when your postman brings a package from jaybarkerfan's junk

yes, the joy that sandy koufax is displaying on his 2013 topps update postseason heroes card is pretty much how i want to react if i were to be home when the postman drops off a package from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk.  as it is, i am left to feel the excitement when i open the mailbox after a day at work and there is nobody around to exclaim my happiness to.

the result is a trade post that doesn't really do the cards, or thoughtfulness of wes, justice.  here are some of the other goodies i received.

2013 topps heritage then and now koufax and clayton kershaw

koufax led the league in era for five straight seasons, while kershaw has a streak of four era titles in a row.  other than that, he's matched sandy in cy youngs (3 in four years) and mvp awards.  now he just needs those four world series titles...

another kershaw - 2012 topps chrome orange parallel

and a 2009 upper deck spectrum card of another all-time pitching great who once (twice) toiled for the dodgers, greg maddux

maddux won 4 cy young awards, by the way.

here's a 1982 donruss bob welch card

welch was the dodgers' number 1 pick in 1977, and he has the highest career war of any of the dodgers' first round picks in history.  his 44.2 war is higher than rick rhoden (35.9), rick sutcliffe (34.3), paul konerko (28.1), and mike scioscia (26.0), who are third through sixth on the list.  in 2015, welch will be passed by kershaw, whose war through 2014 is 41.1.

how cool are pitcher's bat cards?  pretty cool.  this is a 2005 donruss champions tommy john bat relic card

that wes included in the package.

it wasn't all pitchers, though.  here's a 2013 topps heritage matt kemp new age performers insert

he'll be doing his new age performing for the padres, unfortunately.

i had not seen a 2006 upper deck special f/x card in person before receiving this jayson werth card from wes

what is most shocking about the card is that you can see jayson's cheeks, which haven't seen the light of day since he left the dodgers for the east coast.

last but not least is this 1994 topps archives 1954 card that should have been prospects card of roberto clemente

there's a nearly identical card in the 1995 topps brooklyn dodger archives set, so you have to look closely at the back to figure out which set these cards come from.  how cool would it have been for jackie robinson and roberto clemente (who was taken by the pirates in the 1954 rule v draft) to have been teammates?  at least as cool as this trade package, but not much more.  and, as cool as this trade package was, i received another one with a fantastic piece from wes not more than a week or so later.  i'll get a trade post for that one up in the near future.

thanks wes!

an overdue greg maddux hall of fame post - with final tributes!

greg maddux was only 8-7 as a dodger in two partial-season stints and he won't be wearing a dodger cap on his hall of fame plaque, but his final tribute cards are all dodger goodness.

here's his 2009 topps heritage card

with his final season and career stats on the back

maddux was 2-4 with a no decision for the dodgers in 2008.  he rejoined the blue in august, so the sept. 14 and sept. 27 highlights mentioned above came as a dodger.  the 9/14 game was the no decision game, as the dodgers eventually lost 1-0.  the 9/27 game was the final game of maddux's career, so at least he went out a winner in the regular season.  maddux also pitched four scoreless innings for the dodgers in the 2008 postseason, which were his final big league appearances.

here's his 2009 upper deck card

with a few seasons' worth of stats on the back

it is true that maddux beat the pads on 9/1/08, but they turned the tables on him a week later.

here's his 2009 upper deck first edition card

which is pretty much the same as his regular upper deck card

here's his 2009 topps card

which is somewhat spoiled by the airbrushing.  however, it has his full career stats on the back, like a true final tribute should

it is worth noting that maddux's final win put him ahead of roger clemens on the all-time victories list, so he did achieve a major milestone with the dodgers.  he also collected his final career base hit in dodger blue, driving in what proved to be the winning run in that 9/1 game against the padres.

maddux will be joined in cooperstown by former teammate tom glavine, seen here on a 1995 upper deck collector's choice se card

featuring a dodger stadium backdrop, and by frank thomas, whose 1998 pacific crown collection didn't quite make the cut for my jackie robinson day anniversary patch posts

speaking of those posts, i mentioned that the white sox wore a nellie fox patch on the road instead of the jackie patch.  thomas' 1998 upper deck card gives us a good look at that patch

i probably should have looked for some glavine and thomas final tributes for this post, but i did not.  maybe some other time...

mike maddux, double dipper

[this is the fourteenth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, and greg maddux.]

mike maddux, who is 5 years older than his brother and fellow dodger double dipper greg, joined the big blue wrecking crew after the 1989 season, as shown on this 1990 o-pee-chee variation:

he had spent his entire career with the phillies to that point, and had slowly been converted to a reliever over the past couple of seasons.  for the dodgers in 1990, he appeared in 11 games (2 as a starter) and had a record of 0-1.  one of his starts came against the braves, but he faced off against john smoltz, not his brother.

