i can get accustomed to this

if you follow "when topps had balls", then you've seen gio's cards celebrating his 1970s all-decade team. i sat up and took notice back when he announced the first baseman on the national league squad

gio's post included a nice writeup about steve garvey, and he shares my opinion of the garv's hall of fame worthiness. so, when gio emailed saying that his complete set of the nl all-decade team was available, i sent my money posthaste.

i was surprised to see a different version of garvey's card

but enjoyed it nonetheless.  here's the back:

i appreciate the fact that the backs are written with a 1980 sensibility.

here's the full squad:

with the bonus card being a pete rose "player of the decade" card

i really liked the all-star banner on the 1980 cards back when i was opening packs. they are my favorite banners (over the 1979 and 1981 cards) but i still prefer the red, white, and blue all-star shields from 1978.  one more thought on the 1980 design - seeing it without the facsimile signature, the 1980 design is even more obviously a tweak of the 1974 look. at least in my opinion.

gio also released his series 14 set for purchase, and i decided to pick it up for my collection. this was a standard set that included a variety of his themes - not quite missing in action, career capper, dedicated rookie, fantasy cards, etc.

i'll show the bonus card first, it's a diamond/miscut dedicated rookie card of willie randolph!

jerry reuss also shows up as a dedicated rookie in the 1970 design

while carlton fisk is featured on a fantasy card from 1971

also using the 1971 design is this japanese special card of sigeo nagashima

i have to admit, even with everything i read during the height of nomomania, i was not familiar with nagashima until i received the card and read gio's post.

the next two cards were a big reason why i decided to purchase the set. first up is a "missing in action" card. literally

dick allen did not have an in action card in the 1972 topps set, and he wasn't shown as a dodger on his base card anyway. this card pairs beautifully with the custom that gavin sent me a while back.

and then there is this "gimme a do-over" 1973 topps frank robinson card

of course, robinson's actual 1973 topps card is fantastic, and really just needs the dodger script across his chest reinstated and his team affiliation changed from the angels, but this one is great, too.

speaking of the angels, here's a dedicated rookie of frank tanana

who was definitely a fan favorite of mine until he was dealt to the red sox, even though the halos got freddie lynn in return. speaking of the red sox, here's a missing in action 1975 topps dick mcauliffe card

complete with the slanted oakland coliseum background!

gio created another "gimme a do-over" with this 1975 topps billy williams card

that keeps him as a cub as opposed to an airbrushed athletic as he was presented by topps.

this next one is a special request "career capper" card for tony c

who finished his career with the red sox in 1975. he managed to hit a couple of home runs in his return to boston, but we are left to wonder what if? when it comes to his career.

similar to the williams card above, gio created a "gimme a do-over" card for my one-time favorite non-dodger don baylor

he was an airbrushed angel in the original topps set and so didn't have a card recognizing his one year stint in oakland. i like this custom very much.

here's another 1977 card, although this one is a "not really missing in action" card of willie wilson

wilson played in a handful of games in 1976 and 1977 but didn't get any cardboard love from topps until 1979. gio has also created a fantastic 1978 card of wilson, but i don't think it's been available in any sets yet.

also missing from the 1978 topps set were a couple of angels - willie mays aikens

and mike cuellar

no joke - aikens is 22 or 23 at the oldest in that photo. i thought at first it was from an alumni event or something but it is from the late 70's when he was the talk of my neighborhood. i still don't understand how he failed to receive any rookie of the year consideration in 1979. the aikens card is a "missing in action" and the cuellar is a "career capper". cuellar appeared in only two games for the angels in 1977, bringing an end to his career.

apologies to bruce robinson, but this 1979 topps a's prospects card

looks a lot better with rickey henderson on it. gio has also made a dedicated rookie card for dwayne murphy and a 1979 solo card for rickey. i would have loved this card as a kid.

finally, gio created a "dedicated rookie" card for another player who appeared on a 1979 prospects card - the dodgers' own pedro guerrero

when the card arrived, i emailed gio saying that i was pretty sure cesar cedeno made his way on to the card instead of guerrero, and gio confirmed it. he noted that the image was mislabeled as guerrero and he went with it as an intended error card. there aren't too many cards showing cedeno as a dodger, so i'll take it. as an aside, i've noticed some photos mislabeled back when i was doing a lot of customs including bobby castillo identified as davey lopes. must be the mustache.

