one down, still nine to go

i am back with another one of my most wanted cards obtained. the list is dead, long live the list!  here is the latest of these cards to finally make its way to my collection - 1994 upper deck orel hershiser electric diamond parallel

so much blue! the corrugated fiberglass panels that surrounded the dodger bullpen at dodger stadium are long gone, but we have cards like this one to remember it by.  i'll get to the back of the card in a bit...

here are the facts about this card:

position on the nefarious 9 list: 3

how and when was it obtained? this card was part of sportlots order that landed in my mailbox on january 10, 2026

how long was it on the list? it predated my current tracking, so that means it was a most wanted card for more than ten months (march 12, 2025 was when i started these posts tracking the list)

why was it on the list? this card was one of three that i needed for this parallel dodger team set. i was (and am) a big fan of the 1994 upper deck set with the phantom zone inset photo. it was a big departure from the first five upper deck sets and i was there for it. so, i like the idea of completing the electric diamond parallel dodger team set.

what replaced it on the list?  1996 fleer emotion-xl #214 chan ho park

why was this card added? chan ho's card is the last one i need for the dodger team set from that strange yet compelling set.

i mentioned that the hershiser was one of three dodgers i needed to complete the set. well, the other two were part of the same sportlots order - jose offerman

and jim gott

i maintain that gott's card features christian slater but i don't know for sure.

i do want to show the back of gott's card, along with hershiser's

i am led to believe that these images are from the same game. hershiser, who would have started the game, has a wetter infield behind him in the early goings. gott, who would have pitched in relief (he was the dodgers' closer at the time) has a drier infield that might have been wetted down a bit during the 7th inning stretch. 

they are wearing the away grays, and so looking at away games played during the day in 1993, i found two possibilities for the photos:

may 9, 1993 against the giants - hershiser got the win and gott the save

june 13, 1993 against the padres - hershiser got the win and gott the save

if i had to guess, i would say that the photos come from the latter game at jack murphy stadium.

one more card for the post - another one from that sportlots order. it's todd hollandsworth's card from the aforementioned 1996 fleer emotion xl set

adding this card made chan ho park's the last one i needed and made it an easy one to add to the nefarious 9. can you help a blogger out?!

if you've got a sombrero, throw it to the sky

friday night in los angeles kicks off a weekend celebrating fernandomania and its subject - fernando valenzuela. that same night - august 11 - the dodgers will retire number 34 in his honor.

i wrote earlier this year about the fact that fernando is already a member of the "legends of dodger baseball", and i will be interested to see how the team handles the transition from that group to the retired numbers faction. will they just move his monument from one spot to the other? that would be my guess.

anyway, here are some cards of fernando that i've added over the last year or so, starting with a 2017 topps rediscover topps buyback of his 1990 topps card

it's the silver stamp version, not that you can tell.

when it comes to adding cards of fernando to my dodger collection, i am down mainly to oddballs, wo here are a few of those that are new-ish to me

1981 all-star game program insert

1982 topps album stickers

1989 topps super star stickers (with rob deer)

1985 topps rub downs (with tony pena and robin yount)

i also finally added his 1987 star company set to my collection:

i bought the set as single cards on beckett since it was cheaper than what i saw for complete sets, however, one of the cards was missing so i had to pick up a single on ebay

back when the dodgers announced that they were going to retire fernando's number, i made the announcement that i was adding him to my post-dodger player collections. so, i've been adding non-dodger cards of fernando to my collection ever since. some i already had among my non-dodger duplicates and monster boxes, but some i've tracked down online.

i had a reader point out (thanks benjamin!) that fernando's two cards from the 1993-94 line up venezuelan winter league set were on ebay for cheap, but i was too slow to snag his solo card. i did get this card

showing him with urbano lugo. it's a great oddball and i am happy to have a card showing fernando in team mexico gear in my collection.

i've made some great progress in filling out the post-dodger collection (here's my have/want list) so i figured i would share with you. 

1993

you may recall that fernando pitched for the angels in 1991 after he was released by the dodgers just prior to the start of the season. there are sadly no cards of him in his angel uniform, so we jump to 1993. the orioles signed him to a contract and i was pretty happy that he was back in the majors.

those cards include flair, fleer, fleer ultra, leaf, o-pee-chee premier, and topps stadium club.  i have to show the back of the stadium club card

because it features his 1981 topps multi-player rookie (hello jack perconte and mike scioscia!). let's keep going with 1993-1994

i am a big fan of fernando's 1993 upper deck card (it was my favorite non-dodger card that year), and i was confused to find that topps included him in stadium club but not flagship (or traded). after finishing the 1993 season with the orioles, fernando was unsigned until well in to the 1994 campaign. so, it was nice that he was added to some card checklists that year as a phillie.  the cards above are his 1993 topps stadium club member's only parallel, 1993 upper deck, 1994 fleer, 1994 flair, 1994 fleer update, and 1994 pacific.

