what's more 'holsum' than a baseball card trade?

this latest trade post comes courtesy of tony at off hiatus. he sent me the front end of a trade package (i'll send a return package very soon), and it was chock full of good stuff.  here's a 1990 holsum superstars orel hershiser card/disc

holsum was a bread company - i would have guessed dairy. this is now the only holsum card i have in my collection, and i didn't even know it was coming. that's one of the best things about this whole experience.

here's another oddball from the package - a 1983 donruss action all-stars fernando valenzuela card

and even more fernando goodness in the way of a 1988 panini sticker

there were more stickers to be found, including the late bobby welch

and matt young

who was traded with welch to the a's prior to the 1988 season. i was happy to see welch (and young, too i suppose) win a ring in 1989 after the dodgers got theirs in '88.

here's a 1986 fleer mini steve garvey card

which we've also seen recently in one of the steve garvey binders posts.

it's pretty cool to find vintage cards in a trade package, and tony came through with a couple of cards on cards from the 1957 topps set - lindy mcdaniel

and bobby gene smith

he also hit one of my needs from the 1971 topps set with this fantastic rodney cline carew card

thank goodness the doctor who delivered carew on the train wasn't named fester fonebone.

thanks, too, to tony for sending me cards!

we are closing in on the end of the steve garvey binder pages from his playing days

it's almost an all-fleer page on sheet 23 of the steve garvey binder.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 1987 fleer
2. 1987 fleer baseball's exciting stars
3. 1987 fleer baseball's game winners
4. 1987 fleer glossy
5. 1987 fleer limited edition
6. 1987 fleer mini
7. 1987 fleer star stickers
8. 1987 kraft
9. 1987 leaf

here are the backs:

what i find most interesting about all of these backs is that fleer went back to 1969 and included garvey's albuquerque stats on some of the backs.  others start with his big league experience from 1969, yet those same cards keep his 1970 minor league numbers from triple-a spokane.  all of the cards, however, leave out his 1968 stats from ogden - stats that would have completed his professional career numbers.

i am looking forward to getting through the garv's playing days and back to some dodger cards on these sheets!

how to assemble an atomic team set

i finally bit the bullet and bought the last few cards i needed to complete the 2011 topps chrome atomic refractor dodger team set.  i really like these kaleidoscope looking things.

clayton kershaw

of the 10 dodgers in the set, mr. cy young/mvp is one of only two players still with the dodgers.

chad billingsley

bills is pitching for the phils now. he's on the dl, but has made a couple of rehab starts in the minors as he works his way back from tommy john surgery.

dee gordon

dee is playing second base for the marlins following an offseason trade. he's hitting .348 with 7 steals so far in 2015.

jerry sands

sands was traded (as one of the players to be named later) to the red sox in the big adrian gonzalez/josh beckett/carl crawford deal, but was flipped to the pirates for joel hanrahan a short time later.  he finally resurfaced in the majors with the rays in 2014, and is currently hitting .381 for the indians in 7 games this year.

those were the last four cards i needed to complete my team set, but here are the other cards just to be thorough about it.

jonathan broxton

broxton is pitching out of the brewer bullpen these days. the good news is that his k/9 ratio is up (10 strikeouts in 6.2 innings so far in 2015), but so his is era (6.75).

ivan dejesus

dejesus was included with sands in the trade with boston in 2012, as well as the trade with the pirates that followed. unlike sands, dejesus played for boston in 2012 - he was 0 for 8.  that was the last big league action he's seen, but he's currently playing in the reds organization and hitting .364 at triple-a louisville.

andre ethier

currently the dodgers' fourth outfielder, ethier has appeared in 14 games and is hitting .276 in 2015.

rafael furcal

furky has been hobbled by injuries the last couple of years, playing in just a few games for the marlins last year after missing all of 2013.  he's currently with the royals, although still injured.

matt kemp

kemp seems to be enjoying himself in san diego, and he's healthy to boot. he's played in all 17 games this season, and is hitting .333 with a couple of triples, 14 rbi, and two steals.

james loney

loney was another one included in that 2012 trade with the bosox, but he is the rays' first baseman now.  he has only appeared in one game this season, however, as he suffered an oblique strain in the season opener.

good ol' chrome.  i think i will shift my attention to the 2007 topps chrome blue refractor dodger team set next.

