dodger (and other) cardboard from mets cardboard

what makes more sense than receiving a mike piazza dodger card from justin at mets cardboard? not much.  i sent him a bunch of mets, and he sent me some dodgers and other good stuff for my collection.  here's the aforementioned strongest man in socal on a 1993 topps stadium club card

i don't know the full story of piazza switching from number 25 to 31, but i know it had to do with time wallach signing with the dodgers for the 1993 season.  i wonder how much wallach had to give to get the number from piazza.

here's a 1996 fleer joey eischen

part of the reason that i scanned this card was that i was pretty sure that eischen hadn't been shown on the blog before. he pitched in a total of 45 games for the dodgers over the course of the 1995 and 1996 seasons, and non-closing relievers weren't showing up on a lot of cards back then.  but then i remembered that he made his debut on the blog as part of a mother's cards post earlier this year.

1996 skybox dugout axcess eric young axcess airlines frequent flyer insert

i don't care much for card companies when they misspell things on purpose, like 'axcess'.  or 'authentix', as is the case on this 2002 fleer authentix shawn green power alley insert

however, if those cards featured the dodger stadium murals like this 2003 fleer focus jersey edition shawn green card

i'd be more accepting of the spelling.  i'm not going to kick them out of my collection, mind you, but i'm  going to shake my head every time i see them.

2004 topps total robin ventura

the santa maria native finished up his career playing more first base than third base for the 2004 dodgers.  he also pitched in a game.

2008 topps finest hong-chi kuo autograph

always cool to find an auto card in a trade package.  it's also cool to find a card from a set that you're trying to finish, like this jr towles card from 2008 upper deck timeline.

there's been so little movement on my part with that set that it took me a moment to figure out why i was getting a card of an astro that wasn't a tatooine or double play card.  speaking of double play cards, justin sent a bunch of those, too, more than i showed last weekend.  i'll show the others that were new to my collection later.  thanks justin!

more (but not all that i hoped for) 2004 cards from the steve garvey binders

things get pretty thick on sheet 47 of the steve garvey binders. there are nothing but numbered cards, and a couple have patches that make for a thicker card.  that's why some of the non-relic cards look a little blurry in the scan.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2004 donruss team heroes showdown bronze parallel /150
2. 2004 donruss throwback threads century collection material relic /250
3. 2004 donruss throwback threads century collection material relic /250 (with pinstripe)
4. 2004 donruss throwback threads century collection material combo relic /50
5. 2004 donruss throwback threads century collection signature material auto/relic /50
6. 2004 donruss throwback threads century collection material combo prime relic /25
7. 2004 donruss throwback threads century collection material prime relic /25
8. 2004 donruss throwback threads generations /1500 (with shawn green)
9. 2004 donruss throwback threads generations spectrum /100 (with shawn green)

i haven't been good about noting the print runs on these cards in past posts, but i will in this one.  lots of padre garvey goodness on that sheet, although i was pretty pleased in '04 to see both garvey and green on a card together.

here are the backs:

sheet 48 continues the numbered and garvey/green goodness, starting with a dual garvey/green relic numbered to just 5.

those cards are:

1. 2004 donruss throwback threads generations material /5 (with shawn green)
2. 2004 donruss timelines boys of summer /250
3. 2004 donruss timelines boys of summer silver /100
4. 2004 donruss timelines boys of summer auto (blue ink)
5. 2004 donruss timelines boys of summer auto (blue ink/'6' notation)
6. 2004 donruss timelines boys of summer auto (black ink/'6' notation)
7. 2004 donruss timelines boys of summer auto (gold glove notation)
8. 2004 donruss timelines boys of summer auto (world champs notation)
9. 2004 donruss timelines boys of summer auto silver /100

beckett doesn't have any info on the print run of the straight auto card from timelines, nor does it differentiate between ink color and/or notations.  no, that's what we supercollectors do.

here are the backs:

here's sheet 49:

 those cards are:

1. 2004 donruss world series
2. 2004 donruss world series blue holofoil /100
3. 2004 donruss world series october heroes /500
4. 2004 donruss world series october heroes signature material /100
5. 2004 fleer greats
6. 2004 fleer greats blue /74
7. 2004 fleer greats auto
8. 2004 fleer greats announcing greats
9. 2004 fleer greats forever dodgers /1969

there are a number of parallels from the world series release that i am missing, but it is the fleer greats release that really bothers me as far as cards not in my collection.  first, here are the backs:

so, i am really grateful to fleer for putting garvey and vin scully on a card together.  that is awesome.  however, i am really disappointed in fleer for going bankrupt in 2004.  when greats came out that year, there were a number of redemption cards issued for relics and autos, including many featuring garvey. i fought for and bought at least one exchange card of each (except for possibly the rarest one) on ebay and sent them in.  nothing happened, and then fleer goes belly up and i am sent consolation relic cards (including some basketball!?!) instead of receiving cards such as these:

