i still need more nomar

i was pretty excited to see that nomar garciaparra was featured as a dodger in the 2015 topps museum collection release - at least as far as the relic cards go.  i was so excited that i almost forgave him and topps for not being a part of the 2007, 2008, or 2009 sets.  almost.

i went out and found some relic cards from the museum collection set, and here they are:

jumbo (or momentous material)

quad jersey

and quad bat

i've eyed a couple of relic/autos, but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

i hope that this is a sign of things to come, with nomar dodger cards eventually showing up in archives or tribute or somewhere else.

until then, here are some cards that were made during his dodger tenure that i haven't shown before:

2006 bowman heritage

2006 topps turkey red (red parallel)

and 2007 upper deck

maybe my opinion will change should topps flood its products with nomar dodger cards, but i'm willing to take that chance.  please, topps - more nomar!

i don't think there are too many birds on tatooine. womp rats, yes. byrds, well maybe.

i received a pwe from jeff at 2x3 heroes recently.  jeff is a fellow double play collector, so sometimes he'll send some of those with an array of dodgers.  this time, however, he aimed for another of my mini collections and sent cards from the planet farthest from the bright center of the universe. or something like that.  here's one of the 'tatooine' cards he sent - a 2010 upper deck marlon byrd

nothin' but dirt.

as for dodgers, there was a 2014 topps allen & ginter zack greinke

 a 2006 fleer ultra nomar garciaparra

 a 1996 topps finest ramon (nomar spelled backwards) martinez

here's a 2005 fleer adrian beltre diamond tribute insert

which compares him on the back to mike schmidt.

also included was a 1993 pinnacle darryl strawberry, among others.

i wonder if those moisture farmers at anchorhead grew strawberries?

and that's how you bring the post full circle.  thanks jeff!

the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman, part 2

in the first installment of the evolution of dodger first basemen, we ended with hall of famer eddie murray signing a free agent deal with the mets, making room for someone else on the evolutionary chain.  the dodgers acquired todd benzinger via trade shortly after losing murray, but a rookie ultimately won the job in spring training.

eric karros (1992-2002)

yes, for 11 seasons, karros was the dodgers' first baseman.  that is the longest tenure since gil hodges, who just happened to be karros' dad's favorite player.  karros (shown on his 1992 upper deck card) was never an all-star, but he put up solid numbers.  he won the 1992 nl rookie of the year award with 20 homers and 88 rbi, and had probably his best all-around season in 1995.  that year, he led the dodgers to the postseason for the first time since 1988 with a .298 average and 32 homers and 105 rbi - good enough to win the silver slugger and finish 5th in the mvp voting. he also hit 2 homers with a .500 average in the nlds against the reds, but the dodgers were swept.  following the 2002 season, karros was traded to the cubs, but his name remains at or near the top of many los angeles dodger leader boards today.  karros is the all-time la dodger leader in home runs (270), and he is fourth (behind bill russell, willie davis, and steve garvey) in games played.  he trails only davis and garvey in total bases and doubles, and only garvey in rbi.  karros is also currently the all-time la dodger leader in strikeouts, but matt kemp (should he remain a dodger next year) will pass him as soon as he k's 54 more times.

i suspect that the karros/mark grudzielanek for todd hundley/chad hermanson deal was a salary dump (the dodgers saved themselves over $10 million (if one assumes that karros' option would have kicked in) with the trade, even taking on hundley's salary.  the dodgers had paul loduca behind the plate, so they didn't need hundley, but they did need a first baseman to replace karros.  so, they took the guy who had been playing there for the cubs.

fred mcgriff (2003)

a couple of weeks after trading karros to the cubs, the dodgers signed former southsider first baseman fred mcgriff.  that's his 2003 playoff prestige card, giving a sort of o-pee-chee vibe.  the crime dog had joined the cubs during the 2001 season after it became apparent that the team had gotten rid of mark grace too soon - matt stairs wasn't cutting it as grace's replacement.  mcgriff, who had averaged 30 home runs a season in his previous 16 seasons, needed just 22 to reach 500 for his career, and i sure thought that he would do it with the dodgers.  unfortunately, mcgriff hit only 13 home runs while playing in only 86 games.  in fact, he started only 79 games at first base, with jim tracy using seven other players at first (including ron coomer, robin ventura, daryle ward, paul loduca, mike kinkade, larry barnes, and even jolbert cabrera).  mcgriff returned to the devil rays for the 2004 season, but still fell 7 homers shy of 500.

