obectively, brian earned some vintage

i received a package from brian, the brains behind highly subjective and completely arbitrary, a couple of weeks ago now.  i had just sent out 12 packages and a couple of pwe's of my own to various folks, but now need to compile a return package for brian.  there will be vintage included in that package, because brian sent me some older dodgers.  i asked 'who wants to deal for vintage?', and brian responded.  have a look.

1963 topps peel-offs don drysdale

hadn't seen these before.  the backs actually encourage the kids who bought these packs to peel the back off and stick big d on folders and the like.  i'm glad that the kid who got this one didn't follow directions.

1971 topps tattoos wes parker

i did not realize the the mid-80's tattoos were a revival of a previous issue, but here you have tattoos from 1971.  nice of brian to send my way.

1954 bowman carl erskine

there was also a 1954 bowman george shuba card which is a nice upgrade for me, but the erskine was new to my collection. i realized after i opened the package that i hadn't deleted shuba from the want list.  that is sloppy want list maintenance, folks. i'll try to do better.

brian also included some more modern pieces, although still quite interesting.  this is a 1982 national baseball hall of fame sandy koufax card

it's the type of thing you might see in a panini set these days. it's really simple, but way cool, to have hall of fame plaques on a standard card rather than a postcard.

speaking of sandy, here's a 2015 topps archives card that brian also sent

how cool are those two kids over sandy's shoulders?  it would be great to see myself on a card like this.

from koufax to kershaw, with a 2015 panini diamond kings clayton kershaw card

i see now that kershaw (as of 7/9) had the lowest career era of any starter over the last 100 years.  lower even than koufax.

2015 topps heritage hyun-jin ryu holofoil parallel

another dodger lefty, though he hasn't realized as much success as the previous two.

2003 donruss studio hideo nomo studio stars

studio stuck with the credit card insert for many years. too many, in my opinion.

last card of this post is a 2015 donruss carl crawford jersey kings relic card

the card says 'los angeles' but the relic screams 'tampa bay'.

thanks brian!  i'll pull some cards together to send back your way soon!

sunday morning target dodgers - you can call him shirley

here's another sheet of cards from the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary giveaway set. enjoy.

luis alcaraz

alcaraz showed plenty of pop in the minors, hitting 22 homers in 1967 at albuquerque, which would have been unusual for middle infielders of the time.  however, when he reached the majors as a september '67 dodger call-up, he slugged just .250 with one extra base hit.  1968 was worse - he slugged .217 in 41 games for the dodgers with a double and two home runs.  his contract was purchased by the royals after that season, and he played in kansas city for a couple more years.

bill antonello

antonello was a brooklyn native who made his way to the big leagues with the dodgers in 1953. he appeared in 40 games for the club, hitting .163 with a home run, triple, and a double to his credit. although he was with the team all season, antonello did not appear in the 1953 world series.

steve bilko

bilko had played parts of six seasons in the majors before he joined the los angeles angels of the pcl in 1955.  he had hit 21 homers for the cardinals in 1953, but really found his power stroke in the pcl, as he hit 37, 55, and 56 home runs in 1955, 1956, and 1957, respectively.  the reds purchased his contract for the 1958 season, and then traded bilko to the dodgers in june of that year.  over the course of the remainder of the season, bilko hit .208 with 7 home runs for the dodgers. he spent the 1959 season back in the minor leagues, and was then drafted by the tigers in the rule v draft following the '59 season.

carl erskine

erskine was a pitcher for the dodgers for 12 seasons - from 1948 into 1959.  he helped the club win their first world series title in 1955, although he pitched better in other fall classics.  in the 1953 world series, erskine set a record by striking out 14 yankees in game 3. he had won 20 games during the regular season that year, and finished 9th in the mvp voting. erskine has two career no-hitters to his credit, throwing one in 1952 and the other in 1956.

george fallon

fallon was 2 for 8 with the 1937 brooklyn dodgers in what was his first taste of the big leagues. he returned to the majors in 1943 with the cardinals, and played for saint louis through the 1945 season. he had a couple of at bats in the 1944 world series with the cards, and so earned a ring following their defeat of the crosstown browns.

pete mikkelsen

mikkelsen spent the last four years of his nine year major league career with the dodgers. he pitched out of their bullpen from 1969-1972, compiling a record of 24-17 with 20 saves in 155 appearances. i previously lamented the fact that, despite his regular presence in the bullpen each of those years, topps never put him on a baseball card as a dodger.  i'm glad to have this card.

bobby mitchell

mitchell did get a card from fleer in 1982, even though his dodger career consisted of 13 plate appearances in 19 games over the previous two seasons.  he was included in the trade that sent bobby castillo to the twins following the 1981 season, and played for two years as a twin.

paul richards

richards was 0 for 8 as a member of the 1932 brooklyn dodgers, appearing in 3 games that season. he got his first big league hit the following year, although he was a member of the new york giants then.  richards went on to play for the a's and tigers as well, and he was detroit's starting catcher in the 1945 world series in which they defeated the cubs in 7 games.  in fact, hit was his 3-run double in the first inning that put game 7 out of the cubs' reach.

