(b)ringing the bellinger

i'm not sure if andre ethier or adrian gonzalez is the one filling the role of wally pipp these days, but cody bellinger looks like he is in the big leagues to stay.  i was beyond surprised to find a 2017 panini diamond kings dual relic card of the dodger rookie

in the latest batch of cards sent to me by brian at highly subjective completely arbitrary.  actually, these are the first cards brian has sent me, as our other trades have been made in person.  i haven't been able to get to a card show lately, however, so i asked if we could trade through the mail this time instead.

brian sent a bunch of other dodger goodness, including the base and variation versions of duke snider's 2017 panini donruss card

i used to eat a lot of jiffy pop on vacations as a kid. it was campground/campfire-time goodness (we weren't a s'mores family), but unfortunately jiffy pop didn't start including cards with their product until i was pretty much done with the family's rv vacations.  anyway, this card is from 1987

i do appreciate the dodger stadium background - it almost cancels out the lack of a logo on pedro guerrero's helmet.  speaking of pedro, the last news that i saw noted that he was out of the coma that followed the stroke he suffered last month. i hope he is on his way to recovery.

here's another oddball, although it's actually a broder card

featuring giant kirk gibson standing in wrigley field.

and then there is this promo from 1996 fleer metal universe

that has eric karros trying to hit his way out of a kelp forest.

brian most likely knew that my want lists included this 1994 upper deck all-time heroes ron cey 125th mlb anniversary parallel card

but even if he didn't, he knows that all cards of the penguin are appreciated here.  just like steve garvey cards.  brian sent this great 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic patch card

of my favorite dodger which hits a big hole in my dodger collection. i have a couple of these in the garvey binders, but not in the dodger binders.  my dodger collection takes a hit when it comes to garvey autos and relics, but this helps.  awesome.

for a while, matt kemp was my favorite dodger, and i still recall his time with the team fondly.  i'll search for cards of his every once in a while, and so i was happy to see this 2009 topps allen & ginter auto

amongst the cards brian sent.  i actually forgot that kemp was on the braves earlier this season, but he seems to be doing pretty well.  his 14-game hitting streak was just snapped yesterday, but he's batting over .330 for the season.  i hope it continues.

these days, my favorite dodger is clayton kershaw, but corey seager is on the short list.  brian provided me with my first look at last year's gold label issue from topps by way of this seager card

and then capped the trade package off with a corey seager auto

from 2017 topps gypsy queen! (full disclosure - i thought at first that this was chase utley).

that is how we do it in the twin cities - home of hubert h. humphrey, mary tyler moore, prince, the replacements, and kick-ass trade packages.  thanks brian!