31 July 2010

gint-a-cuffs packs 5 through 8

i'm sitting on 40 points after 4 packs.  i am hoping that these next four will more than double that.  here's pack 5:
hideki matsui.
daniel mccutcheon.
jason bay.
joel pineiro.
drew stubbs.
ricky nolasco sp.  +2
will venable black bordered mini.  +3
this day in history mariano rivera/warren commission.  +1, -1

total pack 5:  5

ugh.

on to pack 6:
jacoby ellsbury.
copernicus.
josh willingham.
jayson werth.
orlando hudson.
ryan doumit sp.  +2
national animals - botswana (zebra).  +2
this day in history cc sabathia/neil armstrong.  +1, -1

stupid yankees.

total pack 6:  4

i'm regressing.

lucky pack number 7:
pablo sandoval.
randy wolf.
andy pettitte.
grady sizemore.  +2 (fp)
ubaldo jimenez relic.  +12
adam wainwright mini.
this day in history josh hamilton/charles lindbergh.  +1

total pack 7:  15

pack 8:
hank presswood.  +2
carl pavano.
kurt suzuki.
jimmy rollins.
jon lester.
francisco liriano sp.  +2
roy halladay mini.  +2 (fp)
this day in history hunter pence/handel.  +1
crack the code promo (not shown).

total pack 8:  7

total dodgers pulled after 1/3 of the box:  0

running total:  71

30 July 2010

pat zachry through the mail success!

former dodger reliever pat zachry signed and returned 4 6 cards for me late last year.  they included his 1983 topps traded card,
his 1984 donruss card,
his 1984 topps card,
his 1985 topps card,
his 1978 topps card (cleanshaven pat!),
and his 1976 topps rookie card
that '76 card is more known for the guy right above him.  louisiana lightinin' or some such nonsense.  anyway, i was happy to receive the cards signed by zachry.  he was acquired by the dodgers from the mets after the 1982 season in exchange for jorge orta.

zachry pitched for the dodgers in 1983 and 1984.  in 1983, he went 6-1 with a 2.49 era in 60 games (one as a starter).  he followed that up with a 5-6 season with a 3.81 era and 2 saves in 58 games.  after the '84 season he was dealt to the phillies for al oliver.  he was roughed up in his last two appearances as a dodger, but his third to last game resulted in a 4 inning save despite the final score being 9-0.

although he appeared in only 10 games for the phillies in 1985, his final big league appearance came against the dodgers on may 29.  he pitched 2 innings, giving up 1 hit and no runs.  he also struck out 2 of his former teammates - bill russell and orel hershiser.

thanks pat!

29 July 2010

a scotty pods welcome, goose joak style

ned made a move.  not for pitching, but for another outfielder - this time it's scott podsednik.  while i recognize that manny and reed johnson are out, and that garret anderson is performing exactly as we all expected, i am still kinda surprised by this move.  i would suggest giving xavier paul as many at bats as possible and only make this move if the pitching is upgraded first.  without pitching, we're not going anywhere.  on the flip side, podsednik's wife will now become the most blogged about dodger wife since jose lima sang the national anthem.

here's a quick 2010 goose joak original (o-pee-chee style!) that i whipped up for pods.
there are also a bunch of goose joaks that i have been meaning to display, but haven't gotten around to it.  here are some of them.  a lot of these photos are from the marlins series early in the season.  that's how long they've been hanging around.  the photos are either getty images or from jon soohoo, the dodgers' official photographer.  enjoy.  or at least tolerate.

jeff weaver
tough night last night.

carlos monasterios.
dodgers are 5-2 in his starts. 

russell martin.
at this point, i would rather have carlos santana back.  sorry russ.

hiroki kuroda
i am really hoping he can put together a string of good starts in august and september, but he's already made as many starts this year as he did all of last year.

charlie haeger.
i don't think we'll see him back in the bigs this year.

reed johnson
our fourth outfielder is still backing up manny.  too bad he's doing it on the dl.

