jaybarkerfan's junk sends the blues

it's hard not to be excited when a package from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk shows up at your doorstep.  now, i have not been drawn into one of his trade wars (thankfully, as i know i would not be able to keep up), but we've traded several packages over the last couple of years.  this latest return from wes was certainly no disappointment.

first up is perhaps the bluest card i've seen - it's a 2002 donruss cesar izturis rookie crusade card

good golly miss molly, that's a blue card.

onelki garcia's 2014 topps chrome blue refractor parallel

pales in comparison.

but then there is this 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects zach lee sapphire parallel card

that is pretty blue.

the blues end there, sort of, as we still have dodger cards, but they aren't of the same hue.  this is an emerald parallel of chris anderson's 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects card

that brings the green rather than the blue.

there were some regular cards in the package as well, including a 1988 fleer mini kirk gibson card

and a 2005 topps roger craig dem bums insert

craig is fortuitously flashing his bum on the card, by the way.

wes also hit my list of most wanted cards, sending two of the remaining jackie robinson story inserts from 2015 topps that i needed my way

two pretty important milestones there.

i'll finish up with some more hued parallels - these are of the dodger first baseman of the moment, adrian gonzalez.  first is his 2013 bowman chrome purple parallel

and next is his 2013 topps triple threads emerald parallel

both are pretty colorful, bun not as colorful as this 2014 donruss gonzalez elite dominator card

which was not part of the package wes sent, but fits in nicely with this post.

thanks wes, for another great trade!

random notes about random cards

it's time for that sort of post again - a random assortment of cards that have been languishing in my scanned folder for various amounts of time.  excited, aren't you?

random card: 2001 fleer greats of the game carl erskine

random fact: the dodger logo on the card is from the team's los angeles days.  although oisk did pitch for the dodgers following their move to la, both the card's photo and team affiliation refer to him as a brooklyn dodger.  it's better when all of the features of the card match, but i still really like that 2001 greats of the game set.

random card: 2006 upper deck jeff kent

random fact: the player behind kent is jason repko. repko had a card in the 2006 as well, but it was the same number (283) as another player's and seems to be a bit harder to find.

random card: 2011 bowman chris withrow topps 100 insert

random fact: withrow needs to work on his 'suttoning' pose.

random card: 2013 bowman chrome jeremy rathjen mini parallel

random fact: rathjen seems to be looking at the same thing withrow is staring at.

random card: 2014 topps adrian gonzalez spring fever

random fact: gonzalez has mastered his jeremy rathjen pose.

random card: 2014 topps yasiel puig spring fever

random fact: dodger stadium is the only big league stadium with an in-house arborist.  if you've never been, it's worth giving yourself time to enjoy the landscaping, including the abundance of palm trees. that last sentence was a random opinion.

random card: 1982 topps joe ferguson

random fact: this card uses the same photo that topps featured on ferguson's 1981 topps card.

random card: 1985 7-up cubs coaching staff, featuring a member of the 1978 topps dodgers (johnny oates)

random fact: the only start of bill connors' pitching career came against the chicago cubs in 1967.  bet you thought i was going to give you a random oates or zimmer fact, didn't you?

random card: 1990 fleer baseball all-stars canadian steve sax

random fact: the only thing that makes this a canadian card is that it was printed in canada, and i am not sure that there is an american printed version, so it's not even a variation.

scratching my joc itch

i wouldn't necessarily call it legal advice, but i received a package a couple of weeks ago from the stackhouse law office in farmington, new mexico.  in it, corey noted that during his time watching albuquerque baseball (it's been the home of the dodger triple-a team since 2009, as it was from 1972 through 2000 with 2003-08 spent as the marlins' triple-a affiliate), joc pederson is the best he's seen.

behind the note were a number of pederson's cards, instantly increasing my joc collection by 10 or so cards.  here they are:

2011 topps pro debut

2012 bowman chrome prospects

2012 bowman prospects

2012 topps heritage minors

2012 topps pro debut

2013 bowman topp 100 insert

2013 bowman chrome cream of the crop mini refractor

2013 bowman chrome draft picks & prospects

2013 bowman draft picks & prospects

2013 bowman platinum prospects

2013 topps heritage minors

2013 topps heritage minors 1964 bazooka style insert

2013 topps pro debut

now i'm sure that this new mexico attorney is not one to fib (saul goodman he is not, i am sure), so i'll take him at his word.  plus, here's the back of the 2013 bowman chrome cream of the crop mini refractor

that's not bad company.

