is it possible to complete a 1996 fleer dodger team set from just two packs? and for just 50 cents?

while wallet card and i were at the local card shop, i found some loose packs marked at a quarter apiece. among them were some packs of 1996 fleer dodgers cards.

with 10 cards per pack, and 20 cards in the team set, i wondered - could i complete a team set with just two packs?

here's the checklist of the then defending nl west champions

and here's the back of that card

which is pretty much the same as the front of the logo card

whose back looks like this

the background on those cards kind of reminds me of 1995 fleer in a way.

as for the 18 players in the set, here is what their cards look like

a complete team set, although it took 5 packs to get there.  i think there was a mike blowers card in four of the five packs, and only one hideo nomo card.  for some reason, todd worrell was also tough to come by in my small sample size.  still, a team set for $1.25 is not too shabby.

filling the gap in my mother's cookies dodger collection

aside from the 1989 mother's cookies dodger set (and the special mike piazza/tim salmon set) that i already owned, the recent package from mr. haverkamp included the rest of the run of sets produced by the purveyor of bagged baked goodness.  i was a sucker for their iced animal cookies for sure.  anyway, the set that was missing was the 1996 set, which i subsequently picked up on ebay.

here's the manager, tom lasorda

in what would be his final set.

his coaching staff

included holdovers joe amalfitano, mark cresse, manny mota, bill russell, dave wallace, and reggie smith.  russell would assume the managerial position during the season after suffering a heart attack.

this set also includes the five straight rookies of the year for the first time - eric karros

mike piazza

raul mondesi

hideo nomo

and todd hollandsworth

who would win the award in '96.

here are a few other random dodgers from the set - delino deshields,

pinch-hitter extraordinaire dave hansen,

one of the many hot corner stopgaps between ron cey and adrian beltre, mike blowers,

milt thompson,

who spent the first half of the '96 season with the dodgers, and…

…chad fonville

fonville was one of the most exciting players to watch in 1995 after he joined the dodgers in may.  he wound up stealing 20 bases in 88 games during the regular season, and then went 6 for 12 in the three-game loss to the reds in the nlds.  i'll take as many fonville cards as i can get.

this was the last year that the mother's sets used the full bleed photos. i'll show some cards from the '97 and '98 sets in a future post.

for the love of sax, avert your eyes!

i can't help myself. 

i picked up another dodger featured in the slasher set known as 2008 tristar signa cuts.  this time, it's steve sax and a butchered version of his 1985 donruss card that joins the collection.

 it looks better (relatively) rotated.

saxy! i used to keep my batting gloves in my uniform pants just like that - fingers out - because that's how sax did it.

unfortunately, i don't have a full card of sax to cleanse your palette, so instead, here is a randomly selected 1997 fleer mike blowers card

blowers preferred to clutch his batting gloves apparently; perhaps he was concerned about pickpockets.

i've got my eye on another signa cut card, but i'm not sure i will pull the trigger or not.  if i do, i'll be sure to warn you ahead of time so that you can properly prepare for the cardboard desecration.

the evolution of the dodger third baseman, part four - where do we go from here?

we left off the evolutionary chain of dodger third basemen last time with tim wallach, who manned the hot corner for the dodgers from 1993-95, and for the last part of the 1996 season as well.  he was re-acquired by the dodgers after their newly acquired third baseman went down with an injury.  still, mike blowers started 90 games at third for the dodgers in 1996, so he gets some attention here.

mike blowers (1996)

blowers is wearing his seattle mariners uniform there on that 1996 upper deck collector's choice card.  he had three different stints in seattle, including 1997 - the year following his time in la.  the dodgers acquired blowers after the 1995 season in which he hit 23 homers and drove in 96 runs.  he was hitting .265 with 6 homers and 38 rbi after 92 games with the dodgers when his season ended thanks to an injury.  the dodgers replaced him with wallach, and blowers walked as a free agent after the season ended.

wallach was a stopgap, and he retired following the 1996 campaign.  so, the dodgers went out and got another third baseman to fill the void.

todd zeile (1997)

zeile's 1997 topps finest card tells the story, as he was a free agent acquisition prior to the 1997 season.  he played a whopping 160 games at third base for the dodgers, and hit 31 home runs with 90 rbi and a .268 batting average.  this was too good to be true, however, as he was traded away with mike piazza early in the 1998 season.

adrian beltre (1998-2004)

beltre was 19 when he took over the third base position for the dodgers.  bobby bonilla, who was acquired as part of the piazza/zeile trade bounty, was originally slotted at the hot corner, but beltre wound up making 74 appearances with 54 starts and 49 complete games compared to bonilla's 59, 57, and 34.  that's his 2000 fleer gamers card, by the way.  beltre provided some long lost stability at the position, playing a total of 957 games for the dodgers at third base from 1998 through 2004.  his tenure culminated with a 48 home run (to lead the league), 121 rbi, .334 batting average season that netted him a silver slugger and second place in the league mvp voting.  then it was off to seattle.