27 July 2010

who knows what dodger lurks on the cards of men?

besides the shadow. 

at first glance, i assumed that the dodgers' catcher caught on darrell evans' 1979 topps card is jerry grote.  what do you think?
the 1978 dodgers had 5 different catchers:  steve yeager, joe ferguson, jerry grote, johnny oates, and brad gulden.  yeager caught in 3 games against the giants at san francisco in 1978, but only two of those games had darrell evans batting while yeager was behind the dish. ferguson caught in a total of 5 games on the road against the giants during his tenure with the dodgers in 1978.  grote and johnny oates both caught in a couple of games at candlestick in 1978, but all 3 of gulden's appearances in 1978 were against the padres. 

i'm going to stick with jerry grote.  this is based purely on the back of his head and the fact that he's using a soft cap (instead of a helmet) with the bill turned up.  that's classic grote.  that would mean that the photo used is from either the may 27 or september 12 game.  the may 27 game was a saturday game - the first of a doubleheader.  the september game was a tuesday, but it was also a 'getaway' day, so it may well have been a day game, too.

i find it interesting (and pretty cool) that the evans card is almost a negative of steve garvey's 1979 topps card
in garvey's case, it's much easier to identify the giants' catcher (marc hill).  turnabout lurking is fair play!

26 July 2010

perfectly trimmed

one of the greatest baseball cards ever produced, in my opinion, is the 1956 topps jackie robinson card.  it was his final topps card and it shows him stealing home with johnny podres at the plate.  so what if robinson never stole home in 1955 with podres at the plate?  it's still a great image on a classic card.

i never really considered trying to obtain any 1950's dodgers until a few years ago, and even then i was only buying the 'common' players for the most part.  a 1956 robinson seemed like a prohibitvely expensive card for me to obtain.

well, the last show i went to (a couple of months ago), i saw this card.
it's clean with no scuffs or creases or rounding - none of that damage i posted about a few days ago.  it is, however, trimmed on the edges.  still, with the low price that was being offered, i couldn't pass it up. besides, i can easily look past that and see the perfection that is my 1956 topps jackie robinson card.

25 July 2010

hawk to the hall - a (ttm) success story!

with andre dawson officially being inducted into the hall of fame today, i figured it would make sense to show off a ttm success from earlier this year.  i think i sent these before the hof vote, but i know they came back about a month after his election was announced.  here's a nice 1983 topps:
and his 1991 topps:
i also sent a 1984 topps all star card, but he kept that one.  this was the second success i had with dawson, and i included a donation to his foundation.

thanks hawk, and congratulations!

gint-a-cuffs packs 2 through 4

let's get right to it.  here's pack number 2:
joey votto.  +2 (fp)
meb keflezighi.
shane victorino.
adam dunn.  +2 (fp)
cole hamels.
brett gardner sp.  -1, +2
daric barton black bordered mini sp.  +8
this day in history justin verlander/john glenn.  +1

total pack 2:  14

here's pack 3. there was a lot going on in this pack, let's see if that translates to any points.
trevor hoffman.
jim zapp. +2
craig gentry.
michael brantley.
buster posey.
huston street sp. +2
national animals - bolivia (llama). +2
this day in history carlos lee/lizzie borden. +1
crack the code promo.

it would be nice to come across a dodger once in a while.

total pack 3: 7

and not to be forgotten (even though it is largely forgettable), pack number 4:

sherlock holmes.
betelgeuse.  +1
brian roberts.
justin verlander.
henry rodriguez.
baseball highlight sketch insert - johnny damon.  +3, -1
koji uehara mini a&g back.  +2
this day in history chase utley/wright brothers.  +1, +2 (fp)

still no dodgers.  it's a good thing i'm in joe collector's group break.

total pack 4:  8
running total:  40

24 July 2010

manager a trois

courtesy of carl crawford cards. paul posted some trade bait and i bit.  three vintage topps manager cards!  too bad none of the managers featured finished the season with the club they represented on the cards. 

1960 topps billy jurges
this is a cool card.  the manager with a glove on, and a fungo at his feet.  kind of like those old english portraits with the hunting rifle and dog.  the 1959 red sox began the season with pinky higgins as their manager.  after 73 games (and a 31-42 record) higgins was replaced by jurges (rudy york managed one game in the interim and lost).  jurges led the red sox to 44 wins in the 80 games he managed that year.  in 1960, however, jurges didn't have the same success, and was fired after winning only 15 of the first 42 games of the season.  he was replaced by del baker, who lasted 7 games (2 wins) before the yawkeys brought pinky higgins back.  tom yawkey was steinbrenner before there was a steinbrenner. 

