big d gets his final tribute

i mentioned in a previous post that i wish topps had made a 1970 don drysdale card as a final tribute to his career. as it stands, the 1969 card was the last regular issue card made for big d.he started 12 games for the dodgers in 69, winning 5. and, while he is recognizable on the dodgers 1970 team card, his retirement apparently precluded him from being captured within the gray borders alone.

until today.

check out the 'shoulda been sunday' feature over at punk rock paint. it's awesome.

(update) here is the card that punk rock paint created. shhhhweeeeet.

going green by saving blue - now with stats on the back

i was just doing what i thought was right - keeping more trash out of a landfill - when i told mark at stats-on-the-back that i would give the dodgers he was going to throw out a good home.

it turns out that i was just being selfish. what a great lot of cards. a cornucopia of stars, semi-stars, and people who should have been happy to wear the uniform just once.

here's a sampling:

1990 donruss the rookies brian traxler

i am convinced that brian traxler won the farmer john eastern corn-fed pork dodgers sweepstakes and was alowed on the field during batting practice one day. he was able to convince the photographer that he was worthy of a shot with the right field pavilion of dodger stadium in the background. i mean, really. his helmet is number 20 and his jersey looks like 21 or 24. 24 was walter alston's (retired) and i believe mitch webster was number 20 at this time (it has since been retired in honor of don sutton). at any rate, nicely played brian traxler!

1996 upper deck collector's choice chan ho parkin the fall of 1995, the dodgers sent chan ho to the arizona fall league, apparently sponsored by avis, to learn how to pitch left handed. i mean, the card itself identifies him as a 'rhp' with a photo of him throwing (actually it doesn't look like he is throwing, does it?) left handed. oh, it's merely a reversed negative. great shades of dale murphy! too bad this isn't worth anything. except to me or a collector of chan ho park.

1970 topps super claude osteen
well, claude osteen's superiority may be debatable, but that is the name of the set of oversized cards issued by topps. they are on heavy stock, and apparently were sold in 3-card wax packs. the backs are identical to the regular 1970 set. this card is number 1 in the set, and apparently once was sold (or offered for sale) at the bargain price of 20 cents. awesome.

1993 upper deck lenny harrisif ever a card should be in 3-d, this is one of them. lenny flinging his helmet right at us. notice his position is listed as 'if'. lenny was half of the super utility unit the dodgers had in the early 90s (mike sharperson being the other half). too versatile to be labeled at any individual position. that was lenny.

1988 fleer tracy woodsontracy has a bit of an 'oompa-loompa' look to him because of the eyebrows. another 'infield' guy - tracy played mostly third base. i believe he caught the last out of game 4 of the 1988 world series. that's a better claim to fame than most people have, myself included.

2006 upper deck sandy alomar, jr. with eric gagne in the background.
i had completely forgotten that sandy alomar jr. played for the dodgers, and it was only a couple years ago. once russell martin came through, it was adios sandy. but we'll always have those summer nights.

yes, a 'grease' reference.

1993 donruss triple play tim wallach, todd worrell and jody reed this card kills me. it celebrates the new dodgers on board for 1993. worrell and wallach are on the front. jody reed is on the back. i am sure jody reed is a nice guy, but i am legally required to remind you that he is the reason the dodgers traded pedro martinez for delino deshields. once he (foolishly, as it turns out) rejected the dodgers' contract offer, fred claire sent pedro to montreal for a new second baseman. thus, jody reed is relegated to the proverbial backside of the baseball card that is dodger history.

thanks mark. at the very least, i have a 1978 topps tito fuentes and a 2008 ud masterpieces joba chamberlain for your sets headed your way.

the curious case of dick green and the double play

dick green played second base for the kansas city/oakland a's from 1963 through 1974. this means he was a member of three world championship teams - 1972, 1973, and 1974.

