the decline of western civilization began sooner than i had previously thought

just about five years ago, i mentioned seeing this card in 1988 and being frightened by what it meant for the future of stirrups.

at the same time that 1988 topps george hendrick card was released, we also received this fantastic 1988 score bert blyleven card

which celebrated the stirrup such that the new twins logo was fully visible.  and, a year later, we were treated to this 1989 score rookies and traded jerry reuss card

with nicely striped stirrups complementing the white sox uni.

i must have completely blocked out the memory of hendrick's 1984 donruss card

because he was wearing the long pants at least as far back as 1983.  the horror.

a trade of traded trading cards from detroit tigers cards

i made a trade a while (and it has been a while - sorry about that) with rob at detroittigerscards trading tigers for dodgers. i would like to think we both came out ahead.

rob took the meaning of 'trade' seriously, and sent me a bunch of traded or update set singles. well done! here are just a few:

2007 topps update & highlights david wells. boomer just signed on as an analyst on tbs. should be good times. i always thought he would go the rod beck route and live in a trailer next to a minor league park somewhere. which reminds me, i need to get on that 2008 topps david wells final tribute. someday...

1985 fleer update bobby castillo i will go ahead and state the obvious here - he looks a heck of a lot like cheech marin. always good to see the dodger stadium field level scoreboard.

another dodger stadium shot, and another 1985 fleer update. this time it's mariano duncan. a homegrown talent, duncan was the heir apparent to bill russell and hair apparent to eriq lasalle in coming to america. let your soul glow!

yet another 1985 fleer update and dodger stadium background. say hello to al oliver. oliver spent just half a season in la before being traded to the blue jays for len matuszek. both teams made it to the postseason, so i guess everything worked out. baseball reference shows oliver's closest comparison to be steve garvey. get out!

1989 score rookies & traded john wetteland.wetteland was returned to the dodgers by the tigers (who had selected him in the rule v draft) prior to the 1988 season. i guess they didn't want him either. the dodgers wound up trading him a couple of years later in the eric davis deal (the reds flipped him to the expos). that makes 3 teams that didn't want him. he went on to save 330 games over the next 9 years, and was the 1996 world series mvp.

1990 score rookies and traded don aase. 3 and 1 with 3 saves for the dodgers in 1990. and with an era of almost 5!

1990 score rookies and traded hubie brooks. i am a fan of the photo from behind. maybe because that's how i usually see batters when i am at the stadium. the dodgers got a decent year from brooks before trading him to the mets for bobby ojeda.

1990 score rookies and traded stan javier.javier was a member of the 1988 a's. ha. the dodgers got him for willie randolph in 1990. he played for them for a couple of years (even showing up at 1st base a couple of times) before being sent to the phillies.

1990 score rookies and traded juan samuel.
i had high hopes for samuel. sure, he struck out a lot, but he could run and had some good years for the phillies. well, he still struck out a lot and didn't really bounce back from his poor 1989. for me, he was the epitome of the 180-degree departure from the dodger way of developing the talent from within. luckily, they would get back to that approach in the next couple of years.

thanks rob!