turning two in front of signs

here's former twin denny hocking turning two on his 1995 upper deck electric diamond parallel card

two things strike me on this card, aside from the pivot at second base.  first, that's the big hurt sliding in, and second, there is an ad for a florida (either fort myers or sarasota) liquor store on the outfield fence in the background.

likewise, there is a big ol' hot dog in the background of roberto alomar's 1997 upper deck collector's choice orioles team set card

that distracts from the play at hand.

the outfield wall at the oakland coliseum shows up on homer bush's 1998 pacific online card

the red ball and blue 's' is part of the sports channel ad in right-center.

nothing much to see in the background of this 2003 topps orlando cabrera card

so let's move on to michael young's 2005 upper deck first pitch card

sean casey is sliding in hard to break up the turn, which is nice to see.  the ad on the wall in the background here is for a wyler car dealership somewhere in the greater ohio area.

this 2008 upper deck brendan harris card

runs on dunkin'.

not sure who let this edgar renteria card, also from 2008 upper deck,

in this post with nothing but green growing things in the background.

here's a 2009 topps stephen drew card two ways - base

and gold parallel

with a scoreboard in the background

at least on troy tulowitzki's 2011 topps card

we have a partial ad (although not a static sign) to go along with a partial scoreboard.

i'm not sure if that's an ad or a partial logo on the wall behind sean coyle on his 2011 topps heritage minors card

but i am pretty sure it's a replica of the green monster that the thing is hanging on.  i believe most of the red sox minor league affiliates play in stadiums that replicate the fenway park experience.

meanwhile, though he's not in fenway, here's dustin pedroia turning two on his 2014 topps stadium club card

sportscenter may be up next, but i prefer mlb tonight on the mlb network.

the 1978 topps dodgers in 2003 through 2006 - there was only one

one would have thought that with dusty baker's contract to manage the giants expiring in early november of 2002, and his subsequent hiring by the cubs on the 16th of that month, topps could have shown baker as a cub in their 2003 flagship set.  no dice - he showed up still as the manager of the giants.

the giants had hired felipe alou to replace baker a couple of days earlier, so it's not like there would have been a void in the set that baker needed to fill.  of course, the real reason is that back then, series one was released in november and so we have a bonus card of baker in a giant uniform.

thankfully, topps was sure to include baker in a cubs uniform in their 2003 traded set.

the cubs won 88 games under baker in 2003, good enough (by one game) to win the nl central title and advance to the postseason.  it was the first division title for the cubs since 1989, and baker had them sitting with a 3 games to 1 lead in the nlcs, but the marlins came back to win the final three games of the series and deny the cubs their first pennant since 1945.

baker returned to the cubs in 2004 (here's his 2004 topps card with a familiar photo)

and the team acutally improved, winning 89 games that year.  unfortunately, that was only good enough for third place in the nl central, 16 games behind division champ saint louis, and 3 games behind wild card champ houston.

in 2005, topps thankfully changed the photo they used for baker's card

and the cubs slipped to below .500.  they had a record of 79-83 and finished fourth in the division, 21 games behind the cardinals.

dusty was in the fourth year of his four year deal in 2006 (here's his topps card from that year)

and the cubs fell even further in the standings.  they finished dead last in the division at 66-96, although they were 'only' 17.5 games behind saint louis that year.  as a result of the poor showing, baker was not re-hired by the cubs.  he wasn't hired by anyone else, either, and spent 2007 as an analyst for espn.  that meant that, for the first time since the early 1960's, there were no members of the 1978 topps dodgers playing or managing in the major leagues.  thankfully, that would change in 2008.

