the only thing dull about this trade package is the pair of scissors used to cut the first card...

nick at dime boxes and i have completed a couple of trades recently, and here are some cards from the most recent package i received from him.  this 1962 post tommy davis card

was very likely liberated from its box by a young boy using the butter knife or perhaps a spoon at his kitchen table.  it's got some great character and i am thankful for it.  it was also the oldest card in the package, although this 1988 reprint of whit wyatt's 1941 goudey card

features an earlier dodger card.  wyatt had a big year in 1941, leading the league in wins (22) and shutouts (7) while finishing 3rd in the mvp vote.  he had a solid run as a dodger (80-45 with a 2.86 era over 6 seasons) as they converted him to a starter and reaped the benefits.

here's a 1980 laughlin famous feats card of hugh casey

who was 10-4 as a reliever in 1947.  rg laughlin was the guy who did the illustrations for the fleer world series sets in 1970 and 1971, as well as the sticker backs in later years.  he was on his own in 1980 and produced this set, which also features jackie robinson.  i picked up a jackie card, but i'll show it another time.

1984 milton bradley championship baseball steve sax

saxy was an 'nl super star' not too long after replacing davey lopes at second base. i find it interesting that milton bradley was allowed to use the team name but not the logo on these cards.

1990 score young superstars jose gonzalez

score used the term 'superstar' lighting in 1990 with jose gonzalez.  yes, he was a highly regarded prospect, but 1990 was his sixth season and he had not done anything to make us dodger fans feel like he was going to be a superstar.

1997 score eric karros showcase parallel

karros, on the other hand, won the rookie of the year award in 1992 and was a very good player. not a superstar, though.  that term was saved for the 1993 rookie of the year, mike piazza.

here's an all-star insert piazza card from 1994 o-pee-chee

the italian-american superstar slugger is wearing the roy campanella/don drysdale commemorative patch on his right sleeve, and the tim crews patch is partially visible on his left.

continuing with the rookies of the year, here's the 1994 nl roy raul mondesi on a 1996 fleer emotion xl card

i do not know what sort of emotion 'fense' is.

well, i bet you thought the next card would be of 1995 rookie of the year hideo nomo.  that would be incorrect.  instead, it is of short time dodger pitcher ricky nolasco on his 2014 topps museum collection card

topps went all-in with nolasco in its 2014 products, and he was a twin before any of them were released.  i wonder if we'll see a bunch of nolasco sticker autos on twins cards in 2015 releases.

thanks again nick! we'll trade again soon, i am sure.

memorial patches for umpire john mcsherry

on april 1, 1996 - opening day in cincinnati - home plate umpire john mcsherry collapsed and died of cardiac arrest.  why then, you might ask, am i showing a card from the 1994 upper deck all-time heroes set featuring reggie jackson and lurking dodgers charlie hough and steve yeager?

i'm showing it because the umpire standing behind yeager, number 9 for the national league, is john mcsherry.

mcsherry began his umpiring career in 1971 and worked the world series in both 1977 (as seen above) and 1987.  he also umpired in 10 different national league playoff series and three all-star games, and was calling the balls and strikes for larry dierker's no-hitter in 1976.

i am not sure why exactly, but the mets added a patch to their uniforms in honor of mcsherry for the remainder of the 1996 season.  this 1997 fleer sports illustrated card of todd hundley shows the patch on his right sleeve

the patch is kind of hard to make out because it wasn't really a patch - it was actually embroidered as part of the jersey.  here's a close up

it's a little more clear on bernard gilkey's 1997 topps card

and rey ordonez's 1997 upper deck card

which is the one i have in my memorials binder.

