spring has sprung

spring training camps have been broken for the year, and the dodgers are now in southern california passing time with the angels until their season opens on monday.  arpsmith is also in socal, and that's where he presumably acquired these cards that i received recently.

2015 topps adrian gonzalez spring fever

there's only one local card shop that i go to these days (i think there are 3 or 4 in the twin cities), but i don't know if they participate in this promotion or not.  thankfully, arpsmith has a guy who does.

here's a midsummer card - 2014 topps update dee gordon all-star relic

that would be a piece of the all-star game warm up or practice apparel. kudos to topps for getting a photo of dee from the asg to use on the card.

here's another relic - 2014 topps gypsy queen zack greinke

i'm expecting big things from zack since this is an opt-out year for him.

2014 topps heritage minors jesmuel valentin

valentin is the son of jose valentin, who is currently the padres' first base coach.  the dodgers traded jesmuel to the phillies last year as one of the players to be named later in the roberto hernandez (fausto carmona) deal.

2001 topps heritage gary sheffield

arpsmith sent me some cards towards my 2001 topps heritage want list, including the sheff above. i recently took a quiz to see if i could name the top 21 los angeles dodger home run hitters of all time. i got 18 of them right - i forgot john roseboro and ron fairly, who were tied with 90 at the bottom of the list, but i am ashamed to have not named sheffield who put up some of the best offensive numbers ever by a dodger.

last, but not least, here's a 1987 fleer bill russell card, signed by the shortstop of the team of my youth himself

russell did not make the list of the top 21 la dodger home run hitters despite playing his entire career there and appearing in more games than any other la dodger.  russell had only 46 home runs during his career.

thanks for the trade adam! here's hoping the giants give someone else from their division a chance to win the world series this year.

the 1973 topps card that came from 2001

this is a 2001 topps stadium club card of, not luis alicea, but rather chad kreuter

i think the oddly cropped photo featuring the partially obscured dodger catcher would fit nicely in the 1973 topps set as a kreuter card - all that is really missing is the umpire and parts of a couple more players.

this is another card from 2001 topps stadium club.

but it is simply eric karros rounding third and lumbering for home where he may well be thrown out by 20 feet.  karros also shows up on this 2001 topps stars card

but is noticeably absent from this 1996 score select team nucleus insert

you know, beneath the clothes you will find the man. and beneath the man, you find his…nucleus.  this card features the rookies of the year from 1993-1995 (mike piazza, raul mondesi, and hideo nomo), but the 1992 roy (karros) didn't make the cut.

before mondesi was the rookie of the year, he appeared on this 1992 upper deck minors team checklist

as a member of the albuquerque dukes.  abq is where joc pederson played last year, although the dodgers' triple-a affiliate was then called the isotopes. here's a 2014 topps heritage minors card of the dodger prospect

and here is a 2014 topps heritage minors card of fellow prospect corey seager

who will hopefully follow jimmy rollins as the dodgers' shortstop after spending this season in the minors at oklahoma city.

here's another minor league shortstop - yuri sanchez

turning two on a 1995 upper deck minors card.  i figure that the fact that sanchez was a shortstop, coupled with the way he's dragging his right foot over the bag means that there is a double play being turned.  just like this 1982 topps tim foli card

is a double play turn, because why else would foli be at the bag like that?  now that i look at foli's card more closely, i notice the parked car in the background behind the spring training fence.  that's another card that could pass for a 1973 topps card.

and that is how you bring a post around full circle.