a smattering of dodger cards

it is time again for a post of random dodger cards from my collection, and more importantly, from my scanned file.  we'll start with darryl strawberry on a 1974 topps design from 1992 sports collector's digest

prior to archives or heritage, this was the only way we saw the stars (or disappointments) of today on the designs of yesterday.

1993 topps stadium club dodgers pedro martinez

and mike sharperson

with the dodgers playing the rangers, and delino deshields jr being on the rangers, vin scully told a story about the pedro martinez/delino deshields trade last night during the telecast.  he noted that when traveling secretary billy delury (who passed away earlier this year) called deshields to tell him he was now a dodger, his congratulatory remarks were met with a baby crying in the background and deshields saying "even the baby thinks it was a bad trade".  vin finished the story by noting that the crying baby was delino deshields jr, and so i miss regularly hearing vin call games even more.

1999 upper deck chan ho park

1999 was an off year for park - his era was well over 5 - but he still managed 13 wins.  he was only 25, and i thought he would eventually be the team's ace.  i was wrong.

2000 pacific invincible eric gagne

my favorite pacific release ever.  crazy cards and inserts.

2001 topps tom goodwin

from his second stint with the dodgers

2002 upper deck ultimate collection gary sheffield

just when you get comfortable with sheff on your favorite team thanks to his .998 ops over four years, he demands a trade.

2003 bowman chrome eric riggs

not to be confused with late 90's prospect adam riggs.  this riggs didn't make it to the majors, unfortunately.

2003 upper deck honor roll kazuhisa ishii

ishii had an era under 4 in 2003 despite a whip over 1.50 and a walks allowed total of 101 in 147 innings.  he had similar whip and walk totals the previous year, when his era was 4.27.  those kinds of numbers usually don't earn you a spot on the honor roll.

2003 topps retired signature tom lasorda

manager cards with inset photos are tough, because there just isn't much variation in managerial photographs.  here, topps opted for similar poses, but the inset picture comes from an earlier point in tommy's time as the club's manager. on a side note, anytime topps wants to bring this set back, i'm in, although i don't think they can issue a set featuring solely non-active players anymore.  too bad for us.

gone green

even before he was a dodger, i was collecting shawn green cards.  when he was a dodger, i collected his cards with an even greater passion.  when he was no longer a dodger, i stopped seeking out his cards.  still, i've got a lot of shawn green cards.

one that i had to pick up last year was this 2013 panini hometown heroes curtain call insert

it celebrates his 4-home run game in 2002 (i was there!) which really was a ridiculous offensive display

i give thanks to adrian beltre who hit a two out home run in the 9th inning to allow green to bat one more time and get his fourth homer that day.  hard to believe that was just over 12 years ago now.

so, i have a lot of shawn green cards as i mentioned up top.  here are a few that made their way to my scanned folder.

this one is from 2000 pacific revolution

it's an 'on deck' insert.  looks like green is on deck in an aquarium somewhere.

2001 bowman's best

2001 upper deck evolution

2002 bowman chrome xfractor

2002 donruss super estrellas poder de cuadrangula insert

this means 'home run power' i believe.  green had it in 2001, that's for sure.  he hit 49 that year, the most ever by a dodger/groom/bridegroom/superba/robin player.

here's the back of his 2002 upper deck card with his first two years of dodger stats showing

you may also notice that upper deck was back to its anti-dodger shenanigans in regards to card numbering.

2003 bowman chrome refractor

on which green plays his position under the watchful eyes of tom lasorda.  i miss the murals.

here's a card from 2004 upper deck diamond collection all-star lineup

2004 was green's last year in la, as evidenced by his 2005 fleer platinum card

which is really a diamondbacks card, and so was off my radar until recently.

i found this 2006 topps card of green actually wearing a diamondbacks uniform

in a repack recently.  like i said, i pretty much stopped seeking out his cards after he left the dodgers.  i did, however, make certain that i acquired his cards in 2008.  that's because, after the 2007 season with the mets, green retired and so his 2008 releases were final tributes.

here's his 2008 topps card

with his complete stats on the back

it's nice that he made it to 2000 hits

here's his 2008 upper deck card

also with the entirety of his big league career on the back

and, of course, his nearly identical 2008 upper deck first edition card

it's been nice to see that green has returned to the dodgers in recent years as a spring training instructor. maybe he'll return to card releases like archives as a dodger in the future, too.

fear the non-beard?

before i get to that beard nonsense, here's a friendly reminder/shameless plug that things are winding down over at oh my o-pee-chee!  only a handful of cards left before i have exhausted the roster of o-pee-chee variations, and there are some awesome ones lined up for the last week of posts.  go check it out, and tell 'em (me) that this 1982 o-pee-chee ken landreaux card sent you.

the landreaux isn't a variation, but it's still a cool card because of dusty baker (get well, dusty!) lurking in the background at shea stadium.

now, here's the beard.  or, more accurately, the non-bearded casey blake.

this card, as well as the others in this post, came by way of one of thorzul's el cheapo breaks.  while it is a card from 2004 upper deck usa baseball, thorzul randomed it off using the different teams blake has played for, and the dodgers came out ahead of the indians, twins, and the other teams for whom the blake has toiled.

here's mickey hatcher on his 1981 topps card

hatcher is now back with the dodgers for the third (or is it fourth?) time, as some sort of special assistant.

here's the underappreciated 1990 bowman jose offerman card

not sure what the mvp signifies.  maybe this painting won an award in the 7th grade art class in which it was obviously prepared?

i really don't like this card at all - never have and probably never will.  it's a 2001 topps ismael valdes

it reminds me of the davey johnson era because of those bad blue jerseys.  they also had a hat with a shiny gray/silver logo that they wore sometimes.  terrible.