mcsherry's fellow umpires also wore memorials in 1996.  as i recall, at first they wore black armbands as seen on brett butler's 1997 score card

but soon adopted the same embroidery that the mets sported.  in fact, the mets could have adopted the umpires' memorial; i am not sure how that played out.  in lieu of cards, here are some photos (from getty images) of umpires sporting the memorial in 1996

the umps, at some point, went to an actual patch.  here are some photos showing the patch version of the memorial

brett butler, again, with eric gregg sporting the patch

this resulted in patch overload for the umpires in the world series - the mcsherry patch is high up on the left sleeve of the umpires' jacket

it wasn't just national league umpires that wore the patch - here's al clark to prove it

although it seems like most al umps wore the patch on their right sleeves.  again, more photos from getty images

it would appear that charlie o'brien is upset

i was happy to find that photo - not just because of o'brien, but also because it showed the patch on the right sleeve of an al umpire wearing the navy shirt.  that confirms for me that the patch is also shown on this 1997 pacific gary disarcina card

which is a great addition to the memorials binder.  i also have this 2004 topps all-time fan favorite card of eric gregg

in the binder.  how fortuitous that topps used a photo of gregg from 1996.

i do have an actual john mcsherry card in my collection, by the way.  it comes from the 1989 t&m umpires set, and features mcsherry in dodger stadium.

i've got a couple other cards from that set in my dodger stadium binder along with the mcsherry as well - here's eric gregg (again)

and fred brocklander

both hanging out in chavez ravine.

as for mcsherry, he was 51 years old when he died.  he weighed well over 300 pounds, and his passing encouraged major league baseball to work on addressing the health of its umpires.  many, including gregg, lost weight as a result.  unfortunately, following his departure from umpiring, gregg re-gained much of the weight he lost and he passed away at the age of 55 due to a stroke.

it's 5 o'clock somewhere

time for a brewski bruske

1997 score jim bruske, that is.  not too hoppy.  i'll even have a second, as bruske was a dodger double dipper.

[this is the eighty-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, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom, maury wills, dazzy vance, ray hayworth, zack taylor, john cronin, art herring, brian falkenborg, bill reidy, john anderson, vito tamulis, and wally hood.]

bruske was an outfielder converted to a pitcher in the minor leagues by the indians.  he didn't make it to the majors until he was 30, and his big league debut didn't go so well - he allowed five runs (three earned) while getting just one out for the dodgers against the phillies in august of 1995.  the next day, however, he returned to the mound and pitched 2 perfect innings.  in all, bruske pitched in 9 games for the dodgers that season. he earned no decisions, but did record a save on the final day of the campaign against the padres.  he allowed runs in just two of those 9 appearances, and finished the season with a 4.50 era.  the dodgers brought him back in 1996, and this time he pitched in 11 games, 9 of them being scoreless appearances.  he again had one bad outing (a 5-run inning of work against the pirates) that sunk his era - 5.68 on the season.

bruske moved on to the padres for the 1997 season - here's his 1998 pacific crown collection card

bruske earned his first big league win in his first appearance for the padres.  he threw a career-high 5 (scoreless) innings in relief against the giants on june 23, and came away with the victory.  bruske finished the season 4-1 in 28 games for the pads with a 3.68 era.  the dodgers were impressed, apparently, because they claimed him on waivers shortly after the season ended.

back in la in 1998 (here's bruske's 1998 pacific online red foil parallel)

bruske was 3-0 with a save through 35 appearances when the dodgers traded him back to the padres for a minor leaguer in late july. a month later, the padres traded bruske to the yankees where he made (and won) his only career start in the final game of the season.  having pitched for both the 1998 national league champions (the padres) and the 1998 american league and world series champions (the yankees), i wonder if bruske received playoff shares from both clubs, even though he did not appear in the postseason.

bruske didn't pitch in 1999 and wound up his big league career in 2000 with the brewers, although he ended his professional career with a stint in the dodger organization at triple-a las vegas.

i'll raise a glass to you, jim bruske - a dodger double dipper!

what's that about mike bordick's butt?

this post was supposed to run last sunday, as a companion to the roberto alomar double play dump.  sadly, i failed to hit 'publish'.

i mentioned earlier that i had some more roberto alomar double play cards to show.  it turns out, there was only one left in the scanned folder - this 1993 colla all-star game issue, which features alomar turning two against the a's in oakland.

