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!

top ten garveys

it is difficult for me to choose my 10 favorite cards of my favorite player, and so i will preface this post by saying that some of the following cards, while certainly ones that i appreciate, may not be as solidly in the top ten as the others.  i have a lot of steve garvey cards to choose from, and so there is always the possibility of deviating from this list should i ever put together a similar list in the future.  with that said, here is my entry into collecting cutch's contest. behold my current top ten steve garvey cards from my collection:

first up is a 2011 topps tier one steve garvey game used patch card, numbered to 10.

this card is similar to the 2008 topps sterling patch cards of which i have a few, but this one is special because it features a piece of the all-star game patch that the dodgers wore during the 1980 season.  it is hard to believe that 1980 was the last time the all-star game was played at dodger stadium, and there are no plans to be back there anytime soon.  this year, the asg will be in miami, followed by washington dc in 2018 and cleveland in 2019.  cleveland last hosted in 1997, so jacobs/progressive field will have hosted two all-star games (and cleveland will have hosted three) since dodger stadium hosted its only one.  that makes sense. and, although the traditional american league/national league alternating schedule has been abandoned in recent years (the nl will host from 2015-2018), my guess is that atlanta gets the 2020 game with their new stadium, with 2021 probably going to the rangers who are working on a new stadium of their own.  so, 2022 might be a possibility for dodger stadium, although the dbacks are crying for new digs so who knows.  anyway, i really really like this card and am stoked to have it in my garvey collection.

the other relic in the list is this 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game jersey number prime patch card numbered 6/6.

i remember the auction for this card ending while i was at work, and it was pretty stressful.  i really wanted this card for my collection for a number of reasons, and thankfully submitted the winning bid.  the red number patch that was used for this relic is from an early garvey jersey, as it is glorious fuzzy wool.

i have three autographed cards in the list, the first of which is from 2016 panini pantheon

i dubbed this my favorite card of 2016, and i stand by that claim.  it's a great on-card auto with a design and image that make me forget about the lack of the interlocking 'sd' that is supposed to be on garvey's helmet.

another auto i am including here is this 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography card

this is one of the parallels, and the on-card world series champs inscription puts this one ahead of the other versions in the set.  i was pretty happy when this set came out and featured so many of my favorite dodgers, including the entire infield.

the next card here is another auto. this is garvey's 1999 upper deck retro inkredible auto card

that is the first certified auto card of garvey that i owned, and it is also the first card i received as an ebay purchase.  i discovered ebay in 1999, and was specifically looking for a 1995 upper deck sp championship series kirk gibson card when i stumbled across this. i was dumbfounded and couldn't wait to win the auction.  18 years later, and i'm still a sucker for garvey cards on ebay.

the last five cards i've chosen are base cards which remain the backbone of my collection. first up is this card, also from 1999 upper deck retro

cards of garvey showing him in dodger stadium are not that common, and this card was also one of the first mainstream cards he received after his retirement.  sure, there were plenty of oddballs from 1989 through 1998, plus a couple of appearnces in upper deck products (1994 all-time heroes and 1995 sp championship), but this card and his 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game card let me know that he was going to be a fixture in sets that would feature retired players.  i was a happy collector.  that fleer si card, by the way, could easily be in this list, too.

now we are down to cards from garvey's playing career.  his 1988 score card

is included here not only because it is a true final tribute card, but also because it is a great card, period.  i will always be thankful to score for producing this card, along with don sutton's 1989 card.

here's garvey's 1974 topps card

which is a favorite for obvious reasons. the card has always intrigued me - from the blurry fans in the background to garvey's posiiton in the foreground to the horizontal orientation that makes it stand out from most other cards in the set.  this is the card that i have in my wallet, and while it is not my favorite garvey card, it is fantastic.

garvey's 1981 donruss card, one of them, anyway, makes the countdown

due to the dodger stadium background and the game action.  topps produced a similar card for garvey in 1981 in that he is also shown leaving the batters box although it is from the view of someone along the first base line and he's in his away grays (at shea stadium, i believe). i actually like the 1981 donruss design, probably because it is very similar to the 1978 topps design.

speaking of which

you had to know that card was coming - it will always be a part of this list.