it's not all (hand me) down hills from here

i started blogging two weeks after night owl began his blog, and from the start we've been swapping cards. i often refer to the cards he sends me as hand-me-downs, as they are dodger cards that come from another dodger collector. of course, all cards sent out to others can be considered hand-me-downs in that sense.  anyway, we recently swapped some cards.

i'll start with a couple of hill cards as teased in the title of this post - a 2017 honus bonus rich hill card

and a 2002 topps chrome traded koyie hill card

while the rich hill card is not the first honus bonus card in my collection, i finally decided to figure out their backstory while writing this post. i guess the manufacturer of those cards also made wnba cards, but now looks to be firmly committed to science fiction entertainment sets like doctor who and star trek.  as for koyie, i remember him doubling in his first big league at bat in 2003 in what was one of his only appearances as a dodger. still, he wound up playing in the majors through the 2014 season.

here's a 2002 topps traded gold parallel card of clinton hosford

he did not make it to the big leagues, and was a 40th round pick. makes me wonder why topps tagged him as a prospect, but good for him getting a card in this set!

here are a couple of cards of a more realistic dodger prospect from that same timeframe - joe thurston on a 2003 playoff absolute memorabilia card

and a 2003 playoff portraits card

thurston had a couple cups of coffee with the dodgers from 2002-2004 and was playing minor league ball as recently as 2015, although he made his final big league appearance in 2011 as a marlin.

next up is a 2007 upper deck first pitch leading off insert of rafael furcal

furcal joined the dodgers for the 2006 season and promptly led them to the playoffs. a few years later, the dodgers traded him to the cardinals where he promptly won a world series championship.

furcal's double play partner for the first couple of years of his dodger tenure was jeff kent, who was represented in the cards i received by this 2007 upper deck holiday inn card

and this 2008 topps heritage chrome card

those cards provide a lot of green, which is what kent received from the dodgers when he signed as a free agent. kent's dad was a cop in the city i worked at, and i was working there when jeff was called up to the majors by the blue jays in 1992. i recall a level of excitement around the office when that happened, and when kent signed with the dodgers it was a big deal for his parents.

here are a couple of clayton kershaw cards - a 2010 topps national chicle

national chicle back parallel!

and a 2016 panini donruss optic illusion card

it's not a trick, michael - it's an illusion!

more needed inserts coming up, like this 2016 topp duke snider mlb debut card

and this 2017 topps jackie robinson memorable moments card

i didn't realize that duke made his first big league appearance just a couple of days after jackie broke the color barrier.

a few more cards of note - a 2018 topps big league matt kemp gold parallel

a 2019 topps silver pack 1984 35th anniversary manny machado

and a 2021 bowman cody bellinger 

to finish out the trades. i don['t know if you've seen the 2022 topps design yet, but it looks very bowman-y to me. it will be interesting to see what 2022 bowman looks like with flagship looking like it does.

thanks for the hand-me-downs night owl!