more cards from across town

earlier today, i posted some of the cards that fellow twin-citian brian (he of the highly subjective and completely arbitrary blog) sent my way.  there are more to be shown and enjoyed.  like this 1998 upper deck collector's choice of raul mondesi signing autographs at dodger stadium on photo day.

photo day, which used to be called camera day back when i was a kid, is when fans can arrive early and go on to the field (stay behind the barriers, folks) as the players walk slowly by and stop to pose for a picture of sign an autograph or two.  the first time i ever went on the field at dodger stadium was on photo/camera day circa 1979.  i've been on the field once or twice since then, but only for concerts.

here's a 1995 topps stadium club card of delino deshields also signing autographs

but he's on the road somewhere, not at chavez ravine.

also from 1995 topps stadium club, here's a close up of a concerned looking eric karros

that is actually a virtual reality parallel.  perhaps karros is pondering the age old question, "what is real?"

or maybe he is trying to figure out who is on the front of this 1998 topps mystery interleague match-up card

it could be karros, it could be mike piazza, but it could also be an angel.  i haven't peeled off the front to find out.  i'll keep karros guessing.

brian included a few inserts from 2015 topps series 2, which is nice because i haven't bought much of that product.  here's melissa mccarthy getting ready to throw the first pitch at dodger stadium

i understand that the pitch came out of her hand "like lava".

2015 topps adrian gonzalez stepping up insert

2015 topps clayton kershaw hot streak insert

41 innings is impressive.  zack greinke is currently at 35.2 scoreless innings.  he still has 23.1 to go to catch orel hershiser.  incredible.

2015 topps yasiel puig hot streak insert

it would be nice for puig to get on a hot streak again sometime.

brian also hit a couple of peculiarities in my collection.  this is a non-dodger dodger card from 2005 donruss throwback threads of kazuhisa ishii

it's really a mets card, but it's got a dodger on it, so it belongs in my collection.

brian also sent along this 1995 topps stadium club carlos garcia card

featuring nothing but dirt - a tatooine card to end the trade post.

thanks brian! i'll get a return package out to you soon!

when a dodger card isn't fully a dodger card

sometimes, team collectors can miss out on cards that they may otherwise choose to add to their collection.  for example, this 1992 topps kids eddie murray card

shows him as a dodger, but then again - he is 'now with the mets!'.  is it a dodger card or a met card?  i consider it to be a non-dodger dodger card. so there.

here are some others that fit that bill (and fit into my collection as a result):

1993 donruss rudy seanez

a dodger up until the expansion draft

2000 pacific crown collection raul mondesi

pacific almost fooled me, using a photo of rauuuuuuul in the blue dodger alt jersey

2000 skybox dominion raul mondesi

obviously a dodger in all but team name on the card

2004 upper deck first pitch brian jordan

a while back i took a good look at the flagship version of this card. then i came across the first pitch version

and then there is this 2014 topps stickers joe mauer sticker

mauer is wearing the saint paul saints throwback in a game against the brewers in 2013 (i was at that game, by the way).  the saints uniform he is wearing comes from the time when they were a dodger affiliate.  in fact, there are some pictures hanging in one of the target field restaurants recognizing both the saints and the minneapolis millers (a giants' affiliate) as part of the twin cities' baseball fabric.  the photo for the saints features roy campanella rounding third being congratulated by walt alston.  pretty cool.  the millers photo features some guy named willie mays.  anyway, the mauer sticker is not a dodger card, but a cool item that i pulled from a pack and sent off to 2x3 heroes - i think.

if i haven't, i will - i've got quite a few packages ready to be sent out to folks, including baseball cards come to life, night owl, off hiatus, too many verlanders, bob walk the plank, and probably a couple of others.  you can always check my trade tracker on the right to see if i am aware that i owe you cards - let me know if i do and you don't see your name!

does raul mondesi regret his tattoo, and other random musings

while it is true that raul mondesi had a cannon for an arm, i wonder if the cannon tattoo visible on his 1998 upper deck card

was fully thought out.  from one angle it looks like a cannon, although the fuse is still lit even though the cannon has discharged, and from another angle one might mistake it for some sort of rocket. or something else, i suppose.

the back of that card is pretty interesting, too, as we have pylons and a car in the background.

i'm also curious about mondesi's 1996 fleer emotion xl card, although it's no fault of his that the emotion fleer slapped on there is 'pounding'

i don't feel pounding.  or tardy, for that matter.  what was fleer thinking?

along the same lines of lack of thought, here are a few other cards that i've scanned without a real purpose. although i suppose you could say that i scanned them for inclusion in a random cards from my scanned folder post, so there was a purpose. whatever.

