what can nick do for you?

obviously, the title up there is a play on the slogan for ups - what can brown do for you.  nick, in this case, is everyone's favorite dime box digger, and proprietor of the blog that got my vote for blog of the year last year.  and what he can do for you is send you some great cards that you didn't even know that you needed.  including some cards of, you guessed it, kevin brown.  so my play on words doesn't really work, but it's late at night and i need to get this trade post cranked out and scheduled.

this here is a 1999 fleer mystique card

that nick found for me in what i assume to be a dime box.  or maybe it's a flea market find.  or a yard sale pickup.  who knows.  this next one looks like he had to go into the matrix to set it free. it's a 2000 topps own the game insert of kevin brown

this same insert appeared in topps chrome and topps limited releases that year.  yes, topps gave us a crossover parallel insert set.  very strange.  the precursor to upper deck's starquest and that yankee history megaset from a few years back.

nick also found a couple of upper deck cards of gary sheffield that used the same photo.  compare this 2000 upper deck ovation superstar theater insert

with this 2000 upper deck ultimate victory card

kind of the 'topps stars' effect, if you know what i mean.

nick located some cards of a great dodger from yesteryear who doesn't get a lot of play from the card companies - tommy davis.  this is a 2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts card

and this one is a 2013 panini golden age card

these go well with the golden age auto i received from too many verlanders recently.

another dodger from the early los angeles days that we don't see too often is john roseboro.  nick found a 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts card of him, too.

the dodgers had a nice group of players in that set, with the likes of bill russell, dusty baker, tommy lasaorda, reggie smith, and steve garvey joining the usual reese-campy-robinson-drysdale types.

here's a very shiny 2004 bowman's best chin-lung hu card that i had not seen before opening the envelope from nick

at first i thought is was a chin-feng chen card because it seemed more like a late 1990's bowman's best  card.  of course, chen was still with the dodgers in 2004, while hu was just in his first year of a ball.

up next is a 2003 upper deck play ball dolph camilli reprint

this is a reprint of the 1941 play ball issue, and i believe the photo is the same one used for camilli's 1961 fleer card.  it is interesting to me that the world's fair patch was 'removed' in both the original and this reprint play ball release.  of course, it may not be the same photo, and this could just be camilli's signature pose.  kind of like how don sutton 'suttons'.

last, but not least, nick found me a card from the 1977-80 tcma the war years set.  it's the first one of these in my collection, too.  this is lewis riggs

riggs was a third baseman who joined the dodgers in 1941 after a few successful seasons in cincinnati (he was part of their 1940 world championship club), and he helped the dodgers reach the fall classic that year.  in 1942, riggs joined the armed forces and served for three years during world war ii.  he returned to the dodgers in 1946, appearing in just one game before the team released him.   i knew none of this before i saw this card and looked riggs up.

so, that's what nick can do for you - find a bunch of cool cards that inspire you to learn about history.  i can't wait for my next lesson.  thanks for the cards nick!

turned on a dime

the most recent package i received from nick over at dime boxes was a good mix of what i collect, which is to be expected when one receives a package from nick.  there were some new to me double plays, such as this 1991 leaf jeff huson

and this 1994 topps doug strange gold parallel

as well as a walmart blue parallel from 2013 topps of aaron hill

there were also plenty of dodgers, including some that featured players from other teams, like this 1996 upper deck collector's choice ramon martinez highlight/checklist that also features his brother pedro

and this 2013 topps archives 1969 topps stickers 4-in-1 that features an angel, a national, and a brewer along with matt kemp

and, of course, there were some solo dodgers, like this 1997 fleer ex-2000 eric karros card

what i didn't expect was this 'random acts of cardness' card, originated by capt kirk of captkirk42s trading cards blog

nick certainly paid it forward with this package, as he does with every trade package he sends, and i'll show some more of the dodger goodness i received later.  as for the rac card, i have already passed it along to jeff at 2x3 heroes.  who knows where it will go from there...

how about some fergie jenkins final tributes?

