off hiatus and off my want list

who sends a 1954 bowman billy loes card

as part of a blind trade package? luckily for me, tony at off hiatus does. or did, in my case.  billy is really caressing that baseball there - i hope he's more careful with it than lennie and his rabbits.  this card is gloriously worn and it's one less '54 bowman that i need.

here's another brooklyn dodger sent by tony - it's gene hermanski

on what appears to be a card made for the 5th national convention held back in 1984.  here's the back of the card that led me to that conclusion

i'm guessing that hermanski was signing autographs at the convention.

now we get to the los angeles dodger portion of the post, with some great oddball cards.

1988 kaybee superstars of baseball pedro guerrero

it's true - petey was still a superstar at that time. he had hit a career high .338 in 1987, but the dodgers brought him back into the infield in 1988 and his trade to saint louis that season was deemed to be addition by subtraction.

1988 starting lineup talking baseball steve sax

and fernando valenzuela

the only talkin' baseball i know has to do with willie, mickey, and the duke.  sadly, none of those guys were included in the set.

more oddballs of el toro - 1987 fleer mini

in which fernando is wearing his shiny pullover and a hat that was certainly not a game issue, and his 1986 fleer mini

which features an oddly cropped photo.

here's a little photo of don drysdale on a 2004 upper deck sweet spot classics manufactured patch card

that features the national league logo.  i think the american league logo is better, mostly because i think that the glove that the eagle is holding on to in the nl logo looks odd.  better to have a baseball in that talon, i think.

finally, here's a 2013 panini hometown heroes card of paul loduca

yes, this is a dodger card (note the 'los angeles' pennant in the upper left) even though the heart and soul of jim tracy's dodgers is wearing his mets gear in the photo.  as a met, loduca hit .455 against the dodgers in the 2006 nlds.

tony hit 1.000 with this trade package.  so much so that i'll show some more cards that he sent later on! stay tuned...

sunday morning target dodgers

lots of good dodgers on this week's sheet.  these 14 shared space on the same sheet as double dipper lloyd waner.  let's have a look.

first up, is the penguin - ron cey

what can i say about cey that i haven't said before?  not too much, i don't think.  he is one of three dodgers from the team of my youth to appear on this particular sheet.

eddie ainsmith

ainsmith was born in russia, and while not the first russian born player, he enjoyed the longest career of any to date.  he caught walter johnson as a member of the senators for 9 seasons from 1910 through 1918 before moving on to a number of different teams.  one of those teams was the brooklyn robins, for whom he appeared in 2 games in 1923, amassing 10 plate appearances and 2 hits.

joe black

black won the nl rookie of the year award in 1952 thanks to his 15-4 record and 2.15 era in 56 games, 54 of which he appeared in as a reliever.  he also finished third in the mvp voting, although he received as many first place votes as did hank sauer, the winner of the award.  he pitched for the dodgers in both the 1952 and 1953 world series, but unfortunately for black, he was traded to the reds during the 1955 season and missed out on brooklyn's lone world series title.

dick egan

egan pitched in 20 games for the dodgers in 1967, his last of four seasons in the major leagues.  he has remained in the game as a coach and scout, mostly for the marlins and tigers. i like this card because of the angle of the photo, which gives a good view of the left field pavilion.

kirk gibson

gibby!  gibson won the mvp award in 1988 and hit a big home run for the dodgers as we all know, and that absolves him in my mind from trying to beat the dodgers as the diamondbacks' manager.

bill hallman

hallman appeared in 134 games for the bridegrooms in 1898.  he also played for the phillies, browns, a's, quakers, and something called the cleveland blues.  according to baseball reference, he is the only player to have increased his batting average 9 years in a row.

gene hermanski

hermanski played for the dodgers in the 1940's, debuting in 1943 and returning to the majors in 1946.  he was a dodger until 1951 when he was traded to the cubs in the andy pafko deal.  aside from helping the dodgers win pennants in 1947 and 1949, hermanski's career highlight was likely the three-home run game he had as a dodger in 1948.

tom lasorda

lasorda was the manager of the team of my youth, as well as the team of my early adult years.  from late in the 1976 season until the middle of the 1996 campaign, he was at the helm of the team.  i do not know why he had tom niedenfuer pitch to jack clark.

rick monday

monday was the center fielder on the team of my youth, and like cey up top, i have written about him quite a bit.  he may well be the only player honored with a solo bobblehead giveaway in which he is wearing a different team's uniform.

jerry nops

the orioles traded nops to the superbas prior to the 1900 season.  he was 4-4 in 9 games for brooklyn and then returned to baltimore for the following season.

harley payne

payne pitched for the bridegrooms in 1896, 1897, and one game in 1898.  he was 29-33 in 75 games, 67 of which were starts.  it's hard to see in the photo, but he also had a fine moustache.

jerry royster

royster was signed by the dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1970, and made his big league debut for them in 1973.  he had cups of coffee with the dodgers in 1974 and 1975 as well, amassing 13 hits in 29 games over those three seasons.  prior to 1976, he was dealt to the braves in the dusty baker deal and had several productive, or at least full, seasons there.  he retired after the 1988 season and eventually went into coaching.  he later replaced former teammate davey lopes as the brewers' manager in 2002.

bill singer

singer won 20 games for the dodgers in 1969, and later won 20 for the angels after being dealt in the andy messersmith/frank robinson trade.  he also threw a no-hitter in 1970, and was the first pitcher to earn a save after the statistic became official in 1969.

