lurkers abound

this is probably the most famous of the 'lurker' cards - the 1971 topps chris short card

its fame is derived from ol' pete rose dancing in the background.  i also like it because of the alpo ad in the background.  i have to admit, at first i thought rose was leading off of third base, but he's actually at second base.  here's a link to a photo of connie mack stadium (scroll down), and you can see that the stands behind him, along with a different version of the alpo ad, are out in left field.

let's see if we can pinpoint the action.  in 1970, short pitched against the reds only once - on june 14th.  as luck would have it, that game was played in philadelphia, so the home pinstripes with the thicker side stripe (debuted in 1970) make sense here.  and, pete rose led off the game with a double.  i think we have a match!  short did not allow rose to advance, and the next two times rose came up to face short, he struck out and hit into a double play.

next up is this 1985 topps dick williams

i hadn't seen this card since 1985 until night owl posted it on his 1985 topps blog.  i had never noticed the lurking steve garvey behind williams.  very cool.

here's another former dodger, charlie hough, on a 1993 topps stadium club insert

the card comemmorates the first pitch in marlins history, and that's jose offerman of the dodgers lurking in the foreground. i remember watching the game on tv. offerman, of course, did not swing at the pitch and the ball was taken out of play.  hough wound up beating his former team that day.

greg gagne is flopping about on shane andrews' 1997 topps card

i'm thinking this might be a spring training photo, because as far as i can tell, andrews never made it on base during either of the two series that the expos hosted the dodgers in 1996.  besides, gagne didn't play in the first series, and the second series consisted of all night games.  and, if that weren't enough, gagne isn't wearing number 7 (which he wore in the regular season).  and yes, i'm pretty sure it's gagne based on the wristband, the hair, and the name on the back of the uniform.

however, i'm not even going to try to figure out who the dodgers are on javy lopez's 1998 score card

they're dodgers and they're lurking.  lets just leave it at that.