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!

the steve garvey binders fun continues

there were a bunch of steve garvey cards to be had in 1986.  here are some of them.  this is sheet 20 in my first steve garvey binder

those items are:

1. 1986 fleer mini
2. 1986 fleer star sticker
3. 1986 fleer star sticker (box bottom)
4. 1986 leaf
5. 1986 meadow gold
6. 1986 meadow gold blank backs
7. 1986 o-pee-chee
8. 1986 o-pee-chee tattoos
9. 1986 topps quaker

lots of oddball goodness on that sheet.  we ate a ton of quaker chewy granola bars in our house, so i had several sets of the quaker cards which were great because they were fully licensed.

here are the backs:

a couple of things to note: the meadow gold stat back cards were issued on the boxes of frozen confections, such as fudgesicles, while the blank backs were on ice cream cartons. there was also a set of meadow gold cards issued on milk cartons, but garvey wasn't part of that set (thankfully - i don't know that you could get the milk smell off).  anyway, this means that there are three cards on this sheet that came from some sort of box, with the fleer sticker box bottom card being the other.  also, i've kept the full tattoo panel intact, hence the appearance of future dodgers jesse orosco and rick dempsey on the flip side of the sheet.

here's sheet 21

with those cards being:

1. 1986 sportflics
2. 1986 sportfilcs (national league mvp's)
3. 1986 sportflics (all-star game mvp's)
4. 1986 sportflics decade greats
5. 1986 topps
6. 1986 topps glossy all-star
7. 1986 topps glossy all-star (national league team)
8. 1986 topps glossy send in
9. 1986 topps stickers

pete rose is the dominant image on the nl mvp sportflics card (ryne sandberg is the third player featured), and gary carter is visible on the all-star game mvp card.  garvey and carter are the only two to have won the award twice.  fred lynn is the other player featured on the card.  i like the national league all-star team card as the 1985 midsummer classic was played in the metrodome and the picture was taken in front of the retractable seats in right field.  good ol' multipurpose stadiums.  for the record, garvey is on the far left of the seated row.

here are the backs:

nothing too exciting there, but i'll have more sheets from the garvey binders posted soon!

off hiatus and off my want list

who sends a 1954 bowman billy loes card

as part of a blind trade package? luckily for me, tony at off hiatus does. or did, in my case.  billy is really caressing that baseball there - i hope he's more careful with it than lennie and his rabbits.  this card is gloriously worn and it's one less '54 bowman that i need.

here's another brooklyn dodger sent by tony - it's gene hermanski

on what appears to be a card made for the 5th national convention held back in 1984.  here's the back of the card that led me to that conclusion

i'm guessing that hermanski was signing autographs at the convention.

now we get to the los angeles dodger portion of the post, with some great oddball cards.

1988 kaybee superstars of baseball pedro guerrero

it's true - petey was still a superstar at that time. he had hit a career high .338 in 1987, but the dodgers brought him back into the infield in 1988 and his trade to saint louis that season was deemed to be addition by subtraction.

1988 starting lineup talking baseball steve sax

and fernando valenzuela

the only talkin' baseball i know has to do with willie, mickey, and the duke.  sadly, none of those guys were included in the set.

more oddballs of el toro - 1987 fleer mini

in which fernando is wearing his shiny pullover and a hat that was certainly not a game issue, and his 1986 fleer mini

which features an oddly cropped photo.

here's a little photo of don drysdale on a 2004 upper deck sweet spot classics manufactured patch card

that features the national league logo.  i think the american league logo is better, mostly because i think that the glove that the eagle is holding on to in the nl logo looks odd.  better to have a baseball in that talon, i think.

finally, here's a 2013 panini hometown heroes card of paul loduca

yes, this is a dodger card (note the 'los angeles' pennant in the upper left) even though the heart and soul of jim tracy's dodgers is wearing his mets gear in the photo.  as a met, loduca hit .455 against the dodgers in the 2006 nlds.

tony hit 1.000 with this trade package.  so much so that i'll show some more cards that he sent later on! stay tuned...

dime box dodgers by proxy

nick from dime boxes didn't just send me double play cards recently, he sent a few dodger oddballs and parallels, too.  here is a smattering.

1982 fleer stamps steve garvey

i had avoided stamps and stickers for a long time when it came to my garvey collection.  i caved on stickers about 10 years ago or so, but i did not have one of these until nick sent it my way.

1985 topps tiffany rj reynolds

ditto with the tiffany cards.  i still don't have more than a few in my collection.

1986 fleer mini mariano duncan

i did pick up sets of the fleer minis back in the early 2000's - primarily as an easy way to get the garveys and dodgers.  i appreciate the fact that fleer used different photos - the sets weren't just a shrunken down version of the flagship set.

