age of ultra

no superheroes here, just humble baseball players on some fleer ultra cards.

here's a 1999 fleer ultra chan ho park

the latter years of ultra feature some nice photography, as evidenced by jeff shaw's card

which features dodger stadium and the three sisters in the background.

a less scenic part of dodger stadium is in the background of antonio osuna's card

but we get charles johnson (i believe) in the foreground

mark grudzielanek is on the road on his card

but ismael valdes is back at home on his

in addition to lots of dodgers and dodger stadium cards, ultra has contributed many double plays to my collection. here are a few that i haven't shown before

2001 fleer ultra edgar renteria

i hope renteria was successful in his giant twin killing

speaking of giants, here's a 2002 fleer ultra rich aurilia card

jeff kent can only stand and watch

2004 fleer ultra orlando cabrera

nice to see the expos now and again

2004 fleer ultra marcus giles

most of the marcus giles dp cards i have seem to show him horizontal.  must not have been much of a jumper.  like placido polanco

or michael young

this is a 2004 fleer ultra update card of giant prospect brian dallimore

who is being taken out by juan pierre.  hopefully dallimore got some lessons in sliding runner evasion from double play professional ray durham, seen here on a 2005 fleer ultra card

it's too bad that fleer went under - we could use more ultra these days.

pee wee's patch

harold henry "pee wee" reese passed away on august 14, 1999 at the age of 81.  the dodgers quickly added a memorial patch to their uniforms, to be worn for the remainder of the season.  the patch, seen below

included the nickname "pee wee" and his retired jersey number, 1.

because it was relatively late in the season, examples of the patch on 2000 cards are fairly limited.  here's a 2000 upper deck mvp eric gagne card that shows the patch

it was placed on the left sleeve, above the dodger heroes patch worn by each player.  pee wee was included in the hero patch series, but i do not have a card of mark grudzielanek (who wore the reese hero patch) showing both patches.

this 2000 upper deck victory jeff shaw card

gives us another look at the memorial patch, including a close-up in the inset photo.

the patch is also visible on adrian beltre's 2000 fleer focus card

and the only other card i have that shows the patch is this 2000 pacific dodgers diamond leaders card

there's grudzielanek, but it's eric karros who is displaying the patch.  if only this getty images photo of chan ho park had found its way onto a card...

for the record, i have both the gagne and the diamond leaders card in my memorials binder.  i couldn't choose between the two, so they are both in there.

here are a couple of cards of pee wee himself, a 1992 ziploc card, 

and a 2003 mlb showdown 

i believe that this card is a promo, based on the foil stamp and the 'p51' numbering.  there's another version in the regular showdown set that lack the foil and is numbered 119.  kudos, by the way, to ziploc for using the older dodger logo on reese's card, although they coupled that brooklyn dodger logo with a photo of reese wearing a los angeles dodger cap.  sigh.

reese was the captain of the dodger teams of the 1950's, but he made his debut in 1940.  the following season, he became the dodgers' regular shortstop, and he helped the club win the pennant for the first time since 1920.  that marked the first of seven world series in which reese would play over the course of his career.  the dodgers faced the yankees in all of them, and won only the 1955 contest.

reese moved west with the dodgers in 1958, and was the starting shortstop for the los angeles dodgers' first game.  he played in only 58 more games that year, however, in what would be his last big league season.  reese was a 10-time all-star with 8 top ten mvp finishes over his 16-year career that spanned 19 years (3 seasons were lost to military service during world war ii).  he finished with 2170 hits and 1210 walks for an on-base percentage of .366.  although he later lamented the number of bases on balls he took ("if i had my career to play over, one thing i'd do differently is swing more. those 1200 walks i got…nobody remembers them."), his 1210 walks were within the top 15 career leaders at the time of his retirement and greatly contributed to his having scored as many runs as he did (1338) during his career. in 1984, reese was inducted into the hall of fame, and the dodgers retired his jersey as they do for their hall of fame players.

pacific at the plate

like many of you, i received a big ol' box of cards from play at the plate a while back. i posted some of the stuff that was included, but figured i should show more of the haul. i had specifically requested cards from pacific - the makers of some fantastically designed cards in the late 1990's and early 2000's.  there weren't any that were too crazy in what brian sent (no 2000 invincible, for example), but there was some good stuff nonetheless.  here's some of it.

