hollandsworth gets the shaft

i was obviously quite pleased when todd hollandsworth won the national league rookie of the year in 1996, becoming the fifth straight dodger to capture that award.  and, i was disappointed when wilton guerrero couldn't make it happen in 1997.  so, as you might expect, i enjoy the cards that celebrate the fact that the dodgers had so many consecutive rookies of the year.  topps, fleer and donruss missed the boat in the early 80's when the dodgers trotted out rick sutcliffe, steve howe, fernando valenzuela, and steve sax in consecutive years, but card companies caught on in the 90's.  there was at least one card in 1994 that featured 1992 rookie of the year eric karros and 1993 rookie of the year mike piazza together and addressed their back-to-back awesomeness.  i am thinking of 1994 fleer, although i am too lazy to go dig for the card right now.  then, in 1995, there was this example from score select certified that brought rauuuuuuul into the fold.  then, in 1996, pinnacle added hideo nomo and gave us this very nice card featuring dodger stadium in the background.

so very nice.  here's the back

so, where's the 1997 card with these four guys plus holly?  i'm still looking for it.  hollandsworth, however, gets the last laugh as he is the only one of the five to win a world series.

the card up above was one that was recently sent to me by night owl.  great minds think alike, as i mailed him an unsolicited package around the same time.  isn't this trading thing swell?  here's some more of what greg sent.

1999 topps stadium club darren dreifort

oh, how nice it would be if the dodgers got rid of the ads on the outfield wall and went back to the murals.

2000 upper deck victory chan ho park

even though i own an authentic blue dodger jersey, i rue the davey johnson era for actually wearing them in games.  it is redeemed only by the heroes patch on the left sleeve.  that's koufax, i believe.

i had requested two copies of this card when i saw it on night owl's blog - it's a 1998 fleer tradition jose vizcaino

i needed one for the dodger binder and one for the double play binder.  good thing it wasn't a dodger stadium play or i would have needed a third.

1997 upper deck jackie robinson

part of the subset that led off that set, and a 2012 topps gypsy queen jackie hallmark heroes insert

because night owl cares to send the very best.

speaking of which, he also included a couple of the very best leftys on a 2012 topps heritage insert

better than koufax and say, cole hamels.  i am so glad that the dodgers have players worthy of over produced parallels and inserts these days.  i still don't pull them from packs, but with everybody out there in the blogosphere, i know some of them will come my way eventually.

thanks greg!

i am so disappointed in 2012 topps archives

how disappointed am i?  i am so disappointed that i will write a post about the blaster i opened the other day.  and i will listen to the smiths while i am doing it.  truly disappointed.  truly, truly, truly.

i mentioned that i stopped by the lcs the other day, but was unable to find any archives.  the next day (that would be wednesday), i stopped at a target and found a couple of blasters.  i grabbed one and started to open the cards in the parking lot.  it had been a long time since i had done that, but i had high hopes.  i was really hoping that archives would be at least as cool as the old fan favorites or archives releases from the 2000's, just with current players thrown in for fun.  it would be a mix between heritage and fan favorites, and i was willing to overlook the selection of 1954, 1971, 1980, and 1984 as the designs to be used - not the four that i would have chosen, but i have no say in the matter.  i was pretty sure going in that this would be the first set i would complete since 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee (i still need some cards, actually).  i was wrong.

by the end of the third pack, i was certain that i would not be collecting this set.  still, i'll go pack by pack and let you know what i found.

here's pack 1.

evan longoria (1980)

yes, the first card out of the chute told me all i needed to know.  in fact, i think i was making the same face as longo while i was opening the packs.  i had read on a couple of blogs that morning about the card stock being thin, but i didn't expect this.  it is akin to those send away team checklists from the late 1970s.  and, i won't even get into the cartoon on the back which mentions longoria's walk off homer to put the rays in the 2011 playoffs, but shows a cartoon of a catcher applying a tag at home plate.
shane victorino (1984)
robinson cano (1954)
andrew mccutcheon (1971)
chili davis (1990)

i scanned the back of the chili davis card to give an idea of how much these cards do not look or feel like the cards from the years they represent.  i'm also not sure why chili is featured with a 1990 design.  why?  and why is there no 'archives' stamp on the fronts of these cards?
jaime garcia (1954)
nyjer morgan (1971)
david ortiz (1980)

pack 2:

george brett (1980)

ok. this is what i was expecting.  even though that's a 1990's era george brett photo.  but, wait - where's the all-star banner?
carlos santana (1984)
nelson cruz (1954)
josh beckett (1971)
jose bautista (1967 sticker insert)

