a number memorial for the yankee clipper

joe dimaggio, teammate to lou gehrig and mickey mantle, died at the age of 84 on march 8, 1999.  he had played 13 years in the majors for the yankees (with 3 of his prime years spent in the military during world war ii), earning 3 mvp awards and 9 world series rings.

in response to his passing, the yankees added dimaggio's retired number 5 to their left sleeves for the 1999 season.  there are plenty of examples of this memorial, including the following cards:

2000 fleer tradition derek jeter alcs

2000 fleer ultra tino martinez

2000 topps stadium club ricky ledee

2000 topps chili davis

2000 topps bernie williams

2000 topps david cone

2000 topps derek jeter

2000 fleer gamers bernie williams

and this 2000 upper deck victory darryl strawberry

i'll take off on a tangent here.  in addition to giving us a close-up look at the number memorial thanks to the inset photo, this card also serves as a final tribute to strawberry's career

those are strawberry's final career stats - a far cry from where most people thought they would be when he retired based on his potential and his first few seasons with the mets.  strawberry played in about 150  fewer games than dimaggio, but he struck out almost 1000 more times than did joltin' joe.

here are the two cards i have in my collection for dimaggio's memorial - a 2000 upper deck mvp alfosno soriano scout's choice insert card that shows the white number memorial the yankees wore on their spring training jerseys

and derek jeter's 2000 fleer ultra card that shows the memorial on the yankee pinstripes

dimaggio was considered to be the 'classiest' yankee, and was perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak in 1941 and his short marriage to marilyn monroe. for the last 30 years of his life, he was also known (officially) as 'the greatest living ballplayer'.  here is dimaggio's obituary from the new york times which obviously expands on his life and impact far better than i could here.

indeed, 'joltin joe has left and gone away.'  so, (i know it's not the actual lyric from the simon & garfunkel song 'mrs. robinson', but…) here's to you, joe dimaggio.

a yankee black armband for catfish hunter

as i mentioned earlier today, the yankees wore a memorial - their traditional black armband - following the death of jim 'catfish' hunter on september 9, 1999.  hunter passed away after being diagnosed with als - lou gehrig's disease.

the yankees were already wearing a memorial number patch for joe dimaggio (more on that in a future post) who had passed away during spring training, but didn't add the armband until after hunter's death.  that means that roger clemens is wearing both memorials on this 2000 fleer tradition card

even though we only see the armband.

it's fitting to use a world series themed card as the memorial for hunter as he pitched in three more fall classics after joining the yankees.  he won 23 games in 1975, his first year with the yankees, and then had 17 more wins in 1976 as he helped new york return to the world series after an 11-year absence.  although they lost to the reds that year, hunter helped them return and beat the dodgers in 1977 and 1978.

arm problems forced him to retire following the 1979 season, but he went out with well over 200 wins and just over 2000 strikeouts in his 15-year career.  he was voted to the hall of fame in 1987, and is the only player (i think) who is enshrined without a logo on his cap as he refused to choose between the a's and the yankees.

unfortunately, topps failed to produce a card of hunter in 1980, but they came through a couple of years ago with this card from 2012 topps archives

with his complete career stats on the back, and a snarky cartoon that picks at my 1978 world series scab (the dodgers were up 2 games to none!).

that's what hunter's final tribute would have looked like, and in fact, i have this card in my final tribute binder.  better late than never.

non-dodger dodger cards

sometimes, dodger cards are harder to find than others.  specifically, dodger cards that show dodgers but list a different team on them.  online checklists that are built by team affiliation won't always tell the full story.  that's when you must rely on the kindness of strangers, the randomness of dime boxes, and the occasional lucky glimpse in an online card shop.  this post features cards from each of these sources.

1998 fleer tradition rick gorecki

gorecki was selected by the devil rays in the expansion draft following the 1997 season.  he appeared in 4 games for the dodgers in '97, finishing his dodger tenure with a 1-0 record despite a 15.00 era.  he wound up making 3 starts for tampa bay in 1998 and was 1-2 in those starts.  looks like he got injured and that was all she wrote.

1993 donruss jamie mcandrew

mcandrew was the dodgers' first round pick in 1989, but he never threw a pitch for them.  as the donruss card indicates, he was selected by the marlins in the expansion draft prior to the 1993 season.  however, he never pitched for them, either.  the fish traded him to milwaukee just before the season began.  mcandrew wound up appearing for the brewers in both the 1995 and 1997 seasons, but his career, like gorecki's, was cut short by injuries.

2000 fleer tradition raul mondesi

this mondesi card is pretty close to some classic o-pee-chee.  'traded to' text and the new team's logo (in this case the blue jays) brings back some good memories of o-pee-chee variations.  there are a few mondesi cards from 2000 that could fit into this post, actually.