1987 topps orel hershiser

1990 donruss mickey hatcher

1992 score rookie and traded carlos hernandez

1997 topps stadium club pedro astacio

2007 topps heritage derek lowe

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee scott elbert black parallel

and 2012 bowman chrome prospects jt wise

as in wise enough to not consider 'pounding' to be an emotion?

is it possible to complete a 1996 fleer dodger team set from just two packs? and for just 50 cents?

while wallet card and i were at the local card shop, i found some loose packs marked at a quarter apiece. among them were some packs of 1996 fleer dodgers cards.

with 10 cards per pack, and 20 cards in the team set, i wondered - could i complete a team set with just two packs?

here's the checklist of the then defending nl west champions

and here's the back of that card

which is pretty much the same as the front of the logo card

whose back looks like this

the background on those cards kind of reminds me of 1995 fleer in a way.

as for the 18 players in the set, here is what their cards look like

a complete team set, although it took 5 packs to get there.  i think there was a mike blowers card in four of the five packs, and only one hideo nomo card.  for some reason, todd worrell was also tough to come by in my small sample size.  still, a team set for $1.25 is not too shabby.

an abbreviated run through the 1997 mother's cookies dodger set

1997 was all about the 50th anniversary of jackie robinson's major league debut, and the mother's cookies dodger set that year included a special card with the anniversary logo.

that's the logo that the dodgers wore - remember, while all teams wore a similar patch, the dodgers, marlins, and expos put their own twist on it.

here are a few more cards from the 1997 mother's cookies dodger set

bill russell

the manager!

and his coaches!

plus, the five straight rookies of the year - eric karros

mike piazza

raul mondesi

hideo nomo

and todd hollandsworth

here's the current diamondbacks manager, chip hale

in what may well be his only dodger card

darren hall

has a couple of dodger cards, but not many.

does anyone recall nelson liriano as a dodger?

he played in 76 games for the 1997 dodgers, and his lone home run in dodger blue was a 9th inning game winner against the cubs.

here's one more - scott radinsky

if it weren't for these mother's sets, i don't think i would have more than one card of the pulley lead singer and current dodger minor league pitching coach.

thanks again to mr. haverkamp for brokering the deal that netted me these sets.

the 1973 topps card that came from 2001

this is a 2001 topps stadium club card of, not luis alicea, but rather chad kreuter

i think the oddly cropped photo featuring the partially obscured dodger catcher would fit nicely in the 1973 topps set as a kreuter card - all that is really missing is the umpire and parts of a couple more players.

this is another card from 2001 topps stadium club.

but it is simply eric karros rounding third and lumbering for home where he may well be thrown out by 20 feet.  karros also shows up on this 2001 topps stars card

but is noticeably absent from this 1996 score select team nucleus insert

you know, beneath the clothes you will find the man. and beneath the man, you find his…nucleus.  this card features the rookies of the year from 1993-1995 (mike piazza, raul mondesi, and hideo nomo), but the 1992 roy (karros) didn't make the cut.

before mondesi was the rookie of the year, he appeared on this 1992 upper deck minors team checklist

as a member of the albuquerque dukes.  abq is where joc pederson played last year, although the dodgers' triple-a affiliate was then called the isotopes. here's a 2014 topps heritage minors card of the dodger prospect

and here is a 2014 topps heritage minors card of fellow prospect corey seager

who will hopefully follow jimmy rollins as the dodgers' shortstop after spending this season in the minors at oklahoma city.

here's another minor league shortstop - yuri sanchez

turning two on a 1995 upper deck minors card.  i figure that the fact that sanchez was a shortstop, coupled with the way he's dragging his right foot over the bag means that there is a double play being turned.  just like this 1982 topps tim foli card

is a double play turn, because why else would foli be at the bag like that?  now that i look at foli's card more closely, i notice the parked car in the background behind the spring training fence.  that's another card that could pass for a 1973 topps card.

and that is how you bring a post around full circle.