gone green

even before he was a dodger, i was collecting shawn green cards.  when he was a dodger, i collected his cards with an even greater passion.  when he was no longer a dodger, i stopped seeking out his cards.  still, i've got a lot of shawn green cards.

one that i had to pick up last year was this 2013 panini hometown heroes curtain call insert

it celebrates his 4-home run game in 2002 (i was there!) which really was a ridiculous offensive display

i give thanks to adrian beltre who hit a two out home run in the 9th inning to allow green to bat one more time and get his fourth homer that day.  hard to believe that was just over 12 years ago now.

so, i have a lot of shawn green cards as i mentioned up top.  here are a few that made their way to my scanned folder.

this one is from 2000 pacific revolution

it's an 'on deck' insert.  looks like green is on deck in an aquarium somewhere.

2001 bowman's best

2001 upper deck evolution

2002 bowman chrome xfractor

2002 donruss super estrellas poder de cuadrangula insert

this means 'home run power' i believe.  green had it in 2001, that's for sure.  he hit 49 that year, the most ever by a dodger/groom/bridegroom/superba/robin player.

here's the back of his 2002 upper deck card with his first two years of dodger stats showing

you may also notice that upper deck was back to its anti-dodger shenanigans in regards to card numbering.

2003 bowman chrome refractor

on which green plays his position under the watchful eyes of tom lasorda.  i miss the murals.

here's a card from 2004 upper deck diamond collection all-star lineup

2004 was green's last year in la, as evidenced by his 2005 fleer platinum card

which is really a diamondbacks card, and so was off my radar until recently.

i found this 2006 topps card of green actually wearing a diamondbacks uniform

in a repack recently.  like i said, i pretty much stopped seeking out his cards after he left the dodgers.  i did, however, make certain that i acquired his cards in 2008.  that's because, after the 2007 season with the mets, green retired and so his 2008 releases were final tributes.

here's his 2008 topps card

with his complete stats on the back

it's nice that he made it to 2000 hits

here's his 2008 upper deck card

also with the entirety of his big league career on the back

and, of course, his nearly identical 2008 upper deck first edition card

it's been nice to see that green has returned to the dodgers in recent years as a spring training instructor. maybe he'll return to card releases like archives as a dodger in the future, too.