this is no time for jersey swatch measuring

i am well aware that the size of relic pieces embedded in cards, be they jerseys, pants, or bat chips, vary from set to set.  most recently, topps museum collection cards have featured pretty big pieces of bats.  i did find it interesting, however, that the three relics i received in the mail from matthew at bob walk the plank recently featured jersey swatches that got smaller with the newer releases. 

here's a 2002 upper deck sweet spot jersey swatch of kaz ishii

that's a good sized swatch, and a decent design.

in 2005, ishii was still getting relic cards produced, including this 2005 donruss leather & lumber card

but the piece of jersey is smaller.  gotta conserve that fabric for future releases back in japan, i guess.

moving on to 2008, upper deck gave us a tiny piece of fabric on this 2008 ud baseball heroes brad penny light blue parallel relic card

even though it would appear that penny's uniform is comprised of a large amount of fabric.

i'm not concerned about the size of the swatch; i just found it interesting that one might have assumed from this package that relic sizes over time have gone the opposite way of the regular sized soft drink at your local fast food joint.

there was a fourth card in the package, and it was the star.  it wasn't really a relic card - it was this 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic steve garvey 'bat' auto

the best thing about this card is not the garv or the dodger stadium background, it's that the auto won't fade since it's on a wood chip. i've got one in the garvey collection, but this will look nice in the dodger binder next to the don sutton auto.  i could use another one for the dodger stadium collection, too, but i don't want to be considered a hoarder.  would 3 be hoarding?

thanks for another great trade, matthew! i'm sure we'll swap again soon!

the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman, part 2

in the first installment of the evolution of dodger first basemen, we ended with hall of famer eddie murray signing a free agent deal with the mets, making room for someone else on the evolutionary chain.  the dodgers acquired todd benzinger via trade shortly after losing murray, but a rookie ultimately won the job in spring training.

eric karros (1992-2002)

yes, for 11 seasons, karros was the dodgers' first baseman.  that is the longest tenure since gil hodges, who just happened to be karros' dad's favorite player.  karros (shown on his 1992 upper deck card) was never an all-star, but he put up solid numbers.  he won the 1992 nl rookie of the year award with 20 homers and 88 rbi, and had probably his best all-around season in 1995.  that year, he led the dodgers to the postseason for the first time since 1988 with a .298 average and 32 homers and 105 rbi - good enough to win the silver slugger and finish 5th in the mvp voting. he also hit 2 homers with a .500 average in the nlds against the reds, but the dodgers were swept.  following the 2002 season, karros was traded to the cubs, but his name remains at or near the top of many los angeles dodger leader boards today.  karros is the all-time la dodger leader in home runs (270), and he is fourth (behind bill russell, willie davis, and steve garvey) in games played.  he trails only davis and garvey in total bases and doubles, and only garvey in rbi.  karros is also currently the all-time la dodger leader in strikeouts, but matt kemp (should he remain a dodger next year) will pass him as soon as he k's 54 more times.

i suspect that the karros/mark grudzielanek for todd hundley/chad hermanson deal was a salary dump (the dodgers saved themselves over $10 million (if one assumes that karros' option would have kicked in) with the trade, even taking on hundley's salary.  the dodgers had paul loduca behind the plate, so they didn't need hundley, but they did need a first baseman to replace karros.  so, they took the guy who had been playing there for the cubs.

fred mcgriff (2003)

a couple of weeks after trading karros to the cubs, the dodgers signed former southsider first baseman fred mcgriff.  that's his 2003 playoff prestige card, giving a sort of o-pee-chee vibe.  the crime dog had joined the cubs during the 2001 season after it became apparent that the team had gotten rid of mark grace too soon - matt stairs wasn't cutting it as grace's replacement.  mcgriff, who had averaged 30 home runs a season in his previous 16 seasons, needed just 22 to reach 500 for his career, and i sure thought that he would do it with the dodgers.  unfortunately, mcgriff hit only 13 home runs while playing in only 86 games.  in fact, he started only 79 games at first base, with jim tracy using seven other players at first (including ron coomer, robin ventura, daryle ward, paul loduca, mike kinkade, larry barnes, and even jolbert cabrera).  mcgriff returned to the devil rays for the 2004 season, but still fell 7 homers shy of 500.