i am not the biggest fan of stickers, but i like these - a nod back to the 1967 insert set, which is fairly obscure.  nicely done.
josh hamilton (1984)
cal ripken jr (1954)
anibal sanchez (1971)

pack 3:

cliff lee (1980)
david price (1984)
corey hart (1954)
adam wainwright (1971)
yogi berra (1952)

because it wouldn't be a topps archives release without a yankee on a 1952 card.  hey - there's the archives logo!  why is it only on this card?  i don't know about y'all, but when i open packs, i put cards in numerical order (but move dodgers to the top of the pile).  i have done this since i was 10 years old.  it comes from being a set collector when i first started collecting, and it makes things easier to stay organized.  well, about this time i noticed that the first cards in the set are the 1954 designs, then the 1971s, followed by the 1980s and the 1984s.  that 1990 chili davis is all by itself at number 236, so i figure that maybe the cards after 200 are other years' designs.  i flip yogi over expecting to see number 205 or something like that.  nope - it's card 191 in the set and fits in between the 1984 designs of josh hamilton and brad peacock.  yeah, that'll look good in a binder.  i am so not completing this set.
howie kendrick (1980)
brad peacock (1984)
drew pomeranz (1954)

i slogged on and finished opening the blaster anyway.  here's pack 4:

jp arencibia (1980)
starlin castro (1984)
jose valverde (1954)
clay buchholz (1971)
miguel cabrera (1968 topps 3d insert)

this card is actually pretty cool, but i am not going to be swayed.  i only want the dodgers from this set.
johan santana (1971)
ra dickey (1980)
brandon morrow (1984)

pack 5:

ivan nova (1980)
nolan ryan (1984)
melky cabrera (1954)
ed kranepool (1970)

i am a fan of 1970 topps, so this was nice to see.  and, it's number 235 in the set which makes some sense.  too little, too late, though.
matt moore (1954)
shane victorino (1984 shiny garbage parallel insert)

ugh. i don't recall topps doing this back in 1984.  how about a tattoo insert or something that is at least recognizable from the era.
jordan zimmerman (1971)
torii hunter (1980)

pack 6:

miguel montero (1971)
giancarlo stanton (1980)
mark reynolds (1984)
mat latos (1954)

that is a lot of red.
justin verlander (1977 cloth sticker insert)

hey - i like these.  maybe i'll collect just the 1977 cloth stickers.  but then again, no.
stephen strasburg (1984)

just to show a non-shiny 1984 card
brandon beachy (1954)
drew storen (1971)

pack 7:

ryan zimmerman (1971)
tim lincecum (1980)
lucas duda (1984)
pablo sandoval (1954)
willie mccovey (1969)

that's three giants in this pack, and still no dodgers to be seen.  this mccovey has the archives logo, and the number on the back is 440.  i think i have this figured out, thanks to the 'reprint' text at the bottom of the mccovey back.  the 1952 berra and this mccovey are just reprints inserted into packs.
heath bell
asdrubal cabrera
bj upton
some advertisement card for a topps pennant app.  looks like some box score archive thingy.  i'll stick to baseball reference.

finally, pack 8:

brian mccann (1971)
jose bautista (1980)

this might be my favorite card from the blaster.  it looks like it could have been in the 1980 set.
aramis ramirez (1984)
matt garza (1954)
derek jeter (1977 cloth sticker insert)

two cloth stickers in the blaster was nice, but i would have been happy to see a different insert instead of jeter.
elvis andrus (1980)
ervin santana (1971)

that's what the 1971s look like
adam lind (1984)

no dodgers whatsoever.  bummer.  that means that all of these cards are available.  i'd like to trade them for dodgers from the set, but that's not completely necessary.

hopefully topps tries harder next time.

a tale of two packs

the other day i had a few extra minutes in the right part of town, so i headed over to one of the local card shops.  it has probably been a couple of years since i have been in a card shop, and this was the first time i had been in this particular one.   it was not very well organized, but had a bunch of large count boxes just sitting out in the open where anyone could dig through them - vintage and otherwise.  there was an older guy looking through some newer hockey releases, and the worker lady was behind the counter working on a computer learning program of some sort.  i spent most of my few minutes digging through what was essentially a 3 for $10 relic box and made out with about $30 worth of dodger relics.

