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!

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.

taking the trade train from p-town

tom from waiting 'til next year let me know that he had found some oddball dodger card, and asked if i would be interested. of course i would! so, the cards were sent my way, and my collection is all the better for it.

the package included some 'swell' cards, including actual swell cards, of which one was this 1990 swell baseball greats steve garvey card

i've got one in the garvey binders, but needed one for the dodger binders.  excellent.

there were also quite a few 1975 (some say 1976) sspc cards, such as willie crawford

crawford was traded after the 1975 season to make way for reggie smith in the outfield so i can't really complain about the dodgers not keeping him around, but he had some solid years as their right fielder.  crawford won a world series ring at the age of 18 in 1965, and helped the club return to the fall classic in 1974, too.  he almost became a double dipper as part of the team of my youth, but didn't make the club out of spring training in 1977.

there were a bunch of pacific legends, too, like this 1990 clem labine card

labine was a 2-time all-star and a key cog on the dodgers' 1955 world championship team, so i'm glad to see him get some cardboard appreciation.

here's a very cool 2009 tristar obak duke snider card

he's shown as a member of the fort worth cats, which puts this image from 1946.  snider spent that season with the dodgers' double-a affiliate, playing alongside future dodger coach monty basgall.

tom was kind enough to include an insert card of the reigning cy young award winner and mvp, clayton kershaw - a 2014 donruss diamond kings card

modeled after the 1984 version of the diamond king subsets.  you all know who the first dodger diamond king was, don't you? yes, it was steve garvey.

here's a 2012 bowman chrome prospect card of o'koyea dickson

he was a 12th round pick in 2011, and spent 2014 at double-a chattanooga.  will he make the jump to okc in 2015?  let's wait and see.

here are a couple more cards from the package that may not otherwise have warranted a scan - 1994 donruss billy ashley

and 1987 donruss brian holton

this may well be the first time anyone has bothered to scan a 1987 donruss brian holton card.  you're welcome.

thanks for the cards tom!

an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of giants collectors

i believe economist adam smith would agree that a baseball card is only worth what someone is willing to give up to obtain it.  well, i was willing to send some giant cards to another smith - arpsmith - of arpsmith's sportscard obsession in order to obtain some random dodger cards.  smith also noted that individuals who own surplus stock would generally look to gain from the excess, and arpsmith clearly subscribes to that theory because he sent me some of his collection's excess - mainly these (and a few more) dodger cards.

1967 topps ron fairly

it's always nice to see some vintage in these blind trades.  even better when the dodger is wearing number 6 which means it's either a carl furillo, fairly, or steve garvey card.  those three were the only dodgers to wear the number from 1946 through 1982.

1988 topps traded alfredo griffin

when i saw this card i thought of baseball card vandals and wondered if they had changed this into a nate griffin card yet.

1993 score select henry rodriguez

outfielders that the dodgers kept instead of henry rodriguez (who hit 140 home runs over the five and a half seasons following his 1995 trade from the dodgers to the expos) included can't miss prospects billy ashley, roger cedeno, and karim garcia who between them had 33 home runs for the dodgers (although power admittedly was not cedeno's thing).

2001 pacific shawn green

and 2001 pacific jim leyritz

thank goodness for pacific.  i have plenty of shawn green dodger cards, but only a couple of leyritz in dodger blue - this one and a 2001 upper deck victory card.  i don't know if any others even exist.

2001 pacific private stock adrian beltre

beltre will be inducted into the hall of fame, i have no doubt.  he is 7 home runs shy of 400 and about 450 hits shy of 3000 (just 41 behind steve garvey) and is signed through next season with a vesting option for 2016.  it is likely that he would get his 3000th hit in 2017 at the age of 38 if things stay relatively the same.  if he does it as a ranger, that would mean that he would have played as many seasons in texas as he did in los angeles, and so i would guess that he would be inducted wearing a rangers' hat.  we will have to wait and see what happens.

2013 topps joe blanton gold parallel

smith was a critic of mercantilism which endorsed the keeping of gold reserves as part of a country's economic stability.  i guess i disagree in that i will hoard all gold parallels of dodger cards.  even those of joe blanton, who was 2-4 with a 4.99 era in his 10 games as a dodger.

