canadian food and other items of subjective merit

i guess poutine is the food most often cited as canadian fare, at least in my experience. i've been to canada many, many times, and i've never tried it, so i can't say whether it is any good or not.  what i do know to be good is receiving cards in the mail, as i did a short while back from brian at 'highly subjective and completely arbitrary'.

one of the cards that was on display in one of the team bags was this pedro guerrero oddball

it turns out that it is from a 1987 general mills fold-out food issue, which was obviously distributed in canada, because it's got the requisite french translations on it.  at first i didn't know it was a fold-out, and i thought that it just had the astros' kevin bass on the back.  but no, it's a fold-out

in fact, this is one of six fold-outs - one for each division - and it folds out to larger proportions.  inside there are more players, including the dodgers' steve sax

and fernando valenzuela

here you see fernando next to the padres' tony gwynn and the braves' dale murphy

with some of the other players being the astros' mike scott, giants' chili davis, and reds' dave parker.

the other player featured is the astros' bill doran, and i had to unfold the thing one more time to get him to show up.

that seems like a lot of astros, but keep in mind they won the division in 1986.  i like to think that if this had been issued a year earlier, steve garvey might have been included.

most of what brian sent was part of the trade break that he recently conducted, but there were a few other random dodgers included in the package, like this 1990 score john wetteland card

i haven't shown cards of the 1996 world series mvp very often on this blog, but that's because he was traded to the reds in the eric davis deal after the 1991 season so there aren't a ton of dodger wetteland cards to show.

there are even fewer (i think) of victor diaz, but a 2003 topps heritage card

is one of the ones available to team collectors like me.  diaz never actually played in a big league game for the dodgers, but he did see some action later with the mets and rockies.

i wish there were fewer cards of andruw jones as a dodger, but here's a 2008 topps heritage card, anyway.

if that card were the lowlight of the package, then this one was one of the highlights - a 2012 panini cooperstown tommy lasorda blue crystal parallel

there are no two ways about it - that is objectively a nice looking card. in my subjective opinion.

thanks for the cards brian - i'll show more of the trade break stuff another time.

six cards and a cloud of dust - how kirk gibson steered me wrong

i was wandering the aisles of one of the multitude of local pharmacies recently, waiting for a prescription to be filled.  on a shelf in the toy aisle sat a baseball card repack, looking out at me with its junk wax upper deck and pacific nolan ryan tribute thingy.  actually, one of the cards on top was this 1991 upper deck kirk gibson card

i figured that was a good sign, and i bought the pack.  i should have left it on the shelf.  not that i expected to get anything worthwhile, i just shouldn't have bothered.  at least i get a post out of it, i guess.  here's the breakdown of the 101 cards by team:

3 unknown teams (minor leagues)/checklists
2 diamondbacks
8 braves
3 cubs
2 reds
3 rockies
1 marlin
1 astro
3 brewers
6 expos
3 mets
5 phillies (including the oldest card in the pack - a 1981 donruss greg gross)
2 pirates
2 cardinals
3 padres
3 giants
2 angels
9 orioles
2 red sox
6 white sox
1 indian (with the newest card in the pack - a 2011 topps team card)
4 tigers
3 royals
3 twins
3 yankees
1 a's
4 mariners
0 rays
4 rangers
3 blue jays
plus, there were 6 dodgers.  here are the others

1987 topps ed vande berg

 1989 fleer franklin stubbs

1990 upper deck john wetteland

1993 upper deck sp eric davis

and 1997 topps todd worrell

there was one other card that came from the pack that i deem worthy of my gaze - a 1997 topps card of former dodger darrin fletcher

although he's obscured by fletcher's name (it's not fletch f. fletcher), dodger roger cedeno makes an appearance.

when a card featuring roger cedeno is the highlight, you know that the purchase was a bust.  if only it qualified for hsa reimbursement.

2012: some trade oddities

there are two dodger short prints in the 2012 topps archives release.  one is a sandy koufax card and the other is brett butler.  i am still in need of the koufax, but tom from waiting 'til next year was kind enough to send me the butler

the rest of the package was made up mostly of oddball cards, which was great.  there were a lot of cards that i had not seen before, like this brett butler card from 1992 topps kids

it's pretty cool, actually.  the cartoon guys in the dugout remind me of the bazooka inserts from the mid-2000's. i wonder if the artist consciously drew a guy sleeping in the dugout because tommy lasorda was supposedly known to nod off now and then during a game.