i have to admit, however, that my main motivation to head to the shop was to try to pick up a pack or two of 2012 topps archives.  sadly, they had none.  but, having anticipated opening some packs for the first time in a looooooong time, i picked up some stuff that was pretty foreign to me.  one pack of 2012 topps gypsy queen, and one pack of 2012 topps heritage.  here's what i got.

first, the gypsy queen.

not pictured - a mini josh beckett.  that's not too bad of a pack if you are a fan of the american league east. i dislike prince fielder in a tigers' jersey when the card talks about a homer he hit as a member of the brewers.  also, ra dickey's sanitarys are looking a bit thin.  which they are - they're sanitarys after all.  i didn't realize big leaguers still wore them.  or socks in general.  thanks george hendrick.

here's the heritage pack

hey, there's ra dickey again.  usually when i see palm trees on a baseball card, i think of dodger stadium, but in dickey's case (and worley's, too) it looks like spring training.  this pack works well for nl and al east fans.  i got a four-in-one rookie stars card, but sadly not one of the many that feature the dodgers' own tim federowicz.  thank goodness for chad billingsley, the last card in the pack, otherwise i would have been shut out of dodgers.

i don't know if any of these are short prints or what not, but they are all available.  except for bills.

now i remember why i stopped buying packs.  at least for a day or two, because i just bought a blaster of archives yesterday.  look for a very disappointed gcrl post this weekend.

i see you dick tracewski!

i'm trying to get back to a more regular routine as far as posting over at timeless teams goes.  it was tough writing about the orioles of the late 60's and early 70's multiple times.  now, however, we are getting ready to see some of the teams that i am more familiar with, and that, along with my self-motivated self, should result in more frequent posting.  say once a week?

yesterday i posted the cards featuring the 1972 detroit tigers.  those cards included this one of jim northrup with a lurker in the background.

i was hoping that the lurker would help me determine whether the northrup photo was from a certain year (it was taken no earlier than 1972 because of the uniform he is wearing).  anyway, the lurker turned out to be former tigers third base coach dick tracewski.  and, he was no help as he started coaching in detroit in 1972 and stayed there for 24 years.

tracewski split his 8-year playing career pretty evenly between the dodgers and tigers.  he played in 303 games for the dodgers from 1962 through 1965, and 311 games for detroit from 1966 through 1969.  he appeared in three world series (1963, 1965, and 1968) and won rings in each of them.

he has two cards that feature him as a dodger - 1964 and 1965 - and he was kind enough to sign one

of each through the mail for me a few months ago

although i don't own a copy of his 1966 card, i appreciate that his last card as a dodger and his first card as a tiger are so similar.  i also appreciate that tracewski's 1964 card has a couple of lurkers of its own - say hello to coach pete reiser (number 27)!

thanks dick!

oh - by the way.  there will be a contest regarding the timeless teams blog here in a couple of weeks.  just an fyi.

now part of a complete breakfast

a while back, i picked up a 1970 kellogg's bill singer card.  i had been watching ebay for a while, and i was able to get it for a good price, most likely due to the fact that it was just graded as an 8.

i think that people who look for graded cards are looking for higher grades, and a lot of people who don't want graded cards don't bother with these even though they are fairly easy to extricate.  so, people like me  sometimes can get a decent deal.  of course, i could have waited and got an ungraded version for $3 or so as there have been a few on ebay in recent months.  oh well.

singer joins previous pickups willie crawford

tom haller

and don sutton

in my collection.  i am hoping by the end of the summer to have completed all of the dodger kellogg's team sets.  let me know if you can help with the few that i still need:

1977 kellogg's 11 doug rau
1977 kellogg's 47 charlie hough
1978 kellogg's 34 reggie smith
1978 kellogg's 36 tommy john

now i'm off to snap, crackle, and pop that psa case...

that's a lot of people

a few days ago, nick at the dime boxes blog wrote an interesting post about cards with the most people on them.  he has several great examples, and it got me to thinking.  i immediately recalled this card, a 1997 upper deck ismael valdes card

featuring the blistered wonder posing for camera day in dodger stadium.  the first time i went to camera day, i didn't understand. i had been to 'helmet day' where i received a dodger batting helmet, and i had been to some other promotions where i took home a poncho/raincoat and other dodger knick knacks.  so, i could not believe that the o'malleys were going to be handing out cameras to all fans in attendance.

of course, that was not the case as my dad quickly explained.  he told me we would be down on the field and would be able to take pictures of the players.  no, not while they are playing.  anyway, it was the first time i was on the field at dodger stadium, and i have a picture of me somewhere standing up against the outfield wall near the dodger bullpen.  good times.

