i saw what tony gwynn was talking about

proving that you should always read the backs of cards, i was happy back in 1996 to see the text on the back of this 1996 topps hideo nomo profiles insert

it features commentary from tony gwynn that focuses on the two times the padres faced nomo during his rookie of the year campaign

i don't include this card in my "cards featuring games i've seen" mini-collection, although maybe i should. i was at the game that featured nomo's second appearance against the padres, and gwynn was right - he struck out 11 batters in eight innings. he had first faced the padres the week before and only had two strikeouts in five innings. i can understand how gwynn thought they might have better luck the second time around.

anyway, that second meeting occurred on september 30, 1995 in san diego. thanks to the strike and cancelled 1994 postseason, 1995 was the first year that the wild card would be in play for the postseason. the dodgers were only a game up on the second place rockies, but because of the tiebreaker between the two teams, they could clinch the division with a win on what was the penultimate day of the strike-shortened season. here's my ticket stub from the game:

it was my first time seeing nomo pitch in person, but for me, the main attraction was still mike piazza

we were sitting along the left field line and had a good view of the dodgers during warmups. here are piazza and brett butler walking back from a sprint to center field.

you can see behind them steve garvey's retired jersey number near the spot where he hit his walk-off home run in the 1984 nlcs. here's a better shot of it:

between two palms.

once the game started, i was excited to watch nomo pitch. here's him in his windup with the first pitch:

he struck out steve finley to start the game, and then retired jody reed on a groundout. that brought up tony gwynn

who promptly tripled. note that gwynn didn't mention that on the back of the card up above. with gwynn on third

he was immediately driven in by a ken caminiti single to give the pads an early lead. in the top of the second, however, delino deshields doubled

and then scored on an error to tie the game at 1. i took that picture of deshields largely because both he and reed are in the frame, and those two guys are forever linked in dodger lore as the reason for and the return received in the pedro martinez trade.

the game remained tied for a while until raul mondesi went deep in the top of the 7th

and an inning later, mike piazza padded the lead with a two-run homer of his own

that's dustin hermanson walking dejectedly on the mound - he had been brought in to the game to face piazza.

a few outs later (here's a link to video of the last out), the dodgers were celebrating their first division title since 1988, and the celebrating began with piazza, todd worrell, and tim wallach

and then came the rest of the guys

jose offerman, who seemed to be on the outs, was the last player to reach the celebration, and he definitely took his time getting out there

finally, tommy lasorda ran out to join the players.

it was great to see the dodgers clinch a division title in person - it's just too bad that they got swept in the nlds by the reds.

on a not really related note, chris gwynn was on the dodgers' roster in 1995, and was in uniform that night but didn't appear in the game. i recently found that i had a parallel version of this 1992 upper deck card

of the gwynn brothers in my dupes box. it's a gold hologram parallel

and so now it is in my 1992 dodger team binder. i don't plan to find another for the dodger stadium collection - the regular hologram will do just fine there - but it is one of my favorite dodger stadium cards. 

while i was very happy to witness the dodgers clinch the division in '95, i would have really enjoyed to see it happen in chavez ravine.