just about a perfect day

i suppose some of you may have figured how i spent the last couple of days with the dodgers visiting the twins for the first time since 2014. well, if you assumed i was at target field, you were correct. 

i experienced some mild stress about this series due to the lockout and then the weather, but it all worked out fantastically. it was cold, dreary, and drizzly on tuesday night, but we still made our way in and found our seats among the other dodger faithful near the visitor's dugout.  here's a photo of the first pitch of the game - from chris archer to mookie betts

poorly framed, i admit.  i took a photo of archer pitching to the next batter, freddie freeman

it was weird to see freeman as a dodger, although i had never seen him in person as a brave.

back in 2014, the dodgers played at target field early in the season as well, and i remember the weather being very un-spring like then, too. i took a photo at one of those games of the sign on the twins' office windows out past left field, and did so again on tuesday:

not so beautiful in terms of weather. also, the retired numbers are on display. jim kaat's number will be added to the roster later this year. i always like to find jackie robinson's number at ballparks i visit and the twins make it easy. speaking of jackie, the twins recognized robinson's legacy at tuesday's game since the dodgers were in town and they will be on the road tomorrow. only the twins mascot, tc, wore number 42 though.

here's a photo of freeman on second base after hitting a double

that was leading off the top of the fourth, but he was stranded as the game remained scoreless through four innings. the dodgers scored in the top of the fifth off of josh winder who was making his big league debut (there was no topps now card, but i'll keep an eye out for a rookie debut card in update!) but the twins tied it in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a trea turner error. 

this was about when the big storms were supposed to roll in, so we made our way up to the concourse. here's freeman at bat again in the top of the 6th

shortly after freeman's at bat, we saw lightning and decided that we were not going to stay through any delay. the storms were supposed to last for a couple of hours so we took off. i got home before the game was actually delayed which was surprising, but i was happy to see that the dodgers had taken the lead before the delay. that meant that the game would most likely be completed and not suspended. i didn't want anything to affect the wednesday game because clayton kershaw was starting.

andrew heaney pitched really well on tuesday night, but when i saw that dave roberts was going to start tony gonsolin in the second game of the season and julio urias in game three, i got super excited. sure enough, a couple of days before the twins arrived in minnesota, it was announced that heaney and kershaw would start the games in the two-game set.  longtime readers might recall that i have never seen kershaw pitch in person despite my best efforts. bad luck on my part in terms of the dodger rotation and injuries to kershaw have thwarted me at every attempt i had made to date. but not this time!

wednesday was cold but not wet by the time the game began, and this time we were sitting down the first base line. here's the first pitch from chris paddack to mookie betts

paddack was a bit shaky all around, and the dodgers scored twice in the top of the first. then i got to see kershaw pitch. i assume you all know how this turned out, but please bear with me as i relive it.

twins first base coach hank conger was positioned such that my view was somewhat obstructed, but it was too cold to get up and move around. i did take a few videos though.  here's one of kershaw striking out the first batter he faced - byron buxton

conger looked like he knew it was going to be a long day.

here's a photo from the bottom of the 6th

kershaw is getting the ball back from austin barnes and is one pitch away from striking out nick gordon for his 12th k of the day and 3rd of the inning.

i was a bit surprised to see kershaw come back out for the 7th inning, but his pitch count was ridiculously low. here he is pitching to leadoff man buxton again.

buxton would be his 13th and final strikeout victim of the day. the inning ended with gio urshela hitting a ball up the middle that gavin lux was perfectly positioned to handle. he made a nice play to field the ball and i figured we had seen our good defensive play that is required in every no-hitter. i thought that it was really going to happen, even though i knew kershaw was done.

now, we will never know if it would have made a difference, but when the dodgers broke the game open in the 8th with back to back to back home runs from cody bellinger, lux, and barnes, blake treinen stopped warming up and alex vesia got up. would treinen have allowed a hit in the bottom of the 8th, just five outs away from a perfect game like vesia did to gary sanchez? the what ifs strike again!

so, i settled for a one-hitter, one of a handful i have seen in person. this was by far the most exciting and captivating pitching performance i have ever seen in person and i am really happy to have seen kershaw in one of his best starts ever.

here's the scoreboard just as the final 0 was being added to the twins' linescore

you know it's a great game when the dodgers hitting three home runs in the span of four pitches is a minor footnote.

i think the twins do still provide paper tickets - i saw a couple on tuesday night - but all i have are my digital tickets:

that's ok - i have the photos, videos, and memories, too. and eventually, i will have these topps now cards of kershaw:

and the back to back to back boys

in a few weeks. here's the back of kershaw's card

i was at the game when don sutton passed don drysdale for the all-time dodger strikeout lead, but i will fall a baker's dozen short of seeing kershaw take the title from sutton. unless i road trip somewhere in a 10 days or so....

