motivated by minis

duane from democratic roadkill recently offered to send me some cards in exchange for some 2014 topps allen & ginter minis.  he really wants minis - so much so that he sent more cards than i expected, and i have been delinquent in completing the trade as i have tried to pick up a few more things to send in return.  here are some of the cards that duane sent.

he recently finished a 1960 topps set, so he sent some doubles my way.  fred kipp

danny mcdevitt

and john roseboro

it wasn't all vintage goodness (i'll show more of the vintage haul in a separate post) - there was some modern stuff, too.

i don't know that i've ever looked at the mike marshall and steve sax cards from 1989 score together at the same time, but they make for an interesting combination

as do these two cards from 2009 upper deck goudey - andre ethier, kirk gibson, clayton kershaw, and russell martin 4-in-1 red and green border

these cards remind me of sesame street.  russell martin is doing his own thing by wearing his headgear backwards.  and now the song is done.

minis are primarily what duane was after - he collects the a&g minis like nobody else - so of course he has plenty of extras.  here are a few from 2013 topps a&g that he sent - hanley ramirez, chad billingsley, ethier, and hyun-jin ryu

this stuff wasn't even the best part of the package duane sent, so stay tuned...

1989 topps cards that should have been of 1978 topps dodgers - don sutton gets a final tribute

it has been a while since i last updated the evolution of the players who were featured as dodgers in the 1978 topps set.  in that most recent post, i mentioned some cards that should have been from 1989.  here's what i was talking about.

1989 topps don sutton

sutton got a box bottom card from topps, but not a true final tribute.  this takes care of that.  here's the back

this was why i went so long between posts - i finally sat down and spent the time needed to get all those numbers on there.  i'm not looking forward to the tommy john final tribute back, i can tell you that.

score was the only card company to give sutton a regular card in 1989, since he was released by the dodgers in august.  it was curious that score didn't include him in their 1988 rookie/traded set, but put him in the flagship.  whatever, i'm just happy that for the second year in a row (they also made the only steve garvey final tribute in 1988), score came through for me

here's the back

there were only two seasons in sutton's career in which he didn't win at least 11 games, and his truncated 1988 final season was one of them.

here's the other card missing from topps in 1989 - the 1989 topps traded rick rhoden card

rhoden was traded from the yankees to the astros prior to the 1989 season, but didn't fit onto topps' traded set checklist.  i'm sure if it had been the other way around, topps would have been able to find room for another yankee in the set.

well, there you have it - two cards that should have been in 1989.  stay tuned for the 1978 topps dodgers as they were in 1990...

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em

back in 1974, the dodgers faced off against the oakland a's in the world series.  james augustus hunter, better known as 'catfish' made two appearances in the series - he earned the save in game 1 by striking out the only batter he faced (joe ferguson) and then got the win in game 3 after starting and going 8 innings.  in that game, bill buckner took him deep for a solo home run - the only run the dodgers would score against him.  also in that game, davey lopes was 2 for 3 with a walk and 2 steals against hunter, which qualifies as a classic world series matchup according to the 2002 upper deck world series heroes set.  here's a davey lopes jersey relic from that set that p-town tom of the blog waiting 'til next year sent me a while back

i do so appreciate relics of ron cey, lopes and bill russell, since they are not as plentiful as those of steve garvey.  i think cey is the only one without a jersey card in this particular set.  anyway, lopes later went and joined the a's following the dodgers' world series victory in 1981.  he was traded to the cubs late in the 1984 season, but topps still showed him in a's gear in 1985.  here's his 1985 topps tiffany card as proof

tom also sent an autographed card of one of the other dodger infielders - ron cey signed a copy of one of his cards from the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams set

cey is a great ttm signer, so i would imagine that's how this one got signed.  i do plan to finish the timeless teams blog, by the way.  this year for sure.

not all of the cards in the trade package were of the infield - there were lots of other dodger goodies.  here's a 1982 tcma baseball's greatest pitchers card of don newcombe

and even a 1989 score jay howell card

can be appreciated for the unocal logo and old field level scoreboard from dodger stadium in the background.

dodger stadium is in the background of mark ellis' 2013 topps walmart blue parallel as well

but seeing part of a bud light sign is not as nice as that scoreboard on howell's card.

