The Animal I've Become

Yesterday I went to a Staten Island Yankees doubleheader. Why? Because the Staten Island Yankees team set came out.

That can mean only one thing.

Zippy Zappy goes full beast mode on the autograph front.

BTW, the cards all feature photographs by the Staten Island Yankees' team photographer Robert Pimpsner of Pinstriped Prospects.

My first autograph of the day came from Danienger Perez. I'd love to give these guys all a paragraph for themselves but that would make this post way too long. So in the interest of saving time I'm just going to say a few short sentences. Like how Perez here is a utility infielder from Venezuela.

Next up is Jesus Bastidas. An infielder from Venezuela.

This is former big league pitcher Travis Phelps who now works as a pitching coach. He's looking after some premo talent this year.

Next up is Eduardo Torrealba. A Venezuelan infielder who was originally signed by the Red Sox but his contract was voided after the Red Sox were discovered to have used shady methods to sign international free agent.

Here is Dominican outfielder Andy Diaz. After a hot start to his career offensively he's taken a few steps back. The potential is still there but the time to unlock it is running out.

Next up is the Yankees' 14th round pick in this year's draft, Kyle Gray. Someone alert Matt, we've got a WVU alum here!

Here is Canaan Smith, who's missed some time recently due to minor injuries. Hopefully he can put together a strong finish to 2018.

Next up is Jerry Seitz. A Venezuelan catcher who is looking more and more like org depth.

Here is Junior Soto, a Dominican outfielder who was originally signed by the Clevelands but was drafted by the Yankees in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft last winter.

Here is Ricardo Ferreira. Ferreira is a Dominican outfielder. He's got some power and speed but has yet to put it all together.

Next up is Eric Wagaman. A first base only prospect from California. He is tall (6'4").

Here is Tennessean Alex Junior who was the Yankees' 19th round pick. When he was very young kid he thought that he was related to Ken Griffey Jr. (because his own name is Junior).

Here is Virginian righty Aaron McGarity. He was the Yankees' 15th rounder this year and his 2-pitch power pitcher seems to be working well in the bullpen.

Here is Californian righty Brooks Kriske. He was drafted by the Yankees in the sixth round of the 2016 draft and all signs pointed to him rising pretty quickly through the ranks but instead he had to undergo Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2017. Here in 2018 he's looking to make up for lost time.

Next is one of the best starters on the Yankees roster, Juan De Paula. He's been nothing short of stellar this year.

Here is Matt Sauer. He's also been nothing short of stellar this year.

Next up is Nolan Martinez. The Yankees haven't quite shut him down this year yet, but his outings are starting to get shorter and shorter.

Here is Yankees manager Lino Diaz. He's bounced around as a behind the scenes guy for various teams before landing with the Yankees as a coach. This year he's serving as the Yankees' manager and he's super duper nice.

Next up is Andres Chaparro. A Venezuelan catcher-turned-infielder who has a strong arm.

Here are a couple of returns from Chase Hodson. Some of you might remember Hodson as the player I sent a request to last year that was a failure, but was also an extremely generous gesture by the Staten Island Yankees. He also gave me some taco flavored sunflower seeds before the game. Thanks Chase!

Next up is relief prospect Garrett Mundell. He's one of the 2015 draftees I was looking to upgrade for my 2015 autograph project.

Here is another relief prospect in Christian Morris. He's another 2015 draftee I was looking to upgrade for my project.

Here's another reliever in Abel Duarte. He has easy low-90's velo.

And last but not least is an autograph of Brandon Lockridge. Unfortunately he was assigned to the Staten Island Yankees too late to get a card in the set, but he's super nice. He even helped me get Sauer and Martinez's autographs. I'll have to make a custom for him.

And that concludes the autograph haul. 25 autographs total! Woof. Not my personal best record, but it's always good to go home with 20+ autographs.

Now as for the games...

Game one was during the day when the weather was pretty okay. One minute clouds would be really ugly but then the clouds would disappear the next. Anyway the Yankees got outscored 10-1 by the Tri-City Valleycats. Meh, whatever. Shake it off and focus on game two.

Game two things were looking good. The bullpen wasn't too taxed and Juan De Paula was on the mound. 

Unfortunately Mother Nature intervened and the game never got out of the second inning. I'm not sure when the game will be made up because Tri-City isn't coming to Staten Island after this series and Staten Island won't be going to Tri-City anymore this season either. It may just get thrown out :P.

So I think I'll end this post on one last note, about the team set.

The 2018 Staten Island Yankees team set has 35 cards in it. Of those 35, eight are no longer with the Staten Island team. Since I got 23 of the cards signed this time, that means that I only have about four left that I can still get in town. Two of which are players, one is a trainer and the last one is a coach. Wish me luck.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

2018 IP Auto Count: 42

My Favorite Superhero

One of the topics I've never really gone on on here is the topic of superheroes. I'm running out of content nowadays so, here we go.

The past ten years or so have been flooded with all sorts of superhero movies being pumped out by Marvel and DC. Although the trend is dying down a bit, superheroes are still pretty popular.

I'm sure we all have our favorites. I know many like the really popular names like Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Captain America, etc...

My personal favorite has always been the one and only Static.

Virgil Hawkins is a young high school student in Dakota City who gains his powers of electricity due to radioactive gas. For the record I'm a sucker for heroes with electricity themes (after all, my username is Zippy Zappy).

I originally became aware of Static thanks to the early/mid 2000's cartoon by Warner Brothers called Static Shock. I loved that show growing up and still enjoy it today. In fact the 90's/00's era DC superhero cartoons were all great. Batman The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, all gold.

One of my favorite aspects of Static was how the stories dealt with issues that were pretty real. Racism, poverty, homophobia, gun violence, gang violence and many more rather serious themes were in it. The TV show was a lot less darker than the comics, but it got key messages out in it's own way too. Although to be honest, I haven't read every Static comic ever printed.

At the end of the day I like what Static represents, inclusion. Static is a key African American superhero, but his character was created by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis and Derek Dingle based on the idea of inclusion for pretty much everybody. I'm not African American but I've been able to put myself in his shoes more than any of the other heroes (even the supposedly Asian ones), which made the stories all the more enjoyable to me. I suspect that I'm not alone.

If you're curious who's behind Static, I'd round out the rest of my top five superheroes like this...

2). Green Arrow (Justice League)
3). Captain America (Avengers)
4). Batman (Batman)
5). Raven (Teen Titans)

This list largely skews towards DC because I grew up with the D.C. Animated Universe. I have no clue what the current (if any) reiterations of those characters are like in any modern day live action shows. This is all mostly based on the cartoons of my youth and in Captain America's case, the few movies I've bothered to see this decade.

Green Arrow was my favorite superhero on Justice League Unlimited (although that show did a lot of great things for lesser known DC heroes).

The Captain America movies were the only non-Deadpool Marvel movies I've ever cared enough to see. They were really good and boosted Captain America up to favorable status in my book.

Batman The Animated Series is the greatest superhero cartoon ever created. Bar none. He gets on the top five just for that.

I guess Deadpool would knock Raven out of the top five if he were a superhero but, honestly, he's Deadpool. He's in his own category.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).