dodgers walking the plank

i recently completed my first trade with the overly generous and world cup of trading champion matthew from bob walk the plank.  there was so much to enjoy in the cards that he sent.

this is a 2011 panini limited shawn green auto

it's only the second autograph card of a guy who at one time was my favorite non-dodger and then my favorite dodger that i have in my collection.  the back of the card mentions dodger broadcasting legend and hall of famer vin scully and green's monster 4-home run game in 2002 - a game which i attended.  good stuff.

there was another auto in the package - this 2014 topps museum collection ricky nolasco card

topps went all-in with nolasco in their 2014 releases, even though he signed with the twins in the offseason.  the result is an abundance of signed nolasco dodger cards, of which i now have two.  nice.

there were some regular ol' base cards sent along as well, like these cards from 2014 topps opening day:

yasiel puig

carl crawford

and clayton kershaw

kershaw chose not to stick his tongue out for the camera like the other two

matthew reached back to 2009 as well, sending a few dodgers from the 2009 topps 206 set.  here's chad billingsley

who will hopefully anchor the back end of the rotation in 2015.

andre ethier

with andrew friedman in the loop, i wonder if ethier will lose his fourth outfielder spot in favor of joc pederson.  ethier's got 3 years and over $50 million left on his contract, so he may very well stay.

matt kemp

kemp's got 5 years and over $100 million left on his deal.  his agent is now the gm of the diamondbacks, which might make me nervous if his contract weren't so large.  kemp is the kind of guy that i would really like to see wear dodger blue until he retires.

rafael furcal

speaking of retirement, furky finally made it back from injury to appear in a handful of games with the marlins last season but is a free agent and may be looking at the end of the line.

here's a james loney relic from the set as well

loney is not doing too badly in tampa - he hit .290 last season and played decent defense - and i still hold him in high regard thanks to that grand slam he hit in the 2008 nlds against the cubs.

last, but certainly not least, here is the first card in my collection from the 2013 leaf memories buyback set.

it's a 1991 leaf darryl strawberry buyback stamped 3/5.  3/5 is appropriate because 3 is the number of seasons that darryl played for the dodgers out of the 5-year contract to which they signed him.  following a fairly productive season in 1991, he saw limited playing time in 1992 and 1993, and was released without playing for the team in 1994.  still, a nice card to cap a great trade.

thanks for the cards matthew!

waiting for bills

i hope you didn't overdo the spending this past holiday season.  i think i did ok, so the title of this post isn't in reference to having to pay the piper in january.  rather, it refers to the lack of a healthy chad billingsley on the dodger roster.

i was at the game in august of 2012 wherein billingsley was injured.  as he walked off the mound in the fourth inning, i hoped that it was nothing serious.  he wound up missing the rest of the season.  billingsley was able to avoid surgery, however, and returned in april of last year.  two starts into the season he was shut down and underwent tommy john surgery.

billingsley will start the 2014 season on the 60-day dl, but should be back in time for the stretch run.  it would be great for the dodgers to get a pitcher of his caliber at that time in the season, so i hope he comes back, and comes back healthy and effective.

i have a bunch of billingsley cards that i've scanned at one time or another that haven't made it to print yet.  today is their lucky day.  this one is from 2009 topps ticket to stardom, and it features billingsley, a piece of his jersey, and a piece of a dodger game ticket stub.

this is the second one of these that i have - the other one looks the same but the ticket stub is from a different game - one in which billingsley actually started.  i assumed that they were all that way, but the game that this stub is from was a brad penny game.

here's a bills rookie card from 2006 upper deck update. 

that set has a few key dodger rookies in it - broxton, kemp, ethier, martin.  i recall buying a couple of packs when it hit the shelves, but didn't really pay much attention to it.  when i went back a couple of years ago to fill my dodger team set, i lamented the fact that i hadn't bothered to buy more packs at the time.

here's a 2010 topps turkey red insert

i am glad that we've seen the last of the turkey red cards.  except that i just remembered that they were still around in 2013 - you just had to go online to buy them.

this is a 2011 topps update toppstown insert

are we done with these, too?  i miss a base set without a ton (or any) inserts.

i sent some cards to billingsley back in 2010, and he signed them for me in fairly short order.

