them's the breaks. and the earflaps.

i've booked a spot in a few group breaks recently, including one hosted by the daily dimwit.  he busted a box of 2002 fleer greats of the game, and i came away with almost a complete dodger team set.

that's campy, wills, drysdale, jackie, cey, hodges, garvey, roe and the duke.  the only other dodger featured in the set that didn't come my way in this break is hack wilson.  i'm pretty sure i have a hack from this set lying around.

let's take a closer look at steve garvey's card from the set

i can't say that i recall him wearing the double-earflap helmets, but there are a number of photos around (like the one on this card) showing him thusly adorned.  it seems so little league-ish for a non-switch hitter.

and then there is ron cey, who famously went earflap-less

at least until he was beaned in the head by goose gossage in 1981.  then he saw the light and went with the single earflap.

also wearing earflaps on their helmets are gary sheffield and adrian beltre, who, along with kevin brown and chan ho park were part of my haul from the 2001 playoff absolute memorabilia box included in the break

the big hit of the break was an expired redemption card for dodger prospect carlos garcia

i tried to find an image of the redeemed card, but came up with no results.  oh what might have been, back in 2001.

thanks to the dimwit for hosting the break!

cards with stars and clouds and dodgers

here is the second installment of my recent trading frenzy with the rhubarb runner.  it's a wonder what some vintage twins and a couple of sticker autos will bring in return.  first up, a 2002 topps american pie american sluggers insert of the silver fox

this is one of the more obscured card in my blog's header.  it's right there under the 2004 topps robin ventura and the 2001 ud decade 1970's ron cey.  i feel badly that the duke is so slighted, but he is up there!

here's the first of two shawn green relics - this one is from 2004 upper deck diamond collection (i think)

it's not as cool as this 2001 playoff absolute memorabilia game used base card

featuring green playing baseball amongst the clouds.  what a wacky design.  almost as bad as this 2003 fleer ultra pee wee reese insert

apparently, it was a game when the players floated in the heavens.

back to earth and a 2002 upper deck insert featuring kevin brown

the insert set is called 'return of the ace'.  it kind of reminds me of the opening credits of 'game of thrones'.  without the fictional geography lesson.  on another semi-related note, i will be starting my 'evolution of the ace' series next week.  at some point, brown does show up on the chain of dodger yearly aces.

2004 fleer greats jackie robinson

this card, of course, reminds me of the book by lawrence ritter 'the glory of their times'.  although i prefer 'the image of their greatness' by ritter and donald honig. both are well worth your time, as is the collecting of jackie robinson baseball cards.  even the glut of cards put out by topps over the last couple of years, although it would be nice to see some different photos used.

2005 upper deck sweet spot dj houlton

one of the most interesting things that i know about dj houlton is that his middle name is sean.  i guess ds houlton just doesn't sound right.  actually, the dj stands for dennis junior which is quite sensible.  houlton pitched for the dodgers in 2005 and then again in 2007.  he moved on to japan in 2008, and is still pitching there today as far as i know.

just when you thought you had seen the last of 2011 topps update cognac cards, here comes jerry sands

hopefully sands is working on keeping his eye on the ball down in the minors this seaon.
 
i saved this card for last, only because it has a hated yankee on it.  it's from 2004 donruss leather & lumber

what saves it is the presence of duke snider.  duke and scooter faced each other in the world series 4 times, with the yankees winning three rings before the dodgers finally won in 1955.  duke hit .290 with 9 homers in those 4 series, while rizzuto hit .266 with no homers.  small consolation for the silver fox, i am sure.

thanks for the cards david!