the almost daily dodger - chris gwynn

one of the recent almost daily dodger posts i shared featured a gold parallel card that completed a team set. today, i have chris gwynn's 1995 score gold rush parallel

that gets me one card closer to a completed team set. i am still 11 shy, according to my want list.

if you were to turn the card over (sorry, i didn't scan the back) you would see that gwynn's numbers from 1990 and 1991 were pretty similar. in each of those seasons, he hit 1 triple, 5 homers and had 22 rbi. in 1995, he would score 8 runs, hit 1 homer, and drive in 10. the following year, now a royal, gwynn scored 8 runs, hit 1 homer, and drove in 10. here's to consistency!

where there's a worrell, there's a way

it's been a while, but i am finally showing some cards that have come my way over the past few months. first up are some goodies from daniel of it's like having my own card shop. he posted a photo of some 1995 score platinum team set cards and offered some up to those who chose a team that was included in his stash. i spied todd worrell's leg in the photo and claimed some dodgers.  here's the worrell card

that also netted me a jim gott card

plus cards of henry rodriguez, delino deshields, dave hansen, and chris gwynn

plus the rookie subset cards of darren dreifort and garey ingram

these cards are really shiny and sparkly and were a redemption set.  thanks daniel!

next up, tom from angels, in order sent me some minor league cards from my want list. these are 1991 fleer excel cards, and i scanned a couple of triple-a cards - butch davis and carlos hernandez - plus a couple of double-a cards - braulio castillo and mike white

davis had already been in the majors for a couple of teams when his card was issued, but he only made one plate appearance as a dodger. i last saw him coaching for the twins a few years ago. hernandez was a backup catcher to mike piazza for a few years, and castillo wound up in the bigs with the phillies. as for white, he was another dodger first round pick who never did make the majors, peaking at triple-a with the mets in 1992.

and then there are cards from night owl, which i have previously referred to as hand-me-downs. it's a great thing when the preeminent presence in the blogosphere collects the same team as his doubles have to go somewhere...

one of my favorite cards he sent in these last two envelopes is this 1987 tcma 1955 brooklyn dodgers card of pee wee reese and jim gilliam

i also liked the two cards from the 1992 classic update travel blue and red set. greg sent ramon martinez

and dave hansen. i scanned the back of hansen's card

to show the marc okkonen uniform figure, which is the same as you will find online as part of the uniform database linked through baseball reference.

from 1996 upper deck, here's a die-cut mike piazza run producers insert

that i had not seen before.

kaz ishii was the darling of card companies back in 2002, and fleer provided this ticket to the majors card from their authentix release

nice to see maury wills making an appearance on the replica ticket stub embedded in the card. the dodgers did feature players on their stubs, but fleer didn't use actual tickets for this set like topps would in 2009.

here's a 2002 upper deck 40 man of dodger double dipper giovanni carrara

there aren't too many cards of carrara, and i could not track this one down for the post i linked to above. i did find his 2003 40 man card that came from his time away from the dodgers and i certainly overpaid to get it for the post.

greg and i both have a lot of clayton kershaw cards, but he was able to send a couple that were missing from my collection. first, a 2017 panini national convention vip prizm card

and then a 2022 topps royal blue parallel

i sure do hope kershaw returns in 2024.

there was some nonsense included in the way of this 2020 topps update mookie betts baseball collectible coin

that exists just to have something exclusive in blasters. i didn't buy any blasters of 2020 update (at least i don't recall finding any of these coins) so i am glad to have this one in my collection.

and last but not least, greg included one of gio's custom cards - a 1978 topps dodgers card featuring the 30 home run teammates:

as always, fun to go through envelopes sent my way. thank you!

celebrating the spirit of giving

merry christmas!

'tis the season - and it has been the season for a while - for giving and receiving. here in the blogosphere i have been the happy recipient of cards from a number of traders and bloggers. let's take a look at some of the cards i've received....

starting off, of course, with the holiday custom card created by gavin at baseball card breakdown

gavin modified a 1991 fleer update gary carter card and added the artwork overlay showing the hall of fame catcher prepping to add the tree topper to the ol' tannenbaum. very creative and festive and a great addition to my custom card binder. thanks gavin! i'll have to see if i can find something to send your way.

a month or so earlier, i received an envelope from rod at padrographs

that's a 2004 upper deck padres davey lopes card that the former dodger and padre coach signed through the mail. i was happy to see that rod was looking for some help on a 70 years of topps project so i could send something back his way. check it out and see if you can help a blogger out!

i think everyone has noticed that tom from angels, in order has returned to active blogging thanks to a few giveaways. i wound up claiming a couple of cards from one and he included this gem in the envelope

that's a 1982 fleer stamp fernando valenzuela box "card". tom was kind enough to note what it was on the back:

now, i used to cut out "cards" from boxes all the time in the early 80s and even later, so this is definitely something that fits in my collection. thanks tom - i hope the cards i sent are still needs of yours.

nick from dime boxes also held a giveaway recently, and he offered up some dodgers that i needed, like this 1994 upper deck collector's choice orel hershiser silver signature parallel

this 1995 score rafael bournigal gold rush parallel

and this 2005 upper deck flyball eric gagne

the gagne brings me to one card remaining to complete this oddball set, and it's giovanni carrara. i've added it to my nefarious 9 list of most wanted cards, but it is such an oddball of a largely forgotten player that it may be difficult to track down.

