sixty years since sandy's debut

60 years ago today, sandy koufax made his big league debut.  now here's his 2015 topps museum collection sepia parallel

koufax was 19 years old when he relieved jim hughes (who had been pinch-hit for by johnny podres) in a game against the braves on june 24, 1955.  he went two innings, allowing a hit and a walk but no runs.  in fact, the first three batters koufax faced in the majors reached base - the first batter, johnny logan, singled.  the next, eddie mathews reached on an error charged to koufax, and the third, hank aaron walked.

so, koufax loaded the bases with nobody out and walter alston may have been questioning his decision to keep koufax on the roster over tommy lasorda (or not), but sandy struck out bobby thomson and then induced a 6-4-3 double play from joe adcock to end the inning.  the following innning was a 1-2-3 affair with koufax striking out his second victim, lew burdette, to end the frame and his debut.

koufax went on to pitch in 11 more games during the 1955 regular season, making five starts, two of which resulted in shutouts (one was a 2-hitter), but he did not pitch in the world series that year.

the hits keep coming in the steve garvey binders

we're up to sheet 55 in the steve garvey binders, and we're firmly entrenched in 2005.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2005 donruss greats (i think)
2. 2005 donruss greats platinum holofoil /50
3. 2005 donruss greats gold holofoil auto (print run 250)
4. 2005 donruss greats souvenirs
5. 2005 donruss greats souvenirs material bat relic
6. 2005 donruss greats souvenirs signature material bat relic/auto
7. 2005 donruss greats souvenirs signature material jersey relic/auto
8. 2005 donruss leather & lumber hitters inc. silver /200
9. 2005 donruss leather & lumber hitters inc. /2000

the reason that i am not sure about the donruss greats base card is that there is also a non-serial numbered holofoil parallel, and the scan of what i thought was the base seems to look like holofoil. i've ordered a base card from sportlots, and if they've cataloged that card correctly, i'll be able to compare the two in the next few days.

here are the backs:

donruss really went crazy with garvey cards in 2005, and the fun continues on sheet 56:

those cards are:

1. 2005 donruss leather & lumber hitters inc. bat relic /100
2. 2005 donruss leather & lumber hitters inc. jersey relic /100
3. 2005 donruss signature series signature club auto bat relic
4. 2005 donruss signature series inkredible combos (with don sutton)
5. 2005 donruss studio heritage /1000
6. 2005 donruss studio heritage die-cut /200
7. 2005 donruss studio heritage die-cut gold /50
8. 2005 donruss studio heritage jersey /250
9. 2005 donruss studio heritage bat relic /150

another combo auto with garvey's clubhouse scrapping partner, don sutton.  one studio die-cut is ok, but was there really a need for a gold die-cut parallel?  the answer is no, but i made room for it in the collection because it's got garvey's name and photo on it.

here are the backs:

sheet 57 features even more donruss parallel madness:

those cards are:

1. 2005 donruss studio portraits zenith white /70
2. 2005 donruss studio portraits red /50
3. 2005 donruss studio portraits blue black & white /40
4. 2005 donruss team heroes
5. 2005 donruss team heroes showdown blue parallel
6. 2005 donruss team heroes showdown red parallel
7. 2005 donruss team heroes showdown silver parallel /50
8. 2005 donruss throwback threads
9. 2005 donruss throwback threads century stars spectrum /100

so, there are 56 different versions of garvey cards in the studio portraits release, ranging in print runs from 5 to 70. i've got three. i'm also missing the bronze and gold showdown parallels from the team heroes set, and all four of the memorabilia cards from the throwback threads set.

here are the backs:

sheet 58 has some pretty decent jersey/patch relics: 

those cards are:

1. 2005 donruss timeless treasures milestone materials jersey relic (yellow) /10
2. 2005 donruss timeless treasures milestone materials jersey relic (brown) /10
3. 2005 donruss timeless treasures rookie year materials prime jersey relic /5
4. 2005 leaf certified materials fabric of the game stats jersey relic /25
5. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia
6. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia heroes /250
7. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia heroes swatch double spectrum prime relic /25
8. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia heroes swatch triple spectrum prime relic /15
9. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia heroes team quads swatch single padres relic (with willie mccovey, tony gwynn, and rickey henderson) /100

the first two cards represent 20% of the milestone materials print run - i just wanted one of each color - and one of the cards happens to be the 6/10 card. yay.

here are the backs:

what i show as the back for the team quad is really the front, but garvey's side gets to be the front in the binder.  lots more cool stuff to come as 2005 continues - stay tuned...

bo knows how to select double play cards

the recent package from bo featured a large number of double play cards, many of which were new to me.  here are some that i hadn't seen before

1993 score select jay bell

1993 score select mariano duncan

which happens to feature the aforementioned jay bell

1993 score select scott fletcher

whom i either forgot or did not know played for the brewers.