fergie jenkins was one of four hall of famers to end their career with the end of the 1983 season.  unfortunately for us card collectors, no one knew it at the time.  if we had, perhaps donruss would have put him on the 'b' insert card in their 1984 set with gaylord perry instead of rollie fingers.  and, perhaps fleer would have put him in their superstar specials subset as they did for johnny bench and carl yastrzemski and perry, or that topps would have added him to the highlight card that featured all three of those players - the other three future hof-ers who retired after the '83 season ended.  no, fergie jenkins had every intention of returning to the majors in 1984 for a 20th big league season.  unfortunately, the cubs released the right-hander during spring training.

that meant that his 1984 card releases became final tributes.  luckily, the fact that jenkins did try to return in '84 also meant that all three card manufacturers issued cards for him.  here's his donruss issue 

i like that it features a wrigley field photo with the ivy behind him.

here's the back

hey - his birthday was just two weeks ago.  happy belated 70th fergie!  this has been a bit of a birthday blog over the last week - garvey, rickey, and now fergie.  anyway, here's his 1984 fleer card

the back of which digs deep and goes all the way back to 1964 with the minor league stats.

fergie actually began his professional career in 1962 as a 19-year old with the phillies' miami marlins affiliate.

here's his 1984 topps card

with the complete major league stats on the back

since his retirement, i have considered jenkins' best stat to be his 997 walks.  he struck out 3192 batters, but walked less than 1000 in 4500 innings.  his career whip was 1.14.  of course, since jenkins' retirement, three other pitchers have surpassed 3000 k's with fewer than 1000 bb's - pedro martinez, greg maddux, and curt schilling - but jenkins was the first and i thought that was incredible.

jenkins was one of the guys i would use when discussing the merits of bert blyleven's hall of fame candidacy with friends.  that's not a knock on jenkins - it's (to me) an affirmation of blyleven's worthiness.  bert pitched in more seasons so one could discount the (slightly) greater win total, sure, but their career era is just about even (blyleven's was 3.31).  bert had just over 500 more strikeouts, but 325 more walks.  fergie had far more 20-win seasons, but in general, bert pitched on poorer teams.  it made for some interesting conversations, but no one really debated me because everyone in twins territory thought that bert should have been in the hall.

anyway, i've seen jenkins at twinsfest a time or two, and have wondered if he and bert ever talk about stuff like that.  i'm just glad that they are both in cooperstown.

a few trades for boxing day

i hope everyone had a good christmas.  i'm planning to keep the holidays going right through the weekend, and that includes the 26th.  boxing day, as they call it north of the border.

it seems like a good day to acknowledge some cards i have received recently from some nice blogger folks.  this first card came from dhoff at coot veal and the vealtones

that would be a 2013 topps gypsy queen steve garvey relic.  dhoff and i were working on a trade when things kind of fell through.  he still sent this card, however, which was most unexpected and completely appreciated.  i'll be looking for something to send in return...

tj at the junior junkie sent me some cards that were part of a ken griffey jr bday giveaway.

1989 topps andres galarraga

1989 topps isn't as bad as i used to think it was.  whatever that's worth.

2005 upper deck past time pennants whiety ford

whitey says 'they went that-a-way'

2013 topps gypsy queen rod carew

i know i have mentioned before that rodney cline carew's batting stance was one that i mimicked on the wiffle ball diamond as a kid.  this looks more like a reggie jackson stance.  carew was usually stooped over with a bit of a lean.

thorzul at thorzul will rule sent me two 2013 topps update twins gold parallels as part of his annual 'trade me anything' festivities.  someday, i'll take advantage of the 'anything' scenario and send him something off the wall instead of just some cards from his want list.  this year, i claimed kyle gibson

and anthony swarzak

from his update purchase.

tom from the angels in order sent me a nice package of cards featuring memorial patches a while back.  i will show those cards in individual memorial patches, except for this one.  it was the lone dodger in the bunch, and since i have a few good examples for the memorials that this card displays, i'll show it here.  it's a 1994 leaf eric karros card

 that's the tim crews '52' patch on his left sleeve.  the back of the card shows the patch again

along with a generic dodger stadium scene.

thanks for the trades, guys.  and enjoy the rest of the holidays everybody!

