hand me downs that fit my collection perfectly

i used to receive hand me down clothes from my cousins in the late 1970's.  that was a dangerous time for hand me downs due to the many strange fashions of the time. these days, my hand me downs come in the way of cards, and night owl's unwanted cards are among the ones i appreciate the most.

thanks to the large number of folks who send cards to night owl, he accumulates lots of cool dodger doubles, and so i wind up with some nice hand me downs. should i say hand me downs again, or just show some cards?  right.

2011 topps roy campanella cognac parallel

the mustache was not a good look for campy.  my favorite thing about these retired player short print cards in 2011 was the dirty/aged baseball topps used behind the logo.  it was a nice touch.

2011 topps jonathan broxton diamond anniversary parallel

i must have missed the trade last year that sent broxton from cincinnati to milwaukee.  it's good to see his k/9 ratio is back up with the brew crew, but so is his era, unfortunately.

2008 topps chrome andruw jones xfractor

even andruw jones dodger cards are welcome.  i'm not entirely sure night owl had a double of this one - he may just have wanted andruw out of his house.

2011 bowman platinum prospects allen webster xfractor

webster was part of the big 2012 trade between the dodgers and the red sox. he started 18 games for boston over the 2013 and 2014 seasons, and is now in the diamondbacks organization.

it's not all parallels and shiny stuff that comes from night owl - there are other cool cards like this 1989 jj nissen superstars orel hershiser oddball

jj nissen is a bread company, by the way.

i even accept junk (or is this just trash) cards like this 1995 fleer ramon martinez card

it's still a dodger card, and it might just be one that i need.

here's a 1998 fleer metal universe card of catcher henry blanco

actually, blanco never caught for the dodgers.  he made his big league debut with the dodgers in 1997 and hit a single in his first at bat and a home run in his third, and played third base and first - not catcher.  he spent 1998 in the minors and then began a ten-team journey through the major leagues that lasted through the 2013 season.

here's another backstop who actually did catch for the dodgers - todd hundley on a 1999 upper deck victory card

hundley had two stints with the dodgers, the second of which was pretty bad.

2003 donruss diamond kings odalis perez silver foil parallel

perez was actually worthy of being a diamond king following the 2002 season. he posted the best numbers of his career, winning 15 games with an era of 3.00 and a whip of 0.99.  he also gave us a ball during a game in anaheim in 2006.

2002 topps roy campanella 1952 reprints

and so the post comes full circle, although this is a clean shaven campy.

i've got more night owl hand me downs to show some other time, and i'm pulling together some of my own to send back his way.  thanks greg!

i need a new favorite dodger

it turns out that yesterday was quite a day for the dodgers in terms of player personnel.  gone are dee gordon and dan haren (i already had a post queued up for later today before this other deal was made official) and in are jimmy rollins, howie kendrick, and some relatively unknown marlins.  well, add matt kemp to the list of former dodgers as he was dealt to the padres for yasmani grandal and a couple of other players.

here's kemp's 2006 upper deck rookie card

kemp was my favorite dodger, supplanting nomar.  he was more than that, however, as i referred to him as my baseball salvation - the guy i thought would be anchoring the team for 10 or 15 years.  i traveled to colorado to see kemp play not too long after he was called up. he was hitting around .350 at the time, and he didn't disappoint me, hitting his first career double and driving in a couple of runs.  he hit two home runs in the series finale, and i was hooked.

there probably won't be any 2015 cards of kemp wearing dodger blue, unless he's in the topps flagship series 1 release i guess.  here are some cards from the past, then, to keep my spirits up.

2008 topps chrome refractor

2010 topps triple threads emerald parallel

2010 upper deck jersey relic

2012 bowman's best

2012 topps museum collection

which reminds me that i need to do an official duke snider memorial patch post

2012 topps triple threads

2013 topps mini

and a 2014 topps chrome refractor

there's no doubt in my mind that kemp is now my favorite non-dodger, and that clayton kershaw is my favorite dodger.  there's also no doubt in my mind that i'll be heading to san diego in 2015 to see the bison play.

and now for the tale of disappointment that i expected from a repack

hot on the heels of the pleasant repack experience i had recently (and posted about earlier today), i found myself in target a few days later and bought another one.  i again chose one that showed tim lincecum in one of the windows.  i should not have done that.

here's what was inside, starting with that 2008 topps chrome target t205 lincecum

