When Never Again Becomes Just Once More

Aloha, everybody, 

You may recall I was bit by the repack bug within seconds after dropping off the goods for Operation Cardboard Rain. 

I couldn't resist the lure of a hit in every four boxes (I've had some luck with that before), so I took a shot. Here's how I did...

This box came with an unopened pack of 1991 Upper Deck. I haven't opened one of these since the early 90's, so I felt nostalgic as I tore the foil pack open. I once again had the feeling of hope for the only real insert from the Nolan Ryan series. I tore open many a pack trying to complete that set. 

I hadn't written a post for Nacho Grande's Blogger Bat Around on difficult sets to complete because I don't consider myself a set collector. I figured I had nothing along those lines to write about. However, chasing those Upper Deck insert sets back in the day (Ryan, Aaron, Williams) are about as close to that chase as I ever came. 

I didn't pull a Ryan or a Ken Griffey Jr., but I did catch a Dodger...

A cheater...

And one of my favorite pulls overall from the box...

Speaking of pulls from the box, here are the only other cards worthy of note...

Game faced Stewart, who I have no doubt still wears the same face when he's negotiating deals for his players as an agent...

A Rookie Card...

A former Dodger hero turned jinxed manager...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Another Dodger...

A card featuring Ron Cey's doppelganger...

Yet another Dodger. 

Mariano's posture might suggest he's pulling back from a bunt attempt, but this was his usual batting stance, which explains his  "all defense, no offense" career...

I'm glad to catch a few Dodgers after my last repack was chock full of Astros. 

This card was a a surprise...

Speaking of surprises, a nice catch of Cy Young. He's on a dopey game card, but I'll take it...

Team USA is all the rage these days, so why not...

So I had a one in four chance of pulling a hit from my repack. I've had modest luck before. Would my lucky streak continue? 

Ta-Dah!  Young Solarte is still in the hunt to make it all the way up to the show, so there's some nice potential here. 

It's not a Cy Young auto, but it'll do. 

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. 

I See Former Dodgers All Around Me!!!

Dear readers and trade partners, you know what kind of baseball fan and card collector I am.

 If you play for the Dodgers, I love ya. You don't get a free pass to be a bum - but when all is said and done, you're my bum.  And I love ya. 

If you don't play for the Dodgers, and you aren't popular in the cardboard world - sorry, but I never heard a ya.

With the 2013 postseason now underway, I'm watching every minute of the games that I can.  I love good baseball, and I'm sure we'll get plenty of that all the way through the World Series, as we always do.

I said I'm watching as much of the playoffs as I can, but that doesn't necessarily equal a lot of watching on my part.  My schedule is allowing a few innings here and there, and then catching highlights on the sports shows.

That said, DANG, but I'm seeing a whole lotta ex-Dodgers in the small sample that I've watched, and they're not exactly riding the pine or bumbling balls in deep outfield corners. Far from that, they're playing pivotal roles in the dramatics that are the playoffs.

 It's been pretty exciting to watch these ex-Boys in Blue contributing.  Let's lead off with the guy I dread to see in the postseason, but who is there year after year - Adrian Beltre.

Why dread?  It's always the anguish of loss.  I see Beltre and I wish he was still doing all of that for the Dodgers.  Instead, he's far away in the AL, kicking A for the Texas Rangers.

I caught parts of Game 163, the one-game showdown between the Rangers and the Rays.
I watched one at bat of Beltre, his first.   He quickly bashed a double to the outfield and legged it out with a noticeable limp from me to you.  Beltre did his job at the plate and toughed it out on the base paths - like a man. He cranked out 199 hits this past season.  Atta boy, Adrian.

Tim Heitman/USA Today Sports

 On the other side of the field in that game was much maligned as a malingerer in L.A., James Loney.

Plenty of Dodger fans were happy to see him go as part of that megadeal with Boston.  Poor ol' Loney was probably sad to leave L.A. at the time, but I'll bet he's plenty glad for that trade now.  He bounced from Boston to the Tampa Bay Rays and now the playoffs.

I watched Loney play some pretty good defense at first base in that showdown game.  He even made a small news splash on a hard-nosed pick-off play at first.  A small war of words broke out over whether or not it was kosher for Loney  to block base runner Elvis Andrus from diving back to first (see above photo).  He blocked the base perfectly and tagged the runner out.  Was it an unwritten rule violation?  Apparently the Dodgers' penchant for being involved in non-controversies has stuck on Loney.


In the National League matchup that saw the Reds battle the Pirates, another couple of ex-Dodgers received plenty of camera time - and both experienced the game from opposite ends of the emotional ladder.

First up is jinxed manager Dusty Baker.  Dusty has jinxed San Francisco (I loved it!!!) and Chicago in the past.  He's now brought his world class jinxery to the Reds.

 I gotta hand it to the man.  He handled his team being pummeled by the Pirates better than I would have.  He sucked it up in quiet dignity as his team's chances just burned and burned and the Pirates kept piling on more firewood.  Sorry to say it, Cincy, but as long as you have Dusty in the dugout, you'll never win the Fall Classic.

Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Finally, the ex-Dodger catcher whom I didn't really want to see leave L.A., but has found some extremely lucky bounces since he did - Russel Martin.  If I were a ballplayer and Scott Boras wouldn't answer my calls, I just might look up Martin's agent.

