A Treasure From The Lost Collector!

It's always a great day when a package arrives from my friend, AJ.   He was one of my first trading partners when I joined the blogosphere (as a reader) back in early 2011.   He gave a lot of great encouragement as I mulled over the idea of Ryan's Pitch and he inspires me to always strive to be a better Yankees fan.   He runs one of the finest blogs in our community and maintains a TTM success rate that exceeds the hobby average by about 1,000%!

Off the collecting field, we also compare notes from time to time as fellow dads and I'm always on the lookout for new HOF cards I can send to him for his son's collection.   A little while ago, I sent over an old beat up Red Schoendienst that I thought might plug a hole in a page.   I was happy to assist!

Well, that rascal went and returned the favor with a Don Mattingly card that I've been wanting since......well, since the lovely thing was created - HELLO, gorgeous:

Rainbow! Mustache! Pinstripes! Stars! Foil! Eye Black! DONNIE!

I mean....LOOK AT IT!

Amazing to go from a single '93 Topps Finest in my childhood collection ( a Jeff Bagwell that I ought to share on here pretty soon....) to a full hat trick in a matter of weeks!   I fawned over the early 90's wholesomeness of Nolan Ryan's Finest card in a previous post - but this Mattingly, my favorite player of all time, take the cake.   It MUST be the finest Finest card I will ever own!

Here's the back:

Drafted a couple of months after another epic event.....my arrival on earth.

AJ - thank you!   Thank you very much!   This card will be treasured always.

Thanks for reading!