scratching my joc itch

i wouldn't necessarily call it legal advice, but i received a package a couple of weeks ago from the stackhouse law office in farmington, new mexico.  in it, corey noted that during his time watching albuquerque baseball (it's been the home of the dodger triple-a team since 2009, as it was from 1972 through 2000 with 2003-08 spent as the marlins' triple-a affiliate), joc pederson is the best he's seen.

behind the note were a number of pederson's cards, instantly increasing my joc collection by 10 or so cards.  here they are:

2011 topps pro debut

2012 bowman chrome prospects

2012 bowman prospects

2012 topps heritage minors

2012 topps pro debut

2013 bowman topp 100 insert

2013 bowman chrome cream of the crop mini refractor

2013 bowman chrome draft picks & prospects

2013 bowman draft picks & prospects

2013 bowman platinum prospects

2013 topps heritage minors

2013 topps heritage minors 1964 bazooka style insert

2013 topps pro debut

now i'm sure that this new mexico attorney is not one to fib (saul goodman he is not, i am sure), so i'll take him at his word.  plus, here's the back of the 2013 bowman chrome cream of the crop mini refractor

that's not bad company.

as a dodger fan, i have been following pederson the last four-plus seasons as he has climbed through the organization.  so far in his first season in the abq, he has 23 homers in 94 games to go along with 25 steals and a .315 batting average.  and, as a dodger fan, i recall monster numbers that mike marshall and greg brock and franklin stubbs put up in albuquerque a generation ago.  still, i was a bit nervous at the trade deadline when some talking heads were reporting the pederson was potentially available in trade talks.

listen to the lawyer, ned.

anybody know what time it is?

well, looking at tommy lasorda's wristwatch on this 2013 panini usa baseball champions card,

i'd say it's time for some random cards from the scanned folder.  seriously, though; when is the last time you saw a watch on a baseball card?  do managers really wear watches?

here's a 1997 pinnacle select todd hollandsworth card

holly can rest easy - recent dodger call-up erisbel arruebarrena's last name is one letter shorter than hollandsworth (the longest surname in team history).  the letters will still go armpit to armpit, though.

1999 topps finest mark grudzielanek

arruebarrena has as many letters as grudzielanek, but doesn't seem as difficult to pronounce.

2002 upper deck diamond collection chin-feng chen

chen was a highly touted foreign prospect in the dodger minor league system.  hopefully arruebarrena finds greater success at the big league level than did chen - he was just 2 for 22 in his major league career.

2003 upper deck mvp kevin brown/curt schilling game used base relic card

somewhat strange to have a base relic card with pitchers on the front.  what's even stranger is that the back of the card notes that the bases came from edison international field, aka the big 'a' in anaheim.  what the cuss?

2006 fleer tradition rafael furcal

furky hasn't appeared in the majors since 2012 (he was hurt for the entire 2013 season), but he's rehabbing in the marlins minor league system.  meanwhile, jeremy hazelbaker (the guy the dodgers got for alex castellanos which was the guy they got for furcal) is 26 with only 10 letters in his last name, but is hitting around .300 in double-a.

2008 upper deck sweet spot manny ramirez relic

this is really a red sox card with the dodgers logo on it.  2008 and mannywood seems like so long ago…

2013 bowman andre ethier blue parallel

and 2013 topps chrome refractor

it's still hard to believe that billy beane traded ethier for milton bradley and antonio perez.  the a's did reach the alcs with bradley in 2006, but perez was released and bradley was sent to the padres for former dodger andrew brown (the second time he had been traded for bradley) in 2007.  meanwhile, ethier has put up some nice seasons for the dodgers.  it's enough to make me want the dh in the national league so that ethier and carl crawford can both get their at bats.

random enough for you?

card show dime box dodger haul

at the card show last weekend, i picked up a couple of nice vintage dodgers from the bargain bin (plus a couple of 1973 topps cards for nick), but most of my time was spent looking through a couple of random dime boxes.  i wound up with some stuff for other bloggers, too, but these are some of the dodgers that i found for me.

