the kid deserved a better final tribute

i guess this is what happens when you retire just a month and a half into the season, even if you are one of the greatest to ever play the game.  ken griffey jr walked away from the mariners and baseball in may of 2010, and when 2011 rolled around, this was the only card i could find that featured his full career stats - a requirement for a final tribute.  it comes from the 2011 tristar obak set

here's the back

junior had 18 hits (no home runs) for the mariners in 2010 before calling it quits.  i wonder if there had been a 2010 upper deck series 2 if they would have recognized his retirement.  i also wonder why topps didn't acknowledge it in the 2010 update & highlights set.  or at least give him a checklist in 2011.  he finally showed up in the 2013 topps update set as a short print, but that doesn't really count as a final tribute in my book since it wasn't issued in the year after his retirement.  too little too late, i guess.

my 1959 topps sampler

there were still only 16 teams in the major leagues in 1959, but topps unleashed a number of subsets in their baseball card set that year which made this one of my favorite sampler sets.  in addition to the different colors used for the card backgrounds - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, black, and pink - there were combo cards, team cards, a commissioner card and all-star cards once again, but there were also rookie stars and baseball thrills and a special roy campanella card.

here's my sampler set with at least one of each of those aforementioned cards, including a complete dodger team set

it is odd that topps used a different design for the national league and american league all-star cards.  here are the backs of the first page of the sampler

i just noticed that art fowler is suttoning.  maybe sutton was fowlering.

this card is on fire

i received a nice package of cards from marcus at all the way to the backstop recently.  adrian gonzalez was pretty excited about it - check out his 2014 topps opening day fired up insert

marcus told me he was sending a couple of yasiel puig cards, so i was pretty fired up, too.  here's a target red parallel of puig's 2013 topps update rookie debut card

and here's puig on his 2013 pinnacle card

i understand the erasing of the logos and team names, but does pinnacle really need to re-color the uniform numbers from red to blue?  they are not now, and never have been, blue.

you can see the red number on juan samuel's 1991 us playing card company all-stars card

sammy did indeed represent the dodgers in the 1991 all-star game.  he was 1 for 1 in the game, but the national league lost 4-2.

i was also able to pick up a few dodger needs from 2014 topps heritage thanks to marcus.  i've had fairly bad luck pulling dodgers in the two blasters i bought, so these are appreciated.  here's one of the league leader cards that clayton kershaw appears on

plus cards of don mattingly

and brian wilson

my favorite of the bunch, though, is the maury wills/jacoby ellsbury then & now insert

i had this one queued up in a future sportlots purchase, so the timing of this trade package couldn't have been better.

now if only i could find one of wills' autographed cards from the heritage set…

thanks marcus for the trade!

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em

back in 1974, the dodgers faced off against the oakland a's in the world series.  james augustus hunter, better known as 'catfish' made two appearances in the series - he earned the save in game 1 by striking out the only batter he faced (joe ferguson) and then got the win in game 3 after starting and going 8 innings.  in that game, bill buckner took him deep for a solo home run - the only run the dodgers would score against him.  also in that game, davey lopes was 2 for 3 with a walk and 2 steals against hunter, which qualifies as a classic world series matchup according to the 2002 upper deck world series heroes set.  here's a davey lopes jersey relic from that set that p-town tom of the blog waiting 'til next year sent me a while back

i do so appreciate relics of ron cey, lopes and bill russell, since they are not as plentiful as those of steve garvey.  i think cey is the only one without a jersey card in this particular set.  anyway, lopes later went and joined the a's following the dodgers' world series victory in 1981.  he was traded to the cubs late in the 1984 season, but topps still showed him in a's gear in 1985.  here's his 1985 topps tiffany card as proof

tom also sent an autographed card of one of the other dodger infielders - ron cey signed a copy of one of his cards from the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams set

cey is a great ttm signer, so i would imagine that's how this one got signed.  i do plan to finish the timeless teams blog, by the way.  this year for sure.

not all of the cards in the trade package were of the infield - there were lots of other dodger goodies.  here's a 1982 tcma baseball's greatest pitchers card of don newcombe

and even a 1989 score jay howell card

can be appreciated for the unocal logo and old field level scoreboard from dodger stadium in the background.

dodger stadium is in the background of mark ellis' 2013 topps walmart blue parallel as well

but seeing part of a bud light sign is not as nice as that scoreboard on howell's card.

