i almost forgot

i got carried away with the 1973 topps cards in my last post, and i forgot to mention that royals and randoms also sent me some other cards, including this shiny 2009 topps roy campanella walmart blaster card

and this green-framed border duke snider card from 2011 topps gypsy queen

and a set need for my 1971 topps pursuit - phillie shortstop larry bowa

a card chock full of lurkers.  seeing this bowa card come in the mail reminded me that larry himself had sent me some stuff a while back.  i had picked up a double of his card from the 2008 topps dodger premium 55-card set

and at some point sent it his way.  he returned it pretty quickly, too.

the auto isn't too different from the one on the 1971 card, either.

thanks josh. and larry!

mos eisley on a baseball card

do you remember what obi-wan kenobi told luke skywalker about mos eisley space port?  "you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainry".  well, that's probably a bit harsh for this card, the dodgers team rbi leaders from the 2008 topps dodgers premium team set that features russell martin, jeff kent and luis gonzalez, but in the case of kent and especially gonzalez, it's not too far off from this dodger fan's way of thinking.

it should be noted that these are the same three guys that led the team in home runs (kent with 20, martin with 19, and gonzo with 15 in a tie with james loney).  and gidps.  martin, who led the team with 87 rbi in 2007, would fall under the category of 'villainry' because of his current status as a yankee.  i don't really blame him for leaving la, although it seemed as though ned was surprised and didn't really have a solid plan for the catcher position this season.

jeff kent had a pretty decent season for the dodgers in 2007 (20/79/.302), but i never really warmed to the idea of him as a dodger.  i think it was because of his time with the giants and his alleged personality, but i'm not sure which held more weight.  he is straddling the line between scum and villainry.

firmly ensconsed in both scum and villainry is luis gonzalez.  his 2007 season produced a line of 15/68/.278, and if james loney had driven in just 2 more runs, this post would not have been possible.  gonzalez's biggest fault, in my opinion, was the way he whined about playing time while at the same time he was blocking none other than matt kemp from being in the lineup more often.  it would have been nice if he had embraced a mentorship role, but he did not.

i suppose if there truly were mos eisley on a baseball card, it would feature that pig-nosed guy, walrus man, and perhaps greedo or the bartender who discriminates against droids.  and that card would be created by the guy who also made this three-dodger card featuring his favorite boys in blue (which is saying something because he's a padres fan).

that guy would, of course, be travis at punk rock paint.  he has a fantastic collection of retro-styled star wars cards that he has created over the last few months that are well worth your time, even if they don't include any of the mos eisley characters yet. 

the hit man cometh, goeth, and signeth

there is some harmonic convergence going on in the next few weeks between this site and my other one, oh my o-pee-chee!  of course, it's because i am making it be that way.  yesterday i featured steve garvey on both sites, and today, it's mike easler's turn.  you may know him by his nickname 'hit man'.

a few years ago, when joe torre took over as the dodgers' skipper, he wanted to bring don mattingly with him to be the hitting coach.  mattingly accepted the job, but had some personal issues to tend to in indiana or wherever.  so, mike easler was tapped to fill in.  in doing so, he got to be included in the 2008 topps dodgers premium team set, that 55 card extravaganza from which i may someday showcase each card.

he had previously served as hitting coach for the brewers, red sox, and cardinals before the dodgers hired him to be a minor league coach for the 2006 season.  he is currently the hitting coach for the buffalo bisons, which is where i sent a copy of his 1978 topps rookie card for him to sign

by the time that card was issued, easler had played in parts of 5 seasons for the astros, angels and pirates.  to further confuse things, he didn't make it out of the minors at all during the 1978 campaign.  he did get to the big club in 1979 and was a member of the pirates' 'family' that won the 1979 world series.  he stayed with pittsburgh until they traded him to the red sox for john tudor in december of 1983, creating the need for the variation card which is celebrated today at oh my o-pee-chee!

there is another mike easler card i think is worth celebrating - his 1982 fleer card

it features the hit man in the visitor's dugout at dodger stadium with a lurking luis tiant (and a dude in streetclothes) in the background.  26 years later, easler was sitting in the other dugout.

voici a vous, hit man! thanks for signing my card!

wreck your life and old 97

if it weren't for manny ramirez, joe beimel would hold the distinction of having the highest jersey number in dodger history.  he wore 97, not because he was a fan of the old 97s (whose album 'wreck your life' is fantastic) but because that was the year his first child was born.

beimel certainly hasn't wrecked his life (he's with the pirates now), but he did wreck his 2006 postseason while with the dodgers by cutting his hand on the eve of the nlds against the mets.  he originally claimed he cut it on a glass in his hotel room, but it was later revealed that he had been out at a bar when it happened.  the dodgers used mark hendrickson as their lefty out of the bullpen in the series instead of beimel, and he appeared in all three games.  he pitched pretty well, although he did let a couple of inherited runners score in game 2, but that was only because brett tomko loaded the bases with nobody out before hendrickson was called upon.

here is one of the very few joe beimel cards i own (and the only one made by topps as far as i know)

it comes from the 2008 topps dodger premium team set, and it celebrates beimel having appeared in more games than any other dodger lefty in a single season - he appeared in 83 games in 2007.  as you can see in the card, beimel had to cut his hair when joe torre arrived in 2008, but at least his long locks were commemorated with a bobblehead giveaway early in the season. 

