The Doctor Is In - volved In An Awesome Trade

Hey everybody,

Is it too early for me to start griping about Don Mattingly's (yet once again) inept handling of a line up?

Let's take a quick look at his decision making...

Opening Day: Lead off batter Carl Crawford goes 2 for 4 with a double and a run scored in his Dodger Stadium debut, helping Clayton Kershaw seal a fantastic Dodgers first-game-feel-good-fest.

Game Two: You're the manager.  What would you do with all that rah-rah momentum created on Opening Day?  What would you do with your lead off batter?  Well, Mattingly decided to bench him. 

Still Game Two, 8th inning: Dodgers behind, but mounting a threat. Mattingly looks down the bench for a pinch hitter to keep the rally going.  He bypasses Crawford in order to use...yup, you got it...Juan Uribe.

Later, in the 9th, Mattingly finally used Crawford in a bid to conjure up a game-tying 3-run HR with no one on base.  I suppose if all that had worked, I'd now be calling him a genius. *sigh*

On a brighter note, Dr. Vealtone from the incredible blog, Coot Veal and the Vealtones, and I put together a fantastic trade, which included vintage, vintage Dodgers, HOFers and more.  What a trade!  Dustin sent me so many cool cards that I could have easily used two posts just covering highlights. 

I decided, however, to edit things down to one.  Check these cards out...

Dustin did a great job of observing the players I collect; but of course the doctor would be thorough.  Here's a 1960 Topps Bill Mazeroski.  I love the old time baseball photography on these cards the way I love movies shot on old time celluloid.   1960 is the year Maz sealed himself in baseball folklore by hitting that Game 7 World Series winning home run.  It's the homer that we all grew up dreaming about - Maz actually hit it.

 I received a couple of vintage Don Suttons in the package.  Sutton was the ace of the staff during my teenage years as a Dodger fan.  Now that I notice Sutton's ears, I finally understand why he grew that Phil Spector afro in his later career as a TV announcer for the Braves.

 Eddie Murray cranking one out at Chavez Ravine!.  I know all you O's fans think of Eddie as an Oriole.  I always think of him as a Dodger as well.  The yellow frame works very nicely here.

More Dodgers vintage!  Another World Series Game 7 Hero ! Podres pitched a shutout in Game 7 and was the World Series MVP for that  magical 1955 Brooklyn squad.  He later went on to win a total of 4 WS rings. This is my favorite card from the trade. 

Did somebody order up another couple of old time ass-kickers?   I'm digging the vintage era unis.

When Dustin wasn't blowing me away with the coolest vintage, he was doing it with modern era shininess.  This card is all kinds of awesomeness, despite the generic "uni".

 Cards with Schmidt in live game action are always welcome.  Even his mustache is daring the defense to throw over there. 

How about some young Mike Scioscia in action?  Uber cool card!

 Speaking of uber cool - we come a card I've been chasing around seemingly forever. Never mind the butcher job my crooked scanning did here.  This card's got Koufax and Drysdale!  Sweeeeet!

Check out young Reggie! This looks exactly like the type of photo Gypsy queen loves to use.  Have they ?

This card should be titled "Dodgers Future Bad Asses - and Perconte".

Did I mention the doctor really studied my want lists?  Here's a very cool reprint of a subset I'm chasing.  It's a reprint - yet I love this card just as much as any of the other "originals" I received.

Many thanks for a fantastic trade, Dustin, and THANKS for readin', everyone.