don ross

in between stints with the tigers in 1938 and again from 1942-45, ross spent some time with the brooklyn dodgers. he appeared in 10 games for the club in the 1940 season, hitting .289 with a home run and a couple of doubles.

steve shirley

shirley spent about a month in the majors. the dodgers called him up in june of 1982, and he appeared in 11 games between june 21 and july 30.  he was 1-1 in those games with a 4.26 era, and in one of them he was allowed to bat.  on june 25 against the astros, shirley relieved bob welch in the 2nd inning, and when the pitcher's spot came up in the top of the 4th, tommy lasorda let shirley hit. in his only career at bat, shirley singled off of mike lacoss, so he is among the very few players to have a career batting average of 1.000.  later in the game, shirley was relieved by terry forster, himself one of the best hitting pitchers in the history of the game.  shirley went on to pitch in japan for a couple of seasons before returning to the states where he pitched in triple-a for several organizations (including the dodgers) through the 1988 season.

jerry stephenson

stephenson appeared in 3 games for the 1970 dodgers, pitching 6.2 innings and posting an era of 9.45 after putting up some pretty good numbers (18-5, 2.82 era) in triple-a spokane.  not good, but enough to earn him a card in the 1971 topps set for which i am thankful.  i'm guessing the photo used for the card comes from 1971 spring training (stephenson pitched in the dodger organization through 1973), as that was the year the team added the shoulder and neck piping to their jerseys.

stuffy stewart

stewart was a member of the 1923 brooklyn robins, appearing in 4 games and going 4 for 11 at the plate with a double and a home run. despite being a prolific base stealer in the minor leagues, stewart did not attempt a steal with the robins, nor had he tried to swipe a bag in his previous big league appearances with the cardinals or pirates (as far as baseball reference knows).  when he returned to the majors in 1925 as a senator, however, stewart did start to steal.

bert tooley

tooley spent 1911 and 1912 in the major leagues with the dodgers. in fact, he was their primary shortstop in 1911.  following the 1912 season, he was sent back to newark of the international league where he played through the 1915 season.

george watkins

watkins finished up his seven year big league career, and the 1936 season, with the brooklyn dodgers. he had begun the 1936 campaign with the phillies, but joined brooklyn in may.  in 105 games for the dodgers, watkins hit .255 with 4 homers and 43 rbi.

les webber

webber pitched for the dodgers from 1942 into the 1946 season.  he led the league in saves (although not an official category) in 1943 with 10.  overall, webber was 22-18 with a 3.89 era for the dodgers, and he had a 2.30 era in the 1946 season when he was claimed on waivers by the cleveland indians.

one does not simply post random cards on friday

unless one lacks inspiration for a proper post, and there are still a bunch of cards sitting idly in the scanned folder.

such is life.

2002 topps tribute zach wheat

wheat actually had 476 career doubles, which was still about 300 shy of the all-time leader (tris speaker) when he retired.  speaker is still on top of the list, with wheat way down at 81st all-time (and about to be passed by torii hunter) now.

2004 topps heritage don newcombe flashback

newk won exactly 20 games in 1955 (as he had in 1951), but was 27-7 in 1956 to win the cy young and mvp awards.  he lost game 1 of the '55 world series, so i guess that's why the flashback card references the 1955 regular season.  always good to see don newcombe cards in newer releases!

1985 donruss ken landreaux

i liked '85 donruss at the time. definitely more than i liked '85 fleer (and i am a fan of the 1970 topps gray border set).  landreaux here is swinging away in dodger stadium, while delino deshields is in vero beach on his 1996 upper deck card

1996 upper deck got a little too fancy for me.  there are some nice cards in the set, but all the gold foil didn't do much for me so i bought very little of this back then.

2002 topps chrome davey lopes refractor

that's a shiny card of the former dodger second baseman who was fired by the brew crew 15 games into the 2002 season.

2002 topps chrome traded brian jordan

i don't know if the chrome traded veteran cards are short printed, but i was pretty ticked that topps did that with the regular traded set that year.

2010 upper deck jonathan broxton biography insert

broxton was indeed 6-0 after june 5, 2009 with 13 saves to his credit to boot.  after the game on august 18, 2009, broxton was 7-0 with 26 saves.  he took the loss the next day.

2010 topps cards your mom threw out 1953 topps johnny podres

this is the 'original back' version

at some point between 1953 and 1978, people stopped using the phrase "pulls a rock". i had not heard that until reading the back of this card.

