Aloha, everybody,
Did you participate in the World Cup of Trading? It was the final big bash, wahoo trade-a-thon sponsored by my great hermano, Wes, of Willinghammer Rising and JayBarkerFan fame.
Wes put up a ton of offerings for trade, and all we had to do was pick a few items and trade back. I love that Wes' events are always simple, but the end results are far from it, and often spectacular.
Here are the goods that I selected from Wes. Leading off is my first auto from one of the Boys of Summer, the Duke of Flatbush.
Sweet, right? That wasn't my only autograph score. This next one is from an LA Dodger, who patrolled right field with a canon for an arm, and hit monster home runs.
Nope, not Yasiel Puig.
Raaaaaaaauuuuuuul Mondesi.
This joins my very modest collection of signed baseballs, and proudly sits beside another of my favorite autographed spheres...
Yup, signed by the big man hisself. Awesome.
You know me, I've gotta have some vintage in my picks as well. I chose this baby.
1962 World Series MVP Ralph Terry. This card also slots right into my defunct teams collection.
Terry wasn't just a WS hero, he also tasted WS ashes. He gave up the home run bomb to fellow WS hero, Bill Mazeroski in the 1960 Fall Classic. Great pick up.
Those were the items I chose. As I said earlier, Wes takes simple things and makes them spectacular. Don't think for a minute that was all he sent to me.
Sit back and check out this bonus loot my bro from Alabama sent as well. It's a stack THIS THICK!
First up, more Brooklyn Dodgers. Forgive the scanner crop. Trust me, this Jackie Robinson Bowman refractor is complete and a beauty.
Really digging these Diamond Kings. They've become my favorites of all the DK offerings.
Jumping to present day LA, it's Yasiel.
How about some shiny Mike Piazza. This Bowman is gorgeous. That's right. Cardboard gorgeousity.
I remember chasing these 1996 Leaf Preferred steel cards. Now I've got Piazza!
After a particularly lousy season at the plate, in 1993 Jose Offerman abandoned all batting convention and employed an unorthodox "samurai chop" style swing. Needless to say, this method didn't work too well for him either.
Here's a favorite. It's a Don Drysdale pull out card from Stouffers. That Stouffers lasagna is one of my guilty secrets. Love the stuff.
Here's the Dodgers' present day skipper.
One of my favorite cards of the bunch. The spacey kaleidoscope effect on this Mondesi card makes the world around me drip.
Young Dodgers coming up!
Speaking of trades, the Dodgers just announced they traded Willie Calhoun to Texas for Yu Darvish. While I'm happy enough to get Yu, I'm really sorry to see Calhoun go.
That said, it's probably a good move for Willie. He's going to the AL where his iffy defense won't be an issue. I'm sure he's going to be raking for the Rangers as a DH for a long time.
In a return to simplicity, Wes also included a chip shot at my Dodgers team sets want list. Check off 1976 Rick Rhoden.
Sadly, this was the swan song of trading with Wes via bloggery. However, this is far from the end of cardboard exchanges with my hermano. THANKS, Wes!
Aloha!
Aloha, everybody,
Most of you know I collect Adrian Beltre. Why is simple. He was the great third baseman the Dodgers let get away.
After Ron Cey, I thought I would never love a third baseman again. Then along came Senor Beltre.
The man had everything one wants in a player for one's team. He fielded his position very well, he hit mammoth home runs, and he had a fun personality. Best of all, he was just starting out, and I was looking forward to him having a long career in Dodger blue.
Beltre would only play in LA for seven seasons, but I loved watching him for every one of those seven.
Know what else I love? Adrian hails from the era of the shiny card and multiple card companies creating a wide variety of product to enjoy.
Above is the offering from 2003 DonRuss Estrellas. The backside is all in espanol.
Below are a couple of 2005 DonRuss Production Line inserts. The cool thing here is the cards are limited to the statistical number each athlete produced.
The batting average card is numbered 102/334 and the OPS card is 454/1017.
The Dodgers unleashed Adrian on the field, and now he's unleashed 3,000 hits on the major leagues' pitchers.
The Bowman card below touts Beltre as the Dodgers' top prospect and a possible rookie of the year. He didn't win the ROY, but he won a Silver Slugger award and was the NL leader in home runs in his last year with LA.
Below from 2005 Playoff Prestige, numbered 36/100
Finally, Beltre is beautifully drenched in mirror blue on a 2005 DonRuss Longball Leaders insert, numbered 1359/1500.
Congrats and aloha, Adrian!
Aloha, everybody,
Welcome to Part Two of the (very small sampling) from the box o' cards that my pal, Sir Night Owl sent me. Let's begin...
There are only two former Dodger managers worthy of a place in my collection. Walter Alston, who's cards I rarely come across, and good ol' Tommy, who's cards show up often - thankfully.
That's a Topps Museum Canvas Collection card. These were seeded one per box. Nice.
I never turned on Zack Greinke like some Dodger fans did when he left LA for more money. I remembered that's why he came to LA in the first place. I accepted he's a mercenary, and I'm glad he had this scoreless innings streak while wearing LA blue.
Topps Heritage shiny card, numbered 631/1962
Followed by a beautiful Kenta Maeda game face RC.
You know a buncha cards from N.O. is going to have some vintage in it. My first Scratch Off card tells me Claude was team captain.
Here's 1960 Topps Larry Sherry. I need his brother Norm, but he's a high number (#529), so it appears Larry will be lonely for a bit.
How about those rooftops behind Larry. Looks like this was shot in somebody's back yard.
World Series hero Charlie Neal is my fourth Post Dodger. Time to start collecting more of these.
Isn't that a crazy thing about our hobby? Having one or two of a set or subset is cool and all, and then someone sends you a couple more. That's great and all, but now you're at half a binder page. That's gotta be fixed, and soon you're off on another chase. Citizens would never understand it. I love it.
Here are a few Brooklyn tribute cards. I've got a few reprints of this 1952 Topps Pee Wee Reese, but this Archives Reserve is NEW for me!
Some cool Upper Deck issues from The Legends of New York. Of course, I now have enough of these to check and see how many more I need to complete the Brooklyn part of the set.
Leo the Lip, The Man and Pee Wee again.
Here's a nice framed Duke...
Also time to check how many of these Jackie Robinson Story cards I need to complete the set...
I super dig this fold out of the Straw. Looks like a normal, semi-boring card at first...
And then, fold it out - BOOM! A very cool shot of long and lean Darryl fighting off fans to make a catch at the stands.
Finally, the man who more or less prompted this trade...
In some comment conversation on someone's blog a while back, N.O. mentioned he had "an extra" Ron Cey autograph lying around. Well, that got my Penguin senses tingling, and I immediately let him know I could give a loving home to an extra card.
Good ol' Night Owl dropped this baby in the box to make it complete. What a beauty...
Whew! How about that buncha scans. Pretty good, right?
Thanks so much, Night Owl. I'll dig into my archives and find some cool Dodger Stadium things to send your way.
Aloha!
