night owl sent a lot of lefties

i am glad that night owl is a dodger fan.  the well deserved popularity of his blog brings with it an expanded trading pool, and other dodger collectors like myself benefit from the hand me downs.

it's been quite a while since i received my most recent package of dodgers from new york state, yet i haven't finished putting together the return package.  what do you get the card collector that has too few holes in his collection?  i'm working on it.

one thing i noticed was that there were a lot of left-handed dodgers in the package he sent.  like johnny podres, of whom there was a 1961 post card

fast forward about 40 years, and we find kaz ishii on a 2002 fleer tradition update this day in history relic card

and a 2005 topps heritage chrome refractor

the relic card references may 4 (may the fourth be with you, by the way), as that was the day in 2002 that ishii made his sixth major league start, and earned his sixth major league win.  he was 8-10 over the course of the remainder of the season.  i saw his 9th start of the season in milwaukee, and he did not look very good.  he walked 6 in 5+ innings of work, but still got the win since that was the game that shawn green hit four home runs and drove in seven.

here's a 2010 topps update hong-chih kuo relic card

2010 was a good year for kuo. he was an all-star, and his era during the regular season was 1.20.  unfortunately, things seemed to fall apart after that.

2014 bowman chrome prospects julio urias

urias is 18 years old this season, and his k/9 ratio is still well above 11.  his win-loss record at the moment is 1-2 in double-a, but i don't think anyone is worried.

folks shouldn't be worried about clayton kershaw, either, as he shut out the nationals over 8 innings yesterday while striking out 14.  here's his 2014 panini prizm diamond dominance card

receiving that card in the package was a surprise, as it means that at least a couple of people bought packs of prizm and sent that card to night owl.

here's a 2015 topps fernando valenzuela highlight of the year insert

that was nice to receive.  fernando was never my favorite pitcher on the dodgers - i would say bob welch and then orel hershiser held that title during fernando's run - but his start to the 1981 season was undeniably awesome.

enough with the pitchers, here are some lefty batters that also showed up in the package.  this is a 2005 donruss champions jd drew impressions relic card

and this is a 2011 topps lineage andre ethier 1975 mini relic card

like i said, i'm glad night owl is a dodger fan.

the numbers don't add up to junk

it's not often that i receive a package of cards that contain no plain old base cards, but that's what happened a while back.  for some reason, i've been delinquent in posting about this particular trade package that i received from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk, but that doesn't reflect my level of appreciation for it.  there were 8 cards total, with all but one being serial numbered.  have a look.

2002 fleer tradition update eric gagne all-star glossy edition; numbered /200

the sport goggles! game over!

2003 donruss studio hong-chih kuo numbered /1500

that's a nice angle on the top deck and reserve sections of dodger stadium behind the giant kuo.  these days, those seats are baby blue or sea-foam blue or whatever it was that the o'malley's originally had installed in the stadium.  as for the card, this is kuo's base card, but he was a rookie, so his card in the set is serially numbered.

2003 topps kevin brown gold parallel numbered /2003

2003 was brown's bounce-back season for the dodgers as he returned to form with a 2.39 era and made the yankees want to trade for him despite his huge contract.

2003 topps chrome andy ashby gold refractor numbered /449

that is a nice shiny card.  unlike brown, ashby was 3-10 with an era over 5 in his final year with the dodgers.  still, he wasn't unwanted, as he returned to san diego as a free agent for the 2004 season.

2004 donruss classics edwin jackson numbered /1999

similar to the kuo card, this is jackson's base card - it's just numbered because he was a rookie.  i've mentioned seeing jackson's final 2003 start before - it was in san francisco, and he allowed 2 hits and no runs over 6 innings.  he struck out 7, but gave up 8 walks!  still, the dodgers were up 1-0 after 8 innings, barry bonds had struck out twice (and walked and was hit by a pitch), and i was looking forward to seeing eric gagne get a save.  the dodgers went and scored three times in the top of the 9th, so even though gagne pitched, he didn't get the save.  in fact, i think that the only game in which i saw gagne earn a save in person was the night before shawn green's 4-homer game in milwaukee.  that was in the early part of gagne's career as a closer, so it wasn't quite the event that a gagne save eventually became.

2006 topps finest jd drew xfractor numbered /250

moving on…

2007 bowman russell martin orange parallel numbered /250

martin has caught nine extra-inning complete games this season, including a 16-inning affair.  i don't know if that is abnormal or not, but it's a cool stat.  he's also hitting .292 on the season which would look nice for a catcher in a dodger box score these days.

so i noted that there was only one card in the package that wasn't serial numbered, and it was this 2014 topps ricky nolasco trajectory auto

topps went all out with nolasco in 2014, adding his sticker auto to cards in multiple sets, and then he went and signed with the twins.

thanks again for all the cards wes!