blurred lines

sure this post title would have been more timely during the summer, or more appropriate if there were topless dancers moving about.  still, it makes sense for a post with cards like this 1986 sportflics card.

somewhere, along with rollie fingers' mustache and pete rose's batting stance lies the cubs' ron cey.  they are a trio of world series mvp's, although neither fingers nor cey are featured in the uniform in which they won the award.  it would have been cool, for dodger collectors like me, to have cey with pedro guerrero and steve yeager on one of these cards instead of three random players.

not all lenticular cards feature hard to distinguish players, though.  here are some 1971 kellogg's cards whose subjects are easily discernible to be willie davis

and claude osteen

the blurry lines are all in the background, just like on these kellogg's cards from 1978 of reggie smith

and don sutton

back to 1986 sportflics, this mike scioscia card scanned pretty well

but this pee wee reese card from the decade greats set of 1986 has a little more obvious overlap of the images when scanned

had i been younger when these were released, i probably would have thought they were pretty cool.  instead, i ignored them.  i had collected the kellogg's cards as a youngster and much preferred them to the sportflics releases.

i had no knowledge of 1995 topps d3 until more recently.  here's a raul mondesi card from that set

and here's mike piazza with a more traditional baseball background

and lastly, chuck knoblauch turning two

i don't think these cards had multiple images.  i don't even recall how much movement they had when the cards were tilted.  the schtick is lost on me.  i know topps has brought these types of cards back, in last year's archives release for example, but i would be ok if they stayed in the dustbin of baseball card history.  i prefer clear photos.

come on local card show, show me what you've got

it's been quite a while since i've been to one of the local monthly card shows.  but, if all is going according to plan, i will be en route when this thing gets posted.  1974 topps set completion is high on my to do list, as is random vintage bargain bin and dime box hunting.  we'll see how it goes.

the last time i went to this particular show, i found a bunch of 1995 topps brooklyn dodgers archives cards in a dime bin.  i was able to almost complete my set, thanks to that particular seller.  here are some of the cards manufactured specifically for the set - 1955 world series games 3

4

and 7

we've seen that podres image quite a bit, and the hodges is familiar too, although i think i am thinking of duke snider when i see it.  that image for game 3 is a new one to me.  i assume it's jackie robinson sliding in, although it could be jim gilliam - both advanced to third on plays that could have involved a throw.  here are a few more jackie's for the set - 1953 version

1954

and 1956

i also need ed roebuck for some reason

my want list shows that i still need the roberto clemente card that was created for the set (or for the 1954 topps archives set, i guess).  i am pretty sure that i have that card, though.  i need to do some investigating.

i also picked up some kellogg's cards the last time around.  this is the 1977 steve garvey

and this ron cey is from 1978

i had them both already, but a dime spent on dodger kellogg's cards is a dime well spent.

i also picked up a 1976 hostess garvey

and a 1982 drakes garvey as well

the hostess card i think i needed for the dodger team set. pretty sure i had a few copies of the drakes card though.

mid 90's dodger issues baffle me, even though i have a partial want list.  i grabbed a couple of 1994 topps finest cards from the dime box because i couldn't convince myself that i really had them already.  here's ramon martinez

 similarly, i threw down a dime for this 1995 leaf chan ho park gold rookies insert

and then there are the cards that i pick up for even less of a reason.  these three are from 1995 upper deck collector's choice, but as i recall they were mail-in 'trade' cards.  they feature the bulldog and steady eddie, both former dodgers of course

one of the cards that you would send in to upper deck to get these other cards featured another former dodger, fernando valenzuela

i am pretty sure that i mailed in one or two cards back in '95 but i don't think i had ever seen the fernando (i picked that card up online, not at the show).

anyway, traded and trade redemption cards are a good place to end this post.  i got some good news at work this week, so i'm in a good mood.  which translates to a good trading mood.  let me know if there is something you would like me to look for at the show.

annihilating the nefarious 9 - can you help a blogger out?

here's how the nefarious 9 looked the other day

1 - 2004 fleer greats of the game announcing greats steve garvey/vin scully

2 - 1970 milton bradley tom haller

3 - 1985 fleer #384 steve sax

4 - 1978 kellogg's tommy john

5 - 1993 upper deck sp #98 mike piazza

6 - 1988 drakes #26 pedro guerrero

7 - 1981 permagraphic all-stars #5 davey lopes

8 - 1993 opc premier #115 jody reed

9 - 2000 upper deck ultimate victory #105 koyie hill

it doesn't look like that anymore, as i knocked four of the cards off the list, including this 1981 permagraphics all-stars davey lopes card

the nefarious 9, of course, are my most wanted cards.  i keep the list not only as a way to (hopefully) generate trades, but also as a reminder to myself.  this time around, there were no trades that included any of the cards on the list.  that makes sense, though, because this 1970 milton bradley tom haller

is fairly uncommon.  it's not expensive - i got this for cheap on comc - but it's not something most people have in their trade bait piles.

