empirically, these cards are fantastic

i recently had the opportunity to meet brian, he of everybody's favorite new blog highly subjective and completely arbitrary at the local monthly card show.  we had agreed to meet near one of the vintage bargain bin dealers that i have written about so frequently and swap some cards.  it turned out to be a fitting location, as one of the cards brian dropped on me was this one:

clemente, carty, and aaron.  card number 1 in the 1965 topps set - a set which i am making slow progress towards completing.  like i said in the title - fantastic.

there were a bunch of dodgers, too, like a 2015 topps clayton kershaw rainbow foil parallel

a 2014 topps stadium club clayton kershaw field access insert

(which uses a photo that very well could wind up on a panini release), and another kershaw - this time with sandy koufax, warren spahn, and steve carlton on a 2013 topps archives 1969 4-in-1 decal insert

that's heady company for the dodger ace, but he's deserving of it.  here's another dodger lefty who garnered some high praise early in his career, fernando valenzuela on a 2915 topps baseball history insert

among the things that brian and i discussed was the appeal of o-pee-chee.  brian already knew about my  opc blog, and is actually collecting the 1965 o-pee-chee set.  he included a 1979 opc burt hooton card in the trade

which was again, fantastic. 1979 may be my favorite o-pee-chee set because of the logo in the ball.  the logo appeared again in 1982, but i prefer '79 to that set.  the only drawback to the '79 set is that there is no french on the front.

here's a 1993 topps gold jay howell parallel

and a 2008 topps gold foil casey blake parallel

and a 2003 upper deck 40 man card of paul quantrill

that quantrill would fit nicely in brian's sunglasses mini collection, but i am happy to have one of the few cards of quantrill as a dodger.

this was the second blogger i've met in person (paul from carl crawford cards is the other), and it was fun to connect with another collector like that. especially when cards like these were exchanged.  thanks brian - looking forward to the show next month!

double plays are a dime apiece

it's always fun to get a trade package from nick at dime boxes in part because he also collects double play cards, and so he sends me some that turn out to be new additions to my collection.

for example, i already had this 1968 topps game card of claude osteen in my dodger collection

but now i have one for my double play binders, too.  sure, it doesn't show the play at second base, but it still references a twin-killing enough to warrant a spot in the binder.

here are some more traditional double play turns that nick sent:

1991 leaf wally backman

1992 topps bill doran gold 'winner' parallel

1997 fleer alex gonzalez

2012 topps mike aviles gold parallel

2001 fleer tradition jay canizaro

2003 upper deck 40man junior spivey

and a 2004 mlb showdown 'hard slide' card

obviously, that's wes helms sliding in, but i'm not completely certain of the cub turning two.  2003 was helms' first season with the brew crew, so it is most likely either alex gonzalez or mark grudzielanek (and just by visual inspection i know that it's not grudzielanek).  it turns out that on may 7, 2003, keith osik of the brewers hit into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play with helms as the lead runner.  although the second baseman for the cubs that day was ramon martinez, the shortstop was indeed alex gonzalez.

thanks for the dp turns nick!

a memorial patch for jack buck

jack buck, who had been a broadcaster for the cardinals for more than four decades, succumbed to lung cancer on june 18, 2002.  the redbirds added a patch featuring his initials, "jfb" to their right sleeves in his honor.  fernando vina is sporting the patch on his 2004 topps card

as is jd drew on the front

and back

of his 2003 upper deck victory card.  

jason isringhausen's 2004 upper deck vintage card

provides a good look at the patch, along witih the 'chalk on the cap' memorial for darryl kile that some players wore immediately after the pitcher passed away.

the patch is also visible on edgar renteria's 2003 donruss card

on which he is turning two, but it's a different renteria card that represents this memorial in my binder.  his 2003 upper deck 40 man card gives a good view of the patch

buck passed away just a few days before cardinals' pitcher darryl kile died suddenly (kile also received a memorial patch from the team - i'll cover that later today), ending a hall of fame broadcasting career that included not only cardinal broadcasts, but national baseball broadcasts, nfl, nhl, and aba broadcasts as well.  he began his career with the cardinals in 1954, and aside from a couple of years (1959-1960), buck remained part of the cardinals' broadcast team into 2001.  he was teamed with harry caray in the 1960's, taking over for caray as the play-by-play man in 1970.

as a dodger fan, i am well aware of buck's famous call of ozzie smith's home run in the 1985 nlcs ("go crazy folks") and of kirk gibson's home run in game 1 of the 1988 world series ("i don't believe what i just saw").  the latter came on the national stage with buck providing play-by-play for cbs radio.  he also did television coverage for cbs of other fall classics, including the 1991 world series between the braves and the twins in which he followed kirby puckett's game 6 series extending home run with another famous call, "and we'll see you tomorrow night!"  buck was 77 years old when he died.

