City Island News BX: Retired Jeter Kicks Off Baseball (Card) Season

City Island News BX: Retired Jeter Kicks Off Baseball (Card) Season: Retired Jeter Kicks Off Baseball (Card) Season Final Derek Jeter Baseball Card in 2015 Set by Topps #Jeter #Yankees #Topps #Bronxn...

Retired Jeter Kicks Off Baseball (Card) Season

Retired Jeter Kicks Off Baseball (Card) Season

Final Derek Jeter Baseball Card in 2015 Set by Topps

#Jeter #Yankees #Topps #Bronxnews

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 6- Two signs of the nearness of the 2015 MLB season will take place this month. Pitchers and catchers will report to Spring Training in two weeks. The other pre-season activity, which took place this week, was the announcement of series 1 of the 2015 Topps set of next season’s baseball cards going on sale.

Trading cards have been of interest to children and adults in this country since the 19^th century. Sports personalities have been the major subject of these collectibles. They were produced for adults in the 1800’s. Many were connected to tobacco products. The very rare T206 Honus Wagner card has been sold for several million dollars.

Topps reflected a change of focus toward youngsters as its consumers in the middle of the 20^th century by producing wax packs, each of which contained a stick of gum and several cardboard cards. The company began in 1938 as a producer of chewing gum and candy. More than ¾ of a century has passed since the company began, but Topps is still producing Bazooka gum and other confectionary products.

During the decades of the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s, children were the primary purchasers of packs of baseball cards, with Topps the major brand. Its main competitor, Bowman, was purchased by Topps, which still puts out cards under that brand.

Since those years, card collecting has become an investment opportunity for many purchasers. Rather than buying individual packs and rushing to open them as was done in the past, complete sets are bought and the box is never open before being re-sold for a large profit. In the 1990’s, gum was no longer put in the wax packs as they could damage a valuable card located next to the stick of gum. In more recent years, a very rare T206 Honus Wagner card was sold for several million dollars.

It would be wrong to write an article on baseball cards or Topps without mentioning the name of Sy Berger. He worked for Topps for more than a half-century. He co-designed in 1952 the Topps set that proved to be the prototype of the modern baseball card. Yearly and lifetime statistics on the reverse, the facsimile autograph and action photos are among his innovations that are still being used. The “father of the baseball card” passed away in December 2014 at the age of 91.

Members of the media were invited to an unveiling of the 2015 set at Topps’ offices in New York at One Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan. Clay Luraschi, vice president of product development at Topps explained what to expect in this year’ set, “This year’s series 1 set…has something for everyone, from the casual fan to the passionate collector with many surprises as well. It is a reflection of what we have seen in recent years, fans wanting a good mix of the present and the past with a little pop culture sprinkled in.”

Very appropriately to many fans, card #1 of the 350 card base set is Derek Jeter’s final regular season card that includes his lifetime statistics. Luraschi spoke on this choice of beginning next season’s card set with a player who retired after the 2014 season, “Usually card #1 is designated for somebody very special. Being a New York company and being that Derek was the captain of the New York Yankees, we felt that card # 1 should be Derek Jeter this year.”

Fans of the New York Mets should be pleased to know that the first Topps card of Jacob deGrom, listed as a Future Star, is also in this set.

There are also several subsets that have interest beyond the 2015 season and beyond the sport of baseball. There are 10 cards each dedicated to the important life and career of a baseball immortal, Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson. “Highlights”, which begins with the first day of Lou Gehrig’s consecutive game streak. “Archetypes”, whose cards include baseball greats such as Hank Aaron. “First Pitch”, including cards with such non-baseball as Jeff Bridges, 50 Cent, Eddie Vedder and 105 year old Agnes McKee throwing out a first pitch in 2014. 

There are autographs and game used memorabilia in addition to the great variety of cards included in a small number of packs.

Looking back at my childhood of collecting cards, I believe they were a tool for improving reading, bettering my facility in math through the statistics listed and  an encouragement to learning the history of people and events before my birth.

City Island News BX: Open Season on Officers?

City Island News BX: Open Season on Officers?: Open Season on Officers? Group Looked on as Officer Shot from Apt. Window #NYPD #CopShot #Bronxnews By Michael Horowitz BRONX,...

