dodger cards from white sox cards

first, let me say i am way behind on these posts. i want to feature all the trades i have made, so bear with me.

steve over at white sox cards sent some good stuff. here are just a few of them.

1984 topps steve yeager.

yeager is the catcher i identify the dodgers of my youth with the most. he platooned with joe ferguson, and shared the duties with jerry grote and johnny oates, among others, but he was the guy as far as i was concerned. everything they say about chuck norris? i'm pretty sure it's true for steve yeager as well. the guy is tough.

1985 fleer ken howell.

with dodger stadium behind him, there's nothing he can't do. although i don't remember too much about him. nice card, though.

1990 classic kirk gibson.

the official card of zubaz. how many cards were made of kirk gibson in 89 and 90? a bunch. well, he deserved it. that chuck norris stuff is true for gibby, too.

1995 ud sp roger cedeno.

i couldn't find sp when it came out in 95, so this is great. cedeno is one of those guys that played better after leaving the dodgers. good for him.

2006 topps turkey red rafael furcal.

who ticked off the atlanta braves a couple of weeks ago? ok, raffy, put your hand down. glad to have him back. now just stay healthy.

and now for the former dodger - 2008 upper deck timeline (2004 timeless teams) pedro martinez.

i love this subset, which is probably why steve sent it. either that or he wants me to re-live the pain of the past. either way, i'm happy to have the card.

thanks steve. i will send out some more white sox when i get caught up.

mr. jones, we hardly knew you

but don't let the door hit you on the way out.

i hear the giants are looking for an outfielder - maybe you could "help" them out.

i am a bit disappointed that andruw didn't fare better, but i am more disappointed that ned thought he would fare better.

no hard feelings, though. for andruw, that is.

dinged corners sent me some cards!

i am not too creative with the post titles right now...

the ladies at dinged corners were nice enough to send me some fantastic cards of the big blue wrecking crew and other, lesser teams. they are much appreciated. here is a sampling:

2005 donruss team heroes steve garvey.

well, certainly my dodger team hero. mvp, 4 world series in 8 years, etc. in fact, the back of the card tells me that, had he had 8 more hits in 1977, he would have been the first modern day major leaguer with 7 straight seasons of 200 hits. i suspect ichiro has done it, but popeye could have been the first! too bad 1977 was the year he was swinging for the fences.

2008 bowman gold russell martin.

dumb topps/bowman with their 'russ' martin cards. if vin scully doesn't call him russ, why the heck does topps?

2008 upper deck timeline matt kemp.

in my last post, i indicated that matt kemp is my current favorite player. true, but he is more like my baseball salvation. i really hope ned doesn't sign 3 more outfielders to cut into the bison's playing time.

some twins were also provided, including this 1993 o-pee-chee.

even though i follow post-2000 twins, it's always nice to get a hall of famer like kirby, molly, or, in this case, dave winfield. 1993 was the first year o-pee-chee had it's own design - no longer using the topps base design. which makes sense, but i was a fan of the old o-pee-chee, so i don't like it. anyway, we see dave here sporting the rare full pant leg with stirrup look.

last(ings) but not least, they sent a few cards to go towards my quest to finish the allen & ginter set. i feel like i am the last guy chasing this thing.thank you ladies! like it or not, i have a few cards that will be heading out your way soon.

questions (belatedly) answered for dinged corners

i know - i am late to the party. but, i am a big fan of these types of questions, so thank you ladies for asking. here goes...

1-if i didn't collect baseball cards, i'd collect books. the "classics". i actually have a pretty good start on this - two bookcases filled with great literature (and other books), many of which i have actually read. currently reading 'lord jim' by joseph conrad.

2-my baseball heroes include one you probably wouldn't know from my blog or comments, and that person is jackie robinson.obviously well before my time, but still a man worthy of respect on and off the field.

3-every new years i resolve to refine my collection. focus on what i like most, eliminate the rest.

4-if i could spend a day with one person from baseball history, it would be babe ruth. come on, you know it would be a blast. as long as i weren't the sick kid begging for a home run...

round two...

1-what is your favorite kind of dog? for no reason, a chocolate lab. i have never had a dog and probably never will. when i was a kid i liked beagles because of snoopy.

