the john vukovich memorial patch

the phillies have worn memorial patches for most of the past seven years.  back in 2007, they wore a patch for former player, coach, interim manager, and front office executive john vukovich who passed away from an inoperable brain tumor.  you can see the 'vuk' patch on jimmy rollins' right sleeve on his 2009 upper deck icons card

and on his 2008 upper deck goudey card

and on chase utley's 2008 upper deck first edition card

but it is really clear on tadahito iguchi's 2008 upper deck card

vukovich was a first round draft pick of the phillies in 1966.  he was traded to the brewers after the 1972 season, and also spent time with the reds before returning to the phillies in the mid-1970's.  he was  a member of the 1980 world championship team and remained on the roster until his release late in the 1981 season.  he was never a starter, and hit just .161 in his career, but he was good defensively, well liked and played hard.

vukovich immediately went into coaching - first with the cubs and then with the phillies.  his run as a phillies coach extended from 1988 through 2004 (then the longest tenure in club history) before he moved to the front office.  he had been diagnosed with a benign brain tumor in 2001 which was removed.  in 2006, he experienced a recurrence and eventually passed away in march of 2007 at the age of 69.

sports cards that blew my mind

sometimes when i will try to initiate a trade, i'll get a response along the lines of 'i don't think i have anything that you would want for that card'.  that's ok - no problem.  of course, it usually doesn't take much to get  stuff from me, but if you have sent all of your dodgers to any of the other dodger collectors out there in our blogosphere, that's ok.  i understand.

i don't have a trade bait page, and conversely not all of my want lists are up to date or even comprehensive.  maybe i can be tough to trade with from that aspect.  still, i have been able to complete a number of trades over the past few months and i have not been disappointed.  hopefully, my trading partners can say the same.

case in point, i contacted scott at sport cards ate my brain and offered a vintage brave and some others for some random dodgers.  then i noticed his trade bait page (maybe i have to get me one of those) and i asked about a couple of cards he had listed.  he agreed to send me the cards i inquired about, along with some other dodger cards.  um, yeah.

here's one of the cards that caught my eye - a 2008 topps co-signers dual sticker auto card of andy laroche and chin-lung hu

in addition to the cards i specifically requested, he sent some bowman.  gold bowman

shiny bowman

refractor bowman

crazy xfractor bowman

photoshopped shiny confusing set name bowman (of the son of the dodgers' third base coach)

seriously, what is this set?  2009 bowman chrome draft? 2009 bowman chrome draft picks and prospects? 2009 bowman chrome draft picks, prospects, and wbc?  put the name of the set on the back like upper-freakin'-deck did in the last few years of their existence.  that would be a big help.

here's a 2008 upper deck goudey card that i must have even though it didn't look familiar to me at all.

do ken griffey jr. super collectors include the national league cards from this set in their collections?  just curious.

there was even a 1995 classic 5 sport auto card of roger cedeno in the package.

but the coolest card in the package was probably this 2010 topps update manufactured bat barrel card of manny ramirez

thinking back, i asked if the manny 'relic' or the laroche/hu auto would be available.  scott sent them both.  that is several kinds of awesome.

consider my brain eaten, or mind blown.  just a great trade.  thanks scott!

bobby doerr ttm successes!

while i am a dodger fan, i did root for the red sox after the dodgers were eliminated in the 2004 postseason.  since then, i have, like many others, retracted any support for the bosox.  i don't think buck showalter should have apologized for his comments about theo epstein because i feel the same way.  the red sox are no different than the yankees now.

still, i can appreciate a hall-of-fame second baseman when i see one.  that's why i sent a few cards to former red sox second baseman bobby doerr a while back.

he signed all 3 - a 2002 fleer box score

 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic

 a 2007 upper deck masterpieces

and a 2008 upper deck goudey

to which he added a hof inscription.  doerr, who turns 93 years old today, last played in 1951, and was elected to the hall of fame by the veterans committee in 1986.  he has enjoyed 25 years as an official member of the cooperstown elite and i hope he enjoys a few more.

thank you and happy birthday mr. doerr!

mr. (night) owl, how many packages do you have to send to gcrl before he writes a post?

let's find out.

one:

1980 kellogg's davey lopes
if only that mustache really were in 3-d.

