never look a gift horse in the mouth

a while back, baseball dad was giving away cards on his site.  i don't recall exactly how it worked, but i know that i claimed a jim abbott card.  some time later, i received a package in the mail which included this card - a 1989 bowman abbott.

now, i recall claiming a card, but couldn't quite recall why i asked for this particular card.  turns out, after consulting my email, i had claimed abbott's 1991 upper deck card.  that's ok for a couple of reasons.  first, baseball dad also threw in a pack of 2003 donruss estrellas.  

here's a look at what the pack included - jim edmonds

hideki matsui

mike piazza

cc sabathia

hideki matsui naciones de origines insert

looks like japan must be close to south or central america according to donruss.  keep studying geography kids!  there was also a scott rolen card in the pack that i will show another time.  the big, and i mean big, pull of the pack was this vladimir guerrero mini poster

sweet.

i think i mentioned a few weeks ago that i broke up my 1991 upper deck set in order to take out all the double play and memorial cards that exist within.  i also pulled out this card for my dodger stadium collection.  it's the 1991 upper deck jim abbott card that i had wanted.

abbott is shown batting, and then on the basepaths, at dodger stadium

during the annual freeway series that was held between the dodgers and angels just prior to opening day.

thanks baseball dad for sending the cards - especially the bonus pack!

giants cards can be useful

i believe the dodger/giant rivalry to be a bigger deal than yankees/red sox or cubs/cardinals or twins/brewers or whatever other manufactured rivalries that bud selig wants to try to peddle.  growing up in southern california, we disliked all things about no-cal, and the giants were at the top of the list.  these days, i count san francisco as one of my favorite cities to visit, but i still dislike the giants.  so, you had better believe that i was more than happy to send some cards featuring the san francisco nine out of my collection, and in return receive some pretty cool dodger cards.  it's all thanks to arpsmith, whose cardboard obsession focuses on the dodgers' foes, and who was kind enough to agree to trade with someone who bleeds dodger blue.

here's a 1959 topps card featuring johnny podres, clem labine, and don drysdale.

in 1959, podres was 3-0 against the giants, with a 2-hit shutout in one of the games.  labine, meanwhile, was 1-0 with 2 saves in his appearances against the giants, while big d was 4-2 in 7 starts versus san francisco.  no wonder a giants fan was willing to part with it.

i also received a former nefarious 9 card - a 1984 fleer tom niedenfuer

as is often the case in our little community, i needed one of these and now i have an extra as i also received a copy from mrmopar recently.

there were some pretty big cards in the package, too.  literally.  like this 1988 topps big mike davis card

along with his oversized 1989 bowman card

but, as much as i appreciate the walk that mike davis earned in game 1 of the 1988 world series, he was not even the best davis in the package.  that honor goes to willie davis, who appears on tony gwynn's 1992 pinnacle 'the idols' subset card

i know i have shown that card before, but it is so cool that i wanted to show it again.

arpsmith also noticed that i am still trying to finish my 2008 upper deck timeline set, and he moved me a couple of cards closer to that goal.  he sent along a jay bruce

and a prince fielder card

and also included an andre ethier jersey card

ethier returned to the lineup last night, as did matt kemp.  so, it makes sense to close with a kemp card, like this 2012 topps heritage new age performers insert.

thanks for the trade arpsmith!

horton heard a ttm request

ricky horton didn't spend a whole lot of time with the dodgers, but he was there long enough to win a world series in 1988 and get a very nice 1989 topps card featuring dodger stadium as the background.  he recently signed a copy for me through the mail.

he also had a pretty boring 1989 donruss card which he also signed

and a nice 1989 bowman card (thanks to the lack of a posed photo) that made a triumvirate of tttm success

horton is better remembered for his two tours of duty with the cardinals (he pitched against the dodgers in the 1985 nlcs) although he also pitched for the white sox for the first part of the 1988 season.  the dodgers picked him up in a trade for shawn hillegas late in the '88 season, and horton helped the blue get to the playoffs and beyond.  he didn't appear in the world series, but he pitched well in the nlcs against the mets.

thanks ricky!

so long, duke

by now you all know duke snider passed away yesterday at the age of 84.  i am too young to have seen him play, but i appreciate the legitimacy he gave to my dodger fandom when the neighborhood giant and yankee fans would talk about willie mays and mickey mantle.  i always had duke in my pocket, along with koufax and drysdale.

one of the first players i sent cards to when i started seeking ttm autographs in 2009 was duke snider.  he obliged me three times, which i am very thankful for.  here are the last three - a 1989 bowman reprint insert

 and a 2004 fleer greats forever dodgers insert

duke was not quite forever a dodger (he finished with the mets and giants) but he was the dodger hall of famer emeritus.  back in 2009, he was the one who started the fantastic opening day parade of former dodgers that climaxed with sandy koufax, don newcombe, and carl erskine throwing out the first pitch.  now that duke is gone, only koufax, lasorda and sutton remain as living dodger hall of famers.