beltre's departure resulted in a rag-tag of players trying their hand at third base.  the dodgers signed a japanese player, norihiro nakamura, and gave him the keys, but he flamed out after just 14 games.  after that, there were many who tried.  i'll pick one.

oscar robles (2005)

mike edwards made 39 appearances at third for the dodgers in 2005, with 33 starts and 31 complete games for a total of 294.2 innings.  robles gets the nod from me here due to his 40 appearances at third, even though he started only 31 games there with 30 complete games and 292.1 innings.  that is partly due to the fact that i had a 2005 upper deck sweet spot card of robles already scanned as well as the idea that robles represents to me the fact that jim tracy lost his marbles in 2005.  maybe i should have used edwards, as robles played more short than third in 2005.  oh well, neither one factored into the equation for very long.

wilson betemit (2006-2007)

the dodgers acquired betemit near the 2006 trade deadline after the guy they intended to be their third baseman, bill mueller, was lost for the season due to injury.  betemit appeared as the dodgers' third baseman in 102 games over the 2006 and 2007 seasons.  he was traded at the 2007 deadline to the yankees for scott proctor, but he still made more appearances at third than any other dodger in '07.  nomar gets a nod here, though - he played third after betemit left.

blake dewitt (2008)

the dodgers gave 22-year old rookie dewitt the third baseman's job in 2008 (his '08 upper deck timeline card is appropriate here, don't you think)?  in all, he made 95 appearances and 77 starts there, but failed to convince the organization that he was the answer.  in fact, he found himself playing second base by the time the postseason rolled around as he started every playoff game at second for the dodgers in place of the injured jeff kent.

casey blake (2009-2010)

the dodgers acquired blake during the 2008 season, and he really took over the position then.  he re-signed with them for the 2009 season and turned in 131 starts at third that year.  in 2010, he started 134 games as the dodger third baseman.  in 2011, however, he was able to make only 45 starts.

juan uribe (2011, 2013)

uribe made 53 starts at third for the dodgers in 2011, so he gets the nod here over blake and aaron miles.  also, he's got the sweet brooklyn baby blues on that 2011 topps update card.  he kinda sorta lost the job to

luis cruz (2012)

but he's got it back in 2013.  until yasiel puig pulls a pedro guerrero and gets moved over to third.  seriously, though, who knows what the future will hold for the dodgers' hot corner.  hopefully something stable.

a bfd from the real dfg

a while back, i received a healthy 'box full of dodgers' (bfd) from the real dfg.  the dude knocked out one of my 'nefarious 9' - the 1986 donruss rookies reggie williams card - and added a boatload of other dodger goodies in return for a mess of pittsburgh pirates and maybe a few steelers and penguins.

one of the favorite items i received was the 1966 topps ruboff i featured in this post, but there were plenty of other cards to enjoy.

like this 1979 topps bobby welch card

the best rookie card ever.

here's another rookie card that i was happy to own in 1984, it's sid fernandez on his 1984 donruss rated rookie

we all thought el sid was the second coming of fernando, even though he was from hawaii, not mexico.  i would say that this card was on par with the ron darling rookie in the set in terms of my coveting and hoarding. it would have been equal to the the mattingly and strawberry rookies except for the fact that fernandez was a met by the time i acquired any 1984 donruss.  yes, i was disappointed when campanis traded him to the mets for bob bailor and fellow hawaiian carlos diaz.  still, he was a dodger and the card features the left field bullpen at chavez ravine, so it's still a nice piece of cardboard.

there was something strange afoot at the circle k in 1985, as they entered the trading card fray, and the dfg included a couple of specimens for me - gil hodges

and his brooklyn dodger counterpart, duke snider.

not exactly bill and ted, although they did have an excellent adventure together as long time dodger teammates.

here's a card that doesn't scan too well.  it's a 1995 topps embosesed tim wallach.

not as bad is this 1996 fleer metal universe mike blowers

blowers is still shown in his seattle mariners' uniform, but the team affiliation on the card is the dodgers.  perhaps he could have used some uniform stickers from the 1988 panini set that were also included in the box.

it's strange and cool at the same time that the sanitary socks were included.

here's a 1981 fleer terry forster

which i chose to show because i am left to wonder if that thing he's picking his teeth with is the same thing sticking out of his mouth on his 1983 fleer card.

forster wore number 51 for the dodgers, as did terry wells as we can see on his 1991 score card.

wells, acquired from the astros for franklin stubbs, started 5 games for the dodgers in july of 1990, and they were the only games he ever pitched in during his major league career.  meaning, when this card came out, wells was not a 'rookie prospect' but a 'former major leaguer'.  on a completely unrelated note, terry looks like the principal from east dillon high.

here's another lefty 'rookie prospect' from 1991 score, jim poole.

poole appeared in 16 games for the dodgers in 1990 and was traded to the rangers in december of that same year.  so, like sid fernandez 7 years before him, poole was no longer a dodger when his rookie card came out.  still, he was at one point, and that's good enough for me.

thanks dfg!  too bad your penguins got bounced, but at least it seems that there might be some hope with the pirates.