the almost daily dodger - adrian gonzalez

with the draft being held this week - the first round was on sunday - i am reminded that the dodgers have never had the first overall pick. the closest they came was in 1993 when they should have picked first but for some reason the leagues alternated years, so the mariners (whose record in 1992 was one game better than the dodgers') picked first and took some guy named alex rodriguez. the dodgers took darren dreifort.

even though they have not had the number 1 pick, there are a number of former number 1 picks that have played for the dodgers, including adrian gonzalez

i am a big fan of these blue foil parallels from opening day sets - this one is from 2015 - but i haven't really prioritized them. i think the gonzalez was a sportlots order filler from several months ago.

gonzalez was taken first overall by the marlins in 2000. the dodgers, choosing 17th that year, took ben diggins. prior to gonzalez wearing the dodger uniform, number one overall picks darryl strawberry (1980 - mets), tim belcher (1983 - twins), and rick monday (1965 - a's) sported dodger blue at one time or another during their careers. monday was the first ever first overall pick, of course. after gonzalez, the dodgers picked up david price, who was the first overall pick in 2007 by the devil rays.

belcher and strawberry were the only two who were featured in the 1985 topps #1 draft pick subset, and belcher's 1985 topps card has a sort of o-pee-chee quality to it given the fact that he did not sign with the twins. i recall being surprised that monday wasn't included in that set, but he was no longer active following the 1984 season so that could have been the reason.

one more note - the dodgers twice drafted luke hochevar, and even signed him in 2005 until he backed out of the deal and re-entered the draft the following year where he became the number one overall pick, taken by the royals.

not where i would put them, but...

back when i would throw batting practice to my son's team (or anytime i was throwing straight bp for that matter) i would always have two baseballs in my catching hand and one in my throwing hand. oriole bird has a different way of doing things, i guess.

whatever works.

please pass the catch up

it's not a bad problem to have - falling behind on trade posts - but i do want to catch up at some point soon.  and, i'm currently expecting a few envelopes in the mail thanks to my latest almost free stuff friday, so please allow me to show some cards that i've received in the (hopefully not too distant) past.

from jon at penny sleeves for your thoughts, i have this trio of metal dodgers

the cards are a bit hard to read, but according to comc, these are 1999 skybox molten metal supernatural xplosion cards of raul mondesi, eric karros, and todd hundley. cards so xplosive, they weren't even on my want list before jon contacted me about them.

jon also sent a nice xfractor of shawn green from 2001 bowman chrome

and a 2015 topps opening day stars clayton kershaw insert

i am looking forward to seeing kershaw's "outstanding opening days" insert from this year's release. he's one of only 10 subjects (yes, bob feller is one) and i am assuming the card will address his 2013 opening day performance in which he broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 8th inning with his first career home run and then finished off the giants in the top of the ninth for a shutout. it was one of those games that i had to post about after it was over.

finally, jon included a card for my tatooine collection

that is some 2011 topps diamond anniversary sparkly tatooine goodness!

from chris at the collector (and the 1993), i have a trio of vladimir guerrero cards:

i have my vladdy collection, like pretty much my entire collection, in a binder. receiving that 1995 best card meant that i had to move every single one of my vladdy cards as it is the oldest card in the collection. i was happy to do so!

chris also sent me this 1993 action packed mark brunell card

it's one of brunell's rookies, and it's a uer thanks to the back:

he was the rose bowl mvp, not mpv. i didn't attend either of the rose bowl games mentioned on the back, but i did attend the game on 1/1/93 and saw michigan beat brunell's huskies thanks to the running exploits of tyrone wheatley.

i have a bunch of cards yet to show off from kerry at cards on cards, nick at dime boxes, brian at highly subjective and completely arbitrary, plus a few others. i'll get there, i promise!

i've been to several national parks, but only one nationals park

one of my newest mini collections consists of cards featuring stadiums in which i've seen a game. i hadn't planned on kicking things off with nationals park, but the timing worked out, as it was three years ago today that i saw the nationals take on the visiting dodgers.  here's a card from 2015 topps opening day that originally represented the home of the reigning world champions in my collection:

it's from the stadium scenes insert set, and gives a good view of the ballpark. however, i've replaced that card with this one:

a 2019 topps 150th year anniversary parallel.  i was there a couple years before this card was issued, on septemer 16, 2017. i wrote about that visit here, and i'll go ahead and show the card that was made as a result of a cody bellinger home run hit that day again.

i recently picked up a second copy of that 2017 topps now card for my 'cards featuring games i've attended' mini collection. yes, another mini collection. i'll have another post about it in 10 days or so.

stay tuned!