more cards from night owl, plus a contest

there were too many good cards sent my way by night owl to be contained to a single post, so here are some more.

this 1996 select certified wilton guerrero card

actually shows roger cedeno

1994 topps traded chan ho park

this is park, obviously, and it looks like he's pitching in a high school stadium

speaking of high school, here's a 2012 panini triple play matt kemp when i was a kid card

the back is all about how basketball was kemp's primary sport until late in his high school years.  now, is this card better than the early 70's topps boyhood photos of the stars subsets?  maybe.  but then again, maybe a black and white picture of kemp posterizing some kid under the basket would have been ok, too.

2003 topps bazooka paul loduca relic

2004 topps clubhouse collection chin-feng chen relic

2004 topps traded edwin jackson relic

2007 bowman heritage jeff kent relic

and 2008 topps brad penny relic

night owl was purging his relics, and i was one of the beneficiaries.

like i said, a lot of good cards there.  speaking of good cards, i've been meaning to have another contest of sorts.  i have a lot of good cards to trade.  you may have some dodgers you want to get rid of.  and, there are a lot of good cards up in my header.  just in case you aren't looking at the web version of the blog, here's my header, or at least the cards:

and here's the contest.

i count 31 cards in my header.  all you have to do is identify them.  get it right, and i'll send you up to 9 pre-1980 cards from the team of your choice in a pwe.  you can send one or two dodger cards back, if you like, but it's not required. heck, i'll probably send cards just for trying since there are a couple of obscured cards, plus a tricky one in there.  to make things easier, i've set up a key for the header:

you should be able to click that to get a larger version, but let me know if you need me to email it to you.  speaking of email, you can send your list (and mailing address) to me at gcrlatcomcastdotnet, and please do so by noon pacific on saturday the 25th.  good luck.  and thanks for the cards, night owl!

the evolution of the dodger shortstop, part 3

this post will wrap up the dodger shortstop evolutionary chain.  at least until hanley ramirez fails to play the majority of time at the position.  we left off a couple of days ago with cesar izturis being injured in 2005.  as a result, ned went out and signed rafael furcal for the 2006 season.

rafael furcal (2006-2007)

furcal, seen above on a 2007 bowman heritage card, had a fantastic inaugural season with the dodgers.  he hit .300, played short in 156 games, stole 37 bases, tied a career high with 15 home runs, and finished 14th in the mvp voting.  he regressed in 2007, but still appeared at short in 138 games that year.  it looked like he had turned things around the following season, as he was hitting .366 through may 5, 2008, but furcal suffered an injury that kept him out of action until the final week of the season.

angel berroa (2008)

berroa was the main beneficiary of furcal's injury in 2008.  nomar garciaparra, chin-lung hu, luis maza, and pablo ozuna all spent some time at short with furcal out, but berroa got more starts (69) than any of them.  overall, he appeared in 84 games and hit .230.  after the season ended, he signed a deal with the yankees, and later almost double dipped with the dodgers.  they signed berroa to a free agent deal after the 2009 season ended, but wound up releasing him towards the end of spring training 2010.

rafael furcal (2009-2010)

furky returned to reclaim the position in the 2008 postseason, and then appeared in 149 games as the dodgers' everyday shortstop in 2009.  he also led the team in appearances at the position in 2010, although the number of games he played there dwindled to 93 that year.  he hit an even .300 in 2010, and made the all-star team for the first time as a dodger.  he appeared in only 37 games for the dodgers in 2011 prior to a trade deadline deal that sent him to saint louis.

jamey carroll (2011)

carroll actually played more second base than shortstop in 2011, but his 54 games started at short narrowly edged dee gordon's 51.  gordon claimed the job towards the end of the season, but i will still acknowledge the time that carroll spent there after furcal was traded.  carroll hit .304 as a shortstop in 2011 and made only 4 errors in 214 chances.  he parlayed his solid play into a free agent deal with the twins for the 2012 season.

dee gordon (2012)

gordon led all dodger shortstops with 73 starts in 2012.  he struggled at the plate, however, as his batting average dropped almost 80 points from his 2011 mark of .304.

hanley ramirez (2013)

it's taken a village to cover the shortstop position for the dodgers since furcal was traded.  in addition to carroll and gordon, the likes of aaron miles, justin sellers, luis cruz, juan uribe, elian herrera, and jerry hairston (and maybe a couple more) have played the position.  in 2012, ned traded for hanley ramirez to try to stabilize things.  he played there in 57 games after coming over from the marlins and then last year appeared in 76 games at short.  injuries limited him to just 86 total appearances, but he hit .345 and finished 8th in the mvp voting.

ramirez is slated to play short for the dodgers in 2014, which is a contract year, so i expect big things.  i also hope he re-signs, because i am pretty tired of the turnstile at short.

