i was noticing the other day that i've only featured todd zeile dodger cards three times on this blog since its inception in the fall of 2008. that's too bad, because i liked the guy. he joined the dodgers for the 1997 season and promptly hit 31 home runs - more home runs than any other dodger third baseman except pedro guerrero (a teammate of zeile's with the 1990 cardinals) who hit 32 in 1983. of course, adrian beltre came along and hit 48 in 2004, but that's beside the point.
i was lucky to have tj from the junior junkie include some cards of zeile in his recent trade package, so here's his 1998 fleer tradition card.
zeile was traded away in the mike piazza deal with the marlins, and so was replaced at third by bobby bonilla. beltre came along in 1999, however, and held the spot until he bolted after his huge offensive year mentioned above. zeile went on and eventually rejoined piazza in new york, helping the mets get to the world series. he hit .368 with a series best 8 rbi in the nlcs, and then hit .400 against the yankees in a losing cause. here's his 1998 topps finest card to boot.
somewhere i have a dodger scorecard that features a todd zeile autograph. he was signing in the concourse at dodger stadium before a game in '97, and i partook. i remember the lady in line in front of me asked him if he knew steve sax. saxy hadn't been a dodger since 1988, and he hadn't played in the majors since 1994. zeile was taken aback by the question, and i think he was still trying to wrap his head around it while he was signing my scorecard. i was more impressed that he was a teammate of mike piazza's.
the strongest man in socal was also among the cards tj sent - here's a 1996 score select piazza lineup leaders card
this is not an insert, just another way to have more than one piazza card in the base set.
oddball time! this is a 1996 scoreboard all sport ppf (i don't know what ppf means) card of roger cedeno
there sure were a lot of roger cedeno cards in the late 1990's. he was traded to the mets in 1998 with charles johnson for todd hundley.
here's a 2000 upper deck ovation eric gagne card
it says 'world premiere' on the side of the card, in case you were wondering. i don't think that really makes sense, just like the world series isn't really the world series, if you know what i mean.
relic time! 2003 leaf certified materials joe thurston mirror red game-worn jersey
thurston only played in 8 games during the 2002 season - all in september. i didn't think that the dodgers wore their blue alternates in an official major league game (as the back of the card attests) that late in the season, but i could be wrong. or maybe a spring training game is considered an official major league game.
there were a few more non-dodger/double play cards that need to be shown in the package, such as this 2014 topps update chris taylor card
and two from 2015 topps - javier baez
and logan forsythe
great stuff from a very generous source. thanks tj! keep an eye on your mailbox...
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