rickey got some final tributes

today is many things - the last tuesday of the year, christmas, and rickey henderson's 55th birthday.  i'm sure rickey got shorted on gifts as a kid due to the dual birthday/christmas thing, but perhaps rickey used that as fuel to motivate rickey into becoming, as he said, the greatest.

back in 2003, rickey spent his last days in the major leagues with the dodgers who had plucked rickey out of the atlantic league in the hopes that rickey would jumpstart the team, or at least put some fans in the seats.

here's rickey's 2004 upper deck card

it doesn't look like there were too many fans coming out to see rickey.  that's too bad.  i remember the first time i saw rickey play - it was at the big a in anaheim and some youth group i was in took a trip to see some billy ball in 1982, the year rickey stole 130 bases.  it was great - rickey stole a couple of bases, billy martin came out to yell at an umpire, and we all went home happy.

as for that upper deck card, it features rickey's complete major league career stats on the back, as a true final tribute should.

those are some big numbers.  at the time of rickey's retirement (or at the end of the 2003 season, as rickey didn't officially retire), rickey was the all-time leader in stolen bases, walks (not shown), and runs scored.  rickey is still number one in steals and runs scored, but barry bonds wound up walking more times than rickey.

rickey had other cards in 2004 which, as a dodger collector, pleased me.  this is a 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia (retail version) card

here's the back

for the record, since it's not on the back of any of these cards, rickey walked 11 times as a dodger.  rickey was 20th on the all-time hit list after the 2003 season,  rickey has since been bumped to 22nd as craig biggio and derek jeter have both passed rickey in recent years.

here's a 2004 donruss team heroes card of rickey

here on the back, we can see that rickey had 3 of the dodgers' 80 team steals in 2003

a little bit fancier now, here's a 2004 donruss timeless treasures card of rickey

the back notes that rickey broke ty cobb's career runs record with a home run.

rickey slid into home plate to celebrate, just like yasiel puig did last year on his first walk-off homer.  admittedly, rickey had a few more years under rickey's belt when rickey did it.

not all of rickey's 2004 cards showed him as a dodger.  this is a 2004 donruss lumber & leather card featuring rickey as an athletic

rickey had four different stints with the a's.  the back of this card features a photo of a younger rickey

i am still of the mind that billy beane should have signed rickey to a contract in september of 2004.  the rosters were expanded, and rickey could still play (rickey was playing independent ball at the time).  yes, the a's were playing for a division title (they finished one game behind the angels), but rickey could have pulled some herb washington duty as a designated pinch runner.  plus, the a's were eliminated by the angels in game 161.  rickey could have suited up for game 162 at the coliseum and finished rickey's career in front of the home crowd.

unfortunately, rickey's last professional game was played in 2005 as a member of the san diego surf dogs dawgs in the golden baseball league.  strangely enough, billy beane did pluck a player off of the surf dawgs' roster in '05, but it was disappointing twins' prospect adam johnson, not rickey.  so that meant that, fortunately for me, rickey's last major league games were played as a member of the dodgers.  that means that rickey's 2004 upper deck vintage card (featuring a dodger usher appearing to be a first base coach) is also a final tribute card

it's too bad that upper deck didn't do rickey's full career stats on the back, though, as they did with rickey's flagship card shown up top.

and, while the text on the back notes that rickey homered in his second game as a dodger, rickey also homered in his fourth game as a dodger. the dodgers didn't win that game, but the home run was the last of rickey's career, and it was also (quite appropriately) a lead-off homer.  it is also worth noting that rickey stole for the last time in rickey's career in a game against the rockies with greg zaun as the catcher.  about three weeks later, in rickey's final big league plate appearance, rickey was hit by a pitch.  rickey took second on a sacrifice and then scored on a shawn green single.  and that was the end of rickey's major league career.

merry christmas everybody, and happy birthday rickey!

remembering johnny oates

this is how i remember johnny oates

as a dodger.  that's his 1978 sspc card.  unfortunately, oates has only a handful of cards showing him as a dodger.  heck, he has only a handful of cards, period.  here's his 1975 sspc card, showing him as a phillie

i have recently expanded my collection of cards for players from the 1978 topps dodger team beyond their topps flagship issues, and that oates card was one of the first i added to the burgeoning collection.  oates played his last season in 1981, just as the proliferation of card sets was beginning.  donruss never made a card for him, while fleer gave him a spot in their set in both 1981 and 1982 - creating his lone 'final tribute'.

