the bournigal supremacy

rafael bournigal was the victim of the changing expectations from the shortstop position.  his 1995 topps stadium club card

is fantastic, but good cardboard doesn't keep you in the big leagues.  bournigal was a good field/no hit shortstop which would have been ok prior to the 1990's when guys like cal ripken jr and barry larkin were winning mvp awards based on big offensive numbers. the dodgers had jose offerman at shortstop in the early 1990's when bournigal was ready to play in the bigs, and they apparently enjoyed e-fferman's slightly better offense over bournigal's better defense.

here's a 1993 fleer ultra bournigal card

and a 1993 score bournigal card

both of which carry a 'rookie' designation.  bournigal's topps card from 1993 had no such distinction, but there was a gold parallel version

which is nice.

bournigal was a september call-up in both 1992 and 1993, but saw more playing time during the summer of 1994. he appeared in 40 games that year and made only 3 errors compared to offerman who made 11 errors in 72 games.  dodger fans were rewarded with the nice stadium club shown up top in 1995.  here is that card again, with bournigal catching what i imagine to be a line drive with the dodger stadium bleachers in the background.

topps also liked the image, as they used it on one of the 1996 topps pre-production cards, although they cropped it slightly more tightly

here's the back of the pre-production card

which was somewhat elusive. the cards weren't in the 1995 factory set that i bought, which is where the pre-production cards had been in 1994, so i had to go the online marketplace route.  i think i finally found one on ebay, although it could have been comc.  in case you are wondering, there was no 1996 topps rafael bournigal card as he spent the entire 1995 season in the minor leagues, splitting time between the dodger and expo organizations (he was traded to montreal in june).

anyway, i recently sent some cards to bournigal through the mail, and he was kind enough to sign and return them to me.

1995 topps

1995 upper deck

1995 upper deck collector's choice

weird to see him without the goggles

and 1993 topps

looks like he got some sharpie on the table...

with bournigal's dodger career complete, he went on to resurface with the a's from 1996-1998, and then spent the 1999 season with the mariners.  pacific gave us one more card of bournigal in their 2000 pacific crown collection set, and it features a nice double play turn

the dodgers didn't really embrace the new shortstop prototype until they brought hanley ramirez on board, and that will continue with corey seager in a year or two. even when seager is hitting 20+ homers every year, i'll still have a soft spot for guys like bournigal and cesar izturis who can field like nobody's business.

black diamond, silver diamond, white sox

for the 1992 season, the white sox added a diamond to the left sleeves of their jerseys to honor the passing of at least two members of their organization and family that occurred during the previous offseason.  the diamonds came in two different colors for their three different uniform schemes - black on the home pinstripes as seen on this 1993 o-pee-chee steve sax card

black on the away grays (as we will see in a bit), and silver on the alternate black tops as seen on saxy's 1993 leaf card

here are a couple more looks at the silver patch, courtesy of black jack mcdowell's 1993 topps stadium club murphy card

and dan pasqua's 1993 upper deck card

i've got three cards in the memorials binder for this one - robin ventura's 1993 topps black gold card represents the black diamond/white pinstripe combo

while frank thomas' 1993 fleer ultra card represents the black diamond/gray jersey set up i mentioned earlier

and it's the big hurt again, with his 1993 upper deck future heroes subset card that showcases the silver diamond/black jersey combination

one tidbit from a uniform source notes that the diamond is not a patch added to the jerseys, instead it is colored fabric woven into the uniform tops.

while i was researching this post, i noted that the hall of fame's website indicated that there were four people for whom the patch was worn.  some research online provided three names, and i decided to contact the hall of fame to see if they had any additional information.  i received a quick response from tom shieber, the senior curator, who referred back to the chisox media guide from 1992 and found that the diamond was being worn for two people - sheri berto (jerry reinsdorf's personal assistant) and maureen schueler (wife of general manager and former player and coach, ron schueler). it is possible that other personnel, possibly long time employee millie johnson (one of the three names i found online) who passed away in march of 1992 after working for the white sox for over 25 years, were "added" to the memorial, but the hall of fame has revised their website to acknowledge berto and schueler only. 

sheri berto died unexpectedly following an outpatient surgical procedure in november of 1991.  she was bulls and white sox owner jerry reinsdorf's assistant, and in addition to the uniform memorial worn by the sox, reinsdorf named the bulls' practice facility after her.  the bulls practiced at the berto center for over 20 years, but will soon be moving into a new facility near the united center.

maureen schueler died of leukemia in october of 1991.  her husband ron had been a pitcher with the white sox late in his career, retiring as a player in 1979 to become the team's pitching coach.  he also worked in the a's and pirates organizations before returning to chicago as the team's general manager in november of 1990.

