the second daily dose of the dimwit

not a group break this time, but rather a good old fashioned trade!  yes, sam at the daily dimwit and i complete a trade recently, and this is some of what he sent my way.

first up,  a well loved 1958 topps pee wee reese card

paired with a largely ignored 1984 topps dave anderson card

i suppose all these cards have in common are the position (although pee wee gets some hot corner cred), the team, and the yellow background.  it's always a nice surprise to get some 1950's stuff in a blind trade package - even better when it's pee wee.

here are some clayton kershaw minis - from 2011 topps allen & ginter

and from 2011 topps gypsy queen

ginter wins.  ted lilly may be seeing his turn as the other dodger starter to be featured in sets coming to a close with the arrival of zack greinke and the dude from asia.  no, not the band asia, the continent.  so, enjoy these 2011

and 2012 topps gypsy queen minis while you can

duke snider is not likely to be removed from the retro set checklists anytime soon.  here's his 2012 topps gypsy queen mini

more gypsy queen stuff was in the package, like this matt kemp parallel

and the mini kemp

and dee gordon sliding stars inserts

kemp looks like he is doing scissor twists.  here's the full size version of the gordon card - i had it laying around

it looks better non-miniaturized.

here's an allen webster card from 2011 bowman platinum

webster is now with the red sox, thanks to the adrian gonzalez deal.  he pitched at aa last year with modest results.

one pitching prospect i hope to goodness that ned doesn't deal away is zach lee

this is a 2012 bowman sterling autographed card - the second lee auto i have in my collection.

thanks sam!

patience is a virtue

i had just recently agreed to a trade with dan from it's like having my own card shop in which he offered a dave lopes auto as the centerpiece of the deal. a couple of days later, i wandered into the local card shop and came across that very card being offered for the low price of six bucks.  i actually considered buying it, but told myself to wait.  wait i did, and a short time later it showed up in my mailbox.

that's a nice card - a 2004 topps retired signature.  i'm glad i waited and essentially used the six bucks i saved to pick up some vintage at the recent card show.  certified lopes autos are the best because he uses a sharpie.

by way of comparison, here's a regular 2004 topps card that was also in the package - it's alex cora turning two

i was a fan of topps' 2004 release (i bought a ton of it) as i appreciated their effort to get full body photos of most players on the cards (although eric gagne's photo should have been more closely cropped) as well as their nod to 1973 and 1976 with the inset player outline in the lower left corner.

i was not aware that adrian beltre had a card featuring him as a dodger in last year's gypsy queen, but he did, and dan included it in the trade

i find it odd, then, that topps would put prince fielder in a tigers' uni in this year's gypsy queen homerun based subset.  oh well, it is not for me to understand the whims of topps, only to appreciate dodger cards, especially when they come in return for diamondbacks.

dan also included a bunch of cards from upper deck's 1993 sp set.  i am guessing he sent the entire dodgers team set.  here's brett butler

with a nice view of the old dugout seats.  and, as a bonus, butler is not bunting in the photo.

jose offerman's card is visited upon by former dodger (and dodger double dipper) jose vizcaino

while i contend that the back of darryl strawberry's sp card

is a continuation of strawberry's 1993 upper deck fold out.  pretty sure.

there were also a couple of cards from a set i had never seen - 2003 upper deck classic portraits.  both shawn green and kazuhisa ishii were included, and for some reason i chose to scan the ishii.

not really a portrait shot, if the intent was to do a leaf studio sort of thing.

thanks for the trade dan!

one post for every consecutive game

this is my 1207th post on this blog. i've missed some days, and even weeks, since starting this blog over 3 years ago.  steve garvey didn't miss any games during his consecutive games streak which lasted 1207 contests and ended on july 29, 1983.  it was a feat so impressive that it has a blog named after it.

in honor of reaching this milestone, i offer up twelve steve garvey cards - one for every one hundred posts/consecutive games.  yes, i know he ended his streak as a padre, but first humor me some dodger cards.

