cash in the mail

yes, norm cash came to me by mail with his hand out.

it actually helped me out, as this was one of the cards i needed for my 1974 topps set.  it came from scott at sport cards ate my brain, and it didn't arrive alone.

i also received this all-star card of amos otis and cesar cedeno

the equivalent of which today would be, what? adam jones and andrew mccutcheon?  the cool thing about this card is that when their careers were all over, otis and cedeno sat atop of each others similarity scores on baseball reference.  how serendipitous.

did you know that todd worrell was a competitor?  well, 1997 topps finest wants you to know

i consider worrell to have been the dodgers' first real 'modern' closer - no offense meant towards the likes of jim gott or jay howell or roger mcdowell or any of the other guys that did the job in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  worrell was the first dodger to record over 30 saves (he recorded 32 in 1995), and his 44 saves in 1996 stood as the team record until this guy came along

that would be eric gagne on his 2000 pacific private stock card.  gagne saved 52 games in 2002 to pass worrell on the team's season high list, and then he saved 55 games in 2003 for good measure.  his 45 saves in 2004 also gets him the third spot on the list.

andy pafko doesn't show up on any team leader lists, but his iconic first card of the 1952 topps set gets a lot of replay.  this is from 2001 topps archives

and may well be as close as i get to owning the real thing.

gil hodges' 1952 topps card was also reprinted by topps, although this one is from 2002 topps chrome

and isn't necessarily enhanced by the shiny.

here's a 2004 playoff honors parallel card of hideo nomo

and a short print of his fellow countryman kaz ishii from 2004 topps heritage

i wonder if ryu hyun-jin will get the sp treatment like ishii did.  i will guess that there will be some interest in his cards, so i expect he will.  speculators will speculate, i guess.

finally, here is a 2009 topps finest james mcdonald blue refractor

that's a good bunch of cards, and there were more in the trade package.  thanks for the trade scott!

2009 ho ho holiday winnings

beardy hosted, i submitted, you voted, he decided, i chose, he sent, i received, i posted.

for the record, the cards are: 2008 topps a&g jj hardy jersey, 2007 ud sweet spot jered weaver jersey, 2008 topps a&g garret anderson jersey, 2009 topps finest jon lester blue refractor, 2007 topps turkey red hideki okajima refractor, 2009 topps finest carlos quentin blue refractor, 2009 ud sweet spot kerry wood jersey, and 2008 ud masterpieces eric chavez jersey.

thanks beardy!

joe collector monthly box break swag - now with dodgers!

thanks to motherscratcher, i was able to come away with some dodgers from i am joe collector's monthly box break. for september, which featured 2009 upper deck icons and 2009 topps finest, we switched teams (i gave up the twins for the dodgers) and here is what i got:

icons first:

manny ramirezchad billingsleyclayton kershawrussell martinmatt kemprussell martin upper deck coupon decoy thingy
finest next:

rafael furcaljames mcdonaldrafael furcal refractor

looking forward to next month (back to the twins though) with 2008 prime cuts and goodwin champions.

at least it's not airbrushed

topps didn't airbrush orlando hudson out of a diamondbacks uniform for this 2009 finest card.they merely went back in time several years and used a photo of him from his blue jays days.

here's to you, topps!