empirically, these cards are fantastic

i recently had the opportunity to meet brian, he of everybody's favorite new blog highly subjective and completely arbitrary at the local monthly card show.  we had agreed to meet near one of the vintage bargain bin dealers that i have written about so frequently and swap some cards.  it turned out to be a fitting location, as one of the cards brian dropped on me was this one:

clemente, carty, and aaron.  card number 1 in the 1965 topps set - a set which i am making slow progress towards completing.  like i said in the title - fantastic.

there were a bunch of dodgers, too, like a 2015 topps clayton kershaw rainbow foil parallel

a 2014 topps stadium club clayton kershaw field access insert

(which uses a photo that very well could wind up on a panini release), and another kershaw - this time with sandy koufax, warren spahn, and steve carlton on a 2013 topps archives 1969 4-in-1 decal insert

that's heady company for the dodger ace, but he's deserving of it.  here's another dodger lefty who garnered some high praise early in his career, fernando valenzuela on a 2915 topps baseball history insert

among the things that brian and i discussed was the appeal of o-pee-chee.  brian already knew about my  opc blog, and is actually collecting the 1965 o-pee-chee set.  he included a 1979 opc burt hooton card in the trade

which was again, fantastic. 1979 may be my favorite o-pee-chee set because of the logo in the ball.  the logo appeared again in 1982, but i prefer '79 to that set.  the only drawback to the '79 set is that there is no french on the front.

here's a 1993 topps gold jay howell parallel

and a 2008 topps gold foil casey blake parallel

and a 2003 upper deck 40 man card of paul quantrill

that quantrill would fit nicely in brian's sunglasses mini collection, but i am happy to have one of the few cards of quantrill as a dodger.

this was the second blogger i've met in person (paul from carl crawford cards is the other), and it was fun to connect with another collector like that. especially when cards like these were exchanged.  thanks brian - looking forward to the show next month!

be still my hearts, it's pretty much the team of my youth

this is the third suit of cards from the dodger playing card set known as the 2005 baseball hero deck. it features mostly members of the 1981 and 1988 world championship teams, with most of the players being from the 1970's teams of my youth.

here are the cards:

if you moved don sutton from the queen of hearts to the ace, and put rick monday in the set at number 8 instead of claude osteen, it would be the team of my youth from ace to 9.  as it is, orel hershiser is the ace with steve yeager catching, the infield of garvey, lopes, cey, and russell (yes, it was difficult for me to put them in that order), and the outfield of dusty baker and reggie smith, with starting pitcher osteen thrown in between them.  burt hooton, fernando valenzuela, sutton, and 1988 mvp kirk gibson round out the subset.

it would have made sense to switch osteen (a member of the 1965 world championship team) with bill buckner (a member of the 1974 pennant winning team) who was featured in the diamond suit, but no big deal.  any of the pitchers featured in this suit could have been considered the ace of the team at one point or another.

ain't 2007 the sweetest spot

upper deck debuted sweet spot in 2001, and my collecting mind was blown by the inclusion of signed pieces of baseballs included in some packs.  in fact, it was later versions of the sweet spot releases that included the first thick cardboard blanks because it had previously been too easy to find the packs that included the autos.  at least that is what i was told by a clerk at one of the local card shops in the early 2000's.  anyway, the format of the autos was a bit clunky from that first year through 2005 - they were framed into the card by a non-descript border with a small player photo somewhere on the card.  in 2006, upper deck added a generic stadium shot as the background, but in 2007, they did it right - they went to team specific stadium shots.  here's a don sutton auto card from 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic

it's the wood version, numbered to 75, and the stadium in the background is none other than dodger stadium.  awesome.  i'm still looking for a reggie smith/steve garvey dual auto from this set, by the way.

there are the fading issues with some of the later releases, including 2007, as either the ball material or the pens used by some of the players were not the right types, but the wood versions that i have seen do not suffer that fate.  i recall a signing i went to where harmon killebrew and i simultaneously chastised a guy who offered the killer a sharpie to sign a ball with.  you would think that upper deck would have made sure that the cards were signed properly, you know, if in fact they had a representative witness the signings.  oh wait.

anyway, 2007 is my favorite sweet spot year, even though steve garvey is included in the classic set as a padre.  there are plenty of dodgers on the checklist, though, including the aforementioned sutton

i guess the only bad thing here is that each base card is serial numbered, as they were in some of the previous sets.

here are some of the other dodgers from the 2007 ud sweet spot classic set

roy campanella

campy suttons.

pee wee reese

both the campy and reese use photos that are now quite familiar to us.

here's don drysdale

in the type of photo that we would not have seen on a card back in his playing days.  i'm glad upper deck didn't try to lighten the shadow under his bill.

maury wills

still looks like he's ticked at topps.

the set also included more 'modern' dodgers, such as their former manager tom lasorda

and a welcome appearance by a pitcher from the team of my youth, burt hooton

it's not too often we see hooton in card sets.

