Showing posts with label wallach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wallach. Show all posts

16 May 2015

a boxscore from the team of my youth and other cards from hsca

there were plenty of cards to like in the package that brian from highly subjective and completely arbitrary sent my way as part of his group trade break, even before getting to the trade break bounty.  i've shown some of them already, but there are more.  like this card, which comes from the 2004 topps world series highlights insert set
that's dusty baker pounding a home run in game one of the 1978 world series against the yankees.   the back is even better, as it shows the box score from the game.
it's great to see that lineup on the card.  it's a bit different than the batting order i remember from my youth because of the designated hitter, but the starting lineup of lopes, russell, smith, garvey, cey, monday, baker, and yeager is the lineup that i consider to be the definitive lineup of the team of my youth.  as an aside, davey lopes should have been featured thanks to his two home runs in this game.  it's still hard to believe that the dodgers won this game and game 2 (thanks bobby welch), but then lost four in a row to lose the series.

on to the group trade break stuff - 1996 pinnacle tim wallach
and ramon martinez
i like ramon's card a lot.

here's his brother, pedro, on a 2002 topps gallery heritage insert
plus a couple of base cards of shawn green
and hideo nomo
from the set.  the nomo card makes it look like he's a giant standing in a farmer's field near the coast.

paul loduca is definitely in dodger stadium on his 2003 topps stadium club card
while franklin gutierrez is in vero beach's holman stadium on his
that's a gold parallel, by the way, as is this sean pierce card
pierce never made it out of the minors, but gutierrez went on to win a gold glove and set a record for errorless chances in the outfield for the mariners in 2010.  after missing the 2014 season due to illness, gutierrez is currently in triple-a for the m's trying to work his way back to the bigs.

here are a couple more cards that weren't part of the trade break, but they are shiny so they get some time on the blog.

2015 topps heritage clayton kershaw holofoil
and 1992 upper deck denny's grand slam kal daniels
daniels hit four of his five grand slams as a dodger, and was only 28 when his career ended. if only he had good knees!

thanks brian!

18 March 2015

where in the world is my wallet card - local monthly card show edition!

wallet card and i ventured out in the cold to a recent local card show.
that's my beat up 1974 topps steve garvey card in the foreground of the familar twin cities sports card collector's club card show signage.

inside, i found some things to purchase, including another vintage dodger from one of the main vintage bargain bin dealers i've written about so many times.  one of the cards he sold me was this 1955 topps duke snider card
i took duke home and promptly freed him from his cage
i am pretty sure that whomever had the card graded spent more on that than i spent on the card.  anyway, it's the last card in the 1955 set, and one of the ones i thought would take me the longest to find one that met my budgetary needs.  i was wrong - there are still a few other dodgers i need from that '55 set.

there were some modern dodgers from a two-dime box at another dealer that suffered the wrath of my dodger digging.  here's a 2011 topps pro-debut ethan martin blue parallel
i have a hard time passing up blue dodger parallels, even when they are former prospects that no longer pitch in the organization.

case in point, here's a 2014 bowman chrome dan haren blue parallel
it's a card only a dodger team collector could love.

more blue - this time a 2012 topps chad billingsley golden moments relic card
that features a swatch from the 1940 throwback unis that the dodgers wore for a few games in 2011.

here's a piece of (supposedly) adrian gonzalez's bat from 2014 topps allen & ginter
the relics were only a buck apiece.

there were a bunch of grant holmes cards in the two-dime box, and i grabbed this 2014 bowman draft picks and prospects draft night insert of the first round pick 
he had a k/9 ratio of over 10 in his rookie league debut last year. i'm interested to see what he does this year.

i have a hard time passing up tim wallach cards when i see them in discount boxes, so i grabbed this 1995 topps stadium club card.
to be honest, i've seen this card so many times, i should make sure that i actually own it before i ship it off to new mexico.

also from 1995 topps stadium club, i grabbed this brett butler virtual reality insert
based on the haul i took from the card show (i'll be showing more of it in another post), the fist bump is warranted.

23 February 2015

a dodger memorial patch for campy and big d

when don drysdale made his big league debut in relief on opening day of the 1956 season, his battery mate was roy campanella.  the two were teammates again the following year, which turned out to be campy's last.  some 36 years later, campanella and drysdale passed away within a week of each other - campanella at the age of 71 and drysdale at 56, both dead from heart attacks. 

campanella, who was paralyzed in a car accident in january of 1958, was an 8-time all-star who won three national league mvp awards during his 10-year major league career.  prior to that, he had played in the negro leagues for 10 years, and he had been the first african-american player in the american association, playing for the saint paul saints in 1948 (there is a picture of campy in his saints uniform hanging in target field, the home of the twins).  he reached the majors for good later that season, and in 1969, he became the second african-american player to be voted into the hall of fame, following once again in the footsteps of jackie robinson.  campanella's number 39 was among the first three numbers retired by the dodgers in a 1972 ceremony that also retired the numbers of robinson and sandy koufax.  it was on june 26, 1993 that campanella died at his home.

drysdale had his number 53 retired by the dodgers following his induction into the hall of fame in 1984. he was also an 8-time all-star during his career, leading the league in strikeouts 3 times and winning the cy young award in 1962.  drysdale famously set the record for most consecutive scoreless innings in his final full season when he went 58 and two-thirds innings without allowing a run in 1968.  the streak included six consecutive shutouts from big d.  following his retirement in 1969, drysdale began a career as a broadcaster, and he joined the dodger's broadcasting team in 1988 following the retirement of jerry doggett.  five years later, drysdale was in montreal where the dodgers were playing the expos when he died on july 3, 1993.  it was vin scully who broke the news during that game's broadcast to us dodger fans, noting that don had previously undergone an angioplasty to relieve some heart problems.  what a surreal moment that was.