rest in peace, silver fox. 

like a punch to the stomach...

or, an arm to the groin.  i feel a bit like jose offerman on his 1994 upper deck collector's choice card.  or maybe like the lurking jody reed.

no, i'm not talking about the twins and their inability to beat the yankees, i'm referring to my hard drive issues.  if the mets player is the hard drive, then offerman would be the data and reed would be me.  and, since we know offerman never lived up to expectations, we can assume that the data is not all there either.

so, as a collaterally damaged jody reed, i attempted to salvage as much as i could, and wound up with the vast majority of my scans being lost or partially saved.  here's an example.

this is a 1990 topps traded juan samuel card that he signed for me.

but you knew that, right?

how about a 2001 topps tribute roy campanella scan 

sweet.  why campy is lost but the offerman was spared is beyond me.  i'll spend some time rebuilding my scanned folder (and backing it up more regularly) and get back to business as usual soon.

say goodnight, duke.

goodnight.

above average cards from average joe

i recently completed a trade with average joe and here are some of the cards i received:

1989 bowman fernando valenzuela

check out those stirrups!  i think they make fernando look taller.  speaking of taller, i am not/was not a fan of topps trotting out the early 50's size for these cards.  i think they learned their lesson, as they have not done so since.

1986 fleer ron cey

it's still strange to see cey as a cub.

1988 fleer star sticker steve sax

saxy!

1990 fleer jose gonzalez

i think there were high hopes for jose in the late 80's but by 1990 things had not panned out.  the dodgers traded him to cleveland for mitch webster.

1991 leaf bobby ojeda

the dodgers acquired ojeda from the mets for hubie brooks, and he pitched pretty well for them in 91.  in 92, though, he was part of the worst team in los angeles dodger history, not that it was his fault by any stretch of the imagination.  still, i associate him (and eric davis and todd benzinger and a few other dodger transients) with that team.  after leaving the dodgers as a free agent, ojeda signed with cleveland for the 93 season.  ojeda was in the boat that tim crews was driving when crews and steve olin were killed during spring training 1993.  he did pitch for cleveland later that season, but made only 11 total appearances after the accident.

thanks joe! hope you enjoyed the cards i sent your way.

supercali-padrograph-ic expealidocious cards from rod!

rod over at padrographs sent me a bunch of dodgers, double plays, plays at the plate, dodger stadium shots, and even some much appreciated padres recently. just because. awesome.

1985 topps steve garvey autographed.
i choose not to think about garvey as a padre too much, but this card is much appreciated.

1987 leaf candy city team roy campanella.

a little research tells me that this card was issued for the special olympics. it's the same card essentially as the 1983 donruss hall of fame heroes set campy.

1989 bowman gil hodges.

one of those contest things disguised as an insert. not a bad idea, although issuing the 1989 set in the original bowman size was a bad idea. very bad.

here's another one - jackie robinson.

i've thought about trimming some off the top and bottom of these cards so they are more easily stored, but i haven't done it yet.

1990 upper deck eddie murray.

rockin' the hat under the helmet look. just like little league, although i don't see too many kids doing this these days. i am guessing it's because the helmets these days have better foam padding that more easily adjusts to their head sizes.

2002 upper deck piece of history steve garvey.

that's better. garvey in dodger blue. i really liked this set. today's piece of history, not so much. anyone else remember garvey being interviewed after the final game of the '81 world series as though he had won the mvp with cey and pedro? someone must have told the reporter the wrong steve, and he interviewed garvey instead of yeager. bad times for popeye.

1992 upper deck chris and tony gwynn.

one of two bloodlines subsets rod sent. this one had the brothers gwynn posing in beautiful dodger stadium. tony at one time tried to convince everyone that chris was the better hitter. obviously to no avail.

2009 topps attax clayton kershaw.

it is a crime that his curveball only rates an 82. unless that's on a scale of 1-10. then it's ok.

here's a play at the plate - 1990 upper deck benito santiago.
billy hatcher scores standing up. it looks like both teams are wearing their home whites.

here's a play at second base - 1996 topps stadium club tony gwynn.

the wizard of oz lurking and waiting for the ball. i'll guess that tony is safe.

1991 score paul faries.

i'll assume that he tried to tag the runner heading to second before throwing to first to complete the double play, although it looks like the ball was hit too softly for that to have happened.

1991 upper deck paul faries.

airborne to avoid john orton of the angels. is this a double play turn? maybe, maybe not.

here's a legitimate double play turn by faries on his 1992 topps card.

kevin mitchell bearing down, but it looks like faries has enough time to get rid of the ball.

1992 upper deck cal & billy ripken bloodlines.

here's the other bloodlines card. cal gets all the double play action while billy just looks on.

1991 score barry larkin.

another double play turn.

thanks rod! all of the cards you sent are much appreciated!