here's the original guerrero card that gio created for his blog

i wouldn't mind getting one of those in hard copy form someday.

the dodger heavy checklist, along with the two 1978 cards, made this set a no-brainer for me. gio also fulfilled my request for an extra garvey from the first set and extra cuellar and aikens cards from the second. the garvey dupe goes to the pc and the two 1978 angels go in my 1978 "master set".

thanks gio!

talkin' about which generation, now?

i realized after going through some 2009 cards recently that there aren't too many new ideas when it comes to card inserts. back in 2007, topps issued some "generation now" inserts in flagship

and chrome

and they also put a "generation now arrives" insert in flagship with a totally different design

for some reason. these inserts are all seared in to my brain.

what i didn't recall was that in 2009, upper deck released a "generation now" insert set and i actually had the josh hamilton card

in a monster box of other forgotten cards. i quickly sought out some dodgers, including russell martin

who also appeared in the 2007 topps insert set as seen up top, and manny ramirez

who was really from a different generation but was still "now" i guess. he could be in any insert set any company wanted him to be in after his 2008 partial season with the dodgers. my goodness. there are at least a dozen players, including martin, who appear in both the 2007 topps and 2009 upper deck sets.

last year topps took another shot at a "generation now" insert set, again in flagship 

and chrome

and update as well. in fact, that bo bichette card is from 2022 topps chrome update.

at least topps waited 15 years before redoing the set - that's a decent amount of time between generations in baseball terms. looking forward to 2037 topps and a new crop of generation now players!

lack of focus

i had never seen fernando valenzuela's 1994 panini sticker before i ordered it from a sportlots seller not too long ago. 

it's a great oddball addition to my fernando post-dodger collection, and it is doubly of interest to me because of cal ripken jr lurking there in the background even if he is out of focus.

i went looking through my fernando collection to see if there was a card from his dodger days showing steve garvey in the background since ripken and garvey were once right next to each other on the all-time consecutive games played streak leaderboard, but i couldn't find one. at the time of the photo, ripken was still a couple of years away from catching lou gehrig, but he was well past garvey.  

i think it's an interesting note that fernando played with the two iron men of the post-war era - one more iron than the other, of course.

here's another oriole fernando card for my collection that is interesting in a different way

it's a 1994 pacific card - the prisms insert with a print run of 8,000 as i understand it. and, while i'm at it, i suppose i'll show a 1995 pacific card in the same vein, although this one is a dodger - henry rodriguez to be exact

and since this has somehow become a post of pacific cards, here's a raul mondesi insert from 1999 pacific omega

looking at the backgrounds of those three pacific cards, i am surprised that no card company created cards with a magic eye image in the background. seems like a missed opportunity to me.

this started out as a quick post to show the panini sticker and now i am thinking about seinfeld. better stop here before i post some keith hernandez cards.

a quick plug for my most wanted list - if you have a 1996 collector's choice #299 fernando card (he's a padre), let's trade!

who's coming to dinner?

i recall reading back during the second bush administration that the president arranged for a lunch or dinner at the white house that included a number of baseball hall of famers. i believe he made it an annual event and so was able to spend time with a large number of the greatest baseball players from the 1950s through the 1990s. there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that i would do the exact same thing if i were ever in a position to do so.

it's a play on the old question of who you would invite to dinner if you could invite anyone. sometimes, the "dead or alive" option is granted, and i think i will apply that to this exercise.

like michael scott, let's say that i only have six wine glasses so here are the five baseball dignitaries i would invite to join me for dinner.

vin scully

this is a no-brainer. scully would serve as the emcee - keeping the conversation going while staying quiet when others are carrying the conversation. and, he had stories for days about the game.

pete rose

i was at a couple of hot stove dinners that rose attended back in the late 70s and early 80s, and i remember him commenting at one of them that it had turned in to a mild roast. the other players were sharing some benign stories about rose, and i would love to hear his side of those stories as well as others that probably weren't fit for a hot stove crowd. one of my favorite pete rose quotes comes from george will's "men at work" where pete says during a moment of severe turbulence on a team flight something along the lines of "we're going down but at least i have a .300 lifetime average - what do you have?" it would be a blast, i think, to hear more stories from rose.

