JSA, etc. It came with the certificate of authenticity, assuring me that the autograph was real. Well lately I've been looking at other Sanchez autographs, and this just looked much different from the rest of them. So, I decided to take it to the card show to get it checked out by JSA, one of the best authentication companies in the world. It cost me $20 to get the picture checked, and it took over 2 hours for them to do their entire examination of the photograph. 

Dad picked it up for me at the JSA table while Mike and I were in line for Ernie Banks. It was bad news. JSA said that the autograph could not certify its authenticity. Does that mean it can still be real? Yes. Is it likely? No. The photo came from China, so unless they purchased the photo off another dealer, they couldn't have gotten it in person. 

So, when I got home, I checked eBay to see if I can contact the sellers, and unfortunately, I can't, since they close down their account. I did see their feedback, and they had almost 100% feedback with hardly any poor reviews. Something is definitely wrong here, and I may never know the truth about this picture. 

Do you guys have any advice for how to go about this? 

Moving on. Like I said, there was certainly good news as well! Dad and I were just about to meet Lou Piniella when the 1:00 door prize winner was revealed to be my dad! So dad sprinted down the line of people and tried to get there to claim his prize before they gave it to someone else. He got it, and this was the prize:

It was an 11x14 autographed picture of Robinson Cano! Cano, as you all know, is one of my top 3 favorite players, to go along with Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher, and he is one of the most fun players to watch in all of baseball. He can do it at the plate, with his glove, and he makes everything look smooth as silk. So, I was just a tad bit excited when dad came back with a prize that I can now hang up on the wall! 

Unfortunately, none of us were crazy about the picture Cano signed. It looks like someone in the stands took a picture of him and blew it up to 11x14 size. No, we're not really complaining, as it was free and we were lucky enough just to win it. But still, I probably would've been a little happier with a picture of him batting rather than one of him just standing around with a ton of grass surrounding him. 

But anyways, I still can't wait to hang that one up, and also, I don't know quite what to do about the Sanchez picture. Anybody know what to do? 

See Ya!