what's a wallach worth?

let's consult the expert on the subject, corey at the tim wallach blog.  i sent him a few timmy cards, and he sent some dodgers in return.

 

the hands down best card of the bunch was this 1989 starting lineup baseball greats don drysdale card

i say best because it was one i had not seen before.  i did some quick digging and found that the card was featured in this starting lineup two-pack

big d and reggie are indeed two baseball greats, but other than that, they have nothing in common.  they never faced each other, anyway.

as you might well know, you can't have drysdale without koufax.  corey included a 1982 kmart sandy in the package

there was another pitcher with ties to drysdale - orel hershiser - on an oddball of his own - a 1989 kaybee superstars of baseball card

hershiser, of course, broke drysdale's scoreless innings streak in 1988 en route to all kinds of hardware. 

here's a 1988 topps big mike scioscia card

big head mike likes the way little mike looks in the gear.

i'll end with a card from more recent times - a 2011 topps heritage dodgers dandies card

featuring matt kemp and andre ethier.  i would tie this all together with a reference back to drysdale as dandy don, but he was a football player.  let it suffice to say that a few tim wallach cards are worth a dandy package of dodger cards in return.  now you know.

black as coal

continuing on from today's earlier post, i present more cards from night owl.  these were part of a contest that i won, and i'll begin again with a black card.  not a walmart parallel, but just a 2012 topps heritage black bordered parallel of former dodger (and dodger double dipper) randy wolf.

the contest winnings were quite a colorful assortment of cards.  here's a 2012 topps jason vargas red bordered card from target.

and, continuing down the rainbow, here's a card with plenty of orange, not to mention airbrushed hats.  it's a 1972 topps angels' rookie stars card

although it seems to be devoid of stars.  that's ok, though, because it does feature billy parker, whose first major league hit was a walk-off home run in his big league debut.  check out this story to learn more about him.

more colors - no yellow bordered card, but there was a gold bordered 2012 bowman brandon mccarthy card

and then a 2012 bowman chrome brandon beachy green refractor

that means we are at the 'blue' part of the color prism, so here's a 1982 topps dave stewart rookie card

not blue enough?  tough.

on to purple - here's a purple parallel of yoenis cespedes from 2012 topps chrome

writing that reminded me of the lemonheads 'purple parallelogram'.

more purple, but also black, comes by way of this 2011 topps heritage black bordered parallel of the rockies' ubaldo jimenez

actually, there's not much purple on that uniform at all.

i'll end with some shiny - this 2012 topps ken griffey jr value box refractor thingy

it's pretty sharp, but it won't be in my hands for long.

thanks greg, and congrats on all those readers that inspire you to give away cards.

ely come, ely go

it was way back in may of 2010 that i was struck with 'ely-mania' thanks to a string of quality starts from john ely, one of the two pitchers the dodgers received from the white sox in exchange for juan pierre.  the wheels fell off of the bandwagon shortly thereafter, as ely went 1-8 after beginning his career with a 3-2 record in his first 6 starts.  here is a 2010 topps update 'peek' (not 'peak') performance autograph of ely

which calls attention to his june 1 start against the diamondbacks.  he allowed only two hits in his seven scoreless innings of work that day, but had a no-decision in the dodgers' 1-0 victory - a victory courtesy of a 10th-inning matt kemp walk-off home run.

here is another card featuring ely that i have had sitting around for a while - a 2010 bowman 'topps 100' card

i don't know what 'topps 100' means, but i am showing this card today because ely was traded, with little fanfare i might add, to the houston astros back in december.  ely was 4-13 over three seasons with the dodgers and now heads to the american league.  the other pitcher the dodgers acquired in the pierre deal, jon link, left the organization after the 2011 season and spent last year in the orioles' and marlins' minor leagues.

