jaybarkerfan's junk sends the blues

it's hard not to be excited when a package from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk shows up at your doorstep.  now, i have not been drawn into one of his trade wars (thankfully, as i know i would not be able to keep up), but we've traded several packages over the last couple of years.  this latest return from wes was certainly no disappointment.

first up is perhaps the bluest card i've seen - it's a 2002 donruss cesar izturis rookie crusade card

good golly miss molly, that's a blue card.

onelki garcia's 2014 topps chrome blue refractor parallel

pales in comparison.

but then there is this 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects zach lee sapphire parallel card

that is pretty blue.

the blues end there, sort of, as we still have dodger cards, but they aren't of the same hue.  this is an emerald parallel of chris anderson's 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects card

that brings the green rather than the blue.

there were some regular cards in the package as well, including a 1988 fleer mini kirk gibson card

and a 2005 topps roger craig dem bums insert

craig is fortuitously flashing his bum on the card, by the way.

wes also hit my list of most wanted cards, sending two of the remaining jackie robinson story inserts from 2015 topps that i needed my way

two pretty important milestones there.

i'll finish up with some more hued parallels - these are of the dodger first baseman of the moment, adrian gonzalez.  first is his 2013 bowman chrome purple parallel

and next is his 2013 topps triple threads emerald parallel

both are pretty colorful, bun not as colorful as this 2014 donruss gonzalez elite dominator card

which was not part of the package wes sent, but fits in nicely with this post.

thanks wes, for another great trade!

six of nine from 2 x 3 by pwe

i was the lucky recipient of another plain white envelope from jeff at 2x3 heroes a week and a half ago.  it was a happy coincidence, as it landed in my mailbox the same day that i sent a couple of pwe's and 12 packages out into bloggerland.  one of the packages was sent jeff's way, but i think i need to get another together soon.  here are six of the nine cards that jeff managed to send my way in a standard number 10.

2014 topps chrome zack greinke gold parallel

greinke's got to be the nl starter for the all-star game, right?  and, he's got to exercise his opt-out clause with the poor run support that the dodgers are giving him, right?  i hope i'm wrong about that last one.

2015 topps adrian gonzalez career high relic

at first glance, i thought this card was all about gonzalez's career best postseason ops, so i took a quick look, and gonzalez did, in fact, have a 1.091 ops in the 2013 nlcs, but his 0.833 ops in the nlds that year would bring his total postseason ops down into the .900s. however, topps does a good job on the back letting me know that they are only referring to the 2013 nlcs with this card - hence the "postseason series" text that i overlooked when i first saw this card.  as a matter of record, in his other postseason appearances, gonzalez posted an ops of .828 with the padres in 2006 and a paltry .610 with the dodgers last year.

2015 topps sandy koufax stepping up insert

and johnny podres stepping up insert

now, i would imagine that 'stepping up' usually refers to a batter.  in fact, the phrase 'step up to the plate' has infiltrated everyday lingo, and the cards feature home plate in the background.  so, why feature two pitchers on these stepping up inserts?  i guess "toeing the rubber" doesn't quite have the same sound.  topps does let us know on the backs that they consider koufax to have 'stepped up' in his second big league start back in 1955 when he threw a two-hitter, and podres, of course, 'stepped up' to shutout the yankees in game 7 of the world series that year.  it's nice to see podres continue to get some topps love, but maybe they could throw some attention to don newcombe or carl erskine or even carl furillo once in awhile.

2015 topps yasiel puig heart of the order insert

topps acknowledges on the back of the card that puig has typically hit in the number 2 spot.

there was one non-dodger card in the bunch, and it was this 2015 bowman michael taylor card

featuring a tatooine shot.

thanks as always, jeff.  hope you enjoyed the stuff i sent your way!

a quick trip to tatooine

with the trade of juan uribe to the braves, i would expect alex guerrero to eventually settle in at third base. at least until hector olivera is ready.  however, most of guerrero's playing time of late has been in the outfield, since both yasiel puig and carl crawford are injured.

last year, topps included guerrero in many of its sets, and listed him as a second baseman.  that made sense then, but he has yet to play at second in the major leagues.  here are three of those cards, with guerrero turning two to boot.

