where in the world is my wallet card? - local card shop edition

i paid a visit to the newest local card shop in the twin cities recently, and obviously, wallet card was along for the ride.  we got there a bit early...

the shop has been open for a little over a year now, and it's owners are a couple of regulars at the monthly card shows.  

once i got inside on this particular day, i was drawn to some of the bargain vintage - fifty cents a pop - and picked up a 1954 bowman fred baczewski card

i am not collecting this set, nor am i a reds collector, but the lack of the facsimile autograph, coupled with the mention of mickey mantle on the back of a card from 1954

was enough to get me to bite.

there were some 1956 topps cards for only slightly more, and i picked up a couple for the double play binder - tommy carroll

and pete runnels

funny that pete is enough of a nickname that it needed to be in quotation marks.

back to the cheap vintage, here's a 1955 bowman bob talbot

because i couldn't leave it there for fifty cents.

this is not a 1955 bowman card

but rather a 2001 bowman rookie reprint of don zimmer.  yes, there were modern singles to be had at the shop, too.

oddball stuff was in strong supply as well, as i picked up a few cards from the 1977-84 renata gallaso releases.  this particular card is from the 1983 set featuring the 1933 all-stars (the very first all-stars).  it's the national league team card

and it features a couple of dodgers - coach max carey and tony cuccinello.  here's the back

with connie mack and john mcgraw 'choosing sides'.

there was also a box of autographed cards going for fifty cents apiece, and i couldn't leave this 2006 grandstand st. lucie mets card of their trainer behind

although i won't be keeping it.

i will hold on to this 2003 grandstand vero beach dodgers card of willie aybar, though.

this wasn't all that i came away with from the shop - some of you will benefit from the haul by way of trade packages.  as for the shop itself, there's lots of good stuff there, and if you visit the twin cities i encourage you to check it out!

so much galasso, so little time

tony from off hiatus sent me some cards a while back, and i'm just getting to posting them today.  in an earlier post, i showed off some good stuff like a 1954 bowman billy loes card and some oddballs, but there were enough 1977-84 renata-gallaso cards in the package to make up a post of their own.  keep in mind that all these cards cost me were some brewers cards. 

roy campanella

campy has a couple of different cards in the set - this one celebrates his third mvp award while the other  is more of his base card

max carey

and tony cuccinello

carey and cuccinello were part of the first all-star game which was played in 1933.  carey, the dodger manager, was a coach on the national league squad helmed by john mcgraw, and cuccinello was a reserve.  cuccinello did make it into the game, however he struck out as a pinch-hitter for carl hubbell against lefty grove to end the game.

here are some more recognizable dodgers from the set:

don drysdale

gil hodges

sandy koufax

jackie robinson

dazzy vance

and, not a galasso, but instead - a nolasco

a 2014 topps toys r us purple parallel, to be exact.

thanks tony!

guess who sent me these cards...

i am guessing that nick at dime boxes kept a copy of this 1999 topps stadium club chan ho park card

for his collection before sending one to me.  it's the type of whimsical card that i would add to a trade package before sending it his way, if it weren't a dodger card that i needed.  shortly after he burst onto the scene, nick became one of my favorite trade partners largely because of how much fun it is to put a trade package together for him.  however, the stuff he sends in return is always great, too.

here's a 1999 skybox premium raul mondesi card

if you look at that card a certain way, it looks like rauuuuuuuuuuul is running backwards.  pick up your coach, raul - don't look at the ball.

before target red bordered parallels, there were still red bordered parallels.  this is a 2003 topps bazooka chad billingsley red bordered parallel.

this was before billingsley became seemingly susceptible to injury, and had all the promise in the world.  i am hoping for a big comeback from bills in 2015, but it doesn't look like it will be with the dodgers.

how about a 2004 topps cracker jack jose lima card?

the late jose lima was the only dodger between orel hershiser (in 1988) and derek lowe (in 2009) to win a postseason game.  he shut out the cardinals in the 2004 nlds to break an 0-8 postseason skid for the dodgers.