the regular 2007 sweet spot set had some dodgers, too, but the card i want to show is this adam laroche auto card

that includes some plastic-injected molded helmet thingy and a faux wood signing area.  this is not so much my favorite, but it is somewhat unique.

i have a bunch of other sweet spot cards in the scanned folder, so i'll show them even though they are from the 2005 set.  also not so much my favorite.

jd drew

eric gagne

dj houlton numbered to 99

i think that's a parallel as opposed to a shorter printed rookie subset

jeff kent

derek lowe

and one of the very few cards made of one of the biggest busts in dodger history - norihiro nakamura

i think the 66 looks better on puig - he certainly has done more while wearing it.  and, i think the 2007 sweet spot looks better than any of the other versions before or after it, thanks in large part to the pavilion roof and palm tree on the dodger auto cards.

all i see are all-stars

with the all-star game tonight, it seems appropriate to show this 1992 trak auto sheet of stamps that honors every dodger all-star from 1962 through 1992

as you can see, it was available for purchase at trak auto stores, either on its own or with a case of valvoline motor oil.

the full sheet of stamps is in one of my steve garvey binders, because i can't find this particular stamp all by its lonesome

1977 was a big year for dodger all-stars, but not as big as 1962, 1975, or 1978 when the dodgers had seven players on the national league squad, or even a few years when they sent 6 players.  garvey represented the dodgers in eight straight all-star games, and was the mvp of the 1974 and 1978 contests.  here is a better look at the stamps for the stretch of games in which garvey, as a dodger, was the starter for the national league at first base.

you may have noticed that the only dodger to get his mug shown twice on the whole sheet is tommy lasorda.

as a member of the padres, garvey returned to the all-star game in 1984 and 1985 as the first base starter for the national league, making his final all-star appearance in the '85 midsummer classic, which was the last time the all-star game was held in minneapolis.  here's a 1986 donruss all-stars pop up card which commemorates his appearance in that game, complete with underside of the metrodome's roof in view

garvey, at age 37, was a participant in the home run derby prior to that all-star game - the first home run derby prior to the all-star game - and hit 2 out.  dave parker won the derby with 6.  it wasn't the same back then.

anyway, happy all-star game day!

another bobby lost

sadly, former dodger pitcher bobby castillo passed away on monday - the second pitcher named bobby from the team of my youth to die this year.  i was reminded that arpsmith had recently sent me a 1982 topps castillo card that was signed by the pitcher himself

i was able to have castillo sign a couple of cards previously, but this one is much more boldly signed.  rest in peace, bobby.

arpsmith included another signed card from 1982 - a 1982 fleer burt hooton card to be exact

i appreciate having a socal connection with what seems to be a decent lcs nearby.  in addition to the in person autos he found there, arpsmith also sent a 2007 upper deck spx autographed card of delwyn young

and a 2007 ud artifacts jersey card of jeff kent

here's a 1994 upper deck fun pack mike piazza checklist card

unlike collector's choice, i think the silver signature was standard on this card.  also, piazza's wearing the tim crews memorial patch on this card.  there will be, of course, a separate post regarding that memorial someday.

speaking of collector's choice, here's a 1997 udcc hideo nomo all-star connection insert

nomo didn't make the all-star team in 1997, in fact, the only time he appeared in the midsummer classic was in his rookie year of 1995 when he was the game's starter.

pee wee reese, on the other hand, appeared in 10 all-star games, including 9 straight from 1945-1954.  here's a 2012 panini cooperstown crystal parallel of the dodger shortstop that arpsmith included

the kaleidoscope pattern and cropping of the familiar photo distract me from the fact there is no logo.

there's no logo on this next card either, but lest there be any doubts, tommy lasorda is still in charge.  he is 'calling the shots' according to this 2013 panini hometown heroes insert

clearly he did not call jack clark's shot in the 1985 nlcs.

thanks for the cards adam!

sunday morning target dodgers

time for another sheet of cards from the set that keeps on giving - the 1990 target dodger stadium giveaway set.  as always, thanks to baseball reference for providing some information about some of these heretofore unknown to me players.

don demeter

demeter's first major league hit came in his second big league at bat, and it was a home run off of don liddle of the cardinals in september of 1956.  demeter only appeared in three games that season for the dodgers, but he returned to the majors in 1958 and stayed with the dodgers until he was traded to the phillies early in the 1961 season.  in 1959, he hit three home runs in a game agains the giants - one was an inside the park job, and the third one was a walk-off.

jack dunn

dunn was a pitcher who also played in the field from time to time.  he entered the big leagues with the brooklyn bridegrooms in 1897 and remained with the franchise until he went to the phillies during the 1900 season.  he hit .238 in his 3-plus seasons for brooklyn, but also won 56 games, including 23 in 1899.  dunn later replaced hughie jennings as the manager of the baltimore orioles in the eastern league, and actually became the team's owner a couple of years later.  they moved to the international league, and dunn led them to seven straight titles.

