pennys (and other dodgers) from bob walk the plank

brad penny cards are not quite like bad pennies - they don't show up everywhere - but when they do show up in a trade package, i am thankful.  matthew from bob walk the plank recently sent some cards my way, and there were two brad pennys in the package.

2005 leaf century collection brad penny auto

and 2005 upper deck mlb artifacts brad penny relic

penny was a two-time all-star while with the dodgers, winning 16 games in both 2006 and 2007. he is the most recent dodger pitcher to start the all-star game, although that might change this year if greinke gets the nod.

penny was teammates with kaz ishii for a short time in 2004.  then, after just three seasons with the dodgers, ishii was traded to the mets prior to the 2005 season. however, the residue of nomomania meant that there was a glut of ishii cards on the market. matthew sent me a couple

2004 playoff prestige kaz ishii relic

2004 topps clubhouse collection kax ishii relic

for some reason i thought that the ishii relic from clubhouse collection was short printed, but i don't see that assumption validated anywhere.  at any rate, this relic is new to my collection.

matthew sent me my first certified john candelaria as a dodger auto card last time we traded, and now he has sent me my second.

2014 leaf memories 1991 leaf buyback john candelaria auto

and, going for three lefty dodger pitchers in a row, here's a 2005 donruss greats tommy lasorda relic card

donruss ripped off fleer with their greats of the game/dodger blues relic set, but i am not upset by it.  tommy is shown, of course, as the manager of the los angeles dodgers, but donruss also issued a card in this set with the die-cut relic reveal in the shape of the brooklyn 'b' in honor of his (short) stint as a pitcher for the bums.  they used the same photo, however.

the relic set also included burleigh grimes, sandy koufax, duke snider, don sutton, and orel hershiser - matthew sent the bulldog's card

like lasorda, i believe that koufax and snider each have brooklyn and los angeles versions of their cards.

not all of the cards matthew sent were autos or relics. no, there were also serial numbered die-cuts, like this 2003 donruss elite adrian beltre aspirations card

and there was a gold parallel insert - this 1998 donruss studo mike piazza studio proofs gold card

all of the cards were happily accepted and appreciated.  thanks matthew - i will have some cards out to you soon!

taking a bite out of the thorzul group breaks

i've picked up the dodgers in the last couple of thorzul breaks, and while my haul hasn't been stellar, i have received some decent cards - lots of shiny and some oldtimey, too.  first up are the 2003 donruss elite cards from the april break.

the crime dog, fred mcgriff

mcgriff had hit 30 home runs for the cubs in 2002, so i was fairly pleased with his signing going into the 2003 season (the dodgers and cubs essentially traded first basemen with the cubs acquiring eric karros in the todd hundley trade, part 2).  mcgriff wound up hitting only 13 home runs and his average dropped from .273 to .249.  i actually missed karros, who hit 12 homers but had a .286 average for the cubbies.

shawn green

green was coming off of back-to-back 40-home run seasons heading into '03.  he wound up with just 19 roundtrippers.  he hit a ton of doubles, and i figured his power was waning.  there were rumors about injury, but green played in 160 games.  his home run total ticked up the next season when he was moved to first base to replace mcgriff.

paul loduca

i am pretty pleased with myself that i never really got on the loduca bandwagon.  jim tracy was a fool.

odalis perez

i have a soft spot for odalis.  once at an interleague game against the angels in anaheim, i was sitting behind the dodger dugout and odalis was standing at the rail in front of us.  the guy next to me was jawing at him the whole game, but it turned out to be good-natured and odalis gave him a ball to give to one of the kids in my party.  nomar also threw us one after the third out was made at first and we got another ball somehow, which was nice since there were three kids in our group. 

the second box from the april break was 2005 topps retired.  i got johnny podres

which is nice.

in may, thorzul broke a fleer product from which i received no dodgers, and a box of 2006 upper deck sweet spot, from which sprung

cesar izturis

and nomar garciaparra

love the parking lot in the background.

my other team in may was the a's.  i got a few cards, including this milton bradley

bradley for ethier, straight up.  thanks billy.

in the earlier break, my second team was the astros.  my favorite card i received was this one, jr richard from the 2005 topps retired box

james rodney used to dominate the dodgers.  he was 15-4 against them lifetime, with 14 complete games and 5 shutouts in 24 starts.  in fact, after 1976, richard was 11-0 against the big blue wrecking crew. his last two starts against them in 1980 resulted in a 13-k 8 inning performance and a one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts. i recall hearing an interview with burt hooton circa 1979 in which happy was (jokingly) complaining that he always seemed to be slotted to start against richard (i counted 6 times from 1977-1980).  who could blame him.

thanks for hosting, thorzul!