a lotta piazza

as mentioned in the previous post, i snagged over 100 mike piazza inserts from what was essentially a dime box at the local card show last weekend.  this one might be my favorite.  from 1994 pacific, it's a silver prism circular insert/parallel

there's a regular silver prism version with a different pattern, and there's a gold prism version with a different photo.  see them here.  i like the circles.

1995 donruss long ball leaders

i can't be sure, but it seems as though piazza hit a long home run against mark gardner of the marlins.  subtlety is not donruss's strong suit.  actually, this particular home run was also a grand slam - the first of piazza's career.

1994 leaf limited

not an insert, but still shiny like one.

1994 topps stadium club super teams insert

a nice dodger stadium play at the plate aftermath card.  luis gonzalez looks dazed and confused.

1995 pinnacle zenith all-star salute insert

he looks angry.  pitchers didn't like him when he was angry.  he would hit mash, or smash if i were to continue the hulk reference.

1995 upper deck sp championship series

not an insert, but not the most common of cards either.

1995 sportflix uc3 in motion insert

yes, piazza is in there somewhere

1996 donruss freeze frame insert

too bad it's brian mcrae and not glenallen hill who delivered a big hit on piazza about 20 years ago.  yikes, i'm old.

1996 fleer emotion xl

not an insert, but i am appreciating the framed card all the same.

1996 upper deck retail predictor insert

was piazza a rbi leader of any month in 1996?  i am not sure.  but i also snagged this 1996 upper deck predictor exchange card

so he must have done something right.

1997 fleer ultra fame game insert

and 1997 fleer ultra season crowns insert

the first one is typical ultra, but that second card could pass for a pacific insert.

1997 topps finest

not an insert, but who could tell with finest?

i'll finish up the piazzafest with a couple of pacific dandies.  this is a 1997 pacific prism base card

if you can believe it, and this is a 1998 pacific crown collection gold crown die cut insert

that's a whole lotta piazza.  i noticed that there were a couple of dupes when i was sorting them afterwards, so let me know if anyone is interested (daniel).

shine like it does

a few months ago, topher at crackin' wax hosted a terrific charity box break.  i helped him raise $200 for st. jude children's hospital.  plus i got dodger cards from 12 different products.  well, maybe only 11, as i don't recall if i got a card from the box of 2005 topps retired.

the break consisted of a box of each of the following:  2005 topps rookie cup, 2004 bowman chrome, 2005 topps retired, 1997 topps finest, 1993 bowman, 2005 bowman, 2007 topps heritage, 2001 topps gold label, 2001 topps reserve, 2001 topps chrome, 2005 topps series 1, and 2013 topps series 2.

here is perhaps my favorite base card of the break - a 2001 topps gold label kevin brown

so nice and shiny!  it is a great card on its own, but is even better when compared to the lackluster, almost faded tones of brown's 2001 topps reserve card

let's compare and contrast again, this time with adrian beltre.  2001 topps gold label

and 2001 topps reserve

now with eric karros.  2001 topps gold label

and 2001 topps reserve

gold label wins every time.  unfortunately, i received more topps reserve than gold label.  here's shawn green

and gary sheffield

to round out the base team set.

from 1993 bowman, i got a raul mondesi foil card

and an eric davis base card

among others.  i am guessing that the foil mondesi went for a pretty penny back in 1994.

here's mondy again, this time from 1997 topps finest

along with that warrior, greg gagne

lastly, for this post, are a couple of cards from 2001 topps chrome.  devon white

and jackie robinson

thanks topher!

the evolution of the dodger third baseman, part four - where do we go from here?

we left off the evolutionary chain of dodger third basemen last time with tim wallach, who manned the hot corner for the dodgers from 1993-95, and for the last part of the 1996 season as well.  he was re-acquired by the dodgers after their newly acquired third baseman went down with an injury.  still, mike blowers started 90 games at third for the dodgers in 1996, so he gets some attention here.

mike blowers (1996)

blowers is wearing his seattle mariners uniform there on that 1996 upper deck collector's choice card.  he had three different stints in seattle, including 1997 - the year following his time in la.  the dodgers acquired blowers after the 1995 season in which he hit 23 homers and drove in 96 runs.  he was hitting .265 with 6 homers and 38 rbi after 92 games with the dodgers when his season ended thanks to an injury.  the dodgers replaced him with wallach, and blowers walked as a free agent after the season ended.

wallach was a stopgap, and he retired following the 1996 campaign.  so, the dodgers went out and got another third baseman to fill the void.

todd zeile (1997)

zeile's 1997 topps finest card tells the story, as he was a free agent acquisition prior to the 1997 season.  he played a whopping 160 games at third base for the dodgers, and hit 31 home runs with 90 rbi and a .268 batting average.  this was too good to be true, however, as he was traded away with mike piazza early in the 1998 season.

