when your postman brings a package from jaybarkerfan's junk

yes, the joy that sandy koufax is displaying on his 2013 topps update postseason heroes card is pretty much how i want to react if i were to be home when the postman drops off a package from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk.  as it is, i am left to feel the excitement when i open the mailbox after a day at work and there is nobody around to exclaim my happiness to.

the result is a trade post that doesn't really do the cards, or thoughtfulness of wes, justice.  here are some of the other goodies i received.

2013 topps heritage then and now koufax and clayton kershaw

koufax led the league in era for five straight seasons, while kershaw has a streak of four era titles in a row.  other than that, he's matched sandy in cy youngs (3 in four years) and mvp awards.  now he just needs those four world series titles...

another kershaw - 2012 topps chrome orange parallel

and a 2009 upper deck spectrum card of another all-time pitching great who once (twice) toiled for the dodgers, greg maddux

maddux won 4 cy young awards, by the way.

here's a 1982 donruss bob welch card

welch was the dodgers' number 1 pick in 1977, and he has the highest career war of any of the dodgers' first round picks in history.  his 44.2 war is higher than rick rhoden (35.9), rick sutcliffe (34.3), paul konerko (28.1), and mike scioscia (26.0), who are third through sixth on the list.  in 2015, welch will be passed by kershaw, whose war through 2014 is 41.1.

how cool are pitcher's bat cards?  pretty cool.  this is a 2005 donruss champions tommy john bat relic card

that wes included in the package.

it wasn't all pitchers, though.  here's a 2013 topps heritage matt kemp new age performers insert

he'll be doing his new age performing for the padres, unfortunately.

i had not seen a 2006 upper deck special f/x card in person before receiving this jayson werth card from wes

what is most shocking about the card is that you can see jayson's cheeks, which haven't seen the light of day since he left the dodgers for the east coast.

last but not least is this 1994 topps archives 1954 card that should have been prospects card of roberto clemente

there's a nearly identical card in the 1995 topps brooklyn dodger archives set, so you have to look closely at the back to figure out which set these cards come from.  how cool would it have been for jackie robinson and roberto clemente (who was taken by the pirates in the 1954 rule v draft) to have been teammates?  at least as cool as this trade package, but not much more.  and, as cool as this trade package was, i received another one with a fantastic piece from wes not more than a week or so later.  i'll get a trade post for that one up in the near future.

thanks wes!

double plays from the hot corner?

i don't know that i have seen a card featuring a double play turn at third base.  it's possible, of course, to force a runner at third and then complete the double play with a throw to second or first.  or, one could just receive some cards in the mail from pat at hot corner cards.  like this 1992 pinnacle carlos garcia card

not quite jose lind-ish, but garcia does a nice job.  another 1993 pinnacle card that was included was this jeff blauser card.

my first inclination was that this was not a dp turn, and my second thought was why did chico walker have both the american and canadian flags on his helmet?  i know gary carter used to do this, but he spent most of his career in montreal so it made sense to me that he would display both flags.  walker, who was born in mississippi, did spend the 1989 season in the blue jays' system, but he played for their aaa team in syracuse.  curious.  in researching the flags, i was further confounded as walker spent only a short amount of time with the cubs in 1992, and was not involved in the type of play shown on the card during that season.  in fact, the last two games in which he appeared as a cub came against the braves in chicago, but blauser did not have a play on him in either of those games.  so, i figured it was a play from 1991, and determined that it is actually the same play as shown on his 1992 pinnacle card (his meaning blauser's).  it looks like it occurred on july 26, 1991 when walker was picked off of first base and retired on the old 1-3-6 play in the bottom of the first.  whew.

similarly, i received this 2008 upper deck first edition card of richie sexson

who appears to have tried to break up two and is looking to the umpire for some guidance.  however, the body language of the white sox's shortstop/second baseman looks to be off to me, so i'm going to do some digging on this.  ok, i'm back.  looking at baseball reference (as i do for all of my sleuthing), i think this play may have taken place on august 18, 2007 when sexson doubled to left field in the sixth inning.  he also doubled to center the night before, and in the game on the 19th of august, he reached second on a fielder's choice/e-6.  the 19th was a day game, and this appears to be a night card, so i'll stick with the 18th.  that means that the white sox player featured is either juan uribe or danny richar.  uribe sometimes wore his socks high, so i'll go with him, although the shortstop would usually go out to be the cutoff on a hit to left.  maybe it's from the 17th.  still probably not a dp card.

these next two are, however.  a 2008 upper deck first edition omar vizquel

and a miguel tejada from the same set

i had both of these cards from the flagship set, but not from first edition, so thanks pat!

of course, there were also a bunch of dodgers in the package, including a couple of double play cards for my dp binder.  here's a 2006 fleer rafael furcal card

with eddie mathews looking on.

and then there were just some plain ol' dodgers, like nomar garciaparra and this 2007 upper deck future stars card

and this 1993 pinnacle jody reed card

and this 2009 upper deck spectrum russell martin card

and this 2006 fleer jeff kent top 40 insert card

and many others.  that kent card, by the way, is a double play card too.  the player sliding in is mostly obscured by the '0' in '40', but he's there.  which means that i now have one card of kent turning two as a dodger - and to think a few days ago i thought that there were none.

thanks for the trade pat! i enjoyed going through all the cards.

mr. (night) owl, how many packages do you have to send to gcrl before he writes a post?

let's find out.

one:

1980 kellogg's davey lopes
if only that mustache really were in 3-d.

