pat zachry through the mail success!

former dodger reliever pat zachry signed and returned 4 6 cards for me late last year.  they included his 1983 topps traded card,

his 1984 donruss card,

his 1984 topps card,

his 1985 topps card,

his 1978 topps card (cleanshaven pat!),

and his 1976 topps rookie card

that '76 card is more known for the guy right above him.  louisiana lightinin' or some such nonsense.  anyway, i was happy to receive the cards signed by zachry.  he was acquired by the dodgers from the mets after the 1982 season in exchange for jorge orta.

zachry pitched for the dodgers in 1983 and 1984.  in 1983, he went 6-1 with a 2.49 era in 60 games (one as a starter).  he followed that up with a 5-6 season with a 3.81 era and 2 saves in 58 games.  after the '84 season he was dealt to the phillies for al oliver.  he was roughed up in his last two appearances as a dodger, but his third to last game resulted in a 4 inning save despite the final score being 9-0.

although he appeared in only 10 games for the phillies in 1985, his final big league appearance came against the dodgers on may 29.  he pitched 2 innings, giving up 1 hit and no runs.  he also struck out 2 of his former teammates - bill russell and orel hershiser.

thanks pat!

a scotty pods welcome, goose joak style

ned made a move.  not for pitching, but for another outfielder - this time it's scott podsednik.  while i recognize that manny and reed johnson are out, and that garret anderson is performing exactly as we all expected, i am still kinda surprised by this move.  i would suggest giving xavier paul as many at bats as possible and only make this move if the pitching is upgraded first.  without pitching, we're not going anywhere.  on the flip side, podsednik's wife will now become the most blogged about dodger wife since jose lima sang the national anthem.

here's a quick 2010 goose joak original (o-pee-chee style!) that i whipped up for pods.

there are also a bunch of goose joaks that i have been meaning to display, but haven't gotten around to it.  here are some of them.  a lot of these photos are from the marlins series early in the season.  that's how long they've been hanging around.  the photos are either getty images or from jon soohoo, the dodgers' official photographer.  enjoy.  or at least tolerate.

jeff weaver

tough night last night.

carlos monasterios.

dodgers are 5-2 in his starts. 

russell martin.

at this point, i would rather have carlos santana back.  sorry russ.

hiroki kuroda

i am really hoping he can put together a string of good starts in august and september, but he's already made as many starts this year as he did all of last year.

charlie haeger.

i don't think we'll see him back in the bigs this year.

reed johnson

our fourth outfielder is still backing up manny.  too bad he's doing it on the dl.

who knows what dodger lurks on the cards of men?

besides the shadow. 

at first glance, i assumed that the dodgers' catcher caught on darrell evans' 1979 topps card is jerry grote.  what do you think?

the 1978 dodgers had 5 different catchers:  steve yeager, joe ferguson, jerry grote, johnny oates, and brad gulden.  yeager caught in 3 games against the giants at san francisco in 1978, but only two of those games had darrell evans batting while yeager was behind the dish. ferguson caught in a total of 5 games on the road against the giants during his tenure with the dodgers in 1978.  grote and johnny oates both caught in a couple of games at candlestick in 1978, but all 3 of gulden's appearances in 1978 were against the padres. 

i'm going to stick with jerry grote.  this is based purely on the back of his head and the fact that he's using a soft cap (instead of a helmet) with the bill turned up.  that's classic grote.  that would mean that the photo used is from either the may 27 or september 12 game.  the may 27 game was a saturday game - the first of a doubleheader.  the september game was a tuesday, but it was also a 'getaway' day, so it may well have been a day game, too.

i find it interesting (and pretty cool) that the evans card is almost a negative of steve garvey's 1979 topps card

in garvey's case, it's much easier to identify the giants' catcher (marc hill).  turnabout lurking is fair play!

perfectly trimmed

one of the greatest baseball cards ever produced, in my opinion, is the 1956 topps jackie robinson card.  it was his final topps card and it shows him stealing home with johnny podres at the plate.  so what if robinson never stole home in 1955 with podres at the plate?  it's still a great image on a classic card.

