Dimes? This Box Of Traded Cards Is Worth A Million To Me

Hey everybody,

A while back, Nick, over at the most excellent blog, Dime Boxes, decided he would begin collecting Matt Kemp cardboard.  So I sent over a few Kemps to help him kickstart his new quest.

As most of you blogonauts out there already know, Nick is a proficient and prolific writer.  However, what some of you may not know is what kind of a generous and cool trader he is.  Nick sent over a fantastic batch of cards that fit perfectly in my collection.  They span across teams, players, decades and card company releases.  He included so many cool cards, it was difficult to settle on just which ones to show.  However, settle I did, and here's a sampling of the cardboard goodness Nick sent my way...

Starting off with a beauty, 2001 Upper Deck Legends, Johnny Bench.  What a sweet card this is.  Black and white imagery for that classic feel, surrounded by an understated but dignified frame...

Is it me - or is that Yogi Berra in the dugout?  Here's Berra, a former great catcher studying the new generation's backstop in action. 

Good ol' Ralph Kiner is a local boy.  He grew up in the next city over from me - Alhambra, CA.

 Above is a  slice of HOFer goodness on a miscut that you almost won't  notice unless it's pointed out.  This card kinda looks like Niekro is trying to remember if he turned off the faucet at home.

From vintage sweetness to modern beauty below...

All rise to World Series Hero, Maz.

It's new to me!  2000 Upper Deck Hitters Club, featuring Cap Anson looking rather dapper. 

Below is what Rickey Henderson probably sees when he looks in the mirror..

How about this sweet cut-out Carew !!

Of course Nick tossed in some Dodger goodness for me...

Fantastic card! The greatest L.A. Dodger third baseman ever.

Speaking of fantastic, below is a great card of Satchel Paige, pictured during his time with the Indians...

Cubbie great Santo looks like he's wearing a WBC championship belt.

Blogger Fuji might appreciate these very cool A's cards almost as much as me.  Did somebody just give Reggie a hot foot? 

Finally, a Dodger's pitcher batting. No - bunting.  No - risking his fingers bunting...

I wish anger management- challenged hitting "coach" Mark McGwire would take Hyun-Jin Ryu aside and teach him to quit trying to bunt with his fingers completely wrapped around the bat.  I cringe every time I see Ryu trying to bunt.

But then again, I cringe even further when I think about all the great work McGwire has done with the Dodger hitters up to this point.

There's no cringing, however, when I reflect upon this awesome trade with Nick.  THANKs for the great cards, bud!

THANKS for reading, everyone !

Happy Sunday Night Vintage

Hey everybody,

Nothing helps a baseball fan - or a baseball team, for that matter - to shake off the gloom and dooms like stringing some victories together. 

That's exactly what the doctor ordered and exactly what the Dodgers got after losing a tough 2 out of 3 to the evil ones from the bay.  We got well with a weekend sweep of the Pirates. 

Since the Dodger Nation is feeling pretty good and moving back toward optomism tonight, I thought I'd share some of my personal feel-good loot that I recently acquired through a couple of prudent buys over on the other bay. 

Let's check 'em out:

1954 Topps John Logan.   Logan doesn't exactly have any stats  that'll knock your socks off, but he was a 4-time All-Star and he even won a world championship in 1957.   Bravo, Logan.

Coach card !  Because why the heck not? 

I wonder what the story is behind Keely's lifetime stats of just 2 games and 1 at bat?  I suppose he was a star defensive replacement since he's got a fielding percentage of 1.000. 

Here's a beautiful '53 Topps.  Sidney here looks like he played opposite William Bendix in any number of screwball 50's baseball movies.  Don'cha just love those movies?

 I really didn't pick these cards up because these guys mean anything to me.  The cards simply appealed to my love of vintage, they were in pretty darn good condition for their ages, and the imagery was appealing.  Best of all, they were dirt cheap when compared to the usual prices for vintage - even commons. 

What a great action card.  Never mind the blurry bottom, that's just my lousy scanner.   Bob Richardson hit a grand slam and set a WS record in this game.  He went on to be WS MVP, albeit for the losing team.  I wonder if this photo is from his grand salami at bat?

