the almost daily dodger - angel pena

the dodgers sure seem to have had a large number of highly touted catching prospects since mike piazza took over behind the plate. maybe that just coincides with the proliferation of prospect focused baseball cards, but it feels like i've heard about more catchers in the dodger pipeline than any other non-pitcher position over the last 30 years.

one such prospect was angel peña, and this is his 1999 upper deck retro inkredible autograph card

i have seen this card so many times over the years, i would have sworn that i had it in triplicate. turns out, i didn't have it at all (i do have some other peña autograph cards). thankfully, night owl sent one my way.

peña was one of the catchers that the dodgers sent out in the post-mike piazza landscape during the 1998 season, but the team ultimately looked for some veterans to take over and he wasn't able to catch on (see what i did there) as anything more than a stop gap backup during his career.

night owl sent some other cards for my collection as well, including a1998 bowman chrome charles johnson card

johnson was the dodgers' catching solution immediately following the piazza trade, as he was part of the haul from the marlins that the dodgers received in exchange for the italian-american superstar slugger. johnson was then traded to the mets with roger cedeño after the 1998 season for the dodgers' next catcher, todd hundley.

here's a 1995 fleer ultra kevin gross card

that had escaped my purview. it's technically a rangers card, but he's still wearing his dodger duds so into the dodger collection it goes.

this 1999 bowman glenn davis card

is not chrome - it's the international parallel. the liberty bell is behind davis, a native of pennsylvania.

here's a 1998 pinnacle plus die-cut card of hideo nomo

it's a "lasting memories" insert, and i am not sure why it needed to have the patterned edge other than it was the 90's

i recently stated a desire to complete the dodgers' 2007 topps gold parallel team set, and getting this brad penny card

from greg was a push to make that commitment. so chunky!

he also sent a different parallel from 2007 topps update & highlights

the red text back

such nonsense.

here's a much more obvious parallel from 2010 bowman

featuring chad billingsley, along with a parallel (or not, depending on how you view the 2021 topps chrome sapphire edition set) of short-time dodger yoshi tsutsugo

he appeared in 12 games for the dodgers in 2021, in between stints in tampa bay and pittsburgh. the fact that he got a dodger card at all is pretty remarkable. perfect timing in terms of checklist development at topps.

one of my favorite cards in the package was this 2023 panini chronicles - classics card of jim gilliam

anytime i can add a new gilliam card to the collection is a good day.

there were also a few "hits" to take in, such as this 2020 bowman sterling autograph of onetime prospect jacob amaya

the dodgers dealt amaya to the marlins for miguel rojas prior to last season. he was just released by the marlins and picked up by the astros a week or two ago.

shawn green had a ton of cards during his dodger days, including relics. both of these cards - a 2001 pacific private stock game gear bat

and a 2004 upper deck authentic stars jersey

were new to my collection

finally, i  also added this 2004 topps cracker jack "take me out to the ball game" paul loduca relic

to my dodger collection because i don't care who the player is - if they are a dodger they belong in my collection.

thanks greg!

double nickels

there was a big deal made on social media (and even in some mainstream outlets) after the dodgers signed shohei ohtani and it was revealed that he gifted joe kelly's wife with a new car after she let it be known that ohtani could have number 17 - joe kelly's number. it's something that comes up a lot these days with veterans moving around - the claiming of "their" number for some price - but it doesn't always happen.

case in point, when the dodgers acquired albert pujols in 2021, he did not seek out his number 5 from corey seager. instead, he added another 5 and wore 55. here's his 2021 bowman heritage card showing the double digit number:

before pujols, it was russell martin who wore the number, although it wasn't always visible on his cards. here are a couple of parallels of martin's 2011 topps card - cognac

and walmart black

that don't show 55 but are cool, nonetheless. before he was called up, as in spring training, martin wore number 70 (among at least one other number) as seen on his 2005 topps update & highlights gold parallel

however, when he debuted in the big leagues, he was given 55.

for the dodgers, that number is mostly associated with orel hershiser. this 1986 topps sticker of the bulldog (and mike young)

doesn't show his number, but i am featuring it because it is a former "most wanted" card of mine. it completes the team set for me, which is nice (please be sure to check my current list of most wanted cards and see if you can help me out - you will be rewarded!).

here's number 55

on his 1987 fleer card

according to baseball reference, hershiser only wore number 53 (in honor of don drysdale) when he went to the giants (shawn estes already had 55), but this 1998 pinnacle plus card

shows him wearing 56. must be spring training or something, but it's best not to dwell too long on hershiser pitching for the giants.

anyway, it's 55 days until the dodgers and padres kick off the 2024 mlb season in south korea. that's less than 8 weeks!

in other news, 2023 topps stadium club is out, and i can't wait to receive the boxes i ordered. the thurman munson card is fantastic!!!!!

this may be the most padre-ish card that i own

and it's not even a padres card.

i opened an envelope a while back and was at first confused. i knew i had ordered a 1999 pacific aurora kevin brown card in an attempt to complete my dodger team set (mission not yet accomplished as i still need eric karros' card - a nefarious 9 want!), but i didn't expect to see this:

i shouldn't have been surprised as there are some other 1999 kevin brown cards that show him as a dodger in friar's clothing, but it took me longer than it should have to find the dodger logo on here.  what with the interlocking sd on two hats, the logo on the turtleneck, the padres jersey, and the sleeve patch, along with the blue background, that dodger logo gets lost in the shuffle.

the back wasn't much better

seeing as how it's tinted in padres brown. i suppose the logo is more discernible here.

regardless of the high level of padres-ness, i am happy to have this card in my collection, and i'm hoping that the eric karros card joins it soon. at least i can count on that card being nothing but dodger.

i've also recently acquired three more partial dodger cards for my collection, each lacking much dodgerness in their own right.  first, there's this 1988 pinnacle plus bobby bonilla card:

these pinnacle cards don't scan too well, but you can see part of the "traded" text on bobby's left shin. this is less of a dodger card than the kevin brown up top, as it has the marlins logo on the back.  here's another one - 2000 upper deck ionix shawn green

just like the bonilla card, there is the "traded to dodgers" text, but no dodger logo to be seen. funny enough, the bonilla was on my master dodger team set checklist, but the green was not.

this last card is much more dodger-ish - it's a 2007 upper deck spectrum jason schmidt card

it's got the full team affiliation on the front and back (not shown), which is a good thing as i try to limit the giant cards in my collection.