only bo is so precise with sending me cards for my tatooine mini collection

well, others have sent me tatooine cards (cards with only dirt in the photo background), but bo recently sent me a lot of them.  here are some of them.

1995 pinnacle reggie jefferson

1995 upper deck collector's choice wayne kirby

1995 upper deck collector's choice ray lankford

1995 upper deck collector's choice dick schofield

1995 upper deck collector's choice se derrick may

1995 upper deck collector's choice se lou whitaker

1996 topps stadium club al martin

2006 topps jake westbrook

1998 fleer tradition kevin young

1998 fleer tradition desi relaford

because you can try to keep desi close, but desi is going to run.

thanks bo!

oh, did you think i was done with double play cards from bo?

well, i wasn't.  here are some more that are new to my collection:

1993 donruss tony fernandez (back)

i'll show the front of this card in yet another post of cards from bo, but on the back, tony the padre is turning two.

here's a 1995 pinnacle john valentin card

featuring a double play on tatooine

1996 pinnacle robby thompson

with just a bit of the lead runner's helmet to confirm the turn

1996 score alex arias

and 1996 score jeff reboulet

are more obvious examples of the pivot

as are 1998 fleer tradition jose offerman

and 1998 topps stadium club gary disarcina

bo even included some minor league dp's.  here's a 1999 just minors brent butler card

plus three 1999 team best baseball america top prospects - ron belliard

chad durham

and brett taft

that is some dedication to a trade package.  thanks again, bo!

old friend todd zeile makes an appearance in a trade package

i was noticing the other day that i've only featured todd zeile dodger cards three times on this blog since its inception in the fall of 2008.  that's too bad, because i liked the guy.  he joined the dodgers for the 1997 season and promptly hit 31 home runs - more home runs than any other dodger third baseman except pedro guerrero (a teammate of zeile's with the 1990 cardinals) who hit 32 in 1983.  of course, adrian beltre came along and hit 48 in 2004, but that's beside the point.

i was lucky to have tj from the junior junkie include some cards of zeile in his recent trade package, so here's his 1998 fleer tradition card.

zeile was traded away in the mike piazza deal with the marlins, and so was replaced at third by bobby bonilla.  beltre came along in 1999, however, and held the spot until he bolted after his huge offensive year mentioned above.  zeile went on and eventually rejoined piazza in new york, helping the mets get to the world series.  he hit .368 with a series best 8 rbi in the nlcs, and then hit .400 against the yankees in a losing cause.  here's his 1998 topps finest card to boot.

somewhere i have a dodger scorecard that features a todd zeile autograph.  he was signing in the concourse at dodger stadium before a game in '97, and i partook.  i remember the lady in line in front of me asked him if he knew steve sax.  saxy hadn't been a dodger since 1988, and he hadn't played in the majors since 1994.  zeile was taken aback by the question, and i think he was still trying to wrap his head around it while he was signing my scorecard.  i was more impressed that he was a teammate of mike piazza's.

the strongest man in socal was also among the cards tj sent - here's a 1996 score select piazza lineup leaders card

this is not an insert, just another way to have more than one piazza card in the base set.

oddball time! this is a 1996 scoreboard all sport ppf (i don't know what ppf means) card of roger cedeno

there sure were a lot of roger cedeno cards in the late 1990's. he was traded to the mets in 1998 with charles johnson for todd hundley.

here's a 2000 upper deck ovation eric gagne card

it says 'world premiere' on the side of the card, in case you were wondering.  i don't think that really makes sense, just like the world series isn't really the world series, if you know what i mean.

relic time!  2003 leaf certified materials joe thurston mirror red game-worn jersey

thurston only played in 8 games during the 2002 season - all in september. i didn't think that the dodgers wore their blue alternates in an official major league game (as the back of the card attests) that late in the season, but i could be wrong.  or maybe a spring training game is considered an official major league game.

there were a few more non-dodger/double play cards that need to be shown in the package, such as this 2014 topps update chris taylor card

and two from 2015 topps - javier baez

and logan forsythe

great stuff from a very generous source. thanks tj!  keep an eye on your mailbox...

too many sorianos and yet not enough

i posted earlier today about three different packages i received from dennis at too many verlanders in the semi-recent past.  one of the packages came as a result of him asking folks to claim stacks of certain cards as part of his 'spring cleaning giveaway/contest'.  i claimed a stack of alfonso soriano cards, mostly back from his days as a second baseman, hoping for maybe a black armband or some double play turns.  here are some of the cards that i received.

