the 4+1 card that should have been

yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the 4+1 game.  it's hard to believe that it has been 5 years since nomar had his great comeback season, and jd drew was a dodger, and andre ethier and matt kemp weren't starters.  the game i refer to is the game in which the dodgers were trailing the first place padres by a half game in the standings and by 4 runs heading into the bottom of the 9th.  jeff kent led off the inning with a home run off of jon adkins.  jd drew followed with a dinger of his own.  the padres replaced adkins with trevor hoffman, and russell martin took him deep on his first pitch.  on the very next pitch, marlon anderson, who had homered earlier in the game off of jake peavy, tied the game with the dodgers' fourth consecutive solo blast.

the next batter was julio lugo who had a chance to be a hero.  instead he flied out to center.  the next two batters made outs, and aaron sele allowed the pads to retake the lead with a run in the top of the 10th.  in the bottom of the inning, kenny lofton walked and nomar victimized padres reliever and dodger double dipper rudy seanez (post coming soon) with a walk-off home run.  joyous mayhem ensued.

that is worthy of a card, no?  here goes - the 2007 topps card that should have been

complete with a back

i had to get nomar on the card somewhere, so i used him for the inset photo instead of a smaller version of the front image.  maybe i should have used that photo for the 2007 topps card i created for nomar a while back.  as for the almost hero julio lugo, he was long gone to the red sox by the time 2007 topps came out.  here's his card from that set

i felt the need to include lugo in the remembrance of the 4+1 game since he was front and center when the dodgers greeted nomar at home plate.  so, here's the 2007 topps julio lugo card that should have been

i love this photo.  it, or a wider version of it, was my desktop wallpaper for a couple of years.  that's lugo in the middle of the card as nomar makes his way home.  we've also got some lurkers - furcal pointing to the plate, joe beimel, russell martin, jd drew, derek lowe and others, too.  what a great memory.  too bad it didn't matter much, as the dodgers wound up in second place despite the outcome of this game, and then were swept in the nlds by the mets. 

what's my wallpaper now, you ask?  for about the past year, i've used this photo. a different kind of memory.