gint-a-cuffs pack 1 and box loader

i am sure this will be an effort in futility as my box was pretty sucky.  it seems that the scoring is a bit of a moving target but i'll give it a shot.  not a whole lot of commentary as you have seen these cards quite a bit already, i am sure.

here's my box loader and first pack.

n43 box loader - justin upton.  +5

ivory crockett.

stephen drew mini sp.  +3

martin prado.

yadier molina.

jesus flores.

this day in history joey votto/lou brock.  +1, +2 (fp)

colby rasmus.

scott feldman.

so, if i did my math right and understand the scoring, i got a whopping 6 points from the pack and 5 points for the box loader.

the prado card is pretty cool, but the rest are just kind of bleh.

running score:  11

what's your damage?

sure, mint condition cards are nice, but sometimes it's ok to have a card that has obviously seen some action in your collection.  i personally have quite a few - mostly vintage, of course - and the type of wear varies.

my 1955 topps johnny podres card

hits many of the condition negatives.  rounded corners - check.  frayed edges - check.  surface wear - check.  but his teeth are still white, and 1955 topps dodgers are kind of tough to find at a reasonable price.

my 1957 topps sandy amoros

displays obvious paper loss along with some corner dings.  it still has nice color so why complain?

how about my 1963 topps nl pitching leaders, featuring sandy koufax?

along with a couple of other guys in the hall with him.  this card has the round corner, surface wear, and it's actually missing a corner!  that's card damage!  still, 3 hof's in the vintage bargain bin will not be ignored.

this used to be my 1962 topps gil hodges

but i sent it to mark at stats on the back since gil is listed as a metropolitan.  a pen mark and a purposefully punched hole (suitable for inserting yarn or something) give the card some hard earned character, don't you think?

not all damage is self inflicted.  i guess it's not really damage then either.  there are printing miscues, like my 1975 topps rod carew

not as dynamic as my miscuts i sent to ben henry, but still pretty awesome.  i think that's von joshua's card that is joined to rod's card, but i'm not 100% sure.  maybe night owl can chime in with some 1975 topps expertise.

this 1979 o-pee-chee len barker card

suffers the fate of many other o-pee-chee cards - the rough cut!  o-pee-chee used rusty shears to cut many of their sheets, apparently.

and then there is this - my 1981 o-pee-chee ron cey card.

it's crooked, and the printing plates didn't line up properly.  maybe if i use 3d glasses it will look better.  nope.  still endearing though.

i guess the moral of the story is, send me your dodger cards, no matter their condition.  i'll find a way to appreciate and even celebrate them!

note that i didn't feature a trimmed card.  that will get it's own post tomorrow featuring one of my favorite cards of all time.  stay tuned.

thorzul will break. again.

i picked a couple of players (harmon killebrew and don drysdale - oh how it hurt to not select jackie or campy) in thorzul's last group break.  it was a few tins or packs or whatever of 2005 upper deck baseball heroes (not to be confused with the 2008 release of the same name or the inserts from the early 90's with the same design).  anyway, all i got for my trouble was this don drysdale card.

good grief. 

still, it's big d and it's a card i didn't have which uses a photo that i hadn't seen before.  it would have been somewhat cool if there was a card featuring his appearance on 'the brady bunch'.  that episode was awesome.

thorzul - thanks for hosting the break!

who's that (nefarious) lurker?

courtesy of cam at collectable cards, i now have one of my 'nefarious 9' cards in my possession.  ok, so it wasn't one of the nine, it was the bonus card, but still.  it's the 2010 upper deck hunter pence card.

the reason i wanted it was the presence of russell martin lurking there behind the plate.  of course, now i would prefer that it were carlos santana rather than martin wearing the dodger uniform but that's hindsight.

thanks cam - your card(s) is on the way, and there's a new non-dodger nefarious bonus card added to the list.  come home 1987 topps lee lacy!

when tom hutton signs, people listen

i posted a while back about this card - a 1967 topps dodgers rookie stars -

that gene michael was kind enough to sign and return.  i sent it back out, this time to tom hutton, and he quickly signed and returned it as well.

hutton also signed his 1976 topps

and 1978 topps cards for me

which is awesome in and of itself.  i love love love getting some 1978 topps signed.

hutton debuted in the majors for the dodgers in 1966.  he went 0 for 2 in 3 games for the nl champs.  his first two games were games in which koufax was pitching, and his third was in a drysdale shutout.  he replaced willie crawford in the 9th inning of his major league debut, and got his first at-bat a few days later when he replaced wes parker in the 7th inning.  he grounded out against the phillies' john morris, but at least he moved the runner over.

hutton didn't appear in the big leagues again until 1969 when he was called up for a two-week stint to replace the injured parker at first.  hutton got his first big league hit (a single) in his first game back against hank aguirre of the cubs.  when parker returned, hutton was sent down and never appeared as a dodger again.

