no managerial cards in 1996 topps meant no cards of 1978 topps dodgers

once again, topps did not include managers in their flagship set in 1996, so i was once again shut out.  18 years later, here are the 1996 topps cards that should have been.

tom lasorda

the 1996 topps design is a weird one thanks to the inset 'phantom zone' photo.  the gradient shading used in the name box makes it tough to read when scanned, too.  i should have used a lighter color for the name text.  here's a real 1996 topps card of jose offerman for reference.

note that national league teams have the green shading of the inset photo/name boxes, while american league teams use red. topps would take this color scheme to a whole new level in 1997, in which there were no managerial cards either.

anyway, back to tommy - he did receive a card from someone in 1996 (other than mother's cookies, whose image i used to create the topps card up top).  upper deck gave lasorda a checklist as a managerial salute

recognizing that 1996 would be his 20th season managing the dodgers.  it also turned out to be his last. with the dodgers at 41-35 and two games up in the national league west after beating the astros on june 23, 1996, tommy had a heart attack the following day. it was an off day, of course, and tommy drove himself to the hospital.  he underwent surgery a couple of days later, and officially retired from managing in july.  we'll get to who took over in a bit.

dusty baker

baker had the giants at 68-94 for the season, bad enough to finish last in the national league west, 22 games behind the dodgers, who finished 1 game behind the first place padres.  they weren't the worst team in the league, however, as the phillies finished at 67-95.  baker survived the firing of general manager bob quinn at the season's end, and would return to the giants with better luck in 1997.

johnny oates

over in the american league west, the rangers won their first division title in 1996.  yes, they were in first place when the 1994 players' strike began, but this was the first time they actually advanced to the postseason.  oates had the team at 90-72, their second best win total in franchise history, and 4.5 games ahead of second place seattle.  unfortunately, the rangers lost in the division series to the yankees, three games to one.  oates was voted a co-manager of the year for the american league in 1996, sharing the award with joe torre whose team defeated oates' rangers in the playoffs.

there was no traded set in 1996, and even if there were, there wouldn't have been managerial cards included i am sure.  still, the man who took over for tom lasorda in 1996 deserves at least a 1996 topps card that should have been.

bill russell

the longtime dodger shortstop had been groomed for this moment - serving as bench coach to lasorda and managing in the minor leagues - and he led the team to a 49-37 record after taking over for lasorda. unfortunately, the padres played better ball during that stretch and overtook the dodgers by sweeping the season ending series between the two teams to finish one game up in the west.  this meant that the dodgers were the wild card winner, and so they got to play the braves and were swept in the playoffs for the second straight season.

random greatness from the scanned folder

i doubt that there will be a reason to post this 2006 upper deck future stars autographed card of tim hamulack

in anything other than a 'random cards from the scanned folder' post, so guess what?  this is a post featuring a bunch of cards that have been wallowing in my scanned folder for some time.  hamulack (besides being a sentence that yoda might utter if he were to be displeased with the meat selection at your easter brunch) pitched for the dodgers in 2006 and went 0-3 in 33 appearances.  i can't say that i recall too much about him, and i assumed that he was a lefty specialist that the dodgers brought on board to face barry bonds and todd helton and other nl west lefty sluggers.  well, he faced bonds only twice in 2006 - hamulack walked him and then hit him with a pitch a couple days later.  not bad.

1982 fleer dodger logo sticker

i wish to goodness that fleer had put dates on their stickers.  luckily, i know that this comes from 1982 because it's got a photo from the 1981 all-star game at cleveland's municipal stadium on the back

it looks like a gloomy august night in cleveland, but that may just be the 1982 fleer effect.

1992 fleer ramon martinez and ozzie guillen superstar special

this card baffled me when i first saw it.  'teenage sensations'?  guillen was 28 and entering his 8th season in the majors in 1992, and ramon was 24.  neither debuted in the majors as a teenager, so fleer must have really been reaching to make a connection here.  it turns out that both made their professional debuts at the age of 17.

1994 topps stadium club henry rodriguez rainbow foil

you can't go wrong, really, with a bat rack/helmet cubby shot.  nice cameo by darryl strawberry's (upside-down) helmet.  i don't know whose helmet is next to daaaaar-ryl's - no dodger wore 51 during oh henry's dodger tenure, at least according to baseball reference.

1996 topps ismael valdes

dodger fans remember valdes for having delicate skin.  look closely and you might see a blister on his pitching hand.

2002 upper deck superstars adrian beltre

he sure would look good at third for the dodgers these days

2009 upper deck chin-lung hu

back in 2007, poor vin scully had to wait almost 3 weeks after hu had been called up for the first time to  note that 'hu's on first'.  in his previous five games, hu had homered, pinch-ran for olmedo saenz (who had doubled), and made outs until he singled in his fourth at bat of his sixth big league game.  i am sure it was a relief to all to get that joke out of the way.

