dodger (and other) cardboard from mets cardboard

what makes more sense than receiving a mike piazza dodger card from justin at mets cardboard? not much.  i sent him a bunch of mets, and he sent me some dodgers and other good stuff for my collection.  here's the aforementioned strongest man in socal on a 1993 topps stadium club card

i don't know the full story of piazza switching from number 25 to 31, but i know it had to do with time wallach signing with the dodgers for the 1993 season.  i wonder how much wallach had to give to get the number from piazza.

here's a 1996 fleer joey eischen

part of the reason that i scanned this card was that i was pretty sure that eischen hadn't been shown on the blog before. he pitched in a total of 45 games for the dodgers over the course of the 1995 and 1996 seasons, and non-closing relievers weren't showing up on a lot of cards back then.  but then i remembered that he made his debut on the blog as part of a mother's cards post earlier this year.

1996 skybox dugout axcess eric young axcess airlines frequent flyer insert

i don't care much for card companies when they misspell things on purpose, like 'axcess'.  or 'authentix', as is the case on this 2002 fleer authentix shawn green power alley insert

however, if those cards featured the dodger stadium murals like this 2003 fleer focus jersey edition shawn green card

i'd be more accepting of the spelling.  i'm not going to kick them out of my collection, mind you, but i'm  going to shake my head every time i see them.

2004 topps total robin ventura

the santa maria native finished up his career playing more first base than third base for the 2004 dodgers.  he also pitched in a game.

2008 topps finest hong-chi kuo autograph

always cool to find an auto card in a trade package.  it's also cool to find a card from a set that you're trying to finish, like this jr towles card from 2008 upper deck timeline.

there's been so little movement on my part with that set that it took me a moment to figure out why i was getting a card of an astro that wasn't a tatooine or double play card.  speaking of double play cards, justin sent a bunch of those, too, more than i showed last weekend.  i'll show the others that were new to my collection later.  thanks justin!

black and blue ryu and some other dodger cards

i'm continuing with a sort of random rambling theme today.

this is a 2013 panini black friday hyun-jin ryu card

it was somehow available on black friday, 2013. i don't recall how i obtained it (sportlots, maybe), but it is not worth standing in line waiting for stores to open to obtain.  still, panini did the same sort of thing last year, and i'm guessing panini is doing it again this year.  ryu is out for the season now, following shoulder surgery.  

this is a 2013 panini pinnacle matt kemp museum collection parallel

it doesn't scan as well as the museum collection inserts from the 1990's.

still more panini - this time from 2014 panini golden age

dusty baker

davey lopes

and zack wheat

as pleased as i was to see dusty and davey and other dodgers from the team of my youth in this set, i don't consider them to be from the golden age.  wheat, sure, but not the others.

wheat also got an insert card in the release - it's a 1913 the national game card

and i wish this had been the base set design

now here's a 2007 topps turkey red andy laroche card

and a 1999 topps chrome jeff shaw card

moving on to 2010 upper deck, here's a biography insert of jeff weaver

marking the time that he beat his brother jered in a game between the dodgers and angels.

olmedo saenz didn't have too many cards, but he spent four seasons with the dodgers and made it into the 2007 topps update & highlights set

even though 2007 was his fourth year with the club.  not much of an update there - more like an omission.

last card for today is a 2008 topps stadium club beam team autographed card of delwyn young

i secretly hoped that delwyn and delmon young (no relation) would have wound up on the same team just for the potential confusion factor.  would they have had their full names on the backs of their jerseys? who knows.

what's more 'holsum' than a baseball card trade?

this latest trade post comes courtesy of tony at off hiatus. he sent me the front end of a trade package (i'll send a return package very soon), and it was chock full of good stuff.  here's a 1990 holsum superstars orel hershiser card/disc

holsum was a bread company - i would have guessed dairy. this is now the only holsum card i have in my collection, and i didn't even know it was coming. that's one of the best things about this whole experience.

