for the love of all that is holy, avert your eyes

it has been a long time since i've looked for - let alone added - a tristar signa cuts card. for whatever reason, i took a peek at available inventory around the start of the year and wound up purchasing this 2008 brutalization of steve howe's 1984 topps card

i will never have certified autographs of all of the dodger rookies of the year, but with this howe card in hand, i have examples of each dodger roy from 1980 on except for 1995 winner hideo nomo. that would mean i have auto cards of these guys:

cody bellinger (2017)

corey seager (2016)

todd hollandsworth (1996)

raul mondesi (1994)

mike piazza (1993)

eric karros (1992)

steve sax (1982)

fernando valenzuela (1981)

steve howe (1980)

i also have certified autos of joe black (1952), don newcombe (1949), and frank howard (1960). howard is my newest addition, thanks to this 2001 topps archives autograph card

that i added not too long ago. this all means i am missing jackie robinson (1947), jim gilliam (1953), jim lefebvre (1965), ted sizemore (1969), rick sutcliffe (1979) and the aforementioned nomo.

of those, i only know of a certified cut robinson dodger autograph. the nomos that i have seen feature him in non-dodger uniforms - same with the sutcliffes. i don't think the other two modern players (lefebvre and sizemore) have any certified autos regardless of team.

and so, i will likely continue to periodically check the airwaves for signa cuts, even though they are destroyers of cards.

the almost daily dodger - frank howard

you don't see too many frank howard cards being produced these days, and i should have made an effort sooner to acquire this one

which is from the 2022 topps rookie of the year 75th anniversary set. i had found jackie robinson's card from the set at a card show in 2023 but continued to neglect the rest of the set. then, i found three of the other four dodgers at another card show

and decided to track down howard to complete the set.

howard, who passed away one year ago today, was the dodgers' fifth rookie of the year, and the first from their time in los angeles. his 23 home runs as a rookie in 1960 cracked the league's top ten but he wouldn't lead the league in that category until he was with the washington senators in the late 1960's.

in 1993, mike piazza passed howard by hitting 35 home runs as a rookie for the dodgers. his team record stood until cody bellinger came along in 2017 and hit 39. for two years, that was also a national league record, but then along came pete alonso. for the record, corey seager, the other dodger featured in this post, hit 26 dingers as a rookie in 2016.

joy of a complete roy set

today is the 103rd anniversary of jackie robinson's birth, so i figured i would show some cards that are associated with the annual award named in his honor - the rookie of the year award.

the cards make up a 14-card set from 1995 given to season ticket holders that celebrates the dodgers (through 1994) to be voted as the rookie of the year in the national league (or in jackie robinson's case, the rookie of the year in major league baseball). using relatively new chrome technology, the set included jackie robinson (1947), don newcombe (1949), joe black (1952), jim gilliam (1953), frank howard (1960), jim lefebvre (1965), ted sizemore (1969), rick sutcliffe (1979), steve howe (1980), fernando valenzuela (1981), steve sax (1982), eric karros (1992), mike piazza (1993), and raul mondesi (1994).

let's see the cards!

that last one there is just a blank back header. 

thanks to the uncertainty surrounding rookies regarding the remainder of their careers, there are some guys included here that don't have many cards. in fact, these may be the only post-career cards of jim lefebvre (as a player) and ted sizemore outside of the 1990 target dodgers set. plus, any newer rick sutcliffe cards most likely don't show him as a dodger.

it took me about 20 years to pick up this set although i think i only knew about its existence for a couple of years before i found one on ebay for a very nice price. i think the purchase came when i was between blogs, so i never featured it in a post, and i don't think i've ever seen it featured on any other blog.

i would imagine the set was issued at least in part as an effort to reward season ticket holders while the players' strike was still going on. whether it was issued prior to the start of the 1995 season or not, it certainly was issued too soon to include 1995 rookie of the year hideo nomo, and i don't believe there was any sort of update made. of course, since then, the dodgers have also produced rookies of the year in 1996 (todd hollandsworth), 2016 (corey seager), and 2017 (cody bellinger).

