and a very pleasant good evening to you, wherever you may be

yesterday was vin scully's 85th birthday.  i celebrated by opening my mail and finding this card waiting for me.  first, i'll show the back

i was so pleased to see scully included in the 2012 panini cooperstown release, i quickly picked one of his cards up on ebay.  here's the front

it's an insert set - there's also a red barber card that i will need to get at some point.  i am by no means complaining about a real honest to goodness card of the dodger broadcaster (the first since fleer's 2004 announcing greats card), i just sort of wish that they had used a later image of scully.  i am being selfish here, but i picture scully more like he is today.  i know panini did use a later 'in action' photo for his autographed card, but i don't think i will lay out the cash for one of those unless the prices settle a bit.  to say the first few have been volatile is putting it mildly.  i was watching several copies of the autographed card on ebay, and the first one went for $410.  then there was a bin for $300 that someone quickly snagged, followed by another for $175.  there's one up now at around $250 (as i type this on friday morning) and another at about $150, but both have a couple of days left yet.

anyway, there are several dodgers in the set that i also picked up over at sportlots.  i believe the only dodger i am missing is duke snider (can you help a blogger out?), although there are a number of hall of famers who played for the dodgers that may be featured in a dodger uniform.  because panini had to remove all indications from the unis, maybe rickey henderson is shown from his time as a dodger.  heck, maybe the duke of flatbush is really a met on his card.  i am guessing, though, that panini tried to match the image with the team that each player is enshrined under in cooperstown.  that would leave jim hunter hatless.

it's easy to know what team is represented on these cards.  walter alston

 spent his entire managerial career with the dodgers, as did tommy lasorda

i believe lasorda got special dispensation from the hall which is why he was inducted without the usual 5-year waiting period following retirement.  alston up there had to wait until 1983 (7 years after he retired) to get in.

don sutton had a longer wait

but he's in now, whether reggie jackson likes it or not.  he is obviously shown as a dodger here, pitching in candlestick even, and i thank panini for not using a photo of him as a brewer.

roy campanella was only ever a dodger in the big leagues

and i can't believe that he wasn't inducted until 1969.

pee wee reese

came to the dodgers from the red sox organization, but i doubt that this is a 1939 minor league photo of the captain.  he joined the hall as a veterans committee selection in 1984, the same year don drysdale was inducted.  speaking of which, there are no cards in the set for big d or sandy koufax, although both maury wills (not in the hall) and shawn green (on the ballot for the first time this year) are both featured in autograph insert sets.

here's jackie robinson

jackie was the first player voted in by the writers since joe cronin and hank greenberg in 1956.  i think that's the longest stretch the hall has gone without a player be admitted by the writers.

during that stretch, zach wheat

had been voted in by the veterans committee in 1959, and although he spent his final season in philadelphia with the a's, that is definitely a brooklyn uniform wheat is wearing.  here's his teammate and fellow hall of famer burleigh grimes similarly dressed

the dodgers (and robins) wore pinstripes for much of the 1910's and 20's which would have covered the time that both wheat and grimes played for brooklyn.  here's a 1983 donruss hall of fame heroes card of grimes showing the 1964 veterans committee inductee in a robins uniform, circa 1919.

i like this panini set.  it reminds me of the cramer legends sets from the early 1980's which i collected (at least the first 3 sets - there might be a 4th i am missing).  i won't chase the whole set, but i definitely am looking for the snider and the barber insert.

happy bday vin; i can't wait to hear you say 'dodger baseball is on the air' in 2013.