kent stand losing you

or can I? congrats on a career, jeff; perhaps a hall of fame worthy one. i respect the talent, the work ethic and the "ornery-ness" to a point, but i never really connected with kent as a dodger.

perhaps because he never seemed to belong to any team - from the blue jays to the mets (hello jose offerman and dodger stadium!)to the indians to the giants to the astros to the dodgers. just another stop on the way back to texas.

i am not sold on blake dewitt, though. still, here's hoping ned doesn't trade kershaw for uggla or something stupid like that.

reese or gilliam?

as shawn green settles under the can of corn on his 2002 upper deck card, i am guessing he gave no thought to the mural behind him.

it is one of the many variations of murals the dodgers used in the late 90's and early 00's to honor rookies of the year, retired numbers, world championships, and award winning players - before the mccourts used the fence as a big billboard to generate money for ned to waste.

this one, obviously, is honoring the dodgers' retired numbers, and the only ones beginning with a '1' are pee wee reese who wore number 1 and jim gilliam who wore number 19. my guess is it's pee wee as the '1' looks centered.

either way, it's worthy of recognition.

mondesi on carpet is perfection on cardboard

the 1995 topps raul mondesi is one of my favorite cards. in fact, i think it's perfect.coming off his unanimous 1994 rookie of the year award winning season (john hudek was second), raul is off to the races as the reds shortsop (larkin, most likely) dives for the grounder up the middle. of the dodgers’ 1990’s rookies of the year, mondesi was my favorite. yes, even more of a favorite than piazza. he could do it all – run, hit for average, hit for power, field and throw. he ran low to the ground like rickey and was built like a football player.

plus, you could cheer his name as ‘rah-uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul’. kind of like ‘luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc’ at kings games. anyway, mondesi was the first 30-30 dodger, i believe, and his 1999 opening day 3-run, 2-out bottom of the ninth game tying and 2-run, 2-out bottom of the eleventh game winning home runs were two of the greatest moments of my fandom. ushering in what i thought was going to be a dynastic kevin brown era in such a dramatic fashion was nothing short of euphoric.

eventually, though, raul wore out his welcome and was traded for shawn green. green would supplant mondesi as my favorite current dodger immediately, but i always rooted for rah-uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul.

have it your way

davey, sorry, dave lopes was featured in the 1980 burger king 'pitch-hit-run' set, the only dodger to be included, i might add. i think he was part of the 'run' subset. i guess the dodgers had neither pitchers or hitters that year. or was this like the all-star roster with one rep from each team? nope. the astros had 5 players, and a few teams had zero.

this was the first national burger king set, i believe. prior to this, there were regional team issues (yankees and phillies were two that i am aware of). anyway, at least they used a different photo for the card.

here's lopes' 1980 o-pee-chee card, which had the same photo as the topps version, of course.so the king's version was not much of a variation, but still enough for me to get excited.

it's too bad the card doesn't smell of flame broiled goodness. at least they held the pickles.

let's bat around with make believe cards

i am going to take a very narrow approach to the third bat around, and just address one set i would like to see issued next year or someday.

i went crazy for topps heritage in 2001. i pre-ordered a box as soon as i heard about it and waited not so patiently for the release date. long story short - the guy i pre-ordered from went out of business or worse, and i never got my box. i still bought a lot of packs, though. then i went crazy for topps archives when they came out. same with topps fan favorites. upper deck vintage. fleer tradition. i have always believed very strongly in the strength of baseball's connection with the past, so seeing current players on vintage style cards was almost as cool as seeing some of my favorite retired players in different poses on those same style cards.

couple all of that with my love for the final tributes - cards that include a player's complete career statistics issued the year after they retire - and you get what would be my favorite set. a set that would include a 1970 don drysdale, a 1977 hank aaron, a 1988 topps steve garvey, a 2007 todd hollandsworth, a 1976 juan marichal and a 1973 jim lefebvre.

now, i understand that there are limits to the number of retired players that can be included in a base set, so you could include current players on cards in the style of the year they were born. how about a 1972 topps manny ramirez or a 1985 topps evan longoria?

given the appreciation i and others have for the digital work of punk rock paint, goose joak, the writer's journey, white sox cards, and others, i think this set would be awesome. i would even pre-order it.

oh, and i would also like to see documentary done correctly. and sold in team sets. thank you.

1985 donruss visits dodger stadium and disappears from my collection

i went looking for my 1985 donruss last weekend, and struck out. i have no idea what happened to my dodgers. i did find a couple of dodger stadium shots, though.

john gibbons gives us the right field corner, with the dodger stadium restaurant just above his left ear, andy van slyke is happy to be in front of the multi-colored seats,and bob knepper doesn't look pleased at all to be in chavez ravine. poor mr grumpy gills.

this was a nice set - tough black borders, i know - with some pretty good rookies (gooden, sabes, 'jeff' pendleton).

i have added the 1985 donruss dodgers (and a couple others) to my want list. any help is appreciated.

be home blyleven and in the hall by 2011

i am a fan of bert blyleven.

he is a broadcaster with the twins (a homer for sure, which i usually can't stand) so i see him a fair amount. i have met him a couple of times at twins events, and he seems like a pretty decent guy. even if he couldn't figure out where he was supposed to sign this 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams card.there has been much written and discussed the last few days about the hall of fame, and bert's lack of support. there have also been many references to his 'i (love) to fart' t-shirt. i found this post to be interesting. it really hammers home how different the game was when he was pitching - no middle relief specialists or closers like today. sure he bounced around a bit, but he retired third all-time in strikeouts - one of the three true outcomes of the game.

i am optimistic that bert will get the call someday. hopefully, like he says, he's on the right side of the ground when it happens.