seeing things at the lcs

if you've ever wondered what pete rose, ryne sandberg, and steve garvey would look like if their faces were somehow combined into one, then go pick up a copy of this 1986 sportflics card.

when scanned, it looks mostly like rose.  here's the garvey image, or at least as best as i could manage.

i didn't need a copy, but i couldn't leave that card in the nickel box at one of the local card shops, now could i?  i also picked up a better looking garvey - again, no real need, but for a nickel…it's a 2005 topps pristine card for goodness sake!

i mentioned in an earlier post that i had made a few visits to the two local card shops over the last few months, and had some cards to show from those trips.  some of the nickel and dime boxes at these shops included boxes sorted by player - mostly hall of famers, stars, and notable twins.  some of the lesser organized boxes seemed to include bunches of cards of players who were at one time highly collectible, but now are not really sought after - probably moved out of the star boxes to make room for the bryce harpers and mike trouts of the world.  one such player is roberto alomar.

i found a bunch of alomars, including this 1995 topps d3 double play card

as well as base

and die-cut versions

of his 1995 upper deck championship series card.

like alomar, eddie murray seemed to have been moved into the low rent district.  i picked up a 1991 bowman card of the hall of famer

 it mentions his .330 average on the back

which led the majors in 1990, although murray didn't win a batting title.

here's a 1993 fleer vinny castilla card

on which he is shown turning two as a brave, but listed as a rockie.  i had forgotten that castilla was not always a third baseman.  castilla did not start the season as colorado's shortstop (freddie benavides had the honor of being the first ss in team history) but he took over the role in may.  he didn't move to third base full time until 1995.

there were some oddball cards in one of the boxes, many of which i had not seen before.  i picked up a 1992 fleer citgo darryl strawberry card for the dodger collection

it was a joint 7-11/citgo release, apparently.

there were even some ted williams cards floating around - this one of joe black is from 1993.

the tough thing with the nickel and dime boxes is that they aren't getting any new inventory.  i noticed that at both shops, although the lack of new material seemed to be for different reasons.  at one shop, they didn't appear to be busting any new product.  at the other, they seemed to be discouraging people from digging through boxes.  i'll expand on that next time.

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.

here is yet another double play dump

again with minimal commentary and again with minimal organization.  earlier today i showed a few cards from 1994 upper deck.  well, here are some more.  kurt abbott

greg gagne

ricky gutierrez

pat kelly

and scott leius

here's a 1994 upper deck collector's choice roberto mejia card

with mejia doing an eric heiden impression

from 1995 topps d3, here's cal ripken jr

and from 1996 pinnacle, here's jay bell

1996 pinnacle summit gives us this ray durham turn

and here's another luis alicea card, courtesy of 1996 score

alex rodriguez goes up and over on his 1996 score select card

while randy velarde gets it done on his 1996 topps card

still more double plays to show tomorrow