shawn green (2004)

green, shown playing first on his 2005 upper deck card, had moved to the infield following the team's acquisition of milton bradley just prior to the beginning of the 2004 season.  earlier in spring training, green had worked out at first, but jim tracy said that he would be playing right field once the season began.  so much for that.  2004 turned out to be green's swan song for the dodgers, and he hit 28 homers with 86 rbi and a .266 average.  he also hit 3 homers in the nlds against the cardinals that year.  i was a big shawn green fan even before he joined the dodgers, and i was sad to see him go.

hee-seop choi (2005)

that's a 2005 bowman sterling bat relic card of hee-seop choi, once thought to be the answer for the cubs at first base following the departure of the aforementioned fred mcgriff and some seasoning behind karros.  instead, the cubs dealt choi to the marlins for derrek lee (a good deal as it turned out), and the fish sent choi to the dodgers in the 2004 trade that broke jim tracy's heart.  ok, that might be a bit extreme, but tracy lamented the loss of paul loduca in that trade, and i'm not completely certain that he didn't take some of his frustration out on choi.  choi began the 2005 season as the team's first baseman, and wound up hitting 15 homers with 42 rbi in 133 games, only 78 of which were starts at first base.  choi participated in the home run derby during the all-star break (he had hit 3 homers in a game against the twins in june and 6 in the series against the twinkies) but was essentially just a pinch hitter for tracy following the break.  he lost most of his starts to olmedo saenz in the second half.

nomar garciaparra (2006)

nomah! that's nomar's 2006 upper deck sweet spot update card - not sure why upper deck issued an update to sweet spot, but i'll take it.  there are too few cards of nomar as a dodger.  nomar had never played first base in the major leagues before joining the dodgers, but that's all he played in 2006.  he appeared in 122 games for the dodgers that year, 117 of which were starts at first.  as the nl comeback player of the year, nomar hit .303 with 20 homers, 82 runs scored, and 93 runs driven in.  he made the all-star team and finished 13th in the mvp voting, while helping the dodgers reach the postseason.  despite a move to third in 2007, nomar still played more games at first base, but not as many as james loney, the next step on the evolutionary chain.

james loney (2007-2012)

after four 'one and done' first basemen, loney (shown on a 2008 upper deck baseball heroes relic card) brought some stability back to the position.  he hit .331 as a rookie in 2007 in 96 games (85 of which were starts at first) and also hit 15 home runs.  other than a dip in 2010, loney was pretty consistent in his first few seasons with the dodgers, driving in around 90 runs and hitting in the high .280's.  he was slumping in 2012, batting just .254 with 4 homers and 33 rbi after 114 games played, when he was traded to the red sox in the megadeal that landed the dodgers their current first baseman.

adrian gonzalez (2013-present)

that's gonzalez's 2013 topps finest card, by the way.  gonzalez hit .297 as a dodger during the 2012 season after the trade, and then hit .293 in his first full season with the club.  this year, he is batting just .276 (through this past sunday), but he has eclipsed last year's 22 homers and 100 rbi with 23 long balls and 103 runs driven in so far this year.  i am hoping that he eclipses his postseason numbers from last year as well, as he hit over .300 with 3 homers and 7 rbi in the 2013 playoffs.

and so we have reached the end of not only the dodgers' first baseman evolution, but the evolution of each position.  you can use the 'evolution' label to find the posts for all of the positions (some may be slightly outdated as i began this with a run through the managers over five years ago).  it's been fun tracking the history of the dodgers by position using baseball cards, which was one of the goals i had when i started this blog almost 6 years ago, although that also means i am getting closer to the end.

garv-aholic

everybody's favorite calgarian blogger, captain canuck, recently braved the elements to snowshoe (or did he have to row?) over to the post office and send me some pretty nice dodger cards to feed my addiction.

i will show them now so that his journey of kindness may not have been in vain.