tom sent another relic card, too.  from 2013 topps archives, it's andre ethier giving up the shirt on his back

speaking of archives, i understand that the 2014 set will use the 1973, 1986, 1989 and 1980 set designs.  why use 1980 again? it was just used in 2012 archives.  i'm guessing that there will be one or two short prints (again) that use the 1978 design, but it would be nice if topps used it for the base set sometime.  of course, if they have bill russell on the auto checklist this year, i might give them a pass.

thanks for the trade tom!  and it looks like, once again, you will be waiting until at least next year for your cubs.

locally sourced double plays (mostly)

the double play cards just keep on coming…by trade or by card show purchase or by online purchase or even by way of my pre-existing collection.  every once in a while, i will stumble on to a dp turn that was/is part of a forgotten player collection, or my dodger collection, like this 2001 pacific mark grudzielanek card.

these next cards are mostly ones that i found in my collection and extricated from the monster boxes to place into the double play binders.  there are a couple that i went and purchased, however.

1989 score mike gallego

i appreciate that score cropped the photo so that the ball would still be visible, but at first glance the ball gets lost in the shirtsleeves of the crowd.

1989 upper deck jeff blauser (back)

the ball is much more obvious there on blauser's card

1989 upper deck steve buechele (back)

with both buechele and the angels' chico walker looking to first base for the call.  assuming this is the play from the 8th inning of the june 16, 1988 game, buechele was successful in breaking up the double play.

1989 classic juan samuel

leapfrog gone awry

1990 upper deck scott fletcher

1992 leaf andujar cedeno

1994 fleer royce clayton

1994 fleer rene gonzales

pretty standard double play fare on those four cards

the last two cards in this post come from 1997 topps gallery, and they both feature craig biggio.  here's biggio's card

on which he is turning two at wrigley, and here is ryne sandberg's card from the set

on which he, too, is turning two at wrigley.  at biggio's expense.

this card is in my header

a couple of weeks ago, i started a post with a card that almost made my header.  well, this one is right up there at the top - between cey and russell and next to the bulldog.  it's a 2005 topps all-time fan favorites pedro guerrero card

it's hard for me to believe that i haven't featured this card in a post until today, despite having been posting here for almost four and a half years.  guerrero (along with reggie smith) was sometimes the dodgers' answer to oscar gamble as far as afros go, and this is probably the best example of that.  plus, petey was a heckuva ballplayer in the 1980's.  although i was a slightly bigger steve sax fan, guerrero was very close to being my favorite dodger after steve garvey left town.

that card, and the rest of the cards in this post, came my way from spiegel at nomo's sushi platter.  this is a 1973 topps al downing card featuring a through the mail success autograph.

i suppose it could be an in person success - spiegel didn't say - since he lives in socal and is able to attend dodger games, and downing is sometimes featured out in autograph alley.  someday soon i will show my very first al downing autograph which i obtained in 1981 or so.

another regular at dodger stadium is fernando valenzuela, seen here in dodger stadium on his 1983 fleer card

here's another card with a dodger stadium background - orel hershiser's 1989 score masters card

i'm not usually a fan of painted cards, but this is a pretty cool card, actually.

dave hansen is in vero beach on his 1994 topps stadium club card

but jose offerman is back at shortstop in chavez ravine on his

those are both the golden rainbow parallels.

spiegel also included a couple of jersey pieces - a 2009 upper deck andre ethier card

and a 2010 topps update rafael furcal card

thanks for the trade spiegel!

don sutton's double dipping adventure

[this is the forty-fourth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, and jerry grote.]

don sutton left the dodgers for the houston astros after the 1980 season.  he had pitched for the dodgers since 1966, never winning fewer than 11 games.  his 230 wins were the most in franchise history, as were his 2652 strikeouts and 534 games pitched and 517 starts.  he still appeared as a dodger in the three major 1981 releases, like 1981 donruss 

but some of the regional and team issues from that year had him airbrushed into astros' colors.  here's his 1981 topps coke astros card as proof.

sutton pitched well for the astros in 1981, winning 11 games in the strike shortened season, and leading the national league in whip for the second straight year.  he was 13-8 for houston in 1982 when they traded him to the brewers in late august.  acquired for the stretch run, sutton was 4-1 for milwaukee, and helped them reach the american league championship series (and the world series) for the first time in their history.  

sutton pitched well in his lone alcs start, beating the angels in game 3 to kickstart milwaukee's improbable comeback from a 2 games to none deficit and win the series in five games.  in the world series, however, sutton struggled in both his game 3 and game 6 starts, and the brew crew fell to the cardinals in 7 games.