1986 topps glossy send in fernando valenzuela this set reminds me of a tcma issue. but in color.

2009 upper deck spectrum matt kemp (the heretofore unbeknownst to me blue variation) the question is, why?

2006 bowman heritage wilson betemit

interesting that we had, at one time, both furcal and betemit at the same time. just like the braves did.

2006 upper deck sp authentic julio lugo thankfully, lugo was a short-timer. unfortunately, ned traded for him in the first place.

2006 fleer greats of the game dusty bakeras seen on night owl's blog recently!

2009 upper deck spx clayton kershaw here's hoping the 2009 postseason is really his month long coming out party.

2008 upper deck timeline james loney sp perhaps my favorite first baseman since popeye himself.

ta-whooooo:

1985 fleer frank dipinoa very nice card with the right field pavilion and it's color palette complementing the astros uniform.

2002 upper deck kaz ishiinow we have the left field pavilion with diamond vision, a carl's jr ad, and half of tommy lasorda's outfield fence mural. plus the overhyped ishii in street clothes. ishii, because of the hype, was the dodger that got all the short prints which sucks when trying to complete my 2003 upper deck vintage set, among others.

2009 upper deck a piece of history james mcdonaldmcdonald hasn't made or seen much history yet.

2009 upper deck clayton kershaw 20th anniversary

another kershaw. this one from a subset within an insert set. i don't understand upper deck sometimes.

2009 topps target throwback chan ho park

did topps do this for series 2? did anyone care?

2009 topps attax vladimir guerrero

shiny must mean parallel. again, why?

three:

2009 topps finest russell martin

a disappointing season hopefully means fantastic postseason. or at least a bargain in next year's fantasy draft.

2009 topps jackie robinson turkey red insert

now that's a nice card!

2009 bowman manny ramirez

sans umpire. very very bad.

2008 upper deck goudey pee wee reese

i wonder what ken griffey jr does say about pee wee? any guesses?

2008 topps chin-lung hu trading card history

a glossy version of the 1959 set. as opposed to the more traditional versions in the 2008 heritage set. speaking of which,

2008 topps heritage vladimir guerrero chrome looks like it's snowing in anaheim

1997 pinnacle zenith wilton guerrero

i wish wilton had been more like vlad.

1993 score select rick trlicek

a pitcher with a hockey name. he actually debuted with the blue jays in 1992. recorded his only career save and hit (off of tom glavine) in his one season as a dodger.

so, the answer is three. each package filled with dodger and set building goodness, which is even better than the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop.

thanks greg. i'll get another package out to you soon.

no cardboard problems here

quite a while back, i took advantage of an offer marie made at a cardboard problem and received some dodger cards.

among the cards were these guys:

1981 topps rudy law.law took over center from rick monday and kept it warm for kenny landreaux. i imagine rudy was a little bit bummed seeing landreaux catch the final out of the 1981 world series.

2009 upper deck first edition nomar garciaparra.nomah! i am pretty sure (maybe) that the national sliding into second is paul 'heart & soul' loduca. maybe not.

2008 topps heritage high number angel berroa.this is a pretty blurry photo they used. i am guessing the hat is shopped.

2008 topps russell martin.this really doesn't look like martin to me. it looks more like pete incaviglia. thank goodness topps used a better photo on the chrome and stadium club cards.

2009 upper deck first edition manny ramirez.is this atlanta or saint louis? i wonder if there are any braves/cardinals fans that collect these cards the way i do with dodger stadium shots.

2009 upper deck spectrum matt kemp.no legs, but he keeps his bat with him for balance. these cards are ugly. shiny, but ugly.

2009 topps heritage dodgers team.i'm guessing that's joe torre front and center - that's where lasorda used to be, anyway. if so, why does he have number 62 on? very strange.

1992 leaf darryl strawberry.not too much to say about darryl, so let's move on.

1980 topps manny mota record breaker.i used up a lot of my manny mota material in the ttm post, but i will add that i was very disappointed that the dodgers did not reactivate him when pedro borbon jr was on the team. we could have really heard the dodger stadium announcer say: 'pinch hitting for pedro borbon, manny mota'. good times.

thanks again for the cards! i am sorry it has taken so long for me to post them, marie!