random relics

relic cards aren't the draw that they used to be, that's for sure. questions about authenticity and overproduction have removed much of the luster from them.  the novelty that persuaded me to pay $20 for a pack of pacific game used back in 2001, only to get a piece of neifi perez's bat has certainly worn off.  these days, relic cards are practically a dime a dozen.

with that said, here are 10 that i am happy to have in my collection, even though they've been wallowing in my scanned folder without a post to display them for quite some time.  i'll note what each relic is, based on the guarantee on the back of the card.

2002 upper deck sp legendary cuts pee wee reese game used jersey

2005 upper deck classics bill russell game used pants

2005 upper deck classics pedro guerrero game used jersey

2001 upper deck sp game bat edition gary sheffield game used bat

2003 upper deck honor roll hideo nomo game used jersey

2004 donruss throwback threads hideo nomo game worn jersey

2004 upper deck vintage hideo nomo game used jersey

2004 upper deck shawn green game used jersey

because shawn green probably has the most dodger relic cards of anyone out there - at least from the peak era of relic cards.

2005 topps opening day paul loduca game worn jersey

you can see where the dodger script patch was removed from this particular swatch

2010 topps heritage james loney game worn jersey

on all of the cards except loney's, the guarantee on the back specifically ties the jersey, bat, or pants to the player on the front of the card and notes that said jersey, bat, or pants were worn or used in an official major league baseball game.  there is no guarantee on the back of loney's card, only the mention of "game-worn jersey" on the front.  i am left to assume that it is loney's jersey, but who knows for sure? also left unsaid is in what sort of game was this jersey worn?

i know this has all been said before, but i needed a vehicle to get these cards out of the scanned folder.  i'm still collecting these, by the way, as long as there's a dodger on the front of the card.

a set worthy of the hall of fame

today was the day we learned who would be enshrined into the hall of fame.  the results were not too surprising, with craig biggio making the grade after falling short previously, and first-ballot guys randy johnson, pedro martinez, and john smoltz also getting enough of the vote.  i had anticipated mike piazza joining that group, but as the brooklyn fans of yesteryear used to cry, "wait 'til next year!"

still, here's a 2014 topps triple threads card of the strongest man in socal; the italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza

it's too bad he'll likely go in as a met when he does get 75% of the vote, and it's equally as unlikely that the dodgers will retire number 31 in his honor.  

i'm guessing we'll see some new cards over the next few months of the fab four that are headed for cooperstown as part of sets like triple threads, allen & ginter, and archives, but in 2005, upper deck dedicated a full 100-card set to the hall of fame.  it included six dodgers - i don't yet have jackie robinson's card from the set (it should be on its way by the time this gets posted), but here are roy campanella 

don drysdale

pee wee reese

duke snider

and don sutton.

had piazza joned pedro going in this year, it would have marked the second time since pee wee and big d were inducted in 1984 that two dodgers were enshrined at the same time.  as it stands, former dodgers gary carter and eddie murray were the only other pair to be inducted in the same year (2003) since '84, and neither went in wearing the interlocking 'la' on their caps.

anyway, i figure now is a good time to show a couple of randy johnson final tributes. the first one is from 2010 topps and features an unorthodox photo

 but it does have all of the stats on the back

with a lot of red. you can see that johnson got his control figured out in the early 90's and went on to lead the league in strikeouts 9 times.

here's his other tribute card - it comes from 2010 topps heritage and features him as a giant

the big unit sort of hung on to get his 300th win.  if the complete career stats on the back were at all legible, you would see that he finished with 303 career victories

i guess the last cartoon makes it pretty clear.  johnson needed five wins to reach 300, and the 45-year old signed with the giants to make it happen.  he wasn't the dominant pitcher of his earlier years, but more power to him, as he was able to reach the milestone with a win in june against the nationals.

johnson didn't get a card in the 2010 upper deck set, but he did have a couple in the biography insert set.  that's the only place that pedro appeared in 2010, and smoltz was featured there as well as in both the topps flagship and heritage sets.  i don't have any of those cards to show, but i congratulate them nonetheless.

why acquire aguirre?

hank aguirre was traded to the dodgers in april of 1968.  he had pitched for the tigers for 10 seasons before heading west to los angeles, and led the american league in era in 1962.  aguirre was the victime of bad timing when it came to the postseason, as he broke in to the big leagues with cleveland in 1955, one year after they had been in the world series, and his departure from detroit came in the spring before they would win the fall classic against the cardinals.  

