The Night Owl Big Box O' Cards - The 2000's

Let's continue onward with the penultimate installment of  my favorite cards that were sent over to me from Big Daddy Night Owl.  Let's check out some cool cardboard...

 I dig the blue on blue color schema and Metropolis design here. Nice action photo as well. 

 Not easy to tell from this scan, but Sheffield is on one of the card fads from the early 2000's. Back then, card companies were trying different media like metal and plastic. Here is a beauty of a card on transparent plastic. 

Our PED pitcher can strike out your PED batter!

 The 90's gave us card photography that bled out to the edges. In the next decade, frames returned in a big way.

 Diamonds are forever, but alas, Russ was a Dodger for only 5 years. I love Dodgers vs Giants cards. Note how this guy is about to be out by a mile.

 My previous post in this series sparked an interesting debate (in the comments) on who was the best Japanese pitcher for the Dodgers - Hideo Nomo or Hiroki Kuroda. 

Zippy Zappy chimed in that Kuroda had better stats over a longer period of time. My take was stats don't tell the entire story in this case as Nomo had to also deal with the psychological stress and pressure of being the first Japanese pitcher in MLB. He carried the weight of a country's pride on his shoulders and had to deal with the press and Nomomania everywhere he pitched. 

In the end, ZZ made the great point that our debate was a bit like the apples and oranges argument. The important thing is it was a fun back and forth between two passionate fans and friends. I'm also glad they both pitched for my favorite team.  

 How about ol' Paulie Lo Duca in a great action shot that we rarely see on cardboard - despite the fact we saw a similar photo earlier in the Russel Martin card. 

We usually get defensive shots of catchers chasing pop ups or blocking the plate, but this time we get Lo Duca captured mid-play at Dodger Stadium throwing to a base trying to nail an advancing runner. From the angle of the runner and Lo Duca it looks like he's throwing over to third.

Is that a Pirates uni? He was probably out. :) 

Kids, note the perfect fundamentals here.

 I loved Nomar as a Dodger. Loved his Lowrider walk-up song, loved the 2-minute drill of adjusting his batting gloves -after every pitch, and loved his home runs. He does a great job on the Dodgers braodcasting network these days.

What's a big box o' cards without some swatch love? I get my first relic of Derek Lowe and it's extra sweet because he's pitching at Giant Soda Bottle Stadium up in the bay area. I'm sure he won that day. 

As I was also a winner with all of these cool additions to my Dodgers collection, thanks again to Night Owl.  That box was so jam-packed, there's still one last installment to come - The Dodgers on the current squad. 

Aloha!