2008 topps triple threads steve garvey

as much as i like seeing garvey on new releases as a dodger, the best part of this card might be the lurking jimmy wynn in the background!

it wouldn't be a proper package from the great white north without some o-pee-chee.  unfortunately, this is a 2009 upper deck opc card of jonathan broxton

instead of a true canadian cardboard sample.  no matter, there were other things in the package to keep my mind off of that situation.  like this 2008 upper deck baseball heroes nomar garciaparra charcoal parallel

nomah!

there were also a couple of 2008 upper deck sp authentic rookie exclusive cards, too.  i don't recall if these were inserts or part of a special set or what.  i think i knew at one time.  anyway, here's ramon troncoso

he can be seen in white sox gear these days.  the other card from that set that i received was of cory wade

wade is currently pitching in the rays' system at aaa.

another dodger with ties to the rays is don zimmer, whose 2005 topps pristine card is safely encased

thanks captain!

red letter (and patch) mail day

i received a few things in the mail one day last week.  there were a couple of individual cards that made me happy.  one was this 1971 o-pee-chee team and text variation of jackie hernandez.

note the red lettering.  the more common version of hernandez's card features yellow text for the pirates' team name.  i have updated the 1971 jackie hernandez post on oh my o-pee-chee! to showcase my version of the card (i had previously been showing an image from comc).  i actually got this card on ebay via a second chance offer.  i had lost the original auction and either the winner didn't pay or the seller had multiple copies.  either way, it was one of just two that i have seen on ebay (for a reasonable price) in a couple of years.

next up is a red patch card from 2008 upper deck baseball heroes featuring chad billingsley

bills is in the process of breaking out this season, so i have a somewhat renewed interest in his stuff.  i had kinda detached myself from him as i figured he would be pitching in saint louis or somewhere like that eventually.  now he looks like a legit number 2 starter.  anyway, this card came in a deal brokered by spastikmooss over at the great sports name hot and i couldn't be happier about it.  i had/have a thing for red dodger patches since that comes only from the jersey number on the front.  i bought quite a few of them in the early 2000's - mostly shawn green and kevin brown - and know now that some may not be legit.  oh well - i still have the greatest red patch dodger card of all time.

thanks tim!

taste like dodgers

i recently completed a trade with taste like dirt.  here is but a sampling of the dodger goodness i received.

1993 upper deck jose offerman

offerman was coming off of his first full season as the dodgers' shortstop in 1993.  i remember hoping that he had forgotten that he had hit a homerun in his first big league at bat and that he would start hitting the ball on the ground more.  but alas, his gb/fb ratio worsened (to a low of 0.78 in his final year as a dodger).  i blame dennis martinez.

1999 fleer tradition roger cedeno

this is awesome.  not cedeno - the card.  cedeno is listed as a met but still in dodgers' clothing.  this card doesn't show up on any team set checklist, so i would never have sought it out. the dodgers sent cedeno to the mets in the deal that brought todd hundley to la (the first time).  like cedeno, he had his better years away from the dodgers, including his 1999 season with the mets when he stole 66 bases and hit .313.

1999 fleer tradition scott radinsky

similar to the cedeno, this radinsky card is really a card on card, as radinsky joined the cardinals as a free agent.  unlike the cedeno card, i actually did seek this card out a few months ago since it's one of the few radinsky cards ever made.

