so much galasso, so little time

tony from off hiatus sent me some cards a while back, and i'm just getting to posting them today.  in an earlier post, i showed off some good stuff like a 1954 bowman billy loes card and some oddballs, but there were enough 1977-84 renata-gallaso cards in the package to make up a post of their own.  keep in mind that all these cards cost me were some brewers cards. 

roy campanella

campy has a couple of different cards in the set - this one celebrates his third mvp award while the other  is more of his base card

max carey

and tony cuccinello

carey and cuccinello were part of the first all-star game which was played in 1933.  carey, the dodger manager, was a coach on the national league squad helmed by john mcgraw, and cuccinello was a reserve.  cuccinello did make it into the game, however he struck out as a pinch-hitter for carl hubbell against lefty grove to end the game.

here are some more recognizable dodgers from the set:

don drysdale

gil hodges

sandy koufax

jackie robinson

dazzy vance

and, not a galasso, but instead - a nolasco

a 2014 topps toys r us purple parallel, to be exact.

thanks tony!

red hot blue

please don't judge me, but even though i am of the mind that there are way too many parallels of the topps flagship base cards, i am a fan of the red hot foil cards that were introduced in 2014.  hypocritical, perhaps, but i look at it as one or two parallel versions are ok, and i would choose red hot foil over any of the others.

i don't have the complete dodger team set from series 1 and 2, but i've got most of them.

clayton kershaw

matt kemp

carl crawford

zack greinke

kenley jansen

hyun-jin ryu

andre ethier

mark ellis

yasiel puig (highlight/checklist)

hanley ramirez

michael young

josh beckett

chad billingsley

brandon league

ricky nolasco

brian wilson

and adrian gonzalez

i also recently picked up a copy of gonzalez's other red parallel from the set.

the target red border parallels pale in comparison.  unfortunately, i only have the aj ellis target red parallel in my collection currently

in fact, by my count (i've shown some other red hot foil parallels previously), i am in need of not only aj's red hot foil parallel, but those of onelki garcia, juan uribe, clayton kershaw league leader (with jose fernandez and matt harvey), and clayton kershaw cy young.  i'll keep an eye out.

the only thing dull about this trade package is the pair of scissors used to cut the first card...

nick at dime boxes and i have completed a couple of trades recently, and here are some cards from the most recent package i received from him.  this 1962 post tommy davis card

was very likely liberated from its box by a young boy using the butter knife or perhaps a spoon at his kitchen table.  it's got some great character and i am thankful for it.  it was also the oldest card in the package, although this 1988 reprint of whit wyatt's 1941 goudey card

features an earlier dodger card.  wyatt had a big year in 1941, leading the league in wins (22) and shutouts (7) while finishing 3rd in the mvp vote.  he had a solid run as a dodger (80-45 with a 2.86 era over 6 seasons) as they converted him to a starter and reaped the benefits.

here's a 1980 laughlin famous feats card of hugh casey

who was 10-4 as a reliever in 1947.  rg laughlin was the guy who did the illustrations for the fleer world series sets in 1970 and 1971, as well as the sticker backs in later years.  he was on his own in 1980 and produced this set, which also features jackie robinson.  i picked up a jackie card, but i'll show it another time.

1984 milton bradley championship baseball steve sax

saxy was an 'nl super star' not too long after replacing davey lopes at second base. i find it interesting that milton bradley was allowed to use the team name but not the logo on these cards.

1990 score young superstars jose gonzalez

score used the term 'superstar' lighting in 1990 with jose gonzalez.  yes, he was a highly regarded prospect, but 1990 was his sixth season and he had not done anything to make us dodger fans feel like he was going to be a superstar.

1997 score eric karros showcase parallel

karros, on the other hand, won the rookie of the year award in 1992 and was a very good player. not a superstar, though.  that term was saved for the 1993 rookie of the year, mike piazza.

here's an all-star insert piazza card from 1994 o-pee-chee

the italian-american superstar slugger is wearing the roy campanella/don drysdale commemorative patch on his right sleeve, and the tim crews patch is partially visible on his left.

continuing with the rookies of the year, here's the 1994 nl roy raul mondesi on a 1996 fleer emotion xl card

i do not know what sort of emotion 'fense' is.

well, i bet you thought the next card would be of 1995 rookie of the year hideo nomo.  that would be incorrect.  instead, it is of short time dodger pitcher ricky nolasco on his 2014 topps museum collection card

topps went all-in with nolasco in its 2014 products, and he was a twin before any of them were released.  i wonder if we'll see a bunch of nolasco sticker autos on twins cards in 2015 releases.

thanks again nick! we'll trade again soon, i am sure.

dodgers walking the plank

i recently completed my first trade with the overly generous and world cup of trading champion matthew from bob walk the plank.  there was so much to enjoy in the cards that he sent.

