more smatterings from the pacific smorgasbord

i've got just a few more cards to show from the box that brian at play at the plate sent to me.  the box was mostly pacific brand cards, with some 2002 upper deck vintage thrown in as well.

here's a 1999 pacific prism otis nixon card

he's wearing the ellis valentine face mask, which actually reminds me of lando calrissian's helmet from the start of return of the jedi.

1999 pacific paramount ben grieve

1999 pacific private stock john olerud

i thought the olerud was an insert, but it was not.  just a shiny base card

2000 pacific paramount randy velarde

the mustard background works for the a's cards, but that was by design. there weren't any dodgers from this set in the box, but their cards have a blue background that also complements their uniforms.

2000 pacific private stock craig biggio

which is a sort of precursor to 2001 topps gallery and the upper deck masterpieces sets of the late 2000's.

this is a 2000 pacific diamond leaders card of the reds

i have a couple of these (the brewers and dodgers) in my memorials collection.

the last pacific card i'll show also comes from 2000 pacific.  it's a derek jeter ruby foil parallel

jeets was also prevalent in the 2002 upper deck vintage cards that were in the box - he shows up on three of the postseason scrapbook subset cards

i know that the first one there is more of an alfonso soriano card, but jeter is waiting at home plate so it's a jeter card, too.

thanks again for the great cards brian! i had a blast looking through the box.

omg omega

i promised to show some more pacific cards from the box that play at the plate sent a while back, so here are a few cards from 1998 pacific omega that came my way.  i'll start with what may have been the best card of the box - mike piazza's 1998 pacific omega card

yes, it is technically a mets card, but i'll keep it in my collection because it is also a non-dodger dodger card.  pacific decided to forego the foil photo that was supposed to go on the right side of the card in order to honor all three teams for whom piazza suited up in 1998.  i appreciate that.

here are some regular cards from the set, and 'real' dodgers at that - bobby bonilla

wilton guerrero

todd hollandsworth

paul konerko

raul mondesi

ismael valdes

here are some non-dodgers for the heck of it:

brad fullmer

who is featured because we should remember the expos

barry bonds

rickey henderson

cal ripken jr.

mariano rivera

david ortiz

and david wells

with what may have been the second best card in the box.

pacific didn't play by the rules, and that's why they have so many cool cards in my opinion. maybe if topps made cards like the three-team piazza or used a photo from david wells' perfect game on his base card, i wouldn't be so attracted to pacific's stuff.

pacific at the plate

like many of you, i received a big ol' box of cards from play at the plate a while back. i posted some of the stuff that was included, but figured i should show more of the haul. i had specifically requested cards from pacific - the makers of some fantastically designed cards in the late 1990's and early 2000's.  there weren't any that were too crazy in what brian sent (no 2000 invincible, for example), but there was some good stuff nonetheless.  here's some of it.

1998 pacific paramount eric karros

1998 pacific paramount jose canseco

1998 pacific paramount tony gwynn

1998 pacific paramount orel hershiser

it is difficult to accept the reality of hershiser wearing a giants' uniform.

bobby bo was well represented in the box - here's his 1999 pacific

and 1999 pacific crown collection

cards.  plus, an alex cora card from 1999 pacific crown collection

former dodger prospect john franco is wearing a green cap for st. patrick's day on his 1999 pacific crown collection card

so that warrants an inclusion in the post. franco pitched in over 1100 games - i hope getting rafael landestoy back was worth it for al campanis and company.

here are some cards from 1999 pacific aurora - mark grudzielanek

raul mondesi

and reggie sanders

the sanders has an o-pee-chee type feel to it, without the text. i appreciate the lack of airbrushing on these types of cards.

finally, i mentioned that there were no cards from 2000 pacific invincible, but there were a few from the 1999 invincible release.  here's gary sheffield's card

and a couple of ben grieve seismic force inserts

they are actually the same insert with different photos.  the backs have identical text and numbers, but also use different photos

the portrait photo on the back goes with the one that has a portrait on the front, i believe.

this is just a small amount of the pacific goodness brian sent.  i scanned a bunch more, so you should see a couple more posts of this kind of stuff.  i can't get enough of pacific - the weirder, the better.  thanks brian.

rhoden and john and hough

i consider don sutton to have been the ace of the team of my youth, but the dodgers of the mid to late 1970's had a pretty strong staff.  i got kind of tired of seeing doug rau pitch seemingly every time we trekked to dodger stadium, but it wasn't because he was a bad pitcher - i just would have rather have seen tommy john or rick rhoden or burt hooton more often.  anyway, it's boxing day and things are slow and i don't have any good post ideas, so here are some non-dodger cards of three members of the dodger pitching staff from the team of my youth.

1988 score rick rhoden

and tommy john

rhoden and tj were reunited on the yankees, although this was john's second time around with the club. here's the back of john's 1981 topps card

for no other reason than to show the 'on disabled list' text that defined his 1975 season and his legacy as well.

here's the back of rhoden's 1988 topps big card for no other reason than to note that rhoden was a fan of both bob gibson and hulk hogan

'his' comment in the ping pong cartoon is not entirely true - rhoden did get to hit as the yankees' dh in a game during the 1988 season.  here's the front of that topps big card, by the way

rhoden sports the same mustache on his 1988 leaf card

which is so much better than 1988 donruss.

here's a 1988 fleer superstars card of rhoden

i wonder what he's got in that gatorade cup.

rhoden finished out his career with the astros in 1989.  here's his 1989 fleer update card

tommy john, meanwhile, began his career in cleveland.  here's a 2003 topps retired signature card showing him in indians' attire.

and let's not forget about charlie hough, who was actually the dodgers' closer in 1977, saving 22 games for the nl champs.  he moved on to texas where he became a starter and found some success.  this is a 1987 donruss all-stars card of the knuckleballer

who finished his career with stints with the white sox and then the marlins.  this is a 1993 topps finest card of hough with the fish

as are these 1994 bowman

and 1994 topps stadium club cards

that last one being the rainbow foil parallel.

i did a 'torchbearer' post for sutton, so i'll do something similar for these guys.  i won't go into too much detail, but if you're wondering, the last batter rick rhoden faced in the majors was joe oliver (who hit into a double play). oliver doubled off of jorge julio in his last at bat; julio hit jorge cantu with his last pitch, cantu fouled out against rex brothers for his final appearance in the majots, so brothers (who was still pitching for the rockies in 2014) is carrying rhoden's torch.

john, meanwhile, allowed a single to devon white just before walking off the mound for the last time.  white singled off of albie lopez his last time up; lopez gave up a single to torii hunter with his last pitch, and hunter just signed with the twins for the 2015 season, so he'll continue to be tommy john's torchbearer for one more year.

finally, hough's last big league pitch resulted in a single to kim batiste, who later grounded out against darren holmes in his last big league at bat. with his final pitch, holmes gave up a single to marlon byrd, who is signed to play for the phillies once again in 2015.

there you have it. three pitchers from the team of my youth wearing other teams' uniforms and their torhbearers.  can you tell i'm running out of ideas for posts?