random greatness from the scanned folder

i doubt that there will be a reason to post this 2006 upper deck future stars autographed card of tim hamulack

in anything other than a 'random cards from the scanned folder' post, so guess what?  this is a post featuring a bunch of cards that have been wallowing in my scanned folder for some time.  hamulack (besides being a sentence that yoda might utter if he were to be displeased with the meat selection at your easter brunch) pitched for the dodgers in 2006 and went 0-3 in 33 appearances.  i can't say that i recall too much about him, and i assumed that he was a lefty specialist that the dodgers brought on board to face barry bonds and todd helton and other nl west lefty sluggers.  well, he faced bonds only twice in 2006 - hamulack walked him and then hit him with a pitch a couple days later.  not bad.

1982 fleer dodger logo sticker

i wish to goodness that fleer had put dates on their stickers.  luckily, i know that this comes from 1982 because it's got a photo from the 1981 all-star game at cleveland's municipal stadium on the back

it looks like a gloomy august night in cleveland, but that may just be the 1982 fleer effect.

1992 fleer ramon martinez and ozzie guillen superstar special

this card baffled me when i first saw it.  'teenage sensations'?  guillen was 28 and entering his 8th season in the majors in 1992, and ramon was 24.  neither debuted in the majors as a teenager, so fleer must have really been reaching to make a connection here.  it turns out that both made their professional debuts at the age of 17.

1994 topps stadium club henry rodriguez rainbow foil

you can't go wrong, really, with a bat rack/helmet cubby shot.  nice cameo by darryl strawberry's (upside-down) helmet.  i don't know whose helmet is next to daaaaar-ryl's - no dodger wore 51 during oh henry's dodger tenure, at least according to baseball reference.

1996 topps ismael valdes

dodger fans remember valdes for having delicate skin.  look closely and you might see a blister on his pitching hand.

2002 upper deck superstars adrian beltre

he sure would look good at third for the dodgers these days

2009 upper deck chin-lung hu

back in 2007, poor vin scully had to wait almost 3 weeks after hu had been called up for the first time to  note that 'hu's on first'.  in his previous five games, hu had homered, pinch-ran for olmedo saenz (who had doubled), and made outs until he singled in his fourth at bat of his sixth big league game.  i am sure it was a relief to all to get that joke out of the way.

2010 bowman andre ethier expectations

i believe that ned's expectations for ethier is to enjoy being the fourth outfielder.

2013 topps pro debut matt magill

magill was 0-2 in six starts for the dodgers last season.  this year, he's appeared in a few card releases with an auto here and there, like hamulack up above.  he's yet to be called up to the bigs this year, but there's always september.

a holy post of obligation

when i first started collecting baseball cards, i was a set collector primarily.  even more than a team collector, as i would put the first dodger cards i pulled into the set, and only take a double for my team set.  later, my dad got me into specific player collections, but still - the set came first.  as a result, i put together every topps, fleer, and donruss set from 1978 through 1987 by busting wax. i believe i have all of the topps sets from 1988 through 2008 as well, with maybe about half of those being hand collated. 

more recently, i have gone back and completed the set of my birth year (1970), as well as the 1973, 1976 and 1977 topps sets, and, i am actively working on my 1971 set.  if i were to collect another set from the 1970's, it wouldn't be 1975 (can't stand it) or 1974 (kind of blah in my opinion).  no, it would be the 1972 set.

i probably have a couple of hundred 1972 topps cards (not counting my complete dodger team set and my separate binder with the 1978 topps dodgers as they were featured in 1972), but i did not own one of the most popular cards from the set until recently, however.  that's when matt at heartbreaking cards of staggering genius sent me a copy of the billy cowan card with the strategically placed 'big a' at the stadium formerly known as angels' stadium

it turns out matt had picked up a handful of them at one of my local card shops, just a couple of days after i had been there for the first time.  thanks matt!

meanwhile, captain canuck pulled together a package of dodgers for me which included this beauty - jose pena rocking the knuckleballer's number

pena was sent down in august of 1970, around the time that charlie hough was called up for the first time.  sometime shortly thereafter, hough snagged pena's number in true knuckler fashion.  i was surprised to learn that this is the only jose pena to have played in the big leagues.  seems like there would have been more.  anyway, this is a double so it can go in the 'set' binder if i ever get around to creating one.

the captain also sent me some newer, shiny cards.  like this 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia duke snider card

that absolutely does not contain any sort of memorabilia on it in any way.  still, it's shiny.

here's a 2005 topps pristine steve garvey card

i am a sucker for cards that have that wavy pennant, as in 1965 topps and 2003 upper deck vintage.  and, 2005 topps pristine, i suppose.

here's a card that looks better scanned, a 2006 upper deck future stars eric gagne

the card, in it's natural state, has a lot of red on it.  i prefer the shades of blue.  by the way, in 2006, eric gagne was not a future star.  he was a star on the downward slope, trying to come back from injury.

speaking of the downward slope, here's a 2007 topps insert of luis gonzalez

i believe gonzalez was among the active career leaders in hits back in 2007.  in fact, he got his 2500th career hit as a dodger.  he last played in 2008 for the marlins, and has 2591 hits to his name.  8 fewer than the garv!

here's a 2007 upper deck elements card of rafael furcal

i didn't mind furky, but i am glad davey lopes can wear his number again.

i'll finish up with a 2008 upper deck starquest insert of russell martin

martin's batting average has gone down every season since it peaked at .290 in his fantastic 2007 season.  this year, it is threatening to take it's most precipitous drop yet as he hovers around .200 - currently 32 points lower than his .237 average of 2011.  that's too bad for the yankees.

thanks a lot matt and captain.  i am sure we will do this again soon!

a card lot from the sandlot

i recently completed a trade with joe over at the sandlot.  he had a bunch of autos and game used stuff he advertised and i jumped on the dodgers and twins.

here's a 2007 sp authentic by the letter rookie signature card of andy laroche

if it weren't a dodger, i wouldn't bother - just like shaq's biological.  a messy auto on a manufactured patch artificially numbered to 40 as if it's really scarce.  note that laroche is wearing 66.  the last dodger rookie i recall wearing 66 was paul konerko.  another dodger prospect they traded away.

2006 fleer flair showcase rafael furcal jersey

i still think of furcal as a brave, even though this is his 5th season in la.  he just passed 1500 career hits and will play in his 500th game as a dodger this weekend.  still a brave to me, though.

2006 topps turkey red joe mauer jersey

joe mauer even has the kirby puckett generation of twins fans wearing number 7 jerseys.  in related news, i went to target field twice last week.  it is awesome.  and so is joe mauer.

2006 ud future stars jason kubel auto

it's strange to think that after a breakout season in 2009, kubel is losing at bats to jim thome this year.

2005 topps chrome kevin west auto

kevin west looks to have been a very good minor league player who never got a shot in the big leagues.  he was in the twins organization from 1999 through 2006 and then with the rangers' minor league system in 2007. the next two years saw him playing in the independent northern league.  he had some good seasons for the twins' aaa club, but i gues couldn't break through the shannon stewart/torii hunter/jacque jones/michael cuddyer outfield in the majors.

2007 topps chrome glen perkins auto

perky is the fifth minnesota gopher to play for the twinkies that i can think of off the top of my head.  denny neagle, terry steinbach, dave winfield and paul molitor being the others.  right now perkins is in the doghouse in aaa.

1998 fleer sports illustrated world series fever orel hershiser

with jeff hamilton and rick dempsey lurking.  i like the idea of orel as a new mr. october (and i reject the idea of derek jeter as mr. november).  i wonder if there would have been a market for 'bulldog' candy bars.

thanks joe!