the almost daily dodger - angel pena

the dodgers sure seem to have had a large number of highly touted catching prospects since mike piazza took over behind the plate. maybe that just coincides with the proliferation of prospect focused baseball cards, but it feels like i've heard about more catchers in the dodger pipeline than any other non-pitcher position over the last 30 years.

one such prospect was angel peña, and this is his 1999 upper deck retro inkredible autograph card

i have seen this card so many times over the years, i would have sworn that i had it in triplicate. turns out, i didn't have it at all (i do have some other peña autograph cards). thankfully, night owl sent one my way.

peña was one of the catchers that the dodgers sent out in the post-mike piazza landscape during the 1998 season, but the team ultimately looked for some veterans to take over and he wasn't able to catch on (see what i did there) as anything more than a stop gap backup during his career.

night owl sent some other cards for my collection as well, including a1998 bowman chrome charles johnson card

johnson was the dodgers' catching solution immediately following the piazza trade, as he was part of the haul from the marlins that the dodgers received in exchange for the italian-american superstar slugger. johnson was then traded to the mets with roger cedeño after the 1998 season for the dodgers' next catcher, todd hundley.

here's a 1995 fleer ultra kevin gross card

that had escaped my purview. it's technically a rangers card, but he's still wearing his dodger duds so into the dodger collection it goes.

this 1999 bowman glenn davis card

is not chrome - it's the international parallel. the liberty bell is behind davis, a native of pennsylvania.

here's a 1998 pinnacle plus die-cut card of hideo nomo

it's a "lasting memories" insert, and i am not sure why it needed to have the patterned edge other than it was the 90's

i recently stated a desire to complete the dodgers' 2007 topps gold parallel team set, and getting this brad penny card

from greg was a push to make that commitment. so chunky!

he also sent a different parallel from 2007 topps update & highlights

the red text back

such nonsense.

here's a much more obvious parallel from 2010 bowman

featuring chad billingsley, along with a parallel (or not, depending on how you view the 2021 topps chrome sapphire edition set) of short-time dodger yoshi tsutsugo

he appeared in 12 games for the dodgers in 2021, in between stints in tampa bay and pittsburgh. the fact that he got a dodger card at all is pretty remarkable. perfect timing in terms of checklist development at topps.

one of my favorite cards in the package was this 2023 panini chronicles - classics card of jim gilliam

anytime i can add a new gilliam card to the collection is a good day.

there were also a few "hits" to take in, such as this 2020 bowman sterling autograph of onetime prospect jacob amaya

the dodgers dealt amaya to the marlins for miguel rojas prior to last season. he was just released by the marlins and picked up by the astros a week or two ago.

shawn green had a ton of cards during his dodger days, including relics. both of these cards - a 2001 pacific private stock game gear bat

and a 2004 upper deck authentic stars jersey

were new to my collection

finally, i  also added this 2004 topps cracker jack "take me out to the ball game" paul loduca relic

to my dodger collection because i don't care who the player is - if they are a dodger they belong in my collection.

thanks greg!

nefarious needs no more

it's an idea that i stole back in july of 2009 from saints of the cheap seat who took it from the collective troll, and it is an idea that has similarly been adopted by pretty much everyone.  it's a list of most wanted cards posted on the sidebar - i call mine the 'nefarious 9'.  

i had exclusively housed my list over at my first blog, but i've recently added it to the sidebar here at my current digs as well.  and to mark the occasion, i did a near-complete purge of the list thanks to trying out the sportlots box with a large, multi-seller order, along with my preferred method - a trade!

the first two cards on the list have been there for a while, and they are not very common it would seem, and so they remain.  they are a 2007 topps chrome blue refractor takashi saito card, and a 1989 fleer box bottom (white back) orel hershiser card.  the rest were finally added to my collection.

i didn't scan the card that was at number 3 (2017 topps allen & ginter clayton kershaw), so the post begins with number 4 on the old list, 1993 fleer kevin gross.

yeah, that's the back of the card. i like the back because it says 'gross' in really big letters. it also shows the back of kevin's jersey with the 'k. gross' lettering.  the 1992 dodgers were the 'grossest' dodger team in a couple of ways - they lost 99 games, and they also had two pitchers named gross.  kip gross joined kevin on the roster, which begs the questions: why did kevin just have 'k' on the back of his jersey and not 'ke'? what did kip have on the back?

most wanted number 5 was this 1988 fleer award winners pedro guerrero card

guerrero was not the official sporting news comeback player of the year in 1987 (that was the cubs' rick sutcliffe) but guerrero did have a great 1987 campaign following his 1986 season in which he trashed his knee on a very poorly executed spring training slide.

number 6 on the list was cory snyder's 1994 topps stadium club card

like most of the cards that show up on the list, i needed this card to complete my dodger team set.  thanks to the multi-seller and multi-order nature of my sportlots purchase, i now have a double of this card.

the next three were recent additions to the list - 2012 topps chrome andre ethier

completes my set, and 2018 topps andre ethier

was easily my most wanted card out of this year's series 2 release.  this one came from julie at a cracked bat.  you'll see more of this card tomorrow.  thanks julie!

bringing up the rear of the list was kelsey grammer's 2015 topps first pitch insert

i watched cheers and frasier, but don't consider myself a fan of grammer which is probably why his was the last dodger related first pitch card i needed.  i also don't get why grammer gets a card and former dodgers like the infield or steve garvey or vin scully don't.  timing and the celebrity angle, i guess.

i've had a non-dodger 'bonus' card on the list for a while as well, and it was a 2016 panini diamond kings vladimir guerrero card

i am a little annoyed at panini for taking the red out of vladdy's expos uniform but leaving it in on the on-deck batter.

i am pretty sure the cards that the ethiers and grammer replaced on the list were a 2015 topps heritage high number joc pederson rookie performers insert

a 2008 upper deck piece of history andruw jones stadium scenes insert

and a 1999 grandstand san bernardino stampede steve yeager coach card!

those three cards actually came from a comc order earlier in the year.

so, the list has been mostly purged but is now repopulated.  the list is dead, long live the list:

1 - 2007 topps chrome takashi saito blue refractor

2 - 1989 fleer box bottom orel hershiser (white back)

3 - 2003 bowman #39 odalis perez 

4 - 2004 fleer greats #101 babe herman

5 - 1990 topps hills hit men #13 eddie murray

6 - 1995 topps finest #228 hideo nomo

7 - 1988 topps big #154 mike davis

8 - 2001 upper deck mvp #218 kevin brown

9 - 2011 topps opening day superstar celebrations #25 matt kemp

bonus non-dodger cards - 1982 o-pee-chee #305 don sutton

as always, any help is appreciated - you will be rewarded!