dime box dodgers

here are some more cards that nick from dime boxes sent to me recently.  you didn't think he sent just double play cards, did you?

i will admit, i coveted the don mattingly and darryl strawberry cards from 1984 donruss more than i wanted sid fernandez's card 30 years ago

even though sid's was the only one of the three to have the coveted rated rookie banner.  it also features a dodger stadium as the background.  1984 was, of course, the first year that donruss added the rated rookie moniker to the front of the card.  in 1983, at least, it was noted on the back of the cards.  a waste of ink, that was.

here's a 1995 upper deck star rookie subset card of another dodger prospect from mexico, antonio osuna

and yet another mexican dodger prospect from 1996 pacific, karim garcia

sadly, there were no fernando valenzuela or dennis reyes cards in the package.

there were some cards of retired dodger stars, including this other pacific card from their 1988 legends set of frank howard

and a 1990 swell baseball greats of don newcombe

nick is good at finding cards from the 1992 conlon tsn set, and he sent me a johnny cooney (a dodger double dipper)

and a burleigh grimes

from the set.  my favorite grimes card of the package, however, was this 2001 upper deck legends of new york card

which comes with the fuzzy 'b'.  grimes was a hall of fame pitcher for the brooklyn robins and later a manager of the brooklyn dodgers, including the 1937 squad which was the year that conlon took those photos seen on the cooney and grimes cards.  so, upper deck should have listed grimes as a robin on their card since he is identified as a pitcher, not a manager.  still, i'll take all the grimes cards i can get.

thanks nick!  i've got some cards heading your way soon.

an initials memorial for the royals' owner's wife

muriel irene kauffman, the wife and partner of the kansas city royals' founding owner ewing m. kauffman, passed away in march of 1995.  the royals wore a patch with her initials for the 1995 season.

you can see the patch on keith lockhart's right sleeve on his 1996 upper deck collector's choice card - front

and back

as well as this 1996 topps stadium club jeff montgomery card

but the card in my collection for this memorial is brent cookson's 1996 pacific card

muriel kauffman was a passionate supporter of the performing arts in kansas city, and a theatre within the kauffman center bears her name in tribute.

fantastic trade with nolan's dugout

it's about time i showed off some of the great cards that kyle from nolan's dugout sent my way in trade a while back.  believe it or not, i am showing only one dodger from the lot - a 1988 fantastic sam's baseball superstars pedro guerrero 'card'.

it also serves as a contest entry with some great although vaguely described prizes.  go here or here to learn more.

the other cards in the package were some really nice 'memorials' (i will save those for other posts) and double plays.  kyle sent along some twin killings that were new to my collection, so let's check them out!

1996 pacific jay bell

1996 pacific tripp cromer

bet you didn't know that cromer is a former dodger

1997 pacific felipe crespo

1997 pacific pat meares

1997 pacific rey sanchez

1998 pacific (is this when they started officially calling this release) crown collection (?) kurt abbott

1998 pacific invincible gems of the diamond pat kelly

1998 pacific invincible gems of the diamond luis rivera

yes, this is the same luis rivera who began his career in the 1980's with the expos.  he was out of the big leagues for a couple of seasons in the mid-1990's before resurfacing with the astros in 1997.

2001 upper deck victory benji gil

gil was a pretty highly rated prospect in the rangers' system back in the early 1990's.  he spent two years in the minors after leaving texas before he was picked up by the angels.  gil hit .800 (4 for 5) in the 2002 world series en route to winning a ring, so he has that going for him.

last but not least, 2006 bazooka jack wilson

thanks for the trade kyle!

easley like sunday afternoon

i missed the target in getting this post done for this morning.  still, damion easley makes it look easy as he turns double plays.  have a look.

1993 upper deck sp - front

and back

1995 donruss top of the order

1995 upper deck collector's choice

and 1996 pacific

not to be outdone, easeley's double play partner gary disarcina gets into the action as well.  in fact, that may well be easley in the background of disar's 1995 leaf card

and that could be easley's arm on disar's 1996 pinnacle summit card

and then also on the foil parallel as well

but i am more intrigued by the appearance of a dodger trying to break up the double play turn.  looks like reggie williams to me.

finally, disarcina gets a double play card all to himself - his 1993 upper deck sp card

which is back where this post started.  i'll try harder for tomorrow, but no promises.

double play cards keep turning up

so i have a few more double play cards in my stable as i try to set up a 64-card bracket for the 'greatest double play card of all-time'.  some of these may make the cut.  maybe.

here's a 2010 topps chrome yunel escober

it might be better if i had shown the base card rather than the xfractor.  oh well.

2010 topps skip schumaker

i thought schumaker was the guy with the striped socks.  deduct.

also from 2010 topps, alberto callaspo

not a bad card.  most of a twinkie sliding in, and alberto callaspo is almost as fun to say as enrico pallazo.

2010 topps ian kinsler

kinsler is about to fall on top of a blue jay.  and i am thinking about golf.

2009 topps chase utley

meh.

2008 upper deck miguel tejada

taking a darin erstad shoulder to the groin.  who said punters can't hit people?

2000 upper deck mark loretta

fairly run of hte mill. it would be better if upper deck didn't blue out the bottom and rob us of some nice dirt-colored dirt.

1997 topps mariano duncan

chuck knoblauch is out at second

1996 pacific brent gates

only a few more of these posts before we get to the tourney. promise.