bonds. barry bonds.

i haven't seen the latest james bond movie. i guess i've become used to new movies being available for streaming right away and haven't made the effort to get out to an actual movie theater. i hear good things, but am not sure that i will see it on the big screen.

i have, however, added a few cards of another bonds - barry - to some of my mini-collections over the last several months. let's start with this 2001 topps fusion card

that features bonds in front of a dodger stadium wall mural. i believe the mural says "dodgers shock yanks" in reference to the 1963 world series. remember, 2000 was the year that the murals celebrated the greatest moments in dodger stadium history.

this 1994 upper deck collector's choice card

goes in the tatooine mini-collection, while this 1993 upper deck card

featuring bonds and teammates matt williams and will clark goes in my "names/numbers on the back" mini-collection. 

i also added this 1996 upper deck sp card

and this 1999 topps stars card

to that collection. i have another post with a bunch more of these cards that will feature a better explanation of it, including the origins of the mini-collection. i've mentioned it a bunch of times on the blogs but haven't really given it its due. stay tuned.

bonds also showed up on other players' cards a few times, and i've added some of those cards to my lurkers collection. cases in point - 1991 score rookies and traded tim teufel

with teufel's arm looking almost as awkward as joel youngblood's on a card of another tim.

1993 score mickey morandini highlight

where bonds was the third out in moranidini's unassisted triple play

1996 ud collector's choice cal ripken jr collection

showing off his popularity in the all-star voting which was second only to ripken in 1995

2000 topps barry larkin

a card that is only barry, barry good, as the giant player sliding in is not, in fact, barry bonds (thanks laurens)!

and last but not least, 1999 upper deck mo vaughn

my what large pectoral muscles you have, mr. bonds!

i had a field day on camera day

upper deck used photos from "camera day" at dodger stadium on cards a few times, including jim eisenreich's awesome 1999 card

(when's the last time you saw a calculator watch on a baseball card?), and ismael valdes' 1997 card:

which features a lot of people on one piece of cardboard. there's a couple of mike piazza inserts in 1997 collector's choice that feature photos from the same day as valdes' card, and the back of gary sheffield's 1998 series 2 card uses an image from 1998's camera day festivities. 

i have been to at least two or three camera days at dodger stadium, including the 1997 game against the expos. there are no obvious cards featuring photos from that year that i have seen, although i have always suspected that vladimir guerrero's 1998 card

features a photo from that day. there's just no way to tell.

now, camera day is a bit misleading. it's not a giveaway like "dodger helmet weekend" or "batting glove day", but rather a day for fans to bring their cameras and get on the field to see players sort of up close.  the first one i recall attending was on july 30, 1978.

one of the things i remember most about that day was how big the numbers on the outfield wall were up close and in person. as you might recall, the distance measurements on the dodger stadium outfield wall were large, blocky numbers as seen on this 1990 upper deck tom foley card

we were ushered on to the field and allowed to walk along the outfield grass and warning track as i recall. i walked past the spot where ron fairly caught the final out of game 3 of the 1963 world series, as immortalized on this 1964 topps card

and stood under the 360 marker to the left of the visitor's bullpen, a spot seen on this 1975 dodgers postcard of don sutton

in fact, here's a photo

this obviously occurred prior to the addition of the windows in the wall that allowed the bullpen folks to hang out in shade and still see the goings on out on the field. the window is visible on this 1989 fleer chris sabo box bottom card

and it has been modified a few times since then.

we didn't really have any photos of players because it was pretty near impossible to get to the front. i was ok with that as it was cool to be on the field.  here's a polaroid photo that we took which gives you some idea of the mass of humanity that was there vying for space

i think we took that photo as we approached our seats in the right field corner and prior to going on the field.

later on, after the field was cleared of fans, the pirates came out to warm up and i took a photo of jerry reuss

i assure you that is reuss. i later learned through an email with him that he would do his work in between starts on the right field side of the field, a practice he continued even when he was a dodger.

reuss eventually made his way closer to the stands, and my dad took a much better photo of him

i later found it interesting that the player we got closest to on camera day wasn't a dodger...yet.  

[actually, i found some more photos from that day featuring dodgers!

terry forster

denny lewallyn

johnny oates

bill russell

and steve yeager

good stuff!]

bonus info!:  i didn't make it down to the dodger stadium field again for many years. our high school team would have played there had we advanced further in the playoffs than we did, so i waited until an eric clapton/elton john concert in august of 1992 before i set foot on the field again. this time, i was able to walk around the infield and even collect a bit of dirt from where davey lopes and steve sax positioned themselves. i had even brought an empty film cannister with me

to collect some of the infield clay. i keep it next to a similar cannister that has a chip from the berlin wall that my brother had collected for me shortly after its fall in late 1989. 

it's been almost 30 years since i was on the field at dodger stadium, but maybe someday i'll get back for the father's day catch. i have been down on the field of the metrodome and target field before a game, as well as the superdome in louisiana and most recently us bank stadium in minneapolis, but those are stories for another day.