in october of 1971, the dodgers traded hutton to the phillies for larry hisle and hutton quickly became the phils' regular first baseman.  he had hits in his first 3 at-bats for the phillies, including a game winning, walk off single.  after 6 seasons in philadelphia, including two trips to the postseason, hutton was purchased by the blue jays in december of 1977.  i have always wondered why he didn't get a card in the 1978 o-pee-chee set - there was plenty of time after the transaction occurred to include him and get the team and text variation set, especially since he was going to one of the two canadian teams.  speaking of which, hutton played for both teams - toronto and montreal - in 1978.

back to that 1967 card.  it bothers me that topps didn't take the time to airbrush a dodger hat on gene michael.  i found a team issued postcard and replaced the photo to create the 1967 topps dodgers rookie stars card that should have been

much better.

thanks tommy!

hostess with the mostess

i had never considered the possibility that the 1977 rick monday hostess card would be one that i wanted to own.  i liked monday, but there were other guys on the 1977 and 1978 dodgers teams that i liked more.  and, since his 1977 topps card still had him as a cub, i figured there was no real need to add an oddball cub card to my collection.  even when i first saw his 1977 o-pee-chee card, which has him airbrushed into a dodgers hat, i still dismissed the hostess card.  surely hostess didn't bother with airbrushing.  then i saw the card.

and now it's mine.  the lesson here is to never underestimate the power of assorted baked goods.  after all, 'you get a big delight in every bite'!

trolling for 71's

the collective troll sent me a bunch of beautiful black bordered 1971 topps cards from my want list recently.  i had sent him a bunch of rays and vintage as a show of 'blogger generosity' after some rat bastard stole a bunch of cards from him.  anyway, he came back with some great cards.

like lowell palmer.

international man of mystery.  this post at the fleer sticker project may be one of the best baseball card posts ever, thanks to the images and the comments.  it is most interesting to consider that lowell 'dated' a woman during the second game of a double header.

larry brown

brown was a middle infielder for cleveland who wound up with the a's in the latter part of 1971.  he was with them when they won it all in 1972, although he didn't appear in the postseason until 1973 when he was with the orioles.

al fitzmorris

and roger nelson

fitzmorris and nelson combined to go 7-6 in 1971 for the royals.  all of the wins and 5 of the losses belonged to fitzmorris, though.  nelson had his best season the following year, however, winning 11 with a 2.08 era and an incredible 0.87 whip in 173.1 innings.

rafael robles

robles didn't appear in the big leagues in 1971, although he had appeared in a couple dozen games in 1970.  two interesting things about this card - the player in the background is positioned so that it appears that he might be an action figure stuck in robles' hip pocket, and robles' signature includes an 'r' for his middle name.  according to baseball reference, his middle name is 'orlando'.

ken suarez

suarez, who didn't appear in the majors in 1970, was a member of the indians' organization from 1968 through 1971.  prior to that, he was with the (then kansas city) a's.  i am guessing topps went back in time and pulled a picture from his kansas city days since there is no reason to black out the logo on his hat otherwise.  unless he was wearing a carling brewery cap.

luke walker

walker was a member of the 1971 world champion pirates, although his lone start (an appearance) in the fall classic was less than stellar.  he gave up 3 runs on 3 hits and an intentional walk in two-thirds of an inning in game 4.  the pirates came back to win, however, 4-3.

marty martinez

marty's first name is really orlando.  but orlando martinez isn't as catchy as marty martinez, and you couldn't expect his teammates back then to call him by his real name.  anyway, martinez was your typical early 70's infielder excpet that he once pitched in a game against the giants.  on july 9, 1969, he finished a blowout by pitching the last two-thirds of an inning.  he sandwiched a flyout and a groundout around a dick dietz home run.

ray jarvis

it's a final tribute!  jarvis was traded with tony c. from the red sox to the angels for doug griffin and the tatum brothers (not really related).  strangely enough, one of the tatums was named jarvis.  anyway, jarvis spent all of 1971 at the angels' aaa club in salt lake but never made it back to the bigs.  for his career, he was 5-7 with a 4.64 era.

mike ryan

slightly miscut, but that's ok!  mike ryan was tim mccarver's backup in the early 70's.  he wasn't much of a hitter, but i guarantee i would rather listen to ryan call a game on tv than mccarver any day of the week and twice on sundays.

mike nagy

after finishing 2nd in the 1969 al roy voting with a 12-2 record and an era of 3.11, nagy was mediocre in 1970 and worse in 1971.  he appeared in 12 games (7 starts) in '71, winning 1 and losing 3.  he appeared in just 1 game in 1972 and was traded to saint louis prior to the start of spring training in 1973.  the cardinals flipped him in march of '73 to the rangers but in june, they sent him back to the cards who kept him until the end of the season, after which they sent him off to the astros.

phil gagliano

gagliano had spent 1970 with the cardinals and cubs who pulled off a (rare?) trade in may of 1970.  he joined the red sox in the offseason when the cubs traded him for carmen fanzone.  with the sox, gagliano hit .324 in limited action in 1971, so they kept him around for 1972.  but, after he hit just .256 with slightly more playing time, they shipped him off to the reds.  gagliano was a member of the 1967 world champion cardinals.

