safe travels this time

the last time i received cards from this particular trading partner - the cousin of jeff from my sports obsession - the box that the cards arrived in was pretty thrashed. there was no thrashing of the package this time, as kevin took great pains to overprotect the contents. and what wonderful contents they were!

there were a number of oversized items, including boxtoppers of jackie robinson and trea turner from 2018 topps gallery

and 2022 topps

plus an oversized hideo nomo card from 1998 topps super chrome

slightly smaller in size is this 1987 m&m's panel

featuring two dodger greats.

and then there were a bunch of minis, including a james loney 2009 topps allen & ginter

plus a couple from 2012 topps gypsy queen

the matt kemp is the image variation, and duke snider's card is the gypsy back parallel

other minis included parallels of cody bellinger and tom lasorda from 2019 topps allen & ginter

a gavin lux rookie from 2020 topps 206

a couple more snider cards from 2020 topps allen & ginter

and another cody bellinger parallel from 2021 topps allen & ginter

bellinger also shows up on this 2020 topps allen & ginter mini

although the base on balls is the real focus of the card

kevin is always good to send donruss color parallels, and he didn't disappoint with these 2020 donruss pink fireworks and vector clayton kershaw cards

they are not the most attractively designed cards, but they are dodgers and so they are welcome here!

kevin is also known for sending autographed cards my way, and this time he sent a 2012 topps gypsy queen nathan eovaldi card

and a 2017 topps chrome blue refractor rookie auto of jose deleon

deleon is only 30 and is currently pitching at triple-a for the twins. with some injuries in their starting rotation, i wonder if he will get the call at some point this season.

and then there are the relic cards, like this 2022 topps tribute purple max muncy card

muncy is also represented by this 2022 topps heritage clubhouse collection card

but i am most appreciative of these next two - a 2015 topps triple threads adrian gonzalez bat and jersey combo card

and a heck yeah 2005 donruss zenith rickey henderson bat card

i will always accept rickey henderson dodger cards!

the most interesting item kevin sent was this:

that is a roll of two uncut strips of the world series insert set from 1989 fleer. i hadn't seen these before, but they are definitely a thing.

 

finally, here's the cody bellinger tin from 2021 topps

all of the standard sized cards were inside the tin, snuggled in the foam protection. safe travels ensured!

thanks kevin! looking forward to next time!

be my be my a-a-angel

i see that the cult is (or at least was) touring with black rebel motorcycle club. that would be a great show. i skipped their twin cities appearance, however, as i have previously seen both bands in concert (each as the headliner) at 1st ave, and i don't think my current aged ears could take the pounding.

lil' devil is a song form the cult's "electric" album, which was a shiny followup to their fantastic album "love". it's a catchy tune in which ian astbury implores his lil' devil to become his lil' angel, and that is where the title of this post comes from. what i am trying to say is that i recently bought a big lot of angel cards.

the reason i did so is sort of dumb (it had to do with combined shipping), but the price was right and i figured i would get some new vladimir guerrero cards out of the deal, which i did.

2005 donruss zenith vladimir guerrero epix orange play

these epix things are pretty neat. this one name checks another former favorite player of mine, don baylor, on the back:

2006 topps stars insert

2008 topps stars insert

so not a whole lot of new vladdy cards, but i did add a few other halos to various other parts of my collection.

for the double play collection a cognac parallel from 2011 topps

a base card from 2006 topps chrome

and a gold parallel from 2011 bowman

for the dodger stadium collection, a pair of parallel cards from 2011 bowman draft picks & prospects

for the name/number on the back collection, a couple of jered weaver cards from 2011 and 2012 topps update

and for the lurker collection, one from 2021 topps

featuring shohei ohtani in the background.

speaking of ohtani, the lot included an insert from 2021 topps big league

but not anything else of his. i am not surprised, although there were a fair number of mike trout cards. one of the more mundane is this 2021 topps update insert

there were a bunch more inserts of various angel players through the years, but there really isn't much of a market for anthony rendon or josh hamilton cards these days. i am glad that i salvaged a few cards from the lot.

i also received some angel cards from nick, who is a fellow vlad collector. he sent me a 2009 topps 206 card

i was all in and completed the 2002 206 set, including all the variations, but was not nearly as interested in the 2009 version.  he also sent a 2022 panini donruss card

that i think would look better if panini had stayed true to the original 1988 design.

my collection overlaps with nick's in other ways, as we both collect double play turns, and he sent along a 2022 panini donruss ryne sandberg card

plus a few others for me to add to my collection

the schoendienst card in the middle top is a sample, if i recall correctly.

and, of course, nick sent some dodgers. here's a mashup between 1988 donruss and 1988 donruss baseball's best featuring will smith

no logo catcher cards are generally the best of the bunch.