more from 1994

those are his pacific prism (circles), score, score gold rush, topps, topps gold, and topps stadium club cards from '94. that year marked the end of his run with topps until a few years after his retirement.

here's one more from '94 and some '95 cards

those are the 1994 topps stadium club rainbow foil, 1995 fleer, 1995 fleer update, 1995 mother's cookies padres, 1995 upper deck, and 1995 upper deck series 2 cards. as you can see, fernando left the phillies and joined the padres for the 1995 season.

more '95 cards

there we have his upper deck series 2 electric diamond parallel, his upper deck collector's choice cards (i have them out of order), the upper deck collector's choice trade card redemption, and 1995 upper deck collector's choice se - base and silver signature versions. those last two are nice because he's back in dodger stadium.

on to 1996

it's all padres here, as fernando spent 1996 with them, too. those cards are emotion-xl, flair, fleer tiffany, fleer ultra, mother's cookies padres, and pacific crown collection. i like the back of the emotion-xl card

as it shows fernando peeking to the sky during his wind up.

more from 1996, plus one from '97

pacific prisms, circa, upper deck (young at heart subset), upper deck collector's choice (international flavor subset), upper deck collector's choice silver signature are the '96 cards, and the last card is from 1997 donruss.  there was no regular card for fernando in 1997 upper deck (as was the case with some, but not all, of the other 'young at heart' subjects), but his young at heart card has his full stats on the back, along with a nice photo of him as a dodger

here are the rest of the 1997 cards that i own

donruss press proof, fleer, fleer metal, fleer ultra, mother's cookies padres, pacific crown collection, pacific prism invincibles, pinnacle, score, score premium stock, score showcase series, and upper deck. the back of the upper deck card notes that he was the winning pitcher in the first mlb game held in mexico.

i guess i have a couple more from 1997 - upper deck special report subset, and collector's choice

and those last two are his 1998 final tributes from upper deck and upper deck collector's choice. fernando pitched for the cards in 5 games after being traded by the pads in the middle of the 1997 season. the cardinals released him in july of 1997, so i was surprised (but super happy) to see him in 1998 releases.

as you can see, i am missing a few base cards so feel free to help me out with my post-dodger fernando collection. and don't forget to salute him this weekend as he becomes only the second non-hall of famer to have his numbered retired by the dodgers. fernandomania forever!

knuckles

there are lots of examples of cards - both specific subsets and cards featuring posed shots - that highlight different pitch grips. it's not as easy typically to find action shots with visible pitch grips, except maybe those that show the knuckleball.

when it comes to pitchers who threw the knuckleball, the dodgers have had their share, including tom candiotti.

that 1996 fleer e-motion xl card is one that i added via sportlots last year to help fill out an order and get me one card closer to a complete team set. i didn't know ahead of time that the grip would be featured.

this next candiotti card also came from sportlots, and actually completed a team set.

that 1994 fleer flair card shows candiotti with two different grips. i recall a couple of post-game interviews that he gave where he would talk about being a pitcher first and a knuckleballer second. perhaps he was frustrated being pigeonholed as a knuckleballer instead of being seen as a starting pitcher with a greater repertoire of pitches.

the first knuckleball pitcher i was aware of was charlie hough. his 1994 topps stadium club card shows him in his later years but still with the grip

i am never surprised to see the knuckleball grip on cards of candiotti, hough, niekro and the like, but i was surprised to see this john stuper card from 1985 fleer

i don't recall knowing stuper threw a knuckleball. perhaps he was experimenting or goofing off like i did in babe ruth and high school. i never did summon up the courage to throw one in a real game.

and then there is a gem like this 1996 topps stadium club kirby puckett card

puck is definitely messing around here, just like me and my teammates did while warming up, although i never did so in the skydome.

certified rauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul

raul mondesi was my favorite dodger from 1994 through 1999. he was the first dodger to go 30/30 (he did it twice), and he was exciting to watch.

sometime last year i added a certified autograph of the 1994 national league rookie of the year to my collection, picking up this 1995 upper deck autograph card

i didn't scan the coa, so you'll have to trust me.

this card was part of the small set of autograph cards put out by upper deck that year. i have frank robinson and roger clemens as part of my hall of famer collection, but i doubt that i will complete the set. the other two are reggie jackson and willie mays. mondesi was coming off of his rookie of the year campaign, and so was included here over other retired greats and current stars. it's interesting to look back at checklists like this and see where the potential stars of the day wound up.

i also added his 1997 donruss signature series millennium marks certified auto

and i did scan the back of this one

comparing the two autographs, i can't say that they seem to have been signed by the same person.

as i mentioned up top, mondesi was, for several seasons, my favorite dodger player. as such, i have these cards in my "favorite dodger through the years" mini collection:

1994 upper deck sp holoview fx

1995 topps

1996 fleer e-motion xl d-fense

1997 topps finest

1998 upper deck collector's choice

1999 upper deck century legends

these days, mondesi is in jail on corruption charges stemming from his post-baseball political career. not the way anyone thought things would turn out for him. hopefully he can turn things around when he is eventually released.