making room for another joc

i completed a trade with frankie from my life in sports card hobby last month.  it's always nice to find a yankee fan to trade with as i seem to have too many bronx bombers laying around.  one of the cards that caught my eye on frankie's blog was this 2014 bowman chrome dual-ing die cuts card featuring joc pederson

i am happy to have this card in my collection, and i had to check to make sure that matt wisler wasn't a dodger as well with all the wheeling and dealing going on with the padres this offseason.  no, the padres kept wisler, one of their top pitching prospects, even as they sent three players to the dodgers for tim federowicz and this guy, matt kemp

in part to make room for joc in the outfield.  that is a 2010 topps 206 chrome parallel of the former dodger outfielder, by the way. i am not too excited about typing those words.

here's a 2014 bowman hyun-jin ryu silver ice parallel

or is it cracked ice?  i would be ok if topps would cool it with all of the parallels.  let's go back to 1989, a time of rough cardstock and many fewer sets and reflect on the simplicity of cards like this 1989 topps orel hershiser all-star card

hershiser finished 2nd in the national league with a 2.31 era in 1989 - the highest he had finished on the leader board previously had been 3rd, which he accomplished four times in the five seasons from 1984 through 1988.  still, he never led the league in that category like mike mccormick of the san francisco giants did in 1960.  frankie sent me the 1961 topps nl era league leaders card with mccormick (and runners up ernie broglio, don drysdale, bob friend, and stan williams) on the front.  a look at the back tells me that the giants had a leg up on the dodgers for a long time in this category

aside from dazzy vance and johnny podres, the dodgers are not very well represented, while the ny/sf giants show up quite often.  since 1960, however, the dodgers have 12 era titles (including the last 4) to the giants' 5.  they trail in world series rings over the last three years, though.

i'll finish this post with a 2012 panini playoff prime cuts hanley ramirez relic card

the card features hanley as a marlin, or as a member of the miami baseball team, as it was issued before the trade that sent him to los angeles that year.  he's gone to boston now to play the outfield - a position the dodgers were not in need of by any stretch. i was under the impression that hanley wanted to play shortstop, but i guess not.

thanks for the trade frankie!

i have many leather bound books and this card that looks of rich mahogany

actually, this 2005 bowman heritage brad penny mahogany parallel

does not really look like rich mahagony, but this post needed a catchy title.  after all, it's just a random cards from the scanned folder post.

here's a 2002 upper deck adrian beltre card

it features a pretty standard photo angle at dodger stadium - a nice photo of a right-handed batter taken from the first base dugout photographer's well.  we've seen it before, many times, like on bill madlock's 1986 woolworth's card

and raul mondesi's 2000 topps opening day card

other stadiums have the same vantage point, including the nameless stadium that provided the backdrop for this 1994 upper deck sp holo fx mondesi card

and, not all batters from that vantage point are right-handed, either.  case in point, this 2003 upper deck odalis perez card

complete with visible undie lines.

here's a better card of perez from 2005 upper deck

the home whites look really sharp on that card.

back to 2003, fred mcgriff's upper deck card from that year

makes good use of the horizontal design, thanks to the stratified seats at vero beach.

this 2003 upper deck 40 man card of beltre is almost a tatooine card

spoiled only by that little bit of grass by his left foot.

here's a 2010 topps 206 james loney card

it is a bronze parallel, i believe.  i was a fan of the 206 set when topps first released it in 2002 (loney had a card in that set, too).  not so much in 2010.  i have a partially completed 2002 set, in fact.  i will have to get my want list posted and take a run at finishing it.

finally, here is a 2008 etopps manny ramirez card

i picked this up cheap online sometime last year.  i am guessing that a lot of people had topps ship their cards after it was announced that etopps was ending.  i had bought a few cards from etopps in the early 2000's, but always had them shipped.  i didn't understand the idea of not having the physical card.

until the next time i am hurting for a post, stay classy scanned folder.

now it's like i have my own matt kemp dealer

there was a second part to my trade with daniel from it's like having my own card shop.  he recently opened some 2012 topps heritage, and since i didn't buy any, i needed some dodgers.  he sent me more than just heritage, though, like this 2006 upper deck matt kemp star attractions insert

i was a fan of the nameless jersey backs, by the way.  and in a related way, i find it funny that mlb sells yankee jerseys with the names on the back.  my son had a gehrig jersey (the only yankee jersey i would approve of), but instead of just a number 4, there was 'gehrig' on the back.  dumb.

here's another kemp card; this one is from 2012 topps heritage with kemp sharing space with hammerin' hank.

it's nice to see dodgers on the 'now' part of these cards.  for a few years, that wasn't the case, and we would only see the likes of clem labine and johnny podres on the 'then and now' inserts.

here's another kemp from 2012 topps heritage, although i am not entirely certain whether this came from daniel or not - i did some organizing before i got to the scanner

topps really dropped the ball on the league leader cards. kemp should be hanging out in the colored diamond.

