jaybarkerfan's junk sends the blues

it's hard not to be excited when a package from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk shows up at your doorstep.  now, i have not been drawn into one of his trade wars (thankfully, as i know i would not be able to keep up), but we've traded several packages over the last couple of years.  this latest return from wes was certainly no disappointment.

first up is perhaps the bluest card i've seen - it's a 2002 donruss cesar izturis rookie crusade card

good golly miss molly, that's a blue card.

onelki garcia's 2014 topps chrome blue refractor parallel

pales in comparison.

but then there is this 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects zach lee sapphire parallel card

that is pretty blue.

the blues end there, sort of, as we still have dodger cards, but they aren't of the same hue.  this is an emerald parallel of chris anderson's 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects card

that brings the green rather than the blue.

there were some regular cards in the package as well, including a 1988 fleer mini kirk gibson card

and a 2005 topps roger craig dem bums insert

craig is fortuitously flashing his bum on the card, by the way.

wes also hit my list of most wanted cards, sending two of the remaining jackie robinson story inserts from 2015 topps that i needed my way

two pretty important milestones there.

i'll finish up with some more hued parallels - these are of the dodger first baseman of the moment, adrian gonzalez.  first is his 2013 bowman chrome purple parallel

and next is his 2013 topps triple threads emerald parallel

both are pretty colorful, bun not as colorful as this 2014 donruss gonzalez elite dominator card

which was not part of the package wes sent, but fits in nicely with this post.

thanks wes, for another great trade!

one does not simply post random cards on friday

unless one lacks inspiration for a proper post, and there are still a bunch of cards sitting idly in the scanned folder.

such is life.

2002 topps tribute zach wheat

wheat actually had 476 career doubles, which was still about 300 shy of the all-time leader (tris speaker) when he retired.  speaker is still on top of the list, with wheat way down at 81st all-time (and about to be passed by torii hunter) now.

2004 topps heritage don newcombe flashback

newk won exactly 20 games in 1955 (as he had in 1951), but was 27-7 in 1956 to win the cy young and mvp awards.  he lost game 1 of the '55 world series, so i guess that's why the flashback card references the 1955 regular season.  always good to see don newcombe cards in newer releases!

1985 donruss ken landreaux

i liked '85 donruss at the time. definitely more than i liked '85 fleer (and i am a fan of the 1970 topps gray border set).  landreaux here is swinging away in dodger stadium, while delino deshields is in vero beach on his 1996 upper deck card

1996 upper deck got a little too fancy for me.  there are some nice cards in the set, but all the gold foil didn't do much for me so i bought very little of this back then.

2002 topps chrome davey lopes refractor

that's a shiny card of the former dodger second baseman who was fired by the brew crew 15 games into the 2002 season.

2002 topps chrome traded brian jordan

i don't know if the chrome traded veteran cards are short printed, but i was pretty ticked that topps did that with the regular traded set that year.

2010 upper deck jonathan broxton biography insert

broxton was indeed 6-0 after june 5, 2009 with 13 saves to his credit to boot.  after the game on august 18, 2009, broxton was 7-0 with 26 saves.  he took the loss the next day.

2010 topps cards your mom threw out 1953 topps johnny podres

this is the 'original back' version

at some point between 1953 and 1978, people stopped using the phrase "pulls a rock". i had not heard that until reading the back of this card.

2005 topps carl erskine 'dem bums' insert

oisk is trying to run away from this post as fast as he can. i don't blame him.

the calendar turns with some double play turns

looks like we made it through another year, and what better way to celebrate than to show some double play turns.  i've found a few more that are new to my collection, and none may be better than this 1991 pacific senior league jerry terrell card

it's a coach card to boot!

i had overlooked this 1997 upper deck neifi perez

double play turn due to the over application of foil, but now it has had its status upgraded in my collection from monster box fodder to double play binder material.

similarly, i had previously failed to show the back of mike bordick's 1993 upper deck sp card

even though i had shown the front a long time ago.

here's a 1998 pacific online scott spiezio card

i've shown the red foil parallel before, but not the base.

how about some derek jeter for all the fan boys out there.  here's his 2005 topps card

plus a 2006 upper deck

and a 2008 upper deck superstar card

i'm actually looking forward to some decent final tributes in 2015.

alfonso soriano was, at one time, jeter's double play partner.  here's a 2001 leaf rookies & stars card of the former yankee second baseman

i had almost forgotten he was once an infielder.

