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 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.

the john vukovich memorial patch

the phillies have worn memorial patches for most of the past seven years.  back in 2007, they wore a patch for former player, coach, interim manager, and front office executive john vukovich who passed away from an inoperable brain tumor.  you can see the 'vuk' patch on jimmy rollins' right sleeve on his 2009 upper deck icons card

and on his 2008 upper deck goudey card

and on chase utley's 2008 upper deck first edition card

but it is really clear on tadahito iguchi's 2008 upper deck card

vukovich was a first round draft pick of the phillies in 1966.  he was traded to the brewers after the 1972 season, and also spent time with the reds before returning to the phillies in the mid-1970's.  he was  a member of the 1980 world championship team and remained on the roster until his release late in the 1981 season.  he was never a starter, and hit just .161 in his career, but he was good defensively, well liked and played hard.

vukovich immediately went into coaching - first with the cubs and then with the phillies.  his run as a phillies coach extended from 1988 through 2004 (then the longest tenure in club history) before he moved to the front office.  he had been diagnosed with a benign brain tumor in 2001 which was removed.  in 2006, he experienced a recurrence and eventually passed away in march of 2007 at the age of 69.

a black armband for jim mckay

sportscaster jim mckay, best known for his 37 years as the host of abc's wide world of sports and coverage of the 1972 olympic hostage situation in munich, died of natural causes in june of 2008.  he had been a fixture in baltimore for a good part of his life - from high school to a job at the baltimore sun to a gig at their brand new television station in 1947 - and while he moved on to national and international journalism gigs, including his tenure as the primary olympics correspondent from 1964 through 1988, he remained close to his maryland roots.

in 1993, mckay purchased a minority share in the hometown orioles.  when he passed away, the team wore black armbands on their right sleeves in his memory.  the armband is visible on brian roberts' 2009 upper deck card

as well as george sherrill's

and adam jones'

 the card that will represent the armband in the binder, however, is roberts' 2009 upper deck icons card

the 2009 upper deck roberts goes to the double play binder, but for sherrill and jones there is no place in my collection.  for their cards, there is just the 'agony of defeat'.

one man's junk is another man's pick 6

i found a pwe in my mailbox yesterday from alabama.  jaybarkerfan's junk was behind the bomb, and it contained six dodger cards.  why six?  is there a code to be broken?  was there a secret message that only certain dodger fans can decipher?  was that the maximum number of cards that could be included before the postage increases?

who knows.  here are the cards.  first up, a 1984 fleer pat zachry.

nice dodger stadium shot with the people behind the fence.  zachry (obviously) wore number 38 as a dodger.  i'll keep that in mind.

1988 score rookie/traded alfredo griffin

look at those stirrups!  griffin wore number 7.  no pattern there yet.

here's a 2001 topps chrome traded ricardo rodriguez card

rodriguez never played for the dodgers as a major leaguer, but he wore 46 for the indians when he debuted in 2002

bills is wearing 71 here, but he's never worn any number other than 58 in the majors

delwyn young, on the other hand, wore a couple of different numbers during his run with the dodgers.  here's his 2008 topps card

young first wore 49 before switching to 3 in 2008.

and, although you can't see it on this 2009 upper deck icons card, russell martin wore 55

so, if you take 55+3 and subtract 58, then add 46 but subtract 7 and 38, you're left with 1! as in one nice pwe stack of cards. or, maybe these 6 numbers are some hot lotto grouping.  i think i'll find out.

thanks jaybarkerfan!

looks like i won my own contest

not too long ago i had a contest for a 2004 upper deck legends 'timeless teams' pedro guerrero autographed card.  the card was won by spiegel from nomo's sushi platter, and he turned around and sent me some dodger cards just because.  and, lest you think that the contest was rigged, i assure you that had that been the case, a non-dodger collector would have won so that i could maximize the dodger haul in return. 

here are some of the boys in blue that were sent my way, starting with a 2009 topps 206 pee wee reese

i have mentioned many times that topps needs to get some new photos of pee wee, jackie and the duke if they are going to keep making cards of them.  at first glance, i was happy to see this image, but then i realized that it is just a more closely cropped version of the staged double play turn topps has used on other cards, most recently (i believe) a 2010 vintage legends insert.

staying in 2009, here is a shiny red (yes, red) 2009 upper deck icons card of matt kemp

those in the know call it 'retail red' so maybe it was from target or walmart or some such retail only issue of the product.  i had not seen one before, so i am happy to have it in my collection.