1993 score select mike gallego

1993 score select rene gonzales

1993 score select manny lee

now, i am assuming that he is turning two here, but there's always a chance that he's jumping just for the heck of it.

1993 score select robby thompson

looks like an expo sliding in. i miss the expos.

1993 score select john valentin

1993 score select lou whitaker

sweet lou showed up a couple of other times in the package:

1993 topps stadium club

and 1995 upper deck collector's choice

hello, thrill.

the tigers were pretty well represented in the turning two category in that set with alan trammell

(again, an assumption about turning two, but why else would the shortstop be coming across the bag like that?) and choice chris gomez

here's a padre, luis lopez,

also turning two in the set, and doing so on tatooine.  the back of lopez's card also features a photo from the desert planet

as does the last card of this post, 1996 upper deck chris gomez

and the cosmic ballet goes on.

thanks again for the cards, bo. i will be showing more in the near future, so stay tuned...

fun at the ballpark, indeed

it is odd to think that, after nearly seven years of posting, i have not yet featured this 1993 donruss triple play card of former dodger reliever roger mcdowell

so, when it arrived recently in a trade package from bo at baseball cards come to life, i figured that now was the time.  here's the back

 

mcdowell's teammates may have been amused by him wearing outrageous things, but i as a fan will just accept good baseball in a beautiful setting.  a setting like dodger stadium.  that's where this next card bo sent comes in.

that's a 1996 score select bret boone card, featuring a photo taken in dodger stadium.  the unnamed dodger in the scene is roberto kelly, who twice stole second against boone and the reds on july 30, 1995.  the wrist guard and red glove/sweat bands were a big clue as to the runner's identity, but really it was either him or chad fonville, and with kelly wearing number 21 it was fairly obvious.

this next one is easier.

that would be mitch webster sliding in while jose oquendo turns two in dodger stadium on his 1996 donruss card.

moving away from dodger stadium (to tatooine, in fact), we see rafael furcal sliding in front of freddy sanchez on sanchez's 2008 bowman card

as sanchez makes the double play pivot.

staying on tatooine, here's a 1993 score select joe girardi card

that would obviously fit into that particular mini collection of mine if it weren't already destined for the lurker collection thanks to dodger dave hansen making an appearance on the back

there are many more cards that bo sent that i'll be showing over the next few days - thanks for the cards bo!

a smattering of dodger cards

it is time again for a post of random dodger cards from my collection, and more importantly, from my scanned file.  we'll start with darryl strawberry on a 1974 topps design from 1992 sports collector's digest

prior to archives or heritage, this was the only way we saw the stars (or disappointments) of today on the designs of yesterday.

1993 topps stadium club dodgers pedro martinez

and mike sharperson

with the dodgers playing the rangers, and delino deshields jr being on the rangers, vin scully told a story about the pedro martinez/delino deshields trade last night during the telecast.  he noted that when traveling secretary billy delury (who passed away earlier this year) called deshields to tell him he was now a dodger, his congratulatory remarks were met with a baby crying in the background and deshields saying "even the baby thinks it was a bad trade".  vin finished the story by noting that the crying baby was delino deshields jr, and so i miss regularly hearing vin call games even more.

1999 upper deck chan ho park

1999 was an off year for park - his era was well over 5 - but he still managed 13 wins.  he was only 25, and i thought he would eventually be the team's ace.  i was wrong.

2000 pacific invincible eric gagne

my favorite pacific release ever.  crazy cards and inserts.

2001 topps tom goodwin

from his second stint with the dodgers

2002 upper deck ultimate collection gary sheffield

just when you get comfortable with sheff on your favorite team thanks to his .998 ops over four years, he demands a trade.

2003 bowman chrome eric riggs

not to be confused with late 90's prospect adam riggs.  this riggs didn't make it to the majors, unfortunately.