2007 fleer

2007 topps

2009 topps 206

and 2009 upper deck sp legendary cuts

billingsley has a pretty hefty team option on his contract for 2015, and his uncertain status makes it all the more tempting for the dodgers to pay the buyout.  like i mentioned up top, i hope that he comes back healthy and effective, and makes his contract decision a little tougher for ned.

thanks for signing my cards chad!

there is no photo of the netherlands' female field hockey team in this post

sorry fanboys.  these are just some cards that i received from jeroen, the dutch card guy.  night owl used some fancy imagery to peak your interest in his post about cards he received from jeroen, but i won't do that here. 

i will wait for you to return from night owl's post, however.

ok, here we go.

i didn't get the shiny goods that greg did, but i did get a 1983 dodgers police dave stewart

and bob welch

i went to the games at which these sets were given away the first few years.  i had a love/hate relationship with the cards - really the only thing i didn't like was the size.  i am always curious how some people have one or two of these lying around.  i never considered breaking my sets up, but then again, i am a dodger collector.  these days, i do have some garvey singles in my garvey pc, but i still have the complete sets, too.

moving on, here's a 1987 indiana blue sox broder card of general soreness, mike marshall

and here's a fully licensed 2009 upper deck sp authentic card of matt kemp

remember when upper deck had a license to feature logos?  that was nice.  usually.

i didn't participate in the golden giveaway thingy last year, probably because i didn't buy any packs until update came out.  jeroen sent me a sandy koufax adorned code card which is nice

i might have to look for one of those cards on the secondary market.  it looks nice and shiny.

i'll end this trade post with a 2009 topps 206 james loney card

actually, i'll finish with a link to some photos of the netherlands' female field hockey team.  i'm sure james loney understands.

what's this guy doing here?

i recently picked up a few lots of dodger autos and relics on the cheap.  in amongst the dodger goodness of one lot was this 2011 bowman platinum auto of clint robinson

clint robinson happens to be a member of the kansas city royals' organization.  he debuted this past season and was dfa'd just a few days ago.  bummer.

on to the dodger stuff - there was this 2009 topps 206 autograph of scott elbert

i get elbert and eric stults mixed up all the time.  elbert is still with the dodgers while stults is down in san diego.

there were also a couple of cards from 2009 topps ticket to stardom.  first, here's a chad billingsley jersey and ticket stub card

topps makes this too easy.  on june 22, 2008, chad billingsley got the win against the indians.  i was totally not expecting that - kudos to topps for matching up the ticket stub with the appropriate player.  as an aside, the dodgers' starting second baseman that day was someone named luis maza.

now let's check out this russell martin card from the same set

on june 10, 2008, russell martin was 3 for 5 with 3 rbi as the dodgers beat the padres 7-2.  not sure who's rear that is on the padres' ticket stub, but greg maddux started the game for the pads.  the leg kick looks too high to be maddux.  the dodgers' starter that evening was clayton kershaw, who was making his 4th career start.  neither pitcher figured in the decision.

here's a 2009 tristar projections josh lindblom auto

tristar did not project that lindblom would be traded to the phillies for a shane victorino rental.

also from 2009, here's an upper deck sp authentic james mcdonald autographed card

hindsight is 20/20, but this was another bad trade by ned. he sent mcdonald and andrew lambo to the pirates in 2010 for octavio dotel.  a month and a half later, ned flipped dotel to the rockies for a non-prospect minor league outfielder.

here's a prospect that ned hasn't traded away yet - angelo songco - on a 2001 donruss elite card

songco might make the jump to aa this year.  i hope he is able to bounce back from his leg injury that limited his production last year.