1986 topps glossy send in fernando valenzuela this set reminds me of a tcma issue. but in color.

2009 upper deck spectrum matt kemp (the heretofore unbeknownst to me blue variation) the question is, why?

2006 bowman heritage wilson betemit

interesting that we had, at one time, both furcal and betemit at the same time. just like the braves did.

2006 upper deck sp authentic julio lugo thankfully, lugo was a short-timer. unfortunately, ned traded for him in the first place.

2006 fleer greats of the game dusty bakeras seen on night owl's blog recently!

2009 upper deck spx clayton kershaw here's hoping the 2009 postseason is really his month long coming out party.

2008 upper deck timeline james loney sp perhaps my favorite first baseman since popeye himself.

ta-whooooo:

1985 fleer frank dipinoa very nice card with the right field pavilion and it's color palette complementing the astros uniform.

2002 upper deck kaz ishiinow we have the left field pavilion with diamond vision, a carl's jr ad, and half of tommy lasorda's outfield fence mural. plus the overhyped ishii in street clothes. ishii, because of the hype, was the dodger that got all the short prints which sucks when trying to complete my 2003 upper deck vintage set, among others.

2009 upper deck a piece of history james mcdonaldmcdonald hasn't made or seen much history yet.

2009 upper deck clayton kershaw 20th anniversary

another kershaw. this one from a subset within an insert set. i don't understand upper deck sometimes.

2009 topps target throwback chan ho park

did topps do this for series 2? did anyone care?

2009 topps attax vladimir guerrero

shiny must mean parallel. again, why?

three:

2009 topps finest russell martin

a disappointing season hopefully means fantastic postseason. or at least a bargain in next year's fantasy draft.

2009 topps jackie robinson turkey red insert

now that's a nice card!

2009 bowman manny ramirez

sans umpire. very very bad.

2008 upper deck goudey pee wee reese

i wonder what ken griffey jr does say about pee wee? any guesses?

2008 topps chin-lung hu trading card history

a glossy version of the 1959 set. as opposed to the more traditional versions in the 2008 heritage set. speaking of which,

2008 topps heritage vladimir guerrero chrome looks like it's snowing in anaheim

1997 pinnacle zenith wilton guerrero

i wish wilton had been more like vlad.

1993 score select rick trlicek

a pitcher with a hockey name. he actually debuted with the blue jays in 1992. recorded his only career save and hit (off of tom glavine) in his one season as a dodger.

so, the answer is three. each package filled with dodger and set building goodness, which is even better than the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop.

thanks greg. i'll get another package out to you soon.

box office boffo boxbuster trade

i don't know if that title even makes sense. at any rate, i just received some cards from boxbusters in return for the cards of cards i sent to him. to beat my joke to death, all those jack clark and ozzie smith cards were making my tom niedenfuer cards nervous.

i received a bunch of 08 allen & ginter - still trying to complete my set - including:

jason schmidt.

you know, i don't even have an opinion on jason. i didn't care for him when he was on the giants, but in this day and age, loyalty doesn't count for much. any dislike i thought i had of jason is really better steered at ned coletti for signing damaged goods to such a ridiculous contract. sure, he traded for manny, but even blind squirrels find nuts once in a while.

dmitri young.

he looks happy. too bad he's not trying a head first slide into third...

bj upton.

i had upton on my fantasy team last year. i was able to trade him for manny just before the all star break. sure, i lost out on steals, but manny's second half was epic. plus, once he was traded to the dodgers, it was the best of both worlds for me.

there were also a few dodgers and a couple of twins. here's one of the cards

2008 ud goudey russell martin.

i was expecting ken griffey jr to be quoted on the back saying something like "russell is a bad bad man" but, alas, no. also, why is the runner sliding feet first into first base? doesn't he know that slows you down? run through the bag!

thanks will. the cardinals are piling up again...