where in the world is my wallet card - local monthly card show edition!

wallet card and i ventured out in the cold to a recent local card show.

that's my beat up 1974 topps steve garvey card in the foreground of the familar twin cities sports card collector's club card show signage.

inside, i found some things to purchase, including another vintage dodger from one of the main vintage bargain bin dealers i've written about so many times.  one of the cards he sold me was this 1955 topps duke snider card

i took duke home and promptly freed him from his cage

i am pretty sure that whomever had the card graded spent more on that than i spent on the card.  anyway, it's the last card in the 1955 set, and one of the ones i thought would take me the longest to find one that met my budgetary needs.  i was wrong - there are still a few other dodgers i need from that '55 set.

there were some modern dodgers from a two-dime box at another dealer that suffered the wrath of my dodger digging.  here's a 2011 topps pro-debut ethan martin blue parallel

i have a hard time passing up blue dodger parallels, even when they are former prospects that no longer pitch in the organization.

case in point, here's a 2014 bowman chrome dan haren blue parallel

it's a card only a dodger team collector could love.

more blue - this time a 2012 topps chad billingsley golden moments relic card

that features a swatch from the 1940 throwback unis that the dodgers wore for a few games in 2011.

here's a piece of (supposedly) adrian gonzalez's bat from 2014 topps allen & ginter

the relics were only a buck apiece.

there were a bunch of grant holmes cards in the two-dime box, and i grabbed this 2014 bowman draft picks and prospects draft night insert of the first round pick 

he had a k/9 ratio of over 10 in his rookie league debut last year. i'm interested to see what he does this year.

i have a hard time passing up tim wallach cards when i see them in discount boxes, so i grabbed this 1995 topps stadium club card.

to be honest, i've seen this card so many times, i should make sure that i actually own it before i ship it off to new mexico.

also from 1995 topps stadium club, i grabbed this brett butler virtual reality insert

based on the haul i took from the card show (i'll be showing more of it in another post), the fist bump is warranted.

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.

i suppose i am a garvey junkie

here are a few more cards that were sent my way from the bayou, courtesy of the junior junkie.  first up is a 1985 fleer super star special card featuring steve garvey and fellow padre goose gossage

goose blew the save in game 4 of the 1984 nlcs, but that was the game in which garvey hit a walk-off home run to force the decisive game 5.  in that game, garvey (the nlcs mvp) drew an important walk to set up a couple of sac flies, and later drove in the game's final run, while gossage recorded the save and the pads were on to the world series. those yellow bp jerseys are hideous, by the way.

here's a 2002 fleer box score pee wee reese card

i am pretty sure that these cards were sold in a box set, and featured only hall of famers.  i recall buying the box from one of the local card shops and then being disappointed that pee wee was the only dodgers in the cooperstown subset.

2011 bowman chrome draf picks and prospects josh lindblom refractor

lindblom has bounced around since the dodgers traded him to the phillies for shane victorino in 2012.  the phillies dealt him to texas prior to the 2013 season in the michael young deal, and then they sent him to the a's for michael choice a year later.  he pitched in one game for the a's last season.

2014 bowman andre ethier

have we seen the last of ethier in dodger blue? i would guess not, unless the dodgers eat a sizable part of that contract ned doled out.

2014 topps allen & ginter hyun-jin ryu

and duke snider

it's nice to see the duke in la dodger gear once in a while.

thanks for the cards tj - from one junkie to another!

the last dodger pitcher to win the mvp award is clayton kershaw

the national league hadn't had a pitcher win the most valuable player award since bob gibson took home the hardware in 1968.  now, for the first time in my lifetime, a pitcher has won the nl mvp award and it's a guy who throws for my favorite team.

you can say that it's because giancarlo stanton got hurt towards the end of the season, but it doesn't matter.  clayton kershaw is the 2014 nl mvp.

from such humble beginnings - this is his rookie card from 2008 topps update & highlights

don't worry - i've got more cards to show.

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee

2011 topps diamond duos, with madison bumgarner

bumgarner had a historically fantastic postseason, no doubt.  kershaw did not.  hopefully that just means that his eventual championship run will be that much sweeter.

2011 topps marquee

the brooklyn baby blues.  i wonder if the dodgers will ever play in the robins' 1916 checked uniforms.  maybe in a couple of years to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the franchise's first world series appearance?

2012 bowman chrome

2012 bowman's best

both of those cards show the duke snider memorial patch.  duke never won an mvp award, although he and teammate roy campanella came very close to sharing the award in 1955.

2013 topps toys 'r' us purple parallel

2013 topps mini

2014 topps allen & ginter pastime's pastime

with a nod to his philanthropic efforts on the back

2014 topps gypsy queen n174 insert

2014 topps heritage

2014 topps heritage league leaders

2014 topps heritage then and now with sandy koufax

kershaw has more in common with the 1963 version of sandy koufax - that was the year that koufax won the mvp award.

kershaw has joined a select list of players with this award, and he also joins maury wills, koufax, steve garvey, and kirk gibson as los angeles dodgers to win the mvp.  i am hopeful that in 2015 kershaw will join koufax, garvey, and gibson as a player to win a postseason mvp award as well.

the last dodger pitcher to win the mvp award was sandy koufax

by my count, there have been 10 pitchers who have won the national league mvp award.  three of them were dodgers - dazzy vance (ok, he was a brooklyn robin), don newcombe, and sandy koufax.  koufax won in 1963, and then finished 2nd in 1965 (to willie mays) and in 1966 (to roberto clemente in a very close vote).  

let's see some koufax cards in honor of the most valuable player award - the 2014 winners of which will be announced later today

here's koufax with his right-handed compatriot don drysdale making a tony cloninger sandwich on a 1966 topps league leaders card

and here's koufax sharing space again, although this time it's with ryan braun on a 2011 topps update diamond duos card.

here's a card from 2012 topps that recognizes his effort in game 1 of the 1963 world series

koufax struck out 15 yankees that day.  a few days later, he struck out 8 more to complete the dodgers' sweep.

i've had this short print of koufax from 2012 topps archives for awhile

there's next year's heritage design.

koufax had a couple of cards in 2014 topps allen & ginter as well - here's his pastime's pastimes insert

koufax's pastime is listed as 'actor'

which was not uncommon for the dodgers of the late 1960's/early 1970's.  the don drysdale and wes parker episodes of 'the brady bunch' were two of my favorites. those and the hawaii trip episodes featuring vincent price.

here's koufax's base card from this year's ginter

in his mvp season, koufax won the pitching triple crown with 25 wins, a 1.88 era, and 306 strikeouts.  he also led the league in shutouts and whip.  meanwhile, clayton kershaw led the league in wins and era in 2014, falling just 3 strikeouts behind stephen strasburg and johnny cueto. we'll see later today if kershaw joins dazzy, newk, and sandy as a league mvp.  i'm betting that he does.