here's another oddball from the package - a 1983 donruss action all-stars fernando valenzuela card

and even more fernando goodness in the way of a 1988 panini sticker

there were more stickers to be found, including the late bobby welch

and matt young

who was traded with welch to the a's prior to the 1988 season. i was happy to see welch (and young, too i suppose) win a ring in 1989 after the dodgers got theirs in '88.

here's a 1986 fleer mini steve garvey card

which we've also seen recently in one of the steve garvey binders posts.

it's pretty cool to find vintage cards in a trade package, and tony came through with a couple of cards on cards from the 1957 topps set - lindy mcdaniel

and bobby gene smith

he also hit one of my needs from the 1971 topps set with this fantastic rodney cline carew card

thank goodness the doctor who delivered carew on the train wasn't named fester fonebone.

thanks, too, to tony for sending me cards!

red hot blue

please don't judge me, but even though i am of the mind that there are way too many parallels of the topps flagship base cards, i am a fan of the red hot foil cards that were introduced in 2014.  hypocritical, perhaps, but i look at it as one or two parallel versions are ok, and i would choose red hot foil over any of the others.

i don't have the complete dodger team set from series 1 and 2, but i've got most of them.

clayton kershaw

matt kemp

carl crawford

zack greinke

kenley jansen

hyun-jin ryu

andre ethier

mark ellis

yasiel puig (highlight/checklist)

hanley ramirez

michael young

josh beckett

chad billingsley

brandon league

ricky nolasco

brian wilson

and adrian gonzalez

i also recently picked up a copy of gonzalez's other red parallel from the set.

the target red border parallels pale in comparison.  unfortunately, i only have the aj ellis target red parallel in my collection currently

in fact, by my count (i've shown some other red hot foil parallels previously), i am in need of not only aj's red hot foil parallel, but those of onelki garcia, juan uribe, clayton kershaw league leader (with jose fernandez and matt harvey), and clayton kershaw cy young.  i'll keep an eye out.

i would gladly partake of your rhubarb trade bait

living in twins' territory makes it easy for me to find cards that would fit better in the rhubarb runner's collection than in mine.  he keeps a running list of trade bait sorted by team which makes it easy for me to say yes, please.  we completed another trade a while back, and here is some of the former rhubarb runner trade bait.

2004 playoff honors duke snider

i am not putting the set together, but i see this set as one of the best of the 2000's.  there is a good mix of retired players on the checklist, as well as a smattering of sharp black and white cards like the one of the duke.

speaking of black and white, part of what i sent to missouri was a partial set of the 2005 donruss 1965 twins sga release.  i kept one of the cards, this one of former twin rookie sensation jimmie hall

but sent the rest.  it's too bad the dodgers didn't get with donruss to commemorate the team that actually won that 1965 series.  now back to the cards that i received in the trade.

2007 topps '52 delwyn young chrome insert

not to be confused with former twin delmon young.  the dodgers' young had a couple of big seasons in triple-a las vegas in the mid-2000's which made me think that he might be the team's second baseman in the same way that russell martin, matt kemp, and clayton kershaw would become fixtures in the lineup. instead, ned traded him to pittsburgh in 2009, and he is currently playing in an independent league.

2005 playoff prestige pedro martinez changing stripes insert

when pedro enters the hall of fame, he will certainly be wearing a red sox cap, but let us not forget that he began his career as an undrafted free agent signed by the dodgers, and won his first cy young award with the expos.  unfortunately for dodger fans, pedro recorded over 3000 strikeouts after being traded away from the dodgers, which is a pain that the mets (nolan ryan), cardinals (steve carlton), expos (randy johnson), and orioles and astros (curt schilling) all share.

2005 bowman heritage matthew kemp

and 2014 topps matt kemp power players parallel

kind of a 'then and now' thing there.

2014 topps clayton kershaw saber stars insert

as i understand it, fip is kind of a measurement of the three true outcomes from the pitcher's perspective.

2014 topps hyun-jin ryu 1989 die-cut insert

i prefer the 1989 design to some (like 1988) but not too many of topps' other pre-2000 designs.  i wonder why they seem to be so eager to use it.

last but not least, 2014 topps alex guerrero gold parallel

turning two on tatooine.

thanks for the trade!