three c's and a big d from fuji

everybody's favorite teacher from the bay area sent me some cards recently. you'd think by the title of this post that i didn't fare so well, as my gpa wouldn't be good enough to be academically eligible for the school's baseball team. however, a 'd' and three 'c's when it comes to dodger cards is pretty darn good.

here's a 1980 tcma 1959 world champions don drysdale card

drysdale was the winning pitcher in game 3 of the 1959 world series. he helped beat the white sox and bring the first los angeles dodger championship home, just four years after the franchise won it's first ever world series.

the three c's i received were these ron cey cards - 1976 topps, 2000 fleer greats of the game, and 1982 kellogg's

cey, of course, helped the dodgers win the 1981 world series - beating the yankees for only the third time in 11 tries.  note the helmet cey is wearing in the kellogg's card photo - no earflap.  he would be beaned in the head by goose gossage during the '81 world series and switch to an earflap helmet after that.

thanks for the cards fuji! enjoy your spring break!

a pwe to please me

so, jeff at 2x3 heroes and i are playing hot potato with the pwe's these days (there's one in the mail for you today, jeff).  here are some (yes, jeff fit more than just these cards in a pwe) of the cards that i received in his last missive.

1996 upper deck hideo nomo vj lovero showcase insert

that's a rarely used viewpoint that never gets old.  plus, it qualifies as a 'tatooine' card.  more of those a bit later.

here's a 1986 o-pee-chee card of steve garvey

and a 1987 topps boardwalk and baseball card of the garv as well

those cards make up two-thirds of the pwe's garvey content.  the b/b card is from a boxed set featuring 'top run makers' and was all about each players' "runs produced average" which was just (runs scored + rbi)/games played.  real scientific sabermetric stuff back in 1987.

this is a 1995 fleer ultra pedro astacio card

which, when considered from the standpoint of the envelope's contents as a whole, was kind of out of place.

there were other dodgers, but they were from the 2000 fleer greats of the game set, and included this fantastic preacher roe card.

just a beautiful thing.

here's a less interesting card from the same set featuring gil hodges

now back to tatooine cards.  joe randa is looking for droids on his 2003 donruss card

as is morgan ensberg on his 2004 upper deck card

and jason michaels as well, on his 2007 topps card

thanks jeff - you're it!

in the year 2000

i used to watch conan every once in a while, and i recall the first time i saw his 'in the year 2000' bit.  it was in late 1999 and he predicted that in the year 2000, zombies would feast on human flesh and when they got hungry later, they would go to olive garden.  i found that to be quite funny.

this post has nothing to do with conan or his skits, however.  instead, i give to you a few cards that were produced in the final year of the 20th century.

2000 fleer focus jeff shaw

on which we clearly see the don drysdale hero patch.  i think of cards from this set as fleer's knockoff of 1981 topps.  oddly enough, upper deck would bring the cap design element back to cards in 2006 under the fleer banner.

2000 topps jeff shaw

the first topps gray border set since 1970.  it was a nice break from two years of gold borders.

speaking of gold, 2000 upper deck gold reserve kevin brown

aside from the full bleed, there were some similarities between the topps card design and the upper deck card design in the year 2000.

2000 upper deck sp authentic

there were a heckuva lot of kevin brown cards in the year 2000.

2000 pacific angel pena

pena is wearing the roy campanella patch, as any catcher should.  note that paul loduca wore the mike scioscia patch.

2000 pacific paramount devon white

yes, devon white was a dodger in the year 2000.  and in 1999 as well, when he wore the jackie robinson patch.  here's the back of his 2000 topps stadium club card

looks like devo played his best at dodger stadium.  he finished his career with 34 leadoff home runs, including one hit for the dodgers in the year 2000.

2000 skybox dominion adrian beltre

beltre was 21 in the year 2000, and he hit 20 home runs for the first time.  he's about to turn 35 and is about 600 hits shy of 3000.  i wonder if he will make it.

i really liked that skybox dominion set when it came out, but my favorite set of the year 2000 was the fleer greats of the game release.  fleer had put out the first gotg set in 1999 as a sports illustrated fueled set, complete with an autographed card in every pack.  that was cool, but i really liked the look and feel of the 2000 set over the gloss of the 1999 set.

here are a few of the dodgers from the set - tommy john

al lopez

preacher roe

and fernando valenzuela

the set featured on card autos, too.  not of fernando, unfortunately.  had there been one, it might well have been my favorite card of the year 2000.

it's not trade bait anymore

i've got more trade bounty to showcase today, courtesy of oscar at all trade bait all the time.  it's sometimes tough trading with fellow dodger collectors, but at the same time, you know they are pulling from a variety of card manufacturers and years.  that makes for some interesting trade packages.  here are some highlights from one of them.

1986 sportflics decade greats steve garvey

garvey certainly was a decade great, although his best decade was 1974-1983.

1978 o-pee-chee rick rhoden

always a joy to get an o-pee-chee card in a trade package.  how do i know it's o-pee-chee?  here's the back

rhoden was only 24 in 1977.  i was pretty excited at the time about the dodger rotation with him, don sutton, tommy john, burt hooton and doug rau.  only hooton was around for the 1981 world series title, however.