there aren't a whole lot of bill madlock as a dodger cards aside from his regular issue donruss/fleer/topps cards from 1986 and 1987.  here's a 1987 sportflics card featuring the two-time national league batting champ

same goes for john tudor, who was with the dodger for a short time (only 15 appearances over 1988 and 1989).  here's his 1989 sportflics card

there are even fewer tudor as a dodger cards as he was not even featured in the flagship releases of donruss, fleer, or topps in 1990. both fleer and topps included him in their update/traded sets that year, but by that time, tudor was back with the cardinals.

how about a 1989 score young superstars tim belcher card?

and a 1990 topps toys 'r' us john wetteland card?

both of them supremely oddball.  and, both were cards missing from my collection.

here's a 1988 fleer baseball's exciting stars card of orel hershiser

the bulldog is just sitting on a milk crate in dodger stadium.  no big deal.  his pose belies the excitement that one might anticipate from a card touting 'exciting stars'.

and then there is this 1990 fleer baseball mvp card of hershiser

this was a set that didn't actually feature mvp's exclusively, although hershiser did win that award in the 1988 nlcs and world series.  still, one might have expected kirk gibson (the 1988 national league mvp) to make an appearance in the set.  he did not.

finally, there was this 1991 topps mike scioscia glossy all-star insert

i had no idea this card existed prior to seeing it in the package.  i am assuming it was a rack pack insert just like the glossy all-star cards had been dating back to 1985 (i believe).  always nice to have another scioscia card in the collection.

thanks tom for a really odd (in a good way) trade!

the bullpen aesthetic

corrugated metal is all the rage these days in decorating. at least at chipotle.  not blue corrugated metal, though.  or, in the case of the bullpens at dodger stadium, blue corrugated plastic.  check out what the dodger stadium bullpens used to look like, courtesy of orel hershiser's 1994 upper deck card

and john wetteland's 1990 topps card

how utilitarian.  mike williams' 1993 topps card gives us a good view of the big blue corrugated plastic wall.

these days, there is plant growth covering the back of the bullpens so we can't see the plastic anymore.  see?  look behind clayton kershaw on this 2011 topps insert.

actually, this card is a good before/after shot as you can see the back wall of the left field (dodger) bullpen behind koufax, and the visitor bullpen is behind kershaw.  here's another view, courtesy of kershaw's topps 60 insert from last year

nice work topps!

still, i am not sure when this happened, as the bullpens don't make it on to baseball cards anymore (except for those kershaw inserts this year), and the last time i was at the ravine (2006), i didn't bother to notice. 

there was a big stink made prior to this season when the twins removed the fir trees from behind the centerfield fence at target field.  billed as a nod to the northern forests of the state, apparently they bothered some of the hitters, so now there's just that big black wall.  sometimes, there's nothing wrong with utilitarian.

[i edited this post after speigel reminded me that the bullpen walls were hard plastic.  and, i found those kershaw cards in my scan folder.  makes for a better post]

another sunday morning edition of target dodgers

well, i still have a bunch of these scanned, so let's take a look at a few more of these cards from the 1000 or so in the set.

jimmy canavan

canavan, whose career lasted from 1891 - 1897, spent his last season with the brooklyn bridegrooms.  apparantly their uniform more resembled brooklyn inmates.  or referees.  anyway, canavan also played for the reds, brewers, chicago colts and cincinnati kelly's killers.  awesome.

gus getz

getz played with the organization for 3 years when they were the robins, back in the 1910's.  he was on the 1916 world series team that lost to babe ruth and the red sox.  in fact, getz pinch hit for nap rucker in game 4, making the last out of the game.  he faced dutch leonard in that, his only world series at-bat.  a fun fact: casey stengel was on first!

zack taylor

taylor began his career in 1920 with the robins and ended it in 1935 with the dodgers.  in all, he spent 7 seasons in brooklyn.  his 1934 season consisted of appearing in a handful of games with the yankees.  1934 was babe ruth's last year with the club, and in one game, taylor actually replaced ruth in the lineup.  ruth was called on to pinch hit for the starting catcher (arndt jorgens) and then taylor took over behind the plate.  baseball reference is a wonderful thing.

nelson greene

greene was a teammate of taylor's on a couple of those robins teams in the 20s.  he pitched in parts of 1924 and 1925, winning 2 games and losing 1.  he once gave up 18 hits and 15 runs in 6+ innings against the pirates.  yikes.

john wetteland

hey - it's a bona fide los angeles dodger!  too bad tommy lasorda didn't ever figure out how to use wetteland (he started a few games, then would go to the bullpen in middle relief, then start some more) as he notched only 1 save in his 3 years in los angeles. he was traded (with tim belcher) to the reds in the deal that brought eric davis to town.  the reds quickly flipped him to montreal where the expos instantly installed him as their closer, and the rest is history.  the 1996 world series mvp is currently a coach with the mariners.  hopefully he is doing well after his brief hospitalization during the offseason.