shawn green (2004)

green, shown playing first on his 2005 upper deck card, had moved to the infield following the team's acquisition of milton bradley just prior to the beginning of the 2004 season.  earlier in spring training, green had worked out at first, but jim tracy said that he would be playing right field once the season began.  so much for that.  2004 turned out to be green's swan song for the dodgers, and he hit 28 homers with 86 rbi and a .266 average.  he also hit 3 homers in the nlds against the cardinals that year.  i was a big shawn green fan even before he joined the dodgers, and i was sad to see him go.

hee-seop choi (2005)

that's a 2005 bowman sterling bat relic card of hee-seop choi, once thought to be the answer for the cubs at first base following the departure of the aforementioned fred mcgriff and some seasoning behind karros.  instead, the cubs dealt choi to the marlins for derrek lee (a good deal as it turned out), and the fish sent choi to the dodgers in the 2004 trade that broke jim tracy's heart.  ok, that might be a bit extreme, but tracy lamented the loss of paul loduca in that trade, and i'm not completely certain that he didn't take some of his frustration out on choi.  choi began the 2005 season as the team's first baseman, and wound up hitting 15 homers with 42 rbi in 133 games, only 78 of which were starts at first base.  choi participated in the home run derby during the all-star break (he had hit 3 homers in a game against the twins in june and 6 in the series against the twinkies) but was essentially just a pinch hitter for tracy following the break.  he lost most of his starts to olmedo saenz in the second half.

nomar garciaparra (2006)

nomah! that's nomar's 2006 upper deck sweet spot update card - not sure why upper deck issued an update to sweet spot, but i'll take it.  there are too few cards of nomar as a dodger.  nomar had never played first base in the major leagues before joining the dodgers, but that's all he played in 2006.  he appeared in 122 games for the dodgers that year, 117 of which were starts at first.  as the nl comeback player of the year, nomar hit .303 with 20 homers, 82 runs scored, and 93 runs driven in.  he made the all-star team and finished 13th in the mvp voting, while helping the dodgers reach the postseason.  despite a move to third in 2007, nomar still played more games at first base, but not as many as james loney, the next step on the evolutionary chain.

james loney (2007-2012)

after four 'one and done' first basemen, loney (shown on a 2008 upper deck baseball heroes relic card) brought some stability back to the position.  he hit .331 as a rookie in 2007 in 96 games (85 of which were starts at first) and also hit 15 home runs.  other than a dip in 2010, loney was pretty consistent in his first few seasons with the dodgers, driving in around 90 runs and hitting in the high .280's.  he was slumping in 2012, batting just .254 with 4 homers and 33 rbi after 114 games played, when he was traded to the red sox in the megadeal that landed the dodgers their current first baseman.

adrian gonzalez (2013-present)

that's gonzalez's 2013 topps finest card, by the way.  gonzalez hit .297 as a dodger during the 2012 season after the trade, and then hit .293 in his first full season with the club.  this year, he is batting just .276 (through this past sunday), but he has eclipsed last year's 22 homers and 100 rbi with 23 long balls and 103 runs driven in so far this year.  i am hoping that he eclipses his postseason numbers from last year as well, as he hit over .300 with 3 homers and 7 rbi in the 2013 playoffs.

and so we have reached the end of not only the dodgers' first baseman evolution, but the evolution of each position.  you can use the 'evolution' label to find the posts for all of the positions (some may be slightly outdated as i began this with a run through the managers over five years ago).  it's been fun tracking the history of the dodgers by position using baseball cards, which was one of the goals i had when i started this blog almost 6 years ago, although that also means i am getting closer to the end.

let's hear it for the gold, white, and blue and the few nomar cards featuring him as a dodger

from the non-filed boxes of cards i've found some cards for my non-red sox nomar collection.  i started the collection when he was traded to the cubs, not knowing that he would sign with the dodgers prior to the 2006 season.  at that point, collecting nomar cards really just became part of collecting dodger cards.  unfortunately, he chose not to sign with topps after 2006, so there aren't as many cards of him wearing dodger blue as i would have liked.

anyway, here are a few of the too-few cards that feature nomar as a dodger that i recently rediscovered. 2006 bazooka came in gold chunk

regular white

and a blue parallel

plus, they all came with a terrible photoshop transformation of cubs apparel into non-existent dodger duds.

this is a 2008 upper deck piece of history timeless moments insert

the back of which is all about a two-homer game he hit for the bosox in 1998.  at least he's actually wearing dodger duds here, and we get to see his signature red sweatband.

this last one is a 2006 upper deck national card from the annual convention

that's more like it.  can't go wrong with the home whites.

and now i have no more nomars in my scanned folder.

garv-aholic

everybody's favorite calgarian blogger, captain canuck, recently braved the elements to snowshoe (or did he have to row?) over to the post office and send me some pretty nice dodger cards to feed my addiction.

i will show them now so that his journey of kindness may not have been in vain.

