bear with me as i wind through a post about a couple of 1998 final tributes that ends with a 1996 card and in total confusion

brett butler finished his playing career in 1997 with the dodgers - his second go-around with the club.  he's currently a coach with the marlins, but that is neither here nor there (although this post does end with a very confusing marlins card).  a few card companies were kind to butler (and to collectors like me who look for 'final tribute' cards) in 1998, like score

who gave us a nice photo of butler on the bases in san diego.

fleer ultra went the more traditional route with a photo of butler discarding his bat following what i assume was a bunt attempt

he's usually bunting on his cards.  i didn't scan the back of the score card, but here's the back of the ultra card, with complete career stats

butler was featured in the 1998 upper deck set, too, complete with a bunting photo

but without the 'final tribute' shield.  which is curious, because upper deck put it there on his 1998 ud collector's choice card

which actually showed him swinging the bat!  no worries, though, as upper deck put a bunting photo on the back along with his career stats.

butler had overcome cancer to return to the dodgers in 1996, and i will never forget his first game back. in a 1-1 game against the pirates, butler (already 1 for 3 in the game) led off the bottom of the 8th with a walk.  he stole second and took third on the catcher's throwing error, and then scored what proved to be the winning run on a sacrifice fly.  it was a fun and actually moving game to watch knowing what he had been through.

butler wasn't the only dodger to retire following the 1997 season, however.  this 1998 fleer sports illustrated card shows us that eddie murray also hung up his spikes at that time.

although it still shows murray in his angels' gear.  remember, murray re-joined the dodgers late in the 1997 season after beginning the campaign with the halos.  here's the back of the card

murray is still an angel, while butler took off his helmet to show off that gray shock of hair, reminiscent of john henson, the guy who replaced greg kinnear on talk soup, although his gray patch was on the side of his head.

anyway, steady eddie also got a final tribute (with the shield!) from upper deck as an angel.  i do not know why since he was a dodger at the end of the season, but i am sure there are some angel collectors who were pleased.  here's the card i am referring to

with his complete career stats on the back

murray also received a card in the second series of 1998 upper deck as a dodger so i'm not too bitter.  in fact, one of murray's angel cards - this 1997 fleer card

is a favorite of mine.  he looks strange in the disney uniform, but he's got the classic swing follow through and the jackie robinson patch on display.

murray also looks strange in an indians' uniform, but that's what he was wearing on his 1996 upper deck collector's choice card

i did a double take when i saw this card becuase of the 'tribute' label.  murray obviously did not retire following the 1995 season, so i was confused.  the back gives some information that led me to believe that this was not intended as a final tribute, but rather just a nod to him reaching a couple of big milestones, including his 3000th hit

so.  what then are we to make of andre dawson's 1996 ud collector's choice card?  it, too, has the 'tribute' banner for the first hall of famer to suit up for the florida marlins.

but, like murray, dawson was still playing beyond the 1995 season. so what milestone did the hawk achieve in 1995?  let's look at the back

according to upper deck, dawson cracked the top ten in home runs, all-time, with his last home run of the season - the 436th of his career - and he tied dodger great duke snider in doing so.  say what?  at the end of the 1995 season, the all-time career home run leader board looked like this:

1. hank aaron - 755
2. babe ruth - 714
3. willie mays - 660
4. frank robinson - 586
5. harmon killebrew - 573
6. reggie jackson - 563
7. mike schmidt - 548
8. mickey mantle - 536
9. jimmie foxx - 534
10. ted williams/willie mccovey - 521
12. ernie banks/eddie mathews - 512
14. mel ott - 511
15. lou gehrig - 493
16. eddie murray - 479
17. stan musial/willie stargell - 475
19. dave winfield - 465
20. carl yastrzemski - 452
21. dave kingman - 442
22. andre dawson - 436
23. billy williams - 426
24. duke snider - 407

dawson was 22nd on the list, and snider 24th.  dawson had actually passed snider on the list a couple of seasons earlier.  i am just totally perplexed by what the text on the back of the dawson card, and the tribute banner on the front, was all about.  but, i'll still probably keep the card in my tributes binder.

the nl east for jackie

let's see the national league east teams wear the jackie robinson anniversary patch, shall we?

braves - 1998 fleer sports illustrated world series fever javy lopez

marlins - 1998 fleer sports illustrated gary sheffield

this card gives us a good look at the marlins' version of the patch.  it was modified to match the team colors.

mets - 1998 upper deck todd hundley

as a bonus, we get a little piece of the patch on luis gonzalez's jersey, too.

expos - 1998 upper deck jim bullinger

i really wanted to find a card in my collection showing the expos in their home pinstripes with the patch, but i could not find one.  the reason being that they modified the patch to translate 'breaking barriers' into french for the jerseys they wore in quebec.  here's what that patch looks like.

