it's like having my own gary sheffield dealer

i recently completed a trade with daniel over at it's like having my own card shop in which he sent me a bunch of late 90's/early 00's dodger cards.  that means a healthy dose of gary sheffield.  take a look:

1998 donruss signature edition

1998 topps gold label

i miss the outfield murals

1998 leaf rookies & stars

2000 pacific vanguard

i've been halfway thinking about doing some sort of post that tries to capture the craziness of pacific in 2000.  this card looks like sheff is flying through space as part of the pinkish lantern corps.

2000 upper deck spx

2000 upper deck mvp

that's a goodly amount of sheffield cards, and i don't think i showed them all.  i've said it before, i was just getting comfortable with sheffield as a dodger when he started to pull his shenanigans.  still, the guy put together one of the best offensive stretches in dodger history.  and, if he ever finds his way into the hall of fame, he might go in as a dodger.  he spent four years in la (eclipsed only by his six years in florida) and got more hits and hit more home runs as a dodger than anywhere else he played.  if that happens, what do the dodgers do?  do they retire his number?  and if so, which number - 5 or 10?  i can't see that happening, but it would be a first if he were to be enshrined in a dodger hat and they didn't retire the number.

they don't have to worry about all that with this next guy - shawn green on his 2000 upper deck mvp card

he didn't make the cut this year for reappearing on the hall of fame ballot, so he's one and done.  here is his 2000 fleer gamers card

and his 2003 fleer ultra gold medallion card

on which he makes like roberto clemente by losing his helmet.  speaking of which, anybody else out there see 'chasing 3000'?  i watched it a couple of weeks ago, and it was cool to see some old footage of clemente.  not so cool to see some recent footage of ray liotta.  shoeless joe is not aging too well.

here's a 1998 ud spx chan ho park card

and a 1999 upper deck black diamond adrian beltre card

just to prove that there were dodger cards from this timeframe that weren't either sheffield or green.  sometimes it seemed like the only players i was seeing in packs were those two and kevin brown, but there were others.  i can't imagine having been an astros fan and only getting cards of the killer b's over and over and over.

thanks daniel!

will the real tom goodwin please stand up, please stand up?

hey - look at this!  it's tom goodwin's 2000 upper deck sp authentic card!

i didn't realize goodwin was so...shall we say...bulky?  or that he hit from the right side.  or that he looks just like adrian beltre. 

goodwin was the dodgers' first round pick in 1989, and he made his debut for them in 1991.  he was selected off of waivers by the royals in 1994 and spent the next 6 seasons in the american league.  that included the 1999 season, when goodwin was a texas ranger.  so, this must be a photo from 2000 when goodwin rejoined the dodgers (double dipper post coming soon), right?  well, goodwin started the 2000 season with the rockies but was acquired by la at the trade deadline, and he did face the cubs at wrigley in august, but how likely is it that a picture from a late august game would wind up on a card that same year? 

really there is no need to wonder about this - clearly that is adrian beltre, not tom goodwin.  why a guy like goodwin would be featured in a limited set like sp authentic is beyond me. my guess is that upper deck intended to include the dodgers' highly touted young third baseman in the set, but some amatuer at upper deck saw the photo and thought beltre's uniform number looked like '28' rather than '29' due to the wrinkling of the jersey.  goodwin, who had worn 42 for the dodgers his first time around, wore 28 in his second stint. 

it gets worse, and a bit better.  here's tom goodwin's 2000 upper deck spx card.

 

at least they got the picture on the left correct - that is tom goodwin.  on the right we still have adrian beltre, this time a few moments after the photo on the first card.  we also get a better view of todd hundley following the flight of the ball while lurking in the on deck circle.

i wonder what collectors think of these sorts of cards, especially the first one.  it's kind of like the 1995 topps traded carlos beltran rookie that is really juan lebron and the juan lebron card from the same set that is really carlos beltran.  i think the card that says beltran was always valued higher than the one that actually featured his picture.  i don't know how many tom goodwin collectors there are out there, or adrian beltre collectors for that matter, but i would be curious to know if they include these cards in their collections.

it doesn't matter for me, though.  upper deck at least got the team name on the card right.