freddie patek

patek is probably best known for being short. listed at 5'5", he was a beacon of hope for the vertically challenged kids in my neighborhood growing up.  this card shows him in his pirates' uniform, although he was traded to the royals after the 1970 season.  unfortunately for patek, he missed out on the pirates' 1971 world championship, but he had himself a great year anyway.  he tied for the lead league in triples and had 49 steals, finishing 6th in the mvp voting.  a few seasons later, in 1977, he would lead the league in steals while playing for some very good royals teams.

red sox rookies - bob montgomery and doug griffin

bob montgomery spent his entire career, spanning the entire decade of the 1970's, with the red sox backing up carlton fisk behind the plate.  he got one at bat in the 1975 world series, and it was a big one: pinch hitting for denny doyle in the bottom of the 9th of game 7, with one out and the red sox trailing by a run.  sadly, there was no joy in boston, montgomery grounded out.

doug griffin was part of the aforementioned tony c. trade.  he would become the red sox' primary 2nd baseman for the early 1970's, even winning a gold glove in 1972.  like montgomery, he received just one at bat in the 1975 world series, although without as much pressure.  with two outs in the top of the 8th, down 5-1, griffin hit for jim willoughby and lined out.  denny doyle's two errors in game 7 led some to second guess why griffin wasn't given a chance, claiming that doyle's throwing error on johnny bench's double play ball extended the reds' 6th, allowing tony perez to hit a two-run home run to start the scoring for cincinnati.

speaking of which, here's bill lee

it was the spaceman who started game 7 and gave up that home run to perez.  in 1971, lee won 9 games and had an era of 2.74.  i am not sure about his middle name - he signed it 'frances' but baseball reference claims it is 'francis' which would, quite 'frankly', make more sense.

tony taylor

for some strange reason, taylor, an infielder, is striking a pitcher's pose on his card.  taylor had some solid seasons for the phillies during the 1960's.  he was an all star in 1960 and finished 16th in the mvp voting in 1963.  in 1971, he spent about half the season in philadelphia and then was traded to the tigers for a couple of minor leaguers.  the phillies brought him back in 1974, but not before taylor had (finally) had a taste of the postseason with detroit in 1972.

clyde wright

wright was coming off a great season in 1970 when this card came out.  he had won 22 games, finished 6 in the cy young voting, hit his first 2 career home runs and even pitched in the all star game (so what if he was the losing pitcher?).  he pitched well in 1971, too, although his record didn't necessarily reflect it.  he won 16 games but lost 17 even though his era was just 2.99 and his whip was 1.10.

eddie leon

leon hit a career high .261 for the indians in 1971.  i appreciate the fact that he actually looked down at the ground as though there were a ball to be fielded for his photo.

cal koonce

koonce pitched in 13 games for the red sox in 1971, his final season in the majors.  he lost his only decision, and in his final game, he was pinch hit for by our friend shown above, phil gagliano.

willie mccovey

stretch looks pretty pissed that someone wrote on his card.  1971 was a down year for mccovey as he hit just 18 home runs and appeared in only 105 games.

ken harrelson

i am definitely not a fan of the hawk's.  i will say, however, that i 'can check it off my liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiist - eeeeeeeeee-yes!'  1971 was harrelson's last season and he hit just a buck-ninety nine.  he gone.

ted williams

teddy ballgame, who managed the senators to a better than .500 finish in 1969 saw them lose 96 games in 1971.  i have to imagine it was pretty frustrating for him, wondering why the players didn't just hit the ball like he did when he was a player.

tom bradley

a magic hat!  tom bradley was the mayor of los angeles during my formative years.  not this tom bradley, though.  that tom bradley was also the best man at steve yeager's wedding.  this tom bradley, however, was traded to the white sox with jay johnstone from the angels after the 1970 season.  he won a career high 15 games in both of his seasons with chicago (1971 and 1971) with a sub-3.00 era both years.  he was traded to the giants for steve stone after the 1972 season, and pitched in san francisco for the remainder of his career.

cardinals rookies - bob chlupsa, bob stinson, al hrabosky

chlupsa appeared in one game in 1971, and it was his last.  he had made 14 appearances in 1970, all in relief.  the last batter he faced in the majors was johnny bench, who grounded out.

you notice how envious chlupsa is of bob stinson's magic hat.  such is the allure of hats made of the finest silks and resins known to man.  stinson, of course, is shown in his dodger uniform although, in a sort of surprise, it's not the same photo topps used on his 1970 rookie card.  stinson was sent to the dodgers as part of the ted sizemore/dick allen deal.  he appeared in 17 games for the cardinals during the 1971 season, after which he was traded to the astros for our friend from above, marty martinez.

hrabosky is better known as the mad hungarian.  like chlupsa, he appeared in just one game in 1971, but unlike chlupsa, hrabosky was brought back in 1972 and then some.  he had a fantastic season for the cardinals in 1975 when he won 12 games and saved 22 others.

thanks marck!