ely is not the only former dodger for whom i have had scanned cards sitting around, waiting for a post such as this.  so, let's take a look at some other now-former dodgers.  like andrew lambo, for instance, and his 2010 bowman 'bowman expectations' card

lambo was one of the players (james mcdonald being the other) that ned sent to the pirates at the 2010 trade deadline for octavio dotel.  pittsburgh has become a sort of dumping grounds for ned and former dodger prospects, with andy laroche and delwyn young also sent to the pirates, and ivan dejesus jr and jerry sands (more on him later) winding up there after being included in a deal with the red sox.  anyway,  lambo and mcdonald for what? six weeks of dotel? dotel was then traded to the rockies for minor leaguer anthony jackson, who is four or five years older than lambo.  lambo was suspended for violating mlb's drug policy while with the dodgers, but i don't recall it being for peds.  he still has some time to pan out.

eric stults, seen here on a 2008 topps update & highlights gold card

hasn't been with the dodgers since 2009.  he spent 2010 in japan before returning to the majors in 2011 with the rockies.  he started last season with the white sox, but was picked up by the padres on waivers in may.

more recently dismissed by the dodgers is russ mitchell, whose lone baseball card appearance in dodger blue (as far as i know) came courtesy of 2011 topps heritage

four of mitchell's 14 hits for the dodgers over the 2010 and 2011 seasons were home runs, but he was released by the team last spring.  he quickly signed on with the miami marlins, but was released by them after a month or so.  he then signed with the giants, but was again released prior to making it back to the big leagues.  in december of 2012, mitchell signed a free agent deal with the rockies, so we'll see what happens this spring.

mike macdougal, on the other hand, has yet to sign with a team for the 2013 season.  here he is on his 2011 topps update card

as well as his diamond collection parallel thingy

macdougal pitched well for the dodgers in 2011, going 3-1 with a 2.05 era in 69 appearances.  he was released after only 7 appearances in 2012, however, as his era was over 7.  he signed on with the cubs and then the nationals, but didn't get back to the majors with either team.

rubby de la rosa, seen here pitching in dodger stadium on his 2011 topps update card

and cognac parallel

along with jerry sands on his 2011 topps update card

and 2012 topps heritage card

were part of the big dodgers-red sox blockbuster trade from last year.  specifically, they were the players to be named later in the deal, but were known at the time of the trade.  de la rosa apparently fits into the red sox' plans, but sands was traded to the pirates in the joel hanrahan (another former dodger farmhand) deal.   i'm not sure how this will turn out for sands, as the pirates seem to have a lot of outfield depth already.

i'll end this post of departed dodgers with a 2008 upper deck x autographed card of ramon troncoso

troncoso pitched for the dodgers in every season from 2008 through 2011, but spent all of 2012 at aaa after clearing waivers.  his best season by far was 2009 when he appeared in 73 games and posted a 2.72 era.  he also had 3 scoreless appearances in the nlcs that year.  if he returns to the postseason in 2013 it won't be as a dodger, because after the 2012 season, troncoso signed a free agent deal with the white sox.

that's all for this edition of recent dodgers turned former dodgers.  i'm sure there will be more to come, right ned?

i gave myself a break

this was the third weekend in a row with a card show in town.  i went to the first two, but sat this one out.  at the first show, i picked up that 1955 topps sandy koufax, and at the next one i got mostly some odds and ends.  a few needs like this 1956 topps carl furillo card

and this 1955 bowman erv palica

but mostly dime box stuff like double plays and cards featuring dodger stadium.  here's chavez ravine providing the backdrop on luis gonzalez's 1993 upper deck sp card

fellow astro ken oberkfell gets a dodger stadium backdrop on his 1990 leaf card as well.

the astros' unis look nice in dodger stadium.