as a dodger fan, i have been following pederson the last four-plus seasons as he has climbed through the organization.  so far in his first season in the abq, he has 23 homers in 94 games to go along with 25 steals and a .315 batting average.  and, as a dodger fan, i recall monster numbers that mike marshall and greg brock and franklin stubbs put up in albuquerque a generation ago.  still, i was a bit nervous at the trade deadline when some talking heads were reporting the pederson was potentially available in trade talks.

listen to the lawyer, ned.

a beast of a sase

if you haven't sent a sase (or, as i did, a few sases) to wes at jaybarkerfan's junk yet, what are you waiting for?

the first of my self-addressed stamped plain white envelopes was returned to me last week.  it was a beast - literally and figuratively.  i have sent three cards by way of a single forever stamp before, but wes was able to turn my 46 cents into 8 cards (!) plus a dodger hologram.

first up is the guy who helped popularize 'beast mode', matt kemp

that is a very nice looking 2013 bowman chrome green parallel.

here's that hologram i mentioned - it's from 1989 upper deck.

as are the next few cards.

jose gonzalez is just hanging out in the dugout

while orel hershiser is out throwing shutouts

and kirk gibson is winning games and the mvp

now, that gibson card features a photo from the aftermath of his game 1 pinch-hit walk-off home run, but the card is really all about his winning the national league mvp (yes, he deserved it mets fans).  there is another card of gibson in the set that celebrates the famous home run, and it carries the mark of the beast

upper deck describes me as 'frantic' (i was in the right field pavilion that night).  nervous, anxious, hopeful, and then frenzied for sure.  anyway, you are all familiar with upper deck and it's obsession with assigning card number 666 to the dodgers, right?

but wait, there was another.  this 2003 upper deck sp legenday cuts card of leo durocher is numbered to 1299

which means that someone (meaning me) has to have the one numbered '666'.  or, in this case, '0666'.  that's ok - i don't mind.  to me, the number means simply 'garvey-garvey-garvey'.  or  maybe these days, 'garvey-puig'.

one more serial numbered card from the envelope, but it's 311.  it's a 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic don drysdale

the 8th card sent was this 2000 skybox autographics angel pena auto card

so that was it for the first sase.  however, wes had also sent me a couple of cards as part of a trade.

2008 topps stadium club blake dewitt  photographer's proof auto

and 2008 upper deck sp authentic chad billingsley by the numbers auto

thanks for all the cards wes!

encounters while searching for puig

yes, i was tempted by the lure of pulling a yasiel puig card from a pack last week.  i bought some 2013 bowman platinum (one of those three pack deals with three purple parallels at target).  i didn't do too badly from an insert ratio standpoint, but no puig.

i did get this clayton kershaw reprint, though.

as far as base cards went, i got a couple of other hot shot young pitchers - stephen strasburg

(are we past the point of showing his cards when we pull them?) and gerrit cole

here are the three purple cards, packaged separately for my convenience.  victor roache

kyle crick

and anthony rendon

if i pulled dodgers like i pull giants these days, i would have a lot more dodger cards than i already do.

now for the parallels.  i got a ruby will middlebrooks

a gold cole hamels

and a sapphire bubba starling

no puig.

so, i also picked up a couple of packs of straight up bowman.  this bowman prospects card of travis witherspoon caught my eye - not only is there a budweiser ad behind him, but one for hooters, too.

still, it's no lenny dykstra card

andre ethier made an appearance

as did a double play card, courtesy of the reds' henry rodriguez

among the two or three gold parallels, there was a rickie weeks in a nice throwback jersey

i was at the twins game this year against the brew crew in which each team wore throwbacks.  the twinkies wore in their saint paul saints unis, from back when the saints were the dodgers' aa affiliate.  good times.

another brewer - this time on a chrome mini refractor

 as well as a diamondback.

wanna bet that tyler's nickname is 'boz'?  or have we failed as parents?  and will anyone get that reference?

and then, there it was.  a bowman prospects silver ice parallel of a dodger...

jeremy moore is not yasiel puig.  and so, the search continues...