 Just read the names off this game recap...Mickey Mantle (with a homer), Clem Labine, Whitey Ford, Bob Cerv, Elston Howard, Moose Skowron. WOW ! What a who's who of vintage ballplayers.

I love World Series subsets, and I hadda grab this card as soon as I saw it.  This is the Mazeroski WS, so I'm now officially on the quest to complete this set.  Any help I can get will certainly be welcomed and appreciated. 

THANKS for reading everybody! 

The Doctor Is In - volved In An Awesome Trade

Hey everybody,

Is it too early for me to start griping about Don Mattingly's (yet once again) inept handling of a line up?

Let's take a quick look at his decision making...

Opening Day: Lead off batter Carl Crawford goes 2 for 4 with a double and a run scored in his Dodger Stadium debut, helping Clayton Kershaw seal a fantastic Dodgers first-game-feel-good-fest.

Game Two: You're the manager.  What would you do with all that rah-rah momentum created on Opening Day?  What would you do with your lead off batter?  Well, Mattingly decided to bench him. 

Still Game Two, 8th inning: Dodgers behind, but mounting a threat. Mattingly looks down the bench for a pinch hitter to keep the rally going.  He bypasses Crawford in order to use...yup, you got it...Juan Uribe.

Later, in the 9th, Mattingly finally used Crawford in a bid to conjure up a game-tying 3-run HR with no one on base.  I suppose if all that had worked, I'd now be calling him a genius. *sigh*

On a brighter note, Dr. Vealtone from the incredible blog, Coot Veal and the Vealtones, and I put together a fantastic trade, which included vintage, vintage Dodgers, HOFers and more.  What a trade!  Dustin sent me so many cool cards that I could have easily used two posts just covering highlights. 

I decided, however, to edit things down to one.  Check these cards out...

Dustin did a great job of observing the players I collect; but of course the doctor would be thorough.  Here's a 1960 Topps Bill Mazeroski.  I love the old time baseball photography on these cards the way I love movies shot on old time celluloid.   1960 is the year Maz sealed himself in baseball folklore by hitting that Game 7 World Series winning home run.  It's the homer that we all grew up dreaming about - Maz actually hit it.

 I received a couple of vintage Don Suttons in the package.  Sutton was the ace of the staff during my teenage years as a Dodger fan.  Now that I notice Sutton's ears, I finally understand why he grew that Phil Spector afro in his later career as a TV announcer for the Braves.

 Eddie Murray cranking one out at Chavez Ravine!.  I know all you O's fans think of Eddie as an Oriole.  I always think of him as a Dodger as well.  The yellow frame works very nicely here.

More Dodgers vintage!  Another World Series Game 7 Hero ! Podres pitched a shutout in Game 7 and was the World Series MVP for that  magical 1955 Brooklyn squad.  He later went on to win a total of 4 WS rings. This is my favorite card from the trade. 

Did somebody order up another couple of old time ass-kickers?   I'm digging the vintage era unis.

When Dustin wasn't blowing me away with the coolest vintage, he was doing it with modern era shininess.  This card is all kinds of awesomeness, despite the generic "uni".

 Cards with Schmidt in live game action are always welcome.  Even his mustache is daring the defense to throw over there. 

How about some young Mike Scioscia in action?  Uber cool card!

 Speaking of uber cool - we come a card I've been chasing around seemingly forever. Never mind the butcher job my crooked scanning did here.  This card's got Koufax and Drysdale!  Sweeeeet!

Check out young Reggie! This looks exactly like the type of photo Gypsy queen loves to use.  Have they ?

This card should be titled "Dodgers Future Bad Asses - and Perconte".

Did I mention the doctor really studied my want lists?  Here's a very cool reprint of a subset I'm chasing.  It's a reprint - yet I love this card just as much as any of the other "originals" I received.

Many thanks for a fantastic trade, Dustin, and THANKS for readin', everyone.

World Series Heroes The Big Boppers

hey everybody,

the world Series resets tonight in tiger town, and i'm ready !  if the tigers are gonna come back, they are sure gonna need a home run or two.  in that spirit, let's take a look at some hitters who certainly brought their bats to the Fall Classic...