2014 donruss matt kemp power plus insert

here's a card dealing with surplus - a surplus of talent, a player not one-dimensional, making dodger fans happy, while providing financial gain for the individual to the tune of a $160-million contract through 2019.  i actually already owned this card, so perhaps i will attempt to turn my surplus into gain by trading with a fellow dodger collector…

thanks for the trade adam!  i'll have some excess giant cards headed your way soon!

a more than just so-so trade

back in a game i was watching in the late 1990's, vin scully commented while the dodgers were playing the cubs that the white sox must have thought a certain player to be only so-so, when in fact, it turned out that he was sosa!  a corny joke, but vin gets a lot of leeway from me.  anyway, i recently received a card of that so-so player in the mail from p-town tom at waiting 'til next year.

it comes from 2002 topps 206, and is a series 2 team 206 insert.  i'm working on the base and insert set, which is why i was sent the card.  it is much appreciated.  tom included another card - this 1975 (some say 1976) sspc card of dodger hitting instructor mickey vernon

vernon was a two-time batting champion for the washington senators, and happened to be the favorite ballplayer of president dwight david eisenhower.  after retiring as a player, he coached for a few teams, with the dodgers being one of them.

i wasn't expecting the vernon card, so it was a nice surprise.  it makes me wish even more that topps would produce cards of coaches again, and that donruss had included some of the dodger coaches in their early 1980 sets that had a few other teams' coaches in them.

i also received my return pwe from topher at crackin' wax.  for a one cent donation, i was able to choose some cards from his 'take my cards' page.  i wound up with a couple of dodgers from 1978 1987 2014 donruss.

adrian gonzalez

and zack greinke

i grabbed a couple other cards for trade bait/trade fodder, and i'll be checking back to see what other cards topher has for me to take.

puig x pwe

2x3=6, which is the number of cards that jeff at 2x3 heroes stuffed into a pwe and sent my way recently.  i am going to break protocol here at garvey cey russell lopes, and not show the steve garvey card from the envelope first.  that's because yasiel puig's 2014 donruss elite dominator insert was included

and that kind of crazy card design deserves top billing.  besides, the garvey card was from 2002 topps archives which used his 1977 topps card

which is not necessarily one of my favorites.

there was one other dodger in the envelope - manny ramirez makes an appearance on a 2010 topps attax card

but the other three cards featured dodgers, sort of.  here's future dodger juan uribe who played for the white sox on tatooine as seen on his 2009 topps

and 2009 upper deck cards,

(that's probably very very likely a double play turn now that i look at it more closely)

and a former dodger henry blanco, who also played on tatooine as demonstrated by his 2011 topps walmart blue parallel card

blanco recently retired, but was able to carve out a nice 16-year career that started with a pinch hit single as a dodger back in 1997.  curiously enough, blanco never caught in any of the three games he appeared in as a dodger - he subbed in at third base after singling in his major league debut, pinch hit without playing in the field in his next appearance, and then subbed at first base in his third and final appearance in '97.  he signed with colorado after spending all of 1998 in the minors, and the rest is an 11-team big league journey.

thanks jeff!  i'll see if i can fit 6 cards in a pwe shortly.

to the card show i went

i took a couple of hours a few weekends back to attend a card show.  this wasn't the regular monthly twin cities show - it was a semi-annual or quarterly event at a different location.  it is more sparsely attended from what i have seen, but it was where i found my 1955 topps sandy koufax card so it's been worth my time in the past. i wound up spending only a few dollars, and i will show all but one or two cards that i bought in this and one other post.

you can't go wrong with double plays from the discount box.  these 2011 topps update roberto alomar sp diamond

and cognac parallels

were in the 5 for a dollar bin.  as was this cognac carlton fisk sp from the same set.

i spent less than a dime for this 1995 score ricky gutierrez gold rush parallel double play turn

and the same for a 2007 bowman gold parallel of carlos guillen

here's another double play parallel - a 2011 bowman chrome dan uggla blue parallel

from the 5 for a dollar box, as were the rest of the cards below.  i'll run through them quickly.

2011 bowman vladimir guerrero international parallel

2009 topps attax manny ramirez

2014 donruss hanley ramirez press proof numbered parallel

this was the first 2014 donruss card i had seen in person, and the only dodger i pulled from the box.  i actually don't recall seeing any other dodgers, now that i think about it.  i was still in need of a few cards to get to an even 10 for $2, so i pulled a 2014 donruss derek jeter card

plus a 2014 donruss pablo sandoval elite dominator numbered insert

and a 2013 topps chrome matt harvey

for some reason.

i did pick up more dodgers than just the two ramirii above - i'll show those later today.