more cards to your mother's

i'm going to the mother's cookie jar one more time today, to show a few cards from some of the sets sent my way by mr. haverkamp.  these sets are great for back of the roster guys, but that's not all i will show.

from the 1988 set comes this steve sax card

'88 was saxy's last year with the dodgers, and when he left a part of my fandom went with him. he was a sort of link to the infield of my youth, having played with garvey, cey, and russell in 1982.

also from the 1988 set is a nice card of reliever ken howell

howell had 21 plate appearances as a dodger, going 1 for 19 with 2 sacrifices.  that's why this card is so great.

here's kirk gibson's card from the 1990 set

he may have been to ornery to pose for the cameras, so they had to use an action shot which is a true rarity in these sets.  i love to see the low corner railing in dodger stadium on cards!

here's a don aase card, also from the 1990 set.

alphabetically, he's first in the dodger book.

like aase, gary carter has a few cards as a dodger, but his 1991 mother's card

is still nice to have.

if it weren't for the dodger police set and the mother's set from 1991 (which gives us this card),

i wouldn't have any cards of barry lyons in a dodger uniform.  he played in just 9 games as a dodger during the first couple of months of the '91 season before moving down the 5 to anaheim.

darryl strawberry's 1992 mother's card

provides a view of the empty bat rack.  a bat rack as empty as daaaaaa-rryl's production in '92.

congratulations to hall of famer pedro martinez, who has this card in the 1993 set

which is also a good representative of the tim crews memorial patch.

i'll end with a few of the more obscure dodgers from a couple of these sets.  from the 1994 set, here's al (not to be confused with antonio) osuna

osuna joined the dodgers at the end of spring training (march, 1994) in a deal with the astros.  he went 2-0 for the dodgers over 15 appearances that season, despite having an era over 6.  he was released by the dodgers in 1995. 

perhaps one reason for osuna's release was that the dodgers had joey eischen on their roster for 1995.  this is eischen's 1995 mother's dodgers card

this is also eischen's first appearance on the blog.  looking into things further, it is clear that eischen had nothing to do with osuna's release.  osuna was let go in april, while eischen was acquired in may of '95 in the trade that sent henry rodriguez to montreal.  eischen pitched for the dodgers in '95 and part of '96 before being traded to detroit for chad curtis at the trade deadline.

like eischen, rick parker is making his debut on the blog, thanks to the 1995 mother's dodgers set.

parker was an outfielder for the dodgers in both '95 and 1996, although he didn't appear in the postseason in either of those years.  i'm glad he made the mother's cookie checklist, though.

another trade collision

i received some cards from fuji and p-town tom within a day or two of each other recently.  there was some overlap, but that's ok because dodger overlap is the best kind.  fuji sent some 2013 bowman gold in the form of clayton kershaw

i appreciate the dodger stadium shot, with the brooklyn cap.  the photo must be from jackie robinson day in 2012, right?

before we see some other 2013 bowman niceness, here's a 2012 topps chris capuano walmart blue parallel

i appreciate the airbrush - at least topps got his number right.

ok, back to the 2013 bowman.  here's a josh beckett home state parallel

josh hails from texas.  yee-haw.

here's his gold parallel version

as well as that of hanley ramirez

not since 1996 donruss has there been a set that seemed to censor the crotchal region like this.

p-town tom sent the same hanley

and beckett gold cards

but he also included the blue parallel hanley

as well as a beckett base

he also sent an andre ethier base

and a hyun jin ryu gold parallel

plus a joc pederson card, too.

and, just to be different, there was some 1991 donruss studio in the package too.  here's hall of famer gary carter

thanks guys!

rip kid

you will be missed.

3 of nine

a couple of weeks ago, i was informed by my page-a-day calendar that there have been 9 major league players whose last names begin with the letter 'c' that have also hit 300 home runs.  three of them played for the dodgers during their careers.  a fourth, jose canseco, made a stop at dodger spring training one year during what turned out to be a glorified book tour.

the legit 300-hr dodgers from this list are:

ron cey

of course.  the penguin hit 316 home runs during his career, 228 of which came with the dodgers.  he is currently second on the la dodger all-time home run list behind eric karros.

next, the kid.

gary carter hit 324 homers in his career, 6 of which came with the dodgers in 1991.  his 324 total is the same as lance parrish's career tally.  parrish hit one more as a catcher (299 to carter's 298) according to my quick googling.  should lance parrish (whose 'most similar' player on his baseball reference page happens to be hall-of-famer gary carter) have received more hof consideration?

