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.

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!