i see you jerry reuss!

as you know, one of my mini collections is cards featuring dodger stadium in the background.  with those cards, sometimes you get the pavilion roof, sometimes you get the old field level scoreboard, and sometimes you get dodger lefty jerry reuss lurking in the background, as is the case with this 1986 donruss joe price card.

what i found interesting about this card is that reuss is on the visitor's side of the field during pre-game, which isn't that common - these days, anyway, from what i've seen at the ballpark.  i emailed him to ask what he was doing, and he was kind enough to let me know that he was headed back to the right field line to do his sprints to centerfield, which were part of his routine in between starts.

here's another from 1986 donruss (sadly without a reuss cameo) of dave lapoint

i remember lapoint as a cardinal, probably because of the 1982 world series, but he pitched for nine teams, including the no-cals.

one more from '86 donruss - here's junior ortiz in dodger stadium

and he's looking happy to be there.

this is a 1989 donruss all-stars rafael palmeiro card

with raffy taking a cut from the dodger stadium left-handed batter's box

and here is hall of famer barry larkin's 1990 upper deck card

with the old low railing behind him

a couple of weeks ago i wrote a post dedicated to the murals that adorned the dodger stadium outfield wall during the late 1990's and early 2000's.  here are a few more cards with some of those mural images in the background

2000 upper deck joe mcewing

that's part of the mike scioscia heroes mural behind little mac

2002 topps tim salmon

with salmon patrolling right field at dodger stadium in front of pee wee reese's retired number mural

2003 fleer ultra matt clement

with the 40th anniversary of dodger stadium mural in the background.  that's kevin brown's face (representing the 2000 season), and shawn green's arms (representing the 2002 campaign).  big kudos to fleer for making a similar card in the '03 ultra set:

that's kevin brown himself on the mound with his face looking on from the mural.  if only fleer had made a similar card of shawn green in right field in front of his image…

i'll finish off this chavez ravine centric post with this 1995 upper deck collector's choice lance parrish card

featuring no lurking dodgers, but instead a dodger usher with some nice shades.

it's been a couple of years since i've been able to get to dodger stadium for a game, so i appreciate having these cards in my collection to remind me of how great the stadium is.

cards from ten years back

continuing with my efforts to clear out the scanned folder, here are some cards from that year of years, 2003...

hey! do you recognize this card? 

i would guess not, as it is not a regular 2003 topps card of chad billingsley, but rather one of those 'factory set exclusive' cards that topps used to (they don't do this anymore, do they?) put out to get you to buy the factory set after you had put together a hand collated set by purchasing packs.  jonathan broxton got one in 2006 as well.  i have the bills and brox cards with my topps dodger teams sets, but not the five 2007 cards that came in the dodger factory set that year.  inconsistent much?

here is a regular 2003 topps card, and it is of andy ashby

good lord, that's mondesi's number!

2003 topps chrome dave roberts

best remembered for half a season (or just one postseason game, really) for the red sox in 2004, roberts wasn't a full-time player until he joined the dodgers at the age of 30.

rickey henderson didn't join the dodgers until the age of 44.  here's his 2003 topps traded card

rickey had spent the first part of the season in the independent atlantic league before finishing out his big league career in dodger blue.

2003 donruss signature series hong-chih kuo

kuo was hurt in 2003 and didn't debut in the big leagues until 2005.  we'll always have 2008 and 2010, though - those were some nice seasons.

2003 fleer ultra hideo nomo

nomo was coming off of a great rebound year when he won another 16 games in 2003.  he threw the last two shutouts of his career that season, a four-hitter in his first start of the year, and a two-hitter a couple months later.

2003 leaf certified materials cesar izturis

and joe thurston

the double play combo of the future!  izturis stuck around for a couple of solid years (before being dealt to the cubs in 2006 for greg maddux), but thurston spent most of his time in the minors and then bounced around the majors after the dodgers sent him to the yankees in 2005.

2003 upper deck edwin jackson

speaking of bouncing around, jackson might give mike morgan and octavio dotel a run for their money.  he's pitched for 8 teams in his 11 years in the big leagues.

last, but certainly not least, 2003 upper deck vintage adrian beltre

can't wait for next year's vintage!

it's like i like it like this

brandon league looks excited.

i was excited, too, to receive a trade package from it's like having my own card shop a while back.  that 2013 topps opening day blue sparkle parallel looks better than it scans.

there were other nice cards in the package, including a 2009 topps steve garvey ring of honor insert

topps actually used a photo of the garv from 1981 for the card that celebrates his lone world series title which came in 1981.  genius.

here is the card that started the trade - a 2013 topps gypsy queen dustin pedroia

turning two! alex rodriguez forced out at second! two of my least favorite players on one card!

here's a 2009 topps heritage derek lowe card.

the sleeve that contained this card had a note that this card was a possible short print.  it was! it is!

1995 score raul mondesi rules insert

it looks like one of mondesi's rules was to smack cory snyder on the forehead after each run he scored.

more mondy! this time courtesy of 1994 fleer flair

this next card is a 2003 fleer ultra insert of hideo nomo

nomo appears on a couple of these 'double up' inserts.  unfortunately, this is the one with kaz sasaki on the other side, not the ichiro one.

one more japanese import to finish off the post - 2003 fleer focus jersey edition kazuhisa ishii card

it says that the card is mlb 'shirtified'.  perhaps the worst play on words for an insert set ever.

thanks daniel!

it's like having my own gary sheffield dealer

i recently completed a trade with daniel over at it's like having my own card shop in which he sent me a bunch of late 90's/early 00's dodger cards.  that means a healthy dose of gary sheffield.  take a look:

1998 donruss signature edition

1998 topps gold label

i miss the outfield murals

1998 leaf rookies & stars

2000 pacific vanguard

i've been halfway thinking about doing some sort of post that tries to capture the craziness of pacific in 2000.  this card looks like sheff is flying through space as part of the pinkish lantern corps.