2004 fleer greats forever dodgers game jersey relic sp
2004 fleer greats forever dodgers game jersey relic logo /149
2004 fleer greats forever dodgers game jersey relic number /99
2004 fleer greats forever dodgers game patch dual relic logo /19 (with fernando valenzuela)
2004 fleer greats forever dodgers game patch dual relic number /5 (with fernando valenzuela)
2004 fleer greats forever dodgers game patch relic logo /49
2004 fleer greats forever dodgers game patch relic number /25

i was ticked off, to say the least.  how awesome would that dual patch relic with fernando have been? pretty awesome.  the orel hershiser 'forever dodgers' relic cards were completed on time to be included in the initial release, but i don't think i've ever tracked one down.  it's too painful.

they came from 2004...

today i'm showing some cards that were released in 2004.  the first few don't look like cards from 2004, however.  like this 2004 fleer platinum edwin jackson card

that was modeled after 1984 fleer cards.

and then there is this 2004 fleer tradition card

that brings to mind the 1990 fleer design although the banner here has more flow to it.

this 2004 topps all-time fan favorites brett butler card

uses the 1991 topps design.  unfortunately, topps kept the orange frame design of the giants cards. 1991 was butler's first year with the dodgers, and he led the league in runs scored and walks.  he was featured in the flagship set as a giant, receiving a dodger card (with the proper blue frame) in the traded set.

finally, there is this 2004 topps cracker jack card of adrian beltre

that is a play on the 1915 cracker jack design

don't worry - there were some original designs used in 2004 - like the design of the 2004 upper deck flagship set.  here's juan encarnacion's card from that set

i like the 2004 upper deck set because of the inset photo behind the players' names.  that's a dodger stadium scene, in case you can't tell (the same scene - differently cropped - that's on the back of dodger cards in the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams set).  unfortunately, upper deck did not apply the photo consistently to cards in the set

it may just be that the horizontal cards in the set didn't get the inset photo, i don't know.  here are some landscape oriented cards for you to ponder - shawn green

is in pittsburgh, i believe

hideo nomo

is in the dodger stadium dugout

and robin ventura

is on the road somewhere - maybe san francisco - as that's where jeff weaver is on his card

which is vertical and features the stadium inset photo.

there's not much of a discernible background photo at all on this 2004 topps clubhouse collection eric gagne relic card

but i guess we are supposed to be focusing on the fabric and not the photo.

it would be interesting to know what sort of designs fleer and upper deck would have these days.  i am sure, like topps (heritage, archives, gypsy queen, allen & ginter), they would issue sets that incorporate some older set designs, but there would be some unique designs, too.

at least i hope there would be.

a boxscore from the team of my youth and other cards from hsca

there were plenty of cards to like in the package that brian from highly subjective and completely arbitrary sent my way as part of his group trade break, even before getting to the trade break bounty.  i've shown some of them already, but there are more.  like this card, which comes from the 2004 topps world series highlights insert set

that's dusty baker pounding a home run in game one of the 1978 world series against the yankees.   the back is even better, as it shows the box score from the game.

it's great to see that lineup on the card.  it's a bit different than the batting order i remember from my youth because of the designated hitter, but the starting lineup of lopes, russell, smith, garvey, cey, monday, baker, and yeager is the lineup that i consider to be the definitive lineup of the team of my youth.  as an aside, davey lopes should have been featured thanks to his two home runs in this game.  it's still hard to believe that the dodgers won this game and game 2 (thanks bobby welch), but then lost four in a row to lose the series.

on to the group trade break stuff - 1996 pinnacle tim wallach

and ramon martinez

i like ramon's card a lot.

here's his brother, pedro, on a 2002 topps gallery heritage insert

plus a couple of base cards of shawn green

and hideo nomo

from the set.  the nomo card makes it look like he's a giant standing in a farmer's field near the coast.

paul loduca is definitely in dodger stadium on his 2003 topps stadium club card

while franklin gutierrez is in vero beach's holman stadium on his

that's a gold parallel, by the way, as is this sean pierce card

pierce never made it out of the minors, but gutierrez went on to win a gold glove and set a record for errorless chances in the outfield for the mariners in 2010.  after missing the 2014 season due to illness, gutierrez is currently in triple-a for the m's trying to work his way back to the bigs.

here are a couple more cards that weren't part of the trade break, but they are shiny so they get some time on the blog.