i am not sure what the deal is, but you can see some blotchy spots on some of the cards. there is no surface damage to the cards, so i guess it is just reflective of the chromium holochrome technology of the times.  here's a glimpse at the back of jackie's card:

the card backs are different colors, but have the same information.

it was a source of pride to me as a young dodger fan to have four consecutive rookies of the year from 1979 to 1982, and i was secretly disappointed in greg brock that he couldn't bring the award home in 1983. of course, a decade later the dodgers were on their way to five straight rookies of the year which was fun to witness.

this has to be my favorite dodger produced set (even when considering the massive aformentioned target set), and it would be great to see an update someday with those four (or hopefully more) subsequent rookie of the year award winners.

that which we call pee wee; by any other name would cause confusion

apologies to the bard.

i bring to you tonight, among other things, this 1958 topps pee wee reese card

now reese's real name is harold. harold henry reese, if we are being formal. keep that in mind as you look at the back of this card:

the first time i ever saw this card, the cartoon on the left confused me. it says that reese got his nickname "from his marble-shooting days as a boy". i was left wondering how "pee wee" was derived from marbles, but i thought maybe there was a "pee wee" competition or a brand of marbles or something like that. the only other nickname for reese that i was aware of was "little colonel" which doesn't seem to have anything to do with marbles at all.  

then a couple of years ago, i was reading joe garagiola's book "baseball is a funny game"

and in a section wherein he discusses nicknames of the 1950's, he notes that reese's nickname is actually "the champ".

while joe can't spell, he does reference marbles! mystery solved. now it is possible that this information was included in roger kahn's classic "the boys of summer" but if so the information didn't register between the time i read the book and first saw the back of pee wee's card. other nicknames garagiola notes in the book that you won't find on baseball reference include lee walls (captain midnight) and bill virdon (cyclops). both of those had to do with their glasses that they wore.

the pee wee card up top (and all the other cards you will see in this post) came my way from thorzul - now at death stare cards - as part of a vintage collection team break he hosted. it was an upgrade for my team collection, as were a number of cards that i received. cases in point:

1959 topps don zimmer

well, there's ol' zim!

1959 topps rip repulski

rip here was a good ol' minnesota boy whose real name was eldon. joe doesn't say, but i assume repulski was known as rip as a take on his last name. he also has one of the few non-yellow dodger cards in the 1959 set. maybe because he's a phillie in the photo.

1960 fleer joe medwick

i am sure that joe g. would want you to know that medwick's nickname was "ducky"

1960 topps frank howard

howard went by "hondo". 

1962 topps league leaders featuring wally moon

i don't know if moon had a nickname (maybe something to do with his eyebrow game?), but the name shenanigans here have to do with roberto clemente and topps' apparent refusal to use his real name.

1962 topps daryl spencer

according to baseball reference, spencer's nickname was "dee" or "big dee". maybe before he joined the dodgers, but there was just one "big d" on the dodgers.

1967 topps john werhas

i guess werhas was known as "peaches", at least according to baseball reference.

1976 topps league leaders featuring andy messersmith

now this card wasn't an upgrade for me, but it does feature some folks with strong nicknames. there's tom terrific, but john the count of montefusco takes the prize. as for messersmith, he was called "bluto".

1971 fleer laughlin world series 1949

the cartoon on the card features elwin charles roe, better known as "preacher"

names are a big part of these next two cards

thorzul offered the set checklists up for grabs, and i was able to upgrade a couple from my 1974 set. we see right at the start of that checklist a couple of players with some great nickames - hammerin' hank and catfish hunter.

the dodger team checklist features some signatures taken from topps contracts, so you get formal names like "david e." lopes and "ronald" cey and "william joseph" buckner instead of dave and ron and bill, respectively. "thomas" john surgery just wouldn't sound the same.

finally, i also came away with this card

that's a 1975-76 topps lakers team leaders card that features gail goodrich, cazzie russell, and happy hairston. of the three, only hairston is sporting a nickname - his real name was harold.

while i was hoping for a koufax or four in my lot, i was not disappointed by the return. thanks thorzul!

