blogosphere participation – trade with thoughts of sox

adam at thoughts and sox contacted me and we set up a trade of dodgers/twins/08 a&g for some red sox. here is a small sampling of what i received, much to my delight!

2005 topps opening day steve finley. i had assumed that there was no 2005 topps finley in a dodger uniform, other than the gold glove subset. in the flagship set, his base card shows him with the angels. this is similar to the nomar phenomenon from 2006. at any rate, i will always remember finley’s grand slam to win the west in 2004.

2004 topps traded blake dewitt gold parallel. dewitt was a nice surprise earlier this season, filling in when nomar was hurt. not sure why torre stuck with him throughout the nlcs, though. i think he’ll get a shot to replace kent next season.
2004 bowman heritage ishii. this card is really thick, for no apparent reason. when i was a kid, there was a guy who lived on the other side of the block who collected cards when he was younger.. i remember trading him some 1979 giants for a couple of the 1955 bowman cards. they were dodgers, too. i tried to find them for this post but, just like keyser soze, they’re gone. and then some twinkies! 2008 upper deck x joe mauer.
and 2008 topps pat neshek. if you have never read pat neshek’s blog, please do so. it’s great during the season when he is with the team, so hopefully he is healthy next season.
i also got some help with my 2008 allen & ginter set, including this guy – bob motley. apparently he was an umpire in the negro leagues. looks like he could show enrico palazzo a thing or two. finally, david must have started something, because there was a feeling of ‘trick or treat’ in the box, as i found a few of these:
padres. one of them was a 2006 topps dave roberts. i can live with that.

thanks adam – your sox are on their way, maybe with a trick or two. enjoy.

another play at the plate for junior ortiz

in an earlier post, i noted the use of the same play on two cards from 1993 topps – junior ortiz waiting for the ball on his card and gary gaetti sliding into home on his card. now, there is recently uncovered evidence of another play at the plate from that same game, courtesy of 1993 topps. this time, it’s junior felix sliding into ortiz. a check of baseball reference shows that this all likely occurred in the 4th inning of the may 2, 1992 game at old cleveland stadium. felix singled, went to second on a hubie brooks groundout and scored on a single by gaetti. later in the inning, gaetti tried to score on a hit to center, but was thrown out 8-4-2.i’ll have to go through the rest of my 1993 topps angels and indians to see if there are any more cards using shots from this vantage point.

44

from this matchup comes #44... no, not that 44! this 44!

more score and 19 years ago...

in the last post, i extolled the virtues of the 1988 score steve garvey and the fact that it was his only regular issue 1988 card – the bookend to his career. he’s not alone.

enter garvey nemesis don sutton, who was unceremoniously cut by the dodgers in august of their 1988 campaign, and mario soto who was signed by the dodgers in mid season 1988 but got hurt and never pitched for them in a game.

in 1989, score issued cards for both of them, with their final career stats on the back. now, to be fair, topps did issue a 1989 don sutton card as a box bottom card, but not a regular base set card with the career stats on the back.

and aside from the comprehensive 1990 target set, i believe this is the only mario soto card featuring him in a dodger uniform. for that, i am grateful. i also like how score did not use the same color palettes for all players from the same team. it makes my dodgers page that much more colorful.

a perfect score

here is another one of my favorite cards. 1988 score steve garvey. garvey retired after playing in only 27 games in 1987. he retired with 2599 hits and 272 home runs. how do i know this, besides the fact that i am a big fan? it’s on the back of the card. but if it weren’t for score, there would be no 1988 card that had popeye’s career totals. no topps, no donruss, no fleer.

this is one of my pet peeves with topps in particular. i understand that it probably has something to do with the mlbpa, but as a collector, i really was disappointed when a retired player would get no card in the following year’s set.

consider the cards that were never made, including the 1988 topps steve garvey. for dodger fans, there’s the 1970 don drysdale. big d is highly visible on the 1970 dodgers team card, but he has no card of his own to total up his career stats. how about a 1973 hoyt wilhelm? or a 1976 juan marichal. 1978 would have had al downing and boog powell. and in 1998 there should have been an eddie murray card. even in 2008, there was no barry bonds. in fact, before the retro sets, there were usually no cards that spanned a player’s entire career.

i do recognize that some players, like george brett who retired after the 1993 season, have had regular issue cards with their actual career totals – here’s the 1994 topps brett.
and i acknowledge upper deck for their efforts to recognize these players with their ‘final tribute’ cards. i know they did these cards for kirby puckett, robin yount, ozzie smith, kirk gibson, and brett – although they waited until 1995 to issue his. are there others?
anyway, back to the 1988 score garvey. i love the red and the darker feel it gives to the photo; the wrigley field brick and the padres away pinstripes. and, it’s a perfect pose for the final tribute – head down, arms extended, ball and bat in contact.

perfect.

let's turn two - front and back bonus

i love baseball reference. it will be a bigger help to me down the road when i can't remember who steve garvey was or why i have hundreds of his cards. for now, though, it helps me piece together the story of geronimo pena and his 1994 upper deck collector's choice card.

first, the front. he's on brett butler's back. was this really a double play turn? is it spring training? that doesn't look like the wall of dodger stadium, and butler's wearing the home whites.

now let's take a look at the back. ok - here is a real double play turn. but roger mcdowell? at least we can see the banner on the outfield wall more clearly. this really is dodger stadium. i know from personal experience that the dodgers would post large, white banners on the outfield wall comemmorating their world championships on opening day, at least back in the early to mid 90s.

a quick check of baseball reference tells me that the dodgers' home opener in 1993 was against the cardinals. tuesday, april 13. furthermore, in the 1st, butler singled and was out on the front end of a jody reed (boo) double play 4-6-3. pena was playing second, though. let's dig deeper.

in the third, roger mcdowell, in early relief of kevin gross, singled. butler came up and hit a grounder to third, resulting in a 5-4 putout of mcdowell as butler beat the relay throw to first. that's the back! then, with one out and butler on first, jody reed (boo) grounded in to the textbook 6-4-3 despite what appears to be brett butler's best attempt to break it up. that's the front!

so there you have it. two double plays - one successful and one thwarted - immortalized on one card.

as a side note, the losing pitcher that day was pedro martinez. pedro, of course, would be traded once the dodgers realized they would need a new second baseman after jody reed turned down $7.8M over three years only to wind up playing for the minimum in milwaukee.

jody reed. (boo).

oh, yeah, well, congrats

i suppose i should say something about the phillies winning the world series. i have been a fan of cole hamels for a couple of years, and i certainly can appreciate the talents of chase utley, ryan howard and jimmy rollins. i am happy for charlie manuel and the former dodgers, sad for jim thome, and think it's nice that jamie moyer was a part of it.

i felt sad when paul molitor retired - i believe he was the last of the 1978 topps players. ditto for mike morgan (1979) and rickey (1980). we're not far from the first 1990 born player, so the fact that jamie moyer is still playing keeps me feeling young. younger, anyway.

so congratulations to you jamie moyer, even if it's your 1988 donruss card showing you as a member of the cubs. you've got dodger stadium in the background and a championship under your belt.

and you are several years older than me.

ps - i meant to include this in my recent package to dinged corners, but i failed. next time, then.