after the season, maddux joined the padres as a free agent, and then was traded to the mets after the 1992 season.  maddux spent two years in new york, and was featured on this 1994 topps card to prove that he was at one time a met - not a bad feat for a middle reliever.

maddux bounced around for the remainder of his career - he had stops in pittsburgh, boston, seattle and montreal - before returning to la during the 1999 season. in his time between his stays in la, maddux was 26-20 with 19 saves.

here he is paying tribute to fellow double dipper don sutton on a 1999 keebler dodgers card

maddux did well his second time around.  he pitched in 49 games, all in relief, and was 1-1 with an era of 3.29.  after the season, the dodgers chose not to re-sign him, and maddux headed to houston for the 2000 season, after which he called it a career.

here's to you, mike maddux - double dipper!

greg maddux, double dipper

[this is the thirteenth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, hideo nomo, and jose vizcaino.]

greg maddux was acquired by the dodgers during the 2006 season in exchange for cesar izturis, making this 2007 topps card possible.

he had been double dipping with the cubs when the trade was made, and he started his time with the dodgers with a bang.  in his first start in dodger blue, he no-hit the reds for 6 innings when he was lifted.  two starts later, he gave up only 2 hits in his 8 innings of work against the giants. a few starts later, he held the padres to one hit in 7 innings pitched. 

maddux wound up making 12 starts for the dodgers during the regular season, and had a 6-3 record with an era of 3.36.  in the postseason, he made one start in the nlds against the mets and gave up 4 runs in 4 innings.  as shown on that card above, he won a gold glove, the 16th time in his career he had been so honored. 

after the season, maddux signed a free agent deal with the padres.  here's his 2007 upper deck card, showing him in padres' gear (thankfully not those sandy colored or camoflagued unis)

as a padre, maddux was 14-11 in 2007 with an era over 4.00.  he returned to sandy eggo in 2008, and was 6-9 with a 3.99 era when the dodgers brought him back into the fold.  all it cost was a couple of minor leaguers this time around.

down the stretch in 2008, maddux (shown on a 2009 upper deck sweet spot card)

was just 2-4 in 7 starts, although he deserved to win most of those starts. his final regular season start resulted in his 355th career win - a 6-inning, two-hit performance against the giants.  the dodgers made the postseason, but maddux was relegated to the bullpen.  he appeared in both the nlds and nlcs, pitching 4 innings without giving up an earned run. 

by returning to the los angeles to end his career, maddux joined a small group of hall of famers who came from somewhere else to go out as dodgers, including don sutton (a fellow double dipper), hoyt wilhelm, rickey henderson and eddie murray (another double dipper).  we were happy to have him.  both times.

here's to you, greg maddux!

the blue and the gold from a pwe

rhubarb runner surprised me this week with an envelope in my mailbox.  we completed a trade a couple of weeks ago, but he apparently found some more dodgers and sent them my way.  i'm glad he did.

2008 upper deck documentary nomar garciaparra

and greg maddux

i think david has opened more documentary than anyone else on the planet.  in game 152, nomar started and went 2 for 3 with a double, a run, and a run-batted-in.  he left the game in the 5th inning, but upper deck still managed to get this card right.  game 153 was started by clayton kershaw.  maddog did not appear.  documentary is still a huge disappointment.

speaking of disappointments, here's orlando hudson on a 2009 topps update gold parallel card

two years in a row i have had high hopes for the o-dog, and two years in a row he has disappointed.  hopefully he can stay healthy next year, although i won't really be following him now that he's not a dodger or a twin.
finally, here's a 2009 topps update gold parallel xavier paul card

i am really hoping paul comes through this spring (and beyond) so ned doesn't do something stupid and bring in johnny damon for 2 years/$14 million.

thanks david!

dodgers in the night, exchanging glances...

true story. i returned from the post office the other day, where i had mailed a box of cards to a certain night owl, and found a package from the very same nocturnal bird in my mailbox. karma. fate. good fortune. whatever it was, he sent some very nice cards. here's a sampling.

2004 donruss studio hideo nomo studio starsvery much like those old perma-graphic credit card issues.

2006 topps turkey red duke snidera classic pose from the duke of flatbush.

1994 bowman's best billy ashley billy may have been the best the dodgers ever had at the three true outcomes. in 1995, he homered, struck out, or walked in 50% of his plate appearances. in 1996, he increased that to 56%!