perhaps my second favorite garvey card (1978 topps cannot be topped) was issued in 1974.  this happens to be the o-pee-chee version

 as is this 1975 card recapping the 1974 nlcs

garvey aka mr. clean playing the part of pigpen.  very nice.

i had planned, and may still get around to posting oddball team sets, or at least the infield's cards.  in the meantime, here are some garveys that i had already scanned.  this is his 1977 hostess twinkles card

 and this is his 1979 hostess card

what are the chances that the photos come from the same shoot?  fairly high, i would guess.  now we move away from snack cakes towards breakfast cereals. here's a 1981 kellogg's card

followed by the 1982 kellogg's issue

i'm not sure when the garv started to wear the red-white-blue sweatband, but he didn't carry it over to the padres, that's for sure.  here's his 1987 donruss card

 along with a 1987 fleer star stickers card

and a 1999 fleer sports illustrated card showing the si cover from the week garvey broke billy williams' national league consecutive game record (a game which i attended)

you can see in that photo that garvey has chosen the matchy-match yellow sweatband.

back to the 1970's, sort of, with a 2001 ud decade 1970's card - this one's from the award winners subset

 with the 1974 nl mvp getting his groove on apparently.

his 2002 upper deck sweet spot classics card is more refined

it's an image from the 1978 world series (notice the jim gilliam '19' patch), and if i remember my sports illustrateds correctly, that photo is of garvey fielding a throw as thurman munson bears down on first base.  pretty sure.

last year, topps chose to reprint garvey's 1982 in action card

which showcased the part of his swing that had the least amount of action.  here's the (original) back so we can remind ourselves of some of popeye's accomplishments as a dodger

so that was twelve cards for twelve-hundred games.  i guess i need something to cover the other seven, so i'll use a card that should have been created by jason at the writer's journey.  it's a 2011 topps gypsy queen garvey

that uses an image of the dodgers' first baseman receiving applause for his 1000th consecutive game.

here's to you, nl iron man.  and thanks to all of you for reading all/most/some of my 1207 ramblings.

i almost forgot

i got carried away with the 1973 topps cards in my last post, and i forgot to mention that royals and randoms also sent me some other cards, including this shiny 2009 topps roy campanella walmart blaster card

and this green-framed border duke snider card from 2011 topps gypsy queen

and a set need for my 1971 topps pursuit - phillie shortstop larry bowa

a card chock full of lurkers.  seeing this bowa card come in the mail reminded me that larry himself had sent me some stuff a while back.  i had picked up a double of his card from the 2008 topps dodger premium 55-card set

and at some point sent it his way.  he returned it pretty quickly, too.

the auto isn't too different from the one on the 1971 card, either.

thanks josh. and larry!

twinkie, twinkie little star

rod from padrographs sent me a package recently filled with twinkie goodness.  unfortunately, not the hostess kind with cream filling, but cards of minnesota ballplayers are ok too.  here's a looksie:

2011 topps joe mauer insert of some sort.

i like the persian rug background.  it really ties the card together.  as we all know, joe struggled mightily in 2011 due to various injuries.  i'm hoping he bounces back in 2012.
here's another mauer - this one from 2011 topps gypsy queen

that's a nice framed parallel.  anyway, mauer's time missed meant that the twin faithful were subjected to the offensive mis-firings of drew butera, seen here on a 2010 bowman chrome card.

this is one of the reasons they signed ryan doumit and invited pretty much every available catcher to spring training this year.
rod also included some allenn & ginter, including former twin jim thome

and now former twin jason kubel

i found the kubel card interesting because the twins always seemed to play up kubel as a dakota boy.  i did not realize that, while he was born in south dakota, he played high school ball in california. 
here's a nice card of an idaho farmboy, harmon killebrew, on a 2011 topps heritage then and now insert

bautista only has about 420 home runs before he catches up to the killer.

finally, here's a 2011 topps lineage tsuyoshi nishioka.

it may be difficult to believe, but his 2011 season may well have been a bigger disappointment than that of mauer or justin morneau.  now he has jamey carroll to compete with for a job. 

thanks for the cards rod!