the dodgers added a memorial patch to their right sleeves for the remainder of the season honoring both hall of famers.  the patch, with the text '39 roy don 53' recognized the numbers that had been retired for each player.  you can see the patch on this 1994 fleer superstar special card of mike piazza and eric karros.
as well as this 1994 fleer superstar special card of brett butler
tom candiotti's 1994 donruss card
shows both the campy/big d patch and the tim crews memorial patch that was worn on the dodgers' left sleeves during the entire 1993 season.

ditto for brett butler's 1994 topps stadium card
which also features a mustachioed butler

butler is clean shaven on his 1994 donruss triple play card
as is tim wallach on his card from the same set
both cards show the patch nicely.

the back of wallach's 1994 topps stadium club card also gives a good view of the patch
as does pedro astacio's 1994 pinnacle card
cards from the 1994 topps set also display the patch - here's dave hansen's card
and ricky trlicek's, too
mike piazza's all-star card
would be a good representative of the patch since he and campanella are two of the greatest offensive catchers in the history of the game, but i think this 1994 upper deck collector's choice raul mondesi card
is the best example of the patch, so it sits in my memorials binder.

05 November 2014

specifically pacific

i received a box of cards in the mail on monday that featured a large number of pacific cards, courtesy of the patp dude.  as i prepare for a post, i am clearing my scanned folder of pacific cards that were not a part of that package.  now then, enjoy some cards that span the pacific trading card company's existence.

1990 pacific legends johnny podres
such humble beginnings.

1993 pacific mike sharperson
starting in 1993, pacific took a slant towards the latino market.  in spanish, 'baseball' translates to 'beisbol', although 'base' translates to 'base'.

1993 pacific darryl strawberry
no, jardinero is outfielder, not underachiever

1994 pacific pedro astacio
in 1994, pacific added the crown to their cards, and the idea of the 'crown collection'.  it wasn't until later that they had a specific set called 'crown collection', so i just call this 1994 pacific

1994 pacific rafael bournigal
they even had their own version of the rookie cup.  sorry, novato cup

1994 pacific pedro martinez
petey is sporting the tim crews memorial patch

1994 pacific brett butler
while butler is showing the don drysdale/roy campanella memorial patch.  which reminds me, i need to do a specific memorials post for that one.

1994 pacific jim gott
wrigley field was a popular source of photos for pacific it would seem.

1994 pacific raul mondesi
mondesi was the novato of the year in 1994.  you can see both of the memorial patches on his card.

1994 pacific darryl strawberry
must be opening day in dodger stadium - there was really no other reason for the dodgers to break out the bunting in the early 90's

1994 pacific tim wallach
back in wrigley - with a lurking mike piazza on deck

unfortunately i didn't have any crazy pacific parallels to post here, but here's a 2000 pacific crown royale shaw green feature attractions insert
pretty tame by 2000 pacific standards.  i maintain that 2000 pacific invincible is one of the greatest releases in history.

anyway, i'll be showing off a bunch of pacific cards that brian sent in the not too distant future. i won't just limit it to dodgers, either.

04 September 2014

the dodgers' tim crews memorial patch

tim crews was a reliever for the dodgers from 1987 through 1992, coming over from the brewers with tim leary in exchange for steve garvey's replacement, greg brock.  he pitched effectively enough - he had a 3.05 era for the club through the 1991 season - but after a subpar 1992 campaign, the dodgers allowed him to leave via free agency.  here's his 1992 o-pee-chee card.
crews signed with the indians, along with another dodger teammate turned free agent, bob ojeda.

it was during spring training in 1993 that crews, along with ojeda and fellow cleveland pitcher steve olin, took a boat ride looking for gators on little lake nellie that ended with crews and olin dead, and ojeda severely injured.  the boat, with crews behind the wheel, had hit an unlit dock, killing olin instantly.  crews died a while later at the hospital.

the dodgers wore a patch in crews' memory for the 1993 season - his number 52 in a black circle.  this was similar to the memorial they wore during the 1978 world series following jim gilliam's passing.  it shows up on a lot of 1994 cards, including cory snyder's 1994 topps card
darryl strawberry's 1994 topps card (this is the gold parallel version)
also has the patch on display, as does his 2005 topps retired card (also the gold parallel version)
since topps recycled the photo.  here's a different photo of darryl with the patch visible on his 1994 topps finest card
later in the season, the dodgers also lost don drysdale and roy campanella, and honored them with a memorial patch on their right sleeves.  i'll address that particular memorial in a separate post, but you can see it, along with the crews patch, on tom candiotti's 1994 donruss card
with a photo taken on a sunny day in dodger stadium.

both patches are again on display (along with a tremendous mustache) on brett butler's 1994 topps stadium card
with just the crews patch (and no mustache) visible on the back
for a while, i had this 1994 upper deck collector's choice card
pegged as the representative for the crews memorial in my binder, but i also considered tim wallach's 1994 topps stadium club card
as well as the rainbow foil parallel
and even thought about jody reed's 1994 fleer flair card
ultimately, i decided that the best card to represent the tim crews memorial patch in my collection is eric karros' 1994 bowman card
crews left behind a family, as did olin, as well as a lot of affected teammates and club personnel.  they were the first active major leaguers to pass away since thurman munson died in 1979.  the indians also wore a patch to honor crews and olin, and i'll show some examples of that later today.