he spent one year with the dodgers and was featured on a 1969 topps card still wearing detroit duds. 

topps took the easy way out and airbrushed out the 'd' on aguirre's hat, but they didn't bother to remove the one on his chest.  aguirre pitched well for the dodgers in '68; he had a 0.69 era in 39 innings of work, but they released him at the end of the season anyway. he wound up pitching for the cubs in 1969 and 1970.  but, because the text at the bottom of his card says 'dodgers', this is a card i will keep.  even if it's a cub in tigers' clothing.

aguirre wasn't the only dodger in 1969 to be caught wearing american league threads.  take andy kosco, for example.  he's wearing yankee pinstripes on his 1969 topps card

this is not as bad as the aguirre, though, as kosco was traded to the dodgers in december of 1968, so he hadn't worn the dodger uniform prior to this card being released.

both the aguirre and the kosco came to me recently via tim wallach.  not the dodgers' third base coach, but rather corey who is trying to collect all of tim wallach's baseball cards.  not just one of each, but all of them.

he also included a 2010 topps heritage hiroki kuroda relic

and a couple of 1974 topps set for my set.

as well as this 2012 topps cut above insert of matt kemp

i think i will take a page out of corey's playbook and ask that people send me their matt kemp cards.  all of them.

thanks for the trade corey!

double plays are more prevalent than i originally thought

i have been going through my collection to pull all of the double play cards so that they are all in one place.  i have a fairly sizable double play binder these days, and it keeps growing as i encounter more and more cards showing the turn at second base.

i think i have mentioned before that i used to play second (and a little bit of shortstop) back in my playing days, and there is nothing better (defensively) than making that turn.  actually, my favorite defensive play was when, as the shortstop, there would be a runner on first with a ball hit up the middle so that i could go left, field the ball, and slide my foot alongside the bag and avoid the sliding runner with ease as my momentum carried me towards first.  loved that play.  kind of like the play luis aparicio is making on this 2010 topps heritage insert card.

except i rarely, if ever, jumped.

barry larkin jumped on this play

captured nicely on a 2004 playoff honors card.  still, it would have been better had they not cropped jack cust in half.

this bobby crosby card from 2005 fleer ultra

is pretty nice.  it might make the 'greatest double play card of all-time' tournament, coming sometime in 2013!

anyway, when i started collecting cards that showed the dp turn, i didn't realize how common they were.  probably because they were pretty rare when i first started collecting (the 1978 topps felix millan card was the first one i saw), and even though it wasn't until 1985 or so when i first really started to be adept at turning two, there were still only a few cards that i knew of.  these days there are a ton, and i like it.

here's a 2006 topps turkey red card dedicated to the art of breaking up the double play.

i will admit that i looked more like tadahito iguchi than luis aparicio after a double play turn.

i also have the red edition of the card.

by the way, if this depicts the play from the third inning of game 1 of the 2005 world series, then ausmus was successful in breaking up the play.

here are a few other dp cards that aren't so great.  like this 2008 topps mark grudzielanek card

random legs weaken double play cards.

this 2010 topps alcides escobar

would be better if the 2010 topps design were better.  think 2011 topps update dee gordon, even though that card isn't completely clean either.

speaking of 2011 topps, the design gets in the way on this darwin barney card

but not quite as badly as 2010 topps.

ditto for 2012 topps, as seen on this stephen drew gold sparkle card

although that is much better than dustin pedroia's card from the set (this one is his opening day card)

sure, he's airborne, but the ghost arm of some yankee detracts from the card's appeal, in my opinion.  or maybe it's just pedroia.  anyway, if you have a double play card (or several), send them my way!  i'll make room!

it's his party and he'll sign what he wants to...

despite the rain and the line jumpers, the twins' annual autograph party was a decent time.  there were fewer distractions (no card show or games for the kids) than the previous years when it was held on the metrodome plaza, and a little more spread out, too.  about a half hour before the current players began signing, the rain came.  that slowed things down a bit because everyone waited until they were under the tents to get their stuff out.

let it be known that i don't have an issue with the folks in wheelchairs going straight to the front of the line, but if you are in a motorized chair just due to sloth, i am opposed.  if you have more than one other person shuttling around with you in your motorized vehicle and they also get to cut in at the front, i am opposed.  if you happen to know someone who is walking by the line, and you invite them in to stand with you, i am opposed.  if you allow your entire family to cut in line with you after they arrived having gone through a different autograph station, i am opposed.  unfortunately, i don't have a good alternative system to prevent these types of things from happening, but it was so brazen this year that i would suspect something has to be done in the future.

enough of that, i'll show you the cards i got signed.  there were a few players that we had sign other stuff, so not all are represented here.

first up, 2004 topps ron gardenhire

gardy is a good guy - really personable with the fans.  he said he was a bit disappointed about texas moving to the pac-10. 