Good ol' Russ blasted two homers off of Dusty's pitchers yesterday. He hit one early to help lead the Pirates scoring, and one later, which was just more fuel on top of that Reds funeral pyre.  Then he circled the bases with both arms raised as high as Pittsburgh's hopes for a World Series berth. 

Not bad for a bunch of ex-Dodgers.

Yet Even More Ticket Stub Nostaslgia

Hey everybody,

Hope you all had a great Fourth.  In yesterday's Fourth of July post, I featured a couple of 1995 ticket stubs that featured a series titled  "Great Moments"  from the Dodger's history.

There are 11 moments in the series.  Yesterday showed numbers 5 and 8.  Let's see how many others I have...

1. Missing ?

2. Missing

3. Sandy Koufax hurls 4th no-hitter and the only perfect game of his career as the Dodgers defeat the Cubs. 

4.  This one would have been appropriate for yesterday also.  Rick Monday snatches an American flag from two would-be flag-burners.

5. Steve Garvey, Reggie Smith, Dusty Baker and Ron Cey become the only foursome to hit 30 or more runs in a  season.

6. Bob Welch strikes out Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson in the 9th with 2 men on to win Game 2 of the '78 World Series.  AWESOME !

7. Manny Mota sets the major league record with his 145th career pinch hit. AWESOME!

8.  Fernando Valenzuela beats the Astros, 2-0, on Opening Day to start "Fernandomania".

9. Missing

10. Missing

11. Missing? 

The final stub doesn't have a Great Moments number, so I'm not sure if it's number 11 or number 1.  However, since this moment was so incredible, I'm tempted to think this was number ONE....

Kirk Gibson's two-out, ninth inning home run beats Oakland in Game One of the 1988 World Series.
But of course, AWESOMENESS PERSONIFIED! 

Thanks for reading, everybody!

Happy Independence Day Ticket Stub Memories

Hey everybody,

I was having some fun, going through a box of my old personal Dodgers memorabilia, and I came across some ticket stubs that I held on to from way back. 

In the old days, the Dodgers used to print tickets with imagery that commemorated various events, games or players from Dodgers history.

They may still do that, but now I often attend games through the connection with My Man Inside Dodger Stadium, or I purchase them online and just print out the tickets, which nowadays seem to be little more than glorified bar codes.  A real game day ticket is something I rarely hold in my hand these days.

I noticed a couple of those past tickets in my collection were for games featuring "Holiday Fireworks".  How appropriate!   So what the heck, I'll share them with you in the hopes that you'll enjoy sharing some old timey Dodgers nostalgia with me...

Check it out - this stub honors the four Dodgers who became the only four teammates to hit 30 or more homers in one season.  They were Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Dusty Baker and Reggie Smith.  I'm pretty sure we can safely presume they did it all PED-free. You can see they featured a series of 11 "Great Moments" on the tickets.  This one is number 5.

I love the game played is number "42", Jackie's number.  I also noticed the opponents were the Rockies, the same team we beat tonight.  I mean, the team that we have now beaten two games in a row.  

I know some of you looked...did you notice that this field level seat was only $11 in 1995?  That same season seat will cost you $35 today. 

Here's the other ticket from the same game.  This is Great Moment 8, the start of Fernandomania.  Pretty cool.

I've got a few more old stubs from this Great Moments series and a couple of most excellent Opening Day tickets; including the tickets from the day I had Opening Day breakfast with Tommy Lasorda, Vin Scully and the late, great Stu Nahan.  Oh, my old lady was there too. 

THANKS for reading, everybody!

And Happy Birthday, America!!

Le Gran Trade With Le (Canadian) Dollar Store

Hey everybody,

While awaiting Kershaw's first Opening Day pitch, I'm filling my baseball fix with my blogger brethren reading and posting about cards and trades. 

Here comes a post featuring my newest trade partner,  Douglas, over at the across-the-Canadian-border cardblog, Sportscards From The Dollar Store.


Douglas posted up a Koufax card that I had to have, his insert from The Greats subset in 2013 Topps, and from there, we expanded it into a blind random Dodgers for random Blue Jays and Mets trade.

Doug sent over a nice handful of Dodgers from the 80's thru the 2000's - every one of them a new card for me - and here are a few of the highlights...

 I really enjoyed when Nomar was a Dodger.  His time wearing the home whites seemed so short.

I loved when Nomar came to bat and they would play the opening drum roll/ bass line from War's hit, Low Rider.  It was amazing for me to hear an E.L.A. anthem booming from the speakers at Dodger Stadium.  Goosebumps.

Here's a pitcher who had so much potential lost to arm injury.  Oh well, the Dodgers made him rich anyway, giving him an insane amount of millions to ride the pine.

This is a great card of Rafi in action.  Never mind the reflection from the penny sleeve.  I actually like those lines.

Of course O-Pee-Chee must be involved!  I totally dig this card of Rick Monday, Voltigeur!

  Shown above are a couple of snake-bit Dodger teammates.  Dusty Baker rolled his player days into becoming the biggest-jinxed manager of the modern era.

Saxy limited his troubles to an embarrassing period where he developed a case of the willies and he just couldn't, absolutely couldn't throw a ball in a straight line from second base to first. 

I suspect he made that same face that he's making in the little close-up box whenever he beaned yet another innocent peanut vendor with yet another errant throw.

You want gaudy and gimmicky? You got it!

Finally, the card that started it all. 

Thanks for a great trade Douglas!

Here's an early Happy Easter, everybody!  THANKS for reading.  :)