a new type collection?

i am not completely sure that i am going to add another mini collection, but i do know that i enjoy most cards that show players' names and numbers on their back.  it's fairly subjective - not as cut and dried as say, my dodger stadium in the background collection - as i don't like every card that features a players name/number on the back.  anyway, here are some cards that would definitely make the cut in my 'nob' collection. if i were to officially add it, that is.  

1999 topps gallery vladimir guerrero

1994 topps stadium club rickey henderson rainbow foil parallel

1998 topps paul molitor

1995 topps stadium club sandy alomar jr best seat in the house insert

2009 upper deck derek jeter

2011 topps marquee stan musial

so, the bulk of the cards would be like those above - action shots, and usually at the plate.  sometimes there are non-action shots that fit the bill as well.

1999 upper deck karim garcia

2012 topps kyle blanks

there are also those cards that meet the letter of the law regarding the collection, but just don't resonate with me for some reason.  here are two examples

2010 topps alex rios

2011 topps update jered weaver

luckily, that rios card fits in my tatooine mini collection, and i may make a spot for the weaver in my lurker collection, thanks to former dodger alfredo griffin hanging out in the background.

i think what i like about these cards is that they use images that are similar to what i see as a fan when i go to a game.  watching on tv, we get different camera angles that focus on the action from the front.  or, perhaps they are just cards featuring good action (for the most part) photography.

los angeles dodger commemorative patches through the years

i've been meaning to do this for quite some time, however it was a review of brian's want list at highly subjective and completely arbitrary that proved to be the push i needed to get it done. you see, brian collects cards showing commemorative - not memorial - patches.

the dodgers have worn a few commemorative patches recently, but not nearly as many as some teams for whom there seems to be something worth celebrating pretty much every year.  i'm limiting these posts to the los angeles dodger team, which means there won't be any discussion of the new york world's fair patch worn by the brooklyn dodgers in 1939.

well, aside from that 1961 fleer card, there won't be any discussion.  this list also does not include single game patches, such as the jackie robinson day patch that has been worn on april 15 in some recent seasons.

the task is fairly easy, because the dodgers didn't wear any patches, especially team specific patches for quite some time after moving to the west coast.  here's a year by year rundown.

1958 - none

1959 - none

1960 - none

1961 - none

1962 - none

1963 - none

1964 - none

1965 - none

1966 - none

1967 - none

1968 - none

1969 - major league baseball 100th anniversary (1971 dell's today team stamp maury wills)

1970 - none

1971 - none

1972 - none

1973 - none

1974 - none

1975 - none

1976 - national league centennial (1977 topps manny mota)

1977 - none

1978 - none

1979 - none

1980 - dodger stadium all-star game patch (1982 topps reggie smith)

1981 - city of los angeles bicentennial (1982 fleer bob welch)

1982 - none

1983 - los angeles dodgers 25th anniversary (1984 fleer derrel thomas)

1984 - dodger stadium olympic venue (1985 donruss orel hershiser)

1985 - none

1986 - none

1987 - dodger stadium 25th anniversary (1988 score steve sax)

1988 - none (vero beach 40th anniversary patch during spring training - 1988 donruss baseball's best alfredo griffin)

1989 - none

1990 - dodger national league franchise 100th anniversary (1991 topps debut '90 luis lopez)

1991 - none

1992 - dodger stadium 30th anniversary (1993 donruss triple play brett butler)

1993 - none (don drysdale/roy campanella and tim crews memorial patches)

1994 - major league baseball 125th anniversary patch (1995 fleer henry rodriguez)

1995 - none

1996 - dodger stadium 35th season (1997 upper deck tommy lasorda)

1997 - jackie robinson 50th anniversary patch (1998 topps finest brett butler)

1998 - los angeles dodgers 40th anniversary (1999 fleer brilliants eric karros)

1999 - dodger heroes (1999 keebler dodgers tripp cromer)

2000 - none

2001 - none

2002 - dodger stadium 40th anniversary (2003 topps total david ross)

2003 - none

2004 - none

2005 - none

2006 - none

2007 - none

2008 - los angeles dodgers 50th anniversary (2009 upper deck matt kemp)

2009 - none

2010 - 1955 world championship 55th anniversary (2010 topps update reed johnson)

2011 - none (duke snider memorial patch)

2012 - dodger stadium 50th anniversary (2013 topps josh beckett)

2013 - none

2014 - none

2015 - none

there were several missed opportunities that could have been celebrated - inaugural season on the west coast (1958), defending world champions (1960), opening of dodger stadium (1962), defending world champions (1964), defending world champions (1966), defending world champions (1982), defending world champions (1989), etc. as you can see, there were lots of chances to have worn defending world champions patches in the past, and i'm hoping next year they'll be in a position to wear one (or not) again.

22 is 27

happy birthday to clayton kershaw, who turned 27 today.  the year 27 season is supposed to be a peak season (at least for hitters), so here's hoping the reigning cy young winner and mvp puts together his best season yet. that would be quite a remarkable season, indeed.

my gift to you on this day is a look at some cards of the dodger lefty from my collection. go figure.

