What Better On a Cold Winter's Night Than A Custom Penguin (and friends)?

Aloha, everybody,

Big Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown recently burned the midnight oil and created yet even more custom cards that have been falling like cardboard snow all around the cardsphere.

Recently the venerable Night Owl showed off the Ron Cey contribution to the Cardsphere Heroes checklist, and I'm proud to say that Gavin sent over a unique 1/1 custom of the Penguin to me as well...

G chose well in his selection of photos as his custom features a 26 year-old Cey sliding into third against Willie Stargell's Pirates in the 1974 NLCS. 

What a series it was. It was the first year The Infield (Cey, Garvey, Lopes and Russell) played together for the Dodgers, and a young Dave Parker was just breaking into the Pirates' lineup. 

For everybody who thinks it's not kosher, or wise, for a team to talk trash before a championship series, check out what bad-ass Dodgers catcher Joe Ferguson said about the Dodgers before the series began:

 "We should be favored," Ferguson told UPI. "We've got the best record - and the best team - in baseball." 

How's that for confidence? In case your curious, the Penguin hit a double and a homer in Game 2, and Pops hit a 3-run bomb in Game 3 for the Pirates. The Dodgers took the series in four games. 

The Dodgers talked smack before the series, and afterward, the Pirates put a realistic take on things when Al Oliver said:

"They outhit us, out-pitched us and just outplayed us, all the way around. They deserve to go to the World Seres."

 Back to custom awesomeness. Here's a look at the rear of the card... 

Another great batting shot, name-dropping writeup, unique BCB Star of Authentication, and serially numbered 1/1. Yoda himself would say, "A work of art, this is."

G wasn't finished, as he sent along a fistful of other Dodgers and customs with this one. 

He included a couple of prospects - a pitcher and a hitter...

 After six years Jon hasn't really broken out of the minors for any longer than a couple of cups of coffee. The last we heard, he was released by the Tulsa Drillers this past May. Good luck Jon, wherever you are. 

 Cash was a second-round pick in 2010 and put up pretty good numbers for AA Tulsa this past season. Good luck as well, Ralston. Too bad you were born too late to cash in on being given the perfect name for a silent movies cowboy star. 

Shawn Green, however, was born at the perfect time to be featured on plenty of slick and shiny cards from the 90's. 

Green has one of the prettiest (but devastating) swings I've ever seen. Almost every card he appears on shows him at the plate, so it's good to see him doing other baseball-type activities. 

Gavin knows I love dem Bums from Brooklyn, so he included a couple of Roy Campanella tribute cards... 

 This is from the 1979 TCMA Baseball History set. Seeing Campy here in a not-so-common color photo, I can't shake the feeling his rust-colored shin guards look too much like Giants' orange.

Here's a shiny mirror card that at first glance looks like those Denny's 3-D cards. It's not 3-D, but still packs a cool depth perception trick...

The back tells us it had a (kinda) limited run of 100,000. Mine is respectably numbered in the six thousands. 


Gavin had previously created and sent out customs based on The Sandlot, but I wasn't lucky enough to get in on that mailing the first time around. This time G included a couple in this envelope, and I'm very glad he did. 

 Every Mexican-American kid (and kid at heart) who saw The Sandlot saw himself as Benny the Jet, the local kid who grows up to realize a dream and play for the Dodgers. This card is perfect - from the Jet's ever-lovin' smile, to the fitting 1972 Topps design, to the genius cardback, complete with appropriate cartoon.

All of that said, any custom artist worth his cardboard can choose sports imagery, but in the Sandlot series G makes his own mark by branching outside of the chalklines. 

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Miss Wendy Peffercorn (who briefly lived with Benny the Jet during his minor league stint in Bakersfield) ...

THANKS for the great cards, G, and the fantastic customs. 

Aloha!