High Tek El Duque

I am on a roll with these Topps Tek cards now.  After picking up a few Cardinals autographs I have moved on to cool 90s players who signed in this throwback Topps product.  Last week I picked up a really cool Andres Galarraga autograph and promised a few more cool signatures.  True to my word, here's another nineties great......

There is so much to love about this card.  Acetate, cool signatures, and a cool unique nineties baseball player.  We have already heard enough about the Topps Tek cards last week, so let's just skip ahead to the signature.  Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez was not the world's best signer when he was playing.  There was a 1999 SP Signature autograph and then not really anything for more than a decade.  Yes, you could find some autographed baseballs or 8x10s, but that was about it.

Last year El Duque started signing and there are now a good amount of his autographs floating around on the secondary market.  After searching his autographs on Ebay there are almost 200 items that have closed during the past 90s days, almost all of the cards are from the last two years.  By the way, that's a really cool signature too.  Hernandez is really consistent with a nice signature and almost always adds the inscription "Duque" or "El Duque" underneath the OHernandez script.

If you weren't around for El Duque's career, or you just simply remember him for throwing eephus pitches to ARod, then you should revisit the late 90s when that cool leg kick and pitches with tons of movement made hitters all over the league look silly.

Hernandez was never an overpowering pitching and he was never a true ace, but he was very good for his first couple of seasons for the Yankees.   His best season in the Majors was his first year, 1998, but he was also 32 when he made his debut for the Yankees.  He ended up starting the second game of the World Series that year against the Padres and went seven innings striking out seven en route to picking up the win for the Yankees.  

This is my first Orlando Hernandez autograph, and at slightly under $10, I am happy I waited awhile to pick one up.  They have certainly been more in the past and seem to have lost a little bit of steam since Topps started putting him in tons of products.  I have a few more Tek autographs I am still working on, maybe next week, but overall I am really happy with this brand new card.  

1990s Yankees: The Best of the Rest

I have put up two posts about the Championship teams the Yankees put together in the late 90s.  The first day I started out with a few of the mainstays like Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams, and Jorge Posada.  Yesterday, I posted a second group of Yankees who were some of my favorite veteran additions to the team.  Players like Tim Raines, Wade Boggs, and Mike Mussina were not necessarily the stars of the Yankees teams they played on, but they were key contributors who filled a role an important role for the Yankees. 

There were plenty of other cool names that popped up on the Yankees while they were putting together a string of four World Series titles over a five year period.  Here's a few of my other cool Yankees to look out for on cardboard. 

1982 Topps Chili Davis

Chili Davis
There are not many Jamaicans in the Majors, but Chili was one of the few to make the show.  I first ran into Chili Davis as a Giant when he dubbed St Louis a "Cow Town" which prompted 50,000 people to show up at Busch Stadium with cow bells for the 1987 National League Championship Series.  Jeffrey Leonard took most of the heat for the comment for some reason, but I was not a huge fan of Chili to start.  He moved to the American League later in his career where he hit a lot.  During the 1991 and 1992, playing for the Twins, Chili posted an OPS+ of 141 and 130 helping the Twins to the World Series crown over the Braves in 1991.  During the seven game series Chili hit 2 home runs and drove in 4 runs.  He filled a role with the Yankees, but definitely had some good moments.  His rookie card is pretty inexpensive, but he has signed almost nothing.  A hard autograph to find.   

2004 Upper Deck Yankees Classics Jimmy Key

 

Jimmy Key 

Jimmy Key was not a great pitcher, but was a good pitcher for a long time.  He had a few great seasons along the way, specifically the 1987 campaign with the Blue Jays where he posted a 17-8 mark, but led the American League in ERA, WHIP, H/9, and ERA+.  He also posted a 7.8 WAR that season.  Key came over to the Yankees from the Blue Jays in 1993 and was one of the team's bright spots in the mid 90s.  During the strike shortened season of 1994, Key led the American League in wins and came in second during Cy Young voting.  Key appeared on the 1996 World Championship Yankees team as a starter.  The regular season was so-so for Key, but he started and won the clincher for the team in the 6th game of the World Series.  Key's rookie card is one of the better cards in the 1985 Topps set and he has signed a lot of cards since retiring.  Many are on card.  He signed in the 1997 Donruss Signature Series cards while he was still playing, but the card features him as an Oriole which was brief stop at the end of his career.  