8 jd drew

23 andre ethier

48 rafael furcal

54 jeff kent

106 brad penny

125 juan pierre

128 chad billingsley

149 jason schmidt

159 matt kemp

173 randy wolf

176 takashi saito

193 russell martin

229 derek lowe

275 greg maddux

please help me out if you can!

another sheet from the steve garvey binders

there is only one 'regular' card from a major card manufacturer on sheet 22 in the steve garvey binder.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 1986 topps stickers (foil)
2. 1986 topps tiffany
3. 1986 true value
4. 1987 boardwalk and baseball
5. 1987 bohemian hearth padres
6. 1987 burger king
7. 1987 classic
8. 1987 donruss
9. 1987 donruss opening day

lots of oddball goodness there.  the bohemian hearth card is the star of the sheet, but even the two non-licensed cards have a certain amount of charm.  the boardwalk and baseball card comes from a 'top run maker' box set produced by topps.  i believe there are variations out there that lack the '/' in the 'b/b' part of the card.  finally, the 1987 classic card features two old guys - garvey, who was 38 in 1987, and an unnamed atlanta braves coach wearing number 42.

here are the backs:

the back of the classic card features some trivia questions, which makes sense since there was some sort of game associated with these cards as i recall.

there are only a couple more pages of cards from the garv's playing career, and then we get to the superfluous but pretty cool stuff.

sandy koufax then means a bevy of cards now

the dominance of sandy koufax in 1966 - he won his third cy young award and third pitching triple crown that year - means that he shows up a lot in this year's topps heritage 'then and now' 10-card insert set.  never mind that topps is comparing 1966 (the base set's design year) to 2014 (the previous season).    i guess it's as close as we can get to 'now', because we missed it - just now.

here's a bunch of sandy goodness.

2015 topps heritage then and now #6

this card celebrates the era leaders - koufax posted a 1.73 era in 1966, while kershaw's 1.77 was the best in baseball last year

2015 topps heritage then and now #7

these are your strikeout leaders - koufax had 317 in 1966, and david price k'd 271 batters in 2014. kudos to topps for noting that price split his time between tampa bay and detroit last year.

2015 topps heritage then and now #8

is all about the wins leaders - koufax had the most in 1966 with 27, and kershaw's 21 victories were the most in baseball last year.  three cards into the set, and topps is already recycling a koufax photo. nice.

2015 topps heritage then and now #9

these are a couple of workhorses.  the innings pitched leaders - koufax threw 323 innings in '66, and david price completed 248.1 frames in 2014.  so far it's been all leftys….

2015 topps heritage then and now #10

finally a righty.  these are the shutout leaders - koufax (and 8 others) had 5 shutouts in 1966, while wainwright (and 2 others) spun 3 last year.  and, while i appreciate the photo of koufax standing in dodger stadium, i didn't necessarily need to see it on two consecutive cards.

there could have been more koufax cards in this set had topps made one for complete games, starts, k/9, or batters faced, or a bevy of modern stats like fip and era+.  still, the dodgers dominated the insert set with adrian gonzalez gracing card #2, and dee gordon appearing on card #4

one guess as to which statistical category that card represents.

there's another insert set featuring koufax - a legend retires - but i don't have any of those cards.  i do have this 2015 topps heritage baseball flashbacks card

that notes how koufax clinched the national league pennant for the dodgers on the last day of the season in his last career regular season start

no mention of the final start of his career - a game 2 loss in the 1966 world series.  it's worth noting that koufax's teammate phil regan had a 1.62 era in 1966, although he pitched only 116.2 innings that year, all in relief.  besides, most people would rather have cards of koufax than the vulture.

