it's been 20 years for these cards

here i am in 2013 posting cards from 1993.  when i started collecting in earnest in 1978, 20-year old cards were things that i never considered to be within my reach.  if there is a kid who started collecting this year, these cards are as old to him as those 1958 topps cards were to me.  yikes.

1993 action packed reggie smith

there just aren't enough reggie smith cards printed after 1983.

1993 fleer flair jim gott

two photos on one card!  a floating head and torso card!  this makes me think of those bad two-in-one school portraits from the 80's.

1993 fleer ultra eric karros ultra performers

fleer saw it's two photos on flair and raised itself to five photos on this card.  he hits! he runs! he looks to his right!

1993 ted williams jim gilliam goin' north

gilliam did go north - from spring training in florida all the way to montreal in 1951 and 1952.  then he went almost due south to brooklyn.

1993 topps kevin gross

and roger mcdowell

those two cards give us opposing views of dodger stadium

1993 topps stadium club mike scioscia

looks like scioscia has figured out that if you take selfies while looking up, your double chin goes away.

1993 upper deck darryl strawberry

the hero shot.  this card might make my top 20 dodger cards, if i ever were to make such a list.

1993 upper deck jody reed

and a signed version

reed signed the card for me through the mail about 18 years after the card was released.

it's probably a good bet that in a couple of months i will do another 20 years later post with some 1994 cards.

penguins look strange in pinstripes

i picked up a new (to me) ron cey card a few months ago.  it comes from the 1983 thorn apple valley cubs set, and it features the penguin in the cubs' pinstripes

that is a stranger sight to me than steve garvey in the brown padres unis for some reason.  at least it makes cey look taller.

cey also appears on the team card in the set - that's him in the middle of  the second row

the photo used there reminds me of the parents standing off to the side taking pictures of their kids on santa's lap while the official photographer snaps away.

cey's 1984 donruss card also has him in pinstripes

but his 1987 o-pee-chee box bottom card has him in the away uniform

it's still strange to me though - i need a return to normalcy.

that's better

ducky medwick was a dodger (twice), but is he a dodger here?

joe 'ducky' medwick is in the hall of fame, thanks to his monster years with the saint louis cardinals as part of the 'gas house gang'.  he hit .379 in the 1934 world series, helping the cards to a championship over the tigers, and three years later became the last national league player to win the triple crown (31 home runs, 154 rbi, .374 batting average).  he began and ended his career with the cardinals, but in between, he fit in two stints as a dodger.  yes, this is a double dipper post.

[this is the fiftysecond installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, and babe herman.]

medwick was traded to the dodgers during the 1940 season, and in 1941, he helped them win their first pennant since 1920.  medwick hit .300 or better as a dodger until 1943, when he was batting at a .272 clip at the time his contract was purchased by the new york giants.  from there he went to boston (as a brave) in 1945 and was briefly signed by the saint louis browns in 1946.  he did not play for them, however, and instead signed on with the dodgers for the last half of the season, thus becoming a double dipper.  during that time, medwick hit .312 with 2 home runs, the first of which was the 200th blast of his career.  medwick signed with the yankees for the 1947 season, but was released before he appeared in a game.  he was signed by the cardinals and wound up finishing his career with them in 1948.

i have a 1960 fleer card of medwick wearing dodger blue, 

but the concern today is centered around this 1993 action packed card

the fact that medwick is considered to be a cardinal and not a dodger is more than reasonable as he played in over 1200 games for the redbirds, and only 470 for brooklyn. that combined with the red borders on the card make it easy for me to assume that he is featured in his cardinal uniform.  however, the script on his chest and especially the thick underline is telling a different story.

one of my favorite baseball-reference features is the 'dressed to the nines' uniform database.  here, we see what the 1940 dodgers were wearing on the road (and the 1941 dodgers as well), and to me, it looks a lot like what medwick is wearing on the card above.  his other uniforms just don't compare.

fellow dodger collectors - add the 1993 action packed joe medwick card to your want lists!

all the colors bleed into one

like the colors of a rainbow, so too are the dodgers of brooklyn and los angeles.

there was black and gray, golden and brown, green and white,and, next to walter alston, even red

and if you notice - there's tommy lasorda on the card, too. no doubt bleeding dodger blue.