it's beginning to look a lot like all-star weekend

when the twins were awarded the all-star game a couple of years ago, i thought for sure that i would be attending a bunch of the events, including possibly the game itself.  now that it's almost here, i've actually turned down tickets to the futures game and celebrity softball game, as well as fanfest.  i thought about buying tickets to the home run derby, but decided not to go through with it.

i was in boston during the 1999 fanfest but didn't go, and i regretted it at the time (i think steve garvey might have been at that one).  there's a slight chance that i might pop into the local card show for a bit tomorrow, but i won't be at the fanfest.

anyway, i was thinking about this because there is a lot of coverage on the local news and downtown minneapolis is all decked out with all-star game graphics, and also because this 1987 topps fernando valenzuela glossy all-star card

has been staring at me from my scanned folder for quite some time.  it was included in a pwe sent my way by a certain jay barker fan.  and it wasn't alone.  a couple of weeks later, there was another pwe in my mailbox with more cards.  here are some of the cards from the two envelopes.

1981 topps jay johnstone

this card scanned kind of crookedly, which suits johnstone.  i am currently wondering who the player behind johnstone is.  it sort of looks like the second number on the back is a 6, which would mean it's rick monday, burt hooton, or pepe frias based on the 1980 roster.

1982 fleer tom niedenfuer

aka mr. judy landers

1984 donruss steve sax

we as bloggers don't show enough 1984 donruss i don't think.  this was such a high target set when it came out.  i completed multiple sets and sold one for about $80 in the late 80's as i recall.   i think i still have two sets today.

1990 fleer mike hartley

and another dodger who wore 43, raul mondesi and the back of his 1992 leaf gold leaf rookie insert

i am really intrigued by the lefty batting photos that leaf used here and on his 1993 leaf card.

2003 upper deck darren dreifort

and 2003 upper deck paul loduca

from 2002 through 2005, i largely ignored upper deck's flagship set, only buying product from carlsbad when it was stuff like 2003 chirography and 2004 legends, so these two cards were especially appreciated.

last but not least, here's a 2011 bowman hiroki kuroda card

i wonder if kuroda gives current teammate mark teixeira grief about spoiling his perfect game back in july of 2008 with an 8th inning double.  there are actually three braves who played in that game that now play with kuroda in new york - teixeira, brian mccann, and kelly johnson.  hopefully kuroda reminds them all that he dominated them that day as a dodger.

thanks for the cards wes!

what did dejesus do?

he went and got himself traded to the pirates, apparently.  he also looks to be working on his double play relay on his 2011 topps card.

that's good enough for me to classify it as a double play card, even though it lacks some of the action that makes those types of cards fun to look at.  consider this a palette cleanser of all the dp cards you've seen over the past few days.  besides, this gives me a chance to clear out a bunch of 2011 cards from my scanned folder.  like the wal-mart black parallel version of dejesus's card

dejesus was 0 for 8 as a member of the red sox, with 6 strikeouts.  jerry sands (also traded to the pirates) did not appear in a game for the bosox (he was one of the ptbnl), and james loney (now with the rays) hit .230 with an ops of .574 in boston.

here's rod barajas's wal-mart black parallel

which means that clayton kershaw is blacked out from view.  barajas spent 2012 with the pirates.  pittsburgh is where former dodgers seem to go these days, although andy laroche isn't there anymore, nor is joel hanrahan.

continuing with the wal-mart black cards, here are hiroki kuroda

and kenley jansen

on jansen's regular card, we can see that he is, in fact, pitching in dodger stadium.

good lord! i think we have a davey lopes sighting!  lopes was the first base coach for the phillies in 2010, and if i squint i can convince myself that it's him.  billy hatcher, i believe, was the reds first base coach, and i suppose it might be the angels' first base coach since they play at dodger stadium every year, but i will go with lopes until proven otherwise.

i know that this next card features matt kemp and andre ethier

that's one of my favorite cards from the 2011 set, partially because i made a similar card as part of the 2010 goose joak set.

here is marcus thames' only card featuring him as a dodger

i had high hopes for marcus markley thames coming off the bench in 2011, but he was released in july with a batting average below .200.  he did hit a couple of pinch-hit home runs as a dodger, though.

here's dejesus again as we move on to 2011 topps chrome

and here's andre ethier

ethier's name keeps popping up in trade rumors.  as does dee gordon's

i am guessing nobody is checking in on the availability of chad billingsley

at least until he shows that he is healthy.  nice refractor, by the way.

now on to 2011 topps update, which seemed to be overrun with cards of ethier and matt kemp, like this diamond duos card

and all-star cards

with wal-mart blue parallels

plus a checklist

and a cognac parallel of the flagship card

plus, kemp had two all-star game cards

thanks to the home run derby

which also came in cognac versions

and a diamond sparkle version

here are a couple more 2011 matt kemp cards - these are obviously from allen & ginter

i had always heard that kemp was from oklahoma city until i saw this card

midwest city is a suburb of ok city - so i guess it's ok.  ha.

i'll end this post with cards of a brooklyn native who wound up pitching for the brooklyn dodgers - sandy koufax.  here are his 2011 topps 'topps 60' insert

and his 'topps 60' insert from 2011 topps update

or is it the other way around?

