is it possible to complete a 1996 fleer dodger team set from just two packs? and for just 50 cents?

while wallet card and i were at the local card shop, i found some loose packs marked at a quarter apiece. among them were some packs of 1996 fleer dodgers cards.

with 10 cards per pack, and 20 cards in the team set, i wondered - could i complete a team set with just two packs?

here's the checklist of the then defending nl west champions

and here's the back of that card

which is pretty much the same as the front of the logo card

whose back looks like this

the background on those cards kind of reminds me of 1995 fleer in a way.

as for the 18 players in the set, here is what their cards look like

a complete team set, although it took 5 packs to get there.  i think there was a mike blowers card in four of the five packs, and only one hideo nomo card.  for some reason, todd worrell was also tough to come by in my small sample size.  still, a team set for $1.25 is not too shabby.

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.

the dodgers' tim crews memorial patch

tim crews was a reliever for the dodgers from 1987 through 1992, coming over from the brewers with tim leary in exchange for steve garvey's replacement, greg brock.  he pitched effectively enough - he had a 3.05 era for the club through the 1991 season - but after a subpar 1992 campaign, the dodgers allowed him to leave via free agency.  here's his 1992 o-pee-chee card.

crews signed with the indians, along with another dodger teammate turned free agent, bob ojeda.

it was during spring training in 1993 that crews, along with ojeda and fellow cleveland pitcher steve olin, took a boat ride looking for gators on little lake nellie that ended with crews and olin dead, and ojeda severely injured.  the boat, with crews behind the wheel, had hit an unlit dock, killing olin instantly.  crews died a while later at the hospital.

the dodgers wore a patch in crews' memory for the 1993 season - his number 52 in a black circle.  this was similar to the memorial they wore during the 1978 world series following jim gilliam's passing.  it shows up on a lot of 1994 cards, including cory snyder's 1994 topps card

darryl strawberry's 1994 topps card (this is the gold parallel version)

also has the patch on display, as does his 2005 topps retired card (also the gold parallel version)

since topps recycled the photo.  here's a different photo of darryl with the patch visible on his 1994 topps finest card

later in the season, the dodgers also lost don drysdale and roy campanella, and honored them with a memorial patch on their right sleeves.  i'll address that particular memorial in a separate post, but you can see it, along with the crews patch, on tom candiotti's 1994 donruss card

with a photo taken on a sunny day in dodger stadium.

both patches are again on display (along with a tremendous mustache) on brett butler's 1994 topps stadium card

with just the crews patch (and no mustache) visible on the back

for a while, i had this 1994 upper deck collector's choice card

pegged as the representative for the crews memorial in my binder, but i also considered tim wallach's 1994 topps stadium club card

as well as the rainbow foil parallel

and even thought about jody reed's 1994 fleer flair card

ultimately, i decided that the best card to represent the tim crews memorial patch in my collection is eric karros' 1994 bowman card

crews left behind a family, as did olin, as well as a lot of affected teammates and club personnel.  they were the first active major leaguers to pass away since thurman munson died in 1979.  the indians also wore a patch to honor crews and olin, and i'll show some examples of that later today.

dodgers for indians

the dodgers have made a few trades with the indians that i can recall off the top of my head.  they acquired pedro guerrero from cleveland, sent rick sutcliffe and jack perconte to the tribe for jorge orta, traded franklin gutierrez for milton bradley, and shipped carlos santana off for casey blake.  well, several months ago, i made my first trade with indian fan baseball dad.  it's taken me a long time to get to this trade post, but i finally made it.

the most unusual card in the return package was this 1993 topps commanders of the hill tom candiotti card

the candy man pitched for the indians (twice), but signed with the dodgers as a free agent after a short stint in toronto.  according to baseballcardpedia, these cards were available on military bases and were sold with the purchase of a fountain drink.  that explains the coca-cola logo on the back.  very cool - i had not seen these before.

i had seen these before - 1982 donruss burt hooton

and 1983 donruss terry forster

but it is always nice to get cards featuring two pitchers from the team of my youth!

1995 fleer rudy seanez

not quite 6 years of blogging, and i had not shown a 1995 fleer card until just now.  not sure if that is good or bad.

1999 topps stars adrian beltre - one star

and two stars

good thing topps stopped at four stars, otherwise you'd be in beltre's nose

2002 upper deck prospect premieres james loney

the dodgers' first round pick in 2002 still hasn't turned those doubles into home runs (11 doubles/1 home run so far in 2014), but he hit a huge home run for the dodgers in the 2008 nlds.

2005 leaf steve finley

finley also hit a memorable grand slam for the dodgers - his walk-off job won the nl west title for the dodgers in 2004

2009 upper deck x manny ramirez x5 insert

2008 seems like so long ago, but manny absolutely destroyed the competition after joining the dodgers.

2014 topps hanley ramirez target red parallel

believe it or not, this was the first 2014 topps card i owned.  that's how long it's been since this trade.  thanks baseball dad!

a series of signatures

finding an autographed card in a pack of cards was still a relatively new thing in 1996, and leaf took the idea to an extreme that year with their signature series set.  it was the first set to offer an autographed card in every pack.  i did not partake back then, but over the past few years i have picked up many of the dodgers from the set.  it's nice to see on-card autos of the 'gritty' players and loogys and other roster filler types that don't usually get any 'hit' love.  it makes sense - the only way to keep the cost down for a set like that is to fill the checklist with the salt of the earth types.

here's chad fonville

little chad went on a tear in 1995 after coming over from the expos.  dude played everywhere, stole some bases, and was generally a sparkplug.  hit .500 in the nlds, too - 6 for 12 against the reds.  1996 was not as exciting, however.

darren dreifort

so much potential, too many injuries.

roger cedeno

after not showing much as a part-time outfielder for the dodgers, cedeno had a big year for the mets in 1999 - .313 average, 66 steals in 155 games - but the dodgers had arnold gooch.  ok, they had todd hundley, too.

tom candiotti

the candy man was 7-14 with a 3.50 era for a first place team in 1995.  that's weird.  ramon martinez was 17-7 with a 3.66 era.  it turns out that the dodgers scored 1 run or less in 11 of candiotti's starts that year.  of course, he also got shellacked a few times.

pedro astacio

or, as we called him, pistachio.  get crackin'.  the only pitcher i was ever able to 'throw' a no-hitter with in all my years of playing tony larussa baseball (and later the mvp baseball series) by ea sports.

later in the year, leaf put out an extended series with even more obscure players on the checklist.

here's carlos hernandez

although i don't know what last name he signed there.  there is no 'i' in hernandez.

dave hansen

pinch hitter extraordinaire

darren hall

hall pitched for the dodgers over the course of three seasons, but has very few cards to show for it.  such is the life of a middle reliever in the 1990's.

john cummings

cummings was a dodger for the last part of the 1995 season and the first part of the 1996 campaign.  he also only has one or two dodger cards to his name.

and then there is mark guthrie

guthrie joined the dodgers as part of the kevin tapani trade in 1995.  he wound up pitching in 205 games for the blue over the course of 4 seasons.  all that, and this is just one of two cards of him put out by major manufacturers showing him as a dodger - the other being from the good ol' 1998 pacific online set.