now how about some trevor plouffe?  here's a 2012 topps golden sparkle parallel,

a 2012 topps walmart blue parallel,

and a 2012 topps mini card

of the twins' current third baseman.  now, instead of turning double plays, plouffe hits doubles - he had 40 in 2014, which was good for fourth in the league.

i picked up this 2010 topps robin yount short print a while back

it would have looked nice as a 1978 or 1979 topps card, i think.

fast forward to 2014, and we have the somewhat rare double play card whose subject is the base runner - jordan danks in this case

and a pretty standard double play turn, although it is a red hot foil parallel, featuring the marlins' donovan solano

i'm hoping to see some photoshopped dee gordon as a marlin double play turns in 2015.

the 1978 topps dodgers in 2003 through 2006 - there was only one

one would have thought that with dusty baker's contract to manage the giants expiring in early november of 2002, and his subsequent hiring by the cubs on the 16th of that month, topps could have shown baker as a cub in their 2003 flagship set.  no dice - he showed up still as the manager of the giants.

the giants had hired felipe alou to replace baker a couple of days earlier, so it's not like there would have been a void in the set that baker needed to fill.  of course, the real reason is that back then, series one was released in november and so we have a bonus card of baker in a giant uniform.

thankfully, topps was sure to include baker in a cubs uniform in their 2003 traded set.

the cubs won 88 games under baker in 2003, good enough (by one game) to win the nl central title and advance to the postseason.  it was the first division title for the cubs since 1989, and baker had them sitting with a 3 games to 1 lead in the nlcs, but the marlins came back to win the final three games of the series and deny the cubs their first pennant since 1945.

baker returned to the cubs in 2004 (here's his 2004 topps card with a familiar photo)

and the team acutally improved, winning 89 games that year.  unfortunately, that was only good enough for third place in the nl central, 16 games behind division champ saint louis, and 3 games behind wild card champ houston.

in 2005, topps thankfully changed the photo they used for baker's card

and the cubs slipped to below .500.  they had a record of 79-83 and finished fourth in the division, 21 games behind the cardinals.

dusty was in the fourth year of his four year deal in 2006 (here's his topps card from that year)

and the cubs fell even further in the standings.  they finished dead last in the division at 66-96, although they were 'only' 17.5 games behind saint louis that year.  as a result of the poor showing, baker was not re-hired by the cubs.  he wasn't hired by anyone else, either, and spent 2007 as an analyst for espn.  that meant that, for the first time since the early 1960's, there were no members of the 1978 topps dodgers playing or managing in the major leagues.  thankfully, that would change in 2008.

here is the yearly tally of appearances to date:

baker 24 (1971-1987, 1993, 2001-2006)
burke 2 (1978-1979)
cey 16 (1972-1987)
davalillo 14 (1963-1974, 1978-1979)
forster 16 (1972-1987)
garman 8 (1971-1973, 1975-1979)
garvey 18 (1971-1987, 2002)
goodson 6 (1973-1978)
grote 15 (1964-1976, 1978-1979)
hooton 15 (1972-1986)
hough 23 (1972-1994)
john 26 (1964-1989)
lacy 16 (1973-1988)
lasorda 19 (1954, 1973-1974, 1977-1981, 1983-1993)
lopes 18 (1973-1988, 2001-2002)
martinez 9 (1971-1976, 1978-1980)
monday 18 (1967-1984)
mota 18 (1963-1980)
oates 14 (1972-1981, 1991-1993, 2001)
rau 9 (1973-1981)
rautzhan 2 (1978-1979)
rhoden 16 (1975-1990)
russell 18 (1970-1987)
smith 17 (1967-1983)
sosa 10 (1974-1984)
sutton 23 (1966-1988)
yeager 15 (1973-1987)

teams represented so far: 24 (dodgers, indians, colt .45's, pirates, white sox, astros, mets, a's, red sox, angels, expos, cardinals, braves, cubs, orioles, giants, phillies, yankees, rangers, tigers, padres, brewers, mariners, marlins)

russell martin shines

man, this 2008 bowman sterling russell martin bat relic card shines like nobody's business.

you remember russell martin, right?  he was the dodgers' catcher from 2006 through 2010, and had a couple of really good seasons for them even though his batting average dropped each season following his .293 clip in 2007.  that categorical decline continued even after he joined the yankees via free agency prior to 2011, and it wasn't until last season, his first with the pirates, that his average saw an uptick.

this year, martin is hitting .288 (through yesterday) with a career-best .409 obp.  good for him, i say.  he also is sitting on exactly 1000 career hits - tied with (as vin scully might say) old friend jamey carroll.