2014 topps walmart blue

2014 topps chrome purple refractor

and 2014 topps mini pink parallel

notice that the cards show guerrero throwing to first without a lick of grass in sight.  that's what makes a tatooine card a tatooine card.

here are some others from my mini collection

1994 donruss bobby bonilla

1995 upper deck luis lopez electric diamond parallel

1996 upper deck brady anderson vj lovero showcase insert

2000 topps stadium club bobby abreu

2001 fleer tradition corey koskie

2011 topps carlos beltran

and 2012 topps emilio bonifacio

i am guessing that there is all kinds of mischief one can get into at mos eisley spaceport, so the vegas code probably stands - what happens on tatooine stays on tatooine.  unless you're luke skywalker bragging about taking out womprats to a group of rebel pilots.

look at some cards that feature double plays

they are self explanatory and offer up an easy post topic, which is what i need right now.  all are either new to my collection or recently unearthed from any number of monster boxes in my somewhat unorganized card collection area.

1998 fleer ultra craig counsell

1998 fleer ultra craig counsell gold medallion edition

1998 fleer ultra mike lansing

1998 topps stadium club ray durham

1999 topps stadium club ray durham

2001 topps stadium club ray durham

2004 topps bazooka rafael furcal

2004 topps bazooka rafael furcal mini

2004 topps rafael furcal red chunk

2004 upper deck marcus giles

2013 topps silver slate blue sparkle danny espinosa

2014 bowman silver ice ian kinsler

2014 topps chrome jonathan schoop

2014 topps chrome refractor jonathan schoop

2014 topps chrome andrelton simmons

2015 topps opening day javier baez

i'll try harder next time.

heroes by pwe

this post consists of six cards that i received from jeff at 2x3 heroes the other day. they were stuffed inside a pwe with even more cards.  i sense that the volley of pwe's between us has been renewed.

2014 topps chrome clayton kershaw chrome connection die-cut

2014 topps heritage yasiel puig new age performers

i think puig replaced matt kemp in the new age performer insert set last year.  i wonder how long he'll last on the checklist.

2014 panini golden age tommy lasorda

1982 kmart steve garvey

which reminds me that i should get wallet card out a bit more often.

there were some other cards in the envelope for my mini collections - double plays and tatooine cards mostly.  these two cards, however, are tatooine wannabes.  if only upper deck had cropped out the grass on these 2008 cards of michael young and curtis granderson

nice cards nonetheless.  thanks jeff.  i'll give you some time to digest the package i sent and start peppering you with some pwe's of my own.

some recent umpire initial memorials

it seems to me that umpires are showing up on cards less and less these days.  i don't know if it has anything to do with a lawsuit that i recall from the 90's wherein one umpire sued upper deck for using his likeness in a photo for a card without his authorization (anyone remember the specifics of this?).  more recently, of course, we have seen umpires photoshopped out of cards altogether, or at least all but a leg.  there's an umpire in the background of this 2013 topps erick aybar card

which also features ryan doumit at target field.  in fact, the umpire in the photo is alfonso marquez, who wears number 72 seen on his throat protector.  most interesting to me, however, is that marquez is also wearing a memorial patch.

former umpires marty springstead and harry wendelstedt both passed away in the early months of 2012 (springstead in january and wendelstedt in march), and the umpires decided to honor them by wearing patches with their initials during the 2012 season.  here's a usa today photo of angel hernandez with the two patches

unfortunately, the best example i have of these memorials on a card is this 2013 topps chrome yu darvish 1972 insert

with the umpire's arm and patches in the background.  it's like the bigfoot photo.

in august of 2013, umpire frank pulli passed away.  a few months later, as the baseball postseason was getting underway, umpire wally bell died. both umpires were honored with memorial patches, which are seen on the sleeves of the 2013 world series umpiring crew in the getty images photo below

the 'fp' patch for pulli was worn during the last couple months of the 2013 regular season, and the 'wb' patch for bell was carried over into the 2014 season.  it is visible on the left sleeve of the umpire behind nelson cruz on his 2014 topps chrome refractor card

another umpire memorial from a postseason was the charlie williams patch/sticker worn by the umpires during the 2005 world series.  williams passed away in september of 2005. i don't have a card featuring the memorial, but it is visiible on three of the umpires in this getty images photo

joe west, the home plate umpire, put it on his chest protector.

i agree with the notion that, if an umpire is doing their job well, they are unnoticed.  i'd still like to see them on a baseball card once in a while.