the third membef of this group is rocky colavito

colavito had finished the 1967 season with the white sox and was then purchased by the dodgers towards the end of spring training in 1968.  during his time in la, he hit 3 of his 374 career home runs before being released by the blue in july.  all three were hit in chicago, and came over a two day span in may.  he hit two home runs on may 7th off of joe niekro and then former dodger phil regan. the next day, he hit a bomb off of jack lamabe.  and that was the extent of his national league home run hitting.

those weren't the last home runs he would hit, however as the yankees got five long balls after they signed colavito for the remainder of the season, his last in the big leagues.

because colavito joined the dodgers so late in the spring, topps wasn't able to switch his team affiliation.  it's a shame that he doesn't have a regular card as a dodger (and his 1990 target card shows him in an indian uniform) so i went ahead and slightly tweaked his 1968 card into what should have been

it still seems weird.  just for the record, here's the full list of 'c' 300 hundred home run hitters:

jose canseco - 462

joe carter - 396

orlando cepeda - 379

norm cash - 377

rocky colavito - 374

jack clark - 340

gary carter - 324

vinny castilla - 320

ron cey - 316

mike cameron needs another 25 so the next guy to join the list is likely miguel cabrera who needs 30.

thinking of gary carter...

gary carter, who was with the dodgers for the 1991 season, got some bad news this week.  the tumors found on his brain were determined to be a glioblastoma, and he will begin chemotherapy treatment immediately.

i love this 1992 score card of carter 

it features a presumed play at the plate, at dodger stadium, and showcases carter's respect for his time spent playing for the expos in canada.  i used to display both the american and canadian flags as carter does on his helmet, and i was struck with a feeling of camaradarie when i first saw this card 19 years ago.

carter has more cards showing him in dodger blue than you might think, but this is my favorite.  it's pretty much perfect.

here's to you kid - my thoughts are with you and your family.

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!

the 'perfect' background lurkers card

here's another one of my favorite cards - it's the 1992 topps tom lasorda card.

lasorda, who was in the midst of his slim fast ways and still using his feet rather than a golf cart to get around, is surrounded by a litany of dodger lurkers.  gary carter, kevin gross, john candelaria, orel hershiser and bobby ojeda. 

with all of those pitchers, there are a total of 638 career victories accounted for on this card.  lasorda, of course, contributes 0 to that total.  at least he's one of the two hall of famers featured.

here's to you, 1992 topps tom lasorda (with all of your background lurkers) - you're perfection on cardboard!

i'm out of position? you're out of position!

it happens almost exclusively to catchers.  or former catchers, trying to extend their careers.  they move to a different position, but are still thought of as catchers.  here are a couple of cards that exemplify this phenomenon.

1992 donruss gary carter.

hall of fame catcher tries his hand at first base.  he gets no recognition from donurss for doing so aside from their photo choice.

2002 fleer triple crown paul loduca.

the 'heart and soul' mitchell report poster boy got some time in the outfield during the crazy days of jim tracy's reign, but fleer didn't care to change the position text on his card.

i am sure there are some johnny bench and carlton fisk cards out there with this same thing going on.  any others?

you know what this means...

yes, bipped again. 

beardy this time.  i got the mail yesterday and promptly opened the package.  no fear.  i knew what would likely lie within, but i took it like a man.  sure enough, he returned most of the cards i bipped him with,

and added a few of his own

of course, there were also some pretty cool dodgers along for the ride, like a 1989 topps bazooka tim belcher

number 1 in the set of 22.  not sure what they mean by 'starter set'.  were there more sets issued?  i pray not.

2006 upper deck lance carter

i like to feature cards of lesser known dodgers - who wants to see another manny ramirez card, right? anyway, lance is one-half of the bounty the dodgers received when ned decided to trade edwin jackson away.  the dodgers got exactly 11.2 innings out of carter, which came with a 8.49 era.  the other half, danys baez, did a little better but was traded (along with one of the aybars) to atlanta for wilson betemit.  he didn't work out, so the dodgers sent him to the yankees for scott proctor who was kind of like baez 2.0. nice work ned.

how about a 1987 topps ed vandeberg!

sorry, vande berg. his last name is split in two.  ed was the guy the dodgers received in exchange for steve yeager.  he's also a good ttm signer.

2004 topps finest kaz ishii jersey

this guy wreaked havoc on my hobby when he signed with the dodgers. he has a ton of short prints, jersey cards, bat cards and base cards.  safe to say he didn't live up to the hype.  he did start one of the best games i have ever attended, although it wasn't because of his pitching, it was because shawn green hit 4 home runs!

well done, beardy.  nomar salutes you with the slow clap.