love is a bottenfield

usually when i host one my "almost free stuff friday" trade posts, i prefer to receive cards directly from my want list. many of my mini collections are subjective as to cards that i would want to add, and i only have "have lists" posted for them. my want lists are cards that i want (to varying degrees) but definitely need for dodger team sets or player collections or what have you.

bo did not send cards from my want list in exchange for the cards he claimed, but i couldn't be happier with the cards he sent.  here is the big gun:

that is a 2001 fleer triple crown kent bottenfield card. he sent it for my dodger stadium mini collection, as bottenfield is standing out in right field at chavez ravine. i know this because of the mural behind him.  now, i would have sworn that i looked through the entire comc inventory of fleer cards from 1998 through 2005 - including sold out cards - looking for cards that featured the murals in the background, but i never saw this bottenfield card.  

what really amped me up was that the mural in the background features none other than steve garvey, who was being celebrated in 2000 for reaching the 1,000 consecutive games played milestone in a game at dodger stadium, along with other great moments in dodger stadium history.  it was a great surprise and one that impelled me to act further. more on that later.

bo also sent a new double play card for me - a 2003 upper deck ricky gutierrez card

and a 1995 upper deck sp edddie murray card

that goes in the tattooine collection.

back to bottenfield, i quickly added another card to my garvey collection

and then decided to add as many as i could.  i have permanently added this card to my nefarious 9/most wanted cards list, and am up to 10 of them as of this writing

they come in varying shades it appears.

the only other card that a clear view of a garvey mural appears (that i am aware of - please prove me wrong if you can!) is the 2004 fleer ultra preston wilson card. 

that's the gold medallion parallel, which i realized was lacking from my garvey collection. i also picked up a base and another gme parallel

for the dodger stadium collection.  and, like the bottenfield, these cards have also been made permanent residents of my most wanted cards list.  as of right now, i only have one extra base and two extra gme parallels

but maybe you can change that?  the mural that shows up here, by the way, is part of the dodger record setters murals, and this one in particular features the full gcrl infield. it shows up on a few other cards of pitchers, but is not as clear. i would love to find another 2004 fleer tradition dodger team set darren dreifort card, though.

i did see a new ichiro card that featured the 2001 retired number murals, and quickly snapped one up for my dodger stadium collection

this is from 2022 topps 587 montgomery club set 3 if you are curious. just a couple of hall of fame center fielders (that's duke snider on the wall if you can't tell) hanging out on the same card.

and then there are a couple more traditional dodger stadium cards that i've added over the last couple of months...

a co-worker gave me some cards which included a 1989 donruss dave meads card

with the right field scoreboard behind him. i had also thought i had scoured 1980s astros cards for dodger stadium backgrounds as they seem to have a lot - the stadium's color scheme worked well with the astro uniforms back then - but i missed this meads.

and finally, i somehow became aware of this 1990 topps rick reuschel card

featuring big daddy and the always popular dodger stadium pickoff move to first photo. the card is a box bottom, and i saw it thanks to one of my saved searches for the 1989 fleer orel hershiser box bottom card (white back version) which has sat atop my most wanted list for a long, long, long time.

and that is how you bring a post full circle - from want list to want list with some nice dodger stadium cards in between.  as always - help a blogger out and let me know if you have any cards i need.  you will be rewarded!