more wax cracked

here are some more cards i scored from topher's charity box break held a few months back.

2005 topps carl erskine (on-card) certified auto

i am almost certain that topps used this design for their certified autos over a couple of different years.  it makes sense, i suppose.

here's a good ol' base card from 2005 topps - shawn green

sadly, greenie had played his last game for the dodgers when that card came out.

speaking of playing their last game, darren dreifort's 2005 topps card was his final tribute.  here's the back, with his complete career stats

here's a what-if.  what if the dodgers kept dreifort in the bullpen in 1998 instead of moving him to the rotation.  does he become an elite closer?  i think he had the stuff.  if so, do the dodgers still trade paul konerko for jeff shaw?  would konerko have become the player he did if he had stayed?  who knows.  if i recall correctly, the feeling was that dreifort was being paid too much to be a reliever.  unfortunately, the injuries got the best of him.  he wound up earning just under a million bucks per big league win.

here's a 'dem bums' insert from 2005 topps of duke snider

i don't have his real 1955 topps card.  yet.

from 2005 topps rookie cup i received a dave lopes 1974 topps reprint.  here's the back

the first item is interesting.  at what point did lopes break up those no-hitters?  he may well have led off each game with a hit, thus ending the no-no in the first inning each time.

2005 bowman jeff kent 1st edition

unfortunately, i didn't get a matt kemp rookie from the box.

i did get a card of former dodger mega-hyped prospect chin-feng chen from 2004 bowman chrome

and then a card of kemp from 2007 topps heritage

still looking for a bowman bison rookie, though.

finally, from the 2013 topps series 2 box, topher pulled this beauty for me.  a sandy koufax cut to the chase die-cut card

thanks topher! hope you do another one of these soon!

past a double play turning jeter

no, derek 'past a diving' jeter is not the greatest fielding shortstop around. nor was he the best shortstop on the yankees once they acquired alex rodriguez.  still, he is sometimes caught turning a double play on cardboard, and for that, i am thankful.  here are some examples.

1997 fleer ultra

here's his 1997 topps screen plays card

you get the idea, i hope.  the screen plays cards were much better than the sportflics cards, but they scan like crap.  so, for the first time on the blog, here's some video!

here's jeter's 1998 score rookies/traded card with what is obviously a spring training double play

and here is his 1998 topps card

jeter's 1999 pacific

and 1999 skybox premium cards

show the same play against the tigers.  nice glasses, mr. november.

this may look like jeter's 1997 topps card, but it's not

it's a reprint from 2005 topps rookie cup.

here's the last card of the post - a 2008 upper deck national baseball card day issue

it's not the most dynamic dp card, but it qualifies.

believe it or not, i've still got a few more double play cards to display, including some that just arrived by trade.  stay tuned!

take a ride on the davey lopes rainbow

davey lopes was a member of the topps all-rookie team in 1973.  unfortunately, topps didn't put the cups on the cards in the 1974 set.  anyway, lopes was included in the 2005 topps rookie cup set that had multiple parallels to the base cards.  

there's red #/499

orange #/399

yellow #/299

green #/199

and blue #/50

sadly, there is no indigo or violet.  just gray base.

i have heard rumors of a silver parallel #/5 and a gold 1/1.  maybe someday i will find that gold at the end of the rainbow.

my rookie cup runneth over!

out of all the major league franchises, the dodgers have had the greatest number of rookies of the year, including the first one ever, jackie robinson in 1947. in fact, the award has been renamed in jackie's honor.

less celebrated, perhaps, are the members of the topps rookie cup team. you've all seen the little yellow cup on topps cards and are probably aware that each year topps selects 10 players (two pitchers) to their rookie cup team. i am not going to try to figure out which franchise has had the most players selected, but i will say that the dodgers are well represented. the first topps rookie team was selected in 1959 and featured ron fairly of the dodgers. through the years, other dodger rookies like tommy davis, frank howard (roy), ted sizemore (roy), steve sax (roy), greg brock, tim belcher, raul mondesi (roy), todd hollandsworth (roy), wilton guerrero, russell martin, andre ethier, and james loney have made the cut.

in 2005, topps released it's rookie cup set, which featured these additional dodger rookie standouts.

bill buckner (1971) buckner hit .277 with 41 rbi in 1971 as the dodgers' primary right fielder.

dave lopes (1973)although there were no trophies on any of the 1974 cards. lopes finished 6th in the 1973 rookie of the year voting. he hit .275 with 36 stolen bases that year.

fernando valenzuela (1981) no trophy for fernando or any other 1981 rookie cup recipients, either. fernando, of course, won the rookie of the year (over tim raines) and the cy young award (over tom seaver) in 1981. he started the season with 8 straight wins, including 7 complete games and 5 shutouts. fernandomania, indeed!

eric karros (1992)karros started the 1992-1996 dodgers' rookie of the year run with 20 home runs and 88 rbi in 1992. he received 22 of 24 first place votes (tim wakefield got the other two).

mike piazza (1993) piazza was the unanimous choice for rookie of the year in 1993. he hit .318 with 35 home runs and 112 rbi with an ops of .932. not too shabby.

hideo nomo (1995)nomo beat out chipper jones for the 1995 rookie of the year award. that was the first year that we questioned the validity of a foreign professional player being considered a rookie. we still don't really have that figured out, i don't think.

and, for good measure, here's old friend fick monday (1967) while topps did print the trophy in 1968, monday's 1968 card did not feature the cup for some reason.

and the pride of saint paul, joe mauer (2004)

i have little doubt that joe would have been the rookie of the year if he had not been hurt.

it would be nice to see the dodgers produce some more roys, but it looks like ned has traded our best near term chances for george sherrill and others.