1960 topps eddie sawyer
sawyer was in his second stint as manager of the phillies at this time.  he had managed them from 1948 into the 1952 season, winning the pennant in 1950.  he was fired 63 games into the '52 season, but was back in 1958 but couldn't prevent a last place finish for the phils.  he returned in 1959, but fared no better.  after managing just one game in 1960, a loss, he resigned and never managed again.

1961 topps jimmie dykes
apparently mr. dykes managed in his pajamas.  he began his managerial career as a player/manager of the chicago white sox in 1934.  he became a full-time manager for the pale hose in 1940 and remained in that position 30 games into the 1946 season.  he then took over for connie mack as manager of the philadelphia a's in 1951, and lasted through the 1953 season in which the a's lost 95 games.  it got worse for dykes as he was named the baltimore orioles' first ever manager for the 1954 season.  that team lost 100 games. after that season he coached and then took over the reds for the latter part of the 1958 season and then moved on to manage the tigers in 1959.  in 1960, dykes was actually traded to the indians for their manager, joe gordon.  dykes was the indians' skipper from then until the next to last game of the 1961 season when he was replaced by mel harder.

thanks paul!  hope you enjoy the cards i sent in return!

gint-a-cuffs pack 1 and box loader

i am sure this will be an effort in futility as my box was pretty sucky.  it seems that the scoring is a bit of a moving target but i'll give it a shot.  not a whole lot of commentary as you have seen these cards quite a bit already, i am sure.

here's my box loader and first pack.
n43 box loader - justin upton.  +5
ivory crockett.
stephen drew mini sp.  +3
martin prado.
yadier molina.
jesus flores.
this day in history joey votto/lou brock.  +1, +2 (fp)
colby rasmus.
scott feldman.

so, if i did my math right and understand the scoring, i got a whopping 6 points from the pack and 5 points for the box loader.

the prado card is pretty cool, but the rest are just kind of bleh.

running score:  11

22 July 2010

what's your damage?

sure, mint condition cards are nice, but sometimes it's ok to have a card that has obviously seen some action in your collection.  i personally have quite a few - mostly vintage, of course - and the type of wear varies.

my 1955 topps johnny podres card
hits many of the condition negatives.  rounded corners - check.  frayed edges - check.  surface wear - check.  but his teeth are still white, and 1955 topps dodgers are kind of tough to find at a reasonable price.

my 1957 topps sandy amoros
displays obvious paper loss along with some corner dings.  it still has nice color so why complain?

how about my 1963 topps nl pitching leaders, featuring sandy koufax?
along with a couple of other guys in the hall with him.  this card has the round corner, surface wear, and it's actually missing a corner!  that's card damage!  still, 3 hof's in the vintage bargain bin will not be ignored.

this used to be my 1962 topps gil hodges
but i sent it to mark at stats on the back since gil is listed as a metropolitan.  a pen mark and a purposefully punched hole (suitable for inserting yarn or something) give the card some hard earned character, don't you think?

not all damage is self inflicted.  i guess it's not really damage then either.  there are printing miscues, like my 1975 topps rod carew
not as dynamic as my miscuts i sent to ben henry, but still pretty awesome.  i think that's von joshua's card that is joined to rod's card, but i'm not 100% sure.  maybe night owl can chime in with some 1975 topps expertise.

this 1979 o-pee-chee len barker card
suffers the fate of many other o-pee-chee cards - the rough cut!  o-pee-chee used rusty shears to cut many of their sheets, apparently.

and then there is this - my 1981 o-pee-chee ron cey card.
it's crooked, and the printing plates didn't line up properly.  maybe if i use 3d glasses it will look better.  nope.  still endearing though.

i guess the moral of the story is, send me your dodger cards, no matter their condition.  i'll find a way to appreciate and even celebrate them!

note that i didn't feature a trimmed card.  that will get it's own post tomorrow featuring one of my favorite cards of all time.  stay tuned.

