first mel harder, then larry doby

mel harder spent his entire career with the cleveland indians, from his debut in 1928 at the age of 18, to his final appearance in 1947 at the age of 37.  in between, he won 223 games for the tribe.  the team retired his number 18 in 1990, and after he died in october of 2002, the team wore a memorial patch in his honor the following season.

you can see the '18' patch on jhonny peralta's jersey on this 2004 donruss classics card

when they wore sleeves, the indians moved the patch to the right sleeve, as seen on josh bard's 2004 topps card

in june of 2003, while the team was mourning the loss of harder, former indian larry doby also passed away.  doby was the second african-american to play major league baseball, and the first to do so in the american league.  he debuted for the indians just a few months after jackie robinson broke the color barrier in april of 1947.  he spent 10 seasons with the indians, and helped them win the world series in 1948.  his number 14 was retired by the team in 1994, and he was elected to the hall of fame by the veteran's committee in 1998.

in his honor, the indians added a '14 doby' patch to their uniforms.  you can see it here on jhonny peralta's 2003 upper deck card

both the doby and harder patches are visible on coco crisp's 2004 topps card

and we get a closer look on casey blake's card from the same set

perhaps the best view of both patches comes courtesy of cc sabathia's 2004 playoff honors card - front

and back

or maybe this 2004 donruss card is better

the indians were not the first team to wear more than one memorial patch at the same time - i know the dodgers and the yankees have done so, too - and the yankees have done it more than once.

double plays turns for freedom

the 7th anniversary of the 4+1 game occurred the other day, giving me a chance to remember jeff kent, jd drew, russell martin, and the man who hit the game-tying home run in the ninth against trevor hoffman - it was his second homer of the game, by the way.  that person was marlon anderson.  here he is turning two over a blurry dude on a 2003 upper deck 40 man card

ray durham never played for the dodgers, but he still turns a good two.  here's his card from the same set.

i guess major league base runners don't get blurred out.

here's durham in more familiar duds on a 1997 fleer ultra card

here are some more double play turns

1994 topps stadium club doug strange

1994 upper deck collector's choice spike owen

1994 upper deck sp brent gates

1994 fleer ultra brent gates

1996 fleer ultra brent gates gold medallion edition

i need to compare brent gates to pat kelly and see who has the higher percentage of double play cards over their career.  gates has to be over 50%.

1998 pacific crown collection domingo cedeno

with bip!

1999 topps gallery todd walker

2011 topps update jeff keppinger

nice stirrups

2013 topps robert andino

with the slidin' hawaiian.

rafael landestoy through the mail success!

dodger double dipper rafael landestoy signed some of my cards on a couple of occasions.  i showed one of them during the topps dodger autograph post series, and here are the other two.  a copy of my 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update custom

and one of his 1984 topps cards

thanks rafael!

more cards taken

in addition to the charity group break hosted by topher at crackin' wax, i picked up a few cards from his 'take my cards' promotion.  a buck donation to big brothers plus a sase and i received a 2007 topps allen & ginter andre ethier card

a 2013 topps allen & ginter adrian gonzalez mini

with the a&g back

and a 2010 upper deck dodger stadium card with no logo on the back, but still plenty of info with words like 'wonderful', 'splendid', and 'all-you-can-eat'.

derrick hall is right, though.  no swimming pool.

thanks topher!

more wax cracked

here are some more cards i scored from topher's charity box break held a few months back.

2005 topps carl erskine (on-card) certified auto

i am almost certain that topps used this design for their certified autos over a couple of different years.  it makes sense, i suppose.

here's a good ol' base card from 2005 topps - shawn green

sadly, greenie had played his last game for the dodgers when that card came out.

speaking of playing their last game, darren dreifort's 2005 topps card was his final tribute.  here's the back, with his complete career stats

here's a what-if.  what if the dodgers kept dreifort in the bullpen in 1998 instead of moving him to the rotation.  does he become an elite closer?  i think he had the stuff.  if so, do the dodgers still trade paul konerko for jeff shaw?  would konerko have become the player he did if he had stayed?  who knows.  if i recall correctly, the feeling was that dreifort was being paid too much to be a reliever.  unfortunately, the injuries got the best of him.  he wound up earning just under a million bucks per big league win.

here's a 'dem bums' insert from 2005 topps of duke snider

i don't have his real 1955 topps card.  yet.

from 2005 topps rookie cup i received a dave lopes 1974 topps reprint.  here's the back

the first item is interesting.  at what point did lopes break up those no-hitters?  he may well have led off each game with a hit, thus ending the no-no in the first inning each time.

2005 bowman jeff kent 1st edition

unfortunately, i didn't get a matt kemp rookie from the box.

i did get a card of former dodger mega-hyped prospect chin-feng chen from 2004 bowman chrome

and then a card of kemp from 2007 topps heritage

still looking for a bowman bison rookie, though.

finally, from the 2013 topps series 2 box, topher pulled this beauty for me.  a sandy koufax cut to the chase die-cut card

thanks topher! hope you do another one of these soon!

shine like it does

a few months ago, topher at crackin' wax hosted a terrific charity box break.  i helped him raise $200 for st. jude children's hospital.  plus i got dodger cards from 12 different products.  well, maybe only 11, as i don't recall if i got a card from the box of 2005 topps retired.

the break consisted of a box of each of the following:  2005 topps rookie cup, 2004 bowman chrome, 2005 topps retired, 1997 topps finest, 1993 bowman, 2005 bowman, 2007 topps heritage, 2001 topps gold label, 2001 topps reserve, 2001 topps chrome, 2005 topps series 1, and 2013 topps series 2.

here is perhaps my favorite base card of the break - a 2001 topps gold label kevin brown

so nice and shiny!  it is a great card on its own, but is even better when compared to the lackluster, almost faded tones of brown's 2001 topps reserve card

let's compare and contrast again, this time with adrian beltre.  2001 topps gold label

and 2001 topps reserve

now with eric karros.  2001 topps gold label

and 2001 topps reserve

gold label wins every time.  unfortunately, i received more topps reserve than gold label.  here's shawn green

and gary sheffield

to round out the base team set.

from 1993 bowman, i got a raul mondesi foil card

and an eric davis base card

among others.  i am guessing that the foil mondesi went for a pretty penny back in 1994.

here's mondy again, this time from 1997 topps finest

along with that warrior, greg gagne

lastly, for this post, are a couple of cards from 2001 topps chrome.  devon white

and jackie robinson

thanks topher!

andy ashby through the mail successes!

former dodger pitcher andy ashby signed some cards for me through the mail a few years ago.  he pitched for the dodgers at the same time as jeff shaw, whose ttm generosity was showcased earlier today.  unlike shaw, however, ashby had a card in the 2001 upper deck set.  and, it was a much better card than the standard pitcher card.  he signed a copy for me.

ashby signed with the dodgers as a free agent after the 2000 season, and he was 2-0 with a 3.86 era in his first two starts of the season when he was sidelined with a muscle strain that turned out to be a torn flexor muscle which cost him the remainder of the season.  he returned to pitch for the dodgers in 2002 and 2003, but was not as effective as everyone hoped.  still, that bp he obviously took paid off in 2002, as he swatted his lone career home run that year.

here's his 2001 topps card signed

as well as a 2001 bowman heritage.

both are much more boring cards than that 2001 upper deck piece of cardboard.

thanks for signing my cards andy - we'll always have those first two starts and that great upper deck card!