that lurking lasorda

sometimes, tommy lasorda shows up where you would least expect him.  like fielding grounders behind a rookie first baseman on eric karros' 1993 upper deck sp card.

other times, he's congratulating players as heroes returning to the dugout like tim wallach on wallach's 1994 upper deck card

or trying to impart some knowledge to bob ojeda on his 1992 upper deck card

although, if i were ojeda, i'm not sure i would take the advice of a guy who was 0-4 on his career.  other times, he appears in name only, like on roger mcdowell's 1993 upper deck card.

of course, he also fills out cards all on his own as seen on this 2003 upper deck vintage card.

hopefully there are some card photographers getting ready to head to spring training.  i'd take a boring posed photo with tommy lurking in the background any day.

the 'perfect' background lurkers card

here's another one of my favorite cards - it's the 1992 topps tom lasorda card.

lasorda, who was in the midst of his slim fast ways and still using his feet rather than a golf cart to get around, is surrounded by a litany of dodger lurkers.  gary carter, kevin gross, john candelaria, orel hershiser and bobby ojeda. 

with all of those pitchers, there are a total of 638 career victories accounted for on this card.  lasorda, of course, contributes 0 to that total.  at least he's one of the two hall of famers featured.

here's to you, 1992 topps tom lasorda (with all of your background lurkers) - you're perfection on cardboard!

above average cards from average joe

i recently completed a trade with average joe and here are some of the cards i received:

1989 bowman fernando valenzuela

check out those stirrups!  i think they make fernando look taller.  speaking of taller, i am not/was not a fan of topps trotting out the early 50's size for these cards.  i think they learned their lesson, as they have not done so since.

1986 fleer ron cey

it's still strange to see cey as a cub.

1988 fleer star sticker steve sax

saxy!

1990 fleer jose gonzalez

i think there were high hopes for jose in the late 80's but by 1990 things had not panned out.  the dodgers traded him to cleveland for mitch webster.

1991 leaf bobby ojeda

the dodgers acquired ojeda from the mets for hubie brooks, and he pitched pretty well for them in 91.  in 92, though, he was part of the worst team in los angeles dodger history, not that it was his fault by any stretch of the imagination.  still, i associate him (and eric davis and todd benzinger and a few other dodger transients) with that team.  after leaving the dodgers as a free agent, ojeda signed with cleveland for the 93 season.  ojeda was in the boat that tim crews was driving when crews and steve olin were killed during spring training 1993.  he did pitch for cleveland later that season, but made only 11 total appearances after the accident.

thanks joe! hope you enjoyed the cards i sent your way.

more waxaholic goodness

i am slowly catching up with trades. here's a bunch of goodies that came from waxaholic.

1989 donruss mookie wilson. a nice dodger stadium shot. there's not much else that is redeeming about 1989 donruss.

1990 donruss bryn smith diamond king.

1990 donruss is worse. i must say that i requested these first two cards specifically. the mookie for the dodger stadium background and this one because smith is from my hometown. i like the cave painting on this card. on the right you have the ocean waves (although the water is orange), a red tee-pee, a purple river, and an orange sun.

1991 score greg gagne.this one i pulled from some junk wax he sent along. future dodger is getting dave henderson's elbow in his nuts as he turns two. it's a thankless job.

and then there were three 1991 upper deck dodgers i asked for - bob ojeda first.

ojeda went 12-9 for the dodgers in 1991. ojeda had nothing to do with it, but the giants eliminated the dodgers on the second to last day of the season that year. boo.

orel hershiser.

orel looks like he is 12 and thinks his glove is cuddly. hershiser was 7-2 in 1991 after missing most of 1990 with a shoulder injury. it was his last winning season as a dodger.

eric karros.

the 1992 nl roy went 1 for 14 in 1991. his only hit was a 12th inning rbi double off the immortal milt hill.

thanks captain canuck!

call me a variation(wax)aholic

a while back, captain canuck posted a lament about finding 1971 o-pee-chee cards. at that time, i had exactly two in my collection - al downing and duke sims, both of whom were "recently traded to dodgers". there is another dodger variation in the set - alan foster, who was traded from the dodgers to the indians. now, if you have read this site before, you may know how much i like these o-pee-chee variations.

so, i asked brian if he had a double of foster - he did not, but he offered to send it to me anyway. well, i received it the other day, and, like the game of ball, it is glorious.
side note number one: a reader contacted me a while back looking for information on 1971 o-pee-chee variations, which got me thinking, maybe i should go for all 13 variations, not just the dodger related ones. so, i have added them to my want list, minus some i found a couple weekends ago.

side note number two: i found out last night that i am a canadian citizen, thanks to yesterday's amendment to the canadian citizenship act, so these o-pee-chee cards are even better, eh?

brian also included some junk wax, which i thought about posting on craigslist for thousands of dollars, but i couldn't resist ripping some 91 fleer. there were a bunch of great cards, surprisingly enough. check these out:

1991 o-pee-chee premier (so it's not the topps sister set, that's ok)

bobby ojeda.
gregg olson.
alex cole.
junior!bernard gilkey.
pete incaviglia

1991 score

dan pasqua (in old-timey uniform)
jim leyritz.
steve avery.
chuck finley.
scott chiamparino.
darren reed.
mark lee.
adam hyzdu.
glenn wilson.
les lancaster.
kurt stillwell. a double play! stillwell must have the highest double play photo to card ratio of any player ever.stan belinda.
1958 world series sportflic thingy.
geno petralli.
shawon dunston.
alejandro pena. as a met.
luis salazar.

