random cards from the scanned folder are like a box of chocolates

look deep into scott erickson's eyes on his 2005 topps total card

he'll make you forget that this is a post of cards thrown together with little to no thought or common theme.  just a bunch of cards i have scanned over the years, but not posted for one reason or another.  as an aside, i forgot all about this card when i went to a signing that erickson attended three years ago when the twins celebrated the 1991 world series team.  that's ok - his wife was there, and i forgot all about baseball cards for a moment.

now it's time for some edwin jackson.  this is a 2005 topps turkey red card

and this is a 2005 upper deck all-star classics

jackson made his big league debut on his 20th birthday (9/9/03), squaring off against randy johnson and the diamondbacks.  the dodgers made him a winner that day, and again a couple of weeks later in san francisco (a game that i attended).  jackson was wild in that game, walking 8, but he struck out barry bonds and allowed no runs and only 2 hits in his 6 innings of work.  jackson was back with the dodgers for a handful of games in 2004 and 2005, but was traded to the devil rays prior to the 2006 season.  in his 12-year career (so far), jackson has pitched for 8 teams.

2005 upper deck espn cesar izturis web gems

izturis won a gold glove in 2004 which largely explains his appearance in an insert set

2011 panini playoff contenders chris reed

reed was the dodgers' first round pick in 2011.  he was born in london, but attended high school in socal and went to stanford after that.  he's currently a double-a chattanooga. 

2011 bowman andre ethier gold parallel

and 2011 bowman ted lilly gold parallel

ethier only gets one parallel in this post, but lilly gets three.

2011 topps ted lilly diamond anniversary platinum parallel

and 2011 topps update ted lilly cognac parallel

i still prefer lilly's 2013 topps card.

here's a few more from 2011 topps update.  remember javy guerra?

who comes in cognac form

and platinum parallel fashion as well

guerra was picked up on waivers by the white sox earlier this year, so he and ronald belisario are making it deja vu all over again in the chisox bullpen.

one more from 2011 topps update - it's matt guerrier

guerrier was dealt to the cubs last year for carlos marmol, but signed with the twins prior to this season. he was just recently dfa'd by the club, although aside from his last outing he hadn't pitched that poorly.  i was a fan - as much as one can be of a non-closer reliever.

in other news, chris capuano is now a yankee.  here's his 2012 topps update card

and his 2013 topps gypsy queen white framed parallel

he had started the season with the red sox after two years with the dodgers, but was released on july 1. after a short stint with the rockies' organization, capuano had his contract purchased by the yankees and made a start for them just the other day.  he turned in a quality start, but didn't get a decision.

the 2013 topps ted lilly rainbow is complete

the 2013 topps ted lilly rainbow is a first for me (i'm still looking for a 2012 topps update adam kennedy printing plate), but only because i don't count the silk version to be part of the rainbow.  i have the other parallels though.  let's recap.

base

mini

black /62

camoflauge /99

emerald

gold /2013

orange /230 (from factory set)

pink /50

silver slate /10

silver slate blue sparkle

target red

toys r us purple

walmart blue

and here are the last two i needed

sapphire /25 (inserted in 2013 topps update)

and a printing plate, in my case cyan

numbered of course to 1/1

i've also made a pretty healthy run at a 2013 topps update nick punto rainbow, but i am not as diligent about that as i was about lilly.  i am a big fan of lilly's card thanks to the nice dodger stadium background.  now that the bullpens are no longer covered in foliage, i can appreciate this card (and all of its variations) even more. 

orange i an impatient cardblogger

after waiting for almost a month, i went ahead and posted my 2013 topps ted lilly rainbow even though i had not yet received the orange factory set exclusive parallel in the mail.

it had gone missing on august 4th, and the post office told me that, well, sometimes mail gets lost. the same day the post posted, both my ebay saved search and paul from wrigley wax alerted me to a copy of the card being offered for sale. it was a bit more than i spent on the first one, but it was only the third (out of a possible 230) that i had seen, so i bought it. once it was paid for, of course, the first card that i bought showed up in san antonio.

yes, the same day that i posted and bought a second copy, the missing card turned up. both cards made their way without further delay to my mailbox last weekend. so, now i have two copies - number 47/230

and 16/230.

it's a great card and all, but i don't think i will hold on to both copies.

ride the ted lilly rainbow

ted lilly is no longer with the dodgers, and despite the news reports, he's not chucking for that team up north either.  however, his 2013 topps card, with the backdrop of dodger stadium and the visitor's bullpen is a slice of perfection.  i decided early on to try for all the parallels, and now i present the results of my efforts here.  it's not all sparkles and unicorns, however, as you will soon find out.

let's start with all the colors rolled up into one and go from there.  here's the black parallel

now camoflauge

this is not the base card (although it looks the same in this view). it's actually the card from the 2013 topps dodger set, with the borders featuring the absence of color

pink

target red

orange

emerald

silver sparkle blue

walmart blue

toys r us purple

gold

usually there is gold at the end of the rainbow, but not here.  instead there is silver.  as in silver slate

that's the scarcest of the cards, being numbered to 10

now, here's the bad news.  obviously, i have no printing plate to complete the rainbow.  but even worse than that is the fact that my orange copy is somewhere in usps neverland.  it was last seen leaving pennsylvania on august 4th and scheduled to arrive on august 7th.  the tracking info hasn't been updated since.  the orange version is numbered to 230, but it's part of the factory sets so who knows when the next version will come up for sale.  what stinks is that there were two on ebay at the same time, and i purchased the one that winds up getting lost in the mail.

it seems that wrigley wax can complete his rainbow without any issues, why oh why can't i?

it's time for the annual comparison between the topps flagship dodgers and the topps dodger factory set cards

when i did this last year, there were 8 cards that were different - either different photos or different cropping. at the time, i hoped that 2013 would bring more. thus, i am disappointed. here we go...as usual, the flagship card is on the left, and the factory set card is on the right. not that it matters much.

adrian gonzalez

matt kemp

clayton kershaw

andre ethier

carl crawford

hanley ramirez

mark ellis

aj ellis

zack greinke

kenley jansen

josh beckett

chad billingsley

dee gordon

ted lilly

brandon league

luis cruz

and the bonus, exclusive card - dodger stadium - for which there is no comp in the flagship set

since it's the only thing different in the set, let's look at the back.

yes, the weather can be fantastic, and sometimes the days are clear and the mountains are visible, but it's really the 'fine' teams that bring the fans to the games.

i'm glad that the ted lilly card is the same, and the dee gordon double play is nice, too, but seriously. what's the point.