ginter grande

i recently participated in the allen & ginter case break hosted by nachos grande.  it turns out that i overpaid, but that was the risk that i took hoping for a big dodger (koufax) or angels (pujols) hit and just some trade bait in general (twins).  at any rate, i wound up with a mess of base and mini cards for my cash, including the lovely ms. upton

i also got a complete dodger team set - jackie, clayton, andre, sandy, james, tim (?), matt, dee, and chad

bills is an sp, and there were two of them in the case.

there were also all of the dodger what's in a name inserts.  duke snider makes an appearance despite not being in the base set.  i figured i would show the backs so you can see what the name is all about.

some good info there for most of the guys.

here's the jackie robinson highlights sketch card

and some of the dodger minis

the horizontal action minis have to go away.

topps changed up the background color on the kershaw and koufax minis.  i was lucky enough to get an a&g back mini of sandy

as well as joe mauer

i learned that justin morneau has two middle names,

and that rod carew's middle name came from the guy who helped deliver him on a train in panama

i think aside from steven patrick garvey, rodney cline carew was the only full name of a ballplayer i knew back in the late 70's.  one of the angels' announcers - i don't know if it was dick enberg or don drysdale or ron fairly - would refer to him as rodney cline carew fairly often.  it's a cool sounding name, for sure.

i almost got bipped by the howie kendrick sp - 4 of 'em in the case

plus a black bordered pujols mini

and two nice torii hunter minis - black border and a&g back

someone else in the break claimed all of the bryce harper base cards, so those weren't distributed among the rest of the participants, but i did get to keep a couple of cards from the likely american league rookie of the year, mike trout.

i went through a harlem globetrotter phase when i was about 8 or 9, so i was happy to see a meadwolark lemon card in the set.

i was also happy to see a larger number of players of yesteryear and hall of famers like these guys.

i'm jumping the gun with pujols, obviously, but i appreciate the fact that his base card image is different than the one used on his mini.

by the way, all of the cards i received in the break are available for trade, aside from the dodgers of course.  so, if you see anything here or if there are any inserts you are looking for, shoot me an email.

i was pretty pleased to see more baseball subjects in the set, and would have liked even more (especially if it meant getting the football analyst james brown and that gamer guy out of the set), but i would have drawn the line at replacing kate with, say, paul o'neill.

i'm sure she appreciates my support.  

thanks for hosting chris.  looking forward to your upcoming contest.