Parlay Vous Oh-Pee-Chee?

Aloha, everybody, 

Good ol' John from Johnny's Trading Spot recently sent me a fistful of cards that filled out some missing Dodgers team sets from the 90's, and some fantastic Oh-Pee-Chee cardboard. Let's have a look.

First up is Score '96, led off by the Dodgers lead off batter, Brett Butler. Ex-Giant, sure. But LA came to love Brett as a guy who played every inning of every game, and did it pretty well. 

That guy way in the back is Delino DeShields. The scrub the Dodgers got in exchange for Pedro Martinez. 

Here's a bunch of Score '95. Front and center is Pedro's big brother, Ramon. Big head in the back is the scrub. 

Final team bunch is '96 Upper Deck Collectors Choice. The photos on these are great, including the rear photos. The blue borders work well with the team colors also. 

Shawn Green, Diamond King. Details Bonus: Dodger Stadium 40th Anniversary patch on the uni. 

Now I'm thinking of Adrian Gonzalez's 2017 cards as "sunset" issues. 

You will never go wrong dropping a brushback Don Drysdale card in for me. 

Call me out of touch. I have no idea who this EDM DJ (or whatever he is) is, and I don't care. He did get my binder page of first pitches at Dodger Stadium one step closer to completion. 

I'm aware enough to know who these youngsters are. I may not know EDM, but I sure do know RBIs...

And now, le piece de resistance (sorry, can't figure out how to make fancy accent marks on my laptop) of the trade. Le Oh-Pee-Chee. 

Note the bilingual text. Monsieur Garvey is le 1st But. 

Le lancceur tragique. 

Here's a look at the backs in case you haven't seen these before. How do you say "awesome" in French?

Tres bon, Johnnie. Tres THANKS! 

Aloha! 

Old Bloggers Never Die - They Just Fade Away Into The Trading Zone

Aloha, everybody, 

When I first started blogging, it was a truism in the blogosphere that there were more Dodger bloggers than those from any other baseball team. 

That of course brought with it various plus and minuses. An example of a "negative" is all of the other bloggers out there had to somehow divvy up their Dodger giveaways if they traded with more than one of us. On the flip side, the Dodgers are somewhat plentiful on cardboard, which means there are lots of cards to go around. 

I haven't checked lately on how the high number of Dodger bloggers is holding up, but I do know that number dropped by one when Jim, from the now defunct, but forever cool,  Garvey, Cey, Russel, Lopes, hung up his keyboard. 

Jim didn't disappear, though. He's remained in the background dropping comments on our blogs, and dropping packages off at the post office. A couple of days ago I received a fat one of those myself. 

Jim's GCRL blog focused on "the Dodger infield of his youth". I've thought about focusing ATBATT in a similar way, but my collecting brain just doesn't compartmentalize like that. While I do love collecting the Dodgers, I'm more of a "shotgun collector", with interests that scatter around a variety of themes and teams. 

Jim's note was the first time I've seen cards referred to as "sludge", but I immediately knew what he meant. While every jam-packed package is going to have a few pass-along cards, there were far more than just "one or two" that filled player/set needs and satisfied my cool cards wants. 

 Believe it or not, it's only recently that I've begun to focus on completing team sets from past Topps issues. I've got a pretty good start on them, and Jim helped me to fill in a lot of blanks. 

I'll be updating my team set want lists shortly after this, so you all can see if you've got any extra past Dodgers that can help me complete those sets. 

To a scattershot collector like me, it's even better when cards hit on more than one level, like the Conlon Collection, players with cool nicknames, and old-time Brooklyn Dodgers...

The back of this card says Rattlesnake got his nick from his oft-told stories of growing up in Texas with snakes galore. According to the story on this card, a rattler once bit into one of his car's tires, and the rush of escaping air filled the unlucky snake like a balloon, until he actually exploded. Yikes! 
 

Often the best parts of these cards are the backgrounds featuring long gone stadiums, rudimentary wood dugouts, and fans in suits. 
 

