07 November 2009

let's enjoy the scenery in chavez ravine!

here are some (more) cards featuring dodger stadium!

2002 fleer ronnie belliard the future dodger takes his lead from first base...

2002 fleer carlos guillen
featuring a blurry outfield wall mural...

1999 upper deck dustin hermanson
happy to be in la...

1997 pinnacle new greg maddux
the future dodger with the people behind the bullpen fence...

1992 fleer ultra lloyd mcclendon
featuring the camera men in the well...

2002 fleer triple crown marlon anderson
the future dodger and the obscured on deck hitter...

2002 topps total ramon ortiz
with more people (or just one person) behind the bullpen fence...

2004 topps juan uribe
featuring more blurry outfield wall mural faces...

1984 donruss johnnie lemaster
lemaster of the batting cage, and of non-sanctioned hat pins. someone alert the uniform police...

1984 donruss scott garrelts
featuring the glasses, the torn shirt, and dodger stadium seats.

here's to you chavez ravine!

06 November 2009

topps 'in memoriam' cards and the lyman bostock final tribute - the card that should have been!

with the angels making their recent playoff run, there was a lot of talk about what the loss of nick adenhart did to motivate the team. it made me wonder if topps would include a rick adenhart 'in memoriam' card in the 2009 update set (they did not) or in the 2010 flagship release (they likely will not).

there is a precedent, however, such as the 1964 topps ken hubbs cardand, while topps did not issue a 2003 darryl kile 'in memoriam' card, they did issue a 2006 topps update and highlights cory lidle cardboth hubbs and lidle died in plane crashes.

another player who died in a plane crash but was not recognized by topps was thurman munson. i found this 1980 thurman munson card that should have been at the virtual card collection, created by keith conforti.it made me think about lyman bostock, and the fact that he was not included in the 1979 topps set. his 1978 topps card captured him with a kind of angry look, but that wasn't true of the man he was.

bostock had joined the angels as a free agent after finishing second in the american league in batting in 1977 (to rod carew, his teammate on the twins). he started the 1978 season slowly, and tried to give his april earnings back to the team! do you think a-rod is going to return his world series share because he stunk in the first two games? anyway, you can (and should) read much more about lyman bostock here.

bostock was not quite 28 when he was murdered near the end of the 1978 season. i don't know how his death affected the team, but the angels did go on to win their first al west championship in 1979.

so, i have created a card that should have been - the 1979 topps lyman bostock (with a photo from the fantastic site 'steve's baseball photography pages')here's to you, mr. bostock!

05 November 2009

sorry charlie

we were all rooting for you (and your team, once you made it past the dodgers).
maybe next year you can let the boys in blue have a crack at the pennant and (presumably) the yankees.

please? for old times' sake?

04 November 2009

i've been tricked and treated!

thanks to dave at indians cards... i received my trick or treat envelope on monday. turns out, there were some tricks and some treats:

1996 leaf studio kenny loftoni'm not the only one to get this card of the future dodger speedster. trick, i say.

some kind of mega metal card of king diamondnever heard of him - he definitely didn't play for the dodgers, so again, i say trick!

three strange cartoon cardstrick, trick, and trick.

2006 fleer greats of the game harmon killebrewa 'killer' treat!

2006 fleer greats of the game rod carew decade greats insert

another twinkies treat!

thanks david!

reader mail - long overdue trade post

a long time ago (i say apologetically), i received some cards in a trade from reader bill. i sent bill a mattingly ysl card he needed and he sent me some cool dodger cards in return - here is a sampling:

1996 score antonio osuna
i have an affinity for osuna. he threw hard, and used to wear a huge chain around his neck with a medallion that reminded me of a license plate.

2007 topps team cardusually the team cards are taken so you see the pavilion in the background. this one is flipped so their backs are towards home plate.

1996 upper deck collector's choice juan castro a card from juan's first stint with the dodgers

1997 pinnacle mint collection hideo nomo (ill-jacked) i hope he gets his medallion back...