1992 score eric karros

i can't believe that i need any 1992 score, but this card didn't look familiar to me.  even though i haven't looked at my 1992 score dodgers for years, i threw a dime down for karros.  this card reminds me of his rookie year when he did some commercials for your friendly southern california nissan dealers.  he feigned trouble fielding a ball in the showroom and tommy lasorda walked by shaking his head.  i did not buy a nissan.

1993 fleer ultra pedro martinez

hall of fame class of 2015?  i think so.

1995 best paul konerko

in 1995, the dodger affiliate in san berdoo was the spirit.  by 1997, it was the stampede

1997 best adrian beltre

see?

1999 fleer metal universe adrian beltre neophytes

i am getting very sleepy looking at this card.

2005 fleer adrian beltre league leader

i am thankful for fleer going three-deep on the leader cards so that beltre gets an appearance.  however, beltre was actually fourth in the league in batting average in 2004. helton was second and loretta was third behind barry bonds who didn't bother to license himself with the card companies.  

2010 topps duke snider/andre ethier legendary lineage

i have about 37 of the matt kemp/jerry sands ll card, but this one didn't look familiar to me.

2013 bowman paco rodriguez international/state parallel

paco hails from florida.

2013 topps aj ellis emerald parallel

i can't wait to see who else is on ellis's card in 2014.

i've got more of my card show haul coming up this weekend, including some double plays and a whole mess of mike piazza inserts.  stay tuned.

encounters while searching for puig

yes, i was tempted by the lure of pulling a yasiel puig card from a pack last week.  i bought some 2013 bowman platinum (one of those three pack deals with three purple parallels at target).  i didn't do too badly from an insert ratio standpoint, but no puig.

i did get this clayton kershaw reprint, though.

as far as base cards went, i got a couple of other hot shot young pitchers - stephen strasburg

(are we past the point of showing his cards when we pull them?) and gerrit cole

here are the three purple cards, packaged separately for my convenience.  victor roache

kyle crick

and anthony rendon

if i pulled dodgers like i pull giants these days, i would have a lot more dodger cards than i already do.

now for the parallels.  i got a ruby will middlebrooks

a gold cole hamels

and a sapphire bubba starling

no puig.

so, i also picked up a couple of packs of straight up bowman.  this bowman prospects card of travis witherspoon caught my eye - not only is there a budweiser ad behind him, but one for hooters, too.

still, it's no lenny dykstra card

andre ethier made an appearance

as did a double play card, courtesy of the reds' henry rodriguez

among the two or three gold parallels, there was a rickie weeks in a nice throwback jersey

i was at the twins game this year against the brew crew in which each team wore throwbacks.  the twinkies wore in their saint paul saints unis, from back when the saints were the dodgers' aa affiliate.  good times.

another brewer - this time on a chrome mini refractor

 as well as a diamondback.

wanna bet that tyler's nickname is 'boz'?  or have we failed as parents?  and will anyone get that reference?

and then, there it was.  a bowman prospects silver ice parallel of a dodger...

jeremy moore is not yasiel puig.  and so, the search continues...

another trade collision

i received some cards from fuji and p-town tom within a day or two of each other recently.  there was some overlap, but that's ok because dodger overlap is the best kind.  fuji sent some 2013 bowman gold in the form of clayton kershaw

i appreciate the dodger stadium shot, with the brooklyn cap.  the photo must be from jackie robinson day in 2012, right?

before we see some other 2013 bowman niceness, here's a 2012 topps chris capuano walmart blue parallel

i appreciate the airbrush - at least topps got his number right.

ok, back to the 2013 bowman.  here's a josh beckett home state parallel

josh hails from texas.  yee-haw.

here's his gold parallel version

as well as that of hanley ramirez

not since 1996 donruss has there been a set that seemed to censor the crotchal region like this.

p-town tom sent the same hanley

and beckett gold cards

but he also included the blue parallel hanley

as well as a beckett base

he also sent an andre ethier base

and a hyun jin ryu gold parallel

plus a joc pederson card, too.

and, just to be different, there was some 1991 donruss studio in the package too.  here's hall of famer gary carter

thanks guys!