same for this 1978 kellogg's tommy john card

i'm hoping maybe someone does have a 1977 kellogg's doug rau sitting around.

finally, i picked up a 1993 ud sp mike piazza card, with not one

but two

plays at the plate.  and a nice look at the tim crews patch.

i've updated the nefarious 9 list - somehow, there are two jody reed cards on thers!  please, help a blogger out!

the evolution of the ace, part 2

here we are with the second installment of the non-scientific evolutionary chain of the dodgers' ace.  we left off part one with gomer, and we start part two with don sutton.

don sutton (1971-1973, 1976)

don sutton, much to my chagrin, is the only hall of famer to be part of the team of my youth.  from 1971-1973, sutton averaged 18 wins a year.  he won 19 in 1973, and finished in 5th place in the cy young award voting in both 1972 and 1973.  he finished in the top five in strikeouts each of the three years, and his 9 shutouts and sub-1.00 whip led the league in 1972.  in 1976, sutton reclaimed the ace spot from andy messersmith (see below), by winning 20 games (21, actually) for the only time in his career.  sutton also finished 3rd in the cy young voting, and 22nd in the league mvp vote that year.

sutton actually finished in the top 5 of the cy young voting in 1974 and 1975 as well, but both times he was behind (or tied with) teammate andy messersmith (1974-1975)

messersmith finished 2nd in the vote following the 1974 season (behind teammate mike marshall) and then tied with sutton at 5th in 1975.  his 1974 season included 20 wins and a 1.10 whip (both of which led the league) as well as 221 strikeouts (good for 2nd in the national league).  in 1975, messersmith earned 19 wins and posted a 2.29 era.  he also led the league in starts, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched and hits/9 innings.  he also appeared twice in relief - earning a save in one of those appearances.

tommy john (1977)

tommy john was just two seasons removed from his eponymous surgery when he went 20-7 with a 2.78 era in 1977.  he also threw 11 complete games and 3 shutouts and finished 2nd in the cy young balloting.

burt hooton (1978-1979)

like john before him, hooton finished 2nd in the cy young voting after the 1978 season.  he had gone 19-10 with a 2.71 era in 32 starts, and also had 10 complete games with three of them being shutouts.  in 1979, the dodgers were not a first place team, but happy was still the ace - posting an era of 2.97 but being rewarded with a 11-10 record.  i gave the nod to hooton in 1979 over rookie of the year rick sutcliffe (17-10, 3.46) because hooton surpassed sutcliffe in pretty much every category other than wins.  i don't want to overvalue wins as a measurement of ace, even though my definition is obviously subjective. sorry sutt!  all of the other dodger starters (except for spot starter charlie hough) had losing records and substantially higher eras than hooton did in 1979, including the dodger ace of 1980.

jerry reuss (1980)

reuss joined the list of dodger pitchers to finish second in the cy young voting when he went 18-6 with 3 saves and a 2.51 era in 1980.  he also had 10 complete games, 6 of which were shutouts (the most in the league), and a no-hitter against the giants.  in candlestick, no less.

fernando valenzuela (1981-1982, 1986)

fernandomania touched down in 1981 as another lefty claimed the mantle of ace.  fernando made the opening day start only after it was determined that reuss could not, and went on to rattle off 5 straight complete games, 4 of which were shutouts, in his first 5 starts.  he went 9 innings in his next three starts, too, although it took 10 innings for the dodgers to win his 6th start, although he got the win as he did in all 7 of his other initial 8 starts.  after that, fernando was just 5-7 but finished the strike-shortened campaign at 13-7 with a 2.48 era, and was atop the league leader board in starts, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched and strikeouts.  he also took home some hardware as the league's rookie of the year and cy young award winner.  el toro was a 19 game winner in 1982, and then won 21 games for the blue in 1986 with a league leading 20 complete games and a personal best 242 strikeouts, good enough for second place in the cy young award voting. in between 1982 and 1986, however, fernando was outshone by a couple of other dodger starters.
 
bob welch (1983)

welch went 15-12 in 1983 (fernando was 15-10) and his 2.65 era was the best among dodger starters.  in addition, his 1.16 whip was just slightly higher than that of alejandro pena among the dodgers in the rotation.  maybe i am including welch here just so i can show his nice 1983 fleer card with dodger stadium and ron cey lurking in the background.

alejandro pena (1984)

pena was 12-6 with a league leading 2.48 era for the dodgers in 1984.  he made 28 starts and completed 8 of them, 4 by shutout.  oddly, it was the final season of pena's career in which he was used exclusively as a starter.

orel hershiser was the team's ace in 1985, but i'll cover him in the next post since he also held that title by my estimation later in the decade.