1989 upper deck ellis burks

1994 fleer ultra glenallen hill

1993 leaf kurt manwaring

1992 donruss triple play albert belle

1989 upper deck tim flannery

1981 donruss keith moreland

1990 donruss terry kennedy

2010 topps tyler flowers

1989 topps glossy all-stars mark mcgwire

1981 topps marty pattin

1996 fleer ultra curt schilling

1981 topps andy hassler

1998 fleer metal universe hideki irabu

1981 topps dick tidrow

1992 classic four sport phil nevin

1981 topps steve stone

1994 topps tony gwynn

1991 upper deck dave bergman

1988 fleer mike moore

1988 fleer mike moore

1992 fleer bj surhoff

1988 fleer earnie riles

1992 fleer eric king

1992 leaf kevin reimer

1985 topps whitey herzog

1987 topps bobby valentine

1989 donruss tom brunansky

1989 topps keith hernandez

1982 topps lee mazzilli

1991 leaf jack armstrong

1991 leaf dwight evans

1987 topps terry kennedy

1991 leaf gary gaetti

1991 leaf barry jones

2006 fleer ultra huston street

1991 leaf greg harris

1987 topps rob wilfong

1991 leaf randy milligan

1991 leaf howard johnson

1991 leaf darren daulton

2004 fleer hot prospects omar vizquel draft edition

2010 topps brett anderson

2010 topps cliff pennington

2010 topps angel pagan

2010 topps kansas city royals

2010 topps casey kotchman

2010 topps toronto blue jays

1989 topps glossy all-stars andre dawson

and the last card of the first pocket, 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts luis aparicio

the other window had this 2012 topps heritage doug fister black border parallel showing

behind it were these cards

1989 topps glossy all-stars ryne sandberg

1991 topps andy hawkins

1991 topps joe boever

1988 score dave engle

1989 upper deck tony armas

1991 donruss jim clancy

1990 fleer award winners ozzie smith

1984 topps darrell brown

1989 donruss bill long

1984 topps rafael ramirez

1991 upper deck brian downing

1987 donruss john shelby

1987 donruss frank viola

1990 upper deck lance mccullers

1991 donruss wayne edwards

2000 ud victory ken griffey jr 

1990 donruss pascual perez

1987 donruss howard johnson

1991 score mike henneman

1990 upper deck bill swift

1989 fleer bob kipper

1991 upper deck norm charlton

1989 score scott terry

1989 upper deck gary green

1993 upper deck jose uribe

1994 topps jimmy key

1991 upper deck alex cole

1992 topps scott aldred

1987 topps pirates leaders

1988 topps john wathan

when's the last time you saw a manager wearing a helmet?

1990 topps traded bobby cox

very poor airbrush job

1995 ud collector's choice ray mcdavid

1989 topps bruce hurst

1991 upper deck brian barnes

1989 topps greg gross

1988 donruss bill buckner

1988 donruss gene garber

1987 donruss brian downing

1988 score mel hall

1988 topps jeff stone

2012 topps addison reed

1989 topps larry parrish

1990 donruss lance johnson

2009 upper deck first edition alex gordon

2009 upper deck first edition jeff samardzija

2009 upper deck first edition alex rodriguez

2009 upper deck first edition josh hamilton

2009 upper deck first edition jj putz

1989 topps glossy all-stars will clark

and the last card of the repack, to put me out of my misery, 1996 fleer ultra frank thomas checklist

i don't think there was even a sniff of a dodger in there.  this repack will probably sour me on buying any more for a few weeks, i would guess.

uh, wait - what? hey! good god those are baseball card boxes!

pay attention to your peripherals, kids.  even when driving on a saturday morning running errands.  you never know when you might be passing by folks setting up a here-to-fore unknown flea market and catch a glance of some familiar white cardboard boxes being added to a table.

that's what happened to me last saturday.  i doubled back after completing my errand (hastily, i might add), and sure enough, my well trained eyes had not deceived me.  there were three or four large white boxes set up - dime boxes at that.  two of the boxes were even sorted by team.  by team!  what a timesaver.

i wound up buying 140 cards for 13 bucks.  it was awesome.

the very first card i saw was this 2008 topps chrome matt kemp xfractor

nice.

there were a bunch of non-team sorted inserts, too.  like this 2013 topps lance berkman cut to the chase die cut card

a 2013 topps opening day aroldis chapman blue sparkly parallel

and a 2010 topps angels/vladimir guerrero gold parallel

i wound up buying about 25 different gold parallels from 2006 topps update, as well as a few gold, emerald, and walmart blue parallels of 2013 topps.