adrian beltre (1998-2004)

beltre was 19 when he took over the third base position for the dodgers.  bobby bonilla, who was acquired as part of the piazza/zeile trade bounty, was originally slotted at the hot corner, but beltre wound up making 74 appearances with 54 starts and 49 complete games compared to bonilla's 59, 57, and 34.  that's his 2000 fleer gamers card, by the way.  beltre provided some long lost stability at the position, playing a total of 957 games for the dodgers at third base from 1998 through 2004.  his tenure culminated with a 48 home run (to lead the league), 121 rbi, .334 batting average season that netted him a silver slugger and second place in the league mvp voting.  then it was off to seattle.

beltre's departure resulted in a rag-tag of players trying their hand at third base.  the dodgers signed a japanese player, norihiro nakamura, and gave him the keys, but he flamed out after just 14 games.  after that, there were many who tried.  i'll pick one.

oscar robles (2005)

mike edwards made 39 appearances at third for the dodgers in 2005, with 33 starts and 31 complete games for a total of 294.2 innings.  robles gets the nod from me here due to his 40 appearances at third, even though he started only 31 games there with 30 complete games and 292.1 innings.  that is partly due to the fact that i had a 2005 upper deck sweet spot card of robles already scanned as well as the idea that robles represents to me the fact that jim tracy lost his marbles in 2005.  maybe i should have used edwards, as robles played more short than third in 2005.  oh well, neither one factored into the equation for very long.

wilson betemit (2006-2007)

the dodgers acquired betemit near the 2006 trade deadline after the guy they intended to be their third baseman, bill mueller, was lost for the season due to injury.  betemit appeared as the dodgers' third baseman in 102 games over the 2006 and 2007 seasons.  he was traded at the 2007 deadline to the yankees for scott proctor, but he still made more appearances at third than any other dodger in '07.  nomar gets a nod here, though - he played third after betemit left.

blake dewitt (2008)

the dodgers gave 22-year old rookie dewitt the third baseman's job in 2008 (his '08 upper deck timeline card is appropriate here, don't you think)?  in all, he made 95 appearances and 77 starts there, but failed to convince the organization that he was the answer.  in fact, he found himself playing second base by the time the postseason rolled around as he started every playoff game at second for the dodgers in place of the injured jeff kent.

casey blake (2009-2010)

the dodgers acquired blake during the 2008 season, and he really took over the position then.  he re-signed with them for the 2009 season and turned in 131 starts at third that year.  in 2010, he started 134 games as the dodger third baseman.  in 2011, however, he was able to make only 45 starts.

juan uribe (2011, 2013)

uribe made 53 starts at third for the dodgers in 2011, so he gets the nod here over blake and aaron miles.  also, he's got the sweet brooklyn baby blues on that 2011 topps update card.  he kinda sorta lost the job to

luis cruz (2012)

but he's got it back in 2013.  until yasiel puig pulls a pedro guerrero and gets moved over to third.  seriously, though, who knows what the future will hold for the dodgers' hot corner.  hopefully something stable.

cash in the mail

yes, norm cash came to me by mail with his hand out.

it actually helped me out, as this was one of the cards i needed for my 1974 topps set.  it came from scott at sport cards ate my brain, and it didn't arrive alone.

i also received this all-star card of amos otis and cesar cedeno

the equivalent of which today would be, what? adam jones and andrew mccutcheon?  the cool thing about this card is that when their careers were all over, otis and cedeno sat atop of each others similarity scores on baseball reference.  how serendipitous.

did you know that todd worrell was a competitor?  well, 1997 topps finest wants you to know

i consider worrell to have been the dodgers' first real 'modern' closer - no offense meant towards the likes of jim gott or jay howell or roger mcdowell or any of the other guys that did the job in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  worrell was the first dodger to record over 30 saves (he recorded 32 in 1995), and his 44 saves in 1996 stood as the team record until this guy came along

that would be eric gagne on his 2000 pacific private stock card.  gagne saved 52 games in 2002 to pass worrell on the team's season high list, and then he saved 55 games in 2003 for good measure.  his 45 saves in 2004 also gets him the third spot on the list.

andy pafko doesn't show up on any team leader lists, but his iconic first card of the 1952 topps set gets a lot of replay.  this is from 2001 topps archives

and may well be as close as i get to owning the real thing.

gil hodges' 1952 topps card was also reprinted by topps, although this one is from 2002 topps chrome

and isn't necessarily enhanced by the shiny.

here's a 2004 playoff honors parallel card of hideo nomo

and a short print of his fellow countryman kaz ishii from 2004 topps heritage

i wonder if ryu hyun-jin will get the sp treatment like ishii did.  i will guess that there will be some interest in his cards, so i expect he will.  speculators will speculate, i guess.

finally, here is a 2009 topps finest james mcdonald blue refractor

that's a good bunch of cards, and there were more in the trade package.  thanks for the trade scott!