more cards from night owl, plus a contest

there were too many good cards sent my way by night owl to be contained to a single post, so here are some more.

this 1996 select certified wilton guerrero card

actually shows roger cedeno

1994 topps traded chan ho park

this is park, obviously, and it looks like he's pitching in a high school stadium

speaking of high school, here's a 2012 panini triple play matt kemp when i was a kid card

the back is all about how basketball was kemp's primary sport until late in his high school years.  now, is this card better than the early 70's topps boyhood photos of the stars subsets?  maybe.  but then again, maybe a black and white picture of kemp posterizing some kid under the basket would have been ok, too.

2003 topps bazooka paul loduca relic

2004 topps clubhouse collection chin-feng chen relic

2004 topps traded edwin jackson relic

2007 bowman heritage jeff kent relic

and 2008 topps brad penny relic

night owl was purging his relics, and i was one of the beneficiaries.

like i said, a lot of good cards there.  speaking of good cards, i've been meaning to have another contest of sorts.  i have a lot of good cards to trade.  you may have some dodgers you want to get rid of.  and, there are a lot of good cards up in my header.  just in case you aren't looking at the web version of the blog, here's my header, or at least the cards:

and here's the contest.

i count 31 cards in my header.  all you have to do is identify them.  get it right, and i'll send you up to 9 pre-1980 cards from the team of your choice in a pwe.  you can send one or two dodger cards back, if you like, but it's not required. heck, i'll probably send cards just for trying since there are a couple of obscured cards, plus a tricky one in there.  to make things easier, i've set up a key for the header:

you should be able to click that to get a larger version, but let me know if you need me to email it to you.  speaking of email, you can send your list (and mailing address) to me at gcrlatcomcastdotnet, and please do so by noon pacific on saturday the 25th.  good luck.  and thanks for the cards, night owl!

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.

old friend todd zeile makes an appearance in a trade package

i was noticing the other day that i've only featured todd zeile dodger cards three times on this blog since its inception in the fall of 2008.  that's too bad, because i liked the guy.  he joined the dodgers for the 1997 season and promptly hit 31 home runs - more home runs than any other dodger third baseman except pedro guerrero (a teammate of zeile's with the 1990 cardinals) who hit 32 in 1983.  of course, adrian beltre came along and hit 48 in 2004, but that's beside the point.

i was lucky to have tj from the junior junkie include some cards of zeile in his recent trade package, so here's his 1998 fleer tradition card.

zeile was traded away in the mike piazza deal with the marlins, and so was replaced at third by bobby bonilla.  beltre came along in 1999, however, and held the spot until he bolted after his huge offensive year mentioned above.  zeile went on and eventually rejoined piazza in new york, helping the mets get to the world series.  he hit .368 with a series best 8 rbi in the nlcs, and then hit .400 against the yankees in a losing cause.  here's his 1998 topps finest card to boot.

somewhere i have a dodger scorecard that features a todd zeile autograph.  he was signing in the concourse at dodger stadium before a game in '97, and i partook.  i remember the lady in line in front of me asked him if he knew steve sax.  saxy hadn't been a dodger since 1988, and he hadn't played in the majors since 1994.  zeile was taken aback by the question, and i think he was still trying to wrap his head around it while he was signing my scorecard.  i was more impressed that he was a teammate of mike piazza's.

the strongest man in socal was also among the cards tj sent - here's a 1996 score select piazza lineup leaders card

this is not an insert, just another way to have more than one piazza card in the base set.

oddball time! this is a 1996 scoreboard all sport ppf (i don't know what ppf means) card of roger cedeno

there sure were a lot of roger cedeno cards in the late 1990's. he was traded to the mets in 1998 with charles johnson for todd hundley.

here's a 2000 upper deck ovation eric gagne card

it says 'world premiere' on the side of the card, in case you were wondering.  i don't think that really makes sense, just like the world series isn't really the world series, if you know what i mean.

relic time!  2003 leaf certified materials joe thurston mirror red game-worn jersey

thurston only played in 8 games during the 2002 season - all in september. i didn't think that the dodgers wore their blue alternates in an official major league game (as the back of the card attests) that late in the season, but i could be wrong.  or maybe a spring training game is considered an official major league game.

there were a few more non-dodger/double play cards that need to be shown in the package, such as this 2014 topps update chris taylor card

and two from 2015 topps - javier baez

and logan forsythe

great stuff from a very generous source. thanks tj!  keep an eye on your mailbox...

these are my 'type' of cards

minimalism.

abstract expressionism.

postmodernism.

(lyrics by vernon reid).  

i used to listen to some living colour. i saw them in concert a couple of times, including once when they opened for the rolling stones on the 'steel wheels' tour. that was in la at the coliseum along with guns n' roses, who were an la only add on the tour.  good times, but i digress.

i was recently motivated to pick up the dodgers from the 1996 topps gallery set, plus one white sox card.  these 1996 topps gallery cards cover many different types of artistry.  while i avoided taking art history in college, i do enjoy a good museum and i have some pretty clear preferences when it comes to paintings and specific artists.

on to the cards.  here's mike piazza

he's a master.  the card is a sort of precursor to the upper deck masterpieces sets, except that only the background on this card has the canvas look to it.

eric karros

and ramon martinez

represent 'the classics', while hideo nomo

and a double play turning ray durham

are 'new editions'.  i don't know what that means.  to me, 'the classics' refers to roman and greek art, primarily sculpture.  maybe a marble bust of eric karros and his fabio-hair would have been appropriate.

roger cedeno

and karim garcia

are 'the futurists'.  futurism was big in italy about 100 years ago.

raul mondesi

and ismael valdes

represent 'the modernists'.  this looks like cubism to me, and i like it. i enjoy works by paul klee, mark rothko (more abstract expressionism), and the like.

too bad there weren't any cards using the pointillism technique, but then again, aren't these cards just a bunch of little dots on cardboard?

tatooine grab bag

i understand that filming of the next star wars movie is underway in the united kingdom and abu dhabi. that likely means more tatooine.  maybe the skywalkers will take in a ballgame together while they are there.  you know, because sometimes baseball cards make it look like the game is played in the desert sands of tatooine.  for example...

...here's adrian beltre getting back to the bag on his 2004 upper deck card

while damion easley does the same on his 1998 topps card

as does bubba trammell on his 1998 upper deck card

roger cedeno got to second base while carrying his helmet like a football on his 1997 topps card

orlando hudson tries not to lose the pop up in the suns of tatooine on his 2004 topps card

while reed johnson launches one on his 2004 topps card

russell martin's 2008 topps stadium club card features a nice tatooine play at the plate

while joe mauer's 2010 bowman chrome card features an oddly cropped tatooine play at the plate

some more desert shots - 2008 upper deck jake peavy season highlights

1996 upper deck collector's choice jeff blauser (a double play turn aftermath)

and a lance parrish card, also from 1996 upper deck collector's choice.

it turns out, the parrish is a final tribute, as he did not return to the major leagues following the 1995 season. here are his career stats

not shown, his short stay (10 minor league games) in the dodger organization in 1993.

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!