starting in the upper left, we have a 2003 fleer tradition update 1963 fleer insert, 2000 upper deck victory, 1999 topps hd, 2002 leaf rookies & stars, 2003 leaf, 2001 topps chrome traded rookie reprints, 2005 fleer national pastime, 2008 upper deck sweet spot, and 2001 topps stadium club.  he's got a black armband on the last card, so that would most likely be for the club's former manager bob lemon (official memorial post coming soon).

there were no double plays in the stack, but i did uncover this 2005 topps heritage soriano twin killing card elsewhere in my collection

in the process, i stumbled across a few more that i hadn't shown on the blog yet.  here's a 1998 fleer tradition homer bush card

bush was made expendable by the yankees once soriano arrived on the scene, and he was dealt to the blue jays with david wells in the roger clemens deal.  here's bush turning two again, this time as a blue jay on a 2000 fleer impact card

last but not least, and in no way tied to soriano that i can think of, other than soriano stumbled to rob steve lombardozzi jr of a hit earlier this season, here is a 1988 score card of steve lombardozzi sr

i think i missed this one because second base is so dirty, but that's a dp turn fo sho.

thanks for the cards dennis!

the nl central for jackie

continuing the salute to jackie robinson today with the national league central teams sporting their 1997 anniversary patches.

astros - 1998 topps craig biggio

remember? the astros used to be in the national league central! as recent as two years ago!

pirates - 1998 fleer tradition tony womack

the pirates, like the giants, white sox, and indians, only wore the patch half of the time.  they are the only team not to wear the patch at home, which is where they wore their patch recognizing the 25th anniversary of the death of roberto clemente.  i don't know if all minor leaguers wore the patch, but the pirates' high-a team did, as seen on aramis ramirez's 1997 best card

reds - 1998 upper deck barry larkin

the reds wore the patch on their right sleeve when they weren't wearing their vest jerseys.

cardinals - 1998 upper deck mark mcgwire season highlights checklist

cubs - 1998 fleer tradition mickey morandini

non-dodger dodger cards

sometimes, dodger cards are harder to find than others.  specifically, dodger cards that show dodgers but list a different team on them.  online checklists that are built by team affiliation won't always tell the full story.  that's when you must rely on the kindness of strangers, the randomness of dime boxes, and the occasional lucky glimpse in an online card shop.  this post features cards from each of these sources.

1998 fleer tradition rick gorecki

gorecki was selected by the devil rays in the expansion draft following the 1997 season.  he appeared in 4 games for the dodgers in '97, finishing his dodger tenure with a 1-0 record despite a 15.00 era.  he wound up making 3 starts for tampa bay in 1998 and was 1-2 in those starts.  looks like he got injured and that was all she wrote.

1993 donruss jamie mcandrew

mcandrew was the dodgers' first round pick in 1989, but he never threw a pitch for them.  as the donruss card indicates, he was selected by the marlins in the expansion draft prior to the 1993 season.  however, he never pitched for them, either.  the fish traded him to milwaukee just before the season began.  mcandrew wound up appearing for the brewers in both the 1995 and 1997 seasons, but his career, like gorecki's, was cut short by injuries.

2000 fleer tradition raul mondesi

this mondesi card is pretty close to some classic o-pee-chee.  'traded to' text and the new team's logo (in this case the blue jays) brings back some good memories of o-pee-chee variations.  there are a few mondesi cards from 2000 that could fit into this post, actually.

2003 fleer platinum eric karros

karros and albert pujols on tatooine!  that's not the only karros card from 2003 that says cubs with a dodger photo - here's his 2003 leaf card

mark grudzielanek, who was traded with karros to the cubbies, also got the non-dodger dodger card treatment from leaf

last but not least, here's a 2005 upper deck pros and prospects koyie hill card

hill had three at bats as a dodger before they traded him to arizona in 2004.  this card is awesome because it's from 2005, and still features a photo of hill in dodger gear, even though all of his big league appearances in 2004 came as a member of the diamondbacks.

i know there are a lot more of these types of cards, and i will continue to enjoy stumbling across them any way i can.

neal before zack

earlier today i posted some cards i received in trade and made a monty python reference.  in this post's title, which features cards sent by jeff at 2x3 heroes in a pwe, i have made a superman 2 reference.

it's not perfect, but it's the best i could do in this moment.  here's a 1962 post charlie neal card

 followed by a 2013 topps chrome zack greinke card

consider your hand crushed.  or, since it the execution of the reference was far from solid, perhaps your hand should only be mildly discomforted.

there were two other cards in the envelope, one of which was this nice 1998 fleer tradition mark bellhorn card

thanks jeff.  i've got some pwe ammo ready to head your way soon...