i never really considered trying to obtain any 1950's dodgers until a few years ago, and even then i was only buying the 'common' players for the most part.  a 1956 robinson seemed like a prohibitvely expensive card for me to obtain.

well, the last show i went to (a couple of months ago), i saw this card.

it's clean with no scuffs or creases or rounding - none of that damage i posted about a few days ago.  it is, however, trimmed on the edges.  still, with the low price that was being offered, i couldn't pass it up. besides, i can easily look past that and see the perfection that is my 1956 topps jackie robinson card.

hawk to the hall - a (ttm) success story!

with andre dawson officially being inducted into the hall of fame today, i figured it would make sense to show off a ttm success from earlier this year.  i think i sent these before the hof vote, but i know they came back about a month after his election was announced.  here's a nice 1983 topps:

and his 1991 topps:

i also sent a 1984 topps all star card, but he kept that one.  this was the second success i had with dawson, and i included a donation to his foundation.

thanks hawk, and congratulations!

gint-a-cuffs packs 2 through 4

let's get right to it.  here's pack number 2:

joey votto.  +2 (fp)

meb keflezighi.

shane victorino.

adam dunn.  +2 (fp)

cole hamels.

brett gardner sp.  -1, +2

daric barton black bordered mini sp.  +8

this day in history justin verlander/john glenn.  +1

total pack 2:  14

here's pack 3. there was a lot going on in this pack, let's see if that translates to any points.

trevor hoffman.
jim zapp. +2
craig gentry.
michael brantley.
buster posey.
huston street sp. +2
national animals - bolivia (llama). +2
this day in history carlos lee/lizzie borden. +1
crack the code promo.

it would be nice to come across a dodger once in a while.

total pack 3: 7

and not to be forgotten (even though it is largely forgettable), pack number 4:

sherlock holmes.
betelgeuse.  +1
brian roberts.
justin verlander.
henry rodriguez.
baseball highlight sketch insert - johnny damon.  +3, -1
koji uehara mini a&g back.  +2
this day in history chase utley/wright brothers.  +1, +2 (fp)

still no dodgers.  it's a good thing i'm in joe collector's group break.

total pack 4:  8

running total:  40

manager a trois

courtesy of carl crawford cards. paul posted some trade bait and i bit.  three vintage topps manager cards!  too bad none of the managers featured finished the season with the club they represented on the cards. 

1960 topps billy jurges

this is a cool card.  the manager with a glove on, and a fungo at his feet.  kind of like those old english portraits with the hunting rifle and dog.  the 1959 red sox began the season with pinky higgins as their manager.  after 73 games (and a 31-42 record) higgins was replaced by jurges (rudy york managed one game in the interim and lost).  jurges led the red sox to 44 wins in the 80 games he managed that year.  in 1960, however, jurges didn't have the same success, and was fired after winning only 15 of the first 42 games of the season.  he was replaced by del baker, who lasted 7 games (2 wins) before the yawkeys brought pinky higgins back.  tom yawkey was steinbrenner before there was a steinbrenner. 

1960 topps eddie sawyer

sawyer was in his second stint as manager of the phillies at this time.  he had managed them from 1948 into the 1952 season, winning the pennant in 1950.  he was fired 63 games into the '52 season, but was back in 1958 but couldn't prevent a last place finish for the phils.  he returned in 1959, but fared no better.  after managing just one game in 1960, a loss, he resigned and never managed again.

1961 topps jimmie dykes

apparently mr. dykes managed in his pajamas.  he began his managerial career as a player/manager of the chicago white sox in 1934.  he became a full-time manager for the pale hose in 1940 and remained in that position 30 games into the 1946 season.  he then took over for connie mack as manager of the philadelphia a's in 1951, and lasted through the 1953 season in which the a's lost 95 games.  it got worse for dykes as he was named the baltimore orioles' first ever manager for the 1954 season.  that team lost 100 games. after that season he coached and then took over the reds for the latter part of the 1958 season and then moved on to manage the tigers in 1959.  in 1960, dykes was actually traded to the indians for their manager, joe gordon.  dykes was the indians' skipper from then until the next to last game of the 1961 season when he was replaced by mel harder.

thanks paul!  hope you enjoy the cards i sent in return!