taking the trade train from p-town

tom from waiting 'til next year let me know that he had found some oddball dodger card, and asked if i would be interested. of course i would! so, the cards were sent my way, and my collection is all the better for it.

the package included some 'swell' cards, including actual swell cards, of which one was this 1990 swell baseball greats steve garvey card

i've got one in the garvey binders, but needed one for the dodger binders.  excellent.

there were also quite a few 1975 (some say 1976) sspc cards, such as willie crawford

crawford was traded after the 1975 season to make way for reggie smith in the outfield so i can't really complain about the dodgers not keeping him around, but he had some solid years as their right fielder.  crawford won a world series ring at the age of 18 in 1965, and helped the club return to the fall classic in 1974, too.  he almost became a double dipper as part of the team of my youth, but didn't make the club out of spring training in 1977.

there were a bunch of pacific legends, too, like this 1990 clem labine card

labine was a 2-time all-star and a key cog on the dodgers' 1955 world championship team, so i'm glad to see him get some cardboard appreciation.

here's a very cool 2009 tristar obak duke snider card

he's shown as a member of the fort worth cats, which puts this image from 1946.  snider spent that season with the dodgers' double-a affiliate, playing alongside future dodger coach monty basgall.

tom was kind enough to include an insert card of the reigning cy young award winner and mvp, clayton kershaw - a 2014 donruss diamond kings card

modeled after the 1984 version of the diamond king subsets.  you all know who the first dodger diamond king was, don't you? yes, it was steve garvey.

here's a 2012 bowman chrome prospect card of o'koyea dickson

he was a 12th round pick in 2011, and spent 2014 at double-a chattanooga.  will he make the jump to okc in 2015?  let's wait and see.

here are a couple more cards from the package that may not otherwise have warranted a scan - 1994 donruss billy ashley

and 1987 donruss brian holton

this may well be the first time anyone has bothered to scan a 1987 donruss brian holton card.  you're welcome.

thanks for the cards tom!

they came from outer space

what a great haul of cards i received recently from david at tribe cards as a result of his generous 'tribe cards from outer space' giveaway.  in all the packs david opened last season, he only pulled one steve garvey card (1993 ted williams) and one davey lopes card (1987 topps record breaker), but there were other dodgers and random players i had drafted that were well represented.  like alfredo griffin.

that's his 1988 donruss baseball's best card, and this is his 1990 fleer card

i picked up alejandro pena somewhere along the way, and was rewarded with a 1987 fleer card

here's a 1992 topps stadium club mike sharperson card

and a couple of billy ashley cards - 1994 donruss triple play

and 1994 topps

also from 1994 topps, here's jim gott

james loney was represented by his 2012 topps a&g card

my strategy was to draft dodgers, members of the dodger team of my youth, and middle infielders - hoping for some double play turns.  that meant that i received some non-dodger cards of former dodgers, like this 2012 topps a&g black bordered mini of russell martin

and more yankees - tommy john

and rick rhoden

from 1988 donruss baseball's best.

i also wound up with tim wallach on my list, so received his baseball's best card

as well as that of fellow expo bryn smith

and giant craig lefferts

i can explain bryn smith - here's his regular 1988 donruss card, by the way

as he's a local guy made good and i sometimes think about pulling together a player collection.  but lefferts?  i forgot why i added him to my list until i saw his regular donruss card

featuring the right field pavilion at dodger stadium as a backdrop.

i've got some more cards from this package to show off, and i'll do so later today...

ultra shenanigans

greg gagne welcomes you to this post with his 1997 fleer ultra card.

but wait, i thought that this was his 1997 fleer ultra card

shows what i know.  or used to know.  i was not aware that the ultra gold medallion parallels in 1997 featured different photography until a couple of years ago.  i had previously largely dismissed the gold parallels, but this means that i missed out on this todd zeile card 

because i only had this one

so, i went out and picked up a few other gold medallion cards of dodgers from 1997 fleer ultra.  ismael valdes

and mike piazza

and hideo nomo

and raul mondesi

and ramon martinez

and todd hollandsworth

and wilton guerrero

and karim garcia

plus an insert or two, like this nomo/piazza double trouble card

i do not believe that this gme variation extends itself to other ultra releases.

unfortunately, i only have the base versions from 1998 fleer ultra of dennis reyes

and todd hollandsworth

in my scanned folder

i also had a 1995 fleer ultra garey ingram

plus gme cards of billy ashley

darren dreifort

and todd worrell

but those don't prove anything.

just for fun, and to clear out space in the scanned folder, here are a couple of mondesi insert from 1995 fleer ultra

he's got raw power!

well, at least i know that 2005 fleer ultra didn't have different photos for their gold medallion editions - here's hideo nomo's base card

and his gme

i need to go check my binders...

inspired by fuji and amused by ashley

i received some cards from fuji a while back.  it was a great mix of dodgers, including a 2002 leaf certified joe thurston jersey card

and a 2000 fleer ultra eric karros gold medallion edition parallel

i also received a 1992 topps eric karros gold 'winner' card

which shows karros in a posed ready to bat stance.

using some of the other cards in the package, we can follow a dodger swing from the ready position on karros' card, to this 1997 donruss dodgers team set greg gagne card

to this 1998 donruss preferred raul mondesi die-cut card

to this 1995 score select billy ashley card

that ashley card is fantastic.  it's got the pinnacle museum treatment and an umpire noting that ashley 'can't miss'.  he missed.

back to that donruss dodger team card of gagne.  fuji included almost a complete team set.  here's roger cedeno's card

there were three cards missing, so i went to sportlots to complete the set.  of course, i needed the big 3 of the time - raul mondesi

hideo nomo

and mike piazza

thanks for the cards fuji, and for the inspiration to complete a team set!