i would guess (he was before my time) that he was a decent fielder whose job wasn't to hit - they had reggie and rudi and sal bando for that. in fact, he was a career .240 hitter with a .303 obp and a .347 slugging percentage. so it makes sense that he is shown here in the field, turning a double play, on his 1974 topps card.

the year before, dick appeared on what is perhaps my favorite double play card ever. the 1973 topps world series game 2 card.

this card features two hall of famers and two non-descript role players i guess you might say. johnny bench has slid into second and taken out dick green, but not before green was able to get the relay off to mike epstein at first. tony perez is legging it out, trying to beat the throw. and he did. still, a great effort by dick green. and by the person in the stands who took the picture.

unfortunately for dick, though, this is his 1973 topps card.all alone at second base, exhaling, dropping the throw. e-4.

thanks, topps.

treasure never buried, but traded

i recently sent a bunch of 1990 topps to connor and jv over at treasure never buried. alas, i was not the one to finish of connor's set, but i helped.

in return, jv sent a bunch of 2008 allen & ginter my way to help with my set building. here's one of the cards i received.

mr. surly himself.
i don't think jeff will be back next year. i won't mind. still, he was a great second baseman in his prime, and will likely be in the hall of fame. which hat he will wear, who knows.

thanks jv and connor for your help. please know that i have been reading your blog for quite some time, and i enjoy it immensely.

saints of the cheap seats brings some heat

dan at saints of the cheap seats sent me some cards. they are awesome. many i had never seen before. check out some of the bounty.

2008 topps finest russell martin.

sometimes topps calls him 'russ' and sometimes 'russell'. thankfully, no one calls him 'r-mart'.

2008 topps finest andruw jones.

his baggy uniform and stance makes his head look small. plus, he has a nightwing kind of mask on. yes, i used to read comic books. especially marv wolfman/george perez collaborations. and alan moore.

1998 donruss preferred checklist paul konerko.

paul is standing on the set of the pauly shore classic 'bio-dome'. it has konerko listed as a 3b, and he has the glove to prove it. i thought he was a catcher in the minors. anyway, he wasn't a dodger for long.

1995 score summit edition billy ashley.

i enjoy saying his name as victor newman would. 'ashhhley'. come on. you know who victor newman is. ashley was the prototypical aaaa player. good ol' pcl.

2008 allen & ginter delwyn young jersey.nice. it will be tough for delwyn to break into the outfield these days, especially if manny returns, but he can hit the ball real hard. i am more and more reminded of the dodgers of the early 70s and 80s with all this young talent. hopefully young brings us something useful when ned decides to trade him.

another young, this time 2008 topps finest delmon.according to the local scribes, delmon was kind of a bust for the twinkies this year, but he's young and i really hope he picks it up next year.

2003 topps matt stairs.
for my set. awesome. this post season, matt joined the likes of bobby thomson, joe morgan, jack clark and ozzie smith as long ball hitting dodger killers. he is the only one, though, who looks like he is in the local d-level softball beer league.

there were a lot more great cards. thanks dan! i have a stack headed your way in return.

let's bat around with steve garvey

i won’t go into the history and back story now, but know that i went from a set collector (topps) to a set (topps, fleer, donruss) and team collector (dodgers) and then/now a set (topps and other sets as they caught my eye), team (dodgers), and player collector. my main player target was and is steve garvey, and i had all of the topps, fleer, and donruss issues, along with a kellogg’s or two. life was good.

then came ebay. this was and is the single most significant thing that has happened, for me, in the hobby since i started collecting. in late 1998 i saw (in beckett, i believe) a 1995 upper deck sp championship card featuring kirk gibson commemorating his 1988 world series game 1 homer (i posted about this here). the local card store didn’t have it but suggested something called ebay. i looked and there it was. awesome. what would happen if i typed in ‘steve garvey’? wow. i had no idea there were so many cards made after he retired, and even while he was playing. i went crazy. the first card i bought on ebay was a 1999 upper deck retro incredible auto, which i wrote about here.

