Recent MLB News

Hey guys, Drew back here. I was going to plan on posting some other recent additions today, but I thought I should cover some of the latest baseball news.

First off, Derek Jeter will return to the Yankees after supposedly agreeing to a 3 year, between $45 and $51 million dollar deal with the team today. He will make approximately $15-17 million a year, which seems fitting considering he deserves to make $ but should not be the highest paid player on the team due to his recent performance. I'm glad Jeter finally woke up and realized that he wasn't worth $25 million a year for the team anymore, and even though he technically should be the highest paid player on the team, after last years performance, he doesn't deserve that kind of money. Jeter will most likely collect his 3,000th hit this year with the Yankees, becoming the 1st Yankee to ever achieve 3,000 hits or more in their career!

In the bad news category (at least for me), the Red Sox are about ready to pull off a blockbuster deal with the Padres to land prized 1st baseman Adrian Gonzalez. According to ESPN, a deal is in place, pending a physical that Gonzalez is taking in Boston. The Red Sox hope to boost their lineup with a power bat that produced 161 home runs for San Diego in 5 seasons. This is awful news for any Yankees, Rays, Orioles, and Blue Jays fans, adding a new superstar into a rival's lineup. This news really disappoints me, but whats done is done and hopefully our pitchers will be able to contain the beast!

And I'll end by remembering 2 great players, who both passed away within the last week. First, legendary Cubs 3rd baseman Ron Santo died due to complications of bladder cancer and diabetes. Santo had 2,254 hits, 342 home runs, 1,331 RBI, and a lifetime batting average of .277 in his career, and is regarded as one of the best retired players not in the Hall of Fame. Santo was one of those players that I found a whole lot more about after his passing, which is unfortunate for sure. His diabetes and cancer forced him to have his legs amputated at the knees, and he lived in a lot of pain throughout his short life. He will be remembered as one of the best Cubs to ever play, and a baseball great.

Also, former Yankees infielder Gil McDougald passed away on November 28th at the age of 82. McDougald played 10 seasons throughout the 1950's with the Yankees, winning 5 World Series championships. He made 6 All Star Teams, and was the 1951 AL Rookie of the Year.

May Mr. Santo and Mr. McDougald rest in peace...

See Ya!

TTM #34- First Basketball Success!

Hey guys, Drew back here. It's another one of those bad phases for me, the ones where I have close to no interest in cards. I get them a lot, especially lately, but I think it's just because of my personal life, track, and schoolwork really amounting into close to no time or interest in writing more than I already had. Thankfully, my awful drought of about 4 RTS' in like 2 weeks ended, and today I got a success! Check it out:

None other than Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki! I'm not a huge fan of basketball, but I do have many favorite players, and this guy is definitely one of them now! He didn't sign my custom, but he did sign my StarQuest insert card for me! He inscribed his number, and took 23 days to return it!

Dirk is a 9 Time NBA All Star, the 2006 NBA 3 Point Challenge Winner, and was the 2007 league MVP. He has always been a powerful player, but a very skilled shooter as well. I'm very happy that he signed this card for me, and I wish him and his team the best of luck this season! Thanks Dirk!

See Ya!

Jets Game Card Pickups!

Hey guys, Drew back here. As you may know, my dad may have more of an urge to buy me cards than I do. He doesn't collect, but he sure loves when I collect. Here are some things he got me at the Jets Game:

1. 1 Jets 100 Card Lot of Random Cards

I've gotten quite a few of these in the past, always something you will find at the Meadowlands Stadium. Usually nothing overly exciting, but sometimes you'll find some cool inserts. I've gotten a majority of my Curtis Martin and Keyshawn Johnson collections from these, as majority of the lots have at least 10 Curtis Martins and 5 Keyshawns. Not bad stuff though, liking the Curtis Martins!

2. 2009 UD Rookie Premiere Set

This is a pretty cool set of 30 cards highlighting the future stars of the 2009 Draft. It has rookies of some of the NFL's new talents, such as Mark Sanchez, Matthew Stafford, Josh Freeman, Percy Harvin, Kenny Britt, Hakeem Nicks, and LeSean McCoy, as well as many other highly touted young guys. The design is nice and the shots are nice and bright. Definitely am a fan!