1999 fleer tradition eric weaver

here's another awesome card - awesome in the same way that the cedeno card is awesome (i would never have suspected there was an eric weaver card, let alone one of him in a dodger uniform) but also awesome because we see the outfield fence at dodger stadium.  in particular, we see the homage to the world champion 1959 dodgers.  weaver pitched pretty well for the dodgers in 1998 - he went 2-0 in 9+ innings of work with a 0.93 era and 1.14 whip.  the dodgers traded him to the mariners for scott prouty, a 19 year old prospect who didn't pitch professionally after the trade.  not sure what happened there.

i should note that there was another dodger uniformed/non-dodger affiliated card in the package, but it was bobby bonilla so i won't bother to show it.

instead, here's a 1999 topps dave mlicki

the dodgers acquired mlicki from the mets in the hideo nomo deal.  he pitched fairly well for the blue in 1998, going 7-3 in 20 starts.  the dodgers traded him to the tigers in mid-1999 for some middle relief.

2007 topps heritage wilson betemit

man, the braves seemed to sour on betemit pretty quickly, didn't they?  one minute he was uber-prospect, and the next minute he's being traded for danys baez and the unstable aybar brother.  over at jon weisman's dodger thoughts, references to betemit during his stint with the dodgers were often made with pearl jam's 'better man' included.  i find it interesting that the royals play that song when he comes to bat.

2007 topps update & highlights hong-chi kuo

that's all star hong-chih kuo to you.  it's too bad that kuo is probably scheduled to blow his elbow out any day now.  he has made george sherrill even more obsolete than sherrill has made himself this year.

2008 upper deck baseball heroes nomar garciaparra

ooh - the charcoal parallel.  if only nomar could have swung a hot stick in the playoffs.  he was the tying run in game 2 of the 2007 nlcs and lidge made him look bad.  not just bad, but old.  that sucked.  this card doesn't suck, though.

thanks jim!

the blue and the gray

i never thought i would actually miss the plain white jersey (or 'uniform') swatch, but with these light blue 2008 upper deck baseball heroes parallels (of chin-lung hu,

james loney,

and brad penny)

the away grays actually kind of blend in.  sure, upper deck did well to feature photos of each player in the gray uniforms, but i think in this case i would prefer plain old white.  or a nice piece of the red number on the front.

roll out the relics!

i recently sent ed at roll out the barrel some 1988 topps and probably some brewers, too.  he sent me some 1988 topps and a couple of dodger relics.

2002 upper deck sweet spot classics steve garvey

this is back when garvey's cards were issued as a dodger pretty much exclusively.  now we get a bunch of high end garvey as a padre cards.  bah humbug.

2008 ud baseball heroes chin-lung hu jersey

the baby blue version.

thanks ed!  that was quite a return for what i sent!

wicked cards from wicked ortega

while i don't hear the term 'wicked' very much anymore, i did use it sometimes in my youth to describe something that was 'cool' or 'hip' or even 'groovy'. like these cards from alfredo at my past time...i love it. first is the trade bait that lured me in - a 2008 topps stadium club blake dewitt auto... alfredo also sent the dewitt base... and a bunch of other dodgers, like

2007 upper deck nomar garciaparra

will he play in 2010?

2009 upper deck x matt kempwill he improve upon his 2009 gold glove/silver slugger season in 2010?

1981 topps dusty bakerwill he lead the reds into contention in 2010?

2009 topps chrome orlando hudsonwhere will he take his gold glove in 2010?

2008 upper deck baseball heroes brad penny mustard parallel where will he take his first-half decency/second-half meltdown in 2010?

and, a 2009 upper deck 20th anniversary insert featuring the hhh metrodome it won't be doing much of anything baseball related in 2010, that's for sure.

thanks alfredo. glad you enjoyed the marlins i sent.

recent additions

i picked up some 2008 singles at the local shop the other day, hard to beat 12/$1.

here's hoping lowe can continue his postseason success tomorrow against the phillies...

matt kemp is my baseball salvation.

glad to have you back, raffy.

glad to have you on the dl, andruw. i almost didn't buy this card because i hate to support colletti's worst signing (so far), but i cheer for the name on the front of the jersey, so...

glad to have you on the bench, jeff. just be sure to channel your inner gibson when the time comes.

sorry you can't be a part of this, brad.

thanks for the memories, mark.