2003 upper deck honor roll kazuhisa ishii

ishii had an era under 4 in 2003 despite a whip over 1.50 and a walks allowed total of 101 in 147 innings.  he had similar whip and walk totals the previous year, when his era was 4.27.  those kinds of numbers usually don't earn you a spot on the honor roll.

2003 topps retired signature tom lasorda

manager cards with inset photos are tough, because there just isn't much variation in managerial photographs.  here, topps opted for similar poses, but the inset picture comes from an earlier point in tommy's time as the club's manager. on a side note, anytime topps wants to bring this set back, i'm in, although i don't think they can issue a set featuring solely non-active players anymore.  too bad for us.

turning the pages of the steve garvey binder into 2005

the 53rd sheet in the steve garvey binder features six cards from 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams, but i wish that there were more.  here is sheet 53:

those cards are:

1. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1974) bronze parallel /50
2. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1977) auto sp - print run of 35
3. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1981) auto sp - print run of 75
4. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams legendary signatures dual auto (with davey lopes) /150
5. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams legendary signatures dual auto (with ron cey) /150
6. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams legendary combo triple signatures auto (with dusty baker) /50
7. 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts
8. 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts significant fact relic /1
9. 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts historic swatches relic

i've written quite a bit about the timeless teams set, and used to have a bronze parallel of garvey's 1980 subset card, but i traded it for the 1974 version to help another collector out.  so, i still need three bronze parallels, four gold parallels, plus two autos, four gold auto parallels, and then there are the four 1/1 autos, too. that's a lot.  i should note at this point that there are other relic cards from the set, as well as some from other 2004 sets (and other years, too) that will be shown later. they are either encased or otherwise too big or thick to fit in a standard nine-pocket sheet.

the 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts 1/1 relic card is actually 1 of 99.  there are 99 unique "significant facts" printed on the cards which are stamped "1 of 1".  so, i have the only one that touts garvey's 95 rbi in 1975.  kind of a weak 1 of 1.  on the last card, we've got the padre relic swatch on a dodger card, which will happen again on the next sheet.

here are the backs:

 there's one more card from 2004, and it's on sheet 54:

those cards are:

1. 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts significant swatches
2. 2005 baseball hero deck playing card
3. 2005 donruss classics stars of summer /1000
4. 2005 donruss classics stars of summer relic /250
5. 2005 donruss diamond kings
6. 2005 donruss diamond kings framed red
7. 2005 donruss diamond kings materials bronze /200
8. 2005 donruss diamond kings materials silver /100
9. 2005 donruss diamond kings materials gold /50

there is a triple-relic card from the 2004 sp legendary cuts set that i would very much like to find. it features garvey, along with his dodger teammates reggie smith and dusty baker. it's only got a 15 card print run, however, so it is unlikely that i will find it.

while i am missing some of the autos and parallels and auto paralles from the 2005 donruss classics stars of summer insert set, my five cards from 2005 donruss diamond kings represent only about one-tenth of the garvey cards available from that set.  ridiculous.  i'm missing 50 cards, according to beckett, including bronze, challenge (whatever that is), framed black, framed blue, framed green, gold, hawaii, and other variant parallels of just the base version of the card.  as i said, ridiculous.

here are the backs:

even without all of those parallels, there are still plenty of cards and pages to be shown.  stay tuned...

turning two in black and blue and other colors, too

here's a quick post to show some double play cards that i picked up last november during a black friday spree.  timely, i know.

2012 topps chrome dee gordon black refractor

and 2012 topps chrome dee gordon blue refractor

blue works better for the dodgers, and so i picked up a couple others as well

2009 topps chrome orlando hudson blue refractor

(hello, juan castro)

and 2011 topps chrome rafael furcal blue refractor

with the position error

i am on record as noting that the best card in 2014 topps update belonged to justin turner, but before he was turning two as a dodger, he made the pivot in the flagship set as a met.  i picked up some of the parallels for my dp collection

2014 topps justin turner gold

2014 topps justin turner red hot foil

2014 topps justin turner toys r us purple

2014 topps justin turner walmart blue

unfortunately, turner wasn't included in the chrome set last year - either as a dodger or a met - so no blue refractor for me.

speaking of blue refractors, i am still trying to piece together the 2007 topps chrome blue refractor dodger team set, and could use some help...