3. 5 Packs of 2010 Panini Adrenalyn and 5 Packs of 2010 Score

I haven't tried much of any 2010 football releases other than some Donruss Elite and some Topps flagship, so it was nice to crack open some newer packs. The Adrenalyn stuff was ok, it's more of a kids game, similar to Topps Attax in baseball, so it kinda is kiddish. Since that is the purpose of the product, nice job Panini! The design is decent, but my favorite part is the extremely cool look of the players on the cards. It seems like they added some sort of effect on the players, and it looks cooler. Lastly, I pulled 3 "special" inserts of Rey Maualuga, Jamaal Charles, and Jets running back Shonn Greene!

Score was a nice surprise for me. I like the look of the splattered paint, its pretty fresh and I guess clean! I pulled quite a few decent base cards as well as some rookies and nice inserts! The Dez Bryant Hot Rookies insert was sweet as well as the odd Aaron Rodgers big head insert. But whats this? More?

Yeah, we hit an autograph! It's of Redskins safety LaRon Landry! Not a huge pull, but it has decent value and its of a solid player, so I'm happy. If anybody wants the card, let me know if you have anything I would like to trade for.

Thanks so much as always dad! See Ya!

Yankees "Perfect" Pickup

Hey guys, Drew back here. I still have a little more to talk about for the Jets game, but I'm gonna change gears to baseball for this one. At this time about every year I tend to get bored of baseball and focus more on football. The last 2 or 3 years though, I still have maintained somewhat of an interest still. This year, I'm not sure, so I decided to pick a nice card up to help that. Check it out:

2003 Topps Finest #FMA-DL Don Larsen Autograph

Don Larsen wasn't the greatest pitcher for the Yankees by any means, but he has a very special significance to the Yankees. As you all know, he's the only pitcher in World Series history to throw a perfect game! On October 8th, 1956, he left the Dodgers hitless and the Yankees won the game 2-0! Even though that was extremely long ago, when you think of Don Larsen that may be the 1st and only thing that comes to mind. Other than this game, he jumped around to a bunch of teams, even without free agency. He played from 1953-1967, and is currently 81 years young.

This card definitely looked nice for me to get, I already have a similar Goose Gossage early 2000's Finest auto. While I'm not a huge fan of the autograph on the opposite direction as the rest of the card, this one is a nice one for sure. I figured I should get one that says something about his perfect game on it, which I definitely did. Mission accomplished!

See Ya!

Jets Game Last Night!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Last night as you may have read about already on the blog, my dad and I went down to the Meadowlands for the Thanksgiving Night Game! Instead of the traditional family thanksgiving we have, we decided to mix things up this year and go to the game! We arrived extra early, perhaps because of the fact that we didn't know how traffic would be, and we wanted to get there early to see what the new stadium was like. Not only was it our first game to the new Meadowlands Stadium, but it also was my first football night game! I pumped myself up in the car listening to some Jay-Z and Eminem stuff, and I was ready to go!

The Jets were playing the Cincinatti Bengals, who were 2-8, having lost 8 games in a row leading up to Thanksgiving Night. We sure did have an advantage going in, but over the past 3 weeks we've barely been able to hang on to beat some of the worst teams in football (Detroit, Cleveland, Houston). Still a wins a win and it doesn't necessarily matter how you win, as long as you win.

So, we arrived and were in amazement of how nice the new field was! It was somewhat similar to the old stadium, but a whole lot nicer! In each corner of the field is a large HD screen that showed all the game live, as well as statistics and other information. I took quite a few pictures, so I'll let them tell the story for a little while...

I took quite a few Bengals pictures because they warmed up on our side of the field. This one is definitely my favorite one though, showing kicker Aaron Pettrey warming up. I've never heard of him but it seems like he's young and not so trusted by his team. I say this because late in the game they went for it in his field goal territory.

Yeah, there's me by our seats. We were in the 4th row in the middle level. Every seat was a good seat at the stadium for sure, even though they were small with not a lot of space. The rows were high enough behind the row in front of it that you could see well unless the people in front of you got up. Unfortunately, I was stuck squished in my seat by a big guy that sat next to me and took up majority of my seat hahaha.

The Jets were pumped and ready for this one for sure. Unlike the last few games, they were actually able to take a somewhat good lead. I'm not going to go into depth on the game because a lot of you already know that the Jets kicked butt, 26-10 final. Special teams talent Brad Smith made 2 key plays, a 53 yard run and an 89 yard kickoff return touchdown! Sanchez didn't have his strongest of games, but he managed to throw a touchdown to Santonio Holmes. All in all it was an extremely good game, and I had a great time with my dad! Heres a few more pictures I took throughout the game:

See Ya!