fashionably late

i received an envelope of cards in the mail today from kyle of nolan's dugout.  these cards, however, are not from that envelope.  no, these are from the trade that kyle and i completed a few months ago.  yes, i continue to commit the sin of belated trade posting.  but, at least i complete my trades.  speaking of which, i still owe some cards to some folks from more recent card packages and that card show contest thing i did.  i'm working on it and will finish mailing stuff out soon.  now, on to the cards.

this 1996 pinnacle summit mike piazza card

takes its place alongside the 1981 fleer steve howe and 1991 topps tom lasorda cards as far as fashion model poses go.  hideo nomo's card from that same set features a more traditional image

kyle included a close up of the piazza fu manchu, courtesy of this 1996 leaf studio card.

while todd hundley hides his face behind a mask on this 2000 pacific card

it's not too often that i receive a trade package with a pee wee reese card inside, but kyle came through in that regard with this 1979 tcma the 1950's card of pee wee

and, it's not too often that i receive a kevin tapani as a dodger card, either.  kyle came through with one of those, too - a 1996 fleer ultra card

tapani probably doesn't have more than a few dodger cards, but i don't recall seeing this one before.

2000 skybox metal (or do we call this fleer metal?) cards of adrian beltre

and eric karros

were appreciated because of the presence of the dodger heroes patches that are visible.  that would be ron cey on beltre's sleeve and gil hodges on karros'.

i'll finish this trade post with a trio of shawn green cards.  first up is a 'first to market' dodger card of green.  i say that because this 2000 pacific prism card still shows green as a blue jay.

the other two cards are true blue dodger cards, and are pretty nice.  this is a 2000 upper deck gold reserve card

and this is a 2000 pacific crown royale die cut beauty.

thanks for the trade, kyle.  it won't take me as long to post about the most recent one - i promise.

oh my omar!

so, the double play cards are slowing to a trickle.  i hope to have them all posted by sometime next week as there are a few stragglers i need to corral and scan.  i will start mixing in more non-dp posts so if you've been missing the double dippers or the evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers posts, your nightmare is almost over.

before that, however, we have some double play cards of one of the masters to celebrate.  omar vizquel has a lot of double play cards, but actually fewer than i would have thought.  for some reason, he is shown batting quite a bit on his cards.  the following are all from his heyday in cleveland, and they are awesome.

especially this, his 1996 upper deck card

my, that's purty.

here's his 1995 leaf card

1997 pinnacle

1997 topps stadium club

1998 leaf (hello big daddy)

1999 fleer sports illustrated

1999 fleer ultra (derek bell initiated 'operation break up double play', apparently)

2000 skybox metal

2002 fleer ultra

2003 donruss

2004 fleer ultra

and another nice one, 2005 fleer ultra

he was definitely one of the greats.

snobbery is the sincerest form of generosity

are there really any baseball card snobs?  true snobs who might look down on someone for collecting certain things as paul giamatti might look down on someone who drinks merlot?  probably, but i am sure they are just as generous as the baseball card snob who contacted me a couple of weeks ago because he had some 1979 topps cards he wanted to send my way.

i am slowly upgrading the 1979 topps set from my youth, and i still have a ways to go.  here are some of the cards that paul sent along.  you can probably guess why i chose some of the players i did.  ok, i'll tell you ahead of time - they are former dodgers who don't have many cards featuring them as dodgers between them.  like doyle alexander

probably best remembered as the guy the tigers gave up john smoltz to acquire, alexander made his big league debut as a dodger in 1971.  he made a dozen starts and five relief appearances for the blue that year, and posted a 6-6 record before being traded to baltimore in the frank robinson deal during the offseason.

ivan dejesus

gets the obligatory mention on father's day - his son, ivan dejesus jr is a current dodger - and he, too, started his career wearing dodger blue.  dejesus spent parts of three seasons as a dodger (1974-1976) before he was included in the bill buckner/rick monday trade prior to the 1977 season.

here's gene mauch and a bunch of minnesota twins

mauch, as you will recall, was a dodger double dipper during his playing days.

buddy solomon, known as eddie solomon previously,

was a dodger in 1973 and 1974, and appeared on a 1975 topps 4-in-1 rookie card wearing dodger blue.  he made his big league debut in a game against the astros late in the 1973 season and struck out the first batter he faced - future teammate jimmy wynn.  the dodgers traded solomon to the cubs early in the 1975 season, along with geoff zahn, for burt hooton.

although he was never a dodger, here is dale murphy's 1979 topps card

there are many reasons why i like this card - the pajama uniforms, the expos' baby blues in the background, the stirrups and the old braves' helmets, the reminder that murphy played first base for a season or two before heading to the outfield - but most of all i like it because it was the first time dale murphy got off of the 4-in-1 'rookie' cards.  i didn't care for murphy as a player when he was hitting against the dodgers back in the old nl west, but i respected the talent.

paul also sent a need from 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee, a wily mo pena card

754 times in 1845 plate appearances, pena either homered, walked, or struck out.  that's 41%.  nice, but still well off the rob deer pace of 49% for the three true outcomes.

there were also some dodger cards included, such as a 2000 fleer showcase adrian beltre card

a 2000 skybox metal chan ho park card

and a 2000 topps gold label shawn green card.

thanks paul.  i think i might have a graig nettles or two to send your way.