before there was the beard, there was...

...the mustache!

speaking of the beard, it looks like it's back and paying dividends already!

gee wally, that's swell!

i am speaking, of course, not of the infamous unibrow so apparent on wally moon's cards, but of his autograph that i was able to obtain through the mail on two occasions. first, his 1962 topps,

and then his 1963 topps.

moon charges $6 per card, and i was happy to pay to add these two cards to my collection.

really, though, it seems as though his unibrow gets a lot of attention. it's such an obvious and potential signature characteristic, kind of like rollie fingers' mustache or joe mauer's sideburns. here it is on his 1961 topps card

which i think needs more attention paid to the fact that it appears painted, although not as obviously as the 1978 topps greg minton.

moon was the nl roy in 1954 with the cardinals, and had some great years for the dodgers. he helped them to three championships and made the most out of his time playing in the la coliseum, hitting those 'moon shots' to left.

thanks wally! and be sure to check out wallymoon.net, where you'll find that he still has a mean unibrow.

pickle!

i spent a lot of time as a kid playing pickle.  when i grew up, it became known as a 'rundown'.  why?  anyway, maybe it doesn't happen too often in games, or maybe it's not as photogenic as a swing, but i would like to see this kind of action more often on baseball cards.  i do have these three cards which happen to showcase the anatomy of pickle. 

first, on chris gomez's 1994 upper deck card, we see the runner, who might have stopped short on an attempted steal being chased by gomez, who has the ball in his gloveless hand which is the proper position for a quick throw to the fielder waiting at the other base.  i am assuming gomez is running the player back towards first, because that is the correct thing to do as well.

here on one of lou brock's 2004 upper deck legends cards (#1 in the set, by the way), the throw has been made, forcing brock to stop and change direction while the player who threw the ball (jerry grote?) peels off to the side to avoid interfering with the runner

finally, the runner is tagged out as leo gomez demonstrates on his 1995 topps stadium club card.

that's 2-6-2-5-3 if you're scoring at home!

little ditty about jack and jim

two american kids doin' the best they can.  jack billingham and jim fairey shared this 1968 topps card, and both were kind enough to sign it for me recently through the mail. 

billingham won 3 games for the dodgers in 1968, and his card-mate fairey figured in each of them.  billingham earned his first major league win on may 12, 1968, pitching 2 innings of relief, and allowing just one hit against the braves in extra innings.  in the top of the 12th inning, fairey pinch hit for billingham, but grounded out.  the next batter (willie davis) tripled and then scored on a zoilo versalles single.  jim brewer and mudcat grant closed it out, and billingham's victory was secure.

in june, fairey hit his first big league home run pinch-hitting for billingham in a game against the pirates at forbes field.  fairey's home run came in the top of the tenth inning and proved to be the game winner, giving billingham, who had successfully relieved mike kekich with two on and no outs in the bottom of the ninth, the second victory of his career. 

then, in september, the dynamic duo was at it again.  this time, billingham allowed an inherited runner to score along with another run (unearned) as the dodgers fell behind to the reds 5-2 going into the 8th inning.  that's when jim fairey once again pinch hit for billingham.  with 2 on and no outs, fairey beat out an infield hit to load the bases.  five batters later, the dodgers had a 7-5 lead.  after the reds scored in the bottom of the 8th, fairey drove in an insurance run in the 9th and billingham had his third and final victory as a dodger.

after the season, both billingham and fairey were selected by the expos in the expansion draft.  however, only fairey played for montreal as billingham was sent to the astros in the rusty staub deal, replacing donn clendenon who had refused to report to houston due to a conflict with their manager, harry walker.

from there, fairey returned to the dodgers for his final season in 1973, while billingham went to the reds, appearing in 3 world series, before finishing his career with tours in detroit and boston.

head to head, fairey was 4 for 15 against billingham with an rbi and 2 walks.

both guys signed a couple of their other cards for me - jim fairey signed his 1969 topps

with him still in the dodger uniform, and his 1971 topps

in the official montreal baby blues, while billingham signed his 1976 topps

and 1978 topps

thanks jack and jim!

it seems like a good day for some dodger stadium shots

finally, we have some nice weather in the midwest.  and, since there aren't too many cards yet that feature target field, i'll celebrate the outdoors with some dodger stadium backgrounds, like the one on john mcdonald's 2008 upper deck card

this is after the frank mccourt renovations, so the colors are more muted than they were before. the intent was to get back to the original color scheme, and it seems that they got pretty close based on what i have seen in a few articles.  except for all the ads on the outfield wall, that is.

you can see the darker color palette on mike simms' 1991 upper deck card

the original 1962 seats were pulled from the stadium in the early 70's and replaced with these ones.  it may be just me, but it seems like there are a lot of astros' cards featuring dodger stadium, and i can't help but think it's because of their rainbow uniforms and dodger stadium's multi-colored seats.

1989 donruss was a set that featured quite a few dodger stadium backgrounds, including this rolando roomes card that showcases the seats

as does van snider's card (along with a peek of the field level scoreboard),

and darren daulton's card.

there's also this craig reynolds card, featuring some non-posed action

and a couple of 1984 donruss cards offering the same.  here's brian giles' (no, the other one) card

as well as a kevin gross card

both with those blurry fans that showed up in a few 1974 topps cards.

i'll end it with another card from 1984 donruss, renie martin

and the right field pavilion.  dodger stadium was originally designed such that the upper deck could be continued around the outfield above the pavilions to increase the stadium's capacity to 85,000 or so.  let's hope frank doesn't know about that.

what if there were short prints in 1981 topps?

are you familiar with former mets pitcher john pacella?  if not, his 1981 topps card tells you most of what you need to know, both in picture

and in text

so, what if 1981 topps was subjected to all the silliness that we have seen with recent issues?

that's right.  the john pacella 'no hat' short print that should have been.

break me off a piece of that icons case

not fancy feast. or chrysler car.  as many of you know, carl crawford cards and sewingmachineguy busted a bunch of upper deck icons last month.  i had the dodgers and i was well rewarded.  aside from the base cards, i happily received a clayton kershaw manufactured patch lettermen card

o.  all i could say was o.  at least the intent is for the cards to spell out his name, not something silly like 'the second coming of koufax' or 'no pressure but you are supposed to lead us to the promised land.'

speaking of pressure, here's a matt kemp future foundations parallel

along with the white swatch jersey version

interesting and scary things coming out (check out vin scully is my homeboy) about who matt kemp may be and what crazy ned might do about it.  i think i would self destruct if ned traded my baseball salvation.

next up is a chad billingsley icons white swatch

i have stopped expecting anything from billingsley.  now i just hope for a quality start most of the time.  i hope he pulls it together because the dodgers really need some consistency from their pitching staff right now.

speaking of which, i also received a james mcdonald rookie auto

i expected mcdonald to be the number 5 starter this year, as did a lot of people.  i don't know if his demotion to aaa was to send a message or if he has regressed or what, but i hope he can also right the ship and get back up to the big club.

thanks guys, for hosting the break.  looking forward to the june break as i am hoping my extraordinary luck continues!