age of ultra

no superheroes here, just humble baseball players on some fleer ultra cards.

here's a 1999 fleer ultra chan ho park

the latter years of ultra feature some nice photography, as evidenced by jeff shaw's card

which features dodger stadium and the three sisters in the background.

a less scenic part of dodger stadium is in the background of antonio osuna's card

but we get charles johnson (i believe) in the foreground

mark grudzielanek is on the road on his card

but ismael valdes is back at home on his

in addition to lots of dodgers and dodger stadium cards, ultra has contributed many double plays to my collection. here are a few that i haven't shown before

2001 fleer ultra edgar renteria

i hope renteria was successful in his giant twin killing

speaking of giants, here's a 2002 fleer ultra rich aurilia card

jeff kent can only stand and watch

2004 fleer ultra orlando cabrera

nice to see the expos now and again

2004 fleer ultra marcus giles

most of the marcus giles dp cards i have seem to show him horizontal.  must not have been much of a jumper.  like placido polanco

or michael young

this is a 2004 fleer ultra update card of giant prospect brian dallimore

who is being taken out by juan pierre.  hopefully dallimore got some lessons in sliding runner evasion from double play professional ray durham, seen here on a 2005 fleer ultra card

it's too bad that fleer went under - we could use more ultra these days.

mural, mural on the wall...

i've been meaning to do this for a long time.  i took a quick look at the evolution of the dodger stadium outfield wall in a previous post, but i didn't take the time to document what the theme of the murals were.  some years it was obvious - retired numbers - but other years seemed more eclectic.

i was a big fan of the murals, even though i was not able to attend too many games during their presence.  i mostly remember the outfield wall looking like it does on this 2000 mlb showdown card

featuring wayne kirby, and a non-controversial quote from reggie jackson.  really, everybody does like ice cream.

sometimes, usually (only?) opening day, the dodgers would get out the big world championship banners and put them on the walls. in 1998, however, they began using photo murals in the outfield.  there was a different theme for each year from '98 through 2004.  i thought i had a pretty good bead on what the murals were each year after some research, and dodger historian mark langill was kind enough to confirm things for me via email.  thanks mark (he's got the greatest job in the world).  on with the post.

1998 world championships/retired numbers mural

that 1999 fleer tradition derek bell card shows off the don drysdale (number 53) part of the mural, which was next to the 1981 world championship image featuring the three steves - howe, yeager, and garvey - in their celebratory embrace.  here's a photo from getty images that shows the mural a bit better.

if only bell had fielded that ball a few feet to his left...

in 1999, the dodgers added their hero patches to their uniforms, and the mural honored those players who were included in the patch selection.  here's a 2000 topps stadium club devon white card

that shows kirk gibson and the right ear of pee wee reese (i believe).  reese's teammate gil hodges' part of the mural shows up on derek jeter's 2000 upper deck card

darryl kile's 2000 fleer ultra card

has a good part of the mural in the background. that's jackie robinson and don drysdale, with rauuuul mondesi at the plate.

ray lankford's 2000 topps gallery card

is not to be ignored, with lankford spiking mike scioscia's image on the wall.  that's a great card and all, but here's a photo that i would have rather made its way onto cardboard (again from getty images)

it's a picture of ken griffey junior and don newcombe and scioscia - this time you can see his face.  as for the garv, he was on the wall again, but i couldn't find any cards featuring his part of the mural, unfortunately.

in 2000, the dodgers went with the theme of great moments in dodger stadium history, including the saving of the american flag by then cub rick monday, and this moment

i believe that gibson's home run was voted the greatest sports moment in los angeles history, by the way.  i don't know if garvey was on this wall, as i didn't get to chavez ravine in 2000 and there certainly isn't any cardboard that i've found with any of the mural in the background.

for the 2001 season, the dodgers revisited their retired numbers, doing so in a more formal fashion.  this 2001 upper deck gold glove card of darin erstad

has him in front of the '2' in walt alston's '24'.  the 's' near erstad's right arm is the 's' at the end of 'los angeles dodgers'.  there are other cards featuring this mural, and my favorite is probably the 2002 upper deck marvin benard card.  i like that card so much, it was the first non-dodger card ever featured on this blog in what was the third post in this blog's existence.  sadly, steve garvey was not part of this mural, as his number 6 will not be retired by the dodgers unless he is voted into the hall of fame by the veteran's committee.