2-who is your favorite baseball player? steve garvey. unless you mean current player, in which case it would be matt kemp. actually, my lineage of favorite current players goes from garvey to sax to hershiser to mondesi to green to nomarto kemp.

3-what is your favorite team? dodgers.

4-what is your favorite baseball movie? field of dreams. even though i always "played" catch with my dad - we didn't "have" a catch - it's still pretty dusty in my living room towards the end of this movie.

5-what is your favorite baseball book? i like "ball four", "moneyball", and "the boys of summer", but it has to be honig's "the image of their greatness".

6-what is your favorite card? 1978 topps steve garvey.it's perfect.

cards from saint nick, i mean dan

well, they were from dan at saints of the cheap seats actually. they arrived a few days before christmas, and were a lot of fun to go through. i picked out a few to share.


1989 fleer sticker.i don't have too many stickers. puzzle pieces, holograms, and brittle sticks of gum are all plentiful here, but not stickers.

another oddball - 1999 ud choice adrian beltre floating head insert. the card comes with a baseball quiz - essentially, the question is against what american league team did adrian make his major league debut? the answer is inside his head, but rather than disassemble the card, i will use baseball reference. survey says...angels. they were just the anaheim angels back then.

2005 upper deck espn mike piazza. espy award winner.the strongest man in so-cal. or, italian-american superstar slugger. either way, piazza was a monster in la. he is one guy i wouldn't have minded seeing play a farewell season as a dodger. russell martin needed the rest.

another catcher - 2002 fleer ultra paul loduca.a couple of former dodgers here, with pedro astacio in the background. dodger stadium also featured. not a fan of loduca. the whole 'heart and soul' jim tracy/bill plaschke stuff made me like him even less. then came the mitchell report. boo.

finally, 1993 pinnacle 'the idols'. gregg jefferies and ron cey.

apparently, gregg jefferies was a fan of the penguin. and really, who wasn't?

thanks dan! i am stockpiling some tribe and oh my omars to send your way.

an ornament, perhaps?

this card is on its way to mark at stats on the back. he needed a gil hodges mets (as a player) card, and i happened to have this 1962 beauty.the mets have retired his number, but the dodgers have not. except for jim gilliam, the dodgers only retire numbers for hall of famers. they will sometimes "hold" the number, as they did for a long time with steve garvey's 6 (retired by the padres, by the way) and fernando's 34. hodges missed out on the hall again this year, but, as they said in brooklyn: wait 'til next year!

just to tie this in to the day, i like to think that whoever had this card punched the hole in it so as to string a ribbon and hang it on the christmas tree. so, merry christmas mark - and everyone else!

a card that makes you go hmmmm - or, wtf?

i recently completed a trade with a non-blogger. he had some 1970 cards for my set, and i had some detroit tigers for him from his want list. easy enough. the cards arrived, including the red sox team card featuring reggie smith's floating head.

what i was not expecting was the bonus 1973 cards. i have about a third of this set, but i don't think i will ever try to complete it. i am just not that into it, i guess. anyway, most of the cards sent were double plays, so that's nice.

here's future dodger mark belanger:

an airborne frank duffy:

looks like the belanger and duffy could have come from the same game. same goes for these next two:

mike andrews with bob oliver of the royals sliding in. nice astroturf.the diminutive freddie patek.baseball almanac shows ed spiezio as number 5 for the white sox in 1972. he is listed at 5'-11", but looks like frank howard next to patek. beware the headless umpire!

more research shows that oliver was with the royals only at the beginning of the 1972 season, while spiezio didn't join the white sox until later that year.

the card that made the trade, though is this one. luis alvarado.

where do i begin? check out the muscle cars! the weeds in the outfield! the chain link fence! the power lines! the cinder block wall and residence behind it! this card looks like it was taken at little league tryouts.

i was at first confused about the direction of the photo, but it looks like the picture is taken from the first base side, maybe a bit behind the bag and down the line. next, knowing what i know about the 1973 set, i wasn't sure whether alvarado was number 38 or the other guy. baseball almanac lists number 38 as phil regan. well, that's not phil regan. alvarado is a shortstop, so he must be the one taking the throw.

alvarado managed to play parts of 9 seasons for 6 teams. a pedestrian career, but one of the most gloriously strange cards i have ever seen.