it has been well documented that martin has many fantastic baseball cards to his name, but not all of his appearances on cardboard are credited.  he at least shares the credit on a couple of cards from 2007 topps update & highlights - this card with his future teammate alex rodriguez

and this one with cole hamels

hamels is sporting the john vukovich memorial patch, while arod is wearing a black armband in memory of cory lidle.  martin, meanwhile, is just wearing the tools of ignorance.  as it turns out, being a catcher is a good way to show up on other people's cards.  just ask jerry grote.

that's martin crouching on kevin youkilis' 2008 topps update card

and there he is again on this justin morneau card from 2008 upper deck documentary

that's two canadians on one card!  both of those cards above were made possible by martin's presence at the all-star game in new york that year (morneau did some lurking of his own at that game as he wound up on brian mccann's 2008 topps update & highlights card)

sometimes a regular season game is enough to earn your way onto another player's card, as is the case with this 2009 topps andy laroche card featuring martin

and sometimes it is a horrific event in a postseason game that gets you some bonus cardboard time.  martin was there behind the plate when matt stairs of the phillies hit a go-ahead two-run home run in game 4 of the 2008 nlcs.  the scene was captured on this 2009 topps card

two canadians, again.  that card brings to mind the 1994 upper deck all-time heroes card of reggie jackson's third home run in game 6 of the 1977 world series (also shown on an upper deck masterpieces card) that features dodger catcher steve yeager (and charlie hough), as well as the 1994 topps card that recalled hank aaron's 715th career home run that features dodger catcher joe ferguson behind the plate.  and, somewhere, i have a card showing mickey owen giving chase to his dropped third strike in the 1941 series.  and they aren't the only dodger backstops to suffer this losing while lurking fate - take a look at this 2005 topps card that presents highlights from the 2004 nlds between the dodgers and cardinals.

there on the bottom half behind albert pujols (who has just hit a series-clinching home run) is dodger catcher brent mayne.  mayne, as far as i know, appears on only one other card as a dodger, so this is half of my brent mayne dodger collection.  i have quite a few more cards of russell martin as a dodger than that, thankfully, and if aj ellis doesn't get some offense going, maybe ned will see to it that i get some more martin as a dodger cards in 2015.

they came through the mail

i've had some more through the mail autograph successes over the last month or so, including one former dodger - jose hernandez.  hernandez signed both his 2004 topps

(which may very well be the only baseball card to ever feature a strip mall in the background) and his 2005 topps card

for me from his current coaching assignment with the orioles triple-a affiliate in norfolk.  

the other successes i've had aren't dodgers, but they are players from the 1978 topps set which is very nice.  i think i am closing in on 300 cards signed from the set.

tim blackwell

legend has it that tim blackwell's mustache and phil garner's mustache were not allowed on the field at the same time when the pirates visited montreal - too much bristle-brush for one field to handle!  blackwell actually took his mustache to chicago for the 1978 season as he played for the cubs that year.

jim willoughby

willoughby changed the color of his socks in 1978, also going to chicago but playing for the southsiders.

jamie easterly

i recall that easterly shared space with rick rhoden on a 1975 topps 4-player rookie card, but i can also easily picture his solo 1976 topps card.  here, we can see that his mustache has filled in quite a bit since that 1976 topps card was issued.

don hood

don sent me his best wishes, which is great.  his actual signature is a very small part of the writing there.    he's got a burt reynolds thing going on there, which i suspect was very popular with the ladies in the late 1970's.

three players signed notes for me as well as their cards.  former twin jerry terrell

quoted two different bible passages - one on the card, and one on a note

terrell may very well be standing in holman stadium at vero beach in the photo used for his 1978 topps card.  the twins (terrell is airbrushed into his royals uniform) trained in orlando back then, so would have made the 100-mile trek to vero beach every spring, i am sure.

dyar miller

signed his card and wrote a note thanking me for being a baseball fan, and also sent his best wishes

i remember miller from his time with the angels, although he had his contract purchased by the blue jays during the 1979 season, so didn't get to pitch in the playoffs with the halos that year.  miller got his only major league hit (he spent a season or two with the mets in the early 1980's) off of dodger burt hooton.

last, but not least, here's roy thomas, who signed his 4-player rookie card

thomas was a first round pick of the phillies in 1971, but was traded a couple of times (and picked in the 1977 expansion draft) before debuting for the astros in 1977.  he made it back to the majors in 1978, but with the cardinals - not houston.  thomas wrote a short note in response to my comment that i grew up near lompoc, which is where he attended high school.

he sends his regards.

thanks to all for signing my cards!