garvey cey russell lopes: remember that time that hideo nomo shut out the braves on opening day?

tomorrow marks the 17th anniversary of one of the more memorable dodger home openers that i had the good fortune to attend. on april 8, 1996 i somehow scored my company's corporate seats a few rows behind the dodger dugout and witnessed hideo nomo battle tom glavine and the defending world league champion braves. nomo gave up only three hits, although he did walk 5, and he managed to make a third inning raul mondesi rbi single stand up for a 1-0 shutout victory.

one year later i was again at the ravine for opening day only to see curt schilling and the phillies shut the dodgers out. it was a bittersweet event for me because i knew at that time that i was moving to the midwest and that it would likely be the last dodger opener i would attend for a while. i had been to five or six in a row (plus a few of the angel openers) and i enjoyed seeing all the extra things that opening day provides, like barry manilow singing the national anthem. it turned out that i was able to attend the '98 opener, but i haven't been to one since.

anyway, i figured this was a good time to show off a bunch of hideo nomo cards that i have had scanned for a while. some of them arrived as part of trade packages, and some have been in my collection since the days of hideomania.

here's a 1995 upper deck sp card

and a card from 1995 score select certified

i appreciate the 'peek-a-boo' photos on those cards. they remind me of nomo's 1997 bowman card which is one of my favorite cards ever.

moving on to 1995 fleer flair

and a 1996 donruss promotional sample

those two cards showcase the 'backwards lean' in nomo's delivery. it was fun to try to emualte nomo's windup and delivery. i almost fell over a couple of times because i leaned too much.

here's a 1997 topps screen play card

here's a video for a better look at the card

i'm looking for the mike piazza card from this set. please let me know if you have one to send!

here the 1995 nl roy is rewarded with an award winner card in the 1996 upper deck collector's choice set. this also happens to be a silver signature parallel

there were a lot of 'extra' nomo cards in 1996 thanks to his success. upper deck even had a five-card nomo highlights insert set in their flagship release. arno from i'm ballsy sent me two of the five cards recently, and here they are

i'm now looking for cards 1, 3, and 5 from the set. there were more bonus nomo cards in other 1996 sets, of course, and this one is a checklist (duh) from 1996 upper deck sp

always nice to see nomo with the lumber

and, here's a 1997 fleer card

that was part of the base set, but was not his base card

these next two are two of my favorite nomo cards - from 1998 pacific online we get this goodness