baseball is back, sort of

hockey and basketball may still be on the air, but baseball is back. i've seen some 2015 topps cards leak into the populace, so it's officially time to turn our attention to the national pastime.  and, with 2015 stuff out, i should show some of the 2014 cards that have been languishing in my scanned folder.

this is a 2014 bowman yasiel puig 1989 bowman is back insert

thankfully, unlike actual 1989 bowman cards, this one is standard sized.  topps just trimmed the top and bottom margins.  it would look better if they widened the photo frame to have equal sized margins all around the card - they way they did it makes it look trimmed.

these cards were inserted throughout bowman releases.  this one, of alex guerrero,

comes from bowman chrome, i believe.  these next few cards also come from bowman chrome - here's guerrero

along with erisbel arruebarrena

and hanley ramirez

this is a 2014 bowman platinum zack greinke card

greinke is the anti-marshawn lynch. he talks to reporters and speaks his mind. it's hard to tell what he's thinking these days, but i hope he sticks around for a while.

i have to admit that i bought a couple of packs of 2014 donruss at the dollar store.  no dodgers, but i did pick up this puig base

and his power plus insert

through other means over the course of last year.

i've had some of the pastime's pastimes 2014 topps allen & ginter inserts scanned for a while, but never got around to show them off.  here's puig

ramirez

jackie robinson

and hyun-jin ryu

puig's pastime is being a jokester

and one of his main joke partners is ryu.  i don't think they understand what the other is saying, but they make for good comic relief together.

here's a 2014 topps chrome puig card

and a ryu xfractor, too

i only have one 2014 topps heritage card ready to show, and it's carl crawford's

i'll be interested to see 2015 heritage.  i wasn't expecting much in 2013, but the 1964 design redux grew on me.  i'm left wondering if seeing the 1966 topps design modernized will incite any interest.  i'm guessing not.

here are a bunch of dodgers from the 2014 topps stickers release - jackie, puig, matt kemp, clayton kershaw, ryu, and greinke

there were no newer photos of kershaw, so topps had to use one from 2011.

i bought a pack of 2014 topps update a couple of weeks ago while succumbing to pack withdrawal.  at least it contained this yasiel puig all-star game access insert

with mini-miguel cabrera.

also from last year's update, here's a hanley power players insert

it feels good to get these 2014 cards out of the scanned folder and make some room for some 2015 cards.

making room for another joc

i completed a trade with frankie from my life in sports card hobby last month.  it's always nice to find a yankee fan to trade with as i seem to have too many bronx bombers laying around.  one of the cards that caught my eye on frankie's blog was this 2014 bowman chrome dual-ing die cuts card featuring joc pederson

i am happy to have this card in my collection, and i had to check to make sure that matt wisler wasn't a dodger as well with all the wheeling and dealing going on with the padres this offseason.  no, the padres kept wisler, one of their top pitching prospects, even as they sent three players to the dodgers for tim federowicz and this guy, matt kemp

in part to make room for joc in the outfield.  that is a 2010 topps 206 chrome parallel of the former dodger outfielder, by the way. i am not too excited about typing those words.

here's a 2014 bowman hyun-jin ryu silver ice parallel

or is it cracked ice?  i would be ok if topps would cool it with all of the parallels.  let's go back to 1989, a time of rough cardstock and many fewer sets and reflect on the simplicity of cards like this 1989 topps orel hershiser all-star card

hershiser finished 2nd in the national league with a 2.31 era in 1989 - the highest he had finished on the leader board previously had been 3rd, which he accomplished four times in the five seasons from 1984 through 1988.  still, he never led the league in that category like mike mccormick of the san francisco giants did in 1960.  frankie sent me the 1961 topps nl era league leaders card with mccormick (and runners up ernie broglio, don drysdale, bob friend, and stan williams) on the front.  a look at the back tells me that the giants had a leg up on the dodgers for a long time in this category

aside from dazzy vance and johnny podres, the dodgers are not very well represented, while the ny/sf giants show up quite often.  since 1960, however, the dodgers have 12 era titles (including the last 4) to the giants' 5.  they trail in world series rings over the last three years, though.