back to all double plays with the next post.

why acquire aguirre?

hank aguirre was traded to the dodgers in april of 1968.  he had pitched for the tigers for 10 seasons before heading west to los angeles, and led the american league in era in 1962.  aguirre was the victime of bad timing when it came to the postseason, as he broke in to the big leagues with cleveland in 1955, one year after they had been in the world series, and his departure from detroit came in the spring before they would win the fall classic against the cardinals.  

he spent one year with the dodgers and was featured on a 1969 topps card still wearing detroit duds. 

topps took the easy way out and airbrushed out the 'd' on aguirre's hat, but they didn't bother to remove the one on his chest.  aguirre pitched well for the dodgers in '68; he had a 0.69 era in 39 innings of work, but they released him at the end of the season anyway. he wound up pitching for the cubs in 1969 and 1970.  but, because the text at the bottom of his card says 'dodgers', this is a card i will keep.  even if it's a cub in tigers' clothing.

aguirre wasn't the only dodger in 1969 to be caught wearing american league threads.  take andy kosco, for example.  he's wearing yankee pinstripes on his 1969 topps card

this is not as bad as the aguirre, though, as kosco was traded to the dodgers in december of 1968, so he hadn't worn the dodger uniform prior to this card being released.

both the aguirre and the kosco came to me recently via tim wallach.  not the dodgers' third base coach, but rather corey who is trying to collect all of tim wallach's baseball cards.  not just one of each, but all of them.

he also included a 2010 topps heritage hiroki kuroda relic

and a couple of 1974 topps set for my set.

as well as this 2012 topps cut above insert of matt kemp

i think i will take a page out of corey's playbook and ask that people send me their matt kemp cards.  all of them.

thanks for the trade corey!

why did i scan these cards?

these cards have been sitting in my scanned folder for a really long time.  so long, that i forgot why i bothered to scan them in the first place.  maybe i will be able to jog my memory by doing some stream of consciousness posting.  here's a 1990 classic eddie murray card

why did i scan that card?

1. to show off the 'zubaz' border?  i realize that night owl just named this the saved by the bell set, but i disagree.  it's the zubaz set.
2. the perfect symmetry of steady eddie's legs, evenly distributed from the y-axis that is his bat?
3. the discarded catcher's mask that made me think that they were playing 'arrow roulette' and that murray is the last man standing?

actually, it was probably meant for murray's double dipper post - i think i wanted to use a seldomly seen card to kick that post off, but wound up going the 1990 leaf route, which was another set night owl recently named.  i agree that it looks like part of the opening to a james bond movie, but i think of a sailfish when i see that set.

how about this 1988 procards chris gwynn card?

why did i scan that card?

clearly it was for a dissertation on the need for fill-in flash.  duh.

and then there is this 1991 dodgers police jim neidlinger card

why did i scan that card?

it's another shot featuring the visitor's bullpen out in right field.  at some point i was going to do a 'people behind the fence' post, but there are other cards to use for that post.  if i ever get around to doing it.  maybe it was for a post about players who appeared in the majors during only one season, had some success while doing so, but then spent the next four seasons in aaa.  yeah, that must have been it.

finally, here's a 2010 upper deck hiroki kuroda portraits insert

why did i scan that card?

1.  i collect cards showing extreme neck strain?

2.  as far as we know, kuroda could have been doing just about anything when the picture was taken thanks to the tight crop - maybe i was going to do a humorous sketch of the rest of kuroda's body showing him engaged in some unexpected activity but lost interest in carrying out that plan.  but if you are interested in doing something along those lines, feel free to do so and please share the results with the rest of us.

3.  i was scanning some other cards and needed one more to fill up the image tray?  that's probably more like it.

so, while i'm not completely sure why i scanned these cards, at least i was able to wring a post out of them.  and, when i think about it, that's why i scan all the cards.

more happy returns

yesterday i showed off some of the coaches and retired types that reader cory was able to coax into signing some of my cards for me.  here now are some actual players.  like andre ether, who signed a 2008 topps allen & ginger

as well as a 2009 topps allen & ginter

james loney

and hiroki kuroda

also signed allen & ginger cards, both from 2008.  i think we can all agree that allen & ginter looks just fantastic signed.

less awesome looking, but still pretty cool, are the cards that chad billingsley signed, including his 2005 topps rookie card

(hello joel guzman, my former dodger salvation) and his 2009 topps heritage card

also signing a 2009 topps heritage was juan pierre

and george sherrill

although his is from the high-number release.  for the record, i've had separate ttm successes with bills, pierre, and sherrill.  but not with chin-lung hu who signed a 2008 upper deck timeline card

that looks just as nice signed as do the actual 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams cards on which this card was based.

also from the timeline set, i had sent a reed johnson card which he signed

unfortunately for me, johnson has never returned his lone dodger card from 2010 topps update that i sent to him last spring.  finally, it just so happened that alfredo amezaga was in dodger camp in spring of 2010, and i sent a 2009 topps card just in case.

amezaga signed it but never did appear in a big league game for the dodgers.  that's not a bad haul, but there was more.  i'll show the rest tomorrow.