1988 topps uk mini pedro guerrero

from canada to the united kingdom.  not bad.

2005 playoff prestige ron cey

playoff put together some decent retired player/current player cards in the early 2000's.  i was happy to see some garvey cards included, although this is when the parallel ridiculousness really took off.

fleer greats of the game, however, were my favorite retired player sets from that timeframe.  topps all-time fan favorites was right there, too, but i slightly preferred fleer.  here's davey lopes' card from the 2004 greats release.

oscar included a couple of 2002 greats of the game, too - fernando

and maury wills

and you know it wouldn't be a dodger collector's trade package without a shawn green card.  here's a 2001 topps gallery card of green

if you think that there are a lot of matt kemp cards these days, well, shawn green had more ten years ago.  at least it seemed like it.

thanks oscar - more trade goodies coming up throughout the day.

it's been everywhere, man

yes, the travelin' box finally made an appearance in the land of 10,000 lakes.  i got skipped in the last go around, but got first dibs on this round along with my normal slot (yet to come).  for those of you who don't know - here is a primer on just what the box is all about.

and, for some perspective, the cards i sent in for my initiation into the rotation were a 1960 topps al kaline, a 1963 topps gaylord perry rookie card, a 1971 topps tom seaver, and a 1973 topps babe ruth/hank aaron/willie mays card.

now that i am trading with the box, i added a card from 1958 topps, a 2002 topps tribute hall of famer bat card, a hall of famer rookie card from 1966 topps, plus a few more cards of the vintage and relic and star variety.

here's what i traded for.

1958 topps eddie mathews all star

i undertook a project back in the early 2000's where i completed a sampler set for all topps releases from 1952 through 1969 (the years i figured i would never complete the full sets).  basically, it was (at least) one card from every team, every subset, every design variant.  i had a 1958 nellie fox all-star, but didn't yet have a national league equivalent.  now i do.

2009 topps juan pierre black parallel

serial numbered pierre.

1996 sportflix mike piazza

thanks to all who put dodgers in the box.

next up are some cards that spoke to me, since i do sort of have a soft spot for the twins.

2005 diamond kings johan santana dual jersey

1967 topps jim kaat

and more impressively, 2000 fleer greats of the game jim kaat autograph

i have given up hope regarding a 1978 topps kaat auto (i don't want to pay $25 for it) so i was happy to see this certified auto in the box.

last, but certainly not least, is this 1999 upper deck century legends epic signatures card of la rams great jack youngblood

i was a huge rams fan from 1977 through 1980 (the super bowl year) and even a little bit after that.  i was upset at the time that they didn't keep vince ferragamo (he went to canada in 1981), and didn't fully get back on the bandwagon when he returned in 1982.  instead i turned my attention to the minnesota vikings.  anyway, my favorite player was jack youngblood.  it started with the name.  youngblood.  the rams also had a jim youngblood on the team, but jack was the better player by far.   plus, he played in the 1979-80 postseason with a broken leg, and even played in the meaningless pro bowl after the super bowl.  i had been looking at his autos off and on over the past few years, but never pulled the trigger.  until now.

i can't wait for the box to make its triumphant return this way.

a post borne of necessity

these cards all came from arpsmith.  a while ago.  i've been remiss in showcasing them, and then i received another package in the mail from him yesterday.  i can't let a previous trade get lapped like that (although the same thing is happening with the junior junkie).  for better or for worse, here are some of the very nice cards i received from adam as part of a prize package/trade.

2002 topps chrome alex cora

my scanner did a nice thing here.  the scan of that card sings.  it's very nice.

1969 topps willie davis

three dog night with some vintage joy for the world.

2000 fleer greats of the game tommy john

i really liked this set when it was released.  i remember treating myself to some packs after a job interview.  lots of dodgers on the checklist, too.

1984 fleer derrel thomas

my second favorite fleer card of thomas.  i like how this one tells me that he plays infield and outfield.  what about catcher?  a true utility guy.

speaking of catchers, here's a 2001 upper deck todd hundley

and a 2004 upper deck paul loduca

the best thing about those cards is not the lurking kaz ishii behind loduca, but rather the little dodger stadium photo on the lower front of the loduca card.  i missed upper deck cards in 2004 (other than the legends set) so i don't think i knew chavez ravine was on the dodger flagship cards.  the photo, by the way, is the same one that's on the backs of the legends cards.

2005 donruss hong-chih kuo

channeling jerry reuss with that haircut

and finally, a 2002 donruss best of fan club chan ho park jersey relic

it's part of a 'league leaders' subset maybe?  park did lead the league in starts in 2001.

adam - thanks for these cards and thanks for the additional cards that i will try to post before we get into another trade.

happy binary day!

from al, pee wee, manny,  and the penguin

 

i know yesterday was a binary day, too, but - don sutton! what is he doing here?

well, technically, it's '01/11/2010' not just '01/11/10', so i guess he figured he would show up and do his part, even at the expense of the bit.

see you in october, binary day!  and we'll try to keep sutton away...

and don't forget to check out my side project - oh my o-pee-chee! - which officially gets started today!