I'm A Winner!!

    Hey all. I am very happy to say I was the winner of Ryan's contest over at his Great Orioles Autograph Project. He ran a contest where we had to guess what team would have the best spring training record and I used my brain instead of my heart and picked the Rays to be the best team. It paid off as I was right and won. Ryan asked what I wanted so I went with my usual Mets and/or Yankees but wasn't very specific and told him to surprise me. He surely did! Here are just a few of the cards in the nice sized package he sent me.

I assume these are all ttm autos as anybody who reads his blog knows he is a big ttm collector.

1982 Fleer #542 Mookie Wilson auto

1992 Topps #195 David Cone auto

Awesome! Can't go wrong with these two Mets stars. I have a Mookie auto ball and a Cone Yankee auto but these are my first two Mets card autos of them.

1982 Donruss #434 John Stearns auto

1996 Donruss Rated Rookie #100 Bill Pulsipher auto

Stearns in my opinion was under appreciated as he put together solid seasons on some bad teams during his time with the Mets after he arrived from the Phillies in the trade for Tug McGraw. I really like the 82 Donruss set and may try to put one together. Pulsipher never panned out for the Mets as part of the triple threat of Paul Wilson, Jason Isringhausen, and Bill Pulsipher who were supposed to be the most dominant youn pitchers in the game. In typical Mets fashion none of them had any real sucess with the team and were all traded away.

1986 Fleer #473 Tim Bogar auto

1986 Fleer Update #U154 Jaun Acevedo auto

Bogar was a fan favorite who played all four infield positions. I am stoked to add him into my auto collection. Acevedo only played one season for the Mets so this is kind of cool to have an auto on his Mets card.

1997 Fleer #393 Alvero Espinoza auto

1990 Fleer #454 Deion Sanders auto

Espinoza only played part of one season with the Mets and actually put up good numbers batting .306 in 48 games. Deion is Deion. I am not a big fan but gotta respect what he did in both baseball and football. He was a true athlete.

 

1989 Topps #659 Al Leiter auto

1993 SP #262 Jim Abbott auto

Al Leiter is one of my favorites with both the Mets and Yankees annd even as an announcer he is pretty good. What can you say about a gut who pitches with one hand and throws a no hitter for the Yankees on 9/4/93 vs Cleveland. A real inspiration to ball players everywhere

 

1985 Fleer Update #U97 Billy Sample auto

1988 Topps #159 Brad Arnsberg auto

Sample only played one year with the Yankees after seven with the Rangers. He played one more year with the Braves to round out his nine year mlb career. Arnsberg was drafted by four teams and didn't sign with any until the Yankees were number five and he signed with them.

  

1994 Topps #79 Billy Maase auto

1994 Topps #772 Russ Davis auto

Masse played 7 seasons in the Yankees farm system but never made it to the majors. Russ Davis made his bigest contribution when he and Sterling Hitchcock were traded to Seattle for Jim Mecir (a friend of mine is his cousin), Jeff Nelson, and Tino Martinez.

There you have it, fourteen auto cards but that's not all............

2008 Topps J.J. Hardy game used jersey

2008 Topps Update Lance Berkman event worn all-star jersey

The surprises just kept coming, two game used I didn't have. I have accidently begun a Lance Berkman game used collection as this is the fifth one I have gotten without really trying. I've always respected his on field abilities and off the field class. I am glad to add another one of his gu to the collection.

1995 Signature Rookies Old Judge T-95 Series #29 Tate Seefried auto

2009 Topps Update #UH164 Brett Tomko gold sn'd 0410/2009

Seefried never made the big leagues after eight years in the minors. This card is from his days up in Albany. I believe this is the first Tomko card for my collection.

2009 Topps Update #UH77 Jeremy Reed gold sn'd 0277/2009

2009 Topps Update #UH250 Mark Teixeira gold sn'd 0695/2009

Reed only played the one year with the Mets. I think Teixeira is one of the best all around players in the league today.

 This is just a small sample of what ryan sent. Here is one more card next to a pile of the rest of the cards he sent my way.

A cool Mantle and a great pile of more Mets and Yankees.

Thanks again Ryan, you had a most excellent contest and superb prize. I will keep my eyes open for O's autos for your project. Thanks Rays!

Thanks for Reading!