thorzul will break. again.

i picked a couple of players (harmon killebrew and don drysdale - oh how it hurt to not select jackie or campy) in thorzul's last group break.  it was a few tins or packs or whatever of 2005 upper deck baseball heroes (not to be confused with the 2008 release of the same name or the inserts from the early 90's with the same design).  anyway, all i got for my trouble was this don drysdale card.
good grief. 

still, it's big d and it's a card i didn't have which uses a photo that i hadn't seen before.  it would have been somewhat cool if there was a card featuring his appearance on 'the brady bunch'.  that episode was awesome.

thorzul - thanks for hosting the break!

20 July 2010

who's that (nefarious) lurker?

courtesy of cam at collectable cards, i now have one of my 'nefarious 9' cards in my possession.  ok, so it wasn't one of the nine, it was the bonus card, but still.  it's the 2010 upper deck hunter pence card.
the reason i wanted it was the presence of russell martin lurking there behind the plate.  of course, now i would prefer that it were carlos santana rather than martin wearing the dodger uniform but that's hindsight.

thanks cam - your card(s) is on the way, and there's a new non-dodger nefarious bonus card added to the list.  come home 1987 topps lee lacy!

when tom hutton signs, people listen

i posted a while back about this card - a 1967 topps dodgers rookie stars -
that gene michael was kind enough to sign and return.  i sent it back out, this time to tom hutton, and he quickly signed and returned it as well.
hutton also signed his 1976 topps
and 1978 topps cards for me
which is awesome in and of itself.  i love love love getting some 1978 topps signed.

hutton debuted in the majors for the dodgers in 1966.  he went 0 for 2 in 3 games for the nl champs.  his first two games were games in which koufax was pitching, and his third was in a drysdale shutout.  he replaced willie crawford in the 9th inning of his major league debut, and got his first at-bat a few days later when he replaced wes parker in the 7th inning.  he grounded out against the phillies' john morris, but at least he moved the runner over.

hutton didn't appear in the big leagues again until 1969 when he was called up for a two-week stint to replace the injured parker at first.  hutton got his first big league hit (a single) in his first game back against hank aguirre of the cubs.  when parker returned, hutton was sent down and never appeared as a dodger again.

in october of 1971, the dodgers traded hutton to the phillies for larry hisle and hutton quickly became the phils' regular first baseman.  he had hits in his first 3 at-bats for the phillies, including a game winning, walk off single.  after 6 seasons in philadelphia, including two trips to the postseason, hutton was purchased by the blue jays in december of 1977.  i have always wondered why he didn't get a card in the 1978 o-pee-chee set - there was plenty of time after the transaction occurred to include him and get the team and text variation set, especially since he was going to one of the two canadian teams.  speaking of which, hutton played for both teams - toronto and montreal - in 1978.

back to that 1967 card.  it bothers me that topps didn't take the time to airbrush a dodger hat on gene michael.  i found a team issued postcard and replaced the photo to create the 1967 topps dodgers rookie stars card that should have been
much better.

thanks tommy!

19 July 2010

hostess with the mostess

i had never considered the possibility that the 1977 rick monday hostess card would be one that i wanted to own.  i liked monday, but there were other guys on the 1977 and 1978 dodgers teams that i liked more.  and, since his 1977 topps card still had him as a cub, i figured there was no real need to add an oddball cub card to my collection.  even when i first saw his 1977 o-pee-chee card, which has him airbrushed into a dodgers hat, i still dismissed the hostess card.  surely hostess didn't bother with airbrushing.  then i saw the card.
and now it's mine.  the lesson here is to never underestimate the power of assorted baked goods.  after all, 'you get a big delight in every bite'!