so, using ebay, i started buying garvey cards left and right – competing with the 4 or 5 other garvey collectors. book value? meaningless. our mutual desires drove the prices way up, and manufacturers began issuing more cards of former players like garvey, including relics, autos, parallels. i wanted them all and darn near bought them all. i spent $250 on a 2001 leaf certified garvey jersey # 6/6 (his jersey number!).yes, i was one of those collectors. while this card remains one of my jewels – (i think it is perfection on cardboard. i mean, just look at the red wool! it’s from an early 70s jersey, and from the red number on the front of the dodgers jerseys, which has always been my favorite part of their uniform) it is also one of the cards that reminds me of what is bad about the hobby. why do we need parallels? especially ones that are exactly the same as the base except for a serial number and maybe the color of the border? well, the answer is we don’t. but i thought i did.

i also bought other cards i liked, whether they were dodgers or not. the sheer volume of cards that existed, and being able to access so many of them was intoxicating. it got to be ridiculous, though. even just focusing on steve garvey was difficult. there was the base. base parallel. jersey. jersey/bat. jersey/bat auto. patch. patch/auto.and then the signatures were different. some were just ‘steve garvey’. some were ‘steve garvey #6’. some were ‘steve garvey 1974 mvp’ and so on and so on. i even have one he signed 'popeye'.pretty soon, my favorite player was driving me away from the hobby.

after a self imposed hiatus, i returned. wiser. i realized that it wasn’t steve garvey driving me from the hobby, obviously. it wasn’t even the manufacturers who were making all these cards. it was me and my collecting habits. i decided to be more focused. more selective. i have all the topps sets from 1978 on, with the exception of the 2003 and 2007 sets i am still working on. i still collect dodgers – i have all the topps team sets from 1970 on, and many many more from every conceivable manufacturer (i think). i have over 500 different steve garvey cards, and just bought the latest – 2008 donruss threads.i no longer go after all the parallels. i buy a few packs or a blaster here and there, and will collect a set or two if they strike me as being worthwhile (like 2008 allen & ginter). i am trying to streamline my collection to only the cards that i enjoy – all the others are available for someone else to enjoy. so feel free to contact me for a specific team, set, or player and i will see what i can do.

i won’t stop collecting again, because i understand that i can collect on my terms and not those of the manufacturers’. even with ebay - the best and worst thing to happen to the collector in me.

staggering trade with heartbreaking genius

thanks to matt for sending a bunch of great cards. i had sent him some royals, horseshoe mustaches and other stuff. let's check out a few cards he sent back.

first, a 2007 topps turkey red checklist. it's titled 'turning two' which is awesome in and of itself. hanley ramirez and jose/danny/some other bautista. looks like ramirez is blowing a bubble while turning two. too cool.

next, 2008 allen & ginter mini clayton kershaw. it's an a&g back, too. when i think of kershaw i think of how he made vin scully laugh during spring training. an incredible curve ball to freeze sean casey for strike 3 and scully chuckled about it. i love that vin scully still enjoys the game so much. if kershaw doesn't pan out, i will have to try to think of rick monday or some other lesser broadcaster instead.

2008 topps chrome russell martin. this is the card that motivated me to buy a box of chrome this year. it's a great play at the plate shot, and it's a different shot than his regular 2008 topps card.

2008 topps chrome xfractor francisco liriano. little tiny squares! growing out of my card! (poor cosby reference). i carried liriano all season on one of my fantasy teams, taking up a roster spot while the twins chose not to promote him. it was a keeper league, so hopefully it pays off.

1995 topps stadium club kirby puckett. how good was kirby. i moved here in 97 so didn't see him play, although i did see him at a couple of twins events. i am a bit concerned about how small his helmet seems to be in this picture. kind of 'bonds-ian'.

tor-ii hunter! clap clap clapclapclap! 2006 bowman heritage bat card. matt threw in a couple of other game used cards, including johan and jacquejones. it sounds better if you say his name as one word.

a great lot of cards. thanks matt!