big d, pee wee, and other dodger autographs

i don't know how realistic it is of me to think that i might one day have a jackie robinson and a roy campanella autographed card, but those are the only two current members of the dodger retired number club for whom i lack signed cards.  i've shown tommy lasorda, duke snider, jim gilliam, don sutton, walt alston, and sandy koufax signed cards previously, and now, i have a 1993 nabisco don drysdale certified auto card

and a 1991 topps archives 1953 pee wee reese in person autographed card

to show.

i am guessing that this is about as far as that collection will get.

here are some more (certified) dodger autos - a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams ron cey card

and a dave lopes card from the same set

this tommy john sticker auto card

comes from 2005 donruss greats

and this eric gagne signed card

is from 2006 upper deck sp authentic.

i was very happy to pick up this last card - a 2014 panini immaculate collection steve garvey signed card

numbered to 49.  it looks like he signed a piece from a watercoloring paper.  it's nice.  i'm pretty sure he tried to add his number 6 at the end (not an exclamation point), which in my mind should also be retired by the dodgers.  however, i recognize my bias and after considering the fact that the yankees are running out of numbers, i think the dodgers' hall of fame requirement (except in the case of jim gilliam) is probably a pretty good one.

a few of a couple of cards from arpsmith

here i am very slowly digging myself out from a backlog of trade posts.  these cards, and many more like them, came my way courtesy of arpsmith.  i have known a few giants fans in my time, and have successfully traded with five or six of them which is a level of diplomacy that should be emulated by all in conflict over such trivial things as laundry.

there were a couple of cards from the 1991 topps archives 1953 set, such as bill antonello

and bob milliken

antonello's lone big league action came in 1953 with the dodgers, but unfortunately did not include and playing time in the '53 world series.  he played some for their st. paul affiliate and wound up staying in the twin cities after his playing career ended.  milliken, on the other hand, spent parts of two seasons with the dodgers (1953 and 1954) and did make an appearance in the '53 fall classic against the yankees.  he held the yankees scoreless for two innings in the decisive sixth game, but billy martin's game (and series) winning single off of clem labine in the 9th happened anyway.

there were also a couple of cards featuring mid-90's dodger starters like this 1996 leaf limited ismael valdes card

and this 1996 upper deck collector's choice hideo nomo 'scrapbook' insert card

valdes and nomo were two-fifths of the dodgers' international rotation.  in addition to valdes (mexico) and nomo (japan), the dodgers also had ramon martinez (dominican rebublic), tom candiotti (usa), and chan ho park (south korea).

there were a couple of jackie robinson cards - this 2010 topps sterling card

and a 2012 topps allen & ginter 'what's in a name' insert

the ginter insert was one of a couple included - the other being clayton kershaw's card

jackie's middle name is in honor of teddy roosevelt, but topps didn't give my any insight into kershaw's namesake.

adam included a couple of ricky nolasco cards from 2013 topps update - an emerald parallel

and a gold parallel

the gold one was one of a couple of those, with the other being ronald belisario

neither nolasco nor belisario are with the team any longer, both having relocated to the american league central.

finally, there was only one signed card in the package, but it was a nice one.  bill russell signed his 1986 fleer card, either in person or through the mail.

that's a nice card of the shortstop of my youth with the right field pavilion in the background.

thanks for another great trade, adam.  sorry it took so long to post.

is there a doctor in the house?

why yes, i have two of them right here.  

back in 2002, i thought that it was awesome that mike marshall (the cy young award winner, not 'general soreness') was included in the upper deck vintage game used jersey insert set

i picked up one of those cards as quickly as i could.  as a bonus - there's a lurking davey lopes back there!  anyway, i thought that maybe there was an autographed version, too, but dr. mike marshall (he has a phd in kinesiology from michigan state) doesn't sign much.  when he does, his fee is a couple hundred bucks (or more).  needless to say, i don't have any signed stuff from marshall.

i do have a signed card from john rutherford, another former dodger who became a doctor.

that's rutherford's 1991 topps archives 1953 reprint card that he signed through the mail for me earlier this fall.  rutherford only pitched in the big leagues during the 1952 season, but at least he got to pitch in the world series (and against mickey mantle) before retiring from the game after a few more seasons in the minors.  he went on to become a doctor of osteopathy and is now retired and living in michigan.

thanks doc!

under a blood red sky

u2's 4th album was a live record (from multiple shows) called under a blood red sky.  given it's iconic cover, the obvious dodger card to showcase in this post is the 1953 topps bobby morgan (my copy is signed)

or perhaps this 1991 topps archives 1953 carl erskine

but, since the album came out in the fall of 1983 and featured only 8 songs (short and sweet, just like the 1983 nlcs against the phillies), it's more appropriate to show this, a 1983 kellogg's pedro guerrero.

that's because the dodgers' blood red sky that fall were the skies of philadelphia, and the card features a photo from some nondescript multi-purpose stadium like the vet.  the first two games of the series were played in los angeles, and the dodgers managed to win game 2 after losing game 1 on a 1st inning mike schmidt solo shot.  once in philly, they lost two straight by the score of 7-2 and the series was over.  guerrero, who had been the dodgers' offensive leader all year, managed just 3 hits and 2 rbi in the 4 game series.  dusty baker was the only dodger with more than 4 hits in the series as the phillies pitchers pretty much shut the big blue wrecking crew redux down.

speaking of which, i've since wondered if this 1984 fleer steve carlton card

features a photo from game 1 of the series.  carlton threw 7 shutout innings against the dodgers in game 1 at dodger stadium, outdueling jerry reuss who really only made that one mistake on the pitch to schmidt.  unfortunately, there is no way to tell one way or the other whether or not the photo is from the nlcs unless game 1 was played at night, but i can't seem to find that info anywhere.

carlton also pitched in the decisive fourth game, which took place on saturday october 8.  still, i'll quote 'sunday bloody sunday' and say, as i did that day, 'i can't believe the news today.  i can't close my eyes and make it go away.'  for the first time in my lifetime, and for the first time ever, the dodgers had made it to the postseason and failed to advance to the world series.

i'll end this post with "40"

just like the album.

how long to sing this song?