1996 starting lineup jackie robinsoni had no use for the actual starting lineup figures, but it's nice to have one of the cards that accompanied them.

2008 topps heritage high numbers mark sweeney one of my 'magnificent 7'. i'll have to update that list soon - there are a couple others i've been able to get my mitts on.

1995 skybox emotion raul mondesi. attentive. really? that's the emotion mondesi exudes? how about brooding? sulking? no matter, he was still my favorite dodger for a few years.

2001 upper deck legends don drysdalebig d. i am guessing that picture was taken after his third consecutive shutout in 1968 during his 58.2 scoreless inning streak, although he looks fairly young for that to be the case. it is absolutely crazy to think that he did that in his last full season.

2007 bowman andre ethier the blue parallel. this one is numbered 111/500. i am so happy that we are beyond the luis gonzalez/andruw jones experiments and can just let andre and matt kemp play.

2006 upper deck sweet spot update greg madduxmaddux during his first foray into los angeles. why upper deck updates these types of issues is beyond me. still, it's nice to have more cards of maddux in a dodgers uniform!

thanks greg! i hope you enjoy the package i sent as well!

goose joak rotation, plus a couple other bullpen stragglers

here are a few more 2009 goose joak originals. this time, i have a bunch of starting pitchers, with a couple of recent bullpen callups, plus a 40 man roster guy.

first is greg maddux. the goose joak final tribute. i thought i had posted this before, but i guess not. maddux just had his number retired by the cubs last weekend, but i have to believe he goes to the hall as a brave.

our ace, chad billingsley.

he's good. perhaps the only good thing about my fantasy team in marie's league.

randy wolf.

in his second go around with the dodgers. he's pitching fairly well right now.

now for some injured guys. hiroki kuroda.probably on the dl for a couple more weeks. i was hoping he would have the type of sophomore season that daisuke had last year.

jason schmidt.

apologies to andruw jones, but this has to be ned's worst signing. to jason's credit, he's still trying to come back.

speaking of comebacks, here's another second time dodger - jeff weaver.

he pitched 4 shutout innings in his season debut. good enough to displace james mcdonald in the rotation. since he was last with the dodgers, he's bounced around but won a world series ring. that has to count for something, right?

ronald belisario. apparently his stuff was why weaver didn't make the team out of spring training. is he going to be the new 8th inning guy? who knows.

finally, here is a guy on the 40-man roster, victor garate.i was looking for a photo of recent call up brent leach, but found this guy instead. he pitched for the great lakes loons of the midwest league last year and set a mark, striking out 12 in 6 innings of work.

those blue jays of spring

before i moved to minnesota, the blue jays were my american league team (except in 1979 when i rooted for the angels). now, i still have a soft spot for them and would like to see a twinkies/jays alcs. i was happy to see a blue jays centric blog (blue jays cards) appear a few weeks ago, and even happier when charles offered to send me some dodgers in exchange for some blue jays.

here's a sampling of what he sent:

2009 upper deck first edition starquest manny ramirez this card kind of reminds me of the donruss threads release from last year because the logo on the helmet is obscured. here, it's because of pine tar, not photoshop.

here's a bunch of the base cards from 2009 upper deck first edition, including a former dodger, takashi saito.

if cory wade can stay healthy the rest of the year, i don't think i will miss sammy.

greg maddux - a final tribute!

still, it's kind of weird to see a maddux card now. i figured the later releases wouldn't bother.

james loney.

i'm waiting patiently for some of those doubles to turn into home runs.

andre ethier.

i like these cards better than the flagship upper deck because of the use of the logo. however, i don't like the 'first edition' bar, and i find it hilarious that the holograms are missing on the back. now, i don't think anyone is going to go out and counterfeit these cards, but the hologram was one of the impetuses behind the creation of upper deck! it's like their hallmark. crazy.

charles also sent some 2006 goodies, including:

2006 upper deck greg maddux.

this is from his first dodger go-round. he went 6-3 for the dodgers down the stretch, but had a forgettable start against the mets in the nlds.

2006 upper deck kenny lofton.

this was when kenny was going 'one and done' for several teams. he played for 9 different teams in the 6 seasons after leaving cleveland for the second time. his year with the dodgers was pretty good, too, but ned replaced him with juan pierre. nothing against pierre, but i would have rather kept lofton for one more year before handing things off to kemp and ethier. hindsight, i guess.

finally, ol' mr. grumpy gills, jeff kent on a 2006 bowman heritage card.

i actually like the red background here. it would look even better if you could see more of the red uniform number.

thanks charles! here's hoping the jays stay atop the al east wire to wire. and be on the lookout for your cards - they should be there soon!