have a happy, have a happy, have a hap-hap-happy new year!

by now you have probably seen the results of beardy's ho ho holiday card contest. thank you for your votes, by the way. i am pleased to have done as well as i did, given the awesome competition.

here's my entryi thought about doing a quad auto with ben franklin and ol' six million but decided to keep it simple.

rankin & bass kick ass! happy new year!

whither nomar? the cards that should have been!

as happy as i was to have my favorite non-dodger player join the dodgers, i was equally as unhappy when nomar decided not to allow topps to produce cards bearing his likeness after 2006. as a collector of dodger topps flagship sets, i was disappointed to say the least.

here then, are the nomar garciaparra dodger cards that should have been. starting with 2007 topps.the home whites look nice with the black borders. yes, that does say 'nomar garciaparra'. and if you think the foil name looks bad here, wait until you see the 2009 card.

here's the 2008 card i guess in pregame the red wristband is closer to his wrist. once the game starts, though, it gets pushed to his elbow.

finally, 2009 topps. a double play! again, his name is spelled out, but the foil just doesn't come through in the scans.

i'm not sure whether nomar is going to play in 2010, but i hope he does just so there is a chance for more cards. even if they're not topps.

the joy of a completed page, 1971 style

i have stolen ideas before, so why not now? here's page 1 of my 1971 topps set binder, highlighted by the world champion orioles, future dodger vic davalillo and the play at the plate on thurman munson's sophomore release! yes, after careful consideration and review of my 1971 topps inventory, i have decided to post a want list and get after this set.any help is appreciated!

[thanks dayf for the idea]

a card find so improbable, i left it off my want list

if you are a team collector and you haven't checked out teamsets4u yet, you are missing out! what a great resource that site has been in helping(?) me flesh out my dodger needs and wants, especially from the era of overproduction.

that's not to say that i just blindly add all dodger cards listed to the lists. no, there are some that i figure i will never find, so they don't get added to the list. one such set was the 1976 greyhound heroes on the basepaths. according to the site, there are two davey lopes cards in this set (there are also 1974 and 1975 greyhound heroes of the basepaths sets), and the fluckinger book says that one is a portrait and one an action shot.

well, i was at the monthly card show a couple of weeks ago, perusing the vintage bargain bins (!) when i spotted something sitting atop an oddball/oversized card bin. it was the 1976 davey lopes portrait card!
a card i had written off, never to own. not a bad deal for $1!

thanks vintage/oddball bin dude!

when a remake doesn't work

back in 2005, leaf issued an insert set based on the late 1970's 'sportscaster' cards. i thought these were box toppers and was anxious to add one to my collection which i quickly did thanks to ebay. sadly, in my opinion, they failed to capture the essence and whimsy of the original release. here's an eric gagne card from the leaf set. it's regulation baseball card sized while the original sportscaster cards were more squarish and larger, which means it can't hold a candle to the amount of information that was provided on the backs of the originals (backs which i am too lazy to scan).

one thing i especially liked about the original sportscasters was that the symbol they used to identify cards related to sport was a cricket player (as you can see on this maury wills card), not a baseball player as on the leaf set. this detail reminded me that there was a larger population in the world that was more likely to recognize cricket than baseball. it just contributed to the oddball-ness of these cards.

the larger size allowed them to expand on their subjects, like jackie robinson and serve as a mini-encyclopedia - in this case, on the subject of jackie and the integration of the sport.

similarly, this card (featuring rick rhoden and a lurking davey lopes) touches on the meaning of several baseball phrases, and tommy john's card

gives several paragraphs to the subject of his surgery and subsequent comeback.

much better than the three sentences on the back of gagne's card. sometimes, failing to meet the intent of the original is worse than not even trying. with that said, i am happy to have the gagne card in my collection, so i suppose it's not all bad.

cards from on card autos

chris at on card autos sent me some dodgers recently in exchange for some cubbies. he has already posted some of the stuff i sent, and i am just now getting to the bounty i received. such is my lot in life. anyway, here are some of the goodies.

2007 fleer ultra jeff kentfull extenson works best as a horizontal card.

2006 topps update & highlights elmer dessens

proof that a fifth starter is hard to find.

2004 fleer ultra brad penny

a really nice dodger stadium card. ultra had quite a few cards featuring chavez ravine. maybe that's why i liked ultra so much.

1990 topps debut '89 darrin fletcher

it must have been tough to be a catcher in the dodger organization. that had been one of the most stable positions they had, except from 1997 through 2001 or so. too bad fletch (6'-5" with the afro) came up when scioscia was still doing ok.

1992 score roger mcdowell

nice to see a card of roger where he is doing normal baseball stuff

2005 donruss shawn green

i feel as though i have been remiss in posting shawn green cards. i have a ton - he was my favorite non-dodger and then my favorite dodger. i also like that this card shows him out of position according to the position assigned to him on the card. listed as a firstbaseman, he is pictured in the outfield. usually it's catchers that you see out of position - they're shown playing first base (i am thinking of a gary carter card) but listed as a catcher. i'll have to look for more of those.

thanks chris!

a retread dick allen photo and the cards that should have been!

as i mentioned the other day, rich (dick) allen spent just one year with the dodgers. his 1971 topps base card was, at one time, my collecting white whale, and it was/is glorious. there are probably less than half a dozen cards that show allen as a member of the dodgers, so it is a shame that topps portrayed him as a member of the white sox on his 1972 card. sure, he had been traded in december of 1971, and sure, topps put tommy john in the set as a dodger so things evened out that way, but as a dodger fan i am still disappointed. adding to that disappointment is that topps used the same photo of allen in a phillies jersey on his 1970 card. so, i decided to create my own cards. here is the 1972 topps card that should have been:

i used a photo from a team issued postcard for this card. i also went with 'rich' instead of 'dick' since that's what his actual topps card had. but, for the next card that should have been, i went with 'dick'.

here's his 1972 topps in action card:

oc and dinged up a bit. a nice batting photo from steve's baseball photography pages with dodger stadium's field level scoreboard in the background.

as an aside, i ask you to turn your attention to the 'dick allen for the hall of fame' blog. andy has created some pretty cool dick allen cards, including a 1978 topps final tribute. check it out.