participation cards

there's always a lot going on here in the blogosphere. the easiest way to participate, outside of posting itself, is to leave comments. i am guilty of not commenting often enough on the blogs that i read, and i certainly don't expect everyone who reads my posts to leave a comment. except for fuji - the blogosphere's most frequent commenter! seriously, thanks fuji!

there are other ways to participate, and the result is often trophies in the shape of cards!  case in point, chris at the collector recently asked for help with photoshop while he was setting up his new blog the 1993.  i volunteered my amateur skills, and was rewarded with some cards!

chris sent me this 2016 topps archives 65th anniversary frank howard card

and a 2017 bowman's best clayton kershaw/brendan mckay mirror image insert

just for helping a blogger out!

earlier this year, free card fridays became a thing thanks to jon, brian, rod, kerry, and others, and they have continued to pop up throughout the ensuing months. this is another way to participate in what the community has to offer!

i recently received cards that i claimed on these posts from the aforementioned jon - a 2015 topps chrome joc pederson prism refractor

jay at card hemorrhage also offered up some cards, and i scored a 2002 topps 206 stan musial card

for my set build that is 18 years in the making!

kevin the diamond king also offered up some cards and i requested and received a 2018 bowman draft luis robert card

kevin also held a contest recently (another way to participate in the blogosphere), and i came away as the lucky winner of this card:

that's a 2020 panini donruss divisions insert featuring the national league west. that's cody bellinger in the upper left, and he is joined on the card by nolan arenado, fernando tatis jr, ketel marte, and evan longoria. longoria is an odd choice for the giants, but who am i to judge.

kevin sent more cards for me along with the contest prize, including a six pack of vladimir guerrero

that included three of the four franchises for whom he suited up. i still wish the blue jays (his fifth franchise) had called him up in 2012. oh well.

group breaks have been around for a long time with many bloggers (including yours truly) hosting them at various times. one of the most venerable group break hosts is colbey at cardboard collections. his affordable breaks offer up a great variety of releases from the past and present.

i recently participated in a spate of breaks hosted by colbey that netted my some great cards from 1994 fleer flair. 1996 topps laser, 1997 leaf limited, 1999 pacific crown collection, and 2020 topps stadium club.

this mike piazza infield power insert is from 1994 flair

and this piazza card is from 1996 topps laser.

other dodger cards i received in that break were those of ismael valdes, hideo nomo, raul mondesi, and eric karros.

that's a complete team set, but unfortunately i didn't hit any of the inserts.

here's a trio from 1997 leaf limited

along with another mike piazza insert

pacific is always a fun product, and i was able to cross this antonio osuna card

off of my want list.

colbey held a random 2-team break of stadium club and i wound up with the brewers and rays. as a result, i picked up a couple of lorenzo cain cards

base and red foil parallel, along with a mike brosseau red foil parallel

he's the dude that hit the 8th inning home run off of aroldis chapman in the alds this year that sent the yankees home.

against my better judgement, i also entered a couple of colbey's football breaks. from 1995 topps stadium club, i took the vikings and jaguars and wound up with a sizeable stack of cards. this, in fact, may be the first time fuad reveiz has been featured on a blog anywhere, so here you go:

i actually followed the jags for a few seasons, and was happy to find a mark brunell card in my stack

i took the jags again in a 1997 pacific litho-cel break, and wound up with a keenan mccardell litho card

(no cel, unfortunately), and a jimmy smith game time insert

all that was missing was some fred taylor goodness!

and then there are the straight up trades that pretty much every blogger is up for. i've completed a number of them over the last few months, and i am working on catching up with my "thank you" posts for folks like brad's blog, baseball cards come to life, remember the astrodome, the collective mind, cards on cards, baseball dime boxes, night owl cards, 2x3 heroes, and others. i will catch up eventually, unless anyone wants to trade?

one last time, avert your eyes

i have a sickness. i am drawn to these mutilated cards like a moth to a flame.

this one is frank howard, the 1960 national league rookie of the year. he kindly signed his 1988 pacific legends card for a fan, and sometime later, some guy in a suit looking to make some money cut it up, surrounded it with glitter, and stuck it in a slab.

and i'm the damn fool that bought it.