the white sox have since been consistent in the use of a diamond when wearing memorial patches, although they have since added names or initials to the memorials, such as the one they are wearing this season for jerry reinsdorf's son david.  i will post about that after 2014 topps update is released, i am sure.

card show piazzapalooza

the 1990's were heady days for card collectors.  there were new manufacturers, legion sets, innumerable inserts and parallels.  i stayed pretty close to the topps flagship and traded sets throughout the decade, with a fair amount of upper deck in 1992-95 and again in 1998-99.  other than that, i kind of stayed out of the loop.

that means that i missed out on a ridiculous amount of mike piazza inserts.  a dime box at the card show last week made up for a lot of that.  first, i should clarify.  the box of cards i looked through wasn't necessarily a dime box.  i asked the dealer before looking through the cards what the deal was. he said that the price varied.  after i had found about 100 piazza inserts, he said 10 bucks.  i wound up with about 160 cards (about 120 of piazza), and he charged me 15 bucks.  so, just about a dime box.

on to the piazzapalooza! 

1993 fleer ultra all rookie insert

the colors pop on the black background. 

1993 fleer major league prospects insert

piazza wearing number 60.  the same number he wore at some point in the minors, as evidenced by these 1992 classic best blue bonus

and red bonus parallels

note the carl sawatski memorial patch, too.

here are a couple of inserts from 1994 fleer ultra - homerun king

and rbi king

there's the number 31 that we know.  i think piazza also wore 25 at some point, but 31 is the number he wore for the majority of his career.

1995 fleer update soaring star insert

those rods of green kryptonite are actually bats.  i didn't realize this until i looked at the back of the card just a few minutes ago.

1995 score hall of gold

hall of fame class of 2015? i hope so.

1995 upper deck sp silver parallel

i liked the gray gear that piazza wore.  i also liked the way he flipped his helmet after every game on his way out to the mound.

1994 king-b disc

seventh annual?  where are the previous 6 years of discs?

1997 bowman chrome international parallel

as jimmy kimmel used to say, that's 'italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza'.

1998 upper deck 10th anniversary preview insert

i have a few of these preview cards, but i don't think i have any of the actual 1999 10th anniversary team cards.  no dodgers in that insert set, i don't think, so maybe that's why.

piazza appeared on his share of combo inserts.  two of the most common players he was paired with were tim salmon (the al roy in 1993) and ivan rodriguez.  this is a 1996 upper deck sp marquee matchups insert 

where salmon got the 'marquee' part.

this is a 1996 topps stadium club midsummer matchup insert

which features rodriguez on the other side

rodriguez gets some time on the same side as piazza (and darren daulton) on this 1996 donruss dominators insert

so far, i have resisted the directive to remove protective film.

last card of this post, a 1998 fleer sports illustrated cover card featuring ken griffey jr

so good, so young, and so many inserts.  i'll show some more later today.  stay tuned...

card show dime box dodger haul

at the card show last weekend, i picked up a couple of nice vintage dodgers from the bargain bin (plus a couple of 1973 topps cards for nick), but most of my time was spent looking through a couple of random dime boxes.  i wound up with some stuff for other bloggers, too, but these are some of the dodgers that i found for me.

1992 score eric karros

i can't believe that i need any 1992 score, but this card didn't look familiar to me.  even though i haven't looked at my 1992 score dodgers for years, i threw a dime down for karros.  this card reminds me of his rookie year when he did some commercials for your friendly southern california nissan dealers.  he feigned trouble fielding a ball in the showroom and tommy lasorda walked by shaking his head.  i did not buy a nissan.

1993 fleer ultra pedro martinez

hall of fame class of 2015?  i think so.

1995 best paul konerko

in 1995, the dodger affiliate in san berdoo was the spirit.  by 1997, it was the stampede

1997 best adrian beltre

see?

1999 fleer metal universe adrian beltre neophytes

i am getting very sleepy looking at this card.

2005 fleer adrian beltre league leader

i am thankful for fleer going three-deep on the leader cards so that beltre gets an appearance.  however, beltre was actually fourth in the league in batting average in 2004. helton was second and loretta was third behind barry bonds who didn't bother to license himself with the card companies.  

2010 topps duke snider/andre ethier legendary lineage

i have about 37 of the matt kemp/jerry sands ll card, but this one didn't look familiar to me.

2013 bowman paco rodriguez international/state parallel

paco hails from florida.

2013 topps aj ellis emerald parallel

i can't wait to see who else is on ellis's card in 2014.

i've got more of my card show haul coming up this weekend, including some double plays and a whole mess of mike piazza inserts.  stay tuned.

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.