here's 'kid k' or 'the claw' or whatever else topps is trying to get us to call clayton kershaw

he was on a then and now card with sandy koufax - that's dodger domination!  speaking of koufax, here's his flashback card from last year's heritage release

for some reason, i scanned only the back of the 2010 topps 206 james loney mini that daniel sent

maybe it was because i couldn't stand another image of a hatless player standing in front of a circus tent or an insane asylum.

here's the front of another miniature card that was in the trade package - it's a 1992 donruss cracker jack eric davis card

and it's small.  it would definitely fit inside of a balloon.

thanks for the trade daniel!

pictures of men in suits and also clothed in baseball attire

here's another batch of cards sent to me recently from dennis at pictures of men.  first up is one of the many dodger short prints from 2012 topps update.  this one features matt kemp in his street clothes.

it was totally unexpected, and totally appreciated.  i don't know about the rest of you, but i think the all-star game parade/red carpet thing is fairly lame.  having said that, i am interested to see these players being paraded through the warehouse district in minneapolis in 2014.

here's another card featuring a guy in a suit.  it's the angels' 1971 topps team card

based on the dodger team cards, i would guess that the guy in the suit is the traveling secretary.  which, i think, makes that ed munson.

now for men in baseball attire.  here's kemp again on a 2012 topps 206 card

ditto for manny ramirez

although manny didn't get the cool penitentiary in the background.  speaking of backgrounds, there's a nice bit of dodger stadium behind ted lilly on his 2012 bowman (gold) card

which matches up nicely with the background on fernando's 1991 fleer card

yes, even the lone junk wax card in the package has a purpose here.

this is a 2010 bowman chrome (i think) pedro baez card

baez split last season between high-a ball and aa.  not sure if we will see him in the big leagues anytime soon.  as an aside, i am looking forward to some yasiel puig cards from bowman and all of their confusing releases next year.

finally, here's a relic card from 2012 topps allen & ginter featuring chad billingsley

thanks again dennis!  i've got one more post in the hopper - the package was that good!

'these are a few of my favorite things'

a 2000 bowman chrome randey dorame 'fa-so-la-ti-doe'. 

get it? favorite things? dorame? as in doe-ray-me-fa-so-la-ti?  sound of music?  okay, okay - enough.  i recently completed one trade with dodger fan michael, and he has already sent me a second package that i need to recompense.  he sent the card above along with some other cool and shiny (but not all shiny) cards.  like a 2010 topps chrome john ely orange refractor

and a regular 2010 topps chrome john ely refractor

here's a 2010 topps 206 of russell martin

he has an oval head.  i guess now i can go back to thinking of orel hershiser when i think of 55 rather than russell martin.  or sammy hagar.

another martin - 2009 topps ticket to stardom

more like ticket out of town.

yet another russell martin card - 2010 topps

i hope martin does well in the bronx, but by most accounts his time is limited as the yankees have a couple of stud prospects who also wear the tools of ignorance knocking at the door. i wonder if he regrets not taking ned's final offer knowing that his competition here is rod barajas and dioner navarro.

2010 topps national chicle manny ramirez

kind of an odd perspective in the painting.  something about the helmet is not quite right.  here's another manny - 2010 topps finest

now i can go back to thinking of gretzky when i think of 99.

2010 bowman dpp jake lemmerman

i don't know too much about lemmerman except that he went to duke and he was the dodgers' 5th round pick last year.  maybe that's enough.

finally, a 2010 topps 206 vladimir guerrero

is vlad riding off into the sunset?  hard to believe, based on last year's performance, that manny has a deal for 2011 and big daddy vladdy does not.  hopefully that changes soon.

thanks michael!  i am working on getting another package ready to send.

i was joe collector

color me disappointed, as i am joe collector discontinued his monthly box breaks.  it had taken me a while to get the dodgers claimed, so i was bummed.  still, i did manage to get some good cards for the few months that the boys in blue belonged to me.  here's some stuff from the last two monthly group breaks.

2010 topps 206 chad billingsley

chad kind of sums up my mood regarding the end of the breaks.  hatless and morose.

andre ethier

we have evolved from the hands behind the back, but still not too happy.

rafael furcal

still not pleased, but at least some color is creeping back in.

hey, here's the back of a furcal mini! 

jeff had to send the original pull back to topps due to some printing damage.  topps replaced it quickly, and jeff got it to me with the next month's bounty.

clayton kershaw

ok, i am happy with the cards and that furcal mini. 

hiroki kuroda bronze parallel

boring parallels make me feel indifferent, like hiroki here.

jackie robinson

ok, happy again.

the final break included a box of 2010 topps chrome.  i got most of the dodgers, including

john ely base

and auto!

plus matt kemp doing his ken griffey jr impersonation

and jon link

i still have a ways to go to get my link collection up to night owl standards, though.

thanks jeff for hosting the breaks!  they will be, and already are, missed.