1998 pacific paramount eric karros

1998 pacific paramount jose canseco

1998 pacific paramount tony gwynn

1998 pacific paramount orel hershiser

it is difficult to accept the reality of hershiser wearing a giants' uniform.

bobby bo was well represented in the box - here's his 1999 pacific

and 1999 pacific crown collection

cards.  plus, an alex cora card from 1999 pacific crown collection

former dodger prospect john franco is wearing a green cap for st. patrick's day on his 1999 pacific crown collection card

so that warrants an inclusion in the post. franco pitched in over 1100 games - i hope getting rafael landestoy back was worth it for al campanis and company.

here are some cards from 1999 pacific aurora - mark grudzielanek

raul mondesi

and reggie sanders

the sanders has an o-pee-chee type feel to it, without the text. i appreciate the lack of airbrushing on these types of cards.

finally, i mentioned that there were no cards from 2000 pacific invincible, but there were a few from the 1999 invincible release.  here's gary sheffield's card

and a couple of ben grieve seismic force inserts

they are actually the same insert with different photos.  the backs have identical text and numbers, but also use different photos

the portrait photo on the back goes with the one that has a portrait on the front, i believe.

this is just a small amount of the pacific goodness brian sent.  i scanned a bunch more, so you should see a couple more posts of this kind of stuff.  i can't get enough of pacific - the weirder, the better.  thanks brian.

'o' yeah!, another trade with ryan

sending me an email asking to trade or if it's ok to send me some cards, or if i want some cards, or even just letting me know that you are sending cards is a lot like yelling 'hey kool-aid!'  i'll bust through the email wall saying 'oh yeah!'.  ryan from 'o' no another orioles blog told me he was sending me some cards, and then he did just that.  he must have read a recent post in which i mentioned that i was half-heartedly going after the 2001 topps heritage set, because he sent a nice stack of cards for my endeavor.

here's mark grudzielanek

and eric karros

two of the dodgers in the set.  

now, i am sure i've told this story before, but when i first heard about this set, i pre-ordered a box on ebay for what turned out to be a fantastic price.  unfortunately, the seller (a card shop owner somewhere out east) passed away before the cards were released, and i never received my cards.  if he just wanted to keep my box once it was realized just how hot of a product this was going to be, he went through an elaborate hoax with lawyers and what not.  unfortunately, there was not much i could do but leave negative feedback once i was told that there were bigger creditors than i in line for renumeration, as this was way before ebay's money back guarantee, and i wasn't going to file a small claims court claim.  so, the set came out and i bought a few packs, but was kind of soured on the whole thing.  i picked up a few singles here and there and eventually decided to put the set together as i had originally planned, but the pursuit has stalled out over the years.  maybe this is the kickstart i needed.

i was happy that the dodgers weren't part of the short prints, even though they were with the original 1952 topps set.  instead, team collectors of the mets, orioles, padres, phillies, and red sox were pretty well screwed.

here are some other cards that ryan sent.

rick ankiel

and jd drew

those two cards on cards would have been pretty hot items in 2001.

tony armas jr

because we should not forget the expos

freddy garcia

i do not know who he is honoring with the number '43' on his cap

and jose vizcaino

who was actually twice a dodger and once a postseason hero for the 2000 world champion yankees.

those are just a few of the cards that ryan sent, and i've finally added a want list for the set to my want list site.  as of right now, i haven't crossed any cards off since i need to find my partial set to do so.  while i'm doing that, feel free to ask me about setting up a trade.

thanks ryan - i'll have some stuff out to you early next week!

the evolution of the dodger second baseman, part 3

here are the first and second installments, in case you want to catch up on the sometimes annual turnover the dodgers have experienced at second base.

the dodgers were coming off their worst record ever as they headed into the 1993 season.  they lost one of their young second basemen, eric young, in the expansion draft, but they replaced him that same day with another player drafted by the rockies.

jody reed (1993)

the rockies selected reed two rounds after they picked up young.  i would imagine that they had a deal in place with the dodgers to draft and trade reed, which they did in exchange for rudy seanez.  reed (shown on a 1993 fleer final edition card) played in 132 games for the 1993 dodgers, including 129 starts at second.  he hit .276 for the dodgers, helping them climb back to .500.  following the season, he famously declined a contract extension and left as a free agent, ultimately taking less money to sign with the brewers.

the dodgers responded to reed's rejection by trading pedro martinez to the expos for a 24-year old second baseman who was coming off two straight .290+ seasons.  i admit, i was optimistic.

delino deshields (1994-1996)

that's deshields' 1995 pinnacle card, by the way.  as i mentioned, i was hopeful that deshields would be the dodgers' second baseman for a long time based on his play in montreal.  unfortunately, he hit just .250 in the strike shortened 1994 season, and then only .256 the next year.  in 1996, he bottomed out at .224 with a career low .288 on base percentage.  he left as a free agent after that season, and immediately hit .295 for the cardinals in 1997.  meanwhile that same season, pedro won the national league cy young award for the expos, and the dodgers were fielding yet another different second baseman.

