does raul mondesi regret his tattoo, and other random musings

while it is true that raul mondesi had a cannon for an arm, i wonder if the cannon tattoo visible on his 1998 upper deck card

was fully thought out.  from one angle it looks like a cannon, although the fuse is still lit even though the cannon has discharged, and from another angle one might mistake it for some sort of rocket. or something else, i suppose.

the back of that card is pretty interesting, too, as we have pylons and a car in the background.

i'm also curious about mondesi's 1996 fleer emotion xl card, although it's no fault of his that the emotion fleer slapped on there is 'pounding'

i don't feel pounding.  or tardy, for that matter.  what was fleer thinking?

along the same lines of lack of thought, here are a few other cards that i've scanned without a real purpose. although i suppose you could say that i scanned them for inclusion in a random cards from my scanned folder post, so there was a purpose. whatever.

1987 topps orel hershiser

1990 donruss mickey hatcher

1992 score rookie and traded carlos hernandez

1997 topps stadium club pedro astacio

2007 topps heritage derek lowe

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee scott elbert black parallel

and 2012 bowman chrome prospects jt wise

as in wise enough to not consider 'pounding' to be an emotion?

a black armband for bobby murcer

former yankee outfielder and broadcaster bobby murcer died in july of 2008 after a bout with cancer.  the team added a black armband to their jerseys for the remainder of the season.  alfredo aceves' 2009 upper deck card features the armband

as does mariano rivera's 2009 upper deck icons card

but i've got this 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee alex rodriguez card in the memorials binder

the armband was worn below the final season in yankee stadium patch, so it's easy to tell murcer's armband from some of the others that had been worn in recent years.

an oklahoma boy himself, murcer was touted as the next mickey mantle when he took over for the commerce comet in 1969.  he had some solid seasons for the yankees, but was traded to the giants for bobby bonds following the 1974 season.  murcer was traded to the cubs a couple of years later, and then back to the yankees during the 1979 season.  he retired as a player during the 1983 campaign, and became a broadcaster for the yankees - a role he kept until his death at the age of 62.

the last dodger pitcher to win the mvp award is clayton kershaw

the national league hadn't had a pitcher win the most valuable player award since bob gibson took home the hardware in 1968.  now, for the first time in my lifetime, a pitcher has won the nl mvp award and it's a guy who throws for my favorite team.

you can say that it's because giancarlo stanton got hurt towards the end of the season, but it doesn't matter.  clayton kershaw is the 2014 nl mvp.

from such humble beginnings - this is his rookie card from 2008 topps update & highlights

don't worry - i've got more cards to show.

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee

2011 topps diamond duos, with madison bumgarner

bumgarner had a historically fantastic postseason, no doubt.  kershaw did not.  hopefully that just means that his eventual championship run will be that much sweeter.

2011 topps marquee

the brooklyn baby blues.  i wonder if the dodgers will ever play in the robins' 1916 checked uniforms.  maybe in a couple of years to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the franchise's first world series appearance?

2012 bowman chrome

2012 bowman's best

both of those cards show the duke snider memorial patch.  duke never won an mvp award, although he and teammate roy campanella came very close to sharing the award in 1955.

2013 topps toys 'r' us purple parallel

2013 topps mini

2014 topps allen & ginter pastime's pastime

with a nod to his philanthropic efforts on the back

2014 topps gypsy queen n174 insert

2014 topps heritage

2014 topps heritage league leaders

2014 topps heritage then and now with sandy koufax

kershaw has more in common with the 1963 version of sandy koufax - that was the year that koufax won the mvp award.

kershaw has joined a select list of players with this award, and he also joins maury wills, koufax, steve garvey, and kirk gibson as los angeles dodgers to win the mvp.  i am hopeful that in 2015 kershaw will join koufax, garvey, and gibson as a player to win a postseason mvp award as well.

oh my o-pee-chee complete set!

about five years later, i picked up the last few cards i needed to complete the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee set.  if i recall correctly, this set was supposed to look like the 1977 topps set (just as upper deck had used the 1971 and 1965 and something pretty close to the 1963 topps sets in their 'vintage' releases).  however, upper deck got sued by topps and had to change the design.

although i stopped collecting o-pee-chee sets in the 1980's, you know as a fan of the brand and proprietor of the oh my o-pee-chee blog that i was onboard for this set.  now it is complete.  here are the final half dozen cards that i needed for my set.

