a boxscore from the team of my youth and other cards from hsca

there were plenty of cards to like in the package that brian from highly subjective and completely arbitrary sent my way as part of his group trade break, even before getting to the trade break bounty.  i've shown some of them already, but there are more.  like this card, which comes from the 2004 topps world series highlights insert set

that's dusty baker pounding a home run in game one of the 1978 world series against the yankees.   the back is even better, as it shows the box score from the game.

it's great to see that lineup on the card.  it's a bit different than the batting order i remember from my youth because of the designated hitter, but the starting lineup of lopes, russell, smith, garvey, cey, monday, baker, and yeager is the lineup that i consider to be the definitive lineup of the team of my youth.  as an aside, davey lopes should have been featured thanks to his two home runs in this game.  it's still hard to believe that the dodgers won this game and game 2 (thanks bobby welch), but then lost four in a row to lose the series.

on to the group trade break stuff - 1996 pinnacle tim wallach

and ramon martinez

i like ramon's card a lot.

here's his brother, pedro, on a 2002 topps gallery heritage insert

plus a couple of base cards of shawn green

and hideo nomo

from the set.  the nomo card makes it look like he's a giant standing in a farmer's field near the coast.

paul loduca is definitely in dodger stadium on his 2003 topps stadium club card

while franklin gutierrez is in vero beach's holman stadium on his

that's a gold parallel, by the way, as is this sean pierce card

pierce never made it out of the minors, but gutierrez went on to win a gold glove and set a record for errorless chances in the outfield for the mariners in 2010.  after missing the 2014 season due to illness, gutierrez is currently in triple-a for the m's trying to work his way back to the bigs.

here are a couple more cards that weren't part of the trade break, but they are shiny so they get some time on the blog.

2015 topps heritage clayton kershaw holofoil

and 1992 upper deck denny's grand slam kal daniels

daniels hit four of his five grand slams as a dodger, and was only 28 when his career ended. if only he had good knees!

thanks brian!

jeff shaw through the mail successes!

so, you've just made the all-star team for the second time, saved 43 games (2nd highest total in the league and the 2nd most ever for a dodger reliever in a single season), you're a free agent, and you're just 35 years old.  what do you do?  if you're jeff shaw, you retire.  i can respect that even though i was surprised by it back in 2001.

shaw saved 129 games for the dodgers in three and a half seasons after being acquired from the reds for paul konerko and dennys reyes.  i believe that the first time he wore the dodger uniform was at the 1998 all-star game.  i don't recall whether the dodgers were hoping to re-sign him or whether his announcement came quickly, but his departure did open up the door for eric gagne to close, so it wasn't all bad.

shaw took some time to sign some cards on a few occasions for me a couple of years ago.  i'll start with his fantastic 1999 fleer ultra card, complete with the left field pavilion and the 'three ladies' palms in the background

1999 topps just doesn't compare to that

2000 upper deck is at least in the ballpark

and 2000 upper deck victory gives us a glimpse of the dodgers heroes patch (shaw wore drysdale) and the pee wee reese memorial patch

2001 bowman heritage in black and white (blue sharpie would have looked pretty nice, but ttm requestors can't be choosers)

2001 topps is back in (a near empty) dodger stadium

thankfully there are more people in the stands on his 2002 topps card.

and, since shaw retired following the 2001 season, these 2002 cards (that topps one above, this 2002 topps gallery,

and this 2002 upper deck)

are some of his 'final tributes'.

thanks for signing my cards jeff, and thanks for saving all those games!

a condor and some pigeons

continuing with the st. patrick's day/green thing...

quite a while ago, i commented on the apparent scarcity of shawn green certified autos when compared to the availability of shawn green relic cards by saying something along the lines of shawn green certified autos : shawn green relic cards : : condors : pigeons.

to illustrate, this is the only shawn green certified auto i have in my collection - it's from 2002 topps gallery, and it's on-card

it's better looking than a condor, actually.  but the point is, there don't seem to be too many of these things available, and when they do pop up, they usually fetch a decent sum.  green's relic cards? those are a dime a dozen. or at least in the 3 for $10 range at your local card show.  here are just a few (and i mean just a few) of the shawn green bat and/or jersey pieces in my collection

this bat piece comes from 2000 fleer mystique

and this jersey is from the aptly named 2001 upper deck sp game used edition

not to be outdone, here is a piece of a bat from 2001 upper deck sp game bat edition

and another bat piece from 2001 fleer legacy

this next one is one of my favorite green relic cards.  it comes from 2003 ud authentics

i like it because it features green taking cuts at vero beach, but mostly because tommy lasorda is lurking in the background.  hello tommy!

this one is from 2002 fleer authentix (they spell things differently than upper deck did).

yes i am aware that fleer was playing off of the sometimes accepted abbreviation of 'tickets' for this release.  the card includes a facsimile of a ticket to the 2002 season opener between the good guys and the bad guys. the ticket features maury wills to boot.  for the record, green was 1 for 4 in the game.  the dodgers lost, and were, in fact, swept by the no-cals in that 3 game series.

moving on, here's a jersey card from 2002 playoff

and here's another shawn green jersey card, sharing time with jim thome's bat courtesy of 2002 fleer hot prospects

neither of these guys were prospects at this point.

next up is another dual bat/jersey card although this one is green's alone.  it's from 2003 donruss timeless treasures, and it actually features a patch

it may well be a fake, although that is part of a patch that the dodgers wore on their sleeves in 2002.  i bought this one well before i started reading about fake patches on scu.  the saving grace is that the card is numbered to 25, so it's possible that they used a premium swatch.

the last one of green's relic cards that i will show (there are plenty more, believe me) is from 2002 fleer showcase, and is also low numbered.

i'm a sucker for the red number on dodger jerseys.  even on st. patrick's day when i should be wearing green.

kent stand losing you

or can I? congrats on a career, jeff; perhaps a hall of fame worthy one. i respect the talent, the work ethic and the "ornery-ness" to a point, but i never really connected with kent as a dodger.

perhaps because he never seemed to belong to any team - from the blue jays to the mets (hello jose offerman and dodger stadium!)to the indians to the giants to the astros to the dodgers. just another stop on the way back to texas.

i am not sold on blake dewitt, though. still, here's hoping ned doesn't trade kershaw for uggla or something stupid like that.