abercrombie & thurston

i completed a dodger team set recently.  it is the pretty much forgettable 2001 topps reserve, of which i have several copies of cards featuring adrian beltre, kevin brown, gary sheffield, shawn green, and eric karros.  heck, i got all five of those cards in a crackin' wax box break last year.

unfortunately for me, topps short printed 50 cards in the set - all rookies - and numbered them to /1500. the dodgers had two players in that part of the set, and i tracked them down late last year.

reggie abercrombie

 and joe thurston

abercrombie went from the dodgers to the diamondbacks as part of the steve finley trade in 2004 before cracking the big leagues with the marlins in 2006.  he played for the marlins again in 2007 and then finished his big league career with the astros in 2008.

as for thurston, he made it to the majors as a dodger in 2002 and had additional cups of coffee with the team in 2003 and 2004.  he's appeared in the majors with four other teams since then (phillies, red sox, cardinals, and marlins) and appeared in 124 games for saint louis in 2009.  he's bounced around more than his major league stats might suggest, however, as from the dodgers he went to the yankees, followed by stints with the phillies, nationals, phillies again, red sox, cardinals, braves, marlins, astros, phillies again, and the twins.  after spending 2013 in the mexican league, thurston signed a minor league deal with the brewers for 2014.  he's not done yet.  but i am, with this team set.

shine like it does

a few months ago, topher at crackin' wax hosted a terrific charity box break.  i helped him raise $200 for st. jude children's hospital.  plus i got dodger cards from 12 different products.  well, maybe only 11, as i don't recall if i got a card from the box of 2005 topps retired.

the break consisted of a box of each of the following:  2005 topps rookie cup, 2004 bowman chrome, 2005 topps retired, 1997 topps finest, 1993 bowman, 2005 bowman, 2007 topps heritage, 2001 topps gold label, 2001 topps reserve, 2001 topps chrome, 2005 topps series 1, and 2013 topps series 2.

here is perhaps my favorite base card of the break - a 2001 topps gold label kevin brown

so nice and shiny!  it is a great card on its own, but is even better when compared to the lackluster, almost faded tones of brown's 2001 topps reserve card

let's compare and contrast again, this time with adrian beltre.  2001 topps gold label

and 2001 topps reserve

now with eric karros.  2001 topps gold label

and 2001 topps reserve

gold label wins every time.  unfortunately, i received more topps reserve than gold label.  here's shawn green

and gary sheffield

to round out the base team set.

from 1993 bowman, i got a raul mondesi foil card

and an eric davis base card

among others.  i am guessing that the foil mondesi went for a pretty penny back in 1994.

here's mondy again, this time from 1997 topps finest

along with that warrior, greg gagne

lastly, for this post, are a couple of cards from 2001 topps chrome.  devon white

and jackie robinson

thanks topher!