2002 was the year that the team celebrated 40 years of dodger stadium, complete with comemmorative patches on their sleeves and a new mural on the wall.  they used a different player from each even year from 1962 to 2002.  tommy davis was '62, shawn green was '02, and steve garvey was '76 (as seen in this getty images photo)

sweet.  if only it were a card...

...well, garvey made the mural in 2003 and a card the following year as the team recognized dodger record holders on their outfield wall.  the 2003 mural included the likes of sandy koufax's 382 strikeouts in a single season (still a modern national league and left-handed pitcher record), as well as the team's record setting infield of garvey, cey, russell, and lopes.  that's the mural that made it on to preston wilson's 2004 fleer ultra card

with steve garvey representing!  very thankful to fleer for making this card!

garvey had no chance at the 2004 mural, as the dodgers honored their cy young award winners that year.  here's 1974 winner, mike marshall on carlos beltran's 2005 fleer card

orel hershiser on derek jeter's 2005 fleer ultra card

(with a cameo from eric gagne's arm), and, of course, fernando valenzuela on steve finley's 2005 fleer ultra card

you didn't think i'd get through the post without showing that beauty, did you?

lord, i miss the murals.

a patch for warren spahn

warren spahn passed away in november of 2003 at the age of 82.  he had pitched for the braves' franchise in boston and milwaukee for 20 seasons, along with a final season split between the mets and giants, and so the atlanta braves wore a patch in his honor during the 2004 season.  the patch was shaped like home plate, with spahn's retired number 21 inside.

this 2005 fleer national pastime jd drew card gives a good view of the patch

but that is actually a dodger card.  i looked through my collection to see if i could do better by the winningest left-hander in history than that.

here's a 2005 fleer ultra chipper jones card

but the patch is tough to see.  how about this 2005 topps opening day andruw jones card?

that was the frontrunner for a while, but then i found this 2005 upper deck chipper jones card

that's the one in the binder.

spahn was a first-ballot hall of famer, going in with 83.2% of the vote in 1973.  he is sixth all-time in wins with 363 - the highest total for any pitcher in the modern era - and 63 of those wins came in games in which spahn threw a shutout - also the highest total for any pitcher in the modern era and sixth all-time.  those numbers would have been greater had he not lost three seasons to service in world war ii during which he was awarded the purple heart.  in 1999, spahn was named to the all-century team and in 2003 a statue of him was unveiled at turner field. i will assume that the braves take it with them when they move in a couple of years.

ultra shenanigans

greg gagne welcomes you to this post with his 1997 fleer ultra card.

but wait, i thought that this was his 1997 fleer ultra card

shows what i know.  or used to know.  i was not aware that the ultra gold medallion parallels in 1997 featured different photography until a couple of years ago.  i had previously largely dismissed the gold parallels, but this means that i missed out on this todd zeile card 

because i only had this one

so, i went out and picked up a few other gold medallion cards of dodgers from 1997 fleer ultra.  ismael valdes

and mike piazza

and hideo nomo

and raul mondesi

and ramon martinez

and todd hollandsworth

and wilton guerrero

and karim garcia

plus an insert or two, like this nomo/piazza double trouble card

i do not believe that this gme variation extends itself to other ultra releases.

unfortunately, i only have the base versions from 1998 fleer ultra of dennis reyes

and todd hollandsworth

in my scanned folder

i also had a 1995 fleer ultra garey ingram

plus gme cards of billy ashley

darren dreifort

and todd worrell

but those don't prove anything.

just for fun, and to clear out space in the scanned folder, here are a couple of mondesi insert from 1995 fleer ultra

he's got raw power!

well, at least i know that 2005 fleer ultra didn't have different photos for their gold medallion editions - here's hideo nomo's base card

and his gme

i need to go check my binders...