the evolution of the dodger second baseman, part 3

here are the first and second installments, in case you want to catch up on the sometimes annual turnover the dodgers have experienced at second base.

the dodgers were coming off their worst record ever as they headed into the 1993 season.  they lost one of their young second basemen, eric young, in the expansion draft, but they replaced him that same day with another player drafted by the rockies.

jody reed (1993)

the rockies selected reed two rounds after they picked up young.  i would imagine that they had a deal in place with the dodgers to draft and trade reed, which they did in exchange for rudy seanez.  reed (shown on a 1993 fleer final edition card) played in 132 games for the 1993 dodgers, including 129 starts at second.  he hit .276 for the dodgers, helping them climb back to .500.  following the season, he famously declined a contract extension and left as a free agent, ultimately taking less money to sign with the brewers.

the dodgers responded to reed's rejection by trading pedro martinez to the expos for a 24-year old second baseman who was coming off two straight .290+ seasons.  i admit, i was optimistic.

delino deshields (1994-1996)

that's deshields' 1995 pinnacle card, by the way.  as i mentioned, i was hopeful that deshields would be the dodgers' second baseman for a long time based on his play in montreal.  unfortunately, he hit just .250 in the strike shortened 1994 season, and then only .256 the next year.  in 1996, he bottomed out at .224 with a career low .288 on base percentage.  he left as a free agent after that season, and immediately hit .295 for the cardinals in 1997.  meanwhile that same season, pedro won the national league cy young award for the expos, and the dodgers were fielding yet another different second baseman.

wilton guerrero (1997)

guerrero (shown on a 1997 donruss dodgers team set card) started 83 games at second base for the 1997 dodgers.  he hit .291 overall, but had an on base percentage of only .305 - one reason why the dodgers reacquired eric young from the rockies late in the season.

eric young (1998-1999)

young (shown on a 2000 topps card) finally got his shot to be the dodgers' every day second baseman in 1998.  he played in 117 games (112 starts at second) and hit .285 with an obp of .355.  in 1998, he upped that to .371 in 119 games (115 starts at second).  unfortunately, young was traded to the cubs after the 1998 season for terry adams and a couple of minor leaguers.  young was expendable, because the dodgers had plans to move recently acquired mark grudzielanek from short to second in 2000.

mark grudzielanek (2000-2002)

that's grudzielanek's 2001 topps finest card, one of very few cards i have from that release.  the g-man moved from short to second in 2000 and hit .279 while scoring a career high 101 runs. he hit .271 in both 2001 and 2002 as the dodgers' second baseman, but was traded to the cubs prior to the 2003 season.

alex cora (2003-2004)

cora had replaced grudzielanek as the dodgers' shortstop when he moved to second, and now he replaced him at second following the trade with the cubs.  cora (shown on his 2003 upper deck 40 man card) played in a career high 148 games in 2003 (141 appearances and 122 starts at second) and followed that up with 138 games (and appearances at second, with 122 starts there) in 2004.  he hit a career high 10 homers in 2004, including one that was the culmination of an 18-pitch at bat against matt clement and the cubs.  cora left the dodgers as a free agent prior to the 2005 season.

jeff kent (2005-2008)

the dodgers signed socal native kent (that's his 2006 topps heritage card) shortly after the end of the 2004 season.  he started 140 games at second his first season with the club, scoring 100 runs and driving in 105 more.  he represented the blue at the all-star game that season as the national league's starting second baseman, and also won a silver slugger award.  it was the best offensive season the dodgers had seen from a second baseman in quite a while, perhaps since jackie robinson's mvp season of 1949.  in 2006, he helped the team reach the postseason and then went 8 for 13 with a home run in the dodgers' nlds loss to the mets.  kent retired following the 2008 season in which he helped the dodgers reach the nlcs for the first time since 1988, but he was unfortunately held hitless in the series.

one more group to go before we are caught up with this position...

i forgot the 1989 topps steve garvey card that should have been

a few days ago when i posted the don sutton and rick rhoden cards that were left out of the 1989 topps and 1989 topps traded sets, respectively, i overlooked another card that should have been, featuring a member of the 1978 topps dodgers.  i use the phrase 'should have been' very loosely here, as there really was no way this card was even a thought back then, whereas i would like to think that the folks at topps at least considered sutton and rhoden.  this is a season highlight card commemorating the retirement of steve garvey's number by the san diego padres.

it's modeled after the record breaker subset in 1989 topps - here's the orel hershiser card from the set

with dodger stadium as the backdrop even though the card celebrates the achievement of 59 consecutive scoreless innings, which the bulldog reached in san diego.  and, san diego is where the number retirement took place on april 16, 1988.  here's the back with all the details:

if you look closely at the photo i used for the card, there is a giant reproduction of garvey's 1982 donruss diamond kings card behind him.  the actual display showed up on ebay a while back, with the seller asking for $1000 or some such.

