talkin' baseball - brian, jackie, and the mick

recently, brian at highly subjective and completely arbitrary showed off 9 cards featuring the 1982 yankees as part of his ongoing series of posts related to teams of the 1980s. the post got me thinking about yankee cards from 1982 and i remembered one that i had come across a few years ago while researching a different set.

this is a 1982 asa the mickey mantle story card that features the mick playing first base during a spring training game against the dodgers. that's jackie robinson diving back to first, as the card tells us.  i had seen this card when i was looking up the similar 1982 asa the duke snider story set, but i didn't give it a lot of thought at the time.  after seeing brian's post, i went to sportlots and ordered the card for my collection.

the back of the card references the 1955 world series

which begs the question of why didn't they use a photo from said series on the front? no matter, it's a yankee card that i am happy to (finally) add to my dodger collection.

meanwhile, brian also sent me some cards over the summer - a great variety of cards, in fact. take a look:

2020 topps chrome ben baller brusdar graterol

another version of chrome, with the design interpreted by ben baller, i guess. this version is also different from the regular chrome version in that graterol's number has been corrected from "00" to "48".

2020 panini diamond kings mookie betts bat kings relic

my first dodger mookie relic. i continue to reap the benefits of brian's dodger mojo!

2019 topps clayton kershaw superstars of baseball/stars of the game

2006 upper deck special f/x jose cruz jr

there were other dodgers, too, but brian also likes to send me some tatooine cards that are new to my collection. this time was no exception.

2007 topps opening day grady sizemore gold parallel,

the indians had a few cards that looked like this in 2007, almost as if they played their home games near mos eisley.

1997 fleer mike sweeney

1998 pinnacle doug glanville

he'll be your doug.

1994 pinnacle jose vizcaino

with a normal-sized barry bonds lurking

1994 upper deck minors arquimedez poao

1995 upper deck collector's choice se orlando merced

and a pair of 2008 bowman yunel escobar cards

one being the blue parallel and one being the base.

it's been a long year here in the twin cities, and not meeting up with brian at a card show has been one of the byproducts of the conditions under which we are living. i'm hoping we can meet up sometime in 2021, but until then we will keep on trading.  thanks brian!

still accepting autographs through the mail (and even unsigned returns, too)

it's been a while since i've sent out a autograph request through the mail - five months, to be exact - and even then it was just four requests. i am certainly not sending them out at the clip i was back in 2009 or 2010, that's for sure.  of the four that i sent out this past july, i've received two back. those would be andruw jones and a guy i'll show a little further down in the post.  i have, however, received  in the past few months some returns for which requests were sent well before july of 2016.

here is my latest return, and i'm calling it a qualified success.  that's because even though clayton kershaw did not sign the 2015 topps card that i mailed his way on february 15, 2015, earlier today i found that unsigned card and this card in my return envelope

that's not a regular ol' 2016 topps card.  turn it over, and you'll see what i mean:

it's a special card topps made for kershaw to highlight his kershaw's challenge charity.  go ahead and check out the website. i'll wait.  i have some kershaw ttm returns already in the collection, plus a few certified autos (including the one i pulled recently, which is not as some may suspect my favorite card of the year - stay tuned for that p-town tom inspired post), so i am actually pretty happy with having received this card instead of the one i sent.  the front is slightly embossed, too.  it's a fantastic oddball item, even if it's the same photo as his topps flagship card.

here's the other request from july that has been fulfilled - jose cruz jr on his 2006 topps card

it made its way back to me earlier this month, which is fairly quick compared to some other returns i've got back this calendar year.  for example, i received a 1978 topps card signed by steve swisher this past april. it was a card that i mailed to him in august of 2011 - 4 years and 8 months earlier!  brandon league signed and returned a 2013 topps card 3 years and 7 months after i first mailed it, and grady little returned a 2006 upper deck and 2007 topps card signed in february - almost two years after they were mailed to him.  bill north took 2 years and 8 months to return his 1979 topps card unsigned with a note telling me how to arrange for an autograph through a website, so it's safe to say that alfredo griffin came through with a quick turnaround on my request for him to sign his 1988 topps traded card

it came back to me in september, almost exactly one year after i mailed it out.

and then there is this pete mackanin 1978 topps card

that took 5.5 years! i sent it out in may of 2011 and got it back just last month.

that gives me hope for the shawn green request i sent back in 2003!