the marlins, expos, and dodgers were the only teams to modify the patch.

phillies - 1998 upper deck scott rolen

this card is appropriate as it notes rolen was the recipient of the jackie robinson award aka the rookie of the year award.

american league east examples up next...

card show piazzapalooza

the 1990's were heady days for card collectors.  there were new manufacturers, legion sets, innumerable inserts and parallels.  i stayed pretty close to the topps flagship and traded sets throughout the decade, with a fair amount of upper deck in 1992-95 and again in 1998-99.  other than that, i kind of stayed out of the loop.

that means that i missed out on a ridiculous amount of mike piazza inserts.  a dime box at the card show last week made up for a lot of that.  first, i should clarify.  the box of cards i looked through wasn't necessarily a dime box.  i asked the dealer before looking through the cards what the deal was. he said that the price varied.  after i had found about 100 piazza inserts, he said 10 bucks.  i wound up with about 160 cards (about 120 of piazza), and he charged me 15 bucks.  so, just about a dime box.

on to the piazzapalooza! 

1993 fleer ultra all rookie insert

the colors pop on the black background. 

1993 fleer major league prospects insert

piazza wearing number 60.  the same number he wore at some point in the minors, as evidenced by these 1992 classic best blue bonus

and red bonus parallels

note the carl sawatski memorial patch, too.

here are a couple of inserts from 1994 fleer ultra - homerun king

and rbi king

there's the number 31 that we know.  i think piazza also wore 25 at some point, but 31 is the number he wore for the majority of his career.

1995 fleer update soaring star insert

those rods of green kryptonite are actually bats.  i didn't realize this until i looked at the back of the card just a few minutes ago.

1995 score hall of gold

hall of fame class of 2015? i hope so.

1995 upper deck sp silver parallel

i liked the gray gear that piazza wore.  i also liked the way he flipped his helmet after every game on his way out to the mound.

1994 king-b disc

seventh annual?  where are the previous 6 years of discs?

1997 bowman chrome international parallel

as jimmy kimmel used to say, that's 'italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza'.

1998 upper deck 10th anniversary preview insert

i have a few of these preview cards, but i don't think i have any of the actual 1999 10th anniversary team cards.  no dodgers in that insert set, i don't think, so maybe that's why.

piazza appeared on his share of combo inserts.  two of the most common players he was paired with were tim salmon (the al roy in 1993) and ivan rodriguez.  this is a 1996 upper deck sp marquee matchups insert 

where salmon got the 'marquee' part.

this is a 1996 topps stadium club midsummer matchup insert

which features rodriguez on the other side

rodriguez gets some time on the same side as piazza (and darren daulton) on this 1996 donruss dominators insert

so far, i have resisted the directive to remove protective film.

last card of this post, a 1998 fleer sports illustrated cover card featuring ken griffey jr

so good, so young, and so many inserts.  i'll show some more later today.  stay tuned...

he's not just bucky f-ing dent to red sox fans

dodger fans such as myself don't much care for him, either.  he was, after all, the mvp of the 1978 world series - a series in which the dodgers held a two games to none lead.  still, i thank 1998 fleer sports illustrated for giving us a nice dodger stadium photo to enjoy while being reminded of that fact.

on the card we see dent singling to center off of don sutton to score jim spencer and brian doyle and break a 1-1 tie in game 6.  we also see joe ferguson's forearm and catcher's glove.  dent would add another rbi later in the game just for good measure.  the back of the card tells the tale all too well.

bucky f-ing dent, indeed.

aaron boone, on the other hand, i got no problems with.

look who's coming up... [part 1]

i have been to a lot of baseball games in my lifetime. i have been to 16 different stadiums. i have seen shutouts, blowouts, extra innings, pitching duels, a one-hitter, had tickets to a no-hitter (but didn't go); i saw aaron, mccovey, stargell, rose, nomo vs. glavine on opening day 1996, hershiser vs. the mets in 1988, jim abbott's first career shutout, kerry wood's first ml victory, pedro at his peak, mcgwire and sosa in 1998, ripken during his streak, and so much more.

there are two games, though, that stand out. games so great, i can collect cards that commemorate each of them. one is shawn green's 4 hr game in milwaukee in may of 2002. a friend and i roadtripped to milwaukee to see a couple games and were lucky enough to see one of the greatest individual offensive performances ever. however, the greatest game i have ever seen in person happened 20 years ago today. game 1 of the 1988 world series. i was there.
my dad got tickets through the dodgers' postcard lottery. we watched the nlcs against the mets with great anxiety, knowing that we would be at dodger stadium if the dodgers advanced. they did, of course, so my dad picked me up in orange county and took me to chavez ravine. debbie gibson sang the national anthem. bob welch returned to the stadium. kirk gibson wasn't playing. he wouldn't be able to play.

but he did...