17 July 2010

trolling for 71's

the collective troll sent me a bunch of beautiful black bordered 1971 topps cards from my want list recently.  i had sent him a bunch of rays and vintage as a show of 'blogger generosity' after some rat bastard stole a bunch of cards from him.  anyway, he came back with some great cards.

like lowell palmer.
international man of mystery.  this post at the fleer sticker project may be one of the best baseball card posts ever, thanks to the images and the comments.  it is most interesting to consider that lowell 'dated' a woman during the second game of a double header.

larry brown
brown was a middle infielder for cleveland who wound up with the a's in the latter part of 1971.  he was with them when they won it all in 1972, although he didn't appear in the postseason until 1973 when he was with the orioles.

al fitzmorris
and roger nelson
fitzmorris and nelson combined to go 7-6 in 1971 for the royals.  all of the wins and 5 of the losses belonged to fitzmorris, though.  nelson had his best season the following year, however, winning 11 with a 2.08 era and an incredible 0.87 whip in 173.1 innings.

rafael robles
robles didn't appear in the big leagues in 1971, although he had appeared in a couple dozen games in 1970.  two interesting things about this card - the player in the background is positioned so that it appears that he might be an action figure stuck in robles' hip pocket, and robles' signature includes an 'r' for his middle name.  according to baseball reference, his middle name is 'orlando'.

ken suarez
suarez, who didn't appear in the majors in 1970, was a member of the indians' organization from 1968 through 1971.  prior to that, he was with the (then kansas city) a's.  i am guessing topps went back in time and pulled a picture from his kansas city days since there is no reason to black out the logo on his hat otherwise.  unless he was wearing a carling brewery cap.

luke walker
walker was a member of the 1971 world champion pirates, although his lone start (an appearance) in the fall classic was less than stellar.  he gave up 3 runs on 3 hits and an intentional walk in two-thirds of an inning in game 4.  the pirates came back to win, however, 4-3.

marty martinez
marty's first name is really orlando.  but orlando martinez isn't as catchy as marty martinez, and you couldn't expect his teammates back then to call him by his real name.  anyway, martinez was your typical early 70's infielder excpet that he once pitched in a game against the giants.  on july 9, 1969, he finished a blowout by pitching the last two-thirds of an inning.  he sandwiched a flyout and a groundout around a dick dietz home run.

ray jarvis
it's a final tribute!  jarvis was traded with tony c. from the red sox to the angels for doug griffin and the tatum brothers (not really related).  strangely enough, one of the tatums was named jarvis.  anyway, jarvis spent all of 1971 at the angels' aaa club in salt lake but never made it back to the bigs.  for his career, he was 5-7 with a 4.64 era.

mike ryan
slightly miscut, but that's ok!  mike ryan was tim mccarver's backup in the early 70's.  he wasn't much of a hitter, but i guarantee i would rather listen to ryan call a game on tv than mccarver any day of the week and twice on sundays.

mike nagy
after finishing 2nd in the 1969 al roy voting with a 12-2 record and an era of 3.11, nagy was mediocre in 1970 and worse in 1971.  he appeared in 12 games (7 starts) in '71, winning 1 and losing 3.  he appeared in just 1 game in 1972 and was traded to saint louis prior to the start of spring training in 1973.  the cardinals flipped him in march of '73 to the rangers but in june, they sent him back to the cards who kept him until the end of the season, after which they sent him off to the astros.

phil gagliano
gagliano had spent 1970 with the cardinals and cubs who pulled off a (rare?) trade in may of 1970.  he joined the red sox in the offseason when the cubs traded him for carmen fanzone.  with the sox, gagliano hit .324 in limited action in 1971, so they kept him around for 1972.  but, after he hit just .256 with slightly more playing time, they shipped him off to the reds.  gagliano was a member of the 1967 world champion cardinals.

freddie patek
patek is probably best known for being short. listed at 5'5", he was a beacon of hope for the vertically challenged kids in my neighborhood growing up.  this card shows him in his pirates' uniform, although he was traded to the royals after the 1970 season.  unfortunately for patek, he missed out on the pirates' 1971 world championship, but he had himself a great year anyway.  he tied for the lead league in triples and had 49 steals, finishing 6th in the mvp voting.  a few seasons later, in 1977, he would lead the league in steals while playing for some very good royals teams.

red sox rookies - bob montgomery and doug griffin
bob montgomery spent his entire career, spanning the entire decade of the 1970's, with the red sox backing up carlton fisk behind the plate.  he got one at bat in the 1975 world series, and it was a big one: pinch hitting for denny doyle in the bottom of the 9th of game 7, with one out and the red sox trailing by a run.  sadly, there was no joy in boston, montgomery grounded out.

