Tuesday, February 11, 2014

A G-reat C-ard tR-ade L-ate Post



 Hey everybody,

Here's a great batch of Dodger vintage that came my way via Jim, who runs the awesome Garvey, Cey, Russel, Lopes blog, among a few others.  Wanna spend some quality time reading about cool cards from the past?  Check into Jim's blog repertoire. 

Before you indulge in that, however, let's go 70's!!

Don't look now, Claude.  The ball's already in your mitt.
 
Bits of beautiful old-time Dodger Stadium lurking back there. 
"Who am I? I'm the guy with the baddest mustache on the team.  That's who I am."

"Ahem.  The guy with the baddest mustache would be me."

"Amateurs. You gotta grow it below the mouth line and combine it with California locks."

Fast forward to the 90's and Fernando gettin' funky wit it....


Finishing up with a cool Dodgers auto.  Any pack o' cards with a Dodger autograph is a great pack!


THANKS for the awesome additions, Jim! 



Sunday, February 9, 2014

Dustin Off A Past Trade With The Vealtones

Hey everybody,

Here's a long-overdue post celebrating a great trade with Dhoff Dustin, he of the fantastic blog,  Coot Veal and the VealtonesThis is the latest in what has slowly but steadily become a string of very cool trades.   How cool was this one?  Check out these great hunks o' cardboard...

"Which are bigger, my 90's shades or my pearly whites?"

Leading off is the greatest Dodger pitcher I've ever seen, the venerable Bulldog Hershiser.  Sure, Kid Kershaw has yet to write his story, but in order to eclipse Orel, he's going to have to carry his Dodger teammates through an NLCS and a championship World Series, including pitching a minimum 59 consecutive shutout innings, all in the same season.

In winning the pennant against the N.Y. Mets, Bulldog won Games 1 and 3, got the save in Game 4 AND THEN pitched a shutout to win Game 7.  He then went on to beat the (cheating) Bash Brothers and the rest of the Oakland A's in 1988 W.S. Games 2 and 5.


 Sure, Clayton looks up to Koufax, but Hersh isn't exactly chopped liver.

Like Bulldog, the pitcher below, Fernando, was a pretty darn good batter. The great Dodgers manager, Tommy Lasorda, had no fear about using Bulldog and El Toro as pinch hitters from time to time.  Fernando also packed the bonus of occasional home run power.


Speaking of Dodgers with home run power, we move into some vintage cardboard and the Toy Cannon, whom with those awesome sideburns could certainly hold his own with any group calling themselves The Vealtones...


Did somebody say Dodgers home run power?  Move over, because here comes Senor Pay-dro Gurrr-rero, World Series hero...


Staying with the theme of Dodger sluggers, here comes a fantastic bat relic card of big bopper Adrian Beltre (numbered to 199, even)...


Next up is a sweet swatch that was a wonderful surprise. This man has a great spirit and heart.  I really hated to see Hiroki go off to the Yanks...


I don't know what the fates have in store for young Dee Gordon this season, but I totally dig this card of the young pup Gordon turning two against the old dog, Chipper...


Closing out the Dodgers portion of the trade is a great shot of the Angel's skipper in visiting greys directing traffic whilst waiting for someone's pop up to drop into his sure hands...



Just because we're done with the Dodgers portion of this trade, we're not quite finished yet.  Dustin and I both love the vintage, and he sent over a coupla beauts featuringYankee Hall of Famers.

The ONLY man to pitch a perfect game in the World Series  - and that despite having a foot shaped like a duck bill.

Finally, from 1959 Topps, good ol' duck bill returns and is featured on one of my all-time favorite cards, being schooled by "The Perfessor"...


Whew! Thanks for another awesome trade, Dustin, and THANKS, everyone for readin'.  

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

OK Topps, I'll Bite

I was successfully resisting the impulse to buy any 2014 Topps until I saw this post over at Dodgers Blue Heaven, featuring the short print variations of the Dodger cards.  I gotta have em!  So I stopped over at my local Wallymart and grabbed some cards in the hopes of catching some lightning in a retail box.



So let's check out what I got, since anything short of Dodgers or top notch cards will immediately become trade bait for all of you team, set and player card chasers out there. I didn't pull anything fantastic, but I can't complain too much.  Besides, there might be a card or two that you want.
Let's open with the Dodgers I pulled...