this is a 2011 panini limited shawn green auto

it's only the second autograph card of a guy who at one time was my favorite non-dodger and then my favorite dodger that i have in my collection.  the back of the card mentions dodger broadcasting legend and hall of famer vin scully and green's monster 4-home run game in 2002 - a game which i attended.  good stuff.

there was another auto in the package - this 2014 topps museum collection ricky nolasco card

topps went all-in with nolasco in their 2014 releases, even though he signed with the twins in the offseason.  the result is an abundance of signed nolasco dodger cards, of which i now have two.  nice.

there were some regular ol' base cards sent along as well, like these cards from 2014 topps opening day:

yasiel puig

carl crawford

and clayton kershaw

kershaw chose not to stick his tongue out for the camera like the other two

matthew reached back to 2009 as well, sending a few dodgers from the 2009 topps 206 set.  here's chad billingsley

who will hopefully anchor the back end of the rotation in 2015.

andre ethier

with andrew friedman in the loop, i wonder if ethier will lose his fourth outfielder spot in favor of joc pederson.  ethier's got 3 years and over $50 million left on his contract, so he may very well stay.

matt kemp

kemp's got 5 years and over $100 million left on his deal.  his agent is now the gm of the diamondbacks, which might make me nervous if his contract weren't so large.  kemp is the kind of guy that i would really like to see wear dodger blue until he retires.

rafael furcal

speaking of retirement, furky finally made it back from injury to appear in a handful of games with the marlins last season but is a free agent and may be looking at the end of the line.

here's a james loney relic from the set as well

loney is not doing too badly in tampa - he hit .290 last season and played decent defense - and i still hold him in high regard thanks to that grand slam he hit in the 2008 nlds against the cubs.

last, but certainly not least, here is the first card in my collection from the 2013 leaf memories buyback set.

it's a 1991 leaf darryl strawberry buyback stamped 3/5.  3/5 is appropriate because 3 is the number of seasons that darryl played for the dodgers out of the 5-year contract to which they signed him.  following a fairly productive season in 1991, he saw limited playing time in 1992 and 1993, and was released without playing for the team in 1994.  still, a nice card to cap a great trade.

thanks for the cards matthew!

the numbers don't add up to junk

it's not often that i receive a package of cards that contain no plain old base cards, but that's what happened a while back.  for some reason, i've been delinquent in posting about this particular trade package that i received from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk, but that doesn't reflect my level of appreciation for it.  there were 8 cards total, with all but one being serial numbered.  have a look.

2002 fleer tradition update eric gagne all-star glossy edition; numbered /200

the sport goggles! game over!

2003 donruss studio hong-chih kuo numbered /1500

that's a nice angle on the top deck and reserve sections of dodger stadium behind the giant kuo.  these days, those seats are baby blue or sea-foam blue or whatever it was that the o'malley's originally had installed in the stadium.  as for the card, this is kuo's base card, but he was a rookie, so his card in the set is serially numbered.

2003 topps kevin brown gold parallel numbered /2003

2003 was brown's bounce-back season for the dodgers as he returned to form with a 2.39 era and made the yankees want to trade for him despite his huge contract.

2003 topps chrome andy ashby gold refractor numbered /449

that is a nice shiny card.  unlike brown, ashby was 3-10 with an era over 5 in his final year with the dodgers.  still, he wasn't unwanted, as he returned to san diego as a free agent for the 2004 season.

2004 donruss classics edwin jackson numbered /1999

similar to the kuo card, this is jackson's base card - it's just numbered because he was a rookie.  i've mentioned seeing jackson's final 2003 start before - it was in san francisco, and he allowed 2 hits and no runs over 6 innings.  he struck out 7, but gave up 8 walks!  still, the dodgers were up 1-0 after 8 innings, barry bonds had struck out twice (and walked and was hit by a pitch), and i was looking forward to seeing eric gagne get a save.  the dodgers went and scored three times in the top of the 9th, so even though gagne pitched, he didn't get the save.  in fact, i think that the only game in which i saw gagne earn a save in person was the night before shawn green's 4-homer game in milwaukee.  that was in the early part of gagne's career as a closer, so it wasn't quite the event that a gagne save eventually became.

2006 topps finest jd drew xfractor numbered /250

moving on…

2007 bowman russell martin orange parallel numbered /250

martin has caught nine extra-inning complete games this season, including a 16-inning affair.  i don't know if that is abnormal or not, but it's a cool stat.  he's also hitting .292 on the season which would look nice for a catcher in a dodger box score these days.

so i noted that there was only one card in the package that wasn't serial numbered, and it was this 2014 topps ricky nolasco trajectory auto

topps went all out with nolasco in 2014, adding his sticker auto to cards in multiple sets, and then he went and signed with the twins.

thanks again for all the cards wes!