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?

a dodger memorial patch for campy and big d

when don drysdale made his big league debut in relief on opening day of the 1956 season, his battery mate was roy campanella.  the two were teammates again the following year, which turned out to be campy's last.  some 36 years later, campanella and drysdale passed away within a week of each other - campanella at the age of 71 and drysdale at 56, both dead from heart attacks. 

campanella, who was paralyzed in a car accident in january of 1958, was an 8-time all-star who won three national league mvp awards during his 10-year major league career.  prior to that, he had played in the negro leagues for 10 years, and he had been the first african-american player in the american association, playing for the saint paul saints in 1948 (there is a picture of campy in his saints uniform hanging in target field, the home of the twins).  he reached the majors for good later that season, and in 1969, he became the second african-american player to be voted into the hall of fame, following once again in the footsteps of jackie robinson.  campanella's number 39 was among the first three numbers retired by the dodgers in a 1972 ceremony that also retired the numbers of robinson and sandy koufax.  it was on june 26, 1993 that campanella died at his home.

drysdale had his number 53 retired by the dodgers following his induction into the hall of fame in 1984. he was also an 8-time all-star during his career, leading the league in strikeouts 3 times and winning the cy young award in 1962.  drysdale famously set the record for most consecutive scoreless innings in his final full season when he went 58 and two-thirds innings without allowing a run in 1968.  the streak included six consecutive shutouts from big d.  following his retirement in 1969, drysdale began a career as a broadcaster, and he joined the dodger's broadcasting team in 1988 following the retirement of jerry doggett.  five years later, drysdale was in montreal where the dodgers were playing the expos when he died on july 3, 1993.  it was vin scully who broke the news during that game's broadcast to us dodger fans, noting that don had previously undergone an angioplasty to relieve some heart problems.  what a surreal moment that was.

the dodgers added a memorial patch to their right sleeves for the remainder of the season honoring both hall of famers.  the patch, with the text '39 roy don 53' recognized the numbers that had been retired for each player.  you can see the patch on this 1994 fleer superstar special card of mike piazza and eric karros.

as well as this 1994 fleer superstar special card of brett butler

tom candiotti's 1994 donruss card

shows both the campy/big d patch and the tim crews memorial patch that was worn on the dodgers' left sleeves during the entire 1993 season.

ditto for brett butler's 1994 topps stadium card

which also features a mustachioed butler

butler is clean shaven on his 1994 donruss triple play card

as is tim wallach on his card from the same set

both cards show the patch nicely.

the back of wallach's 1994 topps stadium club card also gives a good view of the patch

as does pedro astacio's 1994 pinnacle card

cards from the 1994 topps set also display the patch - here's dave hansen's card

and ricky trlicek's, too

mike piazza's all-star card

would be a good representative of the patch since he and campanella are two of the greatest offensive catchers in the history of the game, but i think this 1994 upper deck collector's choice raul mondesi card

is the best example of the patch, so it sits in my memorials binder.

a pwe to please me

so, jeff at 2x3 heroes and i are playing hot potato with the pwe's these days (there's one in the mail for you today, jeff).  here are some (yes, jeff fit more than just these cards in a pwe) of the cards that i received in his last missive.

1996 upper deck hideo nomo vj lovero showcase insert

that's a rarely used viewpoint that never gets old.  plus, it qualifies as a 'tatooine' card.  more of those a bit later.

here's a 1986 o-pee-chee card of steve garvey

and a 1987 topps boardwalk and baseball card of the garv as well

those cards make up two-thirds of the pwe's garvey content.  the b/b card is from a boxed set featuring 'top run makers' and was all about each players' "runs produced average" which was just (runs scored + rbi)/games played.  real scientific sabermetric stuff back in 1987.

this is a 1995 fleer ultra pedro astacio card

which, when considered from the standpoint of the envelope's contents as a whole, was kind of out of place.

there were other dodgers, but they were from the 2000 fleer greats of the game set, and included this fantastic preacher roe card.

just a beautiful thing.

here's a less interesting card from the same set featuring gil hodges

now back to tatooine cards.  joe randa is looking for droids on his 2003 donruss card

as is morgan ensberg on his 2004 upper deck card

and jason michaels as well, on his 2007 topps card

thanks jeff - you're it!

specifically pacific

i received a box of cards in the mail on monday that featured a large number of pacific cards, courtesy of the patp dude.  as i prepare for a post, i am clearing my scanned folder of pacific cards that were not a part of that package.  now then, enjoy some cards that span the pacific trading card company's existence.