2010 bowman andre ethier expectations

i believe that ned's expectations for ethier is to enjoy being the fourth outfielder.

2013 topps pro debut matt magill

magill was 0-2 in six starts for the dodgers last season.  this year, he's appeared in a few card releases with an auto here and there, like hamulack up above.  he's yet to be called up to the bigs this year, but there's always september.

two for the tributes

i remember being perplexed by this card when donruss included it in their 1985 release.

it wasn't really a highlight card, and the two smaller pictures revealed too much of the striped card design - what, there were no photos of yankee teammates dave winfield and don mattingly together available?  anyway, the american league batting title wasn't too much of a concern for me as i was growing up in southern california, especially when it was down to a pair of yankees.  still, i collected this card because every card collecting kid hoarded don mattingly cards in the mid-1980's.  for the record, donnie baseball went 4 for 5 on the last day of the season to overtake winfield (who went 1 for 4 that day) and win title .343 to .340.

fast forward 11 years, and the two players were again colliding in my collection thanks to their 1996 releases.  both winfield and mattingly called it quits after the 1995 season, making their 1996 cards final tributes.

both were featured by upper deck in 1996, but only winfield got the 'tribute' banner on his card

those are his full career stats on the back, just like a final tribute should be.

here's mattingly's 1996 udcc card

full stats, plus the acknowledgement of the fact that mattingly played for the yankees during the time of their longest postseason drought since 1920, but no tribute banner.

both players were featured in 1996 upper deck as well, with winfield being part of the 'young at heart' subset

nice to see a padres photo on the back, plus the full career stats

mattingly, meanwhile, got the multiple exposure treatment on his card

on the back, you don't get full career stats, but you can see that mattingly played pretty well in the 1995 alds against the mariners.  he hit .417 with a homer and 6 rbi, but seattle won the 5-game series after being down 2 games to none.  ouch.

both players also got a sendoff from pinnacle in 1996 - here's winfield's

and mattingly's

only mattingly, however, was featured by topps in 1996

there was a lot of red for the stats in his early seasons

winfield would have only had one red stat - he led the nl in rbi in 1979.  it's worth noting that mattingly's final game homer was not the last hit of his career (he singled in his last at bat), but it did indeed help the yankees win the first american league wild card.

both showed up again in score's 1996 set.  here's winfield

winnie's back only goes back to 1978

now mattingly's turn

 and his back shows the full career, since it didn't begin until 1982

1996 fleer ultra also had cards for both winfield (front)

(back)

and mattingly (front)

(back)

but those card backs are pretty useless as far as final tributes go.

the fleer flagship was better in that regard, although they didn't get all the years on the backs.  winfield:

and mattingly:

donnie baseball is wearing the mickey mantle memorial armband and number patch in the front photo there (separate post coming soon).  also, the text on the back of mattingly's card addresses his role in helping the yankees reach the postseason in 1995.  winfield first made it to the postseason in 1981 with the yankees.  that was when george steinbrenner dubbed him 'mr. may' as winfield was just 1 for 22 against the dodgers in the fall classic.  i was happy when winfield joined the blue jays in 1992 and had another shot at the postseason.  his key (title-winning) double in the world series that year against the braves' charlie leibrandt pleased me greatly.

i'll finish up with 1996 donruss.  given the lack of a topps winfield card, i'd say this one is my favorite final tribute of the hall of famer

we get full career stats on the back, including the lost 1989 season that wasn't shown on the collector's choice card

mattingly's card in the set

is complete as well

but topps wins pretty much every time.

more cards from tatooine

warning - the geek quotient is high with this post.

sometimes, in between the landspeeder races and droid purchasing, folks on tatooine take time out for baseball.  here are some examples.

1996 topps joey cora

this is one of my favorite 'dirt only' cards.  the teal mariners jersey is the star of the card.

1994 upper deck alan trammell

and his teammate travis fryman on a 1995 score select card

there may be a hint of green on this 1993 upper deck dave valle card

but then again, that might just be some womp rat remnants.

it looks like the moisture vaporators are malfunctioning on kevin young's 1993 upper deck card

better get those droids to the south rim to work on the condensers.

speaking of droids, it looks like mike piazza has spotted the incoming escape pod on his 1998 topps stadium club card

here's a classic that i am pretty sure i have shown before - dmitri young's 2002 fleer ultra card

but he's not the only one that can dive back to the bag on tatooine - there is also carlos santana on his 2010 topps update card

turning double plays on tatooine doesn't happen often, but here are a couple of examples - 2007 topps turkey red 'turning two' with hanley ramirez and jose bautista

and 2002 topps total russ johnson

i wouldn't be surprised if the florida teams drew bigger crowds on the planet furthest from the bright center of the universe than they do in miami and tampa.