wilton guerrero (1997)

guerrero (shown on a 1997 donruss dodgers team set card) started 83 games at second base for the 1997 dodgers.  he hit .291 overall, but had an on base percentage of only .305 - one reason why the dodgers reacquired eric young from the rockies late in the season.

eric young (1998-1999)

young (shown on a 2000 topps card) finally got his shot to be the dodgers' every day second baseman in 1998.  he played in 117 games (112 starts at second) and hit .285 with an obp of .355.  in 1998, he upped that to .371 in 119 games (115 starts at second).  unfortunately, young was traded to the cubs after the 1998 season for terry adams and a couple of minor leaguers.  young was expendable, because the dodgers had plans to move recently acquired mark grudzielanek from short to second in 2000.

mark grudzielanek (2000-2002)

that's grudzielanek's 2001 topps finest card, one of very few cards i have from that release.  the g-man moved from short to second in 2000 and hit .279 while scoring a career high 101 runs. he hit .271 in both 2001 and 2002 as the dodgers' second baseman, but was traded to the cubs prior to the 2003 season.

alex cora (2003-2004)

cora had replaced grudzielanek as the dodgers' shortstop when he moved to second, and now he replaced him at second following the trade with the cubs.  cora (shown on his 2003 upper deck 40 man card) played in a career high 148 games in 2003 (141 appearances and 122 starts at second) and followed that up with 138 games (and appearances at second, with 122 starts there) in 2004.  he hit a career high 10 homers in 2004, including one that was the culmination of an 18-pitch at bat against matt clement and the cubs.  cora left the dodgers as a free agent prior to the 2005 season.

jeff kent (2005-2008)

the dodgers signed socal native kent (that's his 2006 topps heritage card) shortly after the end of the 2004 season.  he started 140 games at second his first season with the club, scoring 100 runs and driving in 105 more.  he represented the blue at the all-star game that season as the national league's starting second baseman, and also won a silver slugger award.  it was the best offensive season the dodgers had seen from a second baseman in quite a while, perhaps since jackie robinson's mvp season of 1949.  in 2006, he helped the team reach the postseason and then went 8 for 13 with a home run in the dodgers' nlds loss to the mets.  kent retired following the 2008 season in which he helped the dodgers reach the nlcs for the first time since 1988, but he was unfortunately held hitless in the series.

one more group to go before we are caught up with this position...

anybody know what time it is?

well, looking at tommy lasorda's wristwatch on this 2013 panini usa baseball champions card,

i'd say it's time for some random cards from the scanned folder.  seriously, though; when is the last time you saw a watch on a baseball card?  do managers really wear watches?

here's a 1997 pinnacle select todd hollandsworth card

holly can rest easy - recent dodger call-up erisbel arruebarrena's last name is one letter shorter than hollandsworth (the longest surname in team history).  the letters will still go armpit to armpit, though.

1999 topps finest mark grudzielanek

arruebarrena has as many letters as grudzielanek, but doesn't seem as difficult to pronounce.

2002 upper deck diamond collection chin-feng chen

chen was a highly touted foreign prospect in the dodger minor league system.  hopefully arruebarrena finds greater success at the big league level than did chen - he was just 2 for 22 in his major league career.

2003 upper deck mvp kevin brown/curt schilling game used base relic card

somewhat strange to have a base relic card with pitchers on the front.  what's even stranger is that the back of the card notes that the bases came from edison international field, aka the big 'a' in anaheim.  what the cuss?

2006 fleer tradition rafael furcal

furky hasn't appeared in the majors since 2012 (he was hurt for the entire 2013 season), but he's rehabbing in the marlins minor league system.  meanwhile, jeremy hazelbaker (the guy the dodgers got for alex castellanos which was the guy they got for furcal) is 26 with only 10 letters in his last name, but is hitting around .300 in double-a.

2008 upper deck sweet spot manny ramirez relic

this is really a red sox card with the dodgers logo on it.  2008 and mannywood seems like so long ago…

2013 bowman andre ethier blue parallel

and 2013 topps chrome refractor

it's still hard to believe that billy beane traded ethier for milton bradley and antonio perez.  the a's did reach the alcs with bradley in 2006, but perez was released and bradley was sent to the padres for former dodger andrew brown (the second time he had been traded for bradley) in 2007.  meanwhile, ethier has put up some nice seasons for the dodgers.  it's enough to make me want the dh in the national league so that ethier and carl crawford can both get their at bats.

random enough for you?