Wes' Big ol' Cube - The Finale

Aloha, everybody, 

I hope you're all doing fine out there. I had a wonderful getaway to Laughlin, Nevada this past weekend. If you're unfamiliar, Laughlin is kinda like a VERY much slower and smaller Las Vegas. It's located along the shores of the Colorado River, with Arizona sitting on the other side. 

I needed to decompress from daily life and crazy politics on my mind, so Laughlin really hit the spot. Now that I'm back, let's get this part of daily life back on the burner and roll out the final highlights from the cube o' cards that mi hermano, Wes, sent out to me. 

We'll lead off with some cool vintage 1975 Topps that also filled in slots from my Dodgers team checklists...

Above is Boomer rockin' the 70' sideburns, and below is the greatest pinch hitter ever. 

Mota's beautiful card features the bonus of the Dodger Stadium pavilion with the old school scoreboard and paint scheme, and the famous palm trees, that Vin Scully dubbed "The Three Sisters". 

Speaking of beautiful cards: We get World Series Hero, Joe Ferguson, Hall of Fame skipper, Walter Alston, and a slew of Dodgers in the background...

For years I had only the mini version of this Mike Marshall card. Thanks to Wes, I now have its big brother. 

How about that? Two Hall of Famers on one card...

Here's Tommy John wearing his cap like the Sears photographer plopped it on him at the last second...

No, Marshall is not flinging a "poop ball special". Those brown things are small tears on the card surface. 

Here comes a nice surprise: A fistful of 1986 Oh-Pee-Chee Dodgers...

Gotta love that spelling on VandeBERG. The Dodgers have 22 of these, so Wes has given me a good head start on the team set. 

BTW, the cards look just like they came out of a pack last week. 

More newish-looking cards from 1987 Leaf...

I've never even seen variations like these before. The card backs feature text in English and French. Very cool. 

That finishes off the cube. As always, another fun pummeling from good ol' Wes. I'm still putting together my return salvo, so keep your helmet on, hermano. Fire directed at you coming soon! 

Aloha! 

Zippy Zappings come in Vintage As Well

Aloha, everybody, 

Here's  the final installment of cards that came in the awesome package that Zippy Zappy sent to me.

When ZZ wrote his post about the cards I sent to him, he joked that I probably send him so many cards because I just want to keep him in cardboard debt to me. 

After this Zippy Zapping, I owe ZZ big time!

He chipped off another chunk from my chase for the 1974 Topps Dodgers...

The immortal Tommy John. Sure, half the pitchers on your team have had the surgery named after him, but I was lucky enough to grow up watching him pitch. Ol' TJ was probably my first favorite southpaw pitcher, as Sandy Koufax was before my time. 
 

Here's Billy Buck showing how to NOT field a grounder. Sloppy in Spring Training leads to sloppy in the World Series. Right, Bucky? 
 

I don't remember too much about Ken McMullen. I suspect not too many other people do, as well. 
 

Good ol' Fergie, who I used as a trivia question to stump Stu Nahan in a radio contest and win breakfast at home plate with Tommy Lasorda on Opening Day.
 

 Looks like Joshua is nursing a sore wrist. 

 Loving this Walter Alston card. He was the first Dodger manager in my life, and I can't have too many cards of the skipper. 

Speaking of skippers...

"Look ma, no toothpick."

 Here's one that Matt might appreciate...or dislike???

 I don't know how I missed adding the following card to the previous posts that featured younger players, but luckily I noticed it still sitting in my scans folder, and here it is, better late than never...

 2013 Bowman Sterling Prospect Chris Anderson Auto! 

Anderson is a two million dollar bonus baby, who is now pitching for my local Rancho Cucamonga branch in the Dodgers' minors. 

Finally, a card that traveled - apparently by accident - to ZZ when I put together my previous package for him.

Welcome home, Nomar. 

And THANKS for all these great cards, ZZ. I had a blast opening the package, and adding them to their various new places in binders and team sets. Now I'm in cardboard debt to you.

Aloha!

Without Communication, Who Are We?

Aloha, everybody, 

I've spent today in an email chain trying to solve a puzzle. Different people (who could be referred to as teammates of mine) are giving me contradictory answers to the same seemingly simple question. 

On top of all that, I'm trying to get to the bottom of this in a way that won't offend anybody, all the while knowing some fundamental communication between us teammates would have prevented this in the first place. *sigh*

Of all sports, baseball seems to be the most reliant upon communication between teammates. It takes place on a number of levels, mid-game and even mid-play, using words and coded body language. Nowhere is this more evident than the constant non-verbal communications between a pitcher and his catcher. 

I dug into my binders today and pulled out a few random pitchers, curious about who they spent their time communicating with. The results surprised me. 

 Hall of Famer Jim Palmer pitched for the Orioles for 19 years, and won more games than anyone else through the 70's. In checking on his past battery mates I discovered a former Dodger, Rick Dempsey. 

 Dempsey was behind the plate for eight of Palmer's shutouts. That's certainly some top-notch communicating. 

Note Dempsey sporting a 40th anniversary Vero Beach (Spring Training) patch. 

The next pitcher I pulled from my binder was Phil "Knuckleballer" Niekro. 

 Niekro also threw to a former Dodgers catcher, Johnny Oates. 

More great communicating took place, as Oates caught two of Niekro's shutouts. Although I suspect Johnny simply held up the "knuckleball" sign 90% of the time. 

Here comes another great pitcher from the past (with a lurking Mets coach, who was probably communicating with the batter)...

I was amused by this Carlton being caught by a different Carlton - Fisk. 

Amazingly (?), Steve Carlton also was caught by Oates and Dempsey. 

I then pulled Eck...

 Who did he communicate with? Steve Carlton's battery mate, Carlton Fisk - for four shutouts. 

Eckersly was the only one of these pitchers who did not have a Dodger for a catcher, but the final pitcher of the post...

...returns us a battery mate who, you know it, also caught for the Dodgers...

From team to team, across divisions and seasons, they communicated with wig-wagging fingers, and now we honor them with our fingers wig-wagging across keyboards. 

Aloha!

A G-reat C-ard tR-ade L-ate Post

 Hey everybody,

Here's a great batch of Dodger vintage that came my way via Jim, who runs the awesome Garvey, Cey, Russel, Lopes blog, among a few others.  Wanna spend some quality time reading about cool cards from the past?  Check into Jim's blog repertoire. 

Before you indulge in that, however, let's go 70's!!

Don't look now, Claude.  The ball's already in your mitt.

 

Bits of beautiful old-time Dodger Stadium lurking back there. 

"Who am I? I'm the guy with the baddest mustache on the team.  That's who I am."

"Ahem.  The guy with the baddest mustache would be me."

"Amateurs. You gotta grow it below the mouth line and combine it with California locks."

Fast forward to the 90's and Fernando gettin' funky wit it....

Finishing up with a cool Dodgers auto.  Any pack o' cards with a Dodger autograph is a great pack!

THANKS for the awesome additions, Jim!