the kirby puckett memorial patch

yesterday was the 19th anniversary of kirby puckett's final major league game.  on september 28, 1995, he was hit in the face by dennis martinez in his first at bat of the game (the second player martinez had plunked in the inning) and was replaced by chip hale.  the twins' starter hit albert belle with a pitch in the following inning for what it's worth.  some believe that martinez's pitch contributed to puckett's deteriorating eyesight, but most agree that the glaucoma that was discovered the following spring was not related to his injury.  without vision in his right eye, puckett retired.  he was inducted into the hall of fame in 2001, but passed away from a stroke suffered just five years later, in march of 2006.  during the 2006 season, the twins wore a '34' patch on their right sleeves.

here's a 2007 fleer justin morneau year in review insert showing the patch

the card uses the same photo as morneau's base card from 2007 fleer

morneau is showing the patch again on this 2009 upper deck team leaders card

note that the twins were still wearing the latter puckett era 'm' hats on the road, even though their helmets had reverted to the old 'tc' logo.  here's jason kubel's 2006 upper deck card that also features the puckett patch

as does joe nathan's 2007 fleer ultra card

carlos silva's 2007 topps card

and torii hunter's 2007 bowman card

the twins sometimes wore a vest jersey at home in 2006, and when that was the case, the patch moved to the chest.  there aren't any cards that i could find showing this (nobody wanted to come to the metrodome to take pictures for cards, i guess), but here's a photo from getty images that shows matt garza in the vest jersey.

the card that represents the patch in my collection is hunter's 2007 upper deck spectrum card

hunter is typically considered the heir to puckett's kingdom, although puck had moved to right field a couple of seasons before he was forced into retirement.  still, hunter is a good flag bearer of this particular memorial.

in his 12-year career, puckett amassed over 2300 hits and at the time of his retirement, his .318 career average was the highest for a right-handed hitter since joe dimaggio.  puckett was not quite 46 years old when he died.

waiting for bills

i hope you didn't overdo the spending this past holiday season.  i think i did ok, so the title of this post isn't in reference to having to pay the piper in january.  rather, it refers to the lack of a healthy chad billingsley on the dodger roster.

i was at the game in august of 2012 wherein billingsley was injured.  as he walked off the mound in the fourth inning, i hoped that it was nothing serious.  he wound up missing the rest of the season.  billingsley was able to avoid surgery, however, and returned in april of last year.  two starts into the season he was shut down and underwent tommy john surgery.

billingsley will start the 2014 season on the 60-day dl, but should be back in time for the stretch run.  it would be great for the dodgers to get a pitcher of his caliber at that time in the season, so i hope he comes back, and comes back healthy and effective.

i have a bunch of billingsley cards that i've scanned at one time or another that haven't made it to print yet.  today is their lucky day.  this one is from 2009 topps ticket to stardom, and it features billingsley, a piece of his jersey, and a piece of a dodger game ticket stub.

this is the second one of these that i have - the other one looks the same but the ticket stub is from a different game - one in which billingsley actually started.  i assumed that they were all that way, but the game that this stub is from was a brad penny game.

here's a bills rookie card from 2006 upper deck update. 

that set has a few key dodger rookies in it - broxton, kemp, ethier, martin.  i recall buying a couple of packs when it hit the shelves, but didn't really pay much attention to it.  when i went back a couple of years ago to fill my dodger team set, i lamented the fact that i hadn't bothered to buy more packs at the time.

here's a 2010 topps turkey red insert

i am glad that we've seen the last of the turkey red cards.  except that i just remembered that they were still around in 2013 - you just had to go online to buy them.

this is a 2011 topps update toppstown insert

are we done with these, too?  i miss a base set without a ton (or any) inserts.

i sent some cards to billingsley back in 2010, and he signed them for me in fairly short order.

2007 fleer

2007 topps

2009 topps 206

and 2009 upper deck sp legendary cuts

billingsley has a pretty hefty team option on his contract for 2015, and his uncertain status makes it all the more tempting for the dodgers to pay the buyout.  like i mentioned up top, i hope that he comes back healthy and effective, and makes his contract decision a little tougher for ned.

thanks for signing my cards chad!

direct strikes on the nefarious 9

so yesterday i showed some cards that i had wanted and have fairly recently acquired - before they were added to my most wanted list - the nefarious 9.  today, i show the five cards i have eliminated from the list.  sadly, my means has been sportlots and comc, rather than the good old trade.

2007 fleer nomar garciaparra soaring stars insert

in space, nomar would be more of a floating star.  now that i have this card, i think i might have all of the nomar as a dodger cards, aside from printing plates and all of that sort of nonsense.  i'm not sure, but i don't know of any base or 'normal' inserts or parallel cards of his i am missing.

i was missing 3 of the 5 1996 upper deck hideo nomo highlights cards.  no more.  or should i say, no mo?

here are cards 1

3

and 5

in the set.

finally, donnie baseball has been acquired.  the 2013 topps heritage version of don mattingly, that is

i think this completes my heritage team set, but i am probably wrong since i don't have an official want list to check.  someday i will bring my want lists up to date.

anyway, it's time to add some cards to the nefarious 9.  one will definitely be the 1998 fleer tradition dennis reyes card that night owl showed last night.  i will also need to add a non-dodger bonus card (or two) since i picked up the 2009 upper deck opc mike pelfrey card that had been sitting there for a while.

if you have any of the cards on the list, i would be more than happy to make a trade.  please - help a blogger out!

reader mail - long overdue trade post

a long time ago (i say apologetically), i received some cards in a trade from reader bill. i sent bill a mattingly ysl card he needed and he sent me some cool dodger cards in return - here is a sampling:

1996 score antonio osuna
i have an affinity for osuna. he threw hard, and used to wear a huge chain around his neck with a medallion that reminded me of a license plate.

2007 topps team cardusually the team cards are taken so you see the pavilion in the background. this one is flipped so their backs are towards home plate.

1996 upper deck collector's choice juan castro a card from juan's first stint with the dodgers

1997 pinnacle mint collection hideo nomo (ill-jacked) i hope he gets his medallion back...

2007 fleer eric stults

seems destined to fill the role of 'spot starter'

1989 topps dodgers leaders

apparently, their leaders were scioscia, hershiser and sax, with presumably ron perranoski and alfredo griffin obscured but lurking

2008 topps heritage rafael furcal

raffy has brought some stability to the shortstop position. now if only we could get a long term third baseman...

1990 donruss diamond king willie randolph

part of the post-sax revolving door at second, the dodgers and yankees essentially traded second basemen after the 1988 season

finally, 1991 donruss darryl strawberry

perhaps the start of the dreaded 'press conference photo' baseball card scourge. i think gretzky's 1988-89 topps card was the first ever, though.

thanks bill!