1991 fleer. avert your eyes.

detroit tigers sticker.
dave lapoint.
terry leach.
bj surhoff.
trevor wilson.
randy veres.
bert blyleven. bert belongs.
jeff robinson.
jack mcdowell.
bryan harvey.
bo jackson. bo knows junk wax.

joe klink.
dwayne henry.
howard johnson.
jerry reed.

1991 topps

david cone.
dennis rasmussen.
mike marshall. as a red sock.the mets kept him for only half a season.

kirk mccaskill. the pride of kapuskasing ontario.
chuck cary.
frank white.
terry mulholland.
curt schilling.
bert blyleven. i'll show this one since it's not dandelion yellow.rich garces. el guapo.
dennis cook. loogy. as in 'lefty one out guy'.mike simms.
dave martinez.
dave rohde.
nelson liriano.

1989 score. this was a grocery pack. keep that in mind.

jose lind.
lenny dykstra.
larry sheets. what was he on in 1987?
tony gwynn. i used to love going down to san diego to see the padres play the dodgers. i secretly rooted for tony gwynn, even in those games.rafael ramirez.
bob ojeda.
claudell washington.
1983 sportflic thingy.
craig biggio.
goose gossage.
manny lee.
paul zuvella. turning two!dave meads. in dodger stadium!rich gedman.
darrin jackson.
terry steinbach.
mark davis.
scott bankhead (young superstar insert)
glenn hubbard.
andy allanson.
chili davis.
terry kennedy.
harold baines.
greg gross.
1935 sportflic thingy.
craig biggio. i guess i'll show it the second time around.goose gossage. ditto.manny lee. sorry manny. you'll have to show up 5 or 6 times before i bother.
roger clemens.
steve jeltz.
orel hershiser. 23-8. 15 complete games. singing hymns on the tonight show.doug jennings.
jose rijo. in dodger stadium.
cecil fielder.
jose deleon.
andy hawkins.
1942 sportflic thingy.
jamie moyer.
jim gott.
chris bosio.
mark clear.
gary ward.
greg cadaret.
mike 'enough' aldrete. once bought beer for me and my friends.dave leiper.
tracy jones.
larry parrish.
mike birkbeck.
john tudor.

1989 topps.

steve ontiveros.
andres galarraga (all star)
gregg jefferies (record breaker)
checklist.
scott lusader.
chili davis.
terry puhl. the pride of melville saskatchewan. terry mcgriff.
andy benes.
jeff robinson.
wes gardner.
mike greenwell (all star)
wil tejada.
jim gott.
tom lasorda. pre-slimfast.frank viola (all star).
brian fisher.
allan anderson. i believe he skipped a start to ensure that he would lead the league in era.
cecilio guante. the legend continues!
ricky jordan.
mark gubicza.
garry templeton.
andre dawson (record breaker).
greg walker.
jack mcdowell.
denny walling. men are from mars, women are from venus, denny walling is from neptune (nj).
ron gant.
dion james.
dave eiland. i show this only because topps gave him a card after making only 3 starts for the yankees, but didn't bother with a regular issue card for don sutton (they did give him a box bottom card).
thanks captain. that was a lot of fun.

ud conspiracy - the number of the dodgers

so, i had long wondered about the way upper deck numbered its sets. every year, the dodgers had the '666' card assigned to them. after reading "card sharks" recently, i now know that it was by design. the guy who was in charge of numbering the sets hated the dodgers. probably a giants fan, jealous of the success the dodgers have enjoyed on the west coast while his pitiful team loses year after year.

anyway, here are the 'dodgers of the beast'

1989 kirk gibson world series highlight

if there is any call for jealousy, i suppose gibby's home run would fit the bill.

there doesn't appear to be any bias on the back, though.

1990 jose gonzalez.at least upper deck got the pictures right, unlike topps in 1991.again, no apparent malice. a nice photo of jose in dodger stadium.

1991 mickey hatcher. with an oversized glove. i think jose guzman later used this glove for an upper deck card, too. or does every team have an oversized mitt, just in case?

a nice photo of the stuntman on the back - either having received a hot-foot, or stamping out a flaming bag of dog turds. nice view of the left field pavilion in the background.

1992 bob ojeda.

with uncle tommy. i guess tommy is a polarizing figure, so i can understand the desire to give a card with him lurking the 666 number.1993 jim gottthe irony is nice here. gott, of course, translates to 'god' in german.gott's card would be the last of the '666' dodgers. primarily because upper deck trimmed the size of its sets in 1994 through 1997.

in 1998, though, they assigned numbers based on teams' cities alphabetically. this meant that the reds' steve cooke was assigned the number of the beast that year.

at least he's wearing red.

a 2009 goose joak original in the o-pee-chee spirit

i am a big fan of o-pee-chee cards. more specifically, of the variations they created when a player switched teams in the off season. i have posted about them here and here and here and even one here.

so, while putting together some more 2009 goose joak originals, i decided to forego the images coming from spring training and do some o-pee-chee tribute for a veteran spring training invitee.

i give you the 2009 goose joak original doug mientkiewicz.it's more of a 70's/80's o-pee-chee tributethan a 90's one.i don't know why they stopped changing the card design to reflect the player's new team in the '90's.

anyway, i am actually a big mientkiewicz fan, having watched him during his time here in minnesota. he was a big fan favorite, despite the fact that he publicly called out manager tom kelly, and has remained so even after his departure to the red sox and beyond.

doug has been a one and done player since leaving the twins, spending half of 2004 with the red sox, 2005 with the mets, 2006 with the royals, 2007 with the yankees, and 2008 with the pirates.

here's hoping he wins a spot (as long as he deserves it) backing up loney and blake.