finally, we have an andre ethier relic card from 2011 topps update

it's from one of those workout jerseys that only exist to populate relic cards that wind up going for cheap in a team lot.  like this one.

looks like i won my own contest

not too long ago i had a contest for a 2004 upper deck legends 'timeless teams' pedro guerrero autographed card.  the card was won by spiegel from nomo's sushi platter, and he turned around and sent me some dodger cards just because.  and, lest you think that the contest was rigged, i assure you that had that been the case, a non-dodger collector would have won so that i could maximize the dodger haul in return. 

here are some of the boys in blue that were sent my way, starting with a 2009 topps 206 pee wee reese

i have mentioned many times that topps needs to get some new photos of pee wee, jackie and the duke if they are going to keep making cards of them.  at first glance, i was happy to see this image, but then i realized that it is just a more closely cropped version of the staged double play turn topps has used on other cards, most recently (i believe) a 2010 vintage legends insert.

staying in 2009, here is a shiny red (yes, red) 2009 upper deck icons card of matt kemp

those in the know call it 'retail red' so maybe it was from target or walmart or some such retail only issue of the product.  i had not seen one before, so i am happy to have it in my collection.

i am still in need of some cards to finish the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee set.  here's a nice black bordered card that spiegel included

looks like daric barton is searching for droids down on tattooine.  i wonder if he ran into brooks robinson down there.

there were also a few double play cards in the package, like this 2000 topps stadium club miguel tejada

with a nomar sighting!

plus a couple from 1993 upper deck - lou whitaker

and bill doran

and, it wouldn't be a double play post without a walt weiss card.  this one's from 1992 donruss

thanks for the cards spiegel! and thanks for winning my contest!

cards i got from carl crawford cards for sending a non-carl crawford card with carl crawford on it

is it ironic that carl crawford is a foreground lurker on this 2011 topps update elliot johnson 1/1 printing plate card that i picked up for paul at carl crawford cards?

who cares?  all that matters is that he got his card and i got mine, this very pretty 2009 topps 206 jackie robinson relic card

paul dangled this out there for the person who could pry the johnson plate away from an ebay seller.  i took the bait.  paul also sent a few dodgers along for the ride, including a 1960 topps jim gilliam card

complete with pen swirls - the kind you make when you're trying to get the pen juices flowing - and this 1996 upper deck spx eric karros card

hologram goodness!  as usual, there were also a couple of packs of junk wax.  1988 donruss, to be exact.  still, there were a couple of cool cards in the pack, like this atlee hammaker card

featuring a picture of the grand-slam allowing all-star sitting in dodger stadium, and this franklin stubbs card

just because he's a dodger.

there was also a pack of 1988 topps uk minis, and i pulled this charlie hough card

man, if brits and the irish couldn't get excited about seeing a guy like charlie hough on a card, i don't know what would get them interested in baseball.

thanks paul!  i'll keep an eye out for some more headhunting requests...

january joe collector box break loot

i should be getting the february cards fairly soon, so i need to show off what came my way via the january breaks hosted by jeff at i am joe collector.

2007 upper deck exquisite nomar!

i honestly don't know why upper deck is so opposed to using a baseball diamond as the background on their non-flagship cards.  especially when all of their other designs are variations on an 'x'.

2007 upper deck exquisite dual auto - glen perkins and alexi casilla

casilla got the big hit in game 163 last year, but he joins perky in the dog house.  now with former dodger orlando hudson on board, casilla may be looking at more aaa time.

speaking of perkins, here's a 2009 topps 206 auto

two perkins hits.  not much to say about that.

here's some 206 base cards - jonathan broxton and orlando hudson

they look like they are playing catch outside the circus tents set up on the outskirts of town.

clayton kershaw and roy campanella

under the yellow skies of where, exactly?

finally, a bunch of 206 minis - manny ramirez, russell martin, jackie robinson and joe mauer.

not too bad for a group break.

thanks jeff!