2007 fleer eric stults
seems destined to fill the role of 'spot starter'

1989 topps dodgers leaders
apparently, their leaders were scioscia, hershiser and sax, with presumably ron perranoski and alfredo griffin obscured but lurking

2008 topps heritage rafael furcal
raffy has brought some stability to the shortstop position. now if only we could get a long term third baseman...

1990 donruss diamond king willie randolph
part of the post-sax revolving door at second, the dodgers and yankees essentially traded second basemen after the 1988 season

finally, 1991 donruss darryl strawberry
perhaps the start of the dreaded 'press conference photo' baseball card scourge. i think gretzky's 1988-89 topps card was the first ever, though.

thanks bill!

03 November 2009

gcrl in 1979

in the spirit of the fall (and pumpkin) season, i'll start with 'shakedown, 1979 - cool kids never have the time'. well, i thought i was cool and i definitely had the time in 1979 to follow the dodgers and their infield. sadly for me, after two straight pennants, the dodgers fell to third in the nl west, finishing below .500 for the first time since 1968. on the bright side, all four of the infielders played in at least 150 games, all exclusively at their respective infield position, and three of the four had exactly 28 home runs!

steve garvey's 1979 season was pretty similar to his 1978 campaign. he hit .315 (down from .316), had over 200 hits (204) for the second year in a row and the fifth time in six years. he raised his home run total from 21 to 28, and drove in 110 rbi, which was just 3 less than the previous year. he did slip in the mvp voting from 2nd to 14th, though. he kept two streaks alive - his consecutive games played streak continued, as did his string of consecutive all star game starts. at the all star game, played in seattle, garvey went 0 for 2 with a walk and a run scored. he hit two home runs in a game just once (against joe niekro), and also slugged his 150th career home run (off of john denny).

ron cey had another solid year in 1979. his home run total increased to 28, and he raised his average to .281, posting his highest full-season ops of .888. he was selected to the all-star team, although mike schmidt was voted to start the game at third. in the midsummer classic, he went 0 for 1 with a walk as the first replacement at third. like garvey, the penguin also hit two home runs in a game just once (against gaylord perry), the second of which just happened to be his 150th career blast.

bill russell wasn't the third infielder to hit 28 home runs in 1979. he did, however, hit a career high of 7, to go with a .271 average. one of his home runs was a 2-run walkoff against the expos and woodie fryman, which gave the dodgers an 11-inning 6-5 victory.

in 1979, davey lopes exploded offensively. he set career highs in home runs (28), runs (109) and ops (.836). he also stole 44 bases in 48 attempts, and was voted to start the all star game for the first time. in that game, he went 1 for 3 before being replaced by joe morgan in the 7th inning. of his 28 home runs, 2 came in the same game (against john denny), 7 were leadoff shots (including one of the ones he hit off of denny), 1 was an inside-the-park job, and 2 were walk-off jobs, including a walk-off grand slam for the second straight year, this time off of bruce sutter.

for the first time since 1974, there were no 'extra cards' featuring any of the dodgers' infielders. that wouldn't change, unfortunately, until 1982. before we get there, though, we have a couple more seasons to recap, including 1980, where the dodgers would right the ship and make a push for a postseason return, only to fall short in game 163.

02 November 2009

k x 382

here it is - post number 382. so what better time to acknowledge sandy koufax and his fantastic 1965 season. that's the year he struck out a (then) record 382 batters, a feat that has only been surpassed by nolan ryan - and that was by just one measly strikeout!
with those 382 strikeouts, koufax broke the modern record of 348 set by bob feller in 1946. what didn't koufax do in 1965? look at that line on the back of his 1966 topps card! he pitched a perfect game, won 26 games, had 27 complete games and 8 shutouts, pitched 335.2 innings with a bad arm, won the pitching triple crown, won the cy young, won the world series (and was named series mvp), and even posted a career high in batting average. he did finish second in the mvp voting to willie mays, so i suppose he didn't do everything. koufax finished the regular season strong, with 3 consecutive complete games (two of which were shutouts) with the last being against the milwaukee braves. he tallied 36 strikeouts in those final 27 innings, and his last victim of the season was none other than joe torre.

here's to you, sandy!