i am still in need of some cards to finish the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee set.  here's a nice black bordered card that spiegel included

looks like daric barton is searching for droids down on tattooine.  i wonder if he ran into brooks robinson down there.

there were also a few double play cards in the package, like this 2000 topps stadium club miguel tejada

with a nomar sighting!

plus a couple from 1993 upper deck - lou whitaker

and bill doran

and, it wouldn't be a double play post without a walt weiss card.  this one's from 1992 donruss

thanks for the cards spiegel! and thanks for winning my contest!

where's manny?

i thought that manny ramirez would be up with the a's by now - his reduced 50-game suspension expired around memorial day.  i figured the whole reason the a's signed him was to showcase him for a trade deadline deal in which they could amass a prospect or two and move on.  i guess manny isn't doing too well in aaa, and has a mild hamstring issue.  

i have to admit - i have a soft spot for manny.  i'm glad he's no longer a dodger, but i hope he does well.  it's the same sort of fandom i used to have for jose canseco. i wanted him to succeed despite himself.

here's the most recent manny ramirez card to enter my collection - it's from 2009 upper deck ultimate collection and is fancily serial numbered.

it came my way from the wicked ortega/cardboard don/cardfather a while back in a trade.  there were some other serial numbered cards in the package, like this 2009 upper deck icons rafael furcal card

and this 2010 topps opening day orlando hudson card

neither of those middle infielders are with the dodgers anymore.  furcal is lighting it up in saint louis, while the o-dog was released by the padres and is currently on the south side of chicago.  maybe the dodgers were on to something when they chose not to re-sign hudson after his 2009 season, although i was not sold on their choice of ronnie belliard to replace hudson, who had  hit .283 and played in 149 games for the dodgers.

there was also this 2004 upper deck play ball serial numbered card - upper deck's take on those combo cards.

when did players start to cover their mouths on the mound?  it's a fairly recent development.  the only guy i know of who used to read lips and let people know what was being said was vin scully, and he didn't do it that often.  it's not like he would broadcast 'nomo just said that he was going to go with splitters away, and loduca said he was going for the girl in the front row'.  i guess someone got paranoid (probably greg maddux) and the rest is history.

here's one of those walmart black things - a 2011 topps ted lilly walmart black thing

i broke down and bought a blaster of 2012 topps series 2 at target.  i was pretty ticked that two of the packs were the red bordered crap, which are slightly worse than these black cards.  oddly, i would have been ok with the target throwback cards.

wicked collects maury wills, i believe, so he threw in some of the dodger speedsters cards for me - like this 1992 action packed card

and a couple of topps' all-time fan favorites cards - this one is from 2003

and this one is from 2004

the photos are from 1962 at the latest, based on the uniform, but it's nice to see wills as a dodger on a 1967 topps card instead of as a pirate.  i have in my mind to go through and create all of the maury wills cards that should have been but weren't due to his non-existent relationship with topps early in his career.  just another summer project while i'm waiting for manny to resurface.

thanks for the cards wicked!

break me off a piece of that icons case

not fancy feast. or chrysler car.  as many of you know, carl crawford cards and sewingmachineguy busted a bunch of upper deck icons last month.  i had the dodgers and i was well rewarded.  aside from the base cards, i happily received a clayton kershaw manufactured patch lettermen card

o.  all i could say was o.  at least the intent is for the cards to spell out his name, not something silly like 'the second coming of koufax' or 'no pressure but you are supposed to lead us to the promised land.'

speaking of pressure, here's a matt kemp future foundations parallel

along with the white swatch jersey version

interesting and scary things coming out (check out vin scully is my homeboy) about who matt kemp may be and what crazy ned might do about it.  i think i would self destruct if ned traded my baseball salvation.

next up is a chad billingsley icons white swatch

i have stopped expecting anything from billingsley.  now i just hope for a quality start most of the time.  i hope he pulls it together because the dodgers really need some consistency from their pitching staff right now.

speaking of which, i also received a james mcdonald rookie auto

i expected mcdonald to be the number 5 starter this year, as did a lot of people.  i don't know if his demotion to aaa was to send a message or if he has regressed or what, but i hope he can also right the ship and get back up to the big club.

thanks guys, for hosting the break.  looking forward to the june break as i am hoping my extraordinary luck continues!

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.