anyway, that was a lot of good baseball in less than 24 hours, but there was more! after the wednesday dodger game, i went back to work for a couple of hours and then headed in to downtown st. paul to see the twins' triple-a team in action. it was just the third time i have ever seen the saints play, and the second time i've been to their new-ish ballpark in the state capital. this was the first time i've seen them as a twins affiliate, and we were looking forward to seeing first round pick royce lewis. in town were the indianapolis indians (they have no plans to change their name apparently), who are the pirates' triple-a team.

before the game, i noticed that there are plaques on an exterior wall of the stadium honoring st. paul's finest:

local heroes paul molitor, dave winfield, and jack morris are represented. joe mauer will most certainly get a similar plaque when/if he is inducted in cooperstown. there were a bunch of other plaques on display as part of the baseball scouts' hall of fame (not pictured). al avila was one of the names that i recognized.

we made our way in to the stadium and took our seats

not too bad. chs field is a great minor league stadium and these games are a lot of fun. by this time, however, the temps were dropping in to the 30's and my handwarmers were losing their luster.

former dodger prospect chase de jong was pitching for indianapolis - here's a 2015 bowman's best auto of de jong from my collection

he threw 7 innings of no-hit ball against lewis and the rest of the saints. unfortunately, i only saw six of them.

yes, i committed the cardinal sin and left the game during a no-hitter, leaving in the middle of the top of the 7th inning. being outside in the cold all day was wearing on me and with a trip coming up next week i wanted to avoid getting sick. i couldn't stop shivering and the heaters at chs were not as strong nor as plentiful as at target field. i did get home in time to see the requisite great defensive plays made by indianapolis to preserve the no hitter, and when the last out was recorded in the bottom of the 9th the wave of regret hit me. i have never seen a no-hitter in person beyond the high school level and i walked away from my best chance.

oh well, i feel okay about it now, and kershaw's performance is more than enough for me to remember april 13, 2022 in a positive way for the rest of my life. what a perfect day.

love that minneapolis sound

first things first - i know that the minneapolis sound has nothing to do with ed lover or doctor dre, but this 1991 pro set muicard of the hosts of yo! mtv raps

was sent to me by fellow twin citian brian at highly subjective completely arbitrary. he sent it my way due to the fact that doctor dre (who is not that dr. dre) is wearing a dodger hat. ed lover is repping the raiders, which is fine by me, too. i used to root for them as my afc team back in the late 70's and early 80's.  anyway, the minneapolis sound is the style of funk and r&b pioneered by prince and propagated by his proteges and producers like jimmy jam and terry lewis.  there are a bunch of rock/punk/post-punk/alt-rock bands from the twin cities, too, like the suburbs, suicide commandos, information society, soul asylum, husker du, the replacements, and trip shakespeare, but they are not part of the general definition of the minneapolis sound.

that's a long way to go to simply say that i received some cards from brian that included a music related card. maybe i should start this post over, but it's too late to turn back; here we go.

i received these cards in part due to our ongoing swapping of cards through the mail (looking forward to swapping in person once we both feel comfortable attending the monthly local card shows again), and also because i won a contest he held on his blog a while back.

here's the big gun first, a maury wills certified autograph

from 2020 topps archives signature series and featuring his 1962 topps card that should have been as featured in the 1987 topps set.

here's another autograph that was in the package:

that's a 2015 bowman's best chase de jong autograph. de jong was the blue jays' second round pick in 2012 and was acquired by the dodgers via trade in 2015. the dodgers traded him to the mariners in 2017, and he's appeared in the big leagues for seattle, minnesota, and houston since. he's currently in the pirates' organization.

here's a guy who has pitched for the dodgers in the majors, mitchell white

on a 2018 bowman prospects card. white pitched in a couple of games in 2020 and was just called up for the first time this season earlier in the week.

this next guy is one of the dodgers' more successful pitchers

that's a 2002 donruss originals don drysdale. i have copies of that card in my team binder, my dodger stadium mini-collection, and my name/number on the back mini-collection. someday i'll share a post about that last mini-collection.

another successful dodger pitcher is next - derek lowe

on his 2005 donruss zenith museum collection parallel. i say lowe was a successful dodger pitcher due to the fact that he led the league in wins as a dodger in 2006 and won game 1 of the 2008 nlds against the cubs, largely thanks to james loney's grand slam. i was in a bar watching that game and pretty much lost my shit when loney hit that home run against the mighty cubs.

next up is a guy who has done lowe one better and won a ring as a dodger - dustin may

on a 2021 topps heritage high numbers rookie performers insert. an appropriate card for today, i think.

