garvey cey russell lopes: 2008 topps opening day

Showing posts with label 2008 topps opening day. Show all posts

06 October 2014

a black armband for cory lidle

in just a few days (five to be exact), it will be the 8th anniversary of yankee pitcher cory lidle's death. lidle died on october 11, 2006 after the small plane he was co-piloting hit a building in new york city. back then, topps' update set came out later in november (i believe that this year's release should show up in stores in about a week), and they were able to add an in memoriam card for lidle to the 2006 update & highlights checklist.

that is significant because i don't believe that topps had done this since a. bartlett giamatti died in 1989 and they included a card in the 1990 set, and not for a player since ken hubbs in 1964. i realize that there was no update set in 1978 or 1979 when lyman bostock and thurman munson died, respectively, but topps didn't do one of these cards for them the following season, either.

anyway, the yankees honored lidle by wearing a black armband during the 2007 season. this classic combo card from 2007 topps update & highlights shows jorge posada wearing the armband during the all-star game

and here's a card of chase wright from the same set, also displaying the armband

2007 bowman's best was released even later than update - coming out in january of 2008. this alex rodriguez card from that set

shows the armband, but it kind of gets lost with all of his armor nearby.

obviously, most of the cards with this particular armband come from 2008. like these 2008 bowman

and 2008 upper deck piece of history cards

of hideki matsui, and this 2008 topps kei igawa card

plus this 2008 topps opening day ross ohlendorf card

and these two cards from 2008 upper deck first edition - bobby abreu

and a really nice andy pettitte

and then there is this 2008 upper deck robinson cano card

featuring double play action!

since the cano is in my double play binder, and the armband on the pettitte card is just a bit too unpronounced, here's the card that represents the cory lidle armband in my collection - it's a 2008 upper deck alex rodriguez season highlight card

the card celebrates arod's 500th career home run, although the photo does not come from that game (that game was not on espn, and if you watch video of the home run, the armband is not this visible). still, i know that the photo comes from 2007 since this was the first time the yankees had worn the armband since 2001 (when arod was on the rangers), and the 2008 version of the armband (worn for bobby murcer) would have been worn below the final season of yankee stadium patch.

lidle's last appearance came on october 7, 2006 in the final game of the alds series against the tigers. the yankees were eliminated in that game, and lidle pitched 1.1 perfect innings in relief before failing to get an out in the 5th inning and ultimately allowing three runs to score. lidle was 34 years old when he died.

11 April 2014

mike piazza final tributes!

this card is not a mike piazza final tribute, but it is fantastic.

it comes from 1997 topps gallery and is a 'photo gallery' insert card. dodger stadium serves as a perfect backdrop for this or any other baseball card. that's one reason why i think that it's too bad piazza didn't return to los angeles for a farewell tour of sorts, because most of his final tributes wound up with the oakland coliseum dugouts in the background instead of chavez ravine.

like his 2008 upper deck card

the yellow paint is a giveaway for the a's home stadium. as is the sewage on the dugout floor, but you can't see that on these cards. upper deck gave us piazza's complete career stats on the back

although they didn't give his 1998 three-team travels three separate lines like topps usually does. what if i want to know how many hits he had as a marlin?

here's his 2008 upper deck first edition card - front

and back

pretty much identical to the flagship, except no foil.

at least the 2008 topps opening day set had different colored borders than the topps flagship. here's piazza's opening day final tribure

with his complete career stats on the back

including individual lines for each team in the 1998 season.

and here's the topps flagship version

look at those dodger seasons from 1993 through 1997.

monstrous. when piazza was traded to the marlins, i was ticked. then when he was traded to the mets a few days later, i was disappointed because he failed to homer as a marlin. i knew that there would be an odd looking zero on the back of his cards, and there it is. at least he tripled for the fish.

the strongest man in socal also got a card in the 2008 topps heritage set, which used a different background

it's nice to see some arizona landscape for a change

piazza's last season was his only season in the american league, and i think everyone knew that it would be his final campaign. he stuck with the a's all year, and in his final appearance (game 162), he started a game winning rally against the angels with a leadoff single in the bottom of the 9th. he was removed from the game for a pinch runner, and i hope he was given a standing ovation.

i, of course, think of piazza as a dodger, so here are a couple of cards that are more pleasing to me than those showing him in green and gold. this one is from 1997 pinnacle fan fest

and this one is from 1997 upper deck collector's choice.

i'd say it's high time that piazza starts appearing in some new releases, and i hope that he does so as a dodger.

