oddball-palooza with a teaser

the goal today is to post the rest of the oddball haul i picked up a while ago and announce my first group break.  should be easy enough.  here are a bunch of dodger cards from off the beaten path.  this 1975 topps knock-off is from 1991 baseball cards presents, and features native son darryl strawberry

strawberry was happy to be in los angeles according to the card back

i am guessing that the third kid in the cartoon would be chris brown.  while the dodgers also brought eric davis back to la, brown was out of the majors by the time the 90's rolled around.

here's a 1993 topps eric karros card

but without the rookie cup.  what gives?

it's a pre-production sample.  most likely issued with 1992 topps factory sets i imagine.  i know i bought a 1993 topps factory set, and it had the 1994 pre-production samples in it.  unfortunately, i don't have the 1996 topps pre-production rafael bournigal sample card.  how random is it that topps picked bournigal for the 10-card set that year?

here's a 1990 baseball wit card of manny mota

the first question on the back is appropriate, even though it is no longer answered correctly.

i did not know that about the pirates.  always nice to see a manny mota card, and an extra bonus to learn something along the way.

here are a couple of pedro guerrero cards - 1985 drake's

and 1988 drake's

that '88 card was a nefarious 9 resident for a while.  i didn't realize that drake's sets were still made that late into the decade.

this kirk gibson card is from the bottom of a 1989 fleer box

i kinda sorta wish that topps still did this, even though i don't buy boxes anymore.  i think the last time i saw box bottom cards was with 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee.

next up are a couple of 1990 donruss learning series cards.  the complete dodger team set consists of rick dempsey

and fernando valenzuela

these cards were apparently part of a bigger educational packet made available to elementary and middle schools.  i was well beyond those institutions in 1990.

in 1993, fleer apparently partnered with fruit of the loom to include cards in packages of t-shirts and/or underwear.  i imagine that somebody picked up this brett butler card

whether they wanted to or not while shopping for tighty-whities.  i am thankful for it 20 years later.

also from 1993, i now own a tim wallach humpty dumpty card

let's learn more about this card from the authority on all things tim wallach.

you'll notice that there were no stickers in today's post.  i did show a couple of them yesterday, but the big sticker news today is that i will be hosting my first group break featuring a box of 1983 fleer stickers.  look for the post later today with all the details.  it should be fun.