now we are in the 'before they were big leaguers' portion of the package. here's eric young

on his 1990 star florida state league all-stars card. the only difference between this card and his 1990 star vero beach dodgers card is that the front of this one says "national" instead of "infielder". i think these uniforms are some of the happiest around - you've got a grapefruit on the hat and a hibiscus flower on the sleeve. how can you not be happy wearing something like that?

here's a real dodger uniform on this card

that's a 1992 classic update white travel edition carlos hernandez card, with raul mondesi on deck. i suppose by this time, hernandez had played in the majors during parts of two seasons. it's worth noting that he was the first of (so far) four guys named carlos hernandez to make it to the majors. they've all been from venezuela, too.

similar to hernandez, here's tom goodwin

on his 1992 score glossy rookies card. goodwin had already made his big league debut before this card was issued, but he didn't lose his rookie status until 1995 when he was with the royals. he was one of three players that the dodgers selected in the first round of the 1989 draft. they took kiki jones with the 15th pick, goodwin with the 22nd pick, and jamie mcandrew with the 28th pick. jones and mcandrew were compensation for losing steve sax to the yankees via free agency, so goodwin was the dodgers' "real" pick. right after the dodgers selected him, the red sox took mo vaughn. 

thanks again brian! hope to see you soon!

building a custom 2016 panini prime cuts box of my own

i recently considered purchasing a box of 2016 panini prime cuts.  i've picked up several 2016 panini steve garvey cards and have been very happy with them.  adding to my enthusiasm was a series of posts by the daily dimwit, who returned to the blogosphere to show off some great pulls from the product.

before i pulled the trigger, however, i listened to the angel on my shoulder who reminded me that it's probably wiser to purchase singles from the product since my collection is fairly focused.  that voice also reminded me that fuji had done something similar a while back.  so, i set out to build a custom box.

there are five cards per box, but i didn't pay attention to the typical splits (if there are typical boxes of prime cuts), i just focused on five cards for less than $149.95.  that was the price i was considering paying for a box.  let's see how i did.

first up is a fairly generic eddie murray relic card, numbered to 149

it's always nice to see guys like murray featured as a dodger in products.  better that than as a met.  here, eddie is all bundled up in blue and gray and has his signature little league hat under the helmet thing going on.  we don't see that very often these days.  this card cost me $6.98 (all prices include shipping).

next up is a auto biography (fairly clever, panini) auto/relic card of don sutton

this card is numbered to 10, and pays tribute to sutton's rookie season of 1966 when he won 12 games and had an era of 2.99.  the photo is not from 1966 (sutton's hair was straight then), but it's a classic sutton action pose. too bad that the card design doesn't allow for a 'suttoning' pose.  i enjoy picking up cards of sutton, as he was the only hall of famer on the team of my youth, and has been featured in a bunch of recent sets from panini and topps.  this card cost me $17.50.

next up is another card numbered to 10 - a dual patch clayton kershaw and don drysdale card

that's two great pitchers that go great together.  obviously, sandy koufax is usually the southpaw to drysdale's, what, right-handedness?  eight years ago, i was kind of hoping that kershaw and chad billingsley would form the same sort of dodger duo, but the closest the dodgers have come to sandy and don is a year or two of kershaw and zack greinke.  this card cost me $43.00.  i probably overpaid for that one.

here's kershaw all by himself on a patch card numbered to 25

i didn't see any red number patch versions, unfortunately.  the photo selection for kershaw is about the best panini could do.  the hat logo is missing, but otherwise there are no tell-tale signs of the lacking license.  this card cost me $22.50.

last up is the big hit.  it's a corey seager dual relic/auto numbered to 49.

aside from the blank jersey (which i do still find annoying), it's an on-card auto with some jersey (or pant) piping of the 2016 national league rookie of the year.  good stuff.  this card cost me $46.67.

so, i came in at $136.65 for my five cards. there's no jackie robinson relic, but i would have been very pleased with a box that had those five cards.  and, since i was under my price point, i added a sixth card - a basic mike piazza relic numbered to 149

for $8.98.  that's not a bad box, if i do say so myself.

speaking of the daily dimwit, i won a contest he ran shortly after he showcased all that prime cuts goodness, and he sent me a few dodgers as my prize. thanks sam!

here's former dodger prospect grant holmes on a 2015 bowman's best auto card

i was hoping that holmes would be the second coming of don sutton - both on the mound and with the hair - but now he's with the a's and just getting his first taste of double-a action.

this is a 2016 topps adrian gonzalez scouting report relic card

this one features a gray swatch, and i also have a white swatch version. relic variation, yo!  by the way, the scouting report i'm thinking of has cody bellinger hot on gonzalez's tail.

finally, here's my friend yasiel puig on a 2016 topps allen & ginter relic card

i watched two of the first three dodger games this season, and i liked what i saw from puig. hopefully he can keep it up for another 150+ games.