2000 upper deck spx

2000 upper deck mvp

that's a goodly amount of sheffield cards, and i don't think i showed them all.  i've said it before, i was just getting comfortable with sheffield as a dodger when he started to pull his shenanigans.  still, the guy put together one of the best offensive stretches in dodger history.  and, if he ever finds his way into the hall of fame, he might go in as a dodger.  he spent four years in la (eclipsed only by his six years in florida) and got more hits and hit more home runs as a dodger than anywhere else he played.  if that happens, what do the dodgers do?  do they retire his number?  and if so, which number - 5 or 10?  i can't see that happening, but it would be a first if he were to be enshrined in a dodger hat and they didn't retire the number.

they don't have to worry about all that with this next guy - shawn green on his 2000 upper deck mvp card

he didn't make the cut this year for reappearing on the hall of fame ballot, so he's one and done.  here is his 2000 fleer gamers card

and his 2003 fleer ultra gold medallion card

on which he makes like roberto clemente by losing his helmet.  speaking of which, anybody else out there see 'chasing 3000'?  i watched it a couple of weeks ago, and it was cool to see some old footage of clemente.  not so cool to see some recent footage of ray liotta.  shoeless joe is not aging too well.

here's a 1998 ud spx chan ho park card

and a 1999 upper deck black diamond adrian beltre card

just to prove that there were dodger cards from this timeframe that weren't either sheffield or green.  sometimes it seemed like the only players i was seeing in packs were those two and kevin brown, but there were others.  i can't imagine having been an astros fan and only getting cards of the killer b's over and over and over.

thanks daniel!

cards with stars and clouds and dodgers

here is the second installment of my recent trading frenzy with the rhubarb runner.  it's a wonder what some vintage twins and a couple of sticker autos will bring in return.  first up, a 2002 topps american pie american sluggers insert of the silver fox

this is one of the more obscured card in my blog's header.  it's right there under the 2004 topps robin ventura and the 2001 ud decade 1970's ron cey.  i feel badly that the duke is so slighted, but he is up there!

here's the first of two shawn green relics - this one is from 2004 upper deck diamond collection (i think)

it's not as cool as this 2001 playoff absolute memorabilia game used base card

featuring green playing baseball amongst the clouds.  what a wacky design.  almost as bad as this 2003 fleer ultra pee wee reese insert

apparently, it was a game when the players floated in the heavens.

back to earth and a 2002 upper deck insert featuring kevin brown

the insert set is called 'return of the ace'.  it kind of reminds me of the opening credits of 'game of thrones'.  without the fictional geography lesson.  on another semi-related note, i will be starting my 'evolution of the ace' series next week.  at some point, brown does show up on the chain of dodger yearly aces.

2004 fleer greats jackie robinson

this card, of course, reminds me of the book by lawrence ritter 'the glory of their times'.  although i prefer 'the image of their greatness' by ritter and donald honig. both are well worth your time, as is the collecting of jackie robinson baseball cards.  even the glut of cards put out by topps over the last couple of years, although it would be nice to see some different photos used.

2005 upper deck sweet spot dj houlton

one of the most interesting things that i know about dj houlton is that his middle name is sean.  i guess ds houlton just doesn't sound right.  actually, the dj stands for dennis junior which is quite sensible.  houlton pitched for the dodgers in 2005 and then again in 2007.  he moved on to japan in 2008, and is still pitching there today as far as i know.

just when you thought you had seen the last of 2011 topps update cognac cards, here comes jerry sands

hopefully sands is working on keeping his eye on the ball down in the minors this seaon.
 
i saved this card for last, only because it has a hated yankee on it.  it's from 2004 donruss leather & lumber

what saves it is the presence of duke snider.  duke and scooter faced each other in the world series 4 times, with the yankees winning three rings before the dodgers finally won in 1955.  duke hit .290 with 9 homers in those 4 series, while rizzuto hit .266 with no homers.  small consolation for the silver fox, i am sure.

thanks for the cards david!

more double plays for your consideration

someday soon (or not so soon), i will get to the 'greatest double play card of all-time' tournament/poll.  not today, though.  there are still a few more i need to gather.  in the meantime, here's some decent looking ones that might make it into the brackets.

1985 topps lou whitaker

and 1986 topps paul runge

these two are nice, but i prefer the runge.  we get the full image of the guy sliding in so it's a more complete double play turn.  plus the format of the '86 card is more conducive to this type of image.

2002 topps stadium club derek jeter

cal ripken jr is too slow to be able to break up the turn, but at least he made it into the photo

here's another card with a future hall-of-famer, and i'm not referring to luis rivas on his 2002 upper deck victory card

pujols' head being replaced by a twins logo is as close as we will get to seeing him in minny.

2003 fleer ultra jack wilson

i don't see how wilson will recover from his leap and land on his feet.  bad news for his tailbone, i guess.

here's marcus giles on his 2006 topps card

displaying his 'in the general area of second base' technique with matt lawton of the soul patrol sliding in.  i am sure giles' foot was on the bag when he caught the ball, right?

another 2006 topps card, this time juan uribe

look at that air!  there is no way the juan uribe that is currently on the dodgers can get elevated like that.

lastly, a 2006 topps opening day michael young si for kids insert

a double play turn is max action! huzzah!