old friend todd zeile makes an appearance in a trade package

i was noticing the other day that i've only featured todd zeile dodger cards three times on this blog since its inception in the fall of 2008.  that's too bad, because i liked the guy.  he joined the dodgers for the 1997 season and promptly hit 31 home runs - more home runs than any other dodger third baseman except pedro guerrero (a teammate of zeile's with the 1990 cardinals) who hit 32 in 1983.  of course, adrian beltre came along and hit 48 in 2004, but that's beside the point.

i was lucky to have tj from the junior junkie include some cards of zeile in his recent trade package, so here's his 1998 fleer tradition card.

zeile was traded away in the mike piazza deal with the marlins, and so was replaced at third by bobby bonilla.  beltre came along in 1999, however, and held the spot until he bolted after his huge offensive year mentioned above.  zeile went on and eventually rejoined piazza in new york, helping the mets get to the world series.  he hit .368 with a series best 8 rbi in the nlcs, and then hit .400 against the yankees in a losing cause.  here's his 1998 topps finest card to boot.

somewhere i have a dodger scorecard that features a todd zeile autograph.  he was signing in the concourse at dodger stadium before a game in '97, and i partook.  i remember the lady in line in front of me asked him if he knew steve sax.  saxy hadn't been a dodger since 1988, and he hadn't played in the majors since 1994.  zeile was taken aback by the question, and i think he was still trying to wrap his head around it while he was signing my scorecard.  i was more impressed that he was a teammate of mike piazza's.

the strongest man in socal was also among the cards tj sent - here's a 1996 score select piazza lineup leaders card

this is not an insert, just another way to have more than one piazza card in the base set.

oddball time! this is a 1996 scoreboard all sport ppf (i don't know what ppf means) card of roger cedeno

there sure were a lot of roger cedeno cards in the late 1990's. he was traded to the mets in 1998 with charles johnson for todd hundley.

here's a 2000 upper deck ovation eric gagne card

it says 'world premiere' on the side of the card, in case you were wondering.  i don't think that really makes sense, just like the world series isn't really the world series, if you know what i mean.

relic time!  2003 leaf certified materials joe thurston mirror red game-worn jersey

thurston only played in 8 games during the 2002 season - all in september. i didn't think that the dodgers wore their blue alternates in an official major league game (as the back of the card attests) that late in the season, but i could be wrong.  or maybe a spring training game is considered an official major league game.

there were a few more non-dodger/double play cards that need to be shown in the package, such as this 2014 topps update chris taylor card

and two from 2015 topps - javier baez

and logan forsythe

great stuff from a very generous source. thanks tj!  keep an eye on your mailbox...

where in the world is my wallet card? - it wasn't at mardi gras...

the junior junkie has had his wallet card on display recently, enjoying the revelry that is to be had in new orleans, while my wallet card was in my wallet.  so, i let my 1974 topps steve garvey card hang out amongst the bounty that tj sent my way recently as part of his monster mailday.

a bit of vicarious living, if you will.

there were some beads, two blocks of cards and a couple of msa discs in the package. here are some of the non-dodger highlights.

double plays!

1992 classic best robert eenhoorn

this card is fantastic. a minor league dp, from a guy named eenhoorn, and with a expo minor leaguer who is wearing a generic expos jersey with the team's name instead of his own on the back.

also from 1992 classic best, here is jose olmeda

and a guy named carey sliding in.

1992 donruss mickey morandini

yes, tj sent me a card from the 1992 donruss set and i am glad for it!

1994 topps stadium club rey sanchez

1998 upper deck alex gonzalez

this card features a double play turn on the front…

and the back!

1999 pacific damion easley

not as nice as his 1996 pacific card

2004 upper deck bj upton

you know you play in a crappy stadium when the area upper deck chooses to highlight is the sign for the party area.

2008 upper deck first edition wilson betemit

hard to believe that betemit was at one time a dodger.  speaking of dodgers, there were a few of those int he package, too.  i'll show some of them later to prove it.