garvey was the first player to have his number retired by the padres, although he has since been joined by randy jones, dave winfield, tony gwynn, and trevor hoffman.  the dodgers held garvey's number out of circulation for 20 years (from the time garvey left the club in 1983 until his hall of fame balloting days were almost through in 2003), and then jolbert cabrera was allowed to wear it, as you can see on this 2003 upper deck 40 man card.

i don't recall hearing about the number retirement back when it happened, but i do recall being pleasantly surprised to see his number up on the outfield wall at jack murphy stadium the first time i visited, probably in 1990 or 91.  somewhere i have a photo from that game of the number 6 in front of some palm trees that were planted behind the fence.

it is highly unlikely that garvey will make the hall of fame (he's been on a couple committee ballots and failed in recent years), and so the padres will be the only franchise to have retired his number.  at least i have a card to remember it by.

i have many leather bound books and this card that looks of rich mahogany

actually, this 2005 bowman heritage brad penny mahogany parallel

does not really look like rich mahagony, but this post needed a catchy title.  after all, it's just a random cards from the scanned folder post.

here's a 2002 upper deck adrian beltre card

it features a pretty standard photo angle at dodger stadium - a nice photo of a right-handed batter taken from the first base dugout photographer's well.  we've seen it before, many times, like on bill madlock's 1986 woolworth's card

and raul mondesi's 2000 topps opening day card

other stadiums have the same vantage point, including the nameless stadium that provided the backdrop for this 1994 upper deck sp holo fx mondesi card

and, not all batters from that vantage point are right-handed, either.  case in point, this 2003 upper deck odalis perez card

complete with visible undie lines.

here's a better card of perez from 2005 upper deck

the home whites look really sharp on that card.

back to 2003, fred mcgriff's upper deck card from that year

makes good use of the horizontal design, thanks to the stratified seats at vero beach.

this 2003 upper deck 40 man card of beltre is almost a tatooine card

spoiled only by that little bit of grass by his left foot.

here's a 2010 topps 206 james loney card

it is a bronze parallel, i believe.  i was a fan of the 206 set when topps first released it in 2002 (loney had a card in that set, too).  not so much in 2010.  i have a partially completed 2002 set, in fact.  i will have to get my want list posted and take a run at finishing it.

finally, here is a 2008 etopps manny ramirez card

i picked this up cheap online sometime last year.  i am guessing that a lot of people had topps ship their cards after it was announced that etopps was ending.  i had bought a few cards from etopps in the early 2000's, but always had them shipped.  i didn't understand the idea of not having the physical card.

until the next time i am hurting for a post, stay classy scanned folder.

a memorial patch for mike darr

mike darr was 25 years old, when he died in a high-speed rollover crash on february 15, 2002.  he was in arizona where the padres were about to open spring training.  darr had been the pads' opening day center fielder in 2001, and i would imagine that the team was hoping for him to be a big part of the 2002 squad.

in his memory, the padres wore a '26' patch on their right sleeves during the 2002 season.  you can see it on ryan klesko's 2003 upper deck 40 man card.

there were two other passenger's in darr's vehicle when the accident occurred - a friend who also died, and teammate ben howard who survived.  howard was the only one wearing a seatbelt.  as a result, i find howard's 2003 donruss team heroes card to be pretty powerful.

it also looks like the patch was worn on the left sleeve, perhaps in spring training?

all three cards are in my memorial patch binder.

don't drive drunk, kids.

a cleveland memorial patch for the trainer

jimmy warfield was a trainer in the indians' organization from 1969 until his passing in 2002.  he began his career with the team's aa affiliate and then joined the major league team as trainer in 1971.  warfield held the role of head trainer until 1997, when he stepped back to assistant trainer at the age of 55.  on july 15, 2002, warfield suffered a brain hemorrhage and passed away the following day.

in his memory, the indians wore a 'jw' patch on their right sleeves for the remainder of the season.  here's a 2003 upper deck 40 man card of milton bradley with the patch visible on his jersey.

i also have this 2003 upper deck mvp card of brandon phillips in my collection.

it shows the warfield patch as well, but this particular card sits in my double play binder.  it's worth noting that rickey henderson (is that really rickey?) is sporting the ted williams armband (and number) on his sleeve.  teddy ballgame will get a separate memorial post, of course.

i was a bit surprised that the dodgers didn't do something similar for bill buhler when he passed away early in the 2003 season.  he did have a patch in the dodgers' 1999 heroes set, which i assume was worn by the training staff, but his career and impact on the dodgers' organization was worthy of a tribute, just as warfield's was.