cards from nick always make me smyly

yet another trade with nick at dime boxes is in the books, and as always, it was a good one. nick responded to my call for some 2024 topps series 2 base needs, including drew smyly's card

which is a welcome departure from the other cards in the set. i wish topps would find a balance between candids and action shots and not lean so heavily in one direction or the other.

nick included several other base needs from the latest flagship release, and also threw this thing in there

it's not the meijer purple parallel but rather some sort or purple holofoil parallel. not sure where these are found (and not going to bother to look it up) but it's appreciated nonetheless.

some other dodgers that nick sent include a james outman 2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary card

it's a card that would have been much more popular if it were actually released in 2023.

nick is always good for some new to me vladimir guerrero cards, and this time there were a bunch. two of my favorites are this one

(which is not, in fact, from 2004 topps, but rather a 2006 topps walmart exclusive insert!) and this one from 2003 fleer ultra

that refers to his team as "mon expos" which means "my" expos but is really just a strange way of abbreviating "montreal". i would have expected "mtl".

nick is also good for some new to me double play turns, and there were four this time around.

2017 topps jason kipnis rainbow foil

2001 fleer ultra barry larkin

2000 pacific edgardo alfonzo

and 2004 mlb showdown edgar renteria

these next two were my favorite cards of the bunch. the first one is a 1996 upper deck hideo nomo highlights card

it's a duplicate, but one that i was able to find a home for in my collection because of the back

i was at the game referenced on the back and got to see nomo's performance that night along with an on-field division clinching celebration by the dodgers, and i shared my experience (along with another card that tangentially references nomo's performance that night) in this post. because this card directly references the game i was at, it goes into my "cards featuring games i attended in person" mini-collection.

the other card that i want to share is this one

a 1960 topps don drysdale all-star card! it's one of nick's bargain finds at a recent show and was a bit of a surprise to see among all the newer cards.

if you're not trading with nick i don't know what to tell you.

thanks nick!

where there's a worrell, there's a way

it's been a while, but i am finally showing some cards that have come my way over the past few months. first up are some goodies from daniel of it's like having my own card shop. he posted a photo of some 1995 score platinum team set cards and offered some up to those who chose a team that was included in his stash. i spied todd worrell's leg in the photo and claimed some dodgers.  here's the worrell card

that also netted me a jim gott card

plus cards of henry rodriguez, delino deshields, dave hansen, and chris gwynn

plus the rookie subset cards of darren dreifort and garey ingram

these cards are really shiny and sparkly and were a redemption set.  thanks daniel!

next up, tom from angels, in order sent me some minor league cards from my want list. these are 1991 fleer excel cards, and i scanned a couple of triple-a cards - butch davis and carlos hernandez - plus a couple of double-a cards - braulio castillo and mike white

davis had already been in the majors for a couple of teams when his card was issued, but he only made one plate appearance as a dodger. i last saw him coaching for the twins a few years ago. hernandez was a backup catcher to mike piazza for a few years, and castillo wound up in the bigs with the phillies. as for white, he was another dodger first round pick who never did make the majors, peaking at triple-a with the mets in 1992.

and then there are cards from night owl, which i have previously referred to as hand-me-downs. it's a great thing when the preeminent presence in the blogosphere collects the same team as his doubles have to go somewhere...

one of my favorite cards he sent in these last two envelopes is this 1987 tcma 1955 brooklyn dodgers card of pee wee reese and jim gilliam

i also liked the two cards from the 1992 classic update travel blue and red set. greg sent ramon martinez

and dave hansen. i scanned the back of hansen's card

to show the marc okkonen uniform figure, which is the same as you will find online as part of the uniform database linked through baseball reference.

from 1996 upper deck, here's a die-cut mike piazza run producers insert

that i had not seen before.

kaz ishii was the darling of card companies back in 2002, and fleer provided this ticket to the majors card from their authentix release

nice to see maury wills making an appearance on the replica ticket stub embedded in the card. the dodgers did feature players on their stubs, but fleer didn't use actual tickets for this set like topps would in 2009.

here's a 2002 upper deck 40 man of dodger double dipper giovanni carrara

there aren't too many cards of carrara, and i could not track this one down for the post i linked to above. i did find his 2003 40 man card that came from his time away from the dodgers and i certainly overpaid to get it for the post.

greg and i both have a lot of clayton kershaw cards, but he was able to send a couple that were missing from my collection. first, a 2017 panini national convention vip prizm card

and then a 2022 topps royal blue parallel

i sure do hope kershaw returns in 2024.

there was some nonsense included in the way of this 2020 topps update mookie betts baseball collectible coin

that exists just to have something exclusive in blasters. i didn't buy any blasters of 2020 update (at least i don't recall finding any of these coins) so i am glad to have this one in my collection.

and last but not least, greg included one of gio's custom cards - a 1978 topps dodgers card featuring the 30 home run teammates:

as always, fun to go through envelopes sent my way. thank you!