here's shawn green on his 2003 topps card

i liked the 2003 set thanks to the blue borders.

finally, a jordan pratt shiny 2003 bowman chrome card

there were some other cards, too.  thanks thorzul!

leigh neuage - the rest of the story

a couple of days ago i posted this card

a 2003 bowman chrome of dodger prospect leigh neuage.  i noted that his final season in the minors was at age 19 even though he seemed to have good control and ratios.

after that post, i received an email from leigh's father letting me know that leigh had passed away in august of 2003.  his father has an online memorial at http://neuage.org/leigh.htm

and, while i use this site as a 'baseball card celebration of the dodgers...' it is clear that there was more to celebrate about neuage than that.

my condolences to the family.

great (mr.) scott!

i recently received some cards from mr. scott.  he sent a bunch of dodgers which is just what i wanted.  here's some highlights!

1999 topps darren dreifort

little d at home in dodger stadium.  i really like this card because of the bright home whites and the outfield mural.  too bad darren couldn't stay healthy.

1993 topps eric davis.

this card could be bad ass, with the tattoos showing and the pose, but i would guess he loses points with the pullover tucked in and the oversized sweatband with what i assume to be his likeness.

2009 topps unique manny ramirez

not too sure what is so unique about these cards.  moving on...

2003 bowman chrome leigh neuage

the thunder from down under.  not really, although he is from australia.  neuage's last year in the minors was 2003, when he was 19.  he debuted in the rookie league at age 17.  i wonder if there was an injury or something.  it looks like he had good control (3:1 k:bb) but he gave up a lot of hits.  we will never know.

2006 upper deck ovation jd drew

the only ovation i am inclined to give jd drew is the kind he still gets in philly.  if you can call that an ovation.

2004 upper deck sp prospects shawn green

i have never understood the thinking behind putting the same photo on a card twice.  although i do like 1994 upper deck, and one of the photos on those cards is all scrunched.  i hate when i contradict myself.

2006 bowman joel guzman jersey

joel was once my baseball salvation.  i could not wait for him to get to the majors and lead the dodgers to the dynastic destiny that no doubt awaited them.  it didn't quite work that way, but i still have matt kemp!

thanks mr. scott!  i will have some yankees to you soon!

culling dodgers from capewood's collection, part two

the recent trade with cliff at capewood's collections was too much for just one post, so here's the second batch of cards i randomly selected from the dodger bounty.

2004 topps retired davey lopes.i like old school players on current card designs almost as much as i like current players on old card designs. unlike 2009, these cards were a whole separate set. well done, topps.

2006 topps matt kemp rookie debut

the bison's debut was less than memorable. he started his career by striking out in his first three at bats. he did single in his 4th at bat, though, and the next day went 2 for 3 with 2 rbi and a stolen base.

2005 topps all time fan favorites steve garvey

certainly my all time fan favorite. here they kept the horizontal layout of garvey's original 1974 card and used a photo that is probably pretty close to that year. unlike the 1973 design that used a 1980 photo in one of their other fan favorites releases.

2004 fleer jolbert cabrera

a true utility player, cabrera played every postion for the dodgers in 2003 except pitcher and catcher. i remember him as the first dodger to wear number 6 since garvey left. there's still hope, though - mitch webster wore number 20 prior to don sutton being voted into the hall of fame and getting the number retired. currently, joe torre is wearing garvey's number.

2004 topps bazooka eric gagne

i am disappointed that there is no appearance by bazooka joe.

2005 fleer showcase preacher roe

i had only seen cards from this set in repack boxes. elwin charles roe was 22-3 in 1951. he was traded to the orioles after the 1954 season and missed out on the 1955 world championship.

2002 bowman heritage duke snider

the duke was around for 1955, though.

2003 topps traded james loney

man, i dig james loney. hopefully the line drive doubles turn into home runs, but the guy is pretty clutch. i learned today that his nickname is 'geoffrey' as in the toys-r-us mascot. nice.

2002 fleer greats of the game hack wilson

one year after he drove in 191 runs, wilson was traded twice in the span of 2 months. first, the cubs sent him to the cardinals of all places, and the cardinals flipped him to the dodgers. in his first (of 3) seasons with the dodgers, hack drove in 123 runs and finished 13th in the mvp voting. not bad. still, this card would upset me if i were a cubs fan. it's kind of like all those upper deck sweet spot cards that show garvey with the padres. it just ain't right.

2004 bowman brian pilkington

pilkington had a pretty decent 2003 season splitting time between high-a and aa. he went a combined 13-6 with a 3.77 era. he didn't pitch at all in 2004 - i am guessing he was injured - and returned to high-a in 2005, his final season.

2005 topps update & highlights hee seop choi

man, i really rooted for this guy, partially because jim tracy seemed to despise him. he hit 5 home runs in the home run derby - this was the year it was the us vs the world - but was not a member of the all star team.

2002 topps total terry mulholland

a genuine loogy (lefty one out guy), mulholland pitched in 20 seasons for 11 different teams, including 2 stints with the giants and phillies. he was in la for part of the 2001 and 2002 seasons going 1-1 in 40 games, including 3 starts.

2003 bowman chrome edwin jackson

jackson made his debut in a much hyped 2003 game against randy johnson on his 20th birthday. he won, going 6 innings and giving up only one run on a sacrifice fly. i saw him pitch at san francisco in his 4th and final start that season. he gave up only 2 hits in 6 innings and struck out 7 (including bonds once), but walked 8. he was a bit wild, but clearly had potential. i guess that's why he was traded by ned to the devil rays for lance carter and danys baez. yikes.

thanks again cliff! i'll probably be sending you some more astros and phillies very soon!