the cuts are legendary in the next installment of sheets from the steve garvey binders

the first five cards of sheet 64 in the steve garvey binders feature a photo (well, two photos) of him wearing the dual-ear flap batting helmet.  if i were to ever have a conversation with garvey, i would ask him about wearing that type of helmet that was usually reserved for switch-hitters and amateurs.  here is sheet 64:

those cards are:

1. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts baseball chronology materials relic
2. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /225
3. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /199
4. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /99
5. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /15
6. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts memorable moments materials relic /225
7. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts when it was a game silver /550
8. 2006 upper deck ultimate collection ultimate ensemble signatures quad auto (with ron cey, don sutton, and dusty baker) /25
9. 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /199

looks like padre relics on cards 1 and 6 (which are dodger cards), which always bugs me a bit.  there are a number of other parallels, and a relic version of card 7, that i am missing from the 2006 legendary cuts set.  the 2007 legendary cuts set has two versions of the legendary materials cards for garvey - one is a padres version and the other is the dodger version that i have.

here are the backs:

moving on to sheet 65:

those cards are:

1. 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials dual relic /125
2. 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts masterful materials relic
3. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic /575
4. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic classic memorabilia relic
5. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic classic memorabilia patch relic /55
6. 2008 dodger pocket schedules (with james loney)
7. 2008 donruss threads
8. 2008 donruss threads century proof silver parallel /100
9. 2008 donruss threads jerseys relic (yellow swatch) /150

so there is the padre version of the legendary materials card, although it is the dual relic version.  there are also quad relic versions of both the dodger and padre cards, but i don't have either.  i was disappointed back in 2007 to see garvey as a padre in the sweet spot classic base set and jersey insert checklist, but at least they got the relic swatches matched up with the team this time.  and, at least they had garvey as a dodger on the signature cards in the set (more on those in a future post).

i suppose that the pocket schedule really belongs in the oddball binder, but it fits nicely here in a 9-pocket page, so here it remains.  there are a number of versions of the schedules with then-current dodgers and past dodgers matched by position as is the case with loney.

here are the backs:

you can see on the back of card 8 that i have the /100 version of the donruss threads parallel, and that i am still looking for the /250 version.  that card is target number 1 on the nefarious 9.

seventy? seriously?

this is crazy, but don sutton - the lone hall of famer from the team of my youth - turns 70 years old today.  to celebrate, here are seven cards of his that i've not shown before.

2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts

2005 donruss throwback threads

2005 upper deck sp legendary cuts

2013 panini hometown heroes rivalry

1987 o-pee-chee box card

2007 upper deck sweet spot classic relic

2012 panini cooperstown credentials

as you can see, i don't discriminate when it comes to sutton - i'll take angels, a's, brewers, and even astro cards featuring the curly haired hof'er.

if it's sutton's 70th birthday, that means that it is also reggie smith's 70th birthday.  unfortunately, i am ill prepared with reggie's cards as he doesn't appear in many modern sets like sutton does.  i'll have to make it up to the right fielder of the team of my youth another time.

happy birthday to two of my favorite dodgers!

oh my sweet wesley, please tell me this is here to stay

there will be plenty of time to show the fronts of some of the 2015 topps cards that i bought last night, but i was pretty amped about something i saw on the backs; amped enough to post about it first.  here's a random jesse hahn card back

do you see what i see? above the card number?

has topps finally realized that putting the set information on the back of the card is an enormous service to collectors?  this is one of the first things that i would do to improve cards - maybe right after photo selection, or even before.

i was so pleased in 2007 when upper deck started identifying their sets on card backs (here's the back of a don drysdale card from '07.

can you tell what set the card is from?  of course you can - it's from 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts. upper deck wisely added this information to their inserts, too, which has been a huge help to me as i retroactively go back and organize cards from their last 4 years of existence in the baseball card business.

as you all know, with all of the inserts out there, let alone the number of individual sets, it's really tough to keep everything straight and organized properly. that's why i was excited about this development.  yes, topps has done it sporadically on some of their manufactured patch inserts in recent years, but i was hopeful that this was a sign of a complete labeling shift on their part.  hopeful until i looked at the backs of the 2015 topps inserts i pulled, that is.  no set information on those.  bugger.  try harder topps!

first, there was a turn of two

i recently completed a trade with brad's blog that i initiated after seeing not a piece of dodger trade bait, but rather a 2012 topps chrome sepia parallel of jason kipnis turning two

i didn't have a dp sepia parallel in the dp collection (it's numbered to 75) and i don't think i had previously traded with brad.    those are two good reasons to trade right there.  and, after looking around, i saw that he had a few nice dodger items on his trade bait page.  before we get to those cards, here are a few other dodgers that brad added to the pot.

1999 topps mark grudzielanek mvp promotion

i had never seen or heard of these cards prior to opening the package.  they were randomly inserted into series 1 and 2 packs - 100 of each card.  if the card you pulled matched the player determined by topps to be the 'mvp of the week', you could redeem the card for a complete set of mvp of the week cards.  sounds like upper deck predictor or crash the game stuff to me.  to find out who the mvp's were for any given week, you had to check topps' website. since this was 1999, topps also gave you the option to call a toll-free number.  i am guessing that grudz was not named a mvp of the week by topps.

here's the back of a 1996 fleer ultra todd worrell card

because the front only had one photo of worrell, and who doesn't think that three images are better than one?

well, then, how about 5 and a half photos of kevin brown on this 2000 upper deck ionix card?

granted, 4 and a half of those are the same.

on to the trade bait.  first, here's a 2004 donruss world series orel hershiser jersey card

something i have noticed over the years is that bulldog autos and (most of the time) relics have held their relative value.  i haven't come across any in the bargain 'hit' bins to be sure.