2005 topps carl erskine 'dem bums' insert

oisk is trying to run away from this post as fast as he can. i don't blame him.

a 52 card pick up, 13 at a time

not too long ago, i showed off some new to me steve garvey cards.  one of those came from a deck of playing cards - the dodgers' version of the 2005 baseball hero deck.  i later went out and bought the whole deck of cards, and figured they were worth showing off.

i noted in the title that it was a 52 card pick up, but actually, there are 55 cards in the set.  three 'jokers' are included - long time managers walter alston and tommy lasorda, along with even longer-time broadcaster, vin scully.

each suit is broken up into specific teams/eras of the franchise, with the clubs focusing on the brooklyn years - and primarily the 'boys of summer' years of the late 1940's and early 1950's.  let's see what we have in this suit.  aces are low in this deck, as the card values mirror the fielding positions...

don newcombe as the ace of the staff, plus roy campanella behind the plate. gil hodges, jackie robinson, billy cox, and pee wee reese make up the infield, with hall of famers zack wheat and duke snider sharing the outfield with rightfielder carl furillo.  the high cards have dazzy vance, clem labine, and carl erskine in the bullpen, plus jake daubert coming off the bench.

most of these cards represent the latter years of the brooklyn franchise, with the outliers being zack wheat, dazzy vance, and jake daubert. it's nice to see them getting some attention though.

this is daubert's first appearance on the blog, so i'll go ahead and note that he was the first franchise player to win the mvp award (1913), and the second to win a batting title (also 1913) after dan brouthers was the first in 1893.  daubert followed up that season by winning the batting title again in 1914.

random notes about random cards

it's time for that sort of post again - a random assortment of cards that have been languishing in my scanned folder for various amounts of time.  excited, aren't you?

random card: 2001 fleer greats of the game carl erskine

random fact: the dodger logo on the card is from the team's los angeles days.  although oisk did pitch for the dodgers following their move to la, both the card's photo and team affiliation refer to him as a brooklyn dodger.  it's better when all of the features of the card match, but i still really like that 2001 greats of the game set.

random card: 2006 upper deck jeff kent

random fact: the player behind kent is jason repko. repko had a card in the 2006 as well, but it was the same number (283) as another player's and seems to be a bit harder to find.

random card: 2011 bowman chris withrow topps 100 insert

random fact: withrow needs to work on his 'suttoning' pose.

random card: 2013 bowman chrome jeremy rathjen mini parallel

random fact: rathjen seems to be looking at the same thing withrow is staring at.

random card: 2014 topps adrian gonzalez spring fever

random fact: gonzalez has mastered his jeremy rathjen pose.

random card: 2014 topps yasiel puig spring fever

random fact: dodger stadium is the only big league stadium with an in-house arborist.  if you've never been, it's worth giving yourself time to enjoy the landscaping, including the abundance of palm trees. that last sentence was a random opinion.

random card: 1982 topps joe ferguson

random fact: this card uses the same photo that topps featured on ferguson's 1981 topps card.

random card: 1985 7-up cubs coaching staff, featuring a member of the 1978 topps dodgers (johnny oates)

random fact: the only start of bill connors' pitching career came against the chicago cubs in 1967.  bet you thought i was going to give you a random oates or zimmer fact, didn't you?

random card: 1990 fleer baseball all-stars canadian steve sax

random fact: the only thing that makes this a canadian card is that it was printed in canada, and i am not sure that there is an american printed version, so it's not even a variation.

random rules the day

here's a smattering of randomness from the scanned folder.  no rhyme or reason, just some dodger cards…

1980 topps ken brett

when ken brett joined the dodgers, it was the first time that i became aware of the 'wrong brother' syndrome. not that i wanted george brett to join the dodgers and mess up the infield thing they had going on, but i still recognized that the younger george was the better player.  that wasn't what was expected, however, as ken brett was thought to be the best athlete in the family when he joined the red sox in the late 1960's.  with the dodgers, brett pitched in 30 games during the 1979 season and was released during spring training the following year.

1983 dodgers police tom lasorda

i used this photo for one of lasorda's cards that should have been.  i still have a few of those to make.

1984 ralston purina pedro guerrero

i found it odd that the same company that made dog food also made cereal.  anyway, i had a bunch of these mail in sets. or were those the cereal series cards that were mail ins?  i don't remember.  we ate a lot of chex cereal in 1984.

1987 baseball's all-time greats carl erskine

erskine threw 2 no-hitters (one against the giants) and struck out 13 yankees in a single world series game.  that's my kind of dodger.

1989 upper deck juan bell

more 'wrong brother' syndrome here.  bell was the younger brother of blue jays' slugger george bell.  the younger bell didn't actually play for the dodgers - he was part of the 'haul' that the orioles received in the eddie murray trade.

1990 topps mike morgan (in dodger stadium)

and 1991 topps stadium club mike morgan

i'm working on a 'on the road with mike morgan' post.  stay tuned.

1990 upper deck lenny harris

i could do a similar post for harris, i think.  although he only played for 8 franchises (morgan wore 12 different uniforms), he made multiple stops in cincinnati and new york.  no player has been used as a pinch hitter more than harris, and no player has more pinch hits than harris.

1990 upper deck mike marshall

between this mike marshall (who was a met when this card was issued) and the other mike marshall, there was a mike marshall in the major leagues from 1967 through most of the 1991 season.  i guess that's not that impressive, since nolan ryan was in the bigs from 1966 through 1993.

1992 donruss triple play roger mcdowell

to me, the oddest thing about this card is mcdowell's hair - forget about the sandpaper sticking out of the bottom of his pantlegs, what is that thing on his head?