woody williams

woodrow wilson 'woody' williams was named for the 28th president of the united states - woodrow wilson - although he was born prior to wilson winning the white house.  for the dodgers, he played shortstop and third base in 1938, hitting .333 in 51 at bats.  williams returned to the minors and returned to the major leagues in 1943 with the reds and was their regular second baseman in 1944 and 1945.

now that's what i call bowman

when i think of bowman these days, i think of draft picks that may or may not pan out and confusing card numbers.  i often tell prospective trading partners that i don't buy bowman products, so odds are that i don't have any dodgers from those sets.  this is usually followed by me receiving a bunch of leon landry cards, and now he'll not be wearing dodger blue if he ever makes it to the big leagues.

that's one reason i prefer the bowman cards from before topps acquired the name.  like this 1951 bowman gene hermanski card.

hermanski had been a dodger for years before this card was issued.  of course, he was traded to the cubs during the 1951 season, along with bruce edwards

that right there is a very nice looking card.  i love the color strata of the grass, dirt, and fabric backdrop.

both of those cards (and the rest of the cards you will see in this post) were sent to me by dhoff at coot veal and the vealtones.  he let me know that he had some cards for trade and we were able to work out a deal.

the first bowman cards i ever saw were from 1955 (thanks to a neighbor of mine in the late 70's).  dhoff had a johnny podres card from that set for me

podres would win the world series mvp award in the year that this card was issued.  that's pretty cool.

but then, there was a non-bowman bowman card in the trade package.  an abomination that dared to call itself 'bowman heritage'.  a shiny card from 2003 of someone named  jordan pratt

pratt was a fifth round pick of the dodgers back in 2003, and pitched his way up to aaa in 2010.  it looks like that was his last year in the dodger organization, and possibly in organized ball.  i realize that this wasn't the first year that bowman had rainbow or chrome type cards, nor was it the first year that topps issued the 'bowman heritage' brand.  it just struck me how non-bowmanesque this card was when it was included in a package along with those great vintage bowman cards above.

moving on, here's a nice oddball of everybody's favorite all-american dodger first baseman, steve garvey.

you might say he's swell, as in 1991 swell baseball greats.

marlon anderson, he of one of the back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs for the dodgers in 2006, makes an appearance

this card is from 2006 upper deck update - number 1157 in the set.  it's a short print to boot.

speaking of update, there were a couple of cards from 2010 topps update in the package, including a piece of andre ethier's all-star game workout jersey

and a golden vladdy

i am fairly shocked that vladdy hasn't made it to the big leagues in 2012.  i thought he had played fairly well for the blue jays' minor league team this year, and when he requested his release, i figured somebody would pick him up on the cheap.  i was wrong, unfortunately.

finally, dhoff hit one of my lesser known wants, sending a non-red sox nomar garciaparra card.  this one is from 2005 upper deck

nomah!

thanks dustin!

the evolution of my oldest card

i'll take a break from my other evolutionary posts and jump on the 'evolution of my oldest card' bandwagon that has been perpetuated by night owl, the vintage sportscards blog and the number 5 type collection recently.

the first cards i ever owned were 1977 topps. i remember being given a pack probably around the world series that year, and opening it in the back seat of our car. the only card i really remember from that pack is this one, a 1977 topps mike schmidt card.

i previously feted this card here.  it was instantly the oldest card that i owned.  a few years later, i would be on the lookout for (and eventually the lucky recipient of) his rookie card, but only because of the presence of the penguin.

sometime in 1978, i came across this beauty, a 1976 topps reggie smith,

the details of which i wrote about here. this card then became the oldest card i owned.

there was some furious trading going on in my neighborhood in 1978, and i somehow landed a small sampling of 1971 topps cards, including this thrashed 1971 topps jim shellenback card

i have since sent this card to night owl as i upgraded it, but i still remember it fondly.

at some point that same year, i vacationed north of the border and was introduced to the wonder that was o-pee-chee. i also accompanied my parents to many a prairie antique barn, and, much like my reward in that 1976 topps reggie smith card, i found a few 1960 fleer cards, including mel ott, cy young, and this tris speaker card.

i told you i didn't object to antiquing!

in 1979, i was able to trade some giants cards to a guy who lived on the other side of my block. he humored me and gave me a 1955 bowman don hoak card.

for the first time, my oldest card was a dodger, and for a long long time, it was the oldest card in my collection.

fastforward to 2000 or so, and i decided that i would collect one card for each team, subset, and color combination variation from each topps set, from 1952 through 1977. at that time, i had complete sets from 1978 on (since then, i have completed the 1970 and 1977 sets, and am working on the 1971 and 1976 sets). it was fairly easy to do this, thanks to my topps coffee table book and ebay. the first 1952 topps card i purchased was this ralph branca card

it reigned as my oldest card for a couple of years before i purchased a vintage card lot on ebay that included this 1909-11 t206 dick egan card

as well as a 1951 topps luke easter red back. this t206 card was awesome, but i never really connected with it (i had purchased the lot more for the 1953 topps cards that were in it) so i sold it on ebay about a year and a half ago. around the same time, i also sold the luke easter card.

that meant that the 1951 topps gene hermanski

(and 1951 topps gil hodges) cards that i had acquired in the meantime were now my oldest cards.

that was until a couple of months ago when i plucked this 1951 bowman rex barney from the vintage bargain bin at the local card show.

i consider it to be older than the 1951 topps cards simply due to alphabetical order. the bowman card is the first card in my 1950's binder.

so there you have it. the evolution of my oldest card. i'm accepting new (older) entries if anyone has some pre-war dodgers to offer up!