2015 topps heritage clayton kershaw holofoil

and 1992 upper deck denny's grand slam kal daniels

daniels hit four of his five grand slams as a dodger, and was only 28 when his career ended. if only he had good knees!

thanks brian!

here are dodgers in spades

here's the fourth and last suit of cards from the 2005 baseball hero deck of dodgers.  the more recent players are featured as spades.  i use 'most recent' broadly, as this group spans from the 1980's to 2005...

eric gagne is the only reliever to crack the aces in the set.  mike scioscia at catcher is nice, even though he finished his time with the dodgers in 1992.  eric karros at first, steve sax at second, adrian beltre at third, and cesar izturis at short. an outfield of gary sheffield, milton bradley, and shawn green, plus ramon martinez, hideo nomo, kevin brown, and mike piazza as the high numbered 'bench' cards.

this is a cool little oddball set.

steve finley dodger cards are in short supply

despite hitting one of the biggest home runs in dodger regular season history, steve finley did not appear  on too many cards as a dodger.  he was featured in the 2004 topps traded set after joining the dodgers in a deadline deal with the diamondbacks, but by the time the 2005 season rolled around, finley was playing for the angels in anaheim.  thankfully, there are a few dodger cards of finley (his 2005 fleer ultra card is one of the best, but i'll show it in a future post).  i recently picked up a couple - more specifically this 2005 donruss longball leaders insert

this 2004 donruss studio high numbered/update sort of thing

and his 2005 donruss diamond kings card

those are clearly dodger cards of the guy whose 2004 game 161 walk-off grand slam against the giants eliminated the no-cals and gave the dodgers the nl west crown.  these next few are not.

here's a 2005 fleer classic clippings card of finley

he's a dodger on the card, but it's actually a card that falls under the anaheim angels domain.  same goes for this 2005 upper deck espn card

and this 2005 upper deck mlb artifacts card

cards that show a dodger, but claim him as an angel. thank goodness for comc - i was able to search for 2005 steve finley cards and identify a bunch that featured dodger blue but were not on my radar due to the angel affiliation.  of course, i then went out and bought them from sportlots.

same goes for shawn green, who is a dodger on this diamondback card, also from 2005 upper deck mlb artifacts

as well as this 2005 upper deck pros & prospects

there are plenty of shawn green dodger cards, however, so my collection is not hurting in that regard.  any other team collectors look for these types of cards - the laundry is right, but the team affiliation is not?

random relics

relic cards aren't the draw that they used to be, that's for sure. questions about authenticity and overproduction have removed much of the luster from them.  the novelty that persuaded me to pay $20 for a pack of pacific game used back in 2001, only to get a piece of neifi perez's bat has certainly worn off.  these days, relic cards are practically a dime a dozen.

with that said, here are 10 that i am happy to have in my collection, even though they've been wallowing in my scanned folder without a post to display them for quite some time.  i'll note what each relic is, based on the guarantee on the back of the card.

2002 upper deck sp legendary cuts pee wee reese game used jersey

2005 upper deck classics bill russell game used pants

2005 upper deck classics pedro guerrero game used jersey

2001 upper deck sp game bat edition gary sheffield game used bat

2003 upper deck honor roll hideo nomo game used jersey

2004 donruss throwback threads hideo nomo game worn jersey

2004 upper deck vintage hideo nomo game used jersey

2004 upper deck shawn green game used jersey

because shawn green probably has the most dodger relic cards of anyone out there - at least from the peak era of relic cards.

2005 topps opening day paul loduca game worn jersey

you can see where the dodger script patch was removed from this particular swatch

2010 topps heritage james loney game worn jersey

on all of the cards except loney's, the guarantee on the back specifically ties the jersey, bat, or pants to the player on the front of the card and notes that said jersey, bat, or pants were worn or used in an official major league baseball game.  there is no guarantee on the back of loney's card, only the mention of "game-worn jersey" on the front.  i am left to assume that it is loney's jersey, but who knows for sure? also left unsaid is in what sort of game was this jersey worn?

i know this has all been said before, but i needed a vehicle to get these cards out of the scanned folder.  i'm still collecting these, by the way, as long as there's a dodger on the front of the card.