i was happy to have beimel on the dodgers because he knew how to get barry bonds out.  in his career, bonds was just 1 for 16 against beimel, with 3 walks, 4 strikeouts and a solo home run, but that long ball came when beimel was a rookie in 2001 pitching for the pirates.

here's to you joe beimel (and here's to the old 97s as well)!

the treasure within the 2008 topps dodger factory set and other 'exclusive' cards

in 2008, for the second year in a row, topps issued a dodgers version of their complete factory set.

that's russell martin, hiroki kuroda and andruw jones on the box.  i am turned off by the fact jones is featured, but i looked past that fact and focused on the little yellow triangle in the corner telling me that there was a pack of 5 esclusive dodger cards in the set.

topps had already issued a 55-card 'premium' team set of exclusive dodger cards in 2008

again with andruw on the box!  this set included the dodger stadium card up there in the blog header and in one of my first posts.  i didn't think twice about purchasing this set, so i figured i might as well pick the factory set up as well.

so, here are the five cards topps held out on until the factory sets were issued, and, where applicable, their counterparts from the premium set, just to show how non-exclusive things got back in '08.

gary bennett 

backup catcher extraordinaire.  not such an exclusive card, however, as bennett received a card in the 2008 updates & highlights set.  plus, his card in the 55-card set is pretty similar. 

he played for the dodgers in 2008, which wound up being his final big league season, hitting .190 with a home run.  his lifetime batting average as a met, however, is 1.000 (he went 1 for 1 for the metropolitans in 2001.

esteban loaiza

loaiza pitched in 12 games for the dodgers over parts of the 2007 and 2008 seasons.  he was 2-6 with an era just under 7.00.  topps was really going for the team collector with these cards - i don't think there are too many esteban loaiza collectors out there.  loaiza didn't get a card in 2007 update or 2008 update, so this is fairly exclusive i suppose.  he was included, however, in the 55-card set

with the other standard pitcher's pose.

chan ho park

finally, here's a guy i can remember as a dodger.  twice.  chan ho's return to the dodgers went so well in 2008 that topps gave him a card in 2009, which was nice.  he was not included in the 2008 55-card set.

scott proctor

proctor had a card in the 2007 updates & highlights set and in the 55-card set. 

did you know he was originally drafted by the dodgers, but was sent to the yankees in the robin ventura trade?  i did not.  i did know the dodgers got him back in the wilson betemit trade and that proctor might not have been too happy to be reunited with joe torre whom some felt overused the pitcher in 2006.  still, proctor went undefeated in his dodger tenure - he was 5-0 in la over the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

last, there is mark sweeney

sweeney, like park, got a card in the 2009 topps set.  unlike park, sweeney was also included in the 55-card set. 

like bennett, sweeney finished his career as a dodger in 2008.  he was acquired in a rare trade with the giants during the 2007 season, but didn't show up in the updates & highlights set.  go figure. he wound up hitting .130 in 98 games in 2008 and found himself in the front office the following year.

so, that's it for the 5 exclusive cards in the factory set.  but, there were a couple more dodger cards squirreled away by topps in some other factory sets in 2008.  these were the sets that included rookie cards, and the dodgers featured were

chin-lung hu

who had a card in topps' 2008 series one release and two cards in the 55-card set (here's one of them)

and hiroki kuroda

who also showed up in topps' series 2 set, and in the 55-card set. here's that card, complete with the loaiza factory set pose. 

thanks topps, for your proliferation of exclusivity back in 2008.  and i haven't even got to the blister pack team set yet!

blue heaven

now that yankee stadium is history, dodger stadium is the third oldest stadium in the majors, behind only fenway park and wrigley field. i grew up in socal, and went to my first game in 1974. after that, we would go to a few games each year, always arriving in time for batting practice. i will never forget watching willie stargell, willie mccovey, and others taking bp. when i became a working stiff, i would sometimes have meetings up in glendale, and i would stop at the stadium on the way home in the off season. i would sit in the seats and stare at the field. of course, i also went to several games a year, but these times were different. the field and the stadium were the focus.

this card is from the 2008 topps dodgers premium 55 card set.

i have been on the field a couple of times - camera day as a kid, and for an elton john/eric clapton concert in the early 90's. that time, i walked over to the right side of the infield and scooped up some clay from behind first. sure, it was eric karros' territory and not garvey's, but it was in the ballpark, so to speak. since i moved to the midwest 11 years ago, i have only been back two or three times, but i have taken time each trip to just appreciate dodger stadium. believe me, when your adopted home town team plays in a dome with a hefty bag for an outfield fence, you appreciate a jewel like dodger stadium.

i mentioned before that i collect cards that feature photos taken in dodger stadium. usually it's the bright yellow field level seats that give it away, or sometimes a dodger in his home whites sneaks into the picture of the opposing player featured on the card.

another giveaway is the outfield wall when they featured murals of past teams and players. for example, there's marvin benard of the giants on his 2002 upper deck card playing the outfield as walter alston smiles behind him with the knowledge that the angels are going to beat the giants in the world series and that marvin will be named in the mitchell report.

i don't know if it will be as easy to find these types of cards now that the seats at field level are not quite as bright, but i do know that i won't stop looking.