2008 topps triple threads steve garvey

as much as i like seeing garvey on new releases as a dodger, the best part of this card might be the lurking jimmy wynn in the background!

it wouldn't be a proper package from the great white north without some o-pee-chee.  unfortunately, this is a 2009 upper deck opc card of jonathan broxton

instead of a true canadian cardboard sample.  no matter, there were other things in the package to keep my mind off of that situation.  like this 2008 upper deck baseball heroes nomar garciaparra charcoal parallel

nomah!

there were also a couple of 2008 upper deck sp authentic rookie exclusive cards, too.  i don't recall if these were inserts or part of a special set or what.  i think i knew at one time.  anyway, here's ramon troncoso

he can be seen in white sox gear these days.  the other card from that set that i received was of cory wade

wade is currently pitching in the rays' system at aaa.

another dodger with ties to the rays is don zimmer, whose 2005 topps pristine card is safely encased

thanks captain!

direct strikes on the nefarious 9

so yesterday i showed some cards that i had wanted and have fairly recently acquired - before they were added to my most wanted list - the nefarious 9.  today, i show the five cards i have eliminated from the list.  sadly, my means has been sportlots and comc, rather than the good old trade.

2007 fleer nomar garciaparra soaring stars insert

in space, nomar would be more of a floating star.  now that i have this card, i think i might have all of the nomar as a dodger cards, aside from printing plates and all of that sort of nonsense.  i'm not sure, but i don't know of any base or 'normal' inserts or parallel cards of his i am missing.

i was missing 3 of the 5 1996 upper deck hideo nomo highlights cards.  no more.  or should i say, no mo?

here are cards 1

3

and 5

in the set.

finally, donnie baseball has been acquired.  the 2013 topps heritage version of don mattingly, that is

i think this completes my heritage team set, but i am probably wrong since i don't have an official want list to check.  someday i will bring my want lists up to date.

anyway, it's time to add some cards to the nefarious 9.  one will definitely be the 1998 fleer tradition dennis reyes card that night owl showed last night.  i will also need to add a non-dodger bonus card (or two) since i picked up the 2009 upper deck opc mike pelfrey card that had been sitting there for a while.

if you have any of the cards on the list, i would be more than happy to make a trade.  please - help a blogger out!

epic nomar and the (not really) team collector dilemma

there was a time when i considered becoming a nomar garciaparra supercollector.  i did have a pc going of his cards during the late 1990's and into the early 2000's, but those were mostly cards that i pulled from packs - i didn't go out and actively seek cards of his to add to my collection.  that all changed when he signed with the dodgers prior to the 2006 season.  i figured that i would go after all of his non-red sox cards.  that task was made easier by the fact that nomar didn't bother to re-up with topps after the 2006 season, but it turned out that there were still way too many releases and inserts and parallels for me to keep up with.

here are a few that i did track down, including an insert from 2006 upper deck epic that features him (mostly) as a red sox player.

there's a smaller picture of him as a dodger on the card so it's ok. there's really no team collector dilemma this time.  and, here's his completely dodger-iffic base card from the epic set

nomar didn't get a flagship dodger card from topps until the 2006 update set (i count update/traded sets as part of the flagship sets), but he did get a trading places insert in series 2 of their 2006 flagship release.  this one includes a bat relic

here are a couple of photoshopped cards from 2006 topps finest - base

and refractor

more shiny stuff from 2006 - bowman chrome

and topps chrome - this one a black bordered refractor

nomar also made it into the 2006 topps triple threads set - here's a green one

numbered to 99.  his 2006 upper deck ultimate collection card is also numbered, but to 799

this is what i was referring to when i suggested that all of the different issues and parallels and inserts and even the regular 'base' cards made it tough to become that nomar supercollector.

his card in the flagship 2006 upper deck series 1 set was him in cubs gear listed as a dodger.  so, i was please to see that he was put on the team checklist in the upper deck update series in real dodger apparel

nomar had fewer cards in 2007 despite his big comeback season in '06.  here's his 2007 fleer ultra card

and some 2007 upper deck 'predictor' parallels - blue and green - on both the team checklist card

and his regular card

i'm not sure what was being predicted, but whatever the reason, upper deck made some parallels.  another ud parallel from 2007 were the red backs in their goudey release.  here's nomar's

at least there were no 2007 topps red letter backs of nomar to chase.  here are a few more - a 2007 upper deck spx die cut base card

a 2007 upper deck spectrum die cut parallel thingy

and a low-end retail 2007 upper deck first edition pennant chasers insert

nomar helped the dodgers get to the postseason in both 2006 and 2008, but never actually successfully caught the pennant.  that was too bad, but we'll always have the 4+1 game, and i'll always have my incomplete nomar non-red sox super collection.