i already had this 2001 upper deck legends of new york jackie robinson card

but i wanted to show it to you because i just noticed that upper deck got the month wrong for jackie's debut which is ridiculous. inexcusable, really.

very rarely do i get dodger team issue cards in a trade package, but nick sent along a couple of cards from the 1989 dodgers smokey set 

wally moon and jim lefebvre are a couple of dodgers that i can appreciate for sure. 

finally, in addition to that angels lot i mentioned at the start, i bought a couple of additional large random lots for some reason. there was a lot of panini stuff, and i found a few cards to keep for my collection, including a pair of 2022 panini donruss jose altuve cards

for the double play collection, and a pair of bryce harper cards from the same set

for the name/number on the back collection.

the seller who sold me the angel lot doesn't seem to be selling anymore which is fine as i am trying to stay away from purchases like this now, but who knows if the mood will strike again.

ciao baby!

love that minneapolis sound

first things first - i know that the minneapolis sound has nothing to do with ed lover or doctor dre, but this 1991 pro set muicard of the hosts of yo! mtv raps

was sent to me by fellow twin citian brian at highly subjective completely arbitrary. he sent it my way due to the fact that doctor dre (who is not that dr. dre) is wearing a dodger hat. ed lover is repping the raiders, which is fine by me, too. i used to root for them as my afc team back in the late 70's and early 80's.  anyway, the minneapolis sound is the style of funk and r&b pioneered by prince and propagated by his proteges and producers like jimmy jam and terry lewis.  there are a bunch of rock/punk/post-punk/alt-rock bands from the twin cities, too, like the suburbs, suicide commandos, information society, soul asylum, husker du, the replacements, and trip shakespeare, but they are not part of the general definition of the minneapolis sound.

that's a long way to go to simply say that i received some cards from brian that included a music related card. maybe i should start this post over, but it's too late to turn back; here we go.

i received these cards in part due to our ongoing swapping of cards through the mail (looking forward to swapping in person once we both feel comfortable attending the monthly local card shows again), and also because i won a contest he held on his blog a while back.

here's the big gun first, a maury wills certified autograph

from 2020 topps archives signature series and featuring his 1962 topps card that should have been as featured in the 1987 topps set.

here's another autograph that was in the package:

that's a 2015 bowman's best chase de jong autograph. de jong was the blue jays' second round pick in 2012 and was acquired by the dodgers via trade in 2015. the dodgers traded him to the mariners in 2017, and he's appeared in the big leagues for seattle, minnesota, and houston since. he's currently in the pirates' organization.

here's a guy who has pitched for the dodgers in the majors, mitchell white

on a 2018 bowman prospects card. white pitched in a couple of games in 2020 and was just called up for the first time this season earlier in the week.

this next guy is one of the dodgers' more successful pitchers

that's a 2002 donruss originals don drysdale. i have copies of that card in my team binder, my dodger stadium mini-collection, and my name/number on the back mini-collection. someday i'll share a post about that last mini-collection.

another successful dodger pitcher is next - derek lowe

on his 2005 donruss zenith museum collection parallel. i say lowe was a successful dodger pitcher due to the fact that he led the league in wins as a dodger in 2006 and won game 1 of the 2008 nlds against the cubs, largely thanks to james loney's grand slam. i was in a bar watching that game and pretty much lost my shit when loney hit that home run against the mighty cubs.

next up is a guy who has done lowe one better and won a ring as a dodger - dustin may

on a 2021 topps heritage high numbers rookie performers insert. an appropriate card for today, i think.

now we are in the 'before they were big leaguers' portion of the package. here's eric young

on his 1990 star florida state league all-stars card. the only difference between this card and his 1990 star vero beach dodgers card is that the front of this one says "national" instead of "infielder". i think these uniforms are some of the happiest around - you've got a grapefruit on the hat and a hibiscus flower on the sleeve. how can you not be happy wearing something like that?

here's a real dodger uniform on this card

that's a 1992 classic update white travel edition carlos hernandez card, with raul mondesi on deck. i suppose by this time, hernandez had played in the majors during parts of two seasons. it's worth noting that he was the first of (so far) four guys named carlos hernandez to make it to the majors. they've all been from venezuela, too.

similar to hernandez, here's tom goodwin

on his 1992 score glossy rookies card. goodwin had already made his big league debut before this card was issued, but he didn't lose his rookie status until 1995 when he was with the royals. he was one of three players that the dodgers selected in the first round of the 1989 draft. they took kiki jones with the 15th pick, goodwin with the 22nd pick, and jamie mcandrew with the 28th pick. jones and mcandrew were compensation for losing steve sax to the yankees via free agency, so goodwin was the dodgers' "real" pick. right after the dodgers selected him, the red sox took mo vaughn. 

thanks again brian! hope to see you soon!