jacoby ellsbury

derek jeter

jhonny peralta

i decided early on that i wasn't going to let upper deck's hijinks make me spend more money to complete the set, so my set features a number of black bordered cards for which i did not have the regular base after opening two boxes of product.  the peralta eluded me until i found a black bordered parallel online.

omar vizquel

david wright

and mike pelfrey

the pelfrey was actually a bonus non-dodger card on my nefarious 9 list for awhile, but no one came forward with the card.

i realize that i need to update that list again.

here are a couple of other cards that i came by and picked up - one is a double, but it will go in my lurker collection.  it's wilson betemit's card

with dodger juan pierre making an apperance.

lastly, i found this colorful relic card of joe nathan, joe mauer, and michael cuddyer for cheap

not as nice as my dodger relic from the set, but still good to have.  just like a complete set.

too few lefebvres

dennis at too many verlanders offered to add some cards for me to his order from comc a while back as part of a trade.  i jumped at the chance to add a couple of oddballs featuring a couple of players who are near and dear to me.

i asked dennis to purchase this 1969 transogram jim lefebvre card

it's not really a card; it's a cutout from the box of a figurine that was produced in 1969.  think crude starting lineup figures and you'll get the picture.  in 1970, transogram produced three-packs of figures that had these same type of 'cards' as a three player panel, but this lefebvre is from his 1969 solo figure box.  i wish there were more lefebvre as a dodger cards.  besides being a dodger second baseman, lefebvre was my dad's favorite position player, and i still have his jim lefebvre style rawlings mitt.

the second oddball was a 1978 twins frisz card of jimmie hall

this guy held the american league rookie home run record for 20+ years until mark mcgwire came along.  the card is the size of old (and 1989) bowman, which was a surprise.  still, a good addition to my jimmie hall pc.

the third card that i specifically requested was this 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee preview card of chase utley

i wanted it for the double play collection.  dennis threw in some other dp cards, including a 1999 upper deck black diamond craig biggio

and an alex rodriguez card from the same set.

thanks for the trade dennis!

cartwright!

perhaps one of the best early episodes of seinfeld was the chinese restaurant one.  the foursome waited in real time for a table, but lost out when the host called out 'cartwright' instead of 'costanza' when it was their turn to be seated.  that's a long way to go to get to this 2012 panini cooperstown card of alexander cartwright

it came to me from jeff at 2x3 heroes as part of his 'tis the season giveaway and features the baseball pioneer in fireman gear from his time as the honolulu fire chief.  

there were also a mess of twins in the package, including a 2012 topps heritage jamey carroll

on which the former dodger does his best 'suttoning' pose, and a bunch of angels including a 2006 fleer ultra vladimir guerrero

i also found this 1987 ralston purina steve garvey card

in the package.  i think i still need the cookie crisp version - it doesn't say '1987 collectors' edition' on it.

don't worry - jeff also sent some dodgers along.  here's a 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee cory wade black parallel card

but the biggest, best, baddest card of the entire package was this 2013 panini america's pastime fernando valenzuela autograph

el toro autografia certificado para mi!  mucho gusto! muchas gracias jeff!

a refrac black back kershaw attack

thanks to the cardboard junkie, i came into a trio of kershaw cards.  2013 topps heritage chrome,

2013 topps heritage chrome refractor,

and 2013 topps heritage black back

also known as the venezuelan parallel.  maybe when kershaw is done saving africa, he will help out in south america.

another back worth showing is the back of steve garvey's 2011 topps 60 insert.  aside from tommy davis, steve garvey ranks 2nd on the los angeles dodger all-time single season hits leader board (tied with steve sax).  that's good enough for 8th on the franchise leaderboard, as shown on the card.

dayf threw in a couple of offermans (offermen?) - 1993 leaf

and 1994 fleer

you might think that if i am showing you two jose offerman cards, then the package must have been pretty bad once you got past the kershaws and the garvey.  that was not the case.  here is a very nice 2002 upper deck kaz ishii card

if you look closely enough, you can see half of tommy lasorda's head on the outfield wall.  i think this was the retired numbers mural.  this copy of the card fits nicely in my dodger stadium binder.


here's another card with the outfield wall murals in view (sort of) - 2001 upper deck gold glove gary sheffield

sheff did not win a gold glove, but it was 2001 and he was included in pretty much every set that year.  it's too bad that i can't tell definitively what the mural behind him represents.

here's the last card i will show from the trade package.  dayf took the time to check out my 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee want list, and sent me one of the last few cards that i needed - albert pujols

the head of the bat is just asking for some 'rick face' hijinks.

thanks for the trade dayf!