does raul mondesi regret his tattoo, and other random musings

while it is true that raul mondesi had a cannon for an arm, i wonder if the cannon tattoo visible on his 1998 upper deck card

was fully thought out.  from one angle it looks like a cannon, although the fuse is still lit even though the cannon has discharged, and from another angle one might mistake it for some sort of rocket. or something else, i suppose.

the back of that card is pretty interesting, too, as we have pylons and a car in the background.

i'm also curious about mondesi's 1996 fleer emotion xl card, although it's no fault of his that the emotion fleer slapped on there is 'pounding'

i don't feel pounding.  or tardy, for that matter.  what was fleer thinking?

along the same lines of lack of thought, here are a few other cards that i've scanned without a real purpose. although i suppose you could say that i scanned them for inclusion in a random cards from my scanned folder post, so there was a purpose. whatever.

1987 topps orel hershiser

1990 donruss mickey hatcher

1992 score rookie and traded carlos hernandez

1997 topps stadium club pedro astacio

2007 topps heritage derek lowe

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee scott elbert black parallel

and 2012 bowman chrome prospects jt wise

as in wise enough to not consider 'pounding' to be an emotion?

who carries reggie smith's career torch?

reggie smith's signature is on my short list of favorites.  harmon killebrew used to preach the importance of a nice signature to young twins players, and i can see reggie doing the same to players for whom he served as a mentor.  i recently bought this 2004 upper deck usa baseball 25th anniversary signature card of reggie

for about $3.  money well spent as far as i am concerned.

reggie was a coach for team usa, and for the dodgers, too after his playing days were done.  i wonder which active major leaguer is carrying his career torch...

on october 3, 1982, reggie suited up for a major league game for the last time as a player. unfortunately, he suited up in a giants' uniform, as his 1983 fleer card attests.

smith ended his big league career that day against the dodgers with an 8th inning fly out against former teammate terry forster who, an inning earlier, had allowed a home run to joe morgan that effectively ended the dodgers' hopes of tying the braves atop the national league west to force a playoff.

terry forster pitched through the 1986 season, getting his last taste of big league action on october 2, 1986 as a member of the american league west champion angels.  here's his 1986 fleer update card.

forster pitched two innings that day, getting oddibe mcdowell to ground out to end the 7th and bring an end to his pitching career as well.

oddibe mcdowell, of course, was himself a member of team usa back in 1984 during the olympics held in los angeles.  here's his 1985 topps team usa subset card.

the olympic baseball games were played at dodger stadium (the dodgers wore an olympic patch in 1984), and team usa lost to japan in the final.  there were no medals given, however, as baseball was just a demonstration sport at that time.

one thing about that 1985 topps mcdowell card - when i first opened some packs in '85, i took a look at the couple of checklist cards i had pulled and reviewed the 'hero' numbers to see if steve garvey was given any respect from topps (his 1985 card is number 450, so yes, he was respected) and i saw that card number 400 was oddibe mcdowell.  i followed major league baseball pretty closely, but did not know who this guy was and actually freaked out a little bit that a player i did not know could command such a number on topps' checklist.

back to mdowell's career now.  mcdowell did not play in the majors for three years following the 1990 season, but he made his way back into the rangers' lineup in 1994.  on august 10 of that year, in what turned out to be the final game of the season due to the players' strike, mcdowell went 0 for 2 with a sacrifice.  that sac bunt, against the mariners' jim converse, was the last time mcdowell went to the plate in his big league career.

converse (seen here on a 1995 topps stadium club card)

returned after the strike, and continued to pitch into the 1997 season.  on may 15, 1997, he was with the kansas city royals and relieved jeff montgomery in a game against the tigers.  converse faced four batters that day, the last of which was jody reed who drew a walk.  converse was pulled from the game and did not pitch in the majors again.