2009 upper deck

2013 topps chasing history insert

2014 donruss diamond kings press proof

and 2014 topps tribute

just for fun, here's a card that was issued the year kershaw was born - a 1988 fleer update kirk gibson card

i feel old.

an emblem and a patch for the victims of the i-35w bridge collapse

earlier today i posted about the memorial patch that the twins wore during the 2007 season to honor their long time play-by-play broadcaster herb carneal who had passed away just before the start of the season.  i also lamented the lack of cards featuring photos of twins playing in the metrodome.  one such card that i didn't show in that post was this 2009 upper deck joe mauer card.

it features a photo of mauer from 2007, since the carneal patch is there on his right sleeve.  however, this card is in my memorials binder because of the emblem on the helmet.  it's a modified interstate shield for i-35w, the route that travels through minneapolis, and the route on which the bridge over the mississippi river collapsed on the evening of august 1 not too far from the metrodome.  thirteen people died in the collapse.  here's another photo of mauer showing the sticker on his helmet.

in addition to the twins' memorial, the independent minor league saint paul saints wore black armbands in memory of the victims of the collapse.

a year later, the twins added patches (here's a close-up look)

to their jersey sleeves on the one-year anniversary of the collapse as seen in this photo of justin morneau

by that time, the replacement bridge was nearly completed.  three years later, a remembrance garden with permanent memorials for the victims was completed near the site of the river crossing.

steve yeager's torch is being carried by alberto callaspo

it pains me to note that steve yeager, the catcher for the team of my youth, spent his final year in the big leagues with the mariners.  that pain is tempered a bit by the existence of this very nice 1986 o-pee-chee card

he played in only 50 games in '86, with his last appearance coming on august 29.  he pinch hit that day in the bottom of the 9th inning of a game against the yankees.  with the m's down 13-12, yeager was summoned to hit for harold reynolds with the tying run on first base, and against the yankees' closer dave righetti, yeager flew out to end the game.

dave righetti would pitch for a few more seasons, ending his career in 1995 with the chicago white sox.  i don't know that i have a card of rags from his chisox days, so here's a 1993 upper deck card instead.

righetti had began his career as a starter, even throwing a no-hitter for the yankees in 1983 before being moved to the bullpen the following season.  he made 10 appearances for the white sox in '96, with the first 9 coming as a starter despite having started only 4 games (for the 1992 giants) since the season of his no-hitter.  anyway, righetti's final big league appearance came as a reliever, in a game against the indians on september 18, 1995.  he pitched the 9th inning with the white sox down 11-1, and although he loaded the bases on two singles and a walk, he retired dave winfield on a pop-up and then got billy ripken out on strikes to end the threat and his career.

billy ripken, meanwhile, is protecting what's his on the back of his 1993 donruss card

he finished his playing career with the tigers in 1998, hitting .270 in 27 games.  he was released by detroit in july of that year, not too long after playing in his final game on july 13. in that game, ripken was a late-inning defensive replacement who was in the on deck circle waiting for his first plate appearance of the game when the last out was recorded.  so, i'll go back to june 20, which was the game featuring ripken's previous appearance (and final at bat).  he got only a single at bat in that game against the royals' tim belcher, who coaxed a fly ball out.

tim belcher went to anaheim to pitch for the angels the following season, and he was there again in 2000, his final season.  this is a 2001 upper deck victory card

showing the former dodger in those disney-fied angel unis. belcher made 9 appearances (all starts) for the halos in 2000, and finished with a record of 4-5.  one of those losses came in his final start, on september 30 against the mariners.  belcher lasted only 2.2 innings that day, and the blow that knocked him off of the mound for good was a walk to david bell.

david bell continued to play through the 2006 season.  he finished that year with the brewers, after starting the season with the phillies whose uniform he is wearing on his 2006 topps heritage card

bell was the brew crew's third baseman on the final day of the season in 2006 as they faced the cardinals.  he went 1 for 4 at the plate, but his last at bat resulted in a backwards k, courtesy of josh kinney.

josh kinney had made his debut earlier that season, and was on the team's postseason roster as well, winning a ring as the cardinals beat the tigers in 5 games.  he stayed with the cardinals' organization through the 2010 season, and was featured in the 2009 upper deck set

kinney spent 2011 with the white sox and 2012 with the mariners, and hasn't pitched in the big leagues since.  he spent last season in the pirates' organization, but is currently a free agent.  so, yeager's torch has been carried by someone else for the last couple of seasons.  in kinney's last big league appearance, he relieved felix hernandez in a game agains the angels, and allowed a single to former teammate albert pujols, but then struck out kendrys morales and got alberto callaspo to fly out.

and that's how we get to callaspo, the current torchbearer of steve yeager's career.  callaspo, shown here on his 2014 topps card

was recently signed as a free agent by the braves to a one-year contract, so he should carry the torch a bit longer.

the cardinals' josh hancock memorial patch

just a few hours after pitching three innings in an afternoon game on april 27, 2007, cardinals pitcher josh hancock was killed in an automobile accident.  the accident occurred just after midnight on april 28, and it was later determined that hancock's blood-alcohol content was about twice the legal limit.

after postponing their game that had been scheduled for the 28th, the cardinals added a memorial patch - hancock's number 32 in white within a black circle to the right sleeves of their home whites (as demonstrated by chris duncan's 2008 upper deck first edition card)

and the left sleeves of their away grays (as seen on this 2009 upper deck albert pujols starquest card)

i've got that pujols and this one - a 2009 topps card

in the memorials binder.

hancock had joined the cardinals for the 2006 season and was a part of their world championship club, although he did not pitch in the world series.  he pitched more innings in relief that year than any other member of the staff, and he had earned the chance to reprise that role in 2007.  sadly, his death came after his 8th appearance of the season at the age of 29.

it would be remiss of me not to mention the death this offseason of cardinal prospect oscar taveras under similar circumstance, as well as the fact that the team took much heat following hancock's death for not sending a strong enough message regarding drinking and driving following manager tony larussa's dui arrest earlier that spring.  as a result of hancock's death, many teams removed alcohol from their clubhouses, even though hancock had been drinking at a bar owned by former cardinal mike shannon, not at the stadium named for one of the biggest breweries in the country.