more non-dodger dodger cards

it's weird that i consider a card a dodger card if it includes the dodger team name on it, regardless of whether the player is wearing the dodger uniform or not. for me, this goes back to o-pee-chee cards from the 1979 set, which were the first ones i encountered that forced me to make this sort of determination.  no one was going to tell me that the 1979 opc andy messersmith wasn't a dodger card.  later on in my collecting endeavors, i saw that cards from the 1960's often showed players in outdated uniforms, and my approach to these cards was confirmed by official team checklists created by other collectors.

more recently, i've been paying more attention to the opposite types of cards - cards with dodger players in uniform, but with a different team affiliation.  like this 2000 pacific paramount raul mondesi card

that's dodger blue that he's wearing, but the card says that he is a blue jay now.

other examples in my collection include a few gary sheffield cards.  here are his 2002 fleer platinum,

2001 fleer premium,

2002 leaf (complete with 'traded to' text)

and his 2002 upper deck authentics (which also has the 'traded to') text

cards.

kevin brown has a ton of dodger cards - the benefit of being the best pitcher on some pretty non-descript dodger teams, but his 2004 upper deck diamond collection all-star lineup card

is actually a yankee card

adrian beltre famously left the dodgers after leading the league in home runs in 2004.  the result were some non-dodger dodger cards in 2005 fleer classic clippings

and 2005 fleer national pastime

these are things that i didn't really think twice about, but when topps issued this 2006 card of jose valentin

i was surprised.  i don't recall a card like this in the flagship set since the 1979 bump wills fiasco.  before that, there were the 1974 glenn beckert and jerry morales cards, and to a lesser extent, the 1973 topps bill north card.  i only wish that topps had done the reverse with nomar garciaparra's card in the 2006 flagship set.

here's a 2007 upper deck greg maddux card

on which the words say 'padres' but the photo says 'dodgers'.

the most unusual example of these cards may well be this 1995 score summit antonio osuna card

except that it's an error.  osuna did not pitch for the tigers, nor was he ever a part of the tiger organization.  weird.  let's cleanse the palette with an actual dodger card from the same set

that's better.

i doubt that we'll see any of these any time soon with just one manufacturer licensed to produce cards that feature actual team names.  still, as that 2006 valentin card shows, topps may yet surprise me once again.

more smatterings from the pacific smorgasbord

i've got just a few more cards to show from the box that brian at play at the plate sent to me.  the box was mostly pacific brand cards, with some 2002 upper deck vintage thrown in as well.

here's a 1999 pacific prism otis nixon card

he's wearing the ellis valentine face mask, which actually reminds me of lando calrissian's helmet from the start of return of the jedi.

1999 pacific paramount ben grieve

1999 pacific private stock john olerud

i thought the olerud was an insert, but it was not.  just a shiny base card

2000 pacific paramount randy velarde

the mustard background works for the a's cards, but that was by design. there weren't any dodgers from this set in the box, but their cards have a blue background that also complements their uniforms.

2000 pacific private stock craig biggio

which is a sort of precursor to 2001 topps gallery and the upper deck masterpieces sets of the late 2000's.

this is a 2000 pacific diamond leaders card of the reds

i have a couple of these (the brewers and dodgers) in my memorials collection.

the last pacific card i'll show also comes from 2000 pacific.  it's a derek jeter ruby foil parallel

jeets was also prevalent in the 2002 upper deck vintage cards that were in the box - he shows up on three of the postseason scrapbook subset cards

i know that the first one there is more of an alfonso soriano card, but jeter is waiting at home plate so it's a jeter card, too.

thanks again for the great cards brian! i had a blast looking through the box.

the cal ripken sr memorial patch

i know i quickly addressed the cal ripken sr memorial patch back in my early days of memorial collecting, but i didn't really give it its due.

here are a few cards that feature the '7' patch that the orioles wore in honor of ripken following his passing in march of 1999.

2000 topps stadium club chrome mike bordick

and 2000 upper deck jerry hairston jr

are both turning two, which is nice.

the patch is seen on charles johnson's 2000 topps card

and a bunch of albert belle cards - 2000 fleer ultra

2000 pacific paramount

2000 upper deck hitter's club

and 2000 upper deck

the card that best represents the memorial, however, is the 2000 upper deck cal ripken jr checklist

ripken sr spent 36 seasons in the orioles' organization as a player, coach, and manager.  he managed his sons at the major league level, and played a part in virtually every oriole player's career as a minor league manager, big league coach, and/or major league manager from 1961 until his death.  after ripken sr was fired as the team's manager early in the 1988 season, his son billy switched his uniform number to his father's number 7.  when ripken sr returned to the team's coaching staff in 1989, he took the number back, and it is worth noting that no oriole has worn the number 7 since he passed away.

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.

johngy's beat-down on the nefarious 9

hey! you might have noticed some changes to the nefarious 9 over there on the right side of the blog.  those are my most wanted cards (within reason), and johngy recently sent me a couple that had been there for a while.

he also sent a bunch of cards from 2000 which was pretty cool.  here are a few of eric karros' cards issued by pacific that year.  first we have crown collection

next is just plain pacific

and this is paramount

not much variation in the photo selection there.

here's another karros card from crown collection - this one has the team checklist on the back

i do believe fabio is 'suttoning' there!

on to the nefarious 9 needs.  first up was a 1985 fleer steve sax card

not sure why i needed this but i did.  overlapping team sets and player collections wreak havoc on want lists.

the other most wanted card that johngy sent was this 1993 o-pee-chee premier jody reed card

yay.

back to the 2000's - that was the year that the shawn green proliferation began, and it started while he was still in blue jays attire.  here's his 2000 pacific crown collection card

his 2000 pacific paramount card

and his 2000 upper deck ovation card

2000 also meant kevin brown cards, so, like green, here are his pacific crown collection

paramount

and upper deck ovation cards.

i've mentioned before that i really like all the 2000 dodger cards because they often show the heroes patch that each player wore.  brown is wearing the koufax patch that was kept out of wide circulation.

darren dreifort, shown here on his 2000 fleer tradition card,

wore the drysdale patch, but it's really hard to make out on the card, unfortunately.

these next few are better - 2000 pacific crown collection gary sheffield (jackie robinson)

2000 pacific crown collection devon white (jackie robinson)

and 2000 upper deck adrian beltre (ron cey)

thanks john, and be sure to check out johngy's beat!