fast forward almost 20 years from that time, and we get valdes safely beyond the orange fence and the reach of the legion of fans hanging out in left field. not as many people as that 2008 upper deck manny ramirez card or the babe ruth card, but certainly the most dodger fans.

the evolution of the ace, part 2

here we are with the second installment of the non-scientific evolutionary chain of the dodgers' ace.  we left off part one with gomer, and we start part two with don sutton.

don sutton (1971-1973, 1976)

don sutton, much to my chagrin, is the only hall of famer to be part of the team of my youth.  from 1971-1973, sutton averaged 18 wins a year.  he won 19 in 1973, and finished in 5th place in the cy young award voting in both 1972 and 1973.  he finished in the top five in strikeouts each of the three years, and his 9 shutouts and sub-1.00 whip led the league in 1972.  in 1976, sutton reclaimed the ace spot from andy messersmith (see below), by winning 20 games (21, actually) for the only time in his career.  sutton also finished 3rd in the cy young voting, and 22nd in the league mvp vote that year.

sutton actually finished in the top 5 of the cy young voting in 1974 and 1975 as well, but both times he was behind (or tied with) teammate andy messersmith (1974-1975)

messersmith finished 2nd in the vote following the 1974 season (behind teammate mike marshall) and then tied with sutton at 5th in 1975.  his 1974 season included 20 wins and a 1.10 whip (both of which led the league) as well as 221 strikeouts (good for 2nd in the national league).  in 1975, messersmith earned 19 wins and posted a 2.29 era.  he also led the league in starts, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched and hits/9 innings.  he also appeared twice in relief - earning a save in one of those appearances.

tommy john (1977)

tommy john was just two seasons removed from his eponymous surgery when he went 20-7 with a 2.78 era in 1977.  he also threw 11 complete games and 3 shutouts and finished 2nd in the cy young balloting.

burt hooton (1978-1979)

like john before him, hooton finished 2nd in the cy young voting after the 1978 season.  he had gone 19-10 with a 2.71 era in 32 starts, and also had 10 complete games with three of them being shutouts.  in 1979, the dodgers were not a first place team, but happy was still the ace - posting an era of 2.97 but being rewarded with a 11-10 record.  i gave the nod to hooton in 1979 over rookie of the year rick sutcliffe (17-10, 3.46) because hooton surpassed sutcliffe in pretty much every category other than wins.  i don't want to overvalue wins as a measurement of ace, even though my definition is obviously subjective. sorry sutt!  all of the other dodger starters (except for spot starter charlie hough) had losing records and substantially higher eras than hooton did in 1979, including the dodger ace of 1980.

jerry reuss (1980)

reuss joined the list of dodger pitchers to finish second in the cy young voting when he went 18-6 with 3 saves and a 2.51 era in 1980.  he also had 10 complete games, 6 of which were shutouts (the most in the league), and a no-hitter against the giants.  in candlestick, no less.

fernando valenzuela (1981-1982, 1986)

fernandomania touched down in 1981 as another lefty claimed the mantle of ace.  fernando made the opening day start only after it was determined that reuss could not, and went on to rattle off 5 straight complete games, 4 of which were shutouts, in his first 5 starts.  he went 9 innings in his next three starts, too, although it took 10 innings for the dodgers to win his 6th start, although he got the win as he did in all 7 of his other initial 8 starts.  after that, fernando was just 5-7 but finished the strike-shortened campaign at 13-7 with a 2.48 era, and was atop the league leader board in starts, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched and strikeouts.  he also took home some hardware as the league's rookie of the year and cy young award winner.  el toro was a 19 game winner in 1982, and then won 21 games for the blue in 1986 with a league leading 20 complete games and a personal best 242 strikeouts, good enough for second place in the cy young award voting. in between 1982 and 1986, however, fernando was outshone by a couple of other dodger starters.
 
bob welch (1983)

welch went 15-12 in 1983 (fernando was 15-10) and his 2.65 era was the best among dodger starters.  in addition, his 1.16 whip was just slightly higher than that of alejandro pena among the dodgers in the rotation.  maybe i am including welch here just so i can show his nice 1983 fleer card with dodger stadium and ron cey lurking in the background.

alejandro pena (1984)

pena was 12-6 with a league leading 2.48 era for the dodgers in 1984.  he made 28 starts and completed 8 of them, 4 by shutout.  oddly, it was the final season of pena's career in which he was used exclusively as a starter.

orel hershiser was the team's ace in 1985, but i'll cover him in the next post since he also held that title by my estimation later in the decade.