doug griffin was part of the aforementioned tony c. trade.  he would become the red sox' primary 2nd baseman for the early 1970's, even winning a gold glove in 1972.  like montgomery, he received just one at bat in the 1975 world series, although without as much pressure.  with two outs in the top of the 8th, down 5-1, griffin hit for jim willoughby and lined out.  denny doyle's two errors in game 7 led some to second guess why griffin wasn't given a chance, claiming that doyle's throwing error on johnny bench's double play ball extended the reds' 6th, allowing tony perez to hit a two-run home run to start the scoring for cincinnati.

speaking of which, here's bill lee
it was the spaceman who started game 7 and gave up that home run to perez.  in 1971, lee won 9 games and had an era of 2.74.  i am not sure about his middle name - he signed it 'frances' but baseball reference claims it is 'francis' which would, quite 'frankly', make more sense.

tony taylor
for some strange reason, taylor, an infielder, is striking a pitcher's pose on his card.  taylor had some solid seasons for the phillies during the 1960's.  he was an all star in 1960 and finished 16th in the mvp voting in 1963.  in 1971, he spent about half the season in philadelphia and then was traded to the tigers for a couple of minor leaguers.  the phillies brought him back in 1974, but not before taylor had (finally) had a taste of the postseason with detroit in 1972.

clyde wright
wright was coming off a great season in 1970 when this card came out.  he had won 22 games, finished 6 in the cy young voting, hit his first 2 career home runs and even pitched in the all star game (so what if he was the losing pitcher?).  he pitched well in 1971, too, although his record didn't necessarily reflect it.  he won 16 games but lost 17 even though his era was just 2.99 and his whip was 1.10.

eddie leon
leon hit a career high .261 for the indians in 1971.  i appreciate the fact that he actually looked down at the ground as though there were a ball to be fielded for his photo.

cal koonce
koonce pitched in 13 games for the red sox in 1971, his final season in the majors.  he lost his only decision, and in his final game, he was pinch hit for by our friend shown above, phil gagliano.

willie mccovey
stretch looks pretty pissed that someone wrote on his card.  1971 was a down year for mccovey as he hit just 18 home runs and appeared in only 105 games.

ken harrelson
i am definitely not a fan of the hawk's.  i will say, however, that i 'can check it off my liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiist - eeeeeeeeee-yes!'  1971 was harrelson's last season and he hit just a buck-ninety nine.  he gone.

ted williams
teddy ballgame, who managed the senators to a better than .500 finish in 1969 saw them lose 96 games in 1971.  i have to imagine it was pretty frustrating for him, wondering why the players didn't just hit the ball like he did when he was a player.

tom bradley
a magic hat!  tom bradley was the mayor of los angeles during my formative years.  not this tom bradley, though.  that tom bradley was also the best man at steve yeager's wedding.  this tom bradley, however, was traded to the white sox with jay johnstone from the angels after the 1970 season.  he won a career high 15 games in both of his seasons with chicago (1971 and 1971) with a sub-3.00 era both years.  he was traded to the giants for steve stone after the 1972 season, and pitched in san francisco for the remainder of his career.

cardinals rookies - bob chlupsa, bob stinson, al hrabosky
chlupsa appeared in one game in 1971, and it was his last.  he had made 14 appearances in 1970, all in relief.  the last batter he faced in the majors was johnny bench, who grounded out.

you notice how envious chlupsa is of bob stinson's magic hat.  such is the allure of hats made of the finest silks and resins known to man.  stinson, of course, is shown in his dodger uniform although, in a sort of surprise, it's not the same photo topps used on his 1970 rookie card.  stinson was sent to the dodgers as part of the ted sizemore/dick allen deal.  he appeared in 17 games for the cardinals during the 1971 season, after which he was traded to the astros for our friend from above, marty martinez.

hrabosky is better known as the mad hungarian.  like chlupsa, he appeared in just one game in 1971, but unlike chlupsa, hrabosky was brought back in 1972 and then some.  he had a fantastic season for the cardinals in 1975 when he won 12 games and saved 22 others.

thanks marck!