Third card from the box. Cool.

Kershaw on a card is always a plus.

PUUUUUUIIIIIIGGGGGG !!!!!


Alas, none of those short-print variations, but I caught a few Dodgers, so all is well.  Here's some other players I've never heard of, from some other teams I've never heard of...





You want Rookie Card badges? I've got stinkin' Rookie Card badges...




BOOOOOOOO !!!!!

HAHA...Everybody in the pool. I hear the water's fine.




Who likes inserts?

Hey! I pulled a Hanley Ram.....ohhhhhhh....he's a freakin' Marlin :(




Mini die-cut.  Cool card. 

Finally, if any of you are chasing these, my three Wallymart Blues...


 After these, a whole buncha base cards.  Although I'm very 'meh' about the card design,  I gotta admit, I love the photography Topps used this year.

Also: Roger and Zippy Zappy, your contest winnings went out in the mail yesterday. Keep an eye opened!

Thanks for reading, everybody!






Monday, February 3, 2014

Football, Shmootball...Who Won The Super Easy Contest?

How about that Super Bowl?  As a Raider fan, it's always a joy to see the Broncos get thumped, but I was certainly hoping for closer competition than that.  At least my Super Bowl super burgers rocked the BBQ.  

 And on to the contest.  Thanks to all y'all who commented and joined in on the fun. I entered everyone's names over at Random.org, in the order that you commented:



 Comataoad and Greg Z are listed below there as numbers 12 and 13.  Per custom around here, I randomized it three times, and here are the final results:



CONGRATS to Zippy Zappy!  Unless you've changed your collecting habits, ZZ, I have an idea of what you like to collect.  I'll be sending you some Yankees and some assorted other goodies that I hope you'll enjoy.  Roger, you'll be getting a package soon as well. 

Thanks again for joining the contest everybody. 

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Down With 2013 Giants, and Arp With 2014 Dodgers

Hey everybody,

I completed a few trades at the close of 2013, and it's about time I give up some props to those awesome trade partners - whom I'm looking forward to making even more trades with in 2014.

First up is a perfect example of what makes our hobby so cool.  As we all know, the Dodgers and the Giants have one of the most storied - and violently heated - rivalries in sports. The bad blood between the teams goes all the way back to when the clubs were just a streetcar's ride apart in the old time boroughs of New York.  The hatred for the other team's uniforms continues to burn to this day, unfortunately leading to bloodshed between the fans more often than any hard collisions between the players out on the basepaths.

Which brings me back to our cool hobby.  Out here in the blogoworlds, Dodger and Giants fans read each other's blogs, Yankee and Red Sox die hards trade unwanted cards of their rivals to each other, and fans from other rivalries, old and new, comment on each other's blogs and even meet up in real life as friends.  Aint it grand?

I'm always able to pass off cards of the hated Giants to good ol' Arpsmith ,  and his unwanted Dodgers can always find a good home in my binders.  Although, now that I think of it, this trade was started by me actually shipping a Dodger card TO Arpsmith!

  He was collecting the Double Play set of game cards and I offered to send him an upgrade for his misprint Claude Osteen card.  Let's lead off with that clean but misprinted card that Arp sent to me...



 Arpsmith sent over some sweet extra cards as well. Naturally, being the cool Giants fan that he is, he sent over more Dodgers...


  You say Lou Brock?  You say Ricky H?   I say Maury Wills.  He's the guy that reinvented the game and made the stolen base a (once again) legitimate and dangerous offensive weapon.

The card was apparently part of some giveaway sets with messages about fire safety on the rear.  Check out Smokey the Bear's ever-lovin' mug under Mr. Wills.


What's better than a Hideo Nomo card that you never had before? 


BAAAAMMMM !!! Having its matching mini of course. 






Batting clean up is the man whom I dubbed El Jaguar last season...


I'm sure that baseball fans from San Diego to Oakland can appreciate the flag of the great Bear Republic gracing this hunka awesome cardboard.   What a glorious backdrop for A-Gon.

THANKS for the great trade, Arpsmith !

BTW, a reminder that you all have until Super Bowl kickoff to enter ATBATT's first contest of 2014.
See yesterday's post for details.