hats off to reader mark

reader mark has certainly made his mark around the blogs with some nice trade packages, and he has been kind enough to include yours truly in on the fun.  i've received two packages from him to date with quite an assortment of cards.  here is a small sample.

this is the back of tim leary's 1989 topps big card.  look at all the different hats tim leary wears.

a sombrero (not unlike bip roberts or bill russell), some sort of viking helmet, and a mortarboard.  any one of these hats will work for a tip in mark's direction.

here's another 1989 topps big card.  it's the back of mike marshall's card 

marshall made his big league debut on september 7, 1981 by pinch running for steve garvey in the first inning after the garv hit an rbi single.  marshall came up a couple of innings later and did indeed double in his first big league at bat.  that would mean that ed whitson is shown here calling marshall a young punk.

here's a 1986 topps pedro guerrero box bottom card

not a bad hand cut specimen

1994 fleer flair tim wallach

i recall buying a single pack of 1993 flair.  i didn't bother with the 1994 release, so i am still playing catch up.

mark also included some cards of the players from the team of my youth, like davey lopes on a 1987 fleer card

and charlie hough on a 1989 fleer card

plus he sent along some double plays.  this is a 1995 topps mickey morandini card

with what i believe to be brett butler sliding in.  mark also sent the cyberstat parallel

a quick look at baseball reference leads me to believe that this play is from july 17, 1994, and that raul mondesi is about to be thrown out at first.

i'll post some other double plays that mark sent a little later.  stay tuned...

more cards from bo

just a few more cards from bo at baseball cards come to life.  some of you might be wondering why i didn't just put all the cards in one big monster trade post. some of you may not.  anyway, the reason is that i am hindered by blogger's 20 label limit.  i like to label the set and team of each card i post, and if it is a dodger card then the player gets labeled, too.  then there are the subcollections (lurkers, dodger stadium, memorials, double plays) that get labelled.  i also label my trade posts with 'bp' which covers all of my interaction with other bloggers (trades, group breaks, etc.).  that's why you get four posts today to cover one trade with bo.

here's a 1994 fleer flair raul mondesi card

and a 1995 upper deck hideo nomo card

strange that i had not posted either one of those cards before today.

i will close out the bo-lapalooza with three double play cards - 1997 topps stadium club alex gonzalez

on which jose valentin seems to not realize that he forgot to throw the ball to first base,

2000 topps stadium club craig biggio

on which biggio has thrown the ball,

and 2000 topps stadium club barry larkin

on which barry is seen levitating over barry bonds.

thanks again bo!

it's like i like it like this

brandon league looks excited.

i was excited, too, to receive a trade package from it's like having my own card shop a while back.  that 2013 topps opening day blue sparkle parallel looks better than it scans.

there were other nice cards in the package, including a 2009 topps steve garvey ring of honor insert

topps actually used a photo of the garv from 1981 for the card that celebrates his lone world series title which came in 1981.  genius.

here is the card that started the trade - a 2013 topps gypsy queen dustin pedroia

turning two! alex rodriguez forced out at second! two of my least favorite players on one card!

here's a 2009 topps heritage derek lowe card.

the sleeve that contained this card had a note that this card was a possible short print.  it was! it is!

1995 score raul mondesi rules insert

it looks like one of mondesi's rules was to smack cory snyder on the forehead after each run he scored.

more mondy! this time courtesy of 1994 fleer flair

this next card is a 2003 fleer ultra insert of hideo nomo

nomo appears on a couple of these 'double up' inserts.  unfortunately, this is the one with kaz sasaki on the other side, not the ichiro one.

one more japanese import to finish off the post - 2003 fleer focus jersey edition kazuhisa ishii card

it says that the card is mlb 'shirtified'.  perhaps the worst play on words for an insert set ever.

thanks daniel!