steve garvey

another no-brainer for me as a fan, although they say never meet your heroes. i would definitely run the risk with the garv. i would love to ask him about a few things and maybe even bring up don sutton or the 1981 world series mvp announcement that initially had him as a co-winner and not steve yeager.

jackie robinson

robinson would bring some gravitas to the dinner, i think, but i would want to focus on the on-field activities and hear about playing in the 1950's. sometimes i wonder if because of who he was and what he represented, jackie's playing experience and record lacks the level of respect it deserves.

lou gehrig

gehrig would bring the pre-war perspective to the party. i've been a fan of him since reading a biography back in elementary school. he may turn out to be a boring guest, but i would take that chance.

others i thought of in the first minute or so of this exercise

dusty baker

rickey henderson

old ross hadbourn

joe jackson

ty cobb

sandy koufax

tommy lasorda

and did i consider inviting jim tracy

just to ask him what the heck he was thinking with his lineups back in 2005? yes i did. these days, i don't care so much about tracy and his band of ja(y)sons, but 18 years ago he may have made the invite list.

not sure if this is "bat around" material, but i'd be interested in hearing your ideas for baseball dinner party guests. happy thanksgiving no matter who your dinner guests are!

kiké hernandez, dodger double dipper!

back at my first blog, one of the running features was dodger "double dippers". these were players who played for the dodgers, left to play for a different team (at the big league level), and then returned to play for the dodgers again. there were 97 installments for 97 different dodger double dippers:

brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom, maury wills, dazzy vance, ray hayworth, zack taylor, john cronin, art herring, brian falkenborg, bill reidy, john anderson, vito tamulis, wally hood, jim bruske, bill dahlen, patsy donovan, jamey wright, watty clark, andy messersmith, rocky nelson, newt kimball, hank behrman, jimmy sheckard, jake flowers, goody rosen, and chin-hui tsao.

here at cards as i see them, i haven't been as vigilant with these posts, so i haven't captured all of the qualifying players over the last seven or so years. these are the guys i am aware of that weren't featured on the old blog:

matt kemp, alex wood, trayce thompson, jake reed, daniel hudson, joe kelly, adam kolarek, miguel rojas, and the subject of this post, kiké hernandez.

hernandez first joined the dodgers way back in december of 2014. he was acquired in a trade with the marlins that had, among others, miguel rojas heading to florida. he was a fan favorite pretty much right away, playing all over the field and exuding positivity.  his biggest moment as a dodger came in the 2017 nlcs when he hit three home runs in game 5 to propel the dodgers back to the world series for the first time since 1988.

here's a card from his first stint as a dodger - it's a yellow parallel of his 2019 topps card

hernandez is one of those guys who seems to pretty much always show up on cardboard in an interesting way. it's probably due to the number of different defensive positions he plays, with his style of play being a big factor, too.

here's his 2021 topps card that shows his with the boston red sox

the bosox signed hernandez as a free agent in february of 2021, so the image on the card above is actually hernandez as a dodger photoshopped in to red sox duds. here's an card showing hernandez as an actual red sox (sock?) from 2021 topps chrome update sapphire edition

he is featured there with former dodger teammate alex verdugo, and they are wearing the city connect uniforms that nike developed for boston.

hernandez played all over the diamond for the red sox in his two-plus seasons there, except catcher and pitcher. he played most of the time, and did about as well as you would expect at the plate. the red sox had him playing a lot of shortstop in 2023, and his defense wasn't quite up to par. still the dodgers and other teams valued his positional flexibility, and in late july 2023, the dodgers sent a couple of players to the red sox to reacquire kiké.

here's a card from his second stint with the dodgers:

i didn't expect him to be in update this year, so it was no surprise when he was left off of that checklist, however, topps did get him in to their 2023 holiday release, so i have a card to bookend the double dipping with! this is reminiscent of 2021 when trea turner made his first appearance as a dodger in the holiday set.

you may recall that in 2020 one of my favorite dodger cards was hernandez's base card. i went out pursuing as many parallels as i could find, and somewhat recently added the mini version 

to my collection, too. i sure hope the dodgers re-sign him this offseason so we can be treated to more great on-card action.

welcome back kiké!