inspired by fuji and amused by ashley

i received some cards from fuji a while back.  it was a great mix of dodgers, including a 2002 leaf certified joe thurston jersey card

and a 2000 fleer ultra eric karros gold medallion edition parallel

i also received a 1992 topps eric karros gold 'winner' card

which shows karros in a posed ready to bat stance.

using some of the other cards in the package, we can follow a dodger swing from the ready position on karros' card, to this 1997 donruss dodgers team set greg gagne card

to this 1998 donruss preferred raul mondesi die-cut card

to this 1995 score select billy ashley card

that ashley card is fantastic.  it's got the pinnacle museum treatment and an umpire noting that ashley 'can't miss'.  he missed.

back to that donruss dodger team card of gagne.  fuji included almost a complete team set.  here's roger cedeno's card

there were three cards missing, so i went to sportlots to complete the set.  of course, i needed the big 3 of the time - raul mondesi

hideo nomo

and mike piazza

thanks for the cards fuji, and for the inspiration to complete a team set!

more cards from tatooine

warning - the geek quotient is high with this post.

sometimes, in between the landspeeder races and droid purchasing, folks on tatooine take time out for baseball.  here are some examples.

1996 topps joey cora

this is one of my favorite 'dirt only' cards.  the teal mariners jersey is the star of the card.

1994 upper deck alan trammell

and his teammate travis fryman on a 1995 score select card

there may be a hint of green on this 1993 upper deck dave valle card

but then again, that might just be some womp rat remnants.

it looks like the moisture vaporators are malfunctioning on kevin young's 1993 upper deck card

better get those droids to the south rim to work on the condensers.

speaking of droids, it looks like mike piazza has spotted the incoming escape pod on his 1998 topps stadium club card

here's a classic that i am pretty sure i have shown before - dmitri young's 2002 fleer ultra card

but he's not the only one that can dive back to the bag on tatooine - there is also carlos santana on his 2010 topps update card

turning double plays on tatooine doesn't happen often, but here are a couple of examples - 2007 topps turkey red 'turning two' with hanley ramirez and jose bautista

and 2002 topps total russ johnson

i wouldn't be surprised if the florida teams drew bigger crowds on the planet furthest from the bright center of the universe than they do in miami and tampa.

more dime box dodgers by proxy

here are even more cards from nick at dime boxes.  i don't usually scan so many cards from trade packages, but there were a lot of cool dodgers in addition to all those double play cards (i will scan and show any and all double play cards that are new to my collection).  here's a case in point - i couldn't scan brett butler's 1992 o-pee-chee card

without scanning his 2012 topps archives short print card

that's not a bad job by topps.

another unfamiliar looking card was this 1995 topps national packtime raul mondesi card

mondy's regular 1995 topps card is one of my all-time faves, but this one is not too bad.

staying in 1995, here is a jeff treadway card from that year's score set.

until i saw this card, i thought that the only dodger treadway cards were the 1994 police issue and the 1994 stadium club card.

in fact, there are more cards of sean pierce, such as this 2003 topps card,

in a dodger uniform than there are of treadway, even though pierce never made it out of high-a ball.

and how about this 2003 topps total card of troy brohawn?

i think it goes without saying that this is the first time brohawn has been featured on the blog.  brohawn pitched for 3 of the 5 nl west teams in his career (he never made it to the padres or rockies), and the dodgers were the last.  he was 2-0 for the blue in 2003 with a 3.86 era.  unfortunately, he couldn't get back to the big club in 2004 and his career came to an end.

here's a 1995 score select checklist featuring jeff bagwell, frank thomas, ken griffey jr, and the strongest man in socal, mike piazza

one of the few photoshopped combo cards that you will see.

finally, here is a 1998 pinnacle performers card of mike piazza

pinnacle performers was one of pinnacle's final card sets to be released, and this particular card would have been one of piazza's last cards as a dodger.  in fact, it includes the o-pee-chee like 'traded to mets' text, totally ignoring the week he spent with the marlins.

thanks again nick!  still one more post today, though...

same play? same play.

here we have a couple of cards featuring the dodgers' delino deshields.  i like these cards very much, as they show the dodger second baseman turning a double play within the confines of dodger stadium.  here is delino's 1995 score card

and his 1995 score select card

looking at them together, i immediately figured that they depicted the same play.  both cards, as i mentioned, come from a game played in dodger stadium.  both feature a phillie sliding in (the select card allows us to recognize that player as kevin stocker, who wore 19 for the 1994 phils), and many of the other details match up.  delino's sunglasses; his stirrups; his batting gloves in the back pocket; stocker's wristband; etc.  slam dunk, right?

well, then i noticed that on the select card, it looks like deshields is sporting a goatee, while he looks fairly clean shaven on the regular score card.  could just be shadows, i suppose, but it's off to baseball reference!  we know the game was played in 1994, since in both photos delino has the mlb 125th anniversary patch on his right sleeve.  we also know the game was played during the day, thanks to the bright sunshine and deshield's sunglasses.  so, we are left with only the july 3, 1994 game to consider, as all the other games in which the phillies visited dodger stadium in 1994 and kevin stocker appeared in were night games.

in that july 3rd game, stocker was 0 for 3 with a walk against orel hershiser and todd worrell (old friend fernando valenzuela started for the phillies).  in the 7th inning, hershiser walked him to load the bases with one out, but jim eisenreich grounded into an inning ending double play, 6-4-3.

so, there you have it.  same play.  and a nice double play at that.

crinkly cards

thanks to crinkly wrappers, i am 9 cards closer to completing the 1971 topps set.

three managers, a hall of gamer, and some other sweet cards.  appropriate to showcase the mike cuellar and the world series highlight cards as i am finally getting around to the 1970 baltimore orioles post over at the timeless teams blog [shameless plug].

i also received some nice piazza's in the deal, including a couple of checklists - here's a 1995 score select

and a 1995 score summit

count me among those who think it is wrong for tim federowicz to be wearing number 31.  here's a third piazza, although not a checklist, from 1996 bazooka

i can't believe i have not featured a card from 2002 topps 206 on the blog before, but i guess i have not.  i am kinda sorta collecting that set although it is such a low priority that i don't have a want list up.  anyway, here's a shawn green insert from the set

i think this is from the 'team 206' insert set, and there are variations even within the inserts.  maybe that's why i haven't gotten too serious about collecting it.

there were also a trio of 2010 upper deck biography cards, including that fantastic orlando hudson one that celebrates the first dodger cycle since wes parker roamed the base paths

i really wish that the o-dog would sign dodger stuff.

here's manny being manny

and andre being andre

although i don't think going deep requires taking out the second baseman.  nice dodger stadium scene, though.

finally, a 2010 topps peak performance andre ethier insert.

ethier is playing at peak performance this year - averaging over an rbi per game.  i am always wary of big 'walk' years (see beltre, adrian) but hopefully magic can bring the money and get ethier re-signed.

thanks for the trade ted!