i got you, babe

it's not the oldest dodger card i own, but this 1939 play ball babe phelps card is only the second 1930's issue in my collection.

who would have thought that a card from back then would only cost a few bucks today.  here's the back

a few things about phelps - he was the dodgers' catcher in their first night game (1938 - also johnny vander meer's second straight no-hitter) and their first televised game (1939), and he also became good friends with his nick-namesake babe ruth during ruth's tenure as a dodger coach.  he may be best remembered for his .367 batting average in 1936 - the highest ever for a catcher who qualified for the batting crown - although he finished second to paul waner.  these days, his 349 plate appearances wouldn't qualify him for the title, so most lists show joe mauer's .365 in 2009 as the record for backstops.

phelps was eventually replaced behind the plate by mickey owens, and he sat out the latter part of the 1941 season due to health problems, paving the way for owens' famed dropped third strike.  the dodgers eventually traded him to pittsburgh in the deal that netted them hall of famer arky vaughn, and phelps was later traded by the pirates to the phillies for another babe - dahlgren.

welcome to the collection babe!

dime box heroes

not to be confused with the always interesting posts over at nick's blog, these are actual dime box heroes.  cards from the 1994 upper deck all-time heroes set that i rescued from a dime box at a recent card show.  so what if i already had most of them?  they were a dime apiece.

here's roy campanella and a sprawling billy martin

game 4 of the 1953 world series was (obviously) won by the dodgers.  in the 9th inning, billy martin tried to score on a single by mickey mantle, but was thrown out by the dodgers' left fielder, don thompson.  thompson had just entered the game at the start of the 9th inning, replacing jackie robinson who had started the game in left.  the yankees were down 7-2 but loaded the bases with no outs.  after a strikeout and a flyout, mantle singled to score one run, but martin was out to end the game on thompson's throw.  thompson had also replaced robinson in the previous game (carl erskine's 14-k game), and those two defensive appearances were the only postseason games thompson participated in during his career.  the dodgers should have used him more during the series - they were 2-0 when he appeared in a game, and 0-4 without him!

here's steve garvey's card from the set

i would bet that the photo comes from the 1974 world series.  that looks like future dodger bill north getting back to first base safely.  if the photo is from game 1 of the series, north would soon be caught stealing.

the dime box also yielded many of the set's parallel cards, stamped with the 125th anniversary text.  here's charley neal to tell us all about it.

neal's card is one of many contradictions in the set.  he is shown and listed as a metropolitan, but the inset photo shows him as a dodger.

al oliver received a similar treatment

except the reverse - he's a dodger in name and in the big picture, but an expo in the inset.

let's get back to some world series action, courtesy of johnny podres' card

that's roy campanella and don hoak helping him celebrate the final out of the 1955 world series.  that would be the last time hoak was on the field for the dodgers, as he was traded to the cubs following the world series.  that's ok, however, as he wound up winning another ring with the 1960 pittsburgh pirates.

meet joe black

black pitched for the dodgers in the 1952 and 1953 world series, but was traded to the reds during the 1955 season, and missed out on the dodgers' title run.

back to campy, here's his diamond legends subset card

it features that photo of him at bat that we have seen a bunch of times over the past few years.

and, a post of dodger cards from this set just wouldn't be complete without the don newcombe card

believe it or not, i also picked up a card of a giant.  

i just couldn't leave 'the catch' behind

finally, here's a look at johnny vander meer's second no-hitter

the card features a photo of ebbets field on june 15, 1938.  the photo is not of the last out - the bases were loaded when leo durocher popped out to end the game - but it is from the game which makes this a night card as it was the first night game in ebbets field history.  by the way, that's babe phelps (number 9) kneeling on deck while buddy hassett gives it a go at the plate.

i had purchased this release as a complete set back in the late 1990's (without all the parallels) but had traded away a bunch of the non-dodger cards since then.  it was nice to see so many of them and be able to pick up a lot of the parallels, all courtesy of a dime box.

sunday target insert

not what you're thinking - there are no markdowns on gladware here - and it's not really an insert, but rather a few random cards from the awesomely fantastic 1990 target dodger set.  this set was an sga in 1990, and it features over 1000 cards (on perforated sheets) depicting pretty much every dodger to have played in a game (sorry mario soto) from 1890 to 1990.

here's a few:

dan griner

griner spent one year (1918) in brooklyn (they were the robins then) after 5 with the saint louis cardinals.  he was 1-5 with brooklyn although his era was a decent 2.15.  his lone win was a shutout.

clem labine

clem spent 11 seasons with the dodgers, first in brooklyn and then making the move with the team to la.  1955 truly was a charmed year for clem and the dodgers - all 3 of his hits that year were home runs.

babe phelps

phelps played for the dodgers from 1935 to 1941. he was traded to the pirates prior to the 1942 season as part of the deal that brought arky vaughan to the dodgers. 

gary thomasson

thomasson was with the dodgers in 1979 and 1980 before heading to japan.  he was part of the huge bounty the giants sent to the a's for vida blue in 1978.  the a's quickly flipped him to the yankees where thomasson won a world series ring against the dodgers.  the dodgers must have liked what they saw, as they traded brad gulden for thomasson the following spring.

glenn wright

from 1929 to 1933, buckshot wright was the robins/dodgers' shortstop, or one of them anyway.  he had a couple of good seasons, finishing 25th in the 1931 mvp voting.  it looks like this photo is from 1921, the season he spent in the minors with the independence producers of the southwestern league.

now, wasn't that more enjoyable than looking at deals on laundry detergent?

(thanks baseball reference)