after two more seasons in milwaukee (including 1983 in which sutton logged his 3000th career strikeout), sutton was traded to the a's, as this 1985 o-pee-chee card attests

as was the case with houston in 1982, sutton was 13-8 for the a's when he was traded away to help another team down the stretch.  in this case, he was dealt to the division rival california angels.  he went 2-2 in his five starts for the halos in september, but the angels fell one game short of tying the eventual world champion royals for the al west crown.

sutton was back with california in 1986, when they did make it to the postseason. he also collected his 300th career victory that year with a complete game 3-hitter against the rangers, and donruss made a card to celebrate the occasion.

sutton pitched well in the alcs against boston in 1986 (1 start, 1 relief appearance) but the angels famously fell short of making it to their first world series.  he stayed with the angels in 1987 before returning to the dodgers in 1988.  even though the dodgers released him in august of 1988, score was kind enough to issue a card for the veteran pitcher in 1989

complete with his entire career stats - a true final tribute

 

you can see that sutton added to his all-time dodger leader stats - wins, games, starts, innings pitched, and strikeouts.  it would have been nice to see sutton celebrating the world series victory in 1988 since he missed out on the 1981 title, but it wasn't meant to be.  it also would have been nice for sutton to have never left the team so that the dodgers could have celebrated a 3000 strikeout and 300 win pitcher of their very own.  oh well, at least sutton has received some attention from topps lately, such as this 2011 topps reprint of his 1977 card.

i would have preferred that they reprint one of his cards on which he is suttoning, however.

i will end this post with a card i recently acquired - a colorful 1988 score don sutton card purportedly signed by the hall of famer himself.

as nice as that is, sutton just doesn't look right in elastic waistband pants.  i'm glad he returned to the dodgers.

here's to you don sutton, dodger double dipper!

jesse's got himself a post

thanks to his status as a dodger double dipper!

[this is the thirty-first installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, and jay johnstone.]

orosco first came to the dodgers in 1988, just in time for his second world series title in 3 years.  here's his 1989 score card.

orosco teamed with jay howell to lead the dodger bullpen to the fruits of victory in 1988, but he was one and done - leaving la for cleveland as a free agent.

after three seasons with the indians, orosco was traded to the brewers, as evidenced by his 1994 topps card:

after milwaukee, it was five seasons in baltimore and one in saint louis before orosco returned to the dodgers.  here's his 2002 topps traded card

orosco stayed for two years this time, appearing in 91 games for the dodgers.  by this time, he had already passed hoyt wilhelm and dennis eckersley to claim the top spot on the career games pitched list. orosco split the 2003 season between the padres, yankees and twins, and although he signed a contract with the diamondbacks after the season ended, he didn't make it back to the majors.

here's to you jesse orosco - another dodger double dipper!

i still believe

"only" twice in my lifetime have the dodgers won the last game of the baseball season.  i was 10 in 1981, and 17 in 1988 - the last time the dodgers were in the world series.

we are in the midst of the longest world series drought since the team moved to the west coast, and my baseball related christmas wish is that 2012 be a banner season for the dodgers.  however, seeing the parts that ned has added recently, i think i will be happy with a new owner and a shot at 2013.

merry christmas!

dave anderson through the mail successes!

last year i sent a few cards to dave anderson, the former dodger shortstop and current rangers third base coach, in the hopes that he would sign and return them.  i didn't get them back.  then, during spring training this year, i gave it another shot, and a few months later, voila!

1984 donruss

1984 topps

1985 topps

to make matters even better, he didn't do what clint hurdle and vladimir guerrero did and send a team postcard.  buoyed by the first success, i sent another request and anderson again came through.

1989 score

1989 topps

1989 upper deck (in dodger stadium!)

1990 topps

it's an embarrassment of riches, really.

for the record, i am rooting for the rangers to win the world series, for the following reasons:

1. they are not the giants
2. vladdy
3. former dodger (i don't recognize his year with the giants) dave anderson is their third base coach
4. former dodger ron washington is their manager
5. they are not the giants

anderson may be best known for being the on deck decoy during mike davis' at bat in game 1 of the world series. he was called back to the dugout when gibby came up and the rest is history. here's hoping dave bears witness to some rangers game 1 magic this year.
 
thanks dave!