2009 topps update & highlights matt tolbert

tolbert didn't have much to say while signing from what i could tell, but that's ok.  with both hardy and hudson on the dl, and brendan harris  and nick punto struggling, tolbert has a huge opportunity to make his mark on a position with the twins.  time to put up.

2009 topps twins metrodome (signed by clay condrey)

i didn't have any cards of condrey with me so i pulled out this 2009 topps twins card.  not sure if he ever pitched in the metrodome, but if he did, it wasn't as a twin as this is his first year with the team.  he's currently on the dl, but heads to florida on a rehab trip this week.  speaking of the dl...

2010 topps heritage joe nathan 

since his injury, nathan has been all over the place making appearances and signing autographs.  he said he will start throwing next month and can't wait.

2010 topps twins jj hardy

hardy, on the other hand, has no idea as to the timetable on his return.  this card is from the 2010 topps twins team set, and is a bad airbrush job.  the twins don't have any uniforms that look like that.  their away grays say 'minnesota', not 'twins', on the front.

1975 topps rick stelmaszek

stelmaszek is the bullpen coach, i believe.  i think i have autographs from all of the coaches except pitching coach rick anderson.  he is usually paired with joe mauer at this event, so no dice there.  the mauer lines at twinsfest seem to be easier for me to handle than the ones here.

in the afternoon, the retired players came out, although juan berenguer and dan gladden were no-shows.  not sure why, since gladden had to be at the game anyway to do the radio broadcast.  anyway, i did come away with some cards that i have tried to get signed a few times.  like this 1978 topps bert blyleven

maybe next year he'll be able to add 'hof 2011' to his signature.

1978 topps roy smalley

i think smalley has a couple of these cards that i have sent to him in previous ttm attempts.  his dad is a good ttm signer, but that is irrelevant to the discussion.  smalley had two stints with the twins, including the 1987 world championship team.

1989 topps tim laudner

laudner was around in 87, too.  he didn't seem to be too engaged while he was signing, but that's his prerogative, i suppose.

1998 fleer sports illustrated world series fever jack morris

i wanted to get morris to sign a blue jays card since i already had him sign his 1978 topps rookie card and 2004 ud legends card.  i think this turned out really well.

believe it or not, this was one of the two guys i really wanted to get - 2003 topps traded ron coomer

coomer went to the twins in the kevin tapani deal, but returned to the dodgers later in his career.  he does some television analysis and post game wrap up stuff for the twins.  he was pretty funny - joking around with the fans and the other players he was stationed with.

2009 topps update & highlights orlando hudson

here's the second guy i really wanted (thome was another, but his line was ridiculously long).  notice there is no signature.  the o-dog informed me that he doesn't sign dodgers stuff.  thanks ned.  hudson was really nice about it, and i certainly understand.  he offered to sign something else, but i was unorganized and a bit flustered so i just passed. 

that's it for this year.  next year i am sure i will attend again since the money raised goes to the twins community fund, but i really hope something is done to limit the line jumping.

thank you, jackie robinson

63 years ago, jackie robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball.

there will, no doubt, be countless tributes during today's games and on broadcasts and blogs all over the place. all of those tributes will be better displayed, spoken or written than this one here, but they will not be more genuine.

today, i hope to see the 'thank you, jackie robinson' bumper that ran on mlb network last year one more time and get goosebumps all over again, because, while the players featured are thankful for the opportunities they have had, i as a fan am thankful for the joy i have experienced in my lifetime from seeing every player compete, not just a certain cross section of the population.

thank you jackie robinson. for willie davis.  reggie smith. dusty baker. al downing. rudy law. mike sharperson. gary sheffield. milton bradley. james loney. matt kemp. and the list goes on...