2003 fleer platinum eric karros

karros and albert pujols on tatooine!  that's not the only karros card from 2003 that says cubs with a dodger photo - here's his 2003 leaf card

mark grudzielanek, who was traded with karros to the cubbies, also got the non-dodger dodger card treatment from leaf

last but not least, here's a 2005 upper deck pros and prospects koyie hill card

hill had three at bats as a dodger before they traded him to arizona in 2004.  this card is awesome because it's from 2005, and still features a photo of hill in dodger gear, even though all of his big league appearances in 2004 came as a member of the diamondbacks.

i know there are a lot more of these types of cards, and i will continue to enjoy stumbling across them any way i can.

turning two for tuesday

here are a few more double play cards i have picked up in the past few months.  these came mostly by way of browsing comc, the lcs nickel boxes, and maybe even some help from folks like jeff at 2x3 heroes.

let's start with a nice diamond cut 1982 fleer rich dauer, featuring carlton fisk sliding in

sticking with fleer, here is a 1985 glenn hubbard, with dodger mike marshall sliding in

and another 1985 fleer card - ron oester - with no one visibly sliding in

i am not one to do such things, but if there were a 'comeback card of the year' post or contest somewhere, i would vote for that hubbard card given the weirdness that his 1984 fleer card presented.  

here's a 1998 fleer tradition fernando vina card

and his brew crew teammate jose valentin on a 1998 pacific card

also from pacific in 1998 comes this scott spiezio online red parallel release

the a's had a ton of double play cards in the late '90's thanks to spiezio, brent gates, and this next guy, miguel tejada

that's a 2000 fleer focus.  and this is a 2000 fleer ultra gold medallion edition

obviously, tejada is not doing the dp turning there.  instead, nomar is doing the work.  just like on this 2000 fleer tradition card

with bonus (sort of) double play action on the back

nomar's 2003 fleer mystique card also shows him making the turn, or at least prepping for the throw to start the double play.

based on where his right foot is, i am pretty certain the intent there is to turn two, and not just get a force at second.

back to more traditional double play turning with cesar izturis' 2009 upper deck card

and jhonny peralta's 2011 topps card

hooray for double play cards!

there's no need to go anywhere else

1971 marked the first time that the photo used on the dodgers team card showed dodger stadium in the background.  here's the 1971 o-pee-chee version of the card, with the team sitting in the first few rows of one of the pavilions.

prior to that, the photo used either came from spring training, or the background was eliminated. in the  1972 set, they were back at spring training, but for the 1973 set, the team was clearly down on the field in chavez ravine, where they have stayed since then.

for 1976, they used the right field corner as their backdrop

as they did in 1977

and 1978, for that matter.  the 1979 card, however, shows them moving slightly towards center field

to capture some of the right field pavilion and even get a couple of palm trees in the photo.

they used the same set up for 1981

which was the last year for team cards for a very long time.

in 2000, fleer brought them back in their tradition set.  

here we have the dodgers still using the right field pavilion and corner as the backdrop, but for the 2000 team photo used in 2001 topps,

they moved to the left field pavilion.

they were back to the right field side for the 2002 topps set

and the 2003 topps set

and the 2004 topps set as well.

for 2006, they not only trotted out their third different team logo panel, but they moved the set up so that their backs are to home plate

they actually made that move first for the photo used in the 2005 set, but i didn't have a scan handy.  you can see the background better on the 2007 topps heritage team card

which uses the same photo that's on the 2007 topps card

which is the last of these types of team cards we have seen, if i'm not mistaken.

i can appreciate the fact that some teams have tried to dress up the drab background that their stadium provides for these photos, like the giants who brought in a cable car (1978 topps) to liven things up inside candlestick.  some teams have gone outside their stadium such as the phillies (who literally went outside of veterans stadium in 1978 topps).  taking things to an extreme, the padres have been to old town san diego (1979), the zoo (1980), and mission bay (1981), and the cubs used floating heads for a few years despite having the ivy as an obvious choice for a backdrop.  the dodgers, however, have stayed in their stadium, and really - why go anywhere else?

i'm looking forward to seeing the renovations on some 2013 series 2 cards!

johngy's beat-down on the nefarious 9

hey! you might have noticed some changes to the nefarious 9 over there on the right side of the blog.  those are my most wanted cards (within reason), and johngy recently sent me a couple that had been there for a while.

he also sent a bunch of cards from 2000 which was pretty cool.  here are a few of eric karros' cards issued by pacific that year.  first we have crown collection

next is just plain pacific

and this is paramount

not much variation in the photo selection there.

here's another karros card from crown collection - this one has the team checklist on the back

i do believe fabio is 'suttoning' there!

on to the nefarious 9 needs.  first up was a 1985 fleer steve sax card

not sure why i needed this but i did.  overlapping team sets and player collections wreak havoc on want lists.

the other most wanted card that johngy sent was this 1993 o-pee-chee premier jody reed card

yay.

back to the 2000's - that was the year that the shawn green proliferation began, and it started while he was still in blue jays attire.  here's his 2000 pacific crown collection card

his 2000 pacific paramount card

and his 2000 upper deck ovation card

2000 also meant kevin brown cards, so, like green, here are his pacific crown collection

paramount

and upper deck ovation cards.

i've mentioned before that i really like all the 2000 dodger cards because they often show the heroes patch that each player wore.  brown is wearing the koufax patch that was kept out of wide circulation.

darren dreifort, shown here on his 2000 fleer tradition card,

wore the drysdale patch, but it's really hard to make out on the card, unfortunately.

these next few are better - 2000 pacific crown collection gary sheffield (jackie robinson)

2000 pacific crown collection devon white (jackie robinson)

and 2000 upper deck adrian beltre (ron cey)

thanks john, and be sure to check out johngy's beat!