that looks like ruben sierra to me, but what is most interesting here is the huge sign hanging above the outfield wall.  it's obviously a reference to a's infielder mike bordick, but what does it say?  bordick's butterscotch?  bordick's button collection?  i don't know.  

what i do know is that, being a middle infielder, there are plenty of bordick double play cards, like this one from 1997 score, although it features him as an oriole.

bordick even shows up on the wrong end of the double play turn sometimes, like the back of chuck knoblauch's 1993 score select card

another thing that i know is that, living here in twins territory, i have access to a cornucopia of knoblauch cards in every dime box at every show or lcs i visit.  such is the case here where i am about to display a bunch of knobby double play cards mostly culled from cheap boxes at various local locales.

1992 score

1993 upper deck fun pack (back in oakland)

1994 pinnacle

1994 score

the score card may or may not be a continuation of the play on the pinnacle card - i would like to believe that it is - as it sure looks like a '5' on the back of the jersey of the sliding player.

1994 upper deck sp

and 1994 upper deck sp die cut

more oakland action on 1995 score

and 1995 score gold rush parallel

here's a 1997 donruss

a 1997 fleer sports illustrated

and a 1997 topps stadium club

i'll end this double play dump post with a 1998 pacific invincible gems of the diamond knoblauch card

it's too bad that there aren't any metrodome cards of knoblauch here.  had there been, perhaps we would have seen a sign for 'knoblauch's knothole gang' partially blocked in a confusing manner.

see how well that segue from alomar to bordick to knoblauch worked?

too few dodgers

i ordered some cards from comc in november, but wound up cutting a few from my shopping cart for one reason or another.  not too long after i received my cards, dennis at too many verlanders announced that he was making a purchase of his own, and asked if anyone wanted anything.  i took him up on the offer and sent some cards to him in exchange for three of the cards i didn't pick up myself.  make sense?  

one of the cards that i dropped from my purchase was a 2013 panini golden age tommy davis auto

now tommy was a well traveled ballplayer, and there is no mention of any team or city affiliation on the front of the card.  i believe that the photo comes from his tenure with the dodgers, but so do the photos on some of his topps cards which feature him as a member of a different team.  the back of the card, however, tells me that davis is a dodger here for sure

this is my first certified tommy davis autograph.  i did pick up a couple of other autos through the mail a  couple of years ago - 1962 topps

 and 1965 topps

thanks to a private signing at hall of fame sports.

one of the cards that i did purchase from comc was this 1997 score wilton guerrero 'heart of the order' insert

it features a nice dodger stadium backdrop, with more dodger stadium scenery screened on the back

you don't see the top of the park on too many cards.  you might notice that the guerrero is numbered as 'dodgers 2 of 3'.  i failed to buy the other 2 dodger cards in an extreme lapse of judgement.  enter dennis.  he picked up the mike piazza

and raul mondesi

cards for me.  looking closely at the piazza and guerrero cards, score took the time to cover up the unocal and coca-cola logos that sat in the circles above the diamondvision and scoreboard, respectively.

looking more closely, i see that it's ismael valdes on diamondvision, meaning that i can determine the day the photo was taken.  based on the information that the cards and scoreboard gives me, this was a day game at dodger stadium against the cubs. ismael valdes came to bat in the bottom of the 6th inning.  the cubs scored one run in the top of the first. sammy sosa was batting third for the cubs.  raul mondesi was playing center.  piazza was not playing because the catcher is batting 7th in the dodger lineup.  when i put it all together, baseball reference tells me that the nice dodger stadium photo comes from may 21, 1995!  

as i am sure you can tell, when you put the cards side by side, we get a foul pole to foul pole view of the dodger stadium outfield and pavilion

and a harder to see panoramic view of the stands in place roughly between the bases

a big thank you to dennis for correcting my mistake of not buying the davis auto and the piazza and mondesi dodger cards myself.  thanks for the trade!