i'll finish this post with a 2012 panini playoff prime cuts hanley ramirez relic card

the card features hanley as a marlin, or as a member of the miami baseball team, as it was issued before the trade that sent him to los angeles that year.  he's gone to boston now to play the outfield - a position the dodgers were not in need of by any stretch. i was under the impression that hanley wanted to play shortstop, but i guess not.

thanks for the trade frankie!

this is the time of year to drop strong hints

do you make a christmas list? i was told at an early age by my uncle that it is better to give people an idea of what you would like to receive this time of year than to leave it to chance and perhaps wind up with a box of handkerchiefs.  lesson learned.

i recently noted on a night owl post that i was looking for a 2014 topps stadium club mike piazza card (of which night owl had two), and not too long after, i received the card in the mail from said blogger.

piazza didn't travel alone, either.  greg threw in a 2014 topps chrome hanley ramirez purple refractor

and a 2013 topps gypsy queen clayton kershaw white framed card

as well.  i will take night owl's dodger hand-me-downs any day of the week.  yes, that was a strong hint.

jeff at 2x3 heroes and i have been swapping pwe's for a while now, but the pace has increased recently.  i was quick to return the three-pocket insert that he used to send me the previous batch of cards with a note that said something like "you're it" or "your turn" or "send me more!".  he got the hint.  here's a 2014 bowman chrome mini card of mr cy young and mvp

plus a 2013 topps sandy koufax (also mr cy young and mvp) cut to the chase card

you want more mr cy young and (world series) mvp?  ok, here's orel hershiser on a 1994 fleer ultra card

and a chan ho park insert card from the same set.

park was neither a cy young nor an mvp, although piazza once went on record saying that chan ho had cy young stuff.

jeff also sent a 2014 bowman chrome prospects auto card of brandon trinkwon.

he must have bought these in bulk, because i am pretty sure he sent one to zakwin also.

last but not least, there was this card - a 2008 upper deck michael young card

the future dodger is not, however, playing baseball on tatooine as there is a little sliver of grass in the upper left corner.  a clearing on the forest moon of endor? perhaps. tatooine? no.

thanks for the cards guys.  send me more.  hint hint.

gone gordon

the dodgers did quite a bit of wheeling and dealing yesterday, completely revamping their double play combo from hanley ramirez/dee gordon to jimmy rollins/howie kendrick.  hanley was already gone as a free agent, but dee was traded to the marlins for some players and andrew heaney, who was used to get kendrick.  i think i might have rather kept heaney or traded him for something other than a 30-year old second baseman.  anyway, i had finally found a target red parallel version of dee's fantastic 2011 topps update card a while back

but had never gotten around to showing the former nefarious 9 need.  here are a couple more gordon cards that have been sitting in my scanned folder - 2014 bowman chrome

and 2014 topps update red hot foil

dan haren was also part of the trade with the marlins, so i might as well add him to this post, too.  here's his 2014 topps red hot foil parallel

and target red parallel

i wonder how difficult it would be for the topps photoshoppers to actually find out what number players like haren will be wearing with their new teams.  there's usually a press conference with the jersey presentation, and even if that weren't the case with haren, it shouldn't be too hard to find out what number he was going to wear.

while haren may retire rather than play for a team based outside of california, gordon should roam the marlins' infield for quite some time, at least until the next marlins fire sale.

now that i found that target red parallel, let's take another look at the dee gordon 2011 topps update rainbow.

black

walmart blue

gold

target red

diamond anniversary

diamond anniversary hope diamond

diamond anniversary cognac

base

and with a through the mail/private signing autograph

i'll miss the dee gordon double play cards as a dodger, but on the bright side, i'll only need to collect one of each instead of two.