something in the air

generosity has been prevalent in the blogosphere for a long time, and recently there were some giveaways and surprise envelopes from multiple sources. i figured it was time to highlight some of these instances that have furthered my collection.

first, the diamond king had a giveaway featuring shohei ohtani cards. i requested a 2018 panini diamond kings card

and true to form, kevin included a couple of extras. this is a 2017 panini black friday cody bellinger card

comc calls it rainbow spokes, tcdb calls it wedges. whatever it is, it's great!  and this is a 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary max muncy card

platinum cream toile & rose gold refractor, and it's numbered on the back to 75.

kevin wasn't done there, as a while later, he offered up some paul skenes cards. i requested a 2024 bowman insert chrome prospect card

and once again, kevin included some bonus dodgers.

that's a 2020 panini chronicles phoenix ruby wave cody bellinger card numbered to 199, and this is a 2018 topps fire duke snider orange parallel card

numbered to 299.

thanks kevin - i hope the cards i sent your way made it there ok!

next up, rod from padrographs had posted that there were some mailings sent out from padrographs hq, and that one of them was a poster in a tube mailer. well, guess who got the poster?!

rod sent me the steve garvey "out of the blue" poster that looks like this:

mine isn't signed, but it was easier to find a photo online than to try to roll it out and take one myself. i have a couple other garvey posters that i need to get set up somewhere.

rod also sent some cards, including one of the garv

along with a 1982 fleer roger erickson signed card

there were also some unopened packs, including 2002 upper deck world series heroes. nice to see don drysdale on the wrapper!

i don't really believe in unopened product, so here we go. my pack included a duke snider card

plus some other folks who played in the world series at some point

other packs included two 1992 upper deck minors which yielded some fun content, including chad ogea in tailored shorts

these days a few players are wearing these "above the knees" pants for real. here's the immortal skeets thomas

with one of the better broken bat cards out there.

there was one dodger card in the packs - greg hansell

i already had this card in my collection, but i found someone who needed one for theirs...

that would be tom, from angels in order. the hansell came in handy because i was preparing a return envelope for tom thanks to him sending me some cards a couple of weeks earlier. he sent these three cards from 1992 classic update white travel edition

along with a 1993-94 fleer excel roger cedeno minor league card

and a 1995 upper deck minor league top prospects karim garcia future stock card

i don't typically seek out minor league cards so it's great to have someone sending them my way!

not to be outdone, tom later had a giveaway in which i was able to procure this card:

2013 bowman platinum yasiel puig prospects chrome green refractor /399. it's really shiny and a great lead-in to st. patrick's day.

thanks kevin, rod, tom, and everyone else out there for bringing the generosity to the blogs. i am feeling inspired to do another "almost free stuff friday" in the near future. stay tuned!

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - slightly delayed editon

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continues as he took the mound against the mariners on saturday night in seattle. he struck out 4 batters to give him 127 strikeouts on the season. those 4 mariners that he k'd increased his career total to 2,934.

in honor of his performance, here are 4 cards from my collection to represent strikeouts 2,931 through 2,934.

2,931 - 2017 topps fire flame parallel

2,932 - 2018 topps fire flame parallel

2,933 - 2020 topps fire gold minted parallel

2,934 - 2021 topps fire flame parallel

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there until he passes zack greinke. greinke, who struck out 4 blue jays and 1 astro in his appearances since the last countdown post, has a career strikeout total of 2,967. kershaw is now 33 k's behind greinke and 66 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw's start was delayed, not due to injury (according to dave roberts), but rather as a way of lining things up for him as the dodgers approach the postseason (again, according to roberts). he went only four innings, and again didn't have his best stuff - at least in the first couple of innings. with the rag tag starting rotation that the dodgers have in place right now, it seems like a healthy kershaw would get the game 1 nlds start although he is following bobby miller in the rotation so it could be the rookie. time is marching on...

it looks like kershaw's next start will come at home later in the week against the giants. regardless of when he makes his next start or how many k's he posts, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

turning on a dime

dimebox nick, who has a thing for cards showing the double play turn just as much as i do, sent me a great trade package recently. it was, as one would expect, heavy with twin killing cards, such as these 2020 topps dansby swanson

and fernando tatis jr

specimens. 

seeing the tatis jr card reminded me that topps featured him on a factory set exclusive card last year while turning two, and i finally went and added a copy to my collection

shenanigans for sure on the part of topps, but at least they didn't reuse the "exclusive" photo in 2020 flagship.

back to the cards that nick sent, here are some more double plays that were new to my collection

the 2014 topps rickie weeks walmart blue parallel is especially nice.  the other card here that stands out to me is the 1994 score jeff kent gold rush parallel. you can't see it very well, but the player sliding in is dodger eric davis, and the play is taking place in dodger stadium. that means that the card fits in my lurker, dodger stadium, and double play mini-collections. davis is also wearing the tim crews memorial patch, so it could conceivably fit in that one, too! very happy that nick turned me on to that card.

here's another card nick sent that crosses mini-collection boundaries:

that's a 1996 donruss jose oquendo card. i already had one for my dp collection, so this one goes in to the lurker collection (hello, mitch webster). i could use another for my dodger stadium collection, too.

nick also included a healthy dose of dodgers, including kiké!

his 2020 topps heritage card is a bit more subdued than his flagship card, that's for sure.

2019 topps chrome update will smith

helping me complete a team set!

2018 topps fire kenley jansen flamethrowers insert

solar flare action!

2017 topps andrew toles 1987 insert

not sure what is happening with andrew toles these days, but i hope he's doing alright.

1977 dover classic reprints 1914 cracker jack zach wheat

i had the dover reprint booklets as a kid in 1978, and i remember being fascinated by the old card designs and at the same time disappointed at the lack of dodgers included in the reprints.

2003 topps kanebo brian jordan (back)

such a cool card! 

nick and i also share an affection for vladimir guerrero cards, and he sent me a bunch of new ones for my collection:

including a kanebo and some other offbeat releases.

thanks as always nick! it's a pleasure to trade with you!

mood

i'm still a realistic optimist, though.

another patch for another school shooting

the cubs and marlins wore a patch on their jerseys on opening day of the 2018 season.  no, the patch was not to mark the start of another baseball season. it was instead to honor the 17 individuals killed at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida on february 14.

ian happ hit a home run on the first pitch of the season, and was given this 2018 topps now card as a result.

the patch is visible on his left chest, above the 'g' in 'chicago'.

here's a 2018 topps fire lewis brinson card

that shows the patch more clearly.

the parkland shooting joins columbine, virginia tech, northern illinois university, and sandy hook as school shootings to have generated a memorial patch and/or other means of recognition by major league baseball and its players, and those are just a small sampling of the similar occurrences over the last few years.