double nickels

there was a big deal made on social media (and even in some mainstream outlets) after the dodgers signed shohei ohtani and it was revealed that he gifted joe kelly's wife with a new car after she let it be known that ohtani could have number 17 - joe kelly's number. it's something that comes up a lot these days with veterans moving around - the claiming of "their" number for some price - but it doesn't always happen.

case in point, when the dodgers acquired albert pujols in 2021, he did not seek out his number 5 from corey seager. instead, he added another 5 and wore 55. here's his 2021 bowman heritage card showing the double digit number:

before pujols, it was russell martin who wore the number, although it wasn't always visible on his cards. here are a couple of parallels of martin's 2011 topps card - cognac

and walmart black

that don't show 55 but are cool, nonetheless. before he was called up, as in spring training, martin wore number 70 (among at least one other number) as seen on his 2005 topps update & highlights gold parallel

however, when he debuted in the big leagues, he was given 55.

for the dodgers, that number is mostly associated with orel hershiser. this 1986 topps sticker of the bulldog (and mike young)

doesn't show his number, but i am featuring it because it is a former "most wanted" card of mine. it completes the team set for me, which is nice (please be sure to check my current list of most wanted cards and see if you can help me out - you will be rewarded!).

here's number 55

on his 1987 fleer card

according to baseball reference, hershiser only wore number 53 (in honor of don drysdale) when he went to the giants (shawn estes already had 55), but this 1998 pinnacle plus card

shows him wearing 56. must be spring training or something, but it's best not to dwell too long on hershiser pitching for the giants.

anyway, it's 55 days until the dodgers and padres kick off the 2024 mlb season in south korea. that's less than 8 weeks!

in other news, 2023 topps stadium club is out, and i can't wait to receive the boxes i ordered. the thurman munson card is fantastic!!!!!

saxy time!

i was reviewing my want lists from 1990 recently when i saw the score mcdonald's set. i didn't know much about the set, but i was surprised that i had steve sax listed as a need. i knew that he wasn't a dodger in 1989 or 1990, but thought that maybe he was featured as a dodger and that was why i included him in my team set needs. a quick search confirmed that sax was not a dodger in that set, so i figured i could delete him from my list.

however, i found an image of the card and saw that sax was given a double play card, 

so i bought one anyway. check out the cobra bearing down! also note the batting glove hanging out of sax's pocket. when i was in high school in the mid to late 80's, i used to have my batting gloves in my pocket so that the fingers flapped around just like saxy.

the dodger team set turned out to consist only of ramon martinez

so i have now completed that set.

i also added an ozzie guillen card

because he, too, was featured turning two.

these cards are fairly scarce, as they were apparently a test run in idaho of all places. maybe they figured that if baseball cards could be sold in idaho fast food restaurants, they could be sold anywhere.

the remainder of this post is all about sax. he was my favorite dodger from the time steve garvey left prior to the 1983 season to the time that he, himself left for the american league after the 1988 season. here are the cards that i have in my "favorite dodger through the years" mini-collection to mark sax's reign:

1983 fleer

1984 donruss

1985 topps

1986 donruss

1987 fleer all-star

1988 topps

sax ended his dodger tenure on a high note with a world championship. in fact, his dodger career was bookended with world series wins in 1981 as well as 1988. sax, of course, played a much larger role in the 1988 title, and i will always remember how pumped he was when he hit the first pitch of the dodgers' 1988 season over the fence for a home run against the giants. super saxy!

a (not so) biittner pill to swallow

sometime in early february, i sent out four ttm requests. they were the first ones i'd sent in quite a while, as my primary focus in the past had been to add dodgers or signed 1978 topps cards to my collection and i had pretty much exhausted the list of known signers who fell in to those categories.

every once in a while, however, i will look at recent successes on sportscardforum and see a player who has been added to the database with some successful returns that i had previously missed.  one such player was larry biittner.

biittner's card was one i found often in packs of 1978 topps that i opened that summer.  i was struck by his blue eyes (they are gil hodges-esque), as well as the spelling of his last name. at first, i thought that the dual vowels were an error, but my baseball handbook had his last name spelled the same way. now, dual vowels weren't all that strange - the 1978 set also had don aase in it - but the back-to-back dual letters were something i hadn't seen before.  

the other ttm requests i sent were to a couple of dodgers c/o their spring training facility at camelback ranch, and former dodger pitcher dennis powell. i thought i might see one or both of the spring training requests returned, but that has not been the case.  powell, however, came through with all three of his 1987 cards:

i don't really have any plans to send out any requests in the future (but never say never), so if biittner is the last ttm request i will see fulfilled, it will not be a bad one to go out on, as that card brings back some great memories of opening packs in the summer of 1978.

thanks larry and dennis!