2013 Topps Archives Darryl Strawberry 1983 All-Star

Darryl Strawberry

A big name, but he was past his prime by the time he joined the Yankees for his second stint during the 1996 season.  He was a part-time player for the 1996, 1998, and 1999 World Series Championship teams.  His bat added some nice pop in 1996 adding 11 home runs in 200 at-bats and again in 1998 when he posted 24 home runs in about 250 at-bats.  Straw had his hot streaks and was a nice player after the bench for the pinstripes.  He has a pretty big following with cards.  Popular rookie cards in the 1983 Topps Traded set and 1984 Topps sets.  The Straw man has signed a lot, but his autograph is still pretty valuable and still highly sought after.  

2013 Topps Update Ruben Sierra Autograph

Ruben Sierra
He had a couple of nice seasons early in his career playing for the Rangers, was traded for Jose Canseco, flopped, and then ended up playing for almost (it seems that way) every Major League Baseball team under the sun.  Tony LaRussa once dubbed him "the village idiot" while he was playing for the A's.  Sierra played for the 1996 Yankees where he swung hard and hit home runs.  One of the bigger names to sit on the pine for the 1990s Yankees.  His cards are really affordable and he has a really nice looking autograph. 

1987 Topps Mini Mariano Duncan

Mariano Duncan
You're thinking why?  You remember when October rolled around and Mark Lemke popped up and did something.  Mariano Duncan was a the Dodgers and in the playoffs, the 1990 Reds World Champions, the 1993 Phillies, back to the Reds in 1995 for another playoff run, and then somehow ended up playing second base for the Yankees in 1996 along side Derek Jeter during his first full season in the bigs.  I know you are thinking he was just filling the hole next to Jeter on the infield, but Duncan had an out of nowhere season that year which really boosted the 1996 World Series Champions.  During the regular season Duncan posted a .340 batting average which is pretty spectular when you consider he was a .267 career hitter.  He also managed to bat .313 in the divisional round of the 1996 playoffs against the Rangers before remembering he was Mariano Duncan.  Cards are cheap, autograph is spectacular.  I don't own one, but I have seen several.  High quality. 

1998 Fleer Orlando "El Duque" Hernadez RC

Orlando Hernandez
I always thought of El Duque as a really good version of Dontrelle Willis.  Crazy windup and the guy would throw all kinds of pitches.  I am not sure that he always knew what he was throwing.  It some ways it was like watching a backyard wiffleball game.  He'd throw something up and sometimes it got hit and other times not.  El Duque played for the 1998, 1999, and 2000 World Champions before playing for a lot of other teams.  Here is throwing an eephus pitch to ARod: 

Orlando Hernandez has some pretty nice cards out there.  Nothing expensive, but also not many certified autographs.  Like Mariano Duncan, not much out there, but he's got a nice signature. 

A tip of his authentic Babe Ruth hat to 1998 Yankee starting pitcher David Wells....

1998 Topps Tek Set Update

Two weeks ago I started working on trying to finish up my 1998 Topps Tek set.  Last week,  I added a Ken Griffey Jr. card to my set brought which brought me to needing a total of 32 more cards to finish off the 32 card set.  This week I did a little bit better.  First, I found cards for trade which meant that I did not add any money to my total amount of money spent on the set.  I am still at $5.  Second,  I was able to add almost a quarter of the cards I need for the set in one week.

Seven more cards were added bringing my total needed down to 25 cards.  I was especially happy to land the Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez card.  One of the hardest parts about assembling a set is tracking down the cards of some of the star players and key rookies.  These two cards definitely fit that description.  I have a few more Topps Tek cards on my radar, so hopefully I will be adding a few more in the next few days.  

Updated list:

2 Kerry Wood, 3 Barry Bonds, 6 Frank Thomas, 7 Bernie Williams, 16 Brady Anderson, 17 Vladimir Guerrero, 18 Dave Justice, 19 Chipper Jones, 21 Roger Clemens, 22 Mark Kotsay, 23 Tony Gwynn, 25 Tino Martinez, 26 Andruw Jones, 29 Gary Sheffield, 32 Curt Schilling, 33 Robin Ventura, 34 Larry Walker, 37 Paul O'Neill, 42 Derek Bell, 45 Kenny Lofton, 51 Cal Ripken, 52 Jason Kendall, 60 Juan Gonzalez, 62 Jose Cruz, 64 Edgar Martinez, 70 Chuck Knoblauch,  76 Derrek Lee, 79 Jeff King, 80 Mike Mussina,  86 Mike Piazza