world series fever - catch it!

i bought into thorzul's recent el cheapo group break and, in a flashback to my youth when they were battling it out in the old nl west, i was randomly assigned the reds as a companion to my dodgers.  here's some of what i received.

first up is a 2005 upper deck milton bradley 'color variation'

i had no idea what this was and why there was blue ivy instead of green.  i own the regular version of this card, so i knew something was up.  turns out that there are similar variations to every base card in the set as far as i can tell from the internets.  just another upper deck gimmick.

from blue to red - here's a 1980 topps card that was included in my bounty

the reds didn't have a nice stadium to use as a backdrop like the dodgers did, nor did they have a world class zoo to use as the padres did.  just astroturf and an outfield wall.

there were also a bunch of cards from the 1998 fleer sports illustrated world series fever set, including one of the few charles johnson as a dodger cards

johnson certainly had world series fever in 1997 as part of the world champion marlins.  eric karros, however, did not

karros only got as far as the nlds with the dodgers, and then was a member of the 2003 cubs that lost to the marlins in the nlcs thanks to the fact that they are the cubs.

paul konerko

who also appears in the set on andres galarraga's card, got his world series fever in 2005 with the world champion white sox.

raul mondesi

never got out of the division series - twice with the dodgers and once with the yankees.

chan ho park, on the other hand,

made it all the way to the world series with the phillies in 2009.  he pitched well, too, but the phils could not defeat the yankees.  nice shot of the visitor's bullpen, by the way.

gary sheffield

was part of the 1997 world champion marlins, but then had the misfortune to be on the yankees teams of the mid-2000's that couldn't quite make it to the world series.  misfortune, yeah that's not really the right word.

finally, there is no greater world series fever than when the dodgers are represented, as they were in 1988.

a magnificent moment indeed.

thanks thorzul.