Below is a great card from a great set. Once upon a time I had a lot of cards from this Upper Deck set; I think I sold most of them back in my old card show days. 
 

What a photo! A play at the plate, Billy Martin flying, World Series action, and best of all, Campy giving it his all on two good legs. 

 Above is an aging Duke, no longer in Flatbush, but always a Dodger. 

When I first saw this card, I figured it to be a pretty good action shot (despite the bad crop job) of Carter about to throw down to second. 

Thinking more about that half-unseen batter and Carter's eyes, I imagine that would be something like the look on Johnny Roseboro's face when Juan Marichal was coming at him with a bat and the intent to rearrange his hairstyle. 

More scattershot cardboard appreciation...

 Brett Butler was another one of those ex-Giants whom I came to appreciate as a Dodger. This is a a very cool action shot capturing Butler just at the end of his crow's hop - which is such a simple, yet graceful, baseball maneuver. Extra bonuses in the photo are Wrigley's ivy and the Tim Crews death patch on Butler's sleeve. 

Finally, a card from a set that I've always loved more for the photos on the rear, rather than the fronts...

1993 Leaf shopped the players onto their team's cities in such a way that presented them as gargantuan athletes. I've always dug the Godzilla feeling of these players stomping around and throwing baseballs between skyscrapers. Awesome. 

That's it for Part one of the GCRL package. Tune in next time for Part Two. 

Until then, let's dig some 60's go-go action...

Aloha!

I'm Always Off Hiatus When It Comes To Great Trades

Hey Everybody,

As a result of the Grand Salami Of Trade Bait series, I was able to connect with Tony L. and his very cool blog, Off Hiatus Baseball Cards.  Tony bit on some Ryan Braun trade bait and the rest is cardboard history.  Tony's a Brewers fan and a fantastic trade partner, so be sure to shoot some Younts, Molitors and vintage Brewers over his way.

BTW - Tony wrote a great post with the cards I sent his way, weaving a mash up of cardboard and music from my rock n' roll tastes.  Tony, you've inspired me to riff off of your post and there'll be a mash up of my own coming soon.

Before that, let's get to these newest additions to my collection.  Apparently Tony and I both had a similar influence in our card-collecting educations; the importance of "Condition, condition, condition" was evident as I opened the trade package he sent...

These 3-D stars are great minis, but I rarely see any in as great a condition as this Dusty Baker.  It looks like it came out of the box yesterday. 

Speaking of miiiiiinnnnnniiiiiiis, here's a mini Goudey.  I'm not usually a collector of minis, but I'm a sucker for numbered and limited editions.  This one is 18/34.  SWEET!

You can never go wrong with shooting me a card of the Garv. Never mind the chop job on the bottom, that was my faulty scanning.  Once again, this 82 Fleer sings the praises of condition.  The surface and gloss are fantastic. 
Hey Nick, how about that great bat barrel shot?  Hey GCRL, how about that arm patch?

As much as I adhere to the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, on occasion, I have to rewire my thinking when ex-Giants switch sides and don the Dodger Blue.  It's certainly easier to do when the player contributes and makes it easy to be a fan. 

It's easy with Juan Uribe, in the past it was easy with Jeff Kent, and before him, it was easy with Brett Butler.  Butler was a pretty good lead off batter and base stealer for the Dodgers. That said, this card shows Butler learned his trade from the Giants and not the Dodgers.  Maury Wills teaches any lead off the base that does not require you to dive back, isn't really a lead at all.  

Did I mention I appreciate vintage that is in good condition?  (Never mind those little splotchy marks on Alston's uni - it's just time to clean the scanner).  Actually, this Walter Alston card is much closer to Ex-Mt condition.  Very nice, indeed. 

Enough with the non-players.  Here's Kenley Jansen, who's discovered the mix of off-speed pitches and 98 mph fastballs makes him a force to contend with in the 9th inning.

While we're on the subject of pitchers to contend with, I'll close out with the greatest pitcher the Dodgers ever had, and just maybe, the best pitcher the game ever saw...

Nuff said.

Thanks for an awesome trade, Tony.  Looking forward to the next one.