1989 woolworth's mike marshall

why topps didn't include postseason cards in their 1989 set is beyond me.  instead, we have fleer, o-pee-chee and woolworth issuing those cards.  and two of those three manufacturers had relationships with topps!

1991 conlon tsn zach wheat

mr. wheat led the national league in slugging percentage in 1916!  that looks more like the dodgers' 1912 uni than the robins' 1916 jersey.  wheat also played for the franchise when they were the superbas.

here's a 1992 bazooka card that had me scratching my head

a 1953 topps style 4-in-1 in a 1992 bazooka product?  at least some kids got to see preacher roe on cardboard.

the last card for this post is a 1995 upper deck collector's choice special edition silver signature parallel of ramon martinez

the silver/grey border actually works nicely with this card.

thanks nick, but i'm not done yet...

the twins clean house, i add more cards

i should take a lesson from the twins.  they reently traded away two of their more popular outfielders - denard span

and ben revere

while i took part in padrographs 2012 topps heritage high number 'break'.  not only did rod send me the twins' cards from that set (including the span up top), he also sent me a healthy stack of twins cards from other recent releases.  that 2012 topps ben revere is the first gold rush card i have added to my collection.

here's a regular 2012 topps card that i didn't have before

i have let my vladdy pc slide the last few years.  it's too bad that he didn't get to the majors last year - he's one home run shy of 450, and 9 hits behind steve garvey on the all-time list.  i should note that i also claimed the yankees from the heritage high numbers set for trade bait. as a result, i got the ichiro card.  he looked better in the mariners' colors, in my opinion.

here's a double play card that rod included - a 2010 upper deck matt tolbert card

obviously, it was included in the package because tolbert was a twinkie.  the cloud of dirt was at first unnoticed by me, but i think it verifies that this is a dp turn.  tolbert, by the way, spent 2012 in the cubs' organization.

with all these twins players on the move, it's comforting to know that good ol' tc bear will always be around

although i am of the opinion that tc should be a black bear, given the bear population that actually exists in minnesota.  

rod also included a singular padre card in the package.  it was a 1986 fleer mini steve garvey card

the photo for which was probably taken very close to the same time as his regular 1986 fleer card

the mini card is smaller than it appears to be here, but the text is also shrunken - more than an proportionate amount.  kind of like the twins' major league roster.

thanks rod!

is 'suttoning' the new 'tebowing'?

it took a while for don sutton to find his signature pose - he tried the 'arms over head' and the 'pitching motion follow through' - but he eventually got there.  i suspect this newly rediscovered pose will surpass planking, owling, and yes, even tebowing, in the coming weeks.  let's let the hall of fame pitcher show us how it's done.

1979 hostess

kneel on your left leg, and support your right arm on your right knee.  left arm goes across right arm, near the elbow.  baseball glove pointing down, look to the left of the camera.  got it.

1979 topps

or, you can look directly at the camera.  that works, too.

1981 fleer

without glove, looking to the right of the camera is also acceptable.

1981 fleer star stickers

squinting in the general direction of the camera is ok, too.

1981 topps

you can even go hatless, and hold a baseball in your right hand!

1981 topps league leaders

glove pointing up, is ok, but only if hatless?  i might need a ruling.

1981 topps traded

ah, a subtle 'open suttoning stance' is apparently appropriate when wearing rainbow jerseys.

1985 mother's a's

back to basics, with the ball.  around this time, sutton tried to teach the pose to phil niekro, who couldn't quite get the right leg up.  that is the most common mistake with people who attempt to 'sutton' - they kneel on the wrong knee.  it's simple, people!  left knee down, left arm on top.

1986 donruss

back to the original 1979 hostess pose

1986 fleer

this is the most basic form of suttoning, apparently

1986 fleer mini

glove up, with a hat!  ok, sutton knows what he's doing, so glove up or down in any 'suttoning' pose is ok.

1988 mother's dodgers

a final 'suttoning' at the sunset of a career.  i wonder how many stadiums don sutton 'suttoned' in?

but wait, his penchant for posing was so strong, that even recent issues have displayed the master's form.  like 2001 topps tribute

could this be the earliest known case of 'suttoning'?

2003 topps gallery

in which we pay homage to the 1979 event

but then there is 2003 topps all-time fan favorites

a vero beach 'suttoning' that predates that which is shown on the 2001 topps tribute card, complete with a blue glove.

anyone else seen another player 'sutton' on a card?  do you have the courage to 'sutton' somewhere unique?  will tim tebow score a touchdown for the jets, and 'sutton'?  we can only hope.