here is the yearly tally of appearances to date:

baker 24 (1971-1987, 1993, 2001-2006)
burke 2 (1978-1979)
cey 16 (1972-1987)
davalillo 14 (1963-1974, 1978-1979)
forster 16 (1972-1987)
garman 8 (1971-1973, 1975-1979)
garvey 18 (1971-1987, 2002)
goodson 6 (1973-1978)
grote 15 (1964-1976, 1978-1979)
hooton 15 (1972-1986)
hough 23 (1972-1994)
john 26 (1964-1989)
lacy 16 (1973-1988)
lasorda 19 (1954, 1973-1974, 1977-1981, 1983-1993)
lopes 18 (1973-1988, 2001-2002)
martinez 9 (1971-1976, 1978-1980)
monday 18 (1967-1984)
mota 18 (1963-1980)
oates 14 (1972-1981, 1991-1993, 2001)
rau 9 (1973-1981)
rautzhan 2 (1978-1979)
rhoden 16 (1975-1990)
russell 18 (1970-1987)
smith 17 (1967-1983)
sosa 10 (1974-1984)
sutton 23 (1966-1988)
yeager 15 (1973-1987)

teams represented so far: 24 (dodgers, indians, colt .45's, pirates, white sox, astros, mets, a's, red sox, angels, expos, cardinals, braves, cubs, orioles, giants, phillies, yankees, rangers, tigers, padres, brewers, mariners, marlins)

lurkers are lurking - sometimes in plain sight

one doesn't need to look very far or hard to find the dodger making his way onto joe mccarthy's 1993 conlon collection tsn card

dodger manager burleigh grimes gets some foreground respect in the photo from 1938.  not sure when/where this would have been taken, as mccarthy's yankees faced (and beat) the cubs in the '38 fall classic.

grimes gets a mention on the back of that particular card, but that is usually not the case with lurkers.  take this 1999 fleer ultra jeff bagwell card, for example

tom prince is just as much of the card as is bagwell, but he gets no acknowledgement which is as it should be.

jose offerman finds his way onto kurt stillwell's 1993 donruss card

and eric karros (with a cloud of dust) enhances kevin higgins' 1994 topps card

i don't consider the stillwell card to be a double play turn because i can't verify it as such, even though it looks like it might be one.  offerman didn't get on base a whole lot against the padres in 1992, and when he did, he was often sacrificed to second with stillwell covering first.

now here's a blurry lurker.

that's dodger first base coach john shelby in the background on miguel batista's 2003 topps card.  i wish there were more cards like this featuring manny mota or, these days, davey lopes.

here are a couple of hall of fame lurkers - eddie murray shows up on scott stahoviak's 1996 score card

and we get half of cal ripken jr on rickey henderson's 1983 topps record breaker card

this card would have qualified as a 'classic combo' by topps' 2007 standards.

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!

more dime box dodgers by proxy

here are even more cards from nick at dime boxes.  i don't usually scan so many cards from trade packages, but there were a lot of cool dodgers in addition to all those double play cards (i will scan and show any and all double play cards that are new to my collection).  here's a case in point - i couldn't scan brett butler's 1992 o-pee-chee card

without scanning his 2012 topps archives short print card

that's not a bad job by topps.

another unfamiliar looking card was this 1995 topps national packtime raul mondesi card

mondy's regular 1995 topps card is one of my all-time faves, but this one is not too bad.

staying in 1995, here is a jeff treadway card from that year's score set.

until i saw this card, i thought that the only dodger treadway cards were the 1994 police issue and the 1994 stadium club card.

in fact, there are more cards of sean pierce, such as this 2003 topps card,

in a dodger uniform than there are of treadway, even though pierce never made it out of high-a ball.

and how about this 2003 topps total card of troy brohawn?

i think it goes without saying that this is the first time brohawn has been featured on the blog.  brohawn pitched for 3 of the 5 nl west teams in his career (he never made it to the padres or rockies), and the dodgers were the last.  he was 2-0 for the blue in 2003 with a 3.86 era.  unfortunately, he couldn't get back to the big club in 2004 and his career came to an end.

here's a 1995 score select checklist featuring jeff bagwell, frank thomas, ken griffey jr, and the strongest man in socal, mike piazza

one of the few photoshopped combo cards that you will see.

finally, here is a 1998 pinnacle performers card of mike piazza

pinnacle performers was one of pinnacle's final card sets to be released, and this particular card would have been one of piazza's last cards as a dodger.  in fact, it includes the o-pee-chee like 'traded to mets' text, totally ignoring the week he spent with the marlins.

thanks again nick!  still one more post today, though...

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!