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.

filling the gap in my mother's cookies dodger collection

aside from the 1989 mother's cookies dodger set (and the special mike piazza/tim salmon set) that i already owned, the recent package from mr. haverkamp included the rest of the run of sets produced by the purveyor of bagged baked goodness.  i was a sucker for their iced animal cookies for sure.  anyway, the set that was missing was the 1996 set, which i subsequently picked up on ebay.

here's the manager, tom lasorda

in what would be his final set.

his coaching staff

included holdovers joe amalfitano, mark cresse, manny mota, bill russell, dave wallace, and reggie smith.  russell would assume the managerial position during the season after suffering a heart attack.

this set also includes the five straight rookies of the year for the first time - eric karros

mike piazza

raul mondesi

hideo nomo

and todd hollandsworth

who would win the award in '96.

here are a few other random dodgers from the set - delino deshields,

pinch-hitter extraordinaire dave hansen,

one of the many hot corner stopgaps between ron cey and adrian beltre, mike blowers,

milt thompson,

who spent the first half of the '96 season with the dodgers, and…

…chad fonville

fonville was one of the most exciting players to watch in 1995 after he joined the dodgers in may.  he wound up stealing 20 bases in 88 games during the regular season, and then went 6 for 12 in the three-game loss to the reds in the nlds.  i'll take as many fonville cards as i can get.

this was the last year that the mother's sets used the full bleed photos. i'll show some cards from the '97 and '98 sets in a future post.

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.

i saw the saenz - a few more from the flea market

here are a few more cards i picked up at that flea market last weekend.  just dodgers this time.

2005 topps total olmedo saenz

i think this is a silver parallel.  i couldn't leave olmedo the tomato in the dime box.  in fact, i would guess that this is one of about three olmedo saenz as a dodger cards i have in my collection.

here's a 2010 topps card your mom threw out 1956 jackie robinson.

original back, to boot!

even though i already have at least two copies of this card, i couldn't leave o-pee-chee behind.   i only wish there were more than just this 1985 o-pee-chee rick honeycutt.

here's a nice orel hershiser card from 1993 score.

and a 1996 ud collector's choice chad fonville arizona fall league card

i probably have about a dozen of the chan ho park afl card, but i don't think i had a chad until now.

here are a couple of 1999 ud collector's choice (or is it just ud choice?) - charles johnson

and ellis burks

the reason i bought a giant card is that i am pretty sure that cj is making an appearance there in the upper left hand corner.  giant cards are better when dodgers are present.

i like this 2004 upper deck sp authentic shawn green card

because of the dodger stadium image in the background.

that works for me better than upper deck's use of a '3' in place of a 'g' on this 2005 ud trilogy card

still, i always enjoy adding a jeff kent card to the collection.  especially for a dime.  from a flea market that i didn't know existed. that i only noticed because i was driving by at the right time.  or is that the ri3ht time.

let's meet the panel

i picked up a big lot of dodger oddballs a while back, and still haven't really finished cataloging the haul.  there were a couple of multi-card panels/stickers in the bunch that will likely remain unsullied in my collection.

this is a 1987 stuart superstars panel featuring pedro guerrero, fernando valenzuela, and mike marshall

that's marshall the voltigeur, not marshall the lanceur.  actually, it may well have been marshall the champ droit, since he played mostly right field, although only petey gets the specific outfield designation.  i don't know that i have seen specific outfield positions on cards in french before.

here's guerrero again, this time sharing space with former teammate lee lacy on a 1987 o-pee-chee sticker panel

lacy looks amazed at how small guerrero has become.

this last one is a 1996 panini sticker panel featuring roger cedeno, chad fonville, and hideo nomo

there aren't enough chad fonville cards, in my opinion.

dodger double plays make cool cards

yes, it's true.  there are some killer dodger double play cards out there.  but don't worry, i'll be fair when i get around to seeding cards for the 'greatest double play card of all-time' tournament coming soon or relatively soon or maybe by the end of the year.

