abercrombie & thurston

i completed a dodger team set recently.  it is the pretty much forgettable 2001 topps reserve, of which i have several copies of cards featuring adrian beltre, kevin brown, gary sheffield, shawn green, and eric karros.  heck, i got all five of those cards in a crackin' wax box break last year.

unfortunately for me, topps short printed 50 cards in the set - all rookies - and numbered them to /1500. the dodgers had two players in that part of the set, and i tracked them down late last year.

reggie abercrombie

 and joe thurston

abercrombie went from the dodgers to the diamondbacks as part of the steve finley trade in 2004 before cracking the big leagues with the marlins in 2006.  he played for the marlins again in 2007 and then finished his big league career with the astros in 2008.

as for thurston, he made it to the majors as a dodger in 2002 and had additional cups of coffee with the team in 2003 and 2004.  he's appeared in the majors with four other teams since then (phillies, red sox, cardinals, and marlins) and appeared in 124 games for saint louis in 2009.  he's bounced around more than his major league stats might suggest, however, as from the dodgers he went to the yankees, followed by stints with the phillies, nationals, phillies again, red sox, cardinals, braves, marlins, astros, phillies again, and the twins.  after spending 2013 in the mexican league, thurston signed a minor league deal with the brewers for 2014.  he's not done yet.  but i am, with this team set.

warning - overdue trade post - good thing this sushi doesn't spoil

here are some cards i received in a trade with speigel, a fellow dodger enthusiast.  leading off is a nice 2001 topps double play turn, courtesy of adam kennedy

the star of the card, however, is obviously dodger lurker fp santangelo.  i don't think fp got a topps card of his own as a dodger, so it's especially appreciated.

1999 fleer si kevin brown

in transition.  brown had signed his ridiculously long contract along with the private jet concessions when this card came out.  how is it that i knew it would end badly for the dodgers, but the sheriff didn't?  or was it still dan evans back then?

2007 bowman chrome spike lundberg

spike the dog, spike jones, spike jonze, spike mendelsohn... those are legitimate 'spikes'.  not sure about this lundberg character.

2001 topps stars reggie abercrombie

abercrombie never made it to the bigs with the dodgers.  they traded him away in 2004, and he surfaced as a major leaguer eventuallly for the marlins and astros.

1997 ud collector's choice wilton guerrero

sadly, not his brother vladimir.  although, i also received this card

so i feel a little better.  upper deck didn't have to show the whole continental united states, though, they could have just shown la and orange county.  upon closer inspection, i see that they put a couple of dots in the southland.  i guess that makes sense, but aren't rivals, by definition, in close geographical proximity to each other?  it's not like vladdy and manny were rivals before they played for the angels and dodgers, right?  i am overanalyzing a decently cool card.  apologies.

last but not least, a 2010 bowman platinum clayton kershaw

lock him up, ned.

thanks speigel!