omg omega

i promised to show some more pacific cards from the box that play at the plate sent a while back, so here are a few cards from 1998 pacific omega that came my way.  i'll start with what may have been the best card of the box - mike piazza's 1998 pacific omega card

yes, it is technically a mets card, but i'll keep it in my collection because it is also a non-dodger dodger card.  pacific decided to forego the foil photo that was supposed to go on the right side of the card in order to honor all three teams for whom piazza suited up in 1998.  i appreciate that.

here are some regular cards from the set, and 'real' dodgers at that - bobby bonilla

wilton guerrero

todd hollandsworth

paul konerko

raul mondesi

ismael valdes

here are some non-dodgers for the heck of it:

brad fullmer

who is featured because we should remember the expos

barry bonds

rickey henderson

cal ripken jr.

mariano rivera

david ortiz

and david wells

with what may have been the second best card in the box.

pacific didn't play by the rules, and that's why they have so many cool cards in my opinion. maybe if topps made cards like the three-team piazza or used a photo from david wells' perfect game on his base card, i wouldn't be so attracted to pacific's stuff.

pacific at the plate

like many of you, i received a big ol' box of cards from play at the plate a while back. i posted some of the stuff that was included, but figured i should show more of the haul. i had specifically requested cards from pacific - the makers of some fantastically designed cards in the late 1990's and early 2000's.  there weren't any that were too crazy in what brian sent (no 2000 invincible, for example), but there was some good stuff nonetheless.  here's some of it.

1998 pacific paramount eric karros

1998 pacific paramount jose canseco

1998 pacific paramount tony gwynn

1998 pacific paramount orel hershiser

it is difficult to accept the reality of hershiser wearing a giants' uniform.

bobby bo was well represented in the box - here's his 1999 pacific

and 1999 pacific crown collection

cards.  plus, an alex cora card from 1999 pacific crown collection

former dodger prospect john franco is wearing a green cap for st. patrick's day on his 1999 pacific crown collection card

so that warrants an inclusion in the post. franco pitched in over 1100 games - i hope getting rafael landestoy back was worth it for al campanis and company.

here are some cards from 1999 pacific aurora - mark grudzielanek

raul mondesi

and reggie sanders

the sanders has an o-pee-chee type feel to it, without the text. i appreciate the lack of airbrushing on these types of cards.

finally, i mentioned that there were no cards from 2000 pacific invincible, but there were a few from the 1999 invincible release.  here's gary sheffield's card

and a couple of ben grieve seismic force inserts

they are actually the same insert with different photos.  the backs have identical text and numbers, but also use different photos

the portrait photo on the back goes with the one that has a portrait on the front, i believe.

this is just a small amount of the pacific goodness brian sent.  i scanned a bunch more, so you should see a couple more posts of this kind of stuff.  i can't get enough of pacific - the weirder, the better.  thanks brian.

all hands on deck

this week's installment of the 1979 post raisin bran steve garvey's baseball tips is a little 'pie in the sky' if you ask me.  i never had a whole lot of time in the on deck circle to make a lot of observations.  guys i hit behind went up there hacking.  things must be different in the pros, i guess.

on deck images of players are fairly boring, so there aren't too many that i am aware of.  usually when you see someone on deck, it's because they are in the background of someone at the plate, like on this 1998 upper deck bobby bonilla card

 or this 1999 pacific matt luke card

but there are some on deck cards nonetheless. perhaps the best example is the 1972 topps/o-pee-chee willie davis card (this is the o-pee-chee version)

although willie doesn't seem to be following the game too intently.  to me, it looks like he's enjoying some down time in the sun.

here's mike piazza's 1998 topps gallery card

piazza is getting his bat ready as the garv suggests, but will he have time to study the pitcher?  well, in 1997 i remember he was hitting behind raul mondesi who wasn't the most patient hitter, so i will guess that the answer is 'no'.

only about 5 weeks until spring training!

from alston to young to me from someone

one day last week i got a couple of card packages in the mail, which, as you all can imagine, is not a rare occurrence. one of the packages, however, had me stumped.  there was a return address, but no name, and there was nothing inside the envelope other than a big brick of dodger cards.  no note.  i put that issue aside and delved into the cards.  they were provided in alphabetical order by last name, and while it wasn't aase to zimmer, it was close.  the first thing i saw was walter alston's mug.

this is a 2005 topps 'dem bums' insert card

it's cool because smokey didn't have a card in the 1955 topps set.  he did get a 1955 style card in the 1995 topps brooklyn dodger archives set, but it was different than the one above.

next up is adrian beltre

on a 2004 donruss career stat line card.  it's numbered to 262 since beltre's career batting average after the 2003 season was .262.  it's too bad it wasn't numbered /1 which would have been the number of botched appendectomies beltre had undergone.  i am compelled to remind everyone that beltre finished 2nd in the national league mvp vote in 2004 behind barry bonds, whose obp that year was .609!  good golly miss molly that's a high obp.

