all eyes on karros

eric karros, the los angeles dodgers' all-time home run leader, turns 46 today.  i have a few karros cards in the scanned folder, and today seems like a good day to post them.  i love this 2000 pacific omega card.

his eyes are so wide, i am guessing that he cannot believe that glenn hoffman is waving him home.

i like that card so much that i chose to lead with it instead of this fantastic 1993 upper deck iooss collection insert.

that's a nice night shot of dodger stadium.

here's a former nefarious 9 card that i picked up - 1993 o-pee-chee premier star performers insert

also featuring dodger stadium.

now we get to the weird stuff.  here's a 1998 topps tek card

with one of the hundred or so acetate designs.  and here's a 2001 donruss card that is really a 2000 donruss card.

donruss didn't make cards in 1999 or 2000, so in 2001 they released some 'should have been' cards.  this looks like a food issue to me.  still, i liked the 'what if' cards that donruss produced as part of 2002 donruss originals.  like this 1980 donruss what if card of duke snider

that is better than the 1981 actual issue, but we have to recognize that donruss had a few years to come up with some better designs.

back to karros, here are a couple of cards that he signed for me through the mail last year.  first, his 1993 topps card, with the rookie cup

followed by one of my favorite cards - his 1994 upper deck collector's choice card

here we have dodger stadium, the jackie robinson award, and the tim crews memorial patch.  this card fits in to my dodger, dodger stadium, and memorial collections.  it's a good thing i don't also collect cards featuring awards like nick and daniel.

here's to you, eric karros!  happy birthday and thanks for signing my cards.

black as night

proving that it sometimes pays to comment, night owl sent me some cards after i gave an opinion on one of his 'name the design' posts.  these cards included this 2010 topps jon garland walmart black parallel which is not a night card.

the package also included this 1993 topps dave hansen gold card

and, lookie here!  another parallel card, although this 1997 score showcase series artist's proof ismael valdes card is not your typical black, gold, red, blue, green, pink, or camo parallel!

that card looks like it should have been made by pacific in 1993 or so.

moving on to the hologram portion of the post, here is a 1996 upper deck spx mike piazza card

this one is marked as a 'tribute' which is odd since he had only 3 full seasons under his belt when the card was released.  by the way, what is piazza thinking in blaming vin scully for some sort of falling out with the fans?  i never stopped cheering for piazza - i think the vast majority of fans realized that the fox group was wrong and didn't blame piazza for wanting a ton of money.  i guess he really is a met.

this here is a 2010 topps chrome clayton kershaw card (obviously)

and this is a 2012 topps sticker james loney...sticker.

i have to admit that i didn't know what this thing was, though.

i picked up some singles of 2010 topps pro debut, but didn't realize that they had made another set in 2011.  welcome to the blog, scott schebler.  see you again in a few years, hopefully.

i will end this post with a 2000 pacific omega adrian beltre card

not as garish as many other pacific cards, and i miss having beltre at third for the dodgers.  it would have been nice to avoid the revolving door at the hot corner that existed prior to his arrival and that has returned since he left.  which gets me to thinking that i need to do the evolution of the third baseman series of posts.  stay tuned.

thanks greg!

i gave myself a break

this was the third weekend in a row with a card show in town.  i went to the first two, but sat this one out.  at the first show, i picked up that 1955 topps sandy koufax, and at the next one i got mostly some odds and ends.  a few needs like this 1956 topps carl furillo card

and this 1955 bowman erv palica

but mostly dime box stuff like double plays and cards featuring dodger stadium.  here's chavez ravine providing the backdrop on luis gonzalez's 1993 upper deck sp card

fellow astro ken oberkfell gets a dodger stadium backdrop on his 1990 leaf card as well.

the astros' unis look nice in dodger stadium.

here's orel hershiser with pretty much the same background as oberkfell

while darryl strawberry's 1993 ud sp card gives us a glimpse of the visitor dugout and camera well

on garret anderson's 2000 pacific crown collection card

we see a bit more of the dugout, and ga continues to give us a tour of the stadium on his 2000 pacific omega card

it's blurry, but we get the third base side camera well and a bit of the field level scoreboard.  then, mr. anderson shows us the multi-colored levels of seating behind home plate on his 1998 fleer tradition card

while david segui is enjoying a cold beverage on the visitor's dugout step on his 1998 fleer tradition card.

i picked up a couple of phillies in dodger stadium, too.  here's pat the bat on a 2001 upper deck rookie roundup card

and vance worley on a 2012 bowman card

it doesn't look like the phillies drew a crowd for either game.  finally, i picked up another copy of the 2011 topps heritage news flashback card featuring dodger stadium

i figured i would show the back this time, if for no other reason than to show that the cartoon makes no sense.

i'm glad i passed on the show this past weekend.  the next one is only three weeks away and i have a lot of cards to put away, package up, and cross off of lists before i head out to another show.