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 dodgers and the nl west for jackie

in 1997, all of major league baseball celebrated the 50th anniversary with the universal retirement of jackie robinson's number 42.  each team also wore a 50th anniversary patch, comemmorating jackie's big league debut which occured 67 years ago today.  i plan to show a card from each team (by division as they were in 1997) that showcases the patch as my way of honoring jackie today.  first up, of course, is the nl west.

the dodgers were one of three teams to have a unique version of the patch - the text 'dodgers' was added to the top of the patch.  you can see it on hideo nomo's 1998 score card

the dodger version of the patch also notes the anniversary

while the other teams' version included the text 'breaking barriers' instead.

here's a 1998 fleer sports illustrated world series fever card of the rockies' larry walker displaying the patch.

and here's a 1998 upper deck tony gwynn card representing the padres

and a 1998 upper deck card of bill mueller representing the giants

the giants were one of three teams to only wear the patch at home.  on the road, they wore a patch acknowledging the 40th anniversary of their move to san francisco.

this is not a memorial patch, but i do have these cards in a binder - the only anniversary patch so honored.  stay tuned throughout the day for the rest of the teams' entries.

cutting (trade) bait

so, the twins cut bait on their japanese import, tsuyoshi nishioka, on the same day (9/28) that i received this card in the mail from daniel at it's like having my own card shop

it's a 2012 topps short print with an anonymous (matt tolbert?) twin lurking and giving nishi the rabbit ears.  it kind of reminds me of billy ashley's 1993 upper deck card, without eric karros' fabulous hair.  i saw it listed as trade bait on daniel's site and arranged to trade for it.  nishioka was pretty much awful in his time with the twins, but i really wanted him to do well.  even when he was called up this season, i was hoping against hope that he would perform well.  he didn't, and on friday he asked the twins to release him from his contract.  he left upwards of $3 million on the table, too.  sayonara, nishi.

daniel also included some dodger cards for my enjoyment, like this 1988 score bob welch card.

with the yellow borders, it's as if score knew he was really a member of the oakland a's.

here's a 1999 fleer sports illustrated card of a trio of dodger rookies - angel pena, jeff kubenka, and paul loduca

of the three, kubenka was the one who saw the least amount of big league action (12 games over the 1998 and 1999 seasons).  however, of the three, kubenka is the one with the better career batting average.  like roy gleason, kubenka has an average of 1.000, having singled in his only big league at bat.

speaking of rookies, here is an 'official pinnacle rookie card' of paul konerko.

 that would be a 1998 score card, by the way.  here's a translucent 1998 skybox ex-2001 konerko card

nowhere on the card does it say 'official rookie card'.  and it is better for it.

finally, a 2012 topps heritage card of former dodger nathan eovaldi

i forget about heritage.  when people ask me what i need, i usually say bowman since i don't buy bowman product.  i also don't buy heritage any more, although that might change in two years.  we'll see.

thanks for the trade daniel!

lurkers abound

this is probably the most famous of the 'lurker' cards - the 1971 topps chris short card

its fame is derived from ol' pete rose dancing in the background.  i also like it because of the alpo ad in the background.  i have to admit, at first i thought rose was leading off of third base, but he's actually at second base.  here's a link to a photo of connie mack stadium (scroll down), and you can see that the stands behind him, along with a different version of the alpo ad, are out in left field.

let's see if we can pinpoint the action.  in 1970, short pitched against the reds only once - on june 14th.  as luck would have it, that game was played in philadelphia, so the home pinstripes with the thicker side stripe (debuted in 1970) make sense here.  and, pete rose led off the game with a double.  i think we have a match!  short did not allow rose to advance, and the next two times rose came up to face short, he struck out and hit into a double play.

next up is this 1985 topps dick williams

i hadn't seen this card since 1985 until night owl posted it on his 1985 topps blog.  i had never noticed the lurking steve garvey behind williams.  very cool.

here's another former dodger, charlie hough, on a 1993 topps stadium club insert

the card comemmorates the first pitch in marlins history, and that's jose offerman of the dodgers lurking in the foreground. i remember watching the game on tv. offerman, of course, did not swing at the pitch and the ball was taken out of play.  hough wound up beating his former team that day.

greg gagne is flopping about on shane andrews' 1997 topps card

i'm thinking this might be a spring training photo, because as far as i can tell, andrews never made it on base during either of the two series that the expos hosted the dodgers in 1996.  besides, gagne didn't play in the first series, and the second series consisted of all night games.  and, if that weren't enough, gagne isn't wearing number 7 (which he wore in the regular season).  and yes, i'm pretty sure it's gagne based on the wristband, the hair, and the name on the back of the uniform.

however, i'm not even going to try to figure out who the dodgers are on javy lopez's 1998 score card

they're dodgers and they're lurking.  lets just leave it at that.

spray it again, carlos

before there was 'the cream' and 'the clear', there was 'the spray'.  

similar to corticosteroid nasal sprays, 'the spray' was to be delivered via a fine mist into the nose - no need for needles and cramped bathroom stall injection parties with this performance enhancing drug.  and, instead of having to make up some sort of bs about the benefits of flaxseed oil, players using 'the spray' could simply complain of hay fever or sinusitis before giving the small spray bottle a couple of pumps right up the ol' schnozz.  it was foolproof until some players got carried away, and experimented with an alternative delivery system.  

although we cannot see exactly who carlos delgado is dousing with 'the spray' on his 1998 score card while teammates shawn green and joe carter look on with bewildered amusement,

 a quick scan of the blue jays' roster may provide the answer.

canseco went on to hit a career high (!) 46 home runs for the jays in 1998, while the rocket won his second consecutive cy young award while striking out more batters than he ever had in boston except for one season.  maybe 'the spray' really worked when applied in high doses!

now, before you get all literal on me - i realize that canseco was not a member of the blue jays in 1997 when the photo used on delgado's card was most likely taken (we know that the photo is from no later than 1997 because joe carter was not with the team in 1998).  and, conversely, you should realize that this post was written for round 4 of nachos grande's contest, and is a completely fictional account of why a major league baseball player might be using a supersoaker from the dugout.

greg gagne through the mail success!

former dodgers shortstop greg gagne is a great through the mail signer. he has returned the cards i have sent to him in about 10 days both times. here's his 1998 upper deck collector's choice cardand his 1997 topps card.gagne was signed by the dodgers prior to the 1996 season to steady the infield, and most importantly, the shortstop position after jose offerman had made over 30 errors in just 115 games in 1995. he spent the 1996 and 1997 seasons with the dodgers before retiring, resulting in more instability at the 6-hole in ensuing years. that's ok, though - gagne served honorably.

here's his 1998 upper deck card, a double play turn with tony gwynn and the jack murphy palm treesand the dynamic duo of 1998 pacificand 1998 score that i showcased a couple of weeks ago.

he was best known for his ten years with the twins, which included two world championships, but gagne also played for the royals as shown on the 1995 topps card he signed (a double play turn, no less!)

thanks greg!

same day, same play, different cards

i don't think it happens too often, at least with plays in run of the mill games, that the same play shows up on different cards produced by different manufacturers. but, i could be wrong.

anyway, that's what happened in 1998 when both pacific (on their crown collection greg gagne card)and score (on their 1998 greg gagne card)captured vladimir guerrero's awkward slide as he was caught stealing - tom prince to gagne on may 11, 1997 at dodger stadium (at least that's my best guess thanks to baseballreference.com).

as far as duplicity goes, though, it's not too bad.