it turned out that i already had the bournigal card, so i put the dupe in my lurkers binder thanks to the presence of italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza on the card.

the fourth card i requested was this 1995 upper deck collector's choice special edition fernando valenzuela silver signature parallel

i've recently toyed with the idea of reestablishing my post-dodger fernando pc. he has so many great cards from his time with the orioles, padres, cardinals, and phillies, including this one. for now, this card sits in my dodger stadium binder.

it wouldn't be an envelope from nick without a double play card, and this 1994 select carlos baerga card

was a new one to me.

a couple more dodgers just because - 2021 topps archives mookie betts 1963 peel off

and 2022 topps update hanser alberto gold parallel

once again, i will ask topps to identify the sets that cards come from on the backs of all of their cards like upper deck used to do and like panini does. i spent a lot of time figuring out what set that betts belonged to, thinking it was heritage. thank goodness for comc, and thank goodness for nick and his generosity. i am looking forward to continuing to swap envelopes with nick in 2023!

another thing i am looking forward to in 2023 is the next installment in thorzul's "trade me anything". this year i sent him something and he sent back these cards that i requested, all from 2022 topps update:

will smith silver pack

jose miranda silver pack grey parallel

joe ryan generation now insert

ronald acuna jr all-star game insert

the acuna is part of my near-complete set of the all-star game inserts. i only wanted the ones that used photos from the actual game, and i will show those cards off in another post.

finally, i'll show some cards from cards on cards. kerry/madding has been probably my most frequent trading partner through 2022 and i hope it continues in 2023. these images have been sitting in my scanned folder for varying lengths of time and represent a number of envelopes received.

1986 true value pedro guerrero

actually, this is a sealed "pack" and so also contains cards of steve garvey and eddie murray. i already have the garvey so i left it sealed. a great addition to the dodger collection for sure.

2021 topps allen & ginter tommy lasorda mini

it's been nice to see lasorda in ginter sets recently, but i could really go for some bill russell cards if topps wanted to recognize a different former dodger manager. i know that won't happen as russell is nowhere near as checklist worthy as lasorda, but i would rather see some former players get a shot at the checklist in lasorda's place. i know this year steve garvey finally got a base ginter card (although it's a short print) and you'll see some of those cards in a different post, but how about reggie smith or orel hershiser or in a year or two matt kemp?

i am not going to do the rest of these cards justice, but i will show them nonetheless

if there were one panini product i would like to see more of, it's the obsidian subset of chronicles. those cards, like the mookie above have been pretty sharp looking the last couple of years.

thanks to all who have and continue to trade cards with me - it is appreciated! 

gone gold digging

i went back to the monthly twin cities card show held two weeks ago in bloomington, former home of the minnesota twins and current home to the mall of america. this show was a bit different because, even though it was held in the same suburban strip mall location - in an old big lots store space - we had to enter through the service door in the back. attendance at the shows has been so high, the other stores in the mall were losing out on parking for their customers who have not been caught up in the trading card hysteria.

it felt almost like heading in to an underground club with the makeshift signage. of course, the first thing i came across after entering were briefcases galore and a guy hawking some sort of lanyard that could display your psa graded card like a medallion. wear your graded card to "strike up a conversation" he said - more like "be like logan paul". no thanks.

anyway, at the last show i had left a 1995 score brett butler hall of gold card in one of the 5/$1 boxes, so i figured i would grab that card first. the seller confirmed that his quarter boxes were the same from last month, so i took a look and found some gold rush and hall of gold cards, but no butler. i wound up ordering the card from sportlots

to complete my dodger team insert set.

the missing butler didn't deter me, however. i still bought a bunch of cards. let's have a look.

i wound up spending $61 at the show, with $45 going to the guy who didn't have the butler anymore.  i started with his $1 box and took these:

he had moved these from his $3 box so why not for a buck (actually less after all was said and done) apiece.

these are the cards i took from his 5/$1 box:

always nice to find some montgomery cards in a bargain box. the mystery finest card up towards the top is frank thomas.

i got to the show right around 9am when it opens, although it is always open early. it was already pretty packed, and i found a spot where there wasn't anyone else and looked through a box of 2/$1 cards. i overspent on these four cards

but i was happy to find the 2021 panini donruss hershiser so to me it was worth it. for a while it looked like the box was going to have every other 1987-style card from that set except the bulldog.

i found another table with a 600 count 5/$1 box that was full so i was pretty sure nobody else had taken a gander. i wound up with 50 cards for $10

the 2020 topps mike piazza legend variation was the first card i came upon, so i figured it was going to be worth digging through the box, and it was. the 2021 topps update jon berti gold parallel will go to my double play collection, but i don't really plan to keep many of the non-dodgers that i found.

i stopped at one other table and grabbed another 16 cards for $4

a lot of the dodgers i bought have turned out to be duplicates because i didn't bother to take out my phone and check my want lists. you would think i would have learned my lesson when i didn't check my lists in march to see that i needed that butler hall of gold card.

there are a couple more shows over the next couple of weekends here in the twin cities, but i am going to miss them as i will be traveling. i still plan to add some cards to my collection while i am away however - stay tuned!