here are some fantastic (and maybe one or two pedestrian) dodger double play cards for your enjoyment.

how about a 1956 topps jim gilliam card to start things off.

this card loses some points since the dp turn is not the primary image on the card, but come on - it's a 1956 double play card!

fast forward about 40 years and we get this 1994 sportflics rookies and traded garey ingram card

i was not a ryan klesko fan back in the day.  even less so once he joined the padres.  so, it's nice to see him out two ways on that sportflics card.

howzabout a 1983 dodgers police derrel thomas card

super-utility thomas is crushing some giant's skull with his shin.  excellent.

not to be outdone, steve sax has turned two (or tried, at least) on his 1984 dodgers police card

brian downing looks like he did a steamroller slide into second, which saxy obviously avoided.  the bad part about this card is that it is probably too late in the turn to make the top 64.  play-in maybe?

this card is in the top 64, easy.  1996 topps stadium club chad fonville.

brian mcrae is hoping the fonz doesn't land on top of him.  i am sure he didn't - fonville could do no wrong in 1995.

alex cora and his 2005 upper deck first pitch card

it's ok, but it's no chad fonville.  i was shocked to learn that cora was still playing last year, by the way.

i'm not sure if i'll consider this card for the tourney or not - a 2010 topps update vintage legends pee wee reese card, in the style of 2003 topps

it's not a base issue and i am pretty sure it's a staged dp turn although jackie does a convincing backing up manuever.  the cons may outweigh the pros on that one.

this next one, however, may get a very high seeding.  it's pee wee's 2011 topps marquee card

pretty pretty.  love the socks on the cub (?) sliding in.  very nice card.

i'm off to do some seeding.  let me know if there are any double play cards that you think deserve consideration.  i won't have any trouble coming up with over 100 cards that i know of, but don't want to omit a nice dp turn caught on cardboard.

ding ding ding went the corners

i was one of the very lucky ones to answer a question on a recent quiz posted by the ladies at dinged corners. ok, there were plenty of questions to be had, but i am very lucky to have received the cards that i did. they sent a bunch of dodgers along with a few cards of garvey, cey, russell and lopes. i will save those cards for a later post, but here are some other goodies.

we'll start off with the strongest man in so-cal, italian-american superstar slugger, mike piazza, getting after it on his 1993 leaf card.
sans facial hair. i still can't believe he was traded.

1992 topps stadium club tom goodwin.
i don't recall how many times goodwin played for the dodgers. twice, i guess. claimed off of waivers by the royals, and then the dodgers traded todd hollandsworth to the rockies to get him back 6 years later. i do remember that after the dodgers released him, he signed with the giants and proceeded to play extremely well against the dodgers even though they were paying the bulk of his salary.

1996 topps chad fonville.

fonville was a sparkplug for the dodgers in 1995 after coming over from montreal. unfortunately, he struggled in 1996 and then was traded to the white sox and ultimately bounced around from cleveland to the mets to the rockies to boston, where he finished his career in 1999.

2008 bowman draft picks and prospects chrome devaris strange-gordon.

here's hoping stephen king writes a book about the girl who loved devaris strange-gordon someday.

2007 topps grady little.this is one of those 2007 topps cards that looks pretty washed out to me. is it just the black borders? i didn't mind little as manager, but i wish he would have shown a little more fire, especially when the torre rumors started.

1987 donruss bobby welch.

his strikeout of reggie jackson in the 1978 world series is one of my most vivid dodger memories. i felt badly that he missed out on the 1988 championship, but he got one in 1989.

manny. 2009 topps heritage all star short print.

i appreciate how topps left manny as a red sock here. they didn't pull a 1975 bobby murcer and call him an american league all-star on a national league team. kudos.

and finally, it's a 2007 topps juan pierre.

bad photoshop job by topps. i don't think the dodgers have worn the blue jerseys in a game since the davey johnson era. juan figures to get the bulk of the playing time over the next 48 games, and i am sure he'll make the most of it.

thank you ladies! it really was a fantastic group of cards! not bad for answering a question about the giants!