a holy post of obligation

when i first started collecting baseball cards, i was a set collector primarily.  even more than a team collector, as i would put the first dodger cards i pulled into the set, and only take a double for my team set.  later, my dad got me into specific player collections, but still - the set came first.  as a result, i put together every topps, fleer, and donruss set from 1978 through 1987 by busting wax. i believe i have all of the topps sets from 1988 through 2008 as well, with maybe about half of those being hand collated. 

more recently, i have gone back and completed the set of my birth year (1970), as well as the 1973, 1976 and 1977 topps sets, and, i am actively working on my 1971 set.  if i were to collect another set from the 1970's, it wouldn't be 1975 (can't stand it) or 1974 (kind of blah in my opinion).  no, it would be the 1972 set.

i probably have a couple of hundred 1972 topps cards (not counting my complete dodger team set and my separate binder with the 1978 topps dodgers as they were featured in 1972), but i did not own one of the most popular cards from the set until recently, however.  that's when matt at heartbreaking cards of staggering genius sent me a copy of the billy cowan card with the strategically placed 'big a' at the stadium formerly known as angels' stadium

it turns out matt had picked up a handful of them at one of my local card shops, just a couple of days after i had been there for the first time.  thanks matt!

meanwhile, captain canuck pulled together a package of dodgers for me which included this beauty - jose pena rocking the knuckleballer's number

pena was sent down in august of 1970, around the time that charlie hough was called up for the first time.  sometime shortly thereafter, hough snagged pena's number in true knuckler fashion.  i was surprised to learn that this is the only jose pena to have played in the big leagues.  seems like there would have been more.  anyway, this is a double so it can go in the 'set' binder if i ever get around to creating one.

the captain also sent me some newer, shiny cards.  like this 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia duke snider card

that absolutely does not contain any sort of memorabilia on it in any way.  still, it's shiny.

here's a 2005 topps pristine steve garvey card

i am a sucker for cards that have that wavy pennant, as in 1965 topps and 2003 upper deck vintage.  and, 2005 topps pristine, i suppose.

here's a card that looks better scanned, a 2006 upper deck future stars eric gagne

the card, in it's natural state, has a lot of red on it.  i prefer the shades of blue.  by the way, in 2006, eric gagne was not a future star.  he was a star on the downward slope, trying to come back from injury.

speaking of the downward slope, here's a 2007 topps insert of luis gonzalez

i believe gonzalez was among the active career leaders in hits back in 2007.  in fact, he got his 2500th career hit as a dodger.  he last played in 2008 for the marlins, and has 2591 hits to his name.  8 fewer than the garv!

here's a 2007 upper deck elements card of rafael furcal

i didn't mind furky, but i am glad davey lopes can wear his number again.

i'll finish up with a 2008 upper deck starquest insert of russell martin

martin's batting average has gone down every season since it peaked at .290 in his fantastic 2007 season.  this year, it is threatening to take it's most precipitous drop yet as he hovers around .200 - currently 32 points lower than his .237 average of 2011.  that's too bad for the yankees.

thanks a lot matt and captain.  i am sure we will do this again soon!