bob logan

bob logan appeared in exactly 2 games for the dodgers.  that was in 1935.  in his second game, he tallied his only strikeout as a dodger.  it occurred against the boston braves, and, while there is no play-by-play on baseball reference, only two braves struck out that day.  one was babe ruth, and the other hal lee.  sadly, based on the fact that lee replaced ruth in the lineup and logan was the last dodger pitcher, it was not the babe that logan k'd that day.  logan played for a few other teams in his career, including detroit as seen in the photo used for the card.  the funny thing there is that he only made 1 appearance in the majors for the tigers.

doc mcjames

mcjames was with the franchise when they were known as the superbas!  that would have been the turn of the century.  the 20th century.  he pitched for the club in 1899 and 1901, winning 19 games for the 1899 national league champions.  his 156 strikeouts for the washington senators in 1897 were enough to lead the league.  sadly, in september of 1901, 2 months after making his final appearance in a game, mcjames was killed when he was thrown from a carriage.  how's that for an early 20th century demise?

eddie stanky

the brat was the second baseman on the 1947 dodger team, which is why jackie robinson played first that year.  he was also one of the players who signed dixie walker's protest against having jackie on the team.  after the 1947 season, his 4th with the dodgers, stanky was traded to the boston braves opening up second for robinson.  there are a lot of great stories about stanky and the way that he played the game, and i am happy to be able to link to a jim murray column that recounts some of them.  enjoy.

thanks baseball reference!

random is as random does...

...and david at indian cards, for whatever length of time has done some random. first, i asked for and received some random angels. then, i put in for some true all around randomosity. here are some highlights:

1993 upper deck jay buhner.buhner is crashing jr's party, much like eric karros is known to do.

1992 fleer ultra jose oquendo

that's eddie murray halfway in the shot.

1996 topps shawn green. in triplicate!

1996 pinnacle summit gary disarcina

a double play turn against the dodgers!

1989 upper deck mark mclemore

another double play turn

2008 upper deck chone figgins season highlights

figgins is in there somewhere...

2008 topps stadium club john lackey

in yankee stadium. i think if lackey pitched on the east coast he would be much more appreciated.

2007 topps allen & ginter jered weaver

at least it's not jeff.

2007 topps allen & ginter gary matthews jr sketch card

the angels seem to make their 4 outfielder rotation work a lot better than the twins do.

2005 upper deck flyball garret anderson

i thought this guy would finish his career in anaheim. i liked edmonds and salmon more, but ga has outlasted both of them.

2002 donruss originals darin erstad

scrappy.

1999 upper deck encore mo vaughn

the best part about this card is the gene autry patch mo is wearing.

2005 upper deck robb quinlan

the former gopher is the epitome of the 26th man or the aaaa player.

2001 topps heritage darin erstad

still scrappy.

1999 skybox thunder charles johnson

from piazza to johnson to hundley in two seasons. yikes.

1996 pinnacle jim abbott.

this guy was such a fan favorite - there was much rejoicing when they brought him back.

1995 upper deck minors luis raven

sponsored by molson. i used to have a canadians hat that looked like that helmet, but i felt too much like a hot-dog-on-a-stick worker to wear it in public.

1994 topps team stadium club salomon torres

i was happy to see torres have a decent career because the dodgers crushed him on the last day of the 1993 season (his rookie season) with a postseason berth on the line.

1994 score rookies and traded gold rush bo jackson

bo knows parallels.

1994 leaf ken griffey jr.

jr's earring is really shiny on this card.

1993 donruss bryan harvey

a bit of an opc flavor. harvey certainly had the moustache to be a closer.

1991 upper deck greg brockthe heir apparent to steve garvey playing out his career in milwaukee, back when it was an al city.

1991 topps stadium club casey candaele

candaele looks all of 5'1" in this picture.

1991 upper deck kirk gibson

another former dodger in a small market al central team's uniform.

1991 topps stadium club dave winfield

another former gopher.

1991 score tom niedenfuer

go crazy folks, go crazy!

1990 classic bert blyleven

bert was sticking his tongue out well before michael jordan made it fashionable.

1987 fleer reggie jackson

must kill the queen...must kill the queen...

1991 opc premier dave winfield

winfield had the funkiest swing i think i have ever seen. it was effective, though.

1989 upper deck wally joyner

anaheim's answer to fernandomania. he made people forget that rod carew existed, unfortunately.

1986 topps buddy biancalana

just because.

1991 score john wetteland

i love the black bordered 91 score cards. i wish the whole set had been black borders.

1992 leaf brett butler

a card that doesn't show butler bunting!

1991 score pat perry.

i'll take pat perry for $100, alex!

thanks so much david! these were a lot of fun to go through!