and now for the tale of disappointment that i expected from a repack

hot on the heels of the pleasant repack experience i had recently (and posted about earlier today), i found myself in target a few days later and bought another one.  i again chose one that showed tim lincecum in one of the windows.  i should not have done that.

here's what was inside, starting with that 2008 topps chrome target t205 lincecum

1989 upper deck ellis burks

1994 fleer ultra glenallen hill

1993 leaf kurt manwaring

1992 donruss triple play albert belle

1989 upper deck tim flannery

1981 donruss keith moreland

1990 donruss terry kennedy

2010 topps tyler flowers

1989 topps glossy all-stars mark mcgwire

1981 topps marty pattin

1996 fleer ultra curt schilling

1981 topps andy hassler

1998 fleer metal universe hideki irabu

1981 topps dick tidrow

1992 classic four sport phil nevin

1981 topps steve stone

1994 topps tony gwynn

1991 upper deck dave bergman

1988 fleer mike moore

1988 fleer mike moore

1992 fleer bj surhoff

1988 fleer earnie riles

1992 fleer eric king

1992 leaf kevin reimer

1985 topps whitey herzog

1987 topps bobby valentine

1989 donruss tom brunansky

1989 topps keith hernandez

1982 topps lee mazzilli

1991 leaf jack armstrong

1991 leaf dwight evans

1987 topps terry kennedy

1991 leaf gary gaetti

1991 leaf barry jones

2006 fleer ultra huston street

1991 leaf greg harris

1987 topps rob wilfong

1991 leaf randy milligan

1991 leaf howard johnson

1991 leaf darren daulton

2004 fleer hot prospects omar vizquel draft edition

2010 topps brett anderson

2010 topps cliff pennington

2010 topps angel pagan

2010 topps kansas city royals

2010 topps casey kotchman

2010 topps toronto blue jays

1989 topps glossy all-stars andre dawson

and the last card of the first pocket, 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts luis aparicio

the other window had this 2012 topps heritage doug fister black border parallel showing

behind it were these cards

1989 topps glossy all-stars ryne sandberg

1991 topps andy hawkins

1991 topps joe boever

1988 score dave engle

1989 upper deck tony armas

1991 donruss jim clancy

1990 fleer award winners ozzie smith

1984 topps darrell brown

1989 donruss bill long

1984 topps rafael ramirez

1991 upper deck brian downing

1987 donruss john shelby

1987 donruss frank viola

1990 upper deck lance mccullers

1991 donruss wayne edwards

2000 ud victory ken griffey jr 

1990 donruss pascual perez

1987 donruss howard johnson

1991 score mike henneman

1990 upper deck bill swift

1989 fleer bob kipper

1991 upper deck norm charlton

1989 score scott terry

1989 upper deck gary green

1993 upper deck jose uribe

1994 topps jimmy key

1991 upper deck alex cole

1992 topps scott aldred

1987 topps pirates leaders

1988 topps john wathan

when's the last time you saw a manager wearing a helmet?

1990 topps traded bobby cox

very poor airbrush job

1995 ud collector's choice ray mcdavid

1989 topps bruce hurst

1991 upper deck brian barnes

1989 topps greg gross

1988 donruss bill buckner

1988 donruss gene garber

1987 donruss brian downing

1988 score mel hall

1988 topps jeff stone

2012 topps addison reed

1989 topps larry parrish

1990 donruss lance johnson

2009 upper deck first edition alex gordon

2009 upper deck first edition jeff samardzija

2009 upper deck first edition alex rodriguez

2009 upper deck first edition josh hamilton

2009 upper deck first edition jj putz

1989 topps glossy all-stars will clark

and the last card of the repack, to put me out of my misery, 1996 fleer ultra frank thomas checklist

i don't think there was even a sniff of a dodger in there.  this repack will probably sour me on buying any more for a few weeks, i would guess.

two for the tributes

i remember being perplexed by this card when donruss included it in their 1985 release.

it wasn't really a highlight card, and the two smaller pictures revealed too much of the striped card design - what, there were no photos of yankee teammates dave winfield and don mattingly together available?  anyway, the american league batting title wasn't too much of a concern for me as i was growing up in southern california, especially when it was down to a pair of yankees.  still, i collected this card because every card collecting kid hoarded don mattingly cards in the mid-1980's.  for the record, donnie baseball went 4 for 5 on the last day of the season to overtake winfield (who went 1 for 4 that day) and win title .343 to .340.

fast forward 11 years, and the two players were again colliding in my collection thanks to their 1996 releases.  both winfield and mattingly called it quits after the 1995 season, making their 1996 cards final tributes.

both were featured by upper deck in 1996, but only winfield got the 'tribute' banner on his card

those are his full career stats on the back, just like a final tribute should be.

