a day that should be a holiday

like most, today i'm featuring cards from opening day sets, like this sticker from 2001 topps opening day

i love that logo.  and, i love opening day. i used to go pretty much every year - from '91 or '92 through '97 - sometimes even getting to sit in my then-company's corporate seats. since moving to the midwest, i've been to a few twins' opening days, but there's nothing like dodger stadium.  even though i've got my mlb.tv subscription filled, i am jealous of the 56,000 that will be at chavez ravine later today.  i won't be able to watch due to some sort of work thing that i need to do most days.  go figure.

here are some cards from 2015 topps opening day that i picked up in a couple of packs, including a yasiel puig hit the dirt insert

and a joc pederson base card

i have high hopes for joc. despite all of the hype that the cubbie prospects are getting, i'm hoping pederson brings the jackie robinson award back to the dodgers.

here's clayton kershaw's base card from 2015 topps opening day

i am hoping to take a road trip sometime this season to see him pitch.  he was hurt last year when i saw the dodgers, and i don't want to miss out on witnessing his stuff first hand.

i was happy to find this card in one of the packs i picked up - a stadium scenes card featuring dodger stadium

that would be the back of the right field scoreboard.  i don't think it used to have the flying ball logo - i seem to remember the interlocking 'la' logo from my last visit in 2012.  anyway, it's a cool card and i've added it to my nefarious 9 because i also need one for the dodger stadium collection.  although, this isn't really a dodger card so maybe this one goes in the dodger stadium collection. hmm.  something to think about while i'm not watching opening day baseball.

the only card that would reach me was this card of the preacher man

it helps if you channel your inner dusty springfield when you read that title.

i was too late to claim the fantastic 1954 bowman don newcombe card that joe at the sandlot used as trade bait, but i was able to claim this 1953 topps preacher roe card.

i was able to obtain that slice of cardboard goodness for some ny metropolitans that joe needed.  he added a few other cards to the package, including this 1998 topps gallery eric young card

that does a better job of correlating the subject and the text (in this case, 'expressionists') than fleer did with their emotion releases.  not quite the same concept, i know, but still.  night owl sent me an emotions card (trade post coming soon) of raul mondesi that said 'pounding' on it.

this 2008 bowman chrome prospects jaime pedroza card was also part of the trade fodder

pedroza made it to aa for the dodgers in 2010 and 2011, and spent the last two seasons in the braves organization.  2014 will be his age 27 season, so the clock is ticking on this prospect.

here's a james mcdonald 2009 topps card

mcdonald was traded to the pirates at the trade deadline in 2011 for short-timer octavio dotel.  he is currently a free agent after a disappointing second half in 2012 and a shortened season in 2013.  he's only 28, and it would seem that he is worth a flyer.  i'm hoping he lands somewhere and returns to his early 2011 form.

here's a true 'prospects' card from 2001 topps opening day

back then, these were three of the hottest prospects around.  i was super excited about chin-feng chen, and i know cub fans were drooling over the corey patterson hype.  and then there was the number 1 pick josh hamilton.  unfortunately for the dodgers, chen was a bust.  patterson has managed to have a career in the big leagues, and of course josh hamilton pulled things together and has had the greatest success of this prospect triumvirate.

last but not least, joe included a 2013 topps chipz clayton kershaw chip.  it had the dodger logo sticker on it

kershaw was underneath

 here's the back, just to be complete about things.

i bought a pack or two of these things but got rid of the ones i pulled - either by trade or sale - since they weren't dodgers.  i'll hang on to kershaw.

thanks for the trade joe!