"home run" baker

we begin with a guy who earned his nickname specifically by hitting home runs in the 1911 Fall Classic. he banged out 2 dingers, one each, in Games 2 and 3.  his Game 3 homer tied the game in the 9th, and he hit it off Christie Mathewson.  yeh, if you hit one off mathewson in the Classic, everybody SHOULD call you "home run".

 in the last postseason game ever played north of the border, joe carter came up BIG and smashed a home run off mitch 'wild thing' williams.  carter jumped like a little boy as he trucked around the bases.  it was only the second time in history that a WS was ended by a home run.  who else was on base when he hit it?  HOFers ricky henderson and paul molitor. not a bad cast.

 what a world series it was in 1991.  it went all 7, 4 games ended in the last at bats, and 3 went extra innings.  in game 6 kirby puckett came up in the 11th, and sent the twins faithful home with a game winning blast that sent the series to game 7, and an eventual minnesota championship.

fisk hit one of the most famous WS smashes, and i think we've all seen the video of him using autumn magic to wave that dang ball fair.  this homer epitomizes what it was like to suffer under the curse of the bambino, for as joyous as that moment was, as much hope it brought to fenway, it turned out fisk's mojo wasn't enough.  the reds won it all and boston fell into winter.

why wouldn't the Home Run King blast one in the Classic?

any Dodger WS home run that i have a card for makes it into the countdown. :)

“Partner, sure as I’m standing here breathing, you’re going to throw me that 3-2 backdoor slider, aren’t you?”

THIS is THE Dodgers WS home run for the ages.  the biggest WS home run EVER hit at Dodger stadium.  sure, cheater canseco hit a grand slam that dented a camera in center field earlier in the game, that most of America oohed and ahhed about - but Gibby's 9th inning blast erased all significance of that - forever.

let's check it, one more time, just for fun....

 Gibby's HR is certainly iconic, but that '88 series had another home run hero who is sometimes forgotten.  He was the guy who replaced Gibby...

mickey only hit one home run all season, but with the Fall Classic spotlight upon him, he came up big with a first inning 2-run shot in Game 1, and another first inning dinger to help close out the A's in the final, Game 6. 

 next up, the ONLY guy to EVER live that baseball dream that lots of us grew up dreaming about... Game 7,  bottom of the 9th, , against the yankees...BLAMMO !!!

HOME RUN and baseball immortality ! the only time it ever happened, and probably ever will.

THANKS for reading!

Binder Page Heroes 10 Hank Aaron & Pirates Ed.

hey everybody,

in honor of the braves getting burned on a bogus infield fly rule call, today's edition of Binder Page Heroes features the most famous brave of them all - yes, even more famouser than chipper, the legitimate home run champ, hammerin' hank aaron.

i don't have a whole lotta aaron cardboard, so the rest of his page is currently occupied by some pittsburgh pirates.  let's check 'em out...

this is hank's first card showing him as a member of the 500 HR club.  he's also creepin up on the 3,000 hits milestone.  he eventually finished close to 4,000 hits.

i often use reprints of a card i want to fill in a spot in the page until i can get the real mc coy.

here's the real mc coy. bill white, pictured here, went on to become N.L. president. 

it's a miiiiiiinnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiii commemorating his breaking of the babe's all-time HR record.

this one's my favorite.  hank is forever young in this card.

 onto the pirates....

manny here finds a place in my binder because he was a pretty good catcher, but more than that, he got to play in 2 fall classics, and he was a WS hero both times.  his first WS (1971) he got 11 hits.  the only other player to get more ?  roberto clemente with 12.  in his second WS (1979), he got a game-winning hit.  nice work, manny.

lifetime games: 1062   lifetime hits: 1009

yet another WS hero.  gotta love that huge wadda chaw in maz's cheek.

"big dave parker", as Vinny always referred to him, is one of those players with good career stats across the board that fall just beneath the cut-off numbers for the HOF voters.  as a result, he'll probably never get in the HOF, but i suspect every pirates fan would vote him in if they could.

THANKS for reading !