if you've got a sombrero, throw it to the sky

friday night in los angeles kicks off a weekend celebrating fernandomania and its subject - fernando valenzuela. that same night - august 11 - the dodgers will retire number 34 in his honor.

i wrote earlier this year about the fact that fernando is already a member of the "legends of dodger baseball", and i will be interested to see how the team handles the transition from that group to the retired numbers faction. will they just move his monument from one spot to the other? that would be my guess.

anyway, here are some cards of fernando that i've added over the last year or so, starting with a 2017 topps rediscover topps buyback of his 1990 topps card

it's the silver stamp version, not that you can tell.

when it comes to adding cards of fernando to my dodger collection, i am down mainly to oddballs, wo here are a few of those that are new-ish to me

1981 all-star game program insert

1982 topps album stickers

1989 topps super star stickers (with rob deer)

1985 topps rub downs (with tony pena and robin yount)

i also finally added his 1987 star company set to my collection:

i bought the set as single cards on beckett since it was cheaper than what i saw for complete sets, however, one of the cards was missing so i had to pick up a single on ebay

back when the dodgers announced that they were going to retire fernando's number, i made the announcement that i was adding him to my post-dodger player collections. so, i've been adding non-dodger cards of fernando to my collection ever since. some i already had among my non-dodger duplicates and monster boxes, but some i've tracked down online.

i had a reader point out (thanks benjamin!) that fernando's two cards from the 1993-94 line up venezuelan winter league set were on ebay for cheap, but i was too slow to snag his solo card. i did get this card

showing him with urbano lugo. it's a great oddball and i am happy to have a card showing fernando in team mexico gear in my collection.

i've made some great progress in filling out the post-dodger collection (here's my have/want list) so i figured i would share with you. 

1993

you may recall that fernando pitched for the angels in 1991 after he was released by the dodgers just prior to the start of the season. there are sadly no cards of him in his angel uniform, so we jump to 1993. the orioles signed him to a contract and i was pretty happy that he was back in the majors.

those cards include flair, fleer, fleer ultra, leaf, o-pee-chee premier, and topps stadium club.  i have to show the back of the stadium club card

because it features his 1981 topps multi-player rookie (hello jack perconte and mike scioscia!). let's keep going with 1993-1994

i am a big fan of fernando's 1993 upper deck card (it was my favorite non-dodger card that year), and i was confused to find that topps included him in stadium club but not flagship (or traded). after finishing the 1993 season with the orioles, fernando was unsigned until well in to the 1994 campaign. so, it was nice that he was added to some card checklists that year as a phillie.  the cards above are his 1993 topps stadium club member's only parallel, 1993 upper deck, 1994 fleer, 1994 flair, 1994 fleer update, and 1994 pacific.

more from 1994

those are his pacific prism (circles), score, score gold rush, topps, topps gold, and topps stadium club cards from '94. that year marked the end of his run with topps until a few years after his retirement.

here's one more from '94 and some '95 cards

those are the 1994 topps stadium club rainbow foil, 1995 fleer, 1995 fleer update, 1995 mother's cookies padres, 1995 upper deck, and 1995 upper deck series 2 cards. as you can see, fernando left the phillies and joined the padres for the 1995 season.

more '95 cards

there we have his upper deck series 2 electric diamond parallel, his upper deck collector's choice cards (i have them out of order), the upper deck collector's choice trade card redemption, and 1995 upper deck collector's choice se - base and silver signature versions. those last two are nice because he's back in dodger stadium.

on to 1996

it's all padres here, as fernando spent 1996 with them, too. those cards are emotion-xl, flair, fleer tiffany, fleer ultra, mother's cookies padres, and pacific crown collection. i like the back of the emotion-xl card

as it shows fernando peeking to the sky during his wind up.

more from 1996, plus one from '97

pacific prisms, circa, upper deck (young at heart subset), upper deck collector's choice (international flavor subset), upper deck collector's choice silver signature are the '96 cards, and the last card is from 1997 donruss.  there was no regular card for fernando in 1997 upper deck (as was the case with some, but not all, of the other 'young at heart' subjects), but his young at heart card has his full stats on the back, along with a nice photo of him as a dodger

here are the rest of the 1997 cards that i own

donruss press proof, fleer, fleer metal, fleer ultra, mother's cookies padres, pacific crown collection, pacific prism invincibles, pinnacle, score, score premium stock, score showcase series, and upper deck. the back of the upper deck card notes that he was the winning pitcher in the first mlb game held in mexico.

i guess i have a couple more from 1997 - upper deck special report subset, and collector's choice

and those last two are his 1998 final tributes from upper deck and upper deck collector's choice. fernando pitched for the cards in 5 games after being traded by the pads in the middle of the 1997 season. the cardinals released him in july of 1997, so i was surprised (but super happy) to see him in 1998 releases.

as you can see, i am missing a few base cards so feel free to help me out with my post-dodger fernando collection. and don't forget to salute him this weekend as he becomes only the second non-hall of famer to have his numbered retired by the dodgers. fernandomania forever!