Purple for P-Town Tom Means A Pack of Players for Me

Aloha, everybody, 

I recently showed off some new trade bait, and ol' P-Town Tom jumped quick on a purple-framed Rizzo card. 

A few days ago I received a package with some Dodgers goodies inside. 

 Shawn Green is on a lot of these cards with a floating body but no  real background. He's also on a lot of those see-through cards.

 Pinnacle had some nice sets featuring some of the best card photography in the industry back in the 90's. Here's a great shot of Nomo bringin' it. 

Speaking of attractive sets from the 90's,1993 Flair is still one of my favorites.

Another favorite from the 90's, Mr. Piazza. I think that forlorn look on his face is because he doesn't like wearing the LA cap. Right, Michael? 

Piazza's buddy from those Dodger years was Eric Karros. The card below is from Ultra-PRO. I think it's one of those that would have come inside a new binder. 

This card is priceless because of Eric's ever-lovin', "Look mom, I'm lifting weights in a polo shirt" smile. 

Did I say "priceless"? Apparently, this card was valued at $10. Or perhaps not. Lots of times I've slipped a card into a penny sleeve with a price tag on it, and the new card wasn't worth anything close to that price tag. 

But one look at that shot of Karros with his James Bond tux has me convinced this IS the original $10 card.  

They weren't all big names on the cards Tom sent me. He included a few young players as well...

I remember wanting Garcia to do well, but...he never really did. 
 

 Todd Hollandsworth was another one of the Rookies of the Year that LA pumped out year after year, but like so many ROY, nothing much happened after that initial splash. 
Bonus: Lurking Keith Olbermann. 

Finally, how about an autograph?

 
 Josh came up through the Dodgers farm system and earned his first big league win with the club, but LA quickly shipped him out. He went on to play for a number of teams in both leagues, and is now pitching for the Lotte Giants in south Korea. If nothing else, baseball has given him the opportunity to travel. 

Thanks for the fun cards, Tom. I have your Rizzo and some other cards put aside for you. I've been putting together a few trade packages, and I expect to send them out some time next week. 

Aloha!
 

On One Hand The Card Show Was Disappointing. On The Other - SUCCESS!

Aloha, everybody, 

I headed out to the world famous Frank and Sons Collectibles show in order to find a nice prize for Al, the winner of my recent 100,000 views contest - and hopefully some other cool stuff for my regular trade partners.

Back in the day, Frank and Sons was a card collector's paradise, with rows upon rows of tables stacked high with cards, packs, and boxes of cardboard, from the shiniest new stuff opened there before your eyes, to the most vintage and obscure cardboard from just about every sport and endeavor they made cardboard for. 

It had been a couple of years since I set foot in there, and I was absolutely looking forward to slowly sauntering the aisles, enjoying all of the wonderful cards (that weren't under glass), as I used to. 

Of course, the day I planned to go was twice as busy as I wanted it to be, so I ended up screeching into the parking lot one hour before the show closed, which I knew meant a good 20% of the tables would already be closed and covered. 

And then I walked in. The show is in the same industrial-sized building occupying the same huge floor space, but at least 70% of the tables were devoted to comics, figurines, super hero memorabilia, stuffed mini-figures and who knows what, that wasn't related to sports cards. 

*Imagine me with a huge frown at this point.*

 That said, I still had a mission to accomplish, so I dove in to what sportscard dealers were still open for business. Time and choice factors were working against me, so my purchases were extremely limited.

I ended up buying just a few cards from a quarter box. Sorry Nick, there's pretty much no such thing as dime boxes out here in the LA area. Here they are...

  
One can't go wrong picking up a card from the greatest catcher ever. Anybody need/want this one? 

The next are from  a couple of subsets that I collect, so I was already partial to the designs. The players weren't too shabby either. Any takers? 

Finally, a little something I figgered Tony might like, but then again, he may already have five copies of this one...

 

Tony gets first dibs on the Yount, but if he passes, it's open to anybody else who may need it. 

Oh yeah, I also found something related to the Toronto Maple Leafs that I hope Al will dig. But I'm keeping that a secret. Here's a hint, Al - it aint cardboard. 

All in all, I found something for my primary objective, so the trip was successful. 

Even though the choices are fewer these days, I'll head back to the show in a couple of weeks for a deeper foraging. I just gotta get there early!

A note for Jeff from I Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum: I saw you wanted the Chipper from my GQ packs. All yours. My email is in my profile. Just shoot a mail to me with your address, and we'll get our (believe it or not) first trade going. 

Aloha!

Blog Rolls Not Showing My New Post - Let's Try This

Aloha, everybody,

I put up a new post several hours ago, but it's not showing up on anybody's blog rolls, so I'm going to post this, and hope the rolls will update. 

Follow this link to my latest post, on Sticky Fingers' birthday - a celebration of rock, roll n cardboard.  

 

It's Sticky Fingers' Birthday! Let's Celebrate With Some Rock and Some Cardboard

Aloha, everybody, 

Not only is it Saturday (TODAY!)...it's also the 45th birthday of one of my favorite albums of all time.