here's a 1996 topps stadium club antonio osuna card that i love for a couple of reasons.

first, it shows the license plate that osuna wore around his neck (it's askew on the left neckline of his jersey). i remember watching osuna pitch on tv in one of his first appearances and seeing that thing sway around like a tire swing.  you will have to remember that this is the mid 1990's, before there were a bunch of big pendants on chains worn by athletes during games.  the other reason that i really like this card is that i am pretty certain that padre first base coach davey lopes is lurking in the background.

here's the guy that lopes replaced as the dodgers' first base coach a few years ago on a 1986 fleer star sticker card.  it is, of course, mariano duncan

duncan was supposed to replace bill russell as the dodger shortstop when he came up in 1985.  while he was the team's primary shortstop that year, things didn't quite work out after that as tommy lasorda turned out to not be much of a fan.  duncan spent the entire 1988 championship season in the minors, but eventually won world series rings with the reds in 1990 and the yankees in 1996.

outfielder mike marshall, seen here on his 1989 topps uk mini card,

was a part of the dodgers' 1988 world championship team (he hit .231 with a homer in the fall classic against the a's), but his final postseason appearance came with the red sox in 1990.

here's the last card of this post, a 1977-84 renata gallaso carl furillo card

it was a great card to see in the trade package for many reasons - it's a carl furillo card, and there aren't too many of those; it's a card that i didn't previously have; and it features the right-handed furillo posing as a lefty.  it's the type of card that i would send to nick if i didn't need it for my collection.  thanks nick!

from the card show i came

here is pretty much the rest of what i picked up at a card show a few weeks back.  i had gone hoping to maybe find some 2014 topps heritage, but the cupboards were still bare as far as that went.  i did pick up a 2014 topps yasiel puig red foil parallel

and a 2014 topps don sutton relic

from the same dealer.  these were the two most expensive cards i bought all day.  i think they were $4 apiece.  i have a soft spot for don sutton relic cards.  especially ones that feature photos without the perm.

here's a 1977-87 renatta-gallaso roy campanella card

he doesn't look too excited to have won his third mvp award

here's a much easier card to find (although it had somehow eluded me) of another dodger mvp - 1989 fleer league leaders kirk gibson

and a card of former dodger coach babe ruth from the 1992 megacards babe ruth set

yes, the bambino wanted to be a manager, but he was just a batting practice sideshow as far as the dodgers were concerned.  still, i was happy to find another card of the babe in dodger duds.

paul konerko didn't spend much time with the dodgers before tommy lasorda traded him away, but he sure does have a lot of cards.  this is a 1998 pacific aurora card of the soon-to-be retired white sox slugger.

konerko was expendable because the dodgers had eric karros at first base.  here's a 2000 topps chrome card of karros that, like the previous four cards, was in a 12 for a dollar box.

i found another card of karros in that box - this 1997 topps stadium club dodgers card

that also happened to have his autograph on it.  i did a little research when i got home, and a bunch of these cards were apparently signed by karros and certified by treat entertainment. this copy bears no hologram or other sort of certification, but i'll still take it for eight cents.  actually, it was less than that - i asked the guy if 13 cards for a buck was ok, and he agreed.

not a bad lot of cards for not a lot of cash.

1955 type collection

i was lucky (yes, oh so lucky) enough to win the fifth anniversary giveaway contest at number 5 type collection.  if you read that blog, and you should, you know that matthew appreciates the fifth card from a set and vintage.  here's most of what my winnings included

1955 bowman gil hodges

hodges' face is framed by the creases nicely, and i am one card closer to finishing the 1955 bowman dodger team set

staying in 1955, here's a '55 topps bert hamric

wonderfully rounded corners and miscut top to bottom. i will leave it to more curious minds which player hamric is sharing space with.  whenever i see the green bottom on a '55, i think of ted williams, but he had appeared in more than 200 games.

