the fernando valenzuela card that should have been!

prior to the start of the 1991 season, the dodgers released fernando valenzuela. while only 10 years removed from 'fernandomania', el toro had posted an era of well over 4 in two of the previous three seasons. in addition, the dodgers had traded for bob ojeda in the offseason, so it wasn't much of a surprise when fernando was let go.

in a move that some saw as a marketing ploy due to the large hispanic population in orange county, fernando was picked up by the not-quite crosstown rivals, the california angels. after just two starts (and an era of 12.15 in 6.2 innings), he was released. the angels did sign him again that year, and sent him to the minors where he performed a bit better.

while his 1991 topps card is one of my favorites, i was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a 1991 topps traded card featuring him in an angels uniform. so, here is the card that should have been - the 1991 topps traded fernando valenzuela.

1991 topps is a tough template to manipulate, by the way.

the tigers signed him in 1992, although he played for jalisco in the mexican league that year. fernando would return to the major leagues with the orioles in 1993, and had a couple of decent years there and in san diego before retiring following his 1997 release from the st. louis cardinals.

mvp!

thanks to the collective troll for the 2009 upper deck goudey joe mauer jersey card, and thanks to the voting media for not ignoring the season mauer put together.

here's to you joe!

maury wills through the mail success!

maury wills signed and returned all 6 of the following cards in just 17 days. maury has a group that handles his requests, so i sent the cards to them (along with the appropriate fee) and they took it from there. they told me it could take a while, so i was surprised the other day to see the envelope in the mailbox so quickly.

i think the only topps card showing wills as an active dodger i didn't get signed is his 1970 card, which was the start of his second stint in los angeles. he led a group of players that signed with fleer in the early 1960's so didn't have a topps card until 1968. by then, he was with the pirates or some such silliness, and didn't rejoin the dodgers until 1970.

i am biased, but i do believe that maury wills belongs in the hall of fame. i also believe that the dodgers should retire his jersey regardless of whether that happens.

on to the autos:

1971 topps

1972 topps 1972 topps in action without the action

1973 topps customthe final tribute that should have been

1987 toppsfeaturing the 1962 topps card that should have been. originally created for the 1975 topps mvp subset, this card has also been used on the 1982 kmart set.

2001 fleer greats of the gamei think this is the 4th dodger card from this set that i have got autographed. duke snider, carl erskine, and roger craig would be the others.

for more on mr. wills, check out this great washington post article.

thanks maury!

wicked cards from wicked ortega

while i don't hear the term 'wicked' very much anymore, i did use it sometimes in my youth to describe something that was 'cool' or 'hip' or even 'groovy'. like these cards from alfredo at my past time...i love it. first is the trade bait that lured me in - a 2008 topps stadium club blake dewitt auto... alfredo also sent the dewitt base... and a bunch of other dodgers, like

2007 upper deck nomar garciaparra

will he play in 2010?

2009 upper deck x matt kempwill he improve upon his 2009 gold glove/silver slugger season in 2010?

1981 topps dusty bakerwill he lead the reds into contention in 2010?

2009 topps chrome orlando hudsonwhere will he take his gold glove in 2010?

2008 upper deck baseball heroes brad penny mustard parallel where will he take his first-half decency/second-half meltdown in 2010?

and, a 2009 upper deck 20th anniversary insert featuring the hhh metrodome it won't be doing much of anything baseball related in 2010, that's for sure.

thanks alfredo. glad you enjoyed the marlins i sent.

zhey zman, zthanks zfor zthe zcards!

i managed to find a couple of cards zach needed, and he repaid me by sending me a bunch of 2003 upper deck vintage cards i needed for my set. this is the set which ripped off the beautiful 1965 topps design. i couldn't wait for the 2014 topps heritage issue to see this design again, so i jumped into this set. here we are six years later, and i still need a few.

here are some (future and past) dodgers that zach included:

kenny lofton

andruw jones

juan encarnacionnot to give too much away, but i think each of these guys will figure in my next installment of the dodgers' evolution. stay tuned.

thanks zach!

traded cards from traded sets, and a contest!

a while back, andy from traded sets asked me if i would be willing to trade a couple of cards i had shown here on the blog. one was this tim raines bat relic and the other was the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee ellsbury-granderson-figgins jersey trio i featured in this post. well, andy's back with a contest, and you could win that very same triple jersey card!

almost as important, here are the cards i received from andy:

2005 bowman vladimir guerrero bat card
the main piece of the trade.

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee vladimir guerrero face of the franchise

probably not the face of the angels anymore. it will be strange to see vlad in a different jersey next year.

completing the big daddy vladdy portion of the post, here's a 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee black bordered paralleland a hong chi kuo bbpjust a reminder, i am still trying to complete the set, so check it out and help a blogger out!

2009 upper deck goudey russell martin 4-in-1this is a card that belongs on sesame street (or was it electric company?) since ryan doumit is doing his own thing. and now the song is done.

back to the opc with a joe mauer award show hopefully on monday there's another award for mauer.

more mauer power - opc moments bbp

still not sure why he's 'old-school'. still think maybe it's the helmet.

finally, a 2009 topps heritage justin morneau
a short print, even.

thanks andy! good luck with the contest!

david wells final tribute - the card that should have been

david wells ended his 21-year career in 2007 with the dodgers. he had been released by the padres in august of that season, and was picked up by la in the same month. while he didn't necessarily pitch any better (he posted an era above 5 for both the pads and the dodgers), he did win 4 of his 5 decisions as a dodger.

wells was featured in the 2007 topps update & highlights set, and, while he did get a 'year in review' card in 2008 topps update & highlights, he lacked a true final tribute in the 2008 flagship release. here then, is the 2008 topps david wells card that should have been:sans autograph. notice i used 'david', not 'boomer'. wells finished his career with a 6 inning winning performance against the giants. he struck out the final batter he faced, nate schierholtz. wells also singled and drove in a run in his next-to-last career at bat (he struck out in his final plate appearance). overall, wells won 239 games and struck out 2201 batters. he also won two world series championships - one with toronto in 1992 and one with the yankees in 1998.

here's to you david!