2011 topps chrome ivan dejesus jr auto

i appreciate the fact that he embellishes his autograph, not with his uniform number, but with 'pr' for puerto rico, his birthplace.  i wonder if anyone ever told dejesus jr that history repeats.  his dad signed his first professional contract with the dodgers and was later traded away as part of a deal for mike garman and rick monday.  not quite 40 years later, dejesus jr is drafted by the dodgers and later traded away in a deal for josh beckett, carl crawford, adrian gonzalez, and nick punto.  hopefully history repeats again, and dejesus jr is able to land somewhere (he's currently a free agent) and have a productive career like his old man.

the last bit of cardboard to showcase is this 2007 upper deck legendary cuts bill madlock relic

we don't see too many dodger cards of the mad dog, so it was nice of upper deck to make a couple back in 2007.

thanks for the trade, brad! let me know when you get the dodger trade bait replenished!

from alston to young to me from someone, part 2

while i was able to determine who sent me the 'anonymous' package the other day, there are still a bunch of cards to show off from the 150 dodgers that were included.  the cards were packaged alphabetically by last name, so this post will focus on the second half of the alphabet.  here's a 1997 fleer golden memories card of hideo nomo

it, of course, highlights his no-hitter at coors field in 1996.  it might be the only card to also reference a player's 'wa'.

here's a 1999 fleer tradition warning track card of carlos perez

apparently playing fetch in dodger stadium.  i miss the outfield wall murals.

did you know that juan pierre was fast?  upper deck figured that out and included him in the 2007 sp authentic 'authentic speed' insert set

rafael furcal is also in the set, so i guess i need to track him down now.

i had never heard of 1993 upper deck diamond gallery until a short time ago, and here's a mike piazza card from that set

he looks a bit like an unfrozen caveman lawyer who is being thawed out after falling into a crevasse.  phil hartman, you are missed.

also missed is johnny podres, seen here on a 2005 donruss greats card.

i need to see if i have all of the dodgers from this set.  it's very nicely done.

there were a few ismael valdes cards in the box, including this nice 1998 fleer ultra gold medallion parallel

it's strange to see dodger stadium in a montone color like that.

i was going to end the post with this 1999 fleer tradition warning track card of valdes tipping his cap

but i figured i would go all the way to the end of the package's alphabet.  that means that this 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts maury wills card

gets to see some blog time, as does this 1999 bowman eric young international parallel.

so there you have it, a sampling of the cards i received from eutaw street cardboard.  good stuff.

mad dog 12 12

bill madlock was a four-time national league batting champion, and he toiled for the dodgers toward the end of his career.  the mad dog actually hit pretty well after being acquired late in the 1985 season - .360 - and helped the dodgers get to the nlcs.  he hit .333 with 3 home runs in the series against the cardinals, too.  he was with the dodgers in 1986 and part of 1987, as well, but is not usually remembered as a boy in blue.

brad's blog recently picked up some relics in one of thorzul's breaks, and we worked out a trade.  i received this card from 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts

and this jeff kent card from 2008 upper deck spectrum

both of these guys wore number 12, hence my attempt at a clever title for this post.  thanks for the trade,  brad!

in other news, today is the day i feature the fantastic bill madlock 1977 o-pee-chee variation over at oh my o-pee-chee.  go ahead, check it out!

it's a hoot-enanny!

whenever cards arrive from the night owl.  i know there will be some nice dodger hand me downs in the package, and the latest envelope, received just a couple of days ago, didn't disappoint.  i had sent greg a couple of smaller packages over the last few weeks, trying to knock cards out of his nebulous 9 listing, and then sent a bigger box just last week - the same day he mailed this envelope to me!  good times.  anyway, on to the cards!

1996 pinnacle denny's hologram hideo nomo

the absolute coolest thing about this card isn't the hologram (that part is not very good to be honest). rather, it's that scout mike brito is featured!  he's the figure standing over the catcher's (is that piazza?) right shoulder, with the panama hat and radar gun.  that was his office until the mccourt's renovated dodger stadium and got rid of those true field level seats.  i also think that it's cool that someone, somewhere ordered a grand slam 13 years ago so that i could one day own this card.

1982 kellogg's dusty baker

the 3-d effect on these cards is about as lame as the hologram on that denny's card.

2006 upper deck national pastime nomar garciaparra

any excuse to post a dodger card of nomar.  this was one of those cards distributed on national baseball card day if you remembered to go into your local shop that day.  if you had a local shop, that is.

2008 topps chrome derek lowe blue refractor

i drool over dodger blue refractors.  very purty.

1999 fleer ultra raul mondesi

one of the few 1999 fleer ultra dodger cards not featuring a dodger stadium based photo.  here, raul is showing us how alfonso soriano will one day play the wrigley outfield.

2007 ud sp legendary cuts roy campanella

i'll bet roy was a badass.  3 mvp awards in 5 seasons - the only dodger catcher to win an mvp award, although...

this guy should have.  1998 pinnacle mint mike piazza

yes, larry walker had a monster year in 1997.  but if the voters overlooked dante bichette in 1995 in favor of barry larkin, then why not do the same in 97?  plus, now that we know what we know about ken caminiti, piazza should have won the 1996 award, too.  although there may be things we don't know about italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza, the strongest man in so-cal.

we'll end it with a truly cool card - 2010 topps matt kemp walmart black version

i am not a fan of the gimmicks and the walmart/target exclusives in general, but this card kicks ass.

thanks greg!  hope there were some good cards in amongst the stuff i sent your way!