here's orel hershiser with pretty much the same background as oberkfell

while darryl strawberry's 1993 ud sp card gives us a glimpse of the visitor dugout and camera well

on garret anderson's 2000 pacific crown collection card

we see a bit more of the dugout, and ga continues to give us a tour of the stadium on his 2000 pacific omega card

it's blurry, but we get the third base side camera well and a bit of the field level scoreboard.  then, mr. anderson shows us the multi-colored levels of seating behind home plate on his 1998 fleer tradition card

while david segui is enjoying a cold beverage on the visitor's dugout step on his 1998 fleer tradition card.

i picked up a couple of phillies in dodger stadium, too.  here's pat the bat on a 2001 upper deck rookie roundup card

and vance worley on a 2012 bowman card

it doesn't look like the phillies drew a crowd for either game.  finally, i picked up another copy of the 2011 topps heritage news flashback card featuring dodger stadium

i figured i would show the back this time, if for no other reason than to show that the cartoon makes no sense.

i'm glad i passed on the show this past weekend.  the next one is only three weeks away and i have a lot of cards to put away, package up, and cross off of lists before i head out to another show.

in my ongoing crusade to collect dodger cards...

...i received some cards from jeff at my sports obsession.  these cards were sent to me a looong time ago, and they have sat in my scanned folder for far too long.  sorry jeff.  here's a shiny 2002 donruss rookie crusade card of victor alvarez.

alvarez, you might recall, is the guy with the interesting signature.  putting a sticker on this card, however, would probably be too much.  although something tells me that donruss did just that.  hold on - yep, they did. gross.

here's a 2004 donruss card of dave roberts

it's a career stat line parallel, so it too is shiny and even serial numbered.

there were some more recent cards in the package, too, like this 2008 upper deck timeline chin-lung hu card

hu got a ton of cards in 2008.  now, four years later, i thought he was out of baseball after being released by the indians earlier this year, but he is playing in an independent league.

here are a couple of cards from 2009 topps ticket to stardom - chad billingsley

and manny ramirez.

remember him?

here's a 2010 bowman card of carlos monasterios

monasterios spent the entire 2010 season on the dodgers' 25-man roster as a rule v draftee (acquired via a trade with the mets).  to date, that is the only season in which he has pitched in the big leagues.  he underwent tommy john surgery in 2011 and had another surgery earlier this year.  the dodgers released him in april, and it will be interesting to see if he lands with another team.

here's one of those shiny refractor things from (i think) a cereal box or blaster of 2010 topps

another jackie for the collection.

i think when i received the package, this was a newly issued card.  no joke.  it's a 2011 topps heritage andre ethier card

i think i may have scanned it because it was the first of the 2011 heritage cards i had seen.  thanks for the trade, jeff!

how did i miss this? how did topps?

i know i paid little attention to topps heritage last year (and plan to pay even less this year), but i should have been on the lookout for this card - the 'jeter makes the double play' card

it is, of course, an homage to one of the best double play cards of all time, the 1962 topps 'kubek makes the double play'.

of course, kubek actually turns the double play, whereas jeter holds on to the ball.  come on topps, can't you find a photo sequence of dj where he isn't so disturbed by drew butera sliding in that he actually throws the ball to first?  shouldn't that card instead be labeled 'jeter doesn't make the double play'?  terrible.

then, topps added another double play card, sort of.  here's the yankee captain with his double play partner robinson cano

this card is an attempt to acknowledge a similar card in the 1962 set, except that one recognized a couple of yankee third basemen.  that means that this card is more of a tribute to the classic 1988 fleer superstar special card featuring ozzie smith and ryne sandberg

except that jeter and cano actually play together.  the back of the heritage card

has nothing to say about fielding aside from a gold glove reference and instead focuses on the offensive talents of the tandem.  for comparative purposes, here's the back of the fleer card

topps would have been better off with a card of alex rodriguez and eric chavez (or ramiro pena depending on when they went into production) to stay true to the 1962 set.  but then again, they should have had derek jeter actually completing the double play, too.

can't wait for 2015 topps heritage to see how they bungle the dp combo card from 1966

whose back

really does reference double plays!  not that i care if they screw up a giants' card mind you.