lee grissom

grissom pitched six seasons for the reds, culminating in a world series appearance against the yankees in 1939.  the reds lost, but grissom must have made an impression on new york as he was traded to the yankees in january of 1940.  he appeared in five games for the defending world champions, pitching 4.2 scoreless innings, before he was claimed on waivers by the dodgers.  with brooklyn the rest of the way, grissom went 2-5 despite a 2.81 era, and he threw a 2-hit shutout against the phillies on the final day of the season.  in 1941, he pitched in four games for the dodgers and had an era of 2.38, but was traded to the phillies.

danny heep

heep was the guy the mets received when they traded mike scott to the astros, straight up, in 1982.  a lopsided trade in hindsight, but heep did help the mets win the world series in 1986, so it wasn't all bad.  following his triumph in 1986, heep signed with the dodgers and played for them in 1987 and 1988.  he was used mostly as a pinch hitter but also made starts at first base and in the outfield.  he even got to pitch in a game during the 1988 season - he threw two innings against the astros in july, giving up a 2-run homer to ken caminiti in the process.  he had some pinch hit appearances in the 1988 postseason for the eventual world champion dodgers, and served as the dh in game 4 of the world series.

burt hooton

happy hooton was the mvp of the 1981 nlcs as he won both of his starts against the expos without allowing an earned run.  he joined the dodgers in 1975 and remained a fixture in the rotation through the 1983 season.  in 1984, he spent most of his time pitching out of the bullpen and left the dodgers for the rangers prior to the 1985 campaign.  as a dodger, however, hooton won 112 games with a 3.14 era, and he nearly wrecked this fan's shoulder thanks to my trying to throw a knuckle-curve like hooton.

johnny hopp

target gave hopp an extra 'n' in his name there.  hopp was involved in the 1949 trade with the pirates that sent marv rackley to pittsburgh, but was voided a few days later.  as a result, rackley became a double dipper, and hopp only appeared in 8 games for the dodgers.  in those games, he was held hitless in 14 at bats.  maybe burt shotton had the trade voided due to hopps' performance.

ken landreaux

landreaux is best remembered by me and many other dodger fans for catching the final out of the 1981 world series.  he was also the main guy that the twins received from the angels in the rod carew trade prior to the 1979 season.  two years later, the dodgers acquired landreaux for mickey hatcher and a couple of minor leaguers.  landreaux spent seven seasons with the dodgers, most of which were spent as the team's regular center fielder.

ken mcmullen

i've told mcmullen's story before so i won't rehash it here.  suffice it to say that the pride of oxnard has had a big impact on dodger team collectors, thanks to his rookie card companion.

judge mccreedie

mccreedie (baseball reference spells his name 'mccredie') was an outfielder for the 1903 brooklyn superbas.  he hit .324 in 56 games for brooklyn before he was traded to baltimore in july.  somewhat curiously, he never made it back to the major leagues.  in 1904, he found himself in portland playing in their pacific coast league team that wound eventually be known as the beavers.  in 1905, judge took the reins and became their player/manager, a role he held through the 1913 season after which he gave up playing and was just their manager (save for a couple of appearances in 1916 and 1917).  in all, he spent 20 years managing in the pacific coast league, most of which was spent in portland.  he is a member of the pcl hall of fame.

simmy murch

murch played in 6 games for the 1908 brooklyn superbas following a couple of seasons with the cardinals.  he hit .182 with a double while playing first base in his stint with brooklyn, his last in the major leagues.

boots poffenberger

poffenberger obviously played for the tigers - he did so in 1937 and 1938 - but the dodgers claimed him on waivers at the start of the 1939 season.  for brooklyn, boots (real name cletus) pitched in three games, including one as a starter.  he had no record and an era of 5.40 in those appearances.  and yes, this boots was made for walking - he walked two of the four batters he faced in his dodger debut.

craig shipley

shipley became the second australian (and first in over 100 years) to debut in the major leagues when he appeared in a game for the 1986 dodgers.  he hit .111 in 12 games for the blue, and returned in 1987 to hit .257 in 26 contests.  the dodgers traded him to the mets, and he later found success playing for the padres and working in the front office for the red sox.

dwain sloat

aka lefty sloat.  he pitched in four games for the 1948 dodgers, including one as the starter.  he was 0-1 with an era over 6.  he was claimed by the cubs in the rule v draft prior to the 1949 season and did not return to brooklyn.

alex trevino

in a rare trade with the giants, the dodgers acquired trevino in exchange for candy maldonado prior to the 1986 season.  trevino spent the '86 and '87 seasons with the dodgers, playing catcher behind mike scioscia.  he received some significant playing time for a backup, appearing in 161 games over his two seasons with the club.

dazzy vance

hall of famer dazzy vance had two stints with the brooklyn franchise, so you know what that means…

…a double dipper post coming up later!