jody reed, the man who spurned the dodgers' free agent offer which led to the pedro martinez/delino deshields trade, saw his career end on august 22, 1997 in a laugher against the brewers.  he's a padre (and turning two) on his 1997 topps card

but he was with detroit when he saw the last of his big league action.  the tigers won the game 16-1, but reed was 0 for 2 including a strikeout in the 9th inning against alberto reyes that turned out to be his final big league at bat.

alberto reyes last pitched in the majors in 2008.  i don't think he had too many cards over the years, so here's a 1996 upper deck collector's choice card from early in his career.

he was with the devil rays when he finished a game against the indians on august 5 of that year.  he faced four batters, the last of which was andy marte who struck out to end the game.  he did not appear in any games after that, and about a week later, reyes was granted free agency.  he signed with the mets, but did not make any appearances for them, either.

andy marte stuck with cleveland through the 2010 season (this is his 2007 topps heritage card),

but hadn't played in the majors since that season until he surfaced with the diamondbacks earlier this year.  he hit a pinch-hit home run in his first big league at bat in almost 4 years, but a few days later on august 6, 2014, he struck out against the royals' greg holland to end the game.  marte became a free agent shortly before the end of the season, so  that may well have been his final big league at bat.  if so, then greg holland (seen here on his 2014 topps update card)

will carry the torch for reggie smith (and terry forster).  i'd say his signature has potential.

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!

yeah, i took his cards. big whoop. wanna fight about it?

here are some cards that i took off of topher's hands, courtesy of the crackin' wax 'take my cards' process.  i made a donation to big brothers, chose some cards, and sent in a sase.  it was just that simple.

i was late to the allen & ginter party, so anything prior to 2008 i am not quite sure what i have in the way of dodgers.  i picked up a rafael furcal

and brad penny

card from the 2007 set.  it kind of looks like furcal is posing in front of a map of yellow eurasia.

here's a 2007 topps chrome juan pierre card

i cringe every time i see a version of this card.  the blue jerseys that were worn in games only during davey johnson's reign.  not good.

speaking of not good, that is how i remember luis gonzalez's time as a dodger.  still, i needed his 2007 topps heritage card for the ol' collection

here's another furky, this one comes from 2010 upper deck

i like recalling how this was 'series 1' as if there was going to be another series after upper deck didn't try so hard to obscure logos.

here's a 1987 donruss opening day steve sax card.

and a 1989 donruss orel hershiser '59 and counting' card

i don't recall requesting orel, but a card featuring a dodger juggler is always welcome.  but please don't start sending me your 1989 donruss cards.  those are cards i won't take.

thanks topher!

hoo boy, jason schmidt is ticked

he sure is.  take a look.

and his 2007 topps heritage card isn't even a short print.  perhaps jason is angry that dayf (the guy who sent all of these cards you are about to see, including that schmidt card you've already seen) has to resort to frankensetting topps heritage thanks to short prints and other silly topps' shenanigans.  looks like jason didn't make the cut and got shipped to me instead.  that's ok - i'll give him a good home with his dodger teammates, since i haven't thought about completing a heritage set since 2001.  that will change next year, though.

dayf sent a bunch of nice cards.  i didn't get a sketch of a pony, but i did get some fine dodger goodness.  and dodgers trump ponies.

here's a 1989 topps sticker back of steve sax, back from when steve went to extremes to try to fix his erratic throwing by amputating his right arm at the elbow.

it didn't help.

another '89 card - this one of orel hershiser from fleer

i would mention that franklin stubbs is lurking behind the bulldog, but then i would have to add a 'lurkers' label as well as one for 'stubbs', but blogger only allows me 20 labels per post and i have ocd when it comes to labels.  i plan to max out my label allowance with cards and not waste two on stubbs or his lurker status.  sorry franklin.  but, i will point out (and label) dodger stadium there in the background.

here's another 1989 fleer card.  sort of.  it's saxy again, but it's different from the hershiser card.  it's glossy.

