something in the air

generosity has been prevalent in the blogosphere for a long time, and recently there were some giveaways and surprise envelopes from multiple sources. i figured it was time to highlight some of these instances that have furthered my collection.

first, the diamond king had a giveaway featuring shohei ohtani cards. i requested a 2018 panini diamond kings card

and true to form, kevin included a couple of extras. this is a 2017 panini black friday cody bellinger card

comc calls it rainbow spokes, tcdb calls it wedges. whatever it is, it's great!  and this is a 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary max muncy card

platinum cream toile & rose gold refractor, and it's numbered on the back to 75.

kevin wasn't done there, as a while later, he offered up some paul skenes cards. i requested a 2024 bowman insert chrome prospect card

and once again, kevin included some bonus dodgers.

that's a 2020 panini chronicles phoenix ruby wave cody bellinger card numbered to 199, and this is a 2018 topps fire duke snider orange parallel card

numbered to 299.

thanks kevin - i hope the cards i sent your way made it there ok!

next up, rod from padrographs had posted that there were some mailings sent out from padrographs hq, and that one of them was a poster in a tube mailer. well, guess who got the poster?!

rod sent me the steve garvey "out of the blue" poster that looks like this:

mine isn't signed, but it was easier to find a photo online than to try to roll it out and take one myself. i have a couple other garvey posters that i need to get set up somewhere.

rod also sent some cards, including one of the garv

along with a 1982 fleer roger erickson signed card

there were also some unopened packs, including 2002 upper deck world series heroes. nice to see don drysdale on the wrapper!

i don't really believe in unopened product, so here we go. my pack included a duke snider card

plus some other folks who played in the world series at some point

other packs included two 1992 upper deck minors which yielded some fun content, including chad ogea in tailored shorts

these days a few players are wearing these "above the knees" pants for real. here's the immortal skeets thomas

with one of the better broken bat cards out there.

there was one dodger card in the packs - greg hansell

i already had this card in my collection, but i found someone who needed one for theirs...

that would be tom, from angels in order. the hansell came in handy because i was preparing a return envelope for tom thanks to him sending me some cards a couple of weeks earlier. he sent these three cards from 1992 classic update white travel edition

along with a 1993-94 fleer excel roger cedeno minor league card

and a 1995 upper deck minor league top prospects karim garcia future stock card

i don't typically seek out minor league cards so it's great to have someone sending them my way!

not to be outdone, tom later had a giveaway in which i was able to procure this card:

2013 bowman platinum yasiel puig prospects chrome green refractor /399. it's really shiny and a great lead-in to st. patrick's day.

thanks kevin, rod, tom, and everyone else out there for bringing the generosity to the blogs. i am feeling inspired to do another "almost free stuff friday" in the near future. stay tuned!

i've got some green for today

i've already shared all of the shawn green cards i had in my scanned folder, but i have a few others that are appropriate for st. patrick's day. i'll start with an italian-american on a mirror green die cut parallel from 2013 panini usa baseball champions

this card is the latest entry into my post-dodger tommy lasorda collection. i appreciate the fact that it features his wedding ring and one of the world series rings that he won as the dodgers' manager. i recall tommy being disappointed that only players received gold medals at the olympics, but he had other hardware for sure.

2021 panini mosaic sandy koufax green mosaic parallel

i like these colored vintage parallels. the stained glass pops.

2022 bowman platinum green parallel

short timer gallo still got a few dodger cards which is always appreciated.

2022 topps update tony gonsolin green foil parallel

and 2022 topps update clayton kershaw green foil parallel

with production numbers up, topps has really ramped up the parallel varieties in the last couple of years. always happy to add a kershaw numbered parallel though.

2013 bowman platinum green parallel

maybe these are considered emerald parallels. still, very green.

2022 topps archives snapshots

the mookie card isn't a paralllel, but it features a lot of green so here it is.

happy st. patrick's day!

the k is for kershaw kountdown returns!

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw is back as he returned from the il to pitch against the rockies on thursday night at home in dodger stadium. he struck out 4 batters to give him 109 strikeouts on the season. those 4 rockies that he k'd increased his career total to 2,916.

in honor of his performance, here are 4 cards to represent strikeouts 2,913 through 2,916.

2,913 - 2013 bowman platinum cutting edge stars

2,914 - 2014 topps gypsy queen

2,915 - 2015 topps high tek pattern 2 spiral dots

2,916 - 2016 topps museum collection

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there until he passes zack greinke. greinke, who is currently on the il, struck out 12 batters while kershaw was out to increase his career strikeout total to 2,955. kershaw is now 39 k's behind greinke and 84 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw finished five innings in his return, allowing one run and three hits. i watched the first three innings, and he looked pretty sharp. the dodgers, who have been playing pretty well since the trade deadline, can afford to take it slow with kershaw, so i would imagine we won't see him go deep in to games any time soon.

it looks like kershaw's next start will come against the brewers next week. i am going to be in milwaukee, but the brew crew and dodgers will be playing on the west coast, unfortunately.  regardless of when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!