night owl sent a lot of lefties

i am glad that night owl is a dodger fan.  the well deserved popularity of his blog brings with it an expanded trading pool, and other dodger collectors like myself benefit from the hand me downs.

it's been quite a while since i received my most recent package of dodgers from new york state, yet i haven't finished putting together the return package.  what do you get the card collector that has too few holes in his collection?  i'm working on it.

one thing i noticed was that there were a lot of left-handed dodgers in the package he sent.  like johnny podres, of whom there was a 1961 post card

fast forward about 40 years, and we find kaz ishii on a 2002 fleer tradition update this day in history relic card

and a 2005 topps heritage chrome refractor

the relic card references may 4 (may the fourth be with you, by the way), as that was the day in 2002 that ishii made his sixth major league start, and earned his sixth major league win.  he was 8-10 over the course of the remainder of the season.  i saw his 9th start of the season in milwaukee, and he did not look very good.  he walked 6 in 5+ innings of work, but still got the win since that was the game that shawn green hit four home runs and drove in seven.

here's a 2010 topps update hong-chih kuo relic card

2010 was a good year for kuo. he was an all-star, and his era during the regular season was 1.20.  unfortunately, things seemed to fall apart after that.

2014 bowman chrome prospects julio urias

urias is 18 years old this season, and his k/9 ratio is still well above 11.  his win-loss record at the moment is 1-2 in double-a, but i don't think anyone is worried.

folks shouldn't be worried about clayton kershaw, either, as he shut out the nationals over 8 innings yesterday while striking out 14.  here's his 2014 panini prizm diamond dominance card

receiving that card in the package was a surprise, as it means that at least a couple of people bought packs of prizm and sent that card to night owl.

here's a 2015 topps fernando valenzuela highlight of the year insert

that was nice to receive.  fernando was never my favorite pitcher on the dodgers - i would say bob welch and then orel hershiser held that title during fernando's run - but his start to the 1981 season was undeniably awesome.

enough with the pitchers, here are some lefty batters that also showed up in the package.  this is a 2005 donruss champions jd drew impressions relic card

and this is a 2011 topps lineage andre ethier 1975 mini relic card

like i said, i'm glad night owl is a dodger fan.

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.

i do have some newer stuff, too

earlier today i showed (mostly) some vintage duke snider cards.  and, while my vintage needs grow smaller (in theory), topps and others keep churning out new dodger cards.  i've obtained quite a few of those recently.

2014 topps clayton kershaw spring fever

which has a different color palette than the 2014 topps hanley ramirez spring fever card

which is great, because variety is the spice of life.

here's a 2014 topps gypsy queen clayton kershaw 'debut all-stars' insert

cheers to topps for going back and using a photo of kershaw from the 2011 all-star game, his first.

jeers to topps for using a photo from 2011 on this 2014 topps league leader card

that was the last dodger card (not counting the short prints i am ignoring this year) that i needed for the series 1 team set.

on to series 2, which includes this kershaw cy young award winner card

now for a couple of cards from 2014 topps opening day - adrian gonzalez

and matt kemp

kemp's base card in this year's topps flagship set didn't come out until series 2, but it was so familiar to me when i first saw it that i was momentarily confused.  anyway, i pulled the gold version from a pack

which is always nice

zack greinke makes an appearance thanks to 2014 topps archives

intense!

and here's kemp's card from this year's archives.

i think that photo is the same one (or very similar) to the one topps used on a short print variation of the bison last year.

matt kemp cards abound!  here's his 2014 bowman card

and hanley's too!

yes, i bought a multi-pack of bowman, and didn't do too badly as far as dodger ratios.  here's a bowman chrome prospects card of brandon trinkwon

and a bowman prospects purple parallel of bobby coyle

trinkwon was a 2013 draft pick while coyle was taken by the dodgers in 2010.

here's julio urias' 2014 bowman prospects card

this guy is kind of a big deal.  he's only 17, and is was recently ranked as the 13th best prospect in the game.  just another lefty pitcher from mexico for the dodgers, speaking of which

here's fernando valenzuela's 2014 topps archives short print

if only there had been a 1980 topps traded/update set, we might have seen that card 34 years ago

here's another dodger short print from this year's archives - dusty baker

that's a card that easily would have fit into the 1980 set.  well done.