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!

my most wanted cards walked the plank

i recently sent some cards that i'd been stacking to matt at bob walk the plank. he returned fire by trying to single handedly obliterate my nefarious 9 list of most wanted cards that i keep on the sidebar of my blog. he also mentioned that somewhere in his collection lies a joc pederson card with my name on it. can't wait!

the first card i'll show is one of the non-dodger bonus cards that i list as an appendix to the nefarious 9.  matt found the 1986 leaf dusty baker card

i assume with relative ease. currently, my most wanted non-dodger card is 1995 score #361 brian anderson. it's for my lurker collection.

the main focus of the nefarious 9, however, are dodgers. sometimes, they are cards that will complete a team set, like this 1994 fleer roger mcdowell card

and this 1994 pacific henry rodriguez card

other times, they are cards that i have in parallel form, and i feel weird not having the base. that was the case with this 2019 topps big league kenley jansen card

i had actually ordered the card from sportlots and the seller sent me the gold parallel instead. so the base version went up on the most wanted list.

sometimes, i will add a card that i thought i had but don't. this 2001 topps chrome shawn green card fit that description.

i was a pretty serious green collector in the early 2000's, and thought that i surely would have had at least one of his 2001 topps chrome cards. when i saw that it was on my want list, i double checked and was surprised to find that it was indeed a need. on to the most wanted list it went!

matt sent some other chrome cards from my regular want list - these are from 2001 bowman chrome

a nice 4-pack of vets that whittled my needs for this team set down to a couple of rookies. maybe they will show up on the nefarious 9 in the future.

matt attempted to knock off one more of my most wanted cards, but sent the optic version

instead of the regular 2017 panini donruss jose de leon card. somewhere between those two releases, panini followed de leon to tampa bay. it's an easy mistake to make, and matt still gets an "a" for his efforts.

thanks matt! the list has been refreshed if you (or anyone else) wants to take a run at it. you will be rewarded!

the tradewinds have been blowing

today was the trading deadline.  the non-waiver trading deadline, to be precise.  there's no deadline on trading cards, but there probably is a proper timeframe for posting about those trades. i may have missed the boat on some of these.

not really a trade in the traditional sense, but i did trade a small amount of money for some cards as part of colbey's cardboard collections affordable breaks.

the first one featured 1994 pacific, and i chose the dodgers which netted me some nice cards including jody reed

who is turning two on the back

my assigned team was the blue jays, which resulted in another back side double play with roberto alomar's card

two alomars for the price of one.

the other affordable break i joined featured 2002 upper deck diamond collection and 2003 upper deck 40 man.  i wound up with a card from 2003 upper deck vintage update (included in packs of 40 man) of current manager dave roberts

unfortunately, doc's card came with a badly dinged corner.

it turns out that i already had a complete team set of 2003 40 man - it's 2002 40 man that is lacking in my collection. oh well, it was an affordable break after all.  here's jolbert cabrera

he was the first dodger to wear number 6 since 1982, and it signaled to me that the dodgers were giving up on steve garvey as a hall of famer.  it made sense as his 15 years on the ballot had expired without him being voted in by the bbwa, but it still kinda sucked to see number 6 back on the field.

perhaps the beginning of jim tracy's affinity for players named ja(y)son, here's jason romano

cards like that, featuring a guy who played in 37 games as a dodger and hit .083 in that time, are why i like sets such as 40 man.

finally, here's adrian beltre

getting cards of beltre as a dodger in the mail remind me that he is the one that got away.

mark hoyle sent me some cards, including this derek jeter double play turn

on a 2006 upper deck national card.  it inspired me to add a couple more double play cards to my collection, such as this 2005 upper deck khalil greene card

and this 2016 topps photo variation xander bogaerts card.

back to the trades, tom from angels in order sent me some dodgers.  you don't see 1985 donruss on the blogs much, so here's dave anderson's card

i think that is sid bream in the background.

hey kids! you too may become a big leaguer - alfredo griffin made it, and look at his swing on this 1991 fleer ultra card

plus he's rocking the little league hat-under-helmet look.

i needed this 2016 topps update walmart rookie insert of kenta maeda

if topps starts using the 1988 design in archives before 1978 i will assume that 1978 will never be used.

mr haverkamp came through with some needed 1982 fleer stamps, including the fernando/warren spahn stamp, bill russell, jerry reuss, and burt hooton

plus some bay area dusty baker cards for my post-dodger pc of johnnie b.

fleer and mother's cookies!

jon at penny sleeve for your thoughts reached out with some 2017 topps buybacks

two for the dodgers binders and one for the davey lopes post-dodger pc.

johnny's trading spot provided some great cards including two fleer greats of dodger great duke snider - 2000

and 2004

recycled photo, obviously.

tim, known as tshenson in your comment section, sent a bunch of dodgers in exchange for indians which included a 2016 topps gypsy queen corey seager rookie

and a 1994 sports illustrated for kids mike piazza card

that is a complete team set in and of itself.

thanks to all for the great cards!

i also need to mention that bo at baseball cards come to life sent me some 2002 topps 206 for my set build, although i forgot to scan the cards. thanks bo!

i've still got some trade bounty from nick at dime boxes, matt at bob walk the plank, and julie at a cracked bat to show off (plus a one-card pwe from mr. haverkamp), so i'm not done thanking everyone yet...