03 November 2013

more dime box double plays by proxy

earlier today i showed a hall of fame third baseman turning two, thanks to nick of dime boxes. now, here's a very good hitting third baseman also turning two. again, the card comes courtesy of nick (as do the rest of the cards in this post), but this time the subject is gary sheffield on a 1991 fleer ultra card.

looks like carney lansford has broken up the dp attempt. but wait, you say. sheffield played only third base in 1990, and only appeared at shortstop in 1988 and 1989. well, thanks to the number on sheffield's jersey, we know that this photo is from one of those two seasons (he switched to 11 for the 1990 season). i would guess that the featured play took place on mother's day 1989 - may 14. in the second inning, lansford reached on a single but was forced out (3-6) on a stan javier grounder.

less interesting, but still a turn at two, here is a 2004 fleer tradition d'angelo jimenez card

a 2005 fleer ultra david eckstein card

a 2007 topps omar vizquel card

a 2008 topps opening day mark loretta card

a 2010 topps jason bartlett walmart black card

a 2012 topps mike aviles card

a 2012 topps reid brignac target red card

a 2012 topps stephen drew card

and, finally, a 2013 topps ian desmond target red card

thanks again for being my dime box proxy nick!

21 July 2012

a couple of crazy canadians

zane smith isn't really canadian - he hails from georgia (the state, not the country in the former soviet union) - but he pitched for the montreal expos for a few years. his 1990 upper deck card saw him sporting the expos' colorful uniforms in colorful dodger stadium.

that made for a card that i needed to own, and bo at baseball cards come to life came through for me. i am pretty sure i have a complete set of 1990 upper deck back at my parents' house, so i had most likely seen this card 22 years ago. if so, i was reminded of it by a post at baseball card bust and i quickly added it to my bonus card list on the nefarious 9. thanks bo!

bo also sent me a frank robinson autographed card that was issued by canadian club whiskey in 1996

too bad the photo is from his cincy years, and not his lone year in dodger blue. this is the first frobby auto that i own. i would like to get him to sign his 1973 topps card, but probably won't ever bother to pay the price to do so.

i don't own any mark grudzielanek signed cards, either, but i doubt he signs his full name anyway. maybe he does like billy grabarkewitz and just goes with the last initial.

that's a nice 2000 topps stadium club card there with just a touch of the old field level scoreboard in view. grudzy's 2002 topps heritage card is a little less appealing.

i think someday will venture down to vero beach and see if i can find those trees that have been on more dodger cards throughout the years than i care to count.

i'm showing the back of this 60 years of topps reprint from 2011 topps because i actually do not care for the front at all.

you see, i was so looking forward to 1994 topps specifically for the mike piazza card. when it came out, i was pretty peeved that topps used almost the exact same photo they had put on his 1993 topps traded card. and the color seemed washed out, too. so disappointed. very little effort there by topps. the strongest man in socal deserved better, and so did i, dammit!

moving on to a 2008 topps opening day card of andy laroche.

i might like the opening day cards better than the flagship. and i don't care for the opening day cards at all. 2008 topps may be the worst looking topps set ever. don't worry, though, i'll leave the ranking of the sets to others.

i'll finish up with a couple of cards from 2007 fleer ultra. here's jason schmidt

schmidt tried his best, but was able to make only 6 starts for the dodgers in 2007. he won his first start and also pitched well in his fourth start (which came after a stint on the dl), but the rest were not too good. he missed all of 2008 and came back to go 2-2 in 4 starts during the 2009 season. the last pitch he threw as a major leaguer hit craig counsell to force in a run. that's not how anybody wants to go out.

here's andre ethier's card from 2007 ultra

with his spring training number. i think matt kemp was 65 for a while in the spring. once ethier made the team, he took number 16 to continue the asu/dodger tradition.

as you can guess, this has been a thinly veiled trade post - all of the cards shown here were provided by bo. thanks for another great trade!