oates is about to start reappearing in my 'evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers' series, as he returned to the big leagues in 1991 as the manager of the orioles.  he had his greatest managerial successes at the helm of the texas rangers, however, and after oates passed away on christmas eve 2004 - 9 years ago today - the team decided to wear a memorial patch in his honor during the 2005 season.

this 2006 upper deck rod barajas card is a good example - you can see the patch (a black rectangle with oates' number 26 inside) there on his sleeve.

this 2006 topps mark teixeira walmart exclusive insert is another good example.

however, the two cards that will represent this memorial patch in my collection are a couple of michael young cards.  here's his 2006 fleer card with the patch on the sleeve

and here's his 2006 fleer ultra gold medallion edition card, which shows the patch on the vest jerseys.

oates had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1991 and given a short time to live.  he managed to live well beyond that timeframe, and was able to attend a ceremony in 2004 in which he was inducted into the rangers' hall of fame.  his number 26 was retired by the team after his death, however, and he was also posthumously inducted into the orioles' hall of fame.

it is time for the airing of grievances

ever since i first saw mike ivie on his 1978 topps card after pulling it from a pack at the local 7-11, i have associated him with whining.

it looks like i might have even tried to scratch one of his eyes out, i disliked this card so much.  ivie just appears to be annoyed or complaining about something.  that's definitely not a flattering photo to have indelibly marked on cardboard.  but, perhaps, he was just celebrating festivus.  yes, today is the day to put up the aluminum pole, compete in feats of strength, and eat the festivus meal.  and, of course, one mustn't forget the airing of grievances.

i really don't have anything substantial to complain about, but if i pressed, i will admit that among all the fantastic trade partners i have had over the past 5+ years, there have been a few times when i was stiffed.  i am certain that i am not the only one to whom this has happened, but it's still disappointing.  trade talks sometimes fall through - i get it.  there have been a few times when i've been unable to meet an asking 'price' or sometimes the communication just stops.  that's ok - i don't think trading cards is anybody's top priority in life.  that's not my grievance.  in fact, sometimes you even wind up getting a card after the trade falls through (thanks dhoff!).  that's not my grievance.  another time, i sent the wrong card to my trade partner.  no need to send me anything for a mistake like that.  that's not my grievance either.

since i started trading through the blogosphere, i have tried my best to keep track of trades - from both sides. i will admit that there have been times when i have fallen behind, but i hope i haven't forgotten anyone.  if so, please air your grievance with me and i will make it right.

anyway, what i am talking about here are the times that there have been confirmed 'let's trade' dialogue after which i send cards and then get nothing back.  from 2009 through 2012, i count about 20 different such trades where i have sent cards and received nothing in return.  in one of the trades, i was to receive a printed set of my 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update cards.  no dice (anybody want to print up some cards for me?).  another was to have included a dee gordon auto from back when he was playing fairly well for the dodgers.  once that came to an end, i was able to pick up a 2011 bowman platinum auto on the cheap

but it still would have been nice to have received one in trade.  the root of the majority of these incomplete trades is that i seem to have a knack with sending cards to bloggers just before they decide to stop blogging.

i'm generally not a negative or cynical person, and i have continued to trade (and send first).  in fact, there are a few trade packages i am waiting for that i am confident will arrive.  and, there are a couple of trades that may be in the works with capt kirk and community gum and maybe ptown tom.  besides that, i have trade or giveaway packages from angels in order, arpsmith, fuji, jaybarkerfansjunk, rhubarb runner, swing and a pop up, nick, patp, thorzul, the junior junkie, and the aforementioned dhoff yet to post.  and, i still have cards stacking up to send to 2x3 heroes, arpsmith, madding, the junior junkie, and nick - we are at the point where i don't know who owes whom.  i'm also digging around for a card or two to send to dhoff.  so you see, a few unfulfilled trades won't stop me from continuing to trade.  i know you have a choice in where you send your dodger cards, and i am happy to receive them.  so, let's trade!  i'll even send first.

happy festivus!