So let's celebrate this legendary album's cuts, and check out some cool cardboard that I've curated to match...

BROWN SUGAR

Brown Sugar goes out to the man who if ever a man would be named Brown Sugar, this guy could pull it off. 


Mr. World Series Hero, the man who brought the big blasts...

SWAY

Sway gets a double shot of the Tornado's famous twist...

WILD HORSES

Wild Horses goes to Yasiel Puig, who was nicknamed the Wild Horse by the venerable Vin Scully. 

CAN'T YOU HEAR ME KNOCKING

This one goes out to a couple of the Dodgers' prized farm hands who are knocking on the door to the bigs...

YOU GOTTA MOVE

This one is for the middle infielders who gotta move to stay alive...

BITCH

Love is a bitch. So's loving a player who despite coming up through the ranks and embarking on a  Hall of Fame career with your favorite team, later goes on to badmouth and disown that team and its fans. 

I GOT THE BLUES

The blues are all about losing things. I will forever have the blues over losing these two players who went on to have solid careers - just not in L.A. - where they started.

SISTER MORPHINE

The tragedy of waking up in a hospital bed unfortunately belongs to the one and only Campy...

DEAD FLOWERS 

Dodger fans and his former teammates will never forget the greatness that big Don Drysdale brought to the club. 

MOONLIGHT MILE

Sure, Wally Moon is an easy choice for Moonlight Mile, but then again, however else will his baseball cards remain alive on the blogosphere? 

Happy Birthday, Sticky Fingers. Aloha!

It's A Sleepy Saturday - So Let's Rip Some Gypsy Queen

Aloha, everybody, 

There's not much going on this afternoon as I sit and wait for the Dodgers - Rockies game to start, so let's rip open these packs of Gypsy Queen that I picked up yesterday. 

They're the first of the 2016 GQ crop, so I'm hoping for some lucky pulls...

 Obvious nice ones to my eye were a couple of minis...

 

Booooooooooo!!!!

Here's a purple framed, numbered 164/250...
 

Power Alley insert, Chipper Jones...
 

Everything else looked like a base card. GQ is all new to me, so I have no idea of I caught anything short printed, so check your GQ cards when I send some out to you, as something precious may have missed my eye. 

There was nothing for my collection, so I figured I'd bust open some Topps 2016 as well. I opened two packs and pulled a couple from the Amazing Milestones...

 And finally, a Dodger...

Like the sign says, it's all trade bait, so just let me know if you want any of these. 
Aloha!

Jackie Robinson Day At Dodger Stadium - What A Night, Indeed

Aloha, everybody, 

On Jackie Robinson Day I attended my first ballgame of the year. It was Dodgers vs Giants, Clayton Kershaw vs Madison Bumgarner, the teams were tied for first place in the National League West, and the Dodgers were giving everybody a Jackie Robinson Commemorative jersey, with fireworks after the game. The best part? I was there. 

We arrived early, because it was a sellout and I didn't want to miss a second of it. 

Check out homeboy's Vin Scully t-shirt. Scully is definitely THE MAN in LA. 

It's about 45 minutes to first pitch and the grounds crew is putting the finishing touches on a large Number 42 on the infield, just beyond second base. 

 They brought out the color guard and we heard an amazing National Anthem. I forget the guys name, but you can look him up if you need a most excellent National Anthem singer. He moved the crowd, he was that good. 

It felt pretty special to be there and see all the players suited up with Jackie's number. 

Almost sunset, and the outfield was bathed in beautiful twilight.  

Frank Robinson, the first African-American manager in the big leagues threw out the first pitch to Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts, the first minority manager in Los Angeles. 

Vin Scully was ready to rock, so it was Time For Dodger Baseball! 

Hunter Pence fouling one off of Kershaw. You can see the ball trailing off behind the umpire. 

Dodgers rally! Kike Hernandez just sent a double into left field (He also blasted two home runs in the game). The Giants are starting the relay in as Dodgers are clearing the bases...

It coulda had something to do with this rally banana in the stands. Kike began the tradition of the rally banana last season. 

Kike and his rally banana led the Dodgers to a 7-3 win over the Giants, putting the Dodgers in first place. Life was good. 

But there was still a fireworks show to come!

I like to think every time a firework explodes, a Giant loses his wings...

We were in higher seats and there was a bit of wind, so the smell of the fireworks wafted over us. Sublime. 

I regularly use the metro option to go to the game. So we headed to the shuttle bus stop after the game. 

 It was a sellout, so traffic was horrendous. Our shuttle buses were stuck in it too, and the line got pretty long...

 Look down that row of trees. See those bright orange-yellow lights at the end of the horizon line? THAT was the bus stop. The line has taken on a "U" shape. We are in the middle of the U. 

We waited about a half hour and suddenly an army of buses pulled up. 

After a bus ride to Union Station, we took the train. Home at 12:30. All in all, it was a wonderful night.  

Stop by LADodgerReport tomorrow morning to check out even more - and larger - photos from the game. Aloha!