here are the backs, which make the glossy cards easier to identify

i'll skip the 90's and go straight to the aughts.  here's a 2004 donruss studio card of hideo nomo

on clear nights, you can get a pretty good view of downtown los angeles from the first base side of dodger stadium.  only if you're outside the stadium or sitting in the top row, that is.  quick - name the tall building coming out of nomo's noggin.  it's only the tallest building west of the mississippi.  i don't know too many people outside of la that know its name, which is kind of weird and kind of not at the same time.  anyway, that would be library tower, which i knew as first interstate bank world center back in the day.  it's now us bank tower, although it was sold to an indonesian group a few days ago.

next up is dioner navarro and his 2005 playoff prestige card

one would think that navarro went from being a yankee to a dodger, but in doing so they would forget that for a few hours in between he belonged to the diamondbacks.  the yankees sent him to arizona as part of the package in exchange for randy johnson, and later that day the dodgers acquired him in the shawn green deal.  they sent him to tampa bay a few years later for toby hall and mark hendrickson.  this year, navarro will try to catch on (pun intended) with the cubbies.

here's a card that doesn't quite make sense to me.  it's a 2013 topps chasing history insert of hanley ramirez

ramirez reached the 400 extra base hit milestone in 2012.  i had not been aware that this was a milestone that was actively tracked.  anyway, he now sits at 429 extra base hits for his career, which includes 23 as a dodger.  so yes, ramirez achieved the milestone with the marlins.  why not show him a a marlin?  or, if you want to show him in dodger blue, why not use 150 home runs as the milestone, since he did reach that total as a dodger.  this card is like issuing a jim thome home run retrospective and using a photo of him in dodger blue.  thome hit exactly zero home runs as a dodger.  it would be nonsensical.  but i expect topps to do it once thome announces his retirement from the game.

there was another 2013 topps card that i am going to display in the package.  it's an andre ethier chasing history relic card

it appears to be free of spelling errors.

i'll wrap up this thinly disguised trade post with the antithesis of jason schmidt's card up top. it's a 1972 topps bill singer card

and looking at it makes me smile.

thanks for the cards and everything else dayf.  even the ponies.

there's no need to go anywhere else

1971 marked the first time that the photo used on the dodgers team card showed dodger stadium in the background.  here's the 1971 o-pee-chee version of the card, with the team sitting in the first few rows of one of the pavilions.

prior to that, the photo used either came from spring training, or the background was eliminated. in the  1972 set, they were back at spring training, but for the 1973 set, the team was clearly down on the field in chavez ravine, where they have stayed since then.

for 1976, they used the right field corner as their backdrop

as they did in 1977

and 1978, for that matter.  the 1979 card, however, shows them moving slightly towards center field

to capture some of the right field pavilion and even get a couple of palm trees in the photo.

they used the same set up for 1981

which was the last year for team cards for a very long time.

in 2000, fleer brought them back in their tradition set.  

here we have the dodgers still using the right field pavilion and corner as the backdrop, but for the 2000 team photo used in 2001 topps,

they moved to the left field pavilion.

they were back to the right field side for the 2002 topps set

and the 2003 topps set

and the 2004 topps set as well.

for 2006, they not only trotted out their third different team logo panel, but they moved the set up so that their backs are to home plate

they actually made that move first for the photo used in the 2005 set, but i didn't have a scan handy.  you can see the background better on the 2007 topps heritage team card

which uses the same photo that's on the 2007 topps card

which is the last of these types of team cards we have seen, if i'm not mistaken.

i can appreciate the fact that some teams have tried to dress up the drab background that their stadium provides for these photos, like the giants who brought in a cable car (1978 topps) to liven things up inside candlestick.  some teams have gone outside their stadium such as the phillies (who literally went outside of veterans stadium in 1978 topps).  taking things to an extreme, the padres have been to old town san diego (1979), the zoo (1980), and mission bay (1981), and the cubs used floating heads for a few years despite having the ivy as an obvious choice for a backdrop.  the dodgers, however, have stayed in their stadium, and really - why go anywhere else?

i'm looking forward to seeing the renovations on some 2013 series 2 cards!