here's mattingly's 1996 udcc card

full stats, plus the acknowledgement of the fact that mattingly played for the yankees during the time of their longest postseason drought since 1920, but no tribute banner.

both players were featured in 1996 upper deck as well, with winfield being part of the 'young at heart' subset

nice to see a padres photo on the back, plus the full career stats

mattingly, meanwhile, got the multiple exposure treatment on his card

on the back, you don't get full career stats, but you can see that mattingly played pretty well in the 1995 alds against the mariners.  he hit .417 with a homer and 6 rbi, but seattle won the 5-game series after being down 2 games to none.  ouch.

both players also got a sendoff from pinnacle in 1996 - here's winfield's

and mattingly's

only mattingly, however, was featured by topps in 1996

there was a lot of red for the stats in his early seasons

winfield would have only had one red stat - he led the nl in rbi in 1979.  it's worth noting that mattingly's final game homer was not the last hit of his career (he singled in his last at bat), but it did indeed help the yankees win the first american league wild card.

both showed up again in score's 1996 set.  here's winfield

winnie's back only goes back to 1978

now mattingly's turn

 and his back shows the full career, since it didn't begin until 1982

1996 fleer ultra also had cards for both winfield (front)

(back)

and mattingly (front)

(back)

but those card backs are pretty useless as far as final tributes go.

the fleer flagship was better in that regard, although they didn't get all the years on the backs.  winfield:

and mattingly:

donnie baseball is wearing the mickey mantle memorial armband and number patch in the front photo there (separate post coming soon).  also, the text on the back of mattingly's card addresses his role in helping the yankees reach the postseason in 1995.  winfield first made it to the postseason in 1981 with the yankees.  that was when george steinbrenner dubbed him 'mr. may' as winfield was just 1 for 22 against the dodgers in the fall classic.  i was happy when winfield joined the blue jays in 1992 and had another shot at the postseason.  his key (title-winning) double in the world series that year against the braves' charlie leibrandt pleased me greatly.

i'll finish up with 1996 donruss.  given the lack of a topps winfield card, i'd say this one is my favorite final tribute of the hall of famer

we get full career stats on the back, including the lost 1989 season that wasn't shown on the collector's choice card

mattingly's card in the set

is complete as well

but topps wins pretty much every time.

first, there was a turn of two

i recently completed a trade with brad's blog that i initiated after seeing not a piece of dodger trade bait, but rather a 2012 topps chrome sepia parallel of jason kipnis turning two

i didn't have a dp sepia parallel in the dp collection (it's numbered to 75) and i don't think i had previously traded with brad.    those are two good reasons to trade right there.  and, after looking around, i saw that he had a few nice dodger items on his trade bait page.  before we get to those cards, here are a few other dodgers that brad added to the pot.

1999 topps mark grudzielanek mvp promotion

i had never seen or heard of these cards prior to opening the package.  they were randomly inserted into series 1 and 2 packs - 100 of each card.  if the card you pulled matched the player determined by topps to be the 'mvp of the week', you could redeem the card for a complete set of mvp of the week cards.  sounds like upper deck predictor or crash the game stuff to me.  to find out who the mvp's were for any given week, you had to check topps' website. since this was 1999, topps also gave you the option to call a toll-free number.  i am guessing that grudz was not named a mvp of the week by topps.

here's the back of a 1996 fleer ultra todd worrell card

because the front only had one photo of worrell, and who doesn't think that three images are better than one?

well, then, how about 5 and a half photos of kevin brown on this 2000 upper deck ionix card?

granted, 4 and a half of those are the same.

on to the trade bait.  first, here's a 2004 donruss world series orel hershiser jersey card

something i have noticed over the years is that bulldog autos and (most of the time) relics have held their relative value.  i haven't come across any in the bargain 'hit' bins to be sure.

2011 topps chrome ivan dejesus jr auto

i appreciate the fact that he embellishes his autograph, not with his uniform number, but with 'pr' for puerto rico, his birthplace.  i wonder if anyone ever told dejesus jr that history repeats.  his dad signed his first professional contract with the dodgers and was later traded away as part of a deal for mike garman and rick monday.  not quite 40 years later, dejesus jr is drafted by the dodgers and later traded away in a deal for josh beckett, carl crawford, adrian gonzalez, and nick punto.  hopefully history repeats again, and dejesus jr is able to land somewhere (he's currently a free agent) and have a productive career like his old man.

the last bit of cardboard to showcase is this 2007 upper deck legendary cuts bill madlock relic

we don't see too many dodger cards of the mad dog, so it was nice of upper deck to make a couple back in 2007.

thanks for the trade, brad! let me know when you get the dodger trade bait replenished!

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.