The Beckett Blog

The empire strikes back.

With a nod to George Lucas, it’s those four famous words that sum up the 2009 baseball season for the New York Yankees who knocked off the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 of the World Series Wednesday night to win the championship.

The Bronx Bombers ended last season by failing to make the postseason for the first time since 1994, a low-point for the all-powerful (or at least all-spending) franchise — the Evil Empire. The failure extended the franchise’s relative misery that included four consecutive exits from the postseason before that with its last World Series appearance (a loss) coming in 2003. The Yankees’ last championship? An “eternity” ago back in 2000.

Hardly acceptable for a franchise that now has 27 championships — a record — coming in 40 World Series appearances (another record). But this title comes in the first season of the team’s billion-dollar stadium, with a trio of big-dollar free agents at the start of long-term deals while dispatching a dynasty-in-the-making in the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.

The empire strikes back. Indeed.

What does the World Series title mean for the hobby, for the baseball card collecting masses?

Well, in some ways the rich get richer — one of baseball’s most-dedicated and deep-pocketed fan bases gets a reward for its fanaticism, an already intense group of followers who’ll pay quite well for many of the 126,615 baseball cards that show players in pinstripes. That’s a collection that’ll cost you $3,546,942 — that’s right, more than $3.5 million — and the scarcest Yankees card values (those limited to fewer than 25 copies) aren’t even included in that dollar amount.

But, again, even though much of the Yankees memorabilia out there remains as classic as those famous pinstripes, the interest likely won’t let up anytime soon with a rebirth in the Bronx and with a new crop of stars who have shown that they can perform on the biggest stage of them all in The Big Apple — and in the Fall Classic. Guys like Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Nick Swisher (though he wasn’t impressive in the postseason) joined a core of popular players among collectors like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. The players who haven’t had the diehard, dedicated Yankees fan base snap up their cards as heavily until now just might get some added attention with the addition of a championship. (Happy fans equal spending fans.)

Want to own all of Jeter’s cards? It’ll cost you $358,046. A guy like World Series MVP Hideki Matsui, who was the star of Game 6? $65,790. Even a guy like Robinson Cano will cost you $16,712 for all of his cards. The newcomers? Swisher is just $7,447. Burnett is $5,563. Sabathia will cost you $14,601, while Teixeira — the most established of the newcomers — will cost you $44,993.

And A-Rod? Though many of his cards do not feature him as a Yankee — and he’s had plenty of cards — they all will cost you $396,646.

Those pinstripes sure are powerful.

While the Phillies certainly had a pair of stars show that they should belong among the hobby’s elite — second baseman Chase Utley and pitcher Cliff Lee — to the winner go the spoils … as well as the new collectors.

This writer has never been much of a Yankees fan. In fact, I’m historically more a Yankees hater who has seen the Empire scoop up player after player and win with players formerly with his small-market team — Oakland. The stars? Guys like Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rickey Henderson, Jason Giambi, Swisher (my favorite player) and Scott Brosius to name a few (just kidding on the last one; they can have ‘em). And I’ve also known a few influential rugged Bostonians (Red Sawks fans) who quickly let their feelings for the Yanks be known once the pinstripes were around. (It rhymes with “Hawk ‘em.”)

Yet at the same time, as a baseball card collector, it seems that all of my most-expensive baseball cards are of players in pinstripes. It just happened that way with in-pack finds in recent years like a Joe DiMaggio cut autograph, a Babe Ruth bat card, Lou Gehrig jersey swatches, a few Jeter autographs and even Matsui’s autographed RC — a card that might just be in demand after Wednesday night even though he may never play another game in pinstripes again.

Does it mean I’m ready to turn to The Dark Side? Perhaps not, but with another world championship I’m perhaps becoming like a lot of other collectors.

With this title, though, they just might be growing on me.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Graded Card Investor. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.