cards from the hot corner

i am, once again, woefully behind on trade posts. here are some cards that i received from hot corner cards.  i have completed several trades with pat, and he always sends good stuff.  here is but a small part of the most recent package.

1982 kmart steve garvey

this was the first retail box set i can remember buying.  i wasn't sure at the time what the 20th anniversary was about. i guess it was kmart's 20th, but to me, the local kmart looked like it opened in 1940 and hadn't been updated since.  this set was also the second time i had seen 'cards that should have been' as it used the 1962 topps maury wills card that had been created for the 1975 topps mvp subset.

garvey's was one of four dodger cards in the set; the others being wills, sandy koufax (1963), and a don drysdale highlight

not all cards need to be of mvp's or boyhood heroes - so here's a 1986 fleer ken howell card

 and a 1993 fleer ultra mike sharperson card

that's two days in a row that i've shown sharpy on the blog.  as a guy who played all over the infield myself, i appreciated his versatility.

now we've entered the new and shiny and/or parallel part of the haul.  from 2013 topps, pat sent me the chris capuano emerald parallel

 and the target red parallel

plus clayton kershaw's target red parallel

 and aj ellis's as well, with kershaw in the foreground

as i understand it, the dodgers have a standing dare for someone to approach kershaw in the dugout during one of his starts and ask him an oddball question, such as 'was the end of inception a dream'.  maybe that's what is being discussed in this photo.

here's andre ethier's 2013 topps heritage chrome parallel

is this the last heritage release that will feature ethier as a dodger?  we should know in about 8 weeks.

the last couple of cards i will show are double play turns.  this one is from 2010 topps pro debut

and yes, i will consider this a turn even though i can't see the second base bag or a runner sliding in.  it's my prerogative.  goins is in aaa this year, by the way, but didn't get a call up when jose reyes was injured.

here's a no-doubter - 2012 topps opening day erick aybar

thanks for the cards pat!

foul bunt goes out of bounds, but is more than fair

here are some very nice dodger cards that i received from william of foul bunt a while back in trade.  first up is the 2013 topps matt kemp 'out of bounds' short print.

i am happy to have this card, even though i was underwhelmed by these short prints if for no other reason that some regular base cards had similar photos.  i wonder what sort of sp's topps will have in series 2.  

also in the package was this low-numbered 2013 topps black parallel andre ethier card

it's pretty sharp, as is this clayton kershaw gold parallel

new to me is this 2010 topps pro debut dee gordon card

in fact, i had not seen any cards from this set before.  not sure why the team in chattanooga is the lookouts instead of the choo-choos.

here's a 1993 topps pedro martinez card

it is a card that deserves to be shown on the blog, and i have been remiss in scanning early-to-mid '90s cards.

so, here is a 1992 topps eric karros card that william also sent

and here is the back - scanned and shown for two reasons

first - there's dodger stadium!  second - look at what a rude awakening fabio had when he was first called up.  the pcl was not always a reasonable way to evaluate big league talent.  luckily for karros, he was able to mash a bit in the big leagues.

here's a 1992 donruss juan samuel card

on which former dodger sid bream seems to have broken up a double play.

william was also kind enough to include non-dodger cards of players from the team of my youth.  here are charlie hough's 1991 donruss

and 1988 score cards

i wonder if anyone ever called hough 'the chuckler'.

thanks for the trade william! sorry it took so long for me to post my end.

cards from padrographs

rod at padrographs struck again recently with some more great cards.  i'll start with a 1986 donruss diamond king orel hershiser

and his 1986 donruss base

i guess we know which photo dick perez used to paint the diamond king portrait, although the artist put him in the home whites instead of the windbreaker.

another 1986 donruss card, this one of gilberto reyes

reyes appeared in a game for the dodgers in 5 different seasons, but 1986 was not one of them.  in 1985, his third year with the club, he had just one official at bat and three total plate appearances.  he hit two of the three true outcomes in those appearances - striking out and walking in his first two, but then he was hit by a pitch before he could hit a homerun in his third plate appearance.  for some reason, donruss decided he was worthy of a card and here we are.

2009 topps unique matt kemp red parallel

not sure if i like the red better than the black base.  blue might have been a good color to go with, especially for the dodgers.

speaking of blue, here's a 1990 score darrin fletcher

you've got to love the landscape photo with the portrait card format.  strange that score was so rigid with the layout that they couldn't go horizontal yet they didn't bother using a different photo.

rod also sent a few cards from 2010 topps pro debut - a set i had not seen nor heard of until he featured it on his blog.  here's tony delmonico of the great lakes loons

this season, delmonico is with the high-a inland empire '66ers where he is catching and hitting around .300 under the watchful eye of franklin stubbs.

garrett gould of the ogden raptors

gould appeared in 3 games for the raptors last season.  he got hit around a bit, but that's ok.  the kid is only 18.

ehtan martin

now we're getting somewhere as this guy is highly touted, usually in the top 3 of dodger prospects.  like delmonico, he's currently with the '66ers with charlie hough as his pitching coach.  he turns 21 in a month and is currently striking out batters at a rate of over one per inning.

jon michael redding

here's another loon now pitching for the '66ers.  he's struggling a bit so far this season, but he went 16-3 last year with the loons.

blake smith

smith played in the arizona rookie league last year, and is with the loons so far this year.  he's a rightfielder hitting about .280 with 5 home runs and 20 rbi.

we'll finish with a current isotope, brent leach, shown here on a 2009 bowman draft picks and prospects card

leach went 2-0 in 38 games for the dodgers last year, but hasn't been called up yet.  with george sherrill struggling, there may be a need for a situational lefty sooner rather than later.

thanks for the cards rod!