Open Season on Officers?

Open Season on Officers?

Group Looked on as Officer Shot from Apt. Window

#NYPD #CopShot #Bronxnews

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 5- A 38-year-old Co-op City Public Safety officer was shot in the shoulder, and a second, male officer sustained a broken ankle while trying to control a post-Super Bowl fight, late Sunday night, in the vicinity of 140 Donizetti Place, Riverbay president Cleve Taylor said Tuesday.

Orrin Bacote, 49, of Circleville, NY, was arrested and charged with assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct in conjunction with the melee that left one Public Safety officer hobbled with a broken ankle.

As of early this week, no arrest had been made in connection with the shooting of the female officer who was grazed in her shoulder.

The shot that grazed the female officer’s shoulder came from a window at the Donizetti Place building, police reported.

The female officer was released shortly after being taken to Jacobi Hospital for treatment, but the second officer was still hospitalized as of Tuesday morning, Taylor said.

The shooting of the female officer was publicized in the citywide media, but the injury that the second officer sustained was much more serious.

“The officer who broke his ankle trying to break up the fight was injured very seriously,” Riverbay president Taylor said this week. “The officer who was shot in her shoulder was extremely lucky.”

Taylor said that a large crowd of onlookers gathered, Sunday night, to watch the altercation that Public Safety officers were called to break up at about 11 p.m.

“We take the shooting of a Public Safety officer and the serious injury of a second officer very seriously,” Taylor stressed this week. “I assure you that we are working with the NYPD, we’re going to get to the bottom of this whole thing.”

City Island News BX: Bad Shot Gets 25 yrs for Killing Young Mom

City Island News BX: Bad Shot Gets 25 yrs for Killing Young Mom: Bad Shot Gets 25 yrs for Killing Young Mom #NYPD #Gunman #Bronxnews BRONX, NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 5- He shot at one man, aiming to ...

Bad Shot Gets 25 yrs for Killing Young Mom

Bad Shot Gets 25 yrs for Killing Young Mom

#NYPD #Gunman #Bronxnews

BRONX, NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 5- He shot at one man, aiming to hit, and he did. But Jeffrey Ramirez’ bullets also took the life of an innocent bystander, young mother Yaritza Pacheco. For that, he was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, announced Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson.

Ramirez was found guilty following a jury trial of manslaughter in the first degree, attempted murder in the first degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

The 24-year-old Pacheco left behind a daughter, a little girl now seven years old, whose victim impact statement was read in Bronx Supreme Court Justice Troy Webber’s courtroom – “I love my mother and I lost her when I was four years old. I wanted her whole life. It’s really sad to lose someone in your life.

“I wish there was no death in the world.”

But death there was on August 21, 2011, as the then-19-year-old Ramirez aimed his illegally purchased Cobra .380 at homeless man Leonard Shoulders. One bullet grazed Shoulders, but another slammed straight into Yaritza Pacheco’s neck. She took but a few more steps before crumpling to the sidewalk, dead.

Video shows Ramirez walking up to a bodega on E. 174^th Street near Boston Road, where he witnessed Shoulders having a small argument with some other men about jumping a line into the store. Ramirez did not know any of the participants in the matter, but he jumped in to the fray. Shoulders took off in a run with Ramirez in pursuit, firing his gun.

At the same time Ramirez was running down Hoe Avenue, Yaritza Pacheco was just home from her job at a Bronx Applebee’s, seen on surveillance video laughing, her arm around a friend, the pair walking down 174^th Street – and right into the path of Ramirez’ bullets, as he ran down the block, chasing Shoulders.

Later that day, Ramirez attempted to flee not only the jurisdiction, but the country. He was on the jet bridge, steps away from boarding JetBlue 823 at JFK, on a one-way ticket to Santo Domingo and freedom when agents from the Department of Homeland Security detained him.

Following his incarceration, Ramirez will be deported from the country.

City Island News BX: Who Killed Former Nurse?

City Island News BX: Who Killed Former Nurse?: Who Killed Former Nurse? Person of Interest Sought in Melrose Homicide #NYPD #Nurse #Homicide #MelroseHouses #Bronxnews By...