1990 pacific legends johnny podres

such humble beginnings.

1993 pacific mike sharperson

starting in 1993, pacific took a slant towards the latino market.  in spanish, 'baseball' translates to 'beisbol', although 'base' translates to 'base'.

1993 pacific darryl strawberry

no, jardinero is outfielder, not underachiever

1994 pacific pedro astacio

in 1994, pacific added the crown to their cards, and the idea of the 'crown collection'.  it wasn't until later that they had a specific set called 'crown collection', so i just call this 1994 pacific

1994 pacific rafael bournigal

they even had their own version of the rookie cup.  sorry, novato cup

1994 pacific pedro martinez

petey is sporting the tim crews memorial patch

1994 pacific brett butler

while butler is showing the don drysdale/roy campanella memorial patch.  which reminds me, i need to do a specific memorials post for that one.

1994 pacific jim gott

wrigley field was a popular source of photos for pacific it would seem.

1994 pacific raul mondesi

mondesi was the novato of the year in 1994.  you can see both of the memorial patches on his card.

1994 pacific darryl strawberry

must be opening day in dodger stadium - there was really no other reason for the dodgers to break out the bunting in the early 90's

1994 pacific tim wallach

back in wrigley - with a lurking mike piazza on deck

unfortunately i didn't have any crazy pacific parallels to post here, but here's a 2000 pacific crown royale shaw green feature attractions insert

pretty tame by 2000 pacific standards.  i maintain that 2000 pacific invincible is one of the greatest releases in history.

anyway, i'll be showing off a bunch of pacific cards that brian sent in the not too distant future. i won't just limit it to dodgers, either.

finest

so, the dodgers clinched last night, and things are set up pretty well for the rotation going into the playoffs.  i am not one of those who are adamantly opposed to pitchers winning the mvp, although it would take a very special case for me to support not giving the award to an everyday player.  that said, clayton kershaw is your national league mvp.  here's his 2014 topps finest card

when it came to choosing my favorite dodger from among the young crop of players including kershaw, james loney, russell martin, and matt kemp, i chose kemp over kershaw largely because of the everyday thing.  here's his 2014 topps finest card

i haven't had a pitcher as my favorite dodger since the lean years of the early 1990's, and i'm not giving up on kemp, but holy shnikes kershaw is fantastic!  consider that the dodgers are 23-4 in his starts this year, and 68-64 in everybody else's.  he's going to lead the national league in era for the fourth straight season (hello, sandy koufax), and he leads the national league in war - not just for pitchers, but for all players. kemp hasn't been so bad either, working back from the injuries that sucked the life out of his 2013 season.  he probably won't challenge 40/40 again, but his slugging percentage is getting back up towards .500 which is nice.

those are the only two dodgers i have from this year's finest release, but i do have a couple of 20-year old finest cards languishing in the scanned folder.  here are delino deshields

 and pedro astacio

kemp and kershaw, they are not.

flush with dodgers

are jokers wild? if so, then tom from the angels, in order sent me a flush.  there's eric karros from the 1992 bicycle rookies playing card set

not sure if he's a smoker or a midnight toker, but he is a joker.  then there's eddie murray from the 1991 international playing card company all-stars set

pedro astacio from the 1992 rookies set

brett butler from the all-stars set

and another karros card from the rookies set

cue motorhead…i'll wait.

there were a couple other playing cards in the package - memorial types - that i will show in future posts.  there were also cards from another sort of game - 1991 classic.  here's a darryl strawberry card from the first series (i think) that features him with former teammate dwight gooden

if you want to see more of doc and darryl, check out the timeless teams post from yesterday.  if you want to trade with tom, check out the angels, in order.

thanks for the trade tom!