there were some rarely seen sets represented in the boxes like 1999 upper deck victory.  i grabbed some dodgers and a double play card that was new to me.  hello orlando cabrera

let's get back to the dodgers.  here is a nice and shiny 1998 donruss mike piazza fantasy team insert

fellow rookie of the year raul mondesi was represented by this 1999 pacific private stock card

i also picked up a black bordered mini of rafael furcal from 2010 topps allen & ginter

in total, i had found 110 singles featuring dodgers, double plays, memorial patches and a few others that will turn into cards for some of you out there in baseball card blogging land.

the other 30 cards i bought were part of a twins' stadium giveaway set from 2005.  it features 29 of the most memorable twins moments throughout their history.  the 29 tied in with the local station that carried twins Saturday games that year.  can you tell that the station was the twin cities' fox affiliate? yes, the 30th card in the set features homer simpson.  

note that the geniuses who produced the set also misspelled 'collectable' as 'colletable'.  d'oh!

 

here's a look at nine of the cards from the set.  many of the images look like they were tv screen grabs, which makes sense, i suppose.

in addition to the homer card, we have cards commemorating the all-star game at the met in 1965 (the twins also hosted the all-star game in 1985 (at the metrodome) and will host it again in 2014 at target field).  there is also an homage to harmon killebrew's monster home run (which is still honored inside the mall of america), dave winfield's 3000th hit, eric milton's no-hitter (i was supposed to be at that game), bob allison's catch in the 1965 world series that robbed jim lefebvre of a base hit in game 2 (the twinkies beat sandy koufax to even the series at one game apiece), paul molitor's 3000th hit, kirby puckett's home run to win game 6 of the 1991 world series, and the first postseason game in twins history - game 1 of the 1965 world series.

the twins faced, of course, the dodgers in that series.  the photo which was used on this card features dodger reliever howie reed as he pitches to either mudcat grant or zoilo versalles.

back to the allison card for a moment - at target field, the twins have done a great job recognizing the history of the franchise, as well as baseball as a whole in the twin cities and the state of minnesota, too.  there is a wall where they have posted famous quotes and calls regarding the twins, and the dodgers' own vin scully is represented by his call on that catch by allison.  here's a picture i took during a tour of the stadium.

here are the rest of the cards from the set

that's not a bad set - killer, carew, tony o, and herbie pulling ron gant off the base.  not a bad flea market find.

this card almost made my header

when i was putting together the header for this blog just over 4 years and two months ago, i considered including a card of an expo.  specifically, this 2002 topps total orlando cabrera card.

that's why the first time i showed it, i used a photo (like the header) of it rather than a scan.  i considered using it in the header because i thought that it showed a couple other elements of my collection - cards featuring dodger stadium, and cards featuring the double play turn.  in the end, i decided against using it, mostly to keep the header free of non-dodgers.  besides, this version of the play, featured on cabrera's 2002 fleer premium card, 

shows dodger stadium better - that's sandy koufax's outfield wall retired number mural - but was strangely cropped and doesn't show the double play as well.

cabrera's 2002 topps gold label card is quite shiny and shows the same play as well

i know i have shown all three of those cards before, but i can't show one without the others.

here are some o-cab cards that haven't been featured here before.  like his 1999 skybox premium card

his 2003 donruss card

his 2003 topps opening day card

his 2006 topps card

and his 2008 topps chrome card

with refractor!

you may recall that cabrera was the guy who replaced nomar in 2004 and went on to win the world series as the red sox's starting shortstop.  that 'short stop' in boston kind of kickstarted the weary traveler stage of cabrera's career that saw him play for 7 franchises in the next 7 years.

another guy who bounced around a bit was roberto alomar, seen here on his 2003 topps traded card

here he is again on his 2003 fleer double header card

before he was traded to the white sox.  the first time.

cabrera is not alone in regards to his 2002 fleer premium card, either. here is rafael furcal's card from the set, which also has him turning two in dodger stadium

although he's turning two in philly on his 2001 upper deck card

other 2001 upper deck double plays include edgardo alfonzo

warren morris

and pokey reese

who also turns two on his 2001 fleer ultra card

that's not the last we'll see of pokey reese, either.  more double play cards coming tomorrow!