a few interesting things to note here.  first, we have firearms on the back of the card.  second, we have a full name of 'odbert'.  you may have noticed the facsimile auto on the front also showing that bert was short for odbert.  hamric is, to date, the sole big leaguer to have been named odbert.

enough about the name - the text on the back brings us to the conclusion that hamric can hit.  if i had been a brooklyn youngster in 1955, i would have been excited to see this minor league success story with the big club.  well, hamric made it to brooklyn, but was given just one at bat - as a pinch hitter - and he struck out.  his only other appearance that year was as a pinch runner.  three years later, hamric resurfaced in baltimore where he struck out in 5 of his 7 at bats.  he did get a base hit, however, so all was not lost.  add in a pop out, and you have hamric's big league career - 8 at bats, each of which came as a pinch hitter.

oh, i couldn't resist.  it's joe coleman who is creeping on to hamric's card.

unibrow alert!  here's a 1961 post wally moon card

the card is shaped more like a backwards nebraska than a colorado, but i'm not complaining. it's got character!  and again, it's another card crossed off of the want list.

here's a 1977 tcma renata galasso burleigh grimes card

grimes played for the dodgers when they were known as the robins, but he did manage the dodgers for a couple of seasons in the 1930's.  his hall of fame plaque has a 'b' on the cap, but i don't know if the dodgers have any sort of acknowledgement of grimes at the stadium like they do for the other dodger hall of famers.  the most obvious recognition are the retired numbers, but grimes played for the franchise before numbers were worn.  i suppose they could do something like the giants have done for the likes of john mcgraw and just put the 'b' logo in a circle for him.  same goes for zach wheat and others, now that i think about it.  in a similar vein, number 2 is retired for tom lasorda, of course, but i suppose supporters of leo durocher could see that as his number as well.  kind of a yankees/bill dickey/yogi berra number 8 thing.

and, while we are on the topic of numbers, here is the back of a card numbered 4 in its set - a 1981 topps squirt steve garvey card

so close to being a part of the number 5 type collection!  instead, matthew is stuck with a reggie jackson card.  man - look at those stats from 1974 through 1980.  i really thought that we would see number 6 in the rafters at dodger stadium.

thanks for the cards matthew! and here's to many more years of number 5's!

more cards all the way from the backstop

new papa marcus found some time between changing diapers and not sleeping to send me some cards.  he's quite the overachiever.  take a looksie.

here's a 1977 tcma renata galasso card of don newcombe

i remember seeing the 1978 tcma set when i was first starting to collect cards, and i sort of shunned it.  i would have done the same had i been aware of this set from the previous year.  these days, i'm glad to have the few cards from the set that i do.

there were also a couple of minor league cards - this one is from 2000 just and features a guy named wynter phoenix

he spent the first few years of his minor league career in the dodgers organization, including a 1999 stint in aa san bernardino.  in 2000, he was playing in the marlins organization, and in 2001 he was in the orioles' minor league system.

this next guy was more recognizable - it's blake dewitt on a 2004 just rookies card

dewitt just signed a free agent deal with the braves a couple of weeks ago.  i thought that he would be the dodgers' second baseman for a few years, but ned traded him to the cubs in the ted lilly deal.  i like ted lilly, but i wish ned would find a second baseman already.

roberto alomar has quite a resume of double play cards, including this 1992 donruss triple play card.

walt weiss is another guy who has a lot of dp cards.  here's his 1993 donruss card, upon which he becomes a member of the florida marlins

marcus also sent weiss's 1991 upper deck card

as if to prove the point.

alan trammell has a couple of double play cards himself, and he appears on scott fletcher's 1993 upper deck card on the front end of a twin killing

the back of doug strange's 1994 upper deck collector's choice card  shows rickey henderson trying to break up two

and finally, we have a rather pedestrian dp turn on mike bordick's 1995 upper deck collector's choice card

thanks for the cards marcus!  i'll get a package out to you soon!