tom sent another relic card, too.  from 2013 topps archives, it's andre ethier giving up the shirt on his back

speaking of archives, i understand that the 2014 set will use the 1973, 1986, 1989 and 1980 set designs.  why use 1980 again? it was just used in 2012 archives.  i'm guessing that there will be one or two short prints (again) that use the 1978 design, but it would be nice if topps used it for the base set sometime.  of course, if they have bill russell on the auto checklist this year, i might give them a pass.

thanks for the trade tom!  and it looks like, once again, you will be waiting until at least next year for your cubs.

oh my o-pee-chee complete set!

about five years later, i picked up the last few cards i needed to complete the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee set.  if i recall correctly, this set was supposed to look like the 1977 topps set (just as upper deck had used the 1971 and 1965 and something pretty close to the 1963 topps sets in their 'vintage' releases).  however, upper deck got sued by topps and had to change the design.

although i stopped collecting o-pee-chee sets in the 1980's, you know as a fan of the brand and proprietor of the oh my o-pee-chee blog that i was onboard for this set.  now it is complete.  here are the final half dozen cards that i needed for my set.

jacoby ellsbury

derek jeter

jhonny peralta

i decided early on that i wasn't going to let upper deck's hijinks make me spend more money to complete the set, so my set features a number of black bordered cards for which i did not have the regular base after opening two boxes of product.  the peralta eluded me until i found a black bordered parallel online.

omar vizquel

david wright

and mike pelfrey

the pelfrey was actually a bonus non-dodger card on my nefarious 9 list for awhile, but no one came forward with the card.

i realize that i need to update that list again.

here are a couple of other cards that i came by and picked up - one is a double, but it will go in my lurker collection.  it's wilson betemit's card

with dodger juan pierre making an apperance.

lastly, i found this colorful relic card of joe nathan, joe mauer, and michael cuddyer for cheap

not as nice as my dodger relic from the set, but still good to have.  just like a complete set.

boston strong - the armband and memorial patch for the victims of the boston marathon bombing

with the 2014 boston marathon being run today, let's recognize some cards showing the patch and armband that the red sox and other teams wore to honor the victims of the bombing that occurred near the finish line of last year's event.

in the red sox' first game back at fenway after the bombing, the team wore their home whites with 'boston' on the front rather than 'red sox'.  they also had a 'b strong' patch on their chests.  jonny gomes' 2014 topps card features a photo from that april 20, 2013 game.

as they had done the previous year after johnny pesky passed away, the red sox wore a black armband instead of the patch on the road.  dustin pedroia's 2013 topps update card shows the armband on his right sleeve

as does david ortiz's card from the same set

i'm not a pedroia fan, so the ortiz card is in my memorials binder.  after that first home game, the red sox moved the patch to their left sleeves as see on drake britton's 2013 topps update target red parallel card

although the card that is in my memorials binder for this placement of the patch is a card that features a photo from the final game of the 2013 season for the red sox.  from 2014 topps heritage, here is the world series game 6 card

it should be noted, and is on the hall of fame's website, that on april 16, 2013 (the day after the bombing), the red sox were on the road in cleveland and the players wore a makeshift black armband on their left sleeves

except for felix doubront, who wore one on his right sleeve

as did the indians players.

in the april 20th game at fenway, the red sox faced the royals, who also wore the 'b strong' patch on their jerseys

later in the season, when the red sox travelled to san francisco, the giants also wore the patch.

three spectators were killed by the explosions, and 264 were injured.  still, i am guessing that there will be a large turnout for today's race.  i've run a marathon before, but had never really given the boston marathon a thought.  that might have changed last year - we'll see...

a patch for columbine

15 years ago today, two columbine high school students killed a teacher and 12 fellow students in the worst high school massacre in us history.  the rockies wore a patch on their sleeves for the remainder of the 1999 season to honor the victims.  the patch, with the letters 'chs' for columbine high school, is visible on larry walker's 2000 pacific crown collection card

a few oakland a's (reggie jackson, ken holtzman, and mike epstein) wore a black armband in 1972 (unfortunately, i can't find any photos) following the murder of israeli athletes at the 1972 olympic games in munich, but i believe that this is the first time a memorial was worn by an entire team following a terroristic or similarly violent event.