some southpaw successes

might as well continue the ttm success theme for the rest of the week.  it makes the posting easy, and let's face it - there are not a lot of ways to be creative with cards signed through the mail by former dodger loogys.

here's ed vande berg on his very nice 1986 o-pee-chee team and text variation

vande berg spent just one season with the dodgers before moving on to cleveland.  this was not my only ttm success with vande berg - i just wanted to get that opc sucker signed.

i also had a couple of successes with former dodger reliever steve wilson.  here's his 1992 topps card:

 and his 1993 topps card

along with a 1994 topps card

i think wilson is a scout for the cubs these days.  he appeared in slightly more games as a cub (106) than a dodger (96) and was part of the 1989 cubs team that made the postseason. 

the second time i sent to wilson, i included a 1993 donruss card

 and another 1993 topps card

and even another 1994 topps card

this time,wilson added his number.  inscriptions are always nice, but i wonder if wilson adds a different number depending on the card. [edit - i answered my own question when i found the 1994 card in my scanned folder - i forgot to add it the first time around]. according to baseball reference, he wore 38 for the dodgers in 1991 and 1992, but was 50 in 1993.

dave walsh added bible verse inscriptions to both his 1991 score

 and 1991 topps cards

walsh was only in the big leagues for a couple of months in 1990 after spending 8 or so years in the minors.  he pitched in 20 games totaling 16.1 innings with 15 strikeouts.  he was 1-0 with a save and a 3.86 era, earning the win in what would be his final big league appearance.  he spent a bit of time back in aaa in 1991 and his numbers would indicate that he was effective, but he never got another call-up.

finally, here is george sherrill and his 2010 topps card

sherrill was lights out for the dodgers over the second half of the 2009 season (0.65 era) but struggled in 2010.  i sent this card to him last year when he was with atlanta.  he's with the mariners now, and i hope he rediscovers whatever it was that he had back in '09.

hey leftys - thanks for signing my 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.

topps serves up more dodger variations - a side by side comparison of the 2010 dodgers

yes, it's time to compare the dodgers from the flagship set(s) to their team set counterparts.  2009 was a year with many variations.  how will 2010 fare?  let's find out.  as always, it's flagship/update card on the left, team set card on the right.

first up, lad1: manny ramirez

nice of manny to make an appearance in the team set in 2010.  topps left him out of the 2009 set, i suppose because he was unsigned after the '08 season.  the only variation i detect here is the topps logo, which is slightly displaced.

lad2 is james loney

from the home whites to the away grays.

ronald belisario is lad3

topps didn't issue a belisario card in series 1, 2 or the update set.  maybe they had visa problems.

lad4 is clayton kershaw

it's the same.

as is lad5, jonathan broxton

and lad6, casey blake

lad7, matt kemp

gets a tighter crop in the team set

andre ethier is lad8

with no variation.

lad9 is ronnie belliard

belliard had to wait until the update set to get his regular topps card, which is rotated and not airbrushed like his team set card.  at least i think that's airbrushed.  belliard came aboard at the end of august, 2009 so there is a slight chance he is pictured in an actual dodger uni.

lad10 is chad billingsley

and his card gives us a different angle on his delivery.

russell martin is lad11

and his cards are cropped slightly different.  a fairly weak variation.

lad12 is the departed rafael furcal

the team set photo is a tad racy, with furky standing between musial and slaughter.

lad13 is the also departed george sherrill

mega-crop variation!

hiroki kuroda is lad14

again with the cropping!

lad15 is mark loretta

who was shut out in the topps regular sets.  because he retired.  would have preferred a jamey carroll card instead.

lad16 is hong-chih kuo

whose update card is different from the team set card.  the team set card photo comes from san francisco, which seems to be a default locale for dodgers pitcher's cards

the final card, lad17, is blake dewitt

and thankfully, his topps base card is different from the team set card.  dewitt looks like a vampire on his team set card.  no joe torre in this set, although he is there in dewitt's card, lurking blurrily in the dugout.

final count: 1 logo variation, 6 photo variations, and 4 cropping variations.  plus two cards that had no comps in the base topps sets.  not a bad haul - definitely worth a pick up for the team collector.

who shot the sherrill?

in 30 games with the dodgers in 2009, george sherrill pitched 27.2 innings, had an era of 0.65 and a whip of 1.08.  he struck out 22 batters, walked 11, and gave up just 1 home run.

in 63 games this season, he has pitched 34.2 innings and has an era of 7.01 to go with his whip of 1.96.  he has 21 strikeouts, 23 walks and has served up 4 home runs.  and it's not the result of a bad stretch - sherrill has been consistently bad all season.

not what i expected this year at all.

the new sherrill in town

as everyone knows by now, the dodgers acquired lefty george sherrill from the orioles at the trade deadline which was two weeks ago. that means i have been derelict in my duty to create a 2009 goose joak original. well, no longer.

this gives the dodgers perhaps the best one-two/lefty-righty punch since the 1977 pirates (!) had terry forster and goose gossage going.

please note that i spent exactly twenty-nine seconds thinking of a similar bullpen duo, so feel free to comment on others that i have overlooked. i just really wanted to acknowledge the pirates for doing something right.