the almost daily dodger - jose lima

twenty years ago today, it was most definitely "lima time" at dodger stadium, as jose lima shut out the cardinals in game 3 of the 2004 nlds to stave off elimination for the dodgers. here's his 2004 topps traded & rookies gold parallel card

2004 was lima's only year with the dodgers, and he made it count. he had his best year since leaving the astros in 2001 and helped the dodgers return to the postseason for the first time since 1996. unfortunately, lima's five-hit gem was the only postseason highlight for the blue as they lost game four to the cardinals the next day. his shutout also marked the only dodger postseason victory between game 5 of the 1988 world series and game 1 of the 2008 nlds. in between those dodger victories, the club was 1-12 in the postseason.

sadly, lima passed away in 2010 at the age of 37. he won't be forgotten by dodger fans, especially today, as it is "lima time" in our collective memories.

a trade full of the blue

a few months back, i received an email from a reader named oren who was interested in trading. yes please! he quickly packaged up some very nice dodger cards and sent them my way. take a look!

2015 topps five star joc pederson

on-card, rookie card, joc pederson scribbles! awesome!

2022 topps andre jackson 1987 auto

i haven't heard too much about jackson and how he might fit in to the 2023 pitching plans for the dodgers, but he and noah syndergaard would be a terrific one-two punch in terms of hair volume.

2005 bowman's best andy laroche

the autograph is the base version of laroche's card. as with all dodger third baseman prospects, i had hoped that laroche would stabilize the position in the post-adrian beltre era. he did not.

2014 topps gold chad billingsley

and 2018 topps gold enrique hernandez

i've also been spending a fair amount of time adding various parallels to the collection (foreshadowing a future post) so these are appreciated!

2014 topps gypsy queen sandy koufax

the koufax is not a short print, but i still needed it for some reason. of course, it is a short print (hyun jin ryu) that is keeping my team set from completion.

here are some topps heritage chrome (and a retail chrome) parallels

i've been paying a lot of attention over the last few months to heritage chrome (another future post foreshadowing moment!), so these were great cards to receive!

this 2021 topps stadium club chrome mookie betts refractor

is just the regular refractor and not the "wave" refractor. i think. it looks wavy in the scan, but i didn't catalog it that way. i may have to take another look...

here are a couple more cards to round out the initial trade - a 2017 panini father's day clayton kershaw

and a 2008 upper deck timeline clayton kershaw legends timeless teams design rookie card

these don't show up in trade packages too often.

the next trade we completed resulted in a small but heavy package coming my way:

2019 topps clayton kershaw commemorative patch

2020 topps sandy koufax rookie card commemorative medallion

2020 topps gavin lux player commemorative coin

i could use that lux card as a paperweight

oren later followed that up with some more cards, including another lux

that's the generation now insert from 2022 topps update as opposed to the one lux received in series 1.

this 2022 topps stadium club trea turner black foil parallel

was the first stadium club card i owned from the set, and oren also sent a freddie freeman insert 

from the set.

similarly, the first card from 2022 topps heritage high numbers i owned was this clayton kershaw chrome parallel

from oren. i was very pleased to see this card in the envelope!

oren sent some older stuff too - gold parallels from 2004 topps traded & rookies of tom farmer

and steve finley

finley is on the list of dodger walk-off home run hitters that sealed their advancement to or in the postseason, along with charlie culberson and chris taylor. it was a big deal when finley hit that home run in 2004.

oren also sent along some of the puzzle checklists from 2004 topps traded & rookies.

i kept the three above thanks to the appearances of jose hernandez, david ross, and the dodger team on them. 

thanks for reaching out oren! i hope there are more trades to be made!

3 if by shortstop

i remember from world history class in high school that julius caeser was part of the first triumvirate. i don't recall the names of the other two guys because history favors the bold, i guess; or at least the guy who gets murdered and becomes the title character in a shakespeare play. anyway, back in the late 1990's and early 2000's, there were a trio of superstar shortstops playing in the american league - nomar garciaparra, alex rodriguez, and derek jeter. they were shown together on this 2001 fleer premium card:

this triumvirate came to an end in 2004 when rodriguez was traded to the yankees and agreed to move to third base so that jeter could remain at short. rodriguez was the better shortstop, not to mention the reigning mvp and gold glove winner at the position, but jeter was the captain. and then there was nomar, who had two batting titles to his name but had the misfortune to be sitting on the bench during a game in which jeter went head first in to the stands and showed tremendous grit and leadership in doing so.

yes, i am being sarcastic, because while i was a fan of this tremendous trio of shortstops, jeter was my least favorite. i liked a-rod, but not as much as i liked nomar. i am glad that i got to see all three play in person during their primes, but nomar is the only one of the three that ever threw me a ball.  more on that in a bit.

today is nomar's 48th birthday, and it is hard to believe that he's been retired since the end of the 2009 season. i figured that now was a good time to share the cards of him that i have in my favorite non-dodger of the year, and favorite dodger of the year mini-collections. when shawn green joined the dodgers for the 2000 season, i switched my favorite non-dodger allegiance to nomar. part of the reason for that was that i had been in boston the weekend before the 1999 all-star game, and there was a buzz. a lot of people talking about nomar and his batting average which was around .360. i saw him play in person for the first time later that season at the metrodome, and choosing him as my new favorite player was easy.

2000: upper deck legends

i was a fan of upper deck's follow up to their fantastic 1999 century legends release, so this choice was easy.

2001: donruss classics

i also really liked the donruss classics sets. they seemed fancy.

2002: upper deck vintage

a total ripoff of topps/o-pee-chee but i loved it.

2003: upper deck first pitch

i almost used this card to represent the ted williams memorial patch/armband in my memorials collection, but didn't. i'm glad it's in this mini-collection.

2004: topps traded

i really like seeing the exxon cars from pac bell/at&t/whatever park on cards. i thought about having a mini-collection of them at one time, but decided against it. i am glad that this card has made its way into one of my mini-collections after all.

2005: topps heritage new age performers

i don't know what the criteria for being a "new age performer" was, but nomar was definitely not performing at his best after the trade from the red sox. he missed over three months of the 2005 season due to a terrible hamstring injury, but came back to hit .318 over the last two months of the campaign.

and then the dodgers signed nomar as a free agent and traded away milton bradley who had been my favorite dodger during the 2005 season. sliding nomar into that slot was a no(mar)-brainer.

2006: upper deck national baseball card day

his first half of the 2006 season was so great. he was hitting around .360 at the all-star break (just like '99!) and i got to see him play in person in four different ballparks in june and july. in those games i saw at coors field, the metrodome, angel stadium, and dodger stadium, he was 9 for 23 with five doubles and a home run. my favorite memory, however, is from the june 30 game in anaheim. we were sitting behind the dodger dugout and after the end of one of the innings that ended with a putout at first base, nomar threw the ball to me. i, of course, handed it over to a kid in my row and received nice applause from the crowd around us.

unfortunately for nomar, the dodgers called up matt kemp in 2006 and he became my favorite dodger the following year. still, nomar remains one of my favorite players to have followed and root for. happy birthday to him!