Up For Grabs: Donnie Baseball

Cardinals fans, please watch this space! In the coming weeks, I will be listing a bunch of my extra Cardinals cards here, most likely in the same format as these Up For Grabs posts. I'm getting to the point where something like 20% of the unwanted cards in my collection are Cardinals cards, and that's just not right. Before we get to those, however, I have a few more non-Cardinals players to finally clear out of the binders. As always, look for the list at the end of the post.

Don Mattingly is probably not the most popular ex-ballplayer around right now. Reports seem to float by every day discussing his imminent termination as manager of the Dodgers. As much as I liked Mattingly as a player, it wouldn't really bother me to see his days as a Dodger come to an end because I grew up in the '80s believing that the Yankees were great and the Dodgers were the enemy.

Of course, these days I have a hard time finding much affection for the Yankees. This year's team is some sort of weird hybrid of superstar (Cano, Sabathia) and free agent scrapheap fantasy draft fodder (Travis Hafner? Lyle Overbay? Brennan Boesch?)

Mattingly was a terrific player for awhile, but he remains outside of the Hall of Fame inner circle. His highs were probably not quite high enough for books to be written about him and his career wasn't quite as long as many 1B sluggers that we're used to. In fact, Mattingly wasn't really a slugger at all, but he did a very good impression of one for a few years in the '80s.

Still, he's a curious case. Is it possible for someone to be so overrated that he's actually maybe a little bit overlooked. His career was pretty much bookended by Yankee World Series appearances, but he debuted a year too late and retired a year too soon to participate. He was one of the few talented, marketable players that stuck with the Yankees all the way through their lean years, and he never suited up for any other big league team.

The list:

1991 Post #29 [4 available]
1987 Fleer #104
1985 Fleer Limited Edition #20
1989 Cereal Superstars #11
1996 Topps Stadium Club #73
1991 Fleer Provisions #11 [2 available]
1991 Score (The Franchise) #856 [3 available]
1988 Topps Sticker Backs (w/ John Kruk sticker) #35
1988 O-Pee-Chee Sticker Backs (w/ Scott Bailes / Casey Candaele stickers) #35
1989 Topps UK Minis #49
1993 Triple Play #120
1993 Topps #32
1989 Classic Orange #106
1992 Topps #300
2010 Topps The Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT157
1991 Upper Deck #354
1992 Upper Deck #356
1992 Score #23
2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes (w/ Dave Winfield and Reggie Jackson) #190
2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes (w/ Wade Boggs) #176 [2 available]
1990 Topps Mini League Leaders #24
1989 Fleer #258
1990 Fleer #447
1990 Fleer (SuperStarSpecials w/ Mark McGwire) #638 [2 available]
1991 Score #23
1988 Fleer Sluggers vs. Pitchers #26
1991 Donruss #107
1990 Post #1
1992 Topps Stadium Club #420
1990 Topps #200 [7 available]
1990 Bowman Art Inserts [4 available]
1991 Fleer #673
1988 Donruss MVP #BC-21
1987 Topps (Yankees Leaders w/ Rickey Henderson) #406 [2 available]
1987 Topps (All-Stars ERR no trademark) #606
1987 Topps (All-Stars COR) #606
1987 Topps Mini League Leaders #65
1988 Topps UK Minis #45 [2 available]
1988 Topps Glossy All-Stars #2
1988 Topps (Record Breakers) #2
1992 Fleer #237 [2 available]
1989 Topps #700
1989 Topps (All-Stars) #397
1991 Topps (ERR 10 hits in 1990) #100 [2 available]
1991 Leaf #425
1989 Donruss #74
1989 Donruss (Diamond Kings) #26
1990 Bowman #443
1990 Topps Kay-Bee Kings #18
1990 Leaf #69
1987 Sportflics (Tri-Stars w/ Wally Joyner and Eddie Murray) #75
1988 Fleer Sluggers vs. Pitchers #25
1987 Fleer (SuperStarSpecials w/ Darryl Strawberry) #638
1996 Bazooka #23

[updated 7/7/13]

My Favorite Yankees

I'm rooting for the Yankees and I am making no apologies for it. I'm not going to defend their free spending ways, their perceived arrogance or Derek Jeter's perma-smug facial expression. I understand how everyone who ever had Mark Teixeira play for their team could probably hate the guy. And don't get me started about the orange-faced cheater, Alex Rodriguez. I still root for this team, however. In fact, I've rooted for them for longer than any other baseball team. They were my dad's team, and his father's team as well. And while I eventually found myself picking a certain National League team as my favorite of favorites, I am not going to bury my Yankee-loving roots. It also makes it just a little more fun to root for a team that everyone else seems to hate. It seems like there are always Yankee fans at road games that I see on TV, but everywhere I happen to go I hear nothing but venom and hatred for the team in pinstripes.

Here are my top 10 favorite Yankees of the moment. A week or a month from now this list could look a lot different because I'm not all that great at ranking things, but I took a stab right now nonetheless.

10 - Hideki Matsui

Matsui, when healthy, is an RBI machine. He doesn't give a whole lot else, but it's something I've come to appreciate especially when watching the often-frustrating Cardinals offense struggle with men on base. I'm not sure how much he has left in the tank, and it seems like this might be his last year with the Yankees, but I've enjoyed watching him play. He seems like a decent guy and isn't super flashy or obnoxious.

9 - Graig Nettles

When I played little league baseball, my glove had a Graig Nettles signature emblazoned on it. I wore a hole in it with my thumbnail, which made every other glove I ever tried just not feel right.

8 - Mariano Rivera

The best closer of all-time.

7 - Mike Pagliarulo

"Pags" was an early favorite of mine despite his penchant for low batting averages. He had a cool name. He ranks 493rd (tied) on the top 500 home run hitters of all-time list according to Wikipedia.

6 - Dave Righetti

"Rags" broke the single-season saves record on the last day of the 1986 season by saving both games of a doubleheader, which cranked him up to fully awesome in my book. I was really ticked when Bobby Thigpen shattered his record 4 years later by getting 11 (!) more than he did.

5 - Rickey Henderson

Not all of the players on my list escape the cocky and obnoxious tag. Rickey backed it up, though, and I've always been one to appreciate a stolen base. I'd always pretend I was Rickey when I would try to steal bases in my youth.

4 - Bernie Williams

A consummate pro and an all-around great guy. If you hate Bernie Williams, you hate baseball.

3 - Don Mattingly

It was hard to put Mattingly below anyone on this list, but it has seriously made me ill to see him in a Dodgers uniform along side Joe Torre. Torre doesn't bother me, but Mattingly... that's just wrong!

2 - Dave Winfield

Winfield was drafted by four professional sports teams, including an NFL team despite the fact that he never played college football. He was the Yankees best slugger throughout the '80s until Steinbrenner ran him out of town. To me, he just sounded like a baseball player.

1 - Reggie Jackson

I was too young to remember the 1977 World Series, and Reggie was a California Angel during the years I really started watching games. But thanks to my parents and their stories, I always associated him with the Yankees. He was about as humble as Muhammad Ali, but I remember seeing him hit grand slams and felt like he was the only player capable of doing it. He was my first favorite player, but eventually Ozzie Smith won me over. Reggie Jackson also had his own Nickelodeon show!

Go Yankees.