here's barry's former teammate bobby bonilla on a 1999 fleer tradition warning track parallel

it's actually a mets card, but i'll hang on to it.

i did not know anything about bob borkowski before i received this card

he was included in the 1955 topps set, but as a cincinnati red.  in fact, check out his card - it looks a lot like this one, as does his card from the 1995 archive set.  borkowski was the player the dodgers received in exchange for joe black.  he appeared in 9 games for the team in 1955, but did not appear in the postseason.

if this 1995 score 'hall of gold' card weren't so shiny,

you would see that delino deshields is turning two.  i wonder if there is a non-gold version of the card.  hall of glossy, maybe?

here's another shiny card, a 2004 ud reflections card of jason frasor

frasor was one of two pitchers that the dodgers acquired from the tigers in 2002 for hiram bocachica.  they flipped him in 2004 to the blue jays for jayson werth.

this 1996 fleer ultra greg gagne gold medallion card

scans better than it looks in person.  at first i thought it was a card from a pacific set.

much nicer is this 2000 fleer ultra todd hundley gold medallion card

i did a little bit of research on the address, and determined that the package (of which i will show more later) was sent to me by eutaw street cardboard as part of his 'name your team' promotion.  thanks kent!

bobby bo strikes again

my recent post about 1998 pacific online reminded me that i had sent bobby bonilla's card to him in hopes that he would sign and return it.  i also included a 1998 fleer tradition vintage '63 card, as well as a 1999 upper deck card (for a trade i was working on since he had already signed one of those for me).  here's what i got back.

the 1998 fleer tradition vintage '63 card

and a 1993 topps card

say what?  close but no cigar.  don't fret, though - i sent the autographed night card to a collector of such items.  i'm sure that's what bobby bo intended all along.

thanks bobby!

the continuing evolution of the out of place guy

i left off the last time with don stanhouse.  definitely out of place as a dodger.  his former teammate, mark belanger also joined the dodgers in the early 80's - 1982 to be exact.

after 17 years of playing shortstop for the orioles, belanger was displaced by cal ripken jr and so he headed west for his final season.  he took his 8 gold gloves and hit .240 for the defending world champs in 54 games.

a couple of years later, prior to the 1985 season, the dodgers traded for al oliver

oliver was just 2 years removed from leading the league in hitting when the dodgers signed him.  he hit .253 for them until they sent him to toronto in july of '85 for len matuszek.  when i think of oliver i think of him as a pirate or an expo.  not a dodger.  he was out of place, even though it was for just a short time.

in '86 the dodgers picked up a couple of veterans to play third base - enos cabell and bill madlock.  i don't consider them out of place simply because they stuck around for more than one season.  but, there was another third baseman in the mix in '87:  phil garner.  the dodgers traded for garner during the 1987 season, and scrap iron took to the dodgers like a fish out of water.

he hit a buck-ninety after joining the dodgers in mid-june, pinch hitting and playing some second base, short and of course some third base.  in fact, he was their primary third baseman for the last part of the season.  he signed as a free agent with the giants for the 1988 season, ending his turn as the dodgers' out of place guy after just 70 games.

after the dodgers' 1988 world championship, the dodgers and yankees essentially traded second baseman, although steve sax and willie randolph were both free agents

randolph spent 1989 as the dodgers' second baseman, and he did so admirably.  he hit .282 and made the all=star team.  donruss even made him a 'diamond king' in 1990.  speaking of 1990, the dodgers traded randolph to the a's in may of that year since they had juan samuel to play second.

the dodgers then acquired another short-timer for the 1990 season in hubie brooks

brooks was the dodgers' right fielder in 1990 and didn't do too badly - he tied his career high of 20 home runs and drove in 91, but the dodgers signed darryl strawberry for the 1991 season, so brooks was sent packing.

they replaced brooks as the out of place guy for the 1991 season with a hall of famer - gary carter!

carter had been with the giants in 1990 after bottoming out with the mets in '89.  he caught (as mike scioscia's backup) but also played some first base for the dodgers.  he hit .246 with 6 home runs and was re-acquired by the expos for a farewell tour in time for the 1992 season.

in the ensuing seasons, the dodgers employed the services of a few different players who didn't stick around long - todd benzinger, jody reed, jeff treadway, roberto kelly, mike blowers, darren lewis, and otis nixon to name most of them.  but the next truly out of place guy was bobby bonilla.

acquired in the mike piazza trade, i don't think the dodgers could get rid of bobby bo quickly enough.  they really wanted sheffield and were ready to commit to 19 year old adrian beltre at third base.  still, bonilla matched beltre's production although just barely.  bonilla was traded to the mets after the season ended and steve phillips went nuts.

coming soon, the out of place guys of the 2000's!