rivalry week?

well, ucla played usc this past weekend, but even though that was the college football rivalry i knew growing up, around these parts it's rivalry week when the golden gophers take on the badgers.  minnesota and wisconsin play this upcoming weekend, so i decided to wait until now to show a few cards i've obtained from the 2013 panini hometown heroes rivalry insert set.

the concept is similar to the topps 'who would have thought' series in the 2001 and 2002 traded sets, except these card focus on players who have played on both sides of a specific rivalry.  like dusty baker, who played for the dodgers and giants

i believe that both photos come from his dodger days, by the way.  in his lone season with the no-cals (1984), baker hit .276 against the dodgers.  during his time with the braves and dodgers, he hit .283 against the giants.

tommy john pitched for both the dodgers and the yankees

he faced the bronx bombers in the 1977 and 1978 world series.  he took the loss in game 3 of the '77 fall classic, but won game 1 in 1978 and also pitched well in game 4 that year.  unfortunately, the dodgers fell to the yankees both times.  john jumped to the yankees for the 1979 season, and wound up pitching against the dodgers in the 1981 world series.  he shut them out for 7 innings in his game 2 win, and then threw two more scoreless innings for the yankees as a reliever in game 4.  john got the start a few days later in game 6, but was prematurely pulled from the game for a pinch-hitter after allowing just one run in 4 innings of work.  bobby murcer flew out to end the yankee's half of the fourth, and the dodgers went on to win the game and the series.

like baker, orel hershiser wore both dodger blue (twice) and giant orange

the bulldog spent the 1998 season with san fran, and was 2-1 against the dodgers.  they were the only team against whom he had more than one victory.  over the rest of his career (which includes a season with the mets and three with the indians in addition to his dodger years), hershiser was 22-9 against the giants.  that's the highest victory total he posted against any opponent, which is nice.

i knew that there wouldn't be a steve garvey card in this insert set (the padres don't rank as a rival for the dodgers), but i did sort of hope for a duke snider card since he finished his career as a giant.  other possibilities included reggie smith (he also finished as a giant), juan marichal (he finished his career as a dodger), and if panini really wanted to be a bit out of the ordinary with the checklist, moose skowron (he helped the dodgers sweep his former yankee teammates in the 1963 world series).

good luck to the gophers this weekend - they are going to need it.