coming soon, the evolution of the dodgers' second basemen…stay tuned.

like father like son. almost.

the dodgers have had a few sets of brothers wear dodger blue such as ramon and pedro martinez and steve and dave sax.  this year, the dodgers took nepotism to a new level with a nephew (tony gwynn jr) of a former dodger (chris gwynn), and a son of a former infielder on the roster.

of course i am talking about the dejesus clan - ivan and ivan jr.  but they weren't the first father and son combo that suited up for the dodgers. back in 1966, the yankees sent 'ducky' to the dodgers in a late season trade.  as a result, we got this 1967 topps schofield card:

by looking at the back of the card, we see that schofield last played in pittsburgh in early 1965 before he was traded to the giants.

so, topps used a potentially recent photo of schofield, even though it was from three teams prior.  the yankees purchased schofield from the giants in may of '66 so i'm surprised topps never got over to the bronx to photograph him in pinstripes. 

the dodgers released schofield after the 1966 season and he was quickly picked up by the cardinals.  that means that, while he may well be shown in a dodger uniform on his 1968 topps card, he is counted as a member of the cardinals.  i figured i could do better, so here is the 1967 topps dick schofield card that should have been:

i purposely left a facsimilie autograph off of the card, since i was planning to try to get the real deal instead.  luckily, mr. schofield obliged

it doesn't scan too well.  he also signed one of his regular topps cards, too.

but enough about the senior schofield who hit .225 for the dodgers in 104 games.  let's talk about his son, dick schofield jr.  the younger schofield started his career in southern california, although it was with the angels and not the dodgers, in 1983.  ten years later, he found himself in toronto, as shown by his 1993 upper deck card

he became a free agent after the 1994 season, and once the strike ended, the dodgers signed him for the 1995 season.  because he only played in 9 games for the dodgers, he didn't get a card to commemorate his time in la - not even of him in a different uniform like his dad.  i gave it a shot with this 1995 topps card that should have been:

when the dodgers traded for jayson werth in 2004, they brought on a third generational dodger, since werth is the grandson and nephew of ducky sr.

the latest son of a dodger to play for la is ivan dejesus jr.  unfortunately for him, he has seemingly been passed on the depth chart by dee gordon.  anyway, dejesus jr signed a couple cards for me earlier in the season, including his 2007 bowman heritage card

and a 2010 bowman topps 100 card

i had previously had his dad sign a 1978 and 1979 card for me, and i sent him a couple more in the hopes he would sign again.  one of the cards i sent was his 1975 sspc which is one of the only cards that shows him in a dodger uniform.  unfortunately for me, he kept that card.  he did sign his 1989 upper deck card, however.

so far, the younger dejesus is besting his dad as far as dodger stats go.  he's hitting .188 in 17 games while pops hit .183 in 88 games.  hopefully, ivan jr. gets some more opportunities in 2012.

the great dodgers-orioles trade project

it's only fitting that i start this trade post with a couple of juan bell cards.  that's because i recently completed a trade with ryan of the great orioles autograph project, and he sent me the cards, along with a bunch of other double play and dodger cards.  also, the dodgers traded juan bell to the orioles for eddie murray way back when.  on to the cards - first, a 1993 topps stadium club

and a 1994 fleer

there was anothe juan bell double play card in the trade, but that card is being saved for a future post.

on to the dodgers!  1991 topps traded darryl strawberry

such high hopes we had back in '91.  donruss had given darryl the gretzky treatment with the press conference photo on their card, so this was the first real dodger darryl i saw.

ryan also included a 1992 leaf strawberry from the heritage insert series

the back says he's wearing a 1944 brooklyn uniform and holding a jackie robinson bat.  jackie wasn't on the 1944 team, but that's ok. to me, darryl looks like another disappointing dodger in this photo - delino deshields.

1994 post mike piazza

this was a nefarious 9 card (ryan also included a 1987 topps lee lacy that was, at one time, also a n9 want).  i have since replaced this card on the list with another oddball piazza - his 1994 kraft card.

2007 bowman heritage ivan dejesus, jr

i didn't realize that he had cards from that far back.  with chin-lung hu out of the way, i would guess that dejesus makes the dodgers this year.  then ned can trade him to the cubs just like al campanis did with his old man.
2009 ud o-pee-chee joe nathan black border

i'm still working on this set (meaning i have a want list) and ryan included a few twinkies.  unfortunately, they weren't ones i needed.  still, they are good cards to put away for twinsfest or the autograph party.

2005 topps nomar garciaparra

a non-red sox nomat, with the chevron car in the background to boot!
we'll finish with another double play card - a 1994 score ryne sandberg

pure goodness.

thanks ryan!