my favorite cards of the year - 2016 edition

i recently introduced my mini collection focusing on my favorite cards from each year that i've been a collector. the basic gist is that i wanted to create a space for the cards that i most appreciated having in my collection in the year that they were released. these were cards that i acquired in the year that they were issued, and that i considered to be my favorites at the time. i have disallowed (most) cards that are already in other mini collections in order to avoid having a mini collection consisting of more steve garvey, double plays, and dodger stadium cards.

as a fan of the game as well as a collector, it's always fun to have cards show up that are more than just a checklist filler. cards that go beyond a posed photo or headshot and deliver something unexpected. i was very pleased in that regard in 2016.

favorite non-dodger card: topps jose bautista (rainbow foil)

i've written before about my early thought (hope, really) that the photo used on gary carter's 1980 topps card came from the 1979 all-star game. it was within a few seconds of finding the card in a pack that i realized it was not from that seminal game of my childhood, but rather from a spring training matchup. still, it was a game action shot of which there were very few at that time. it seems to have taken a long time for topps to use action photos that can be tied to certain plays on the base cards (non-highlights or postseason cards) of players, and so i was surprised and pleased to see jose bautista's bat flip from the 2015 alds make the grade for his 2016 topps base card. bautista's home run capped the blue jays' comeback from a two games to none deficit in the series against the royals as it just about guaranteed their game 5 victory and advancment to the alcs, and his bat flip was the exclamation point. it was a fantastic baseball moment that caused some controversy, but i believe the reaction was unplanned and done without malice or disrespect to the pitcher, sam dyson.

favorite dodger card: panini diamond kings walter o'malley

speaking about being surprised, i had to do a double take when i saw that o'malley was on the checklist for diamond kings in 2016. upper deck had previously given us cards of former dodger general manager al campanis and executive branch rickey, but we hadn't seen one of the guy who moved the dodgers to los angeles. i tried my hand at creating a couple of cards for my collection of o'malley, but having a honest-to-goodness card of him tops that, hands down. and it only took six years after i asked the question, where are the walter o'malley cards?

up next, 1982. stay tuned!

nefarious needs no more

it's an idea that i stole back in july of 2009 from saints of the cheap seat who took it from the collective troll, and it is an idea that has similarly been adopted by pretty much everyone.  it's a list of most wanted cards posted on the sidebar - i call mine the 'nefarious 9'.  

i had exclusively housed my list over at my first blog, but i've recently added it to the sidebar here at my current digs as well.  and to mark the occasion, i did a near-complete purge of the list thanks to trying out the sportlots box with a large, multi-seller order, along with my preferred method - a trade!

the first two cards on the list have been there for a while, and they are not very common it would seem, and so they remain.  they are a 2007 topps chrome blue refractor takashi saito card, and a 1989 fleer box bottom (white back) orel hershiser card.  the rest were finally added to my collection.

i didn't scan the card that was at number 3 (2017 topps allen & ginter clayton kershaw), so the post begins with number 4 on the old list, 1993 fleer kevin gross.

yeah, that's the back of the card. i like the back because it says 'gross' in really big letters. it also shows the back of kevin's jersey with the 'k. gross' lettering.  the 1992 dodgers were the 'grossest' dodger team in a couple of ways - they lost 99 games, and they also had two pitchers named gross.  kip gross joined kevin on the roster, which begs the questions: why did kevin just have 'k' on the back of his jersey and not 'ke'? what did kip have on the back?

most wanted number 5 was this 1988 fleer award winners pedro guerrero card

guerrero was not the official sporting news comeback player of the year in 1987 (that was the cubs' rick sutcliffe) but guerrero did have a great 1987 campaign following his 1986 season in which he trashed his knee on a very poorly executed spring training slide.

number 6 on the list was cory snyder's 1994 topps stadium club card

like most of the cards that show up on the list, i needed this card to complete my dodger team set.  thanks to the multi-seller and multi-order nature of my sportlots purchase, i now have a double of this card.

the next three were recent additions to the list - 2012 topps chrome andre ethier

completes my set, and 2018 topps andre ethier

was easily my most wanted card out of this year's series 2 release.  this one came from julie at a cracked bat.  you'll see more of this card tomorrow.  thanks julie!

bringing up the rear of the list was kelsey grammer's 2015 topps first pitch insert

i watched cheers and frasier, but don't consider myself a fan of grammer which is probably why his was the last dodger related first pitch card i needed.  i also don't get why grammer gets a card and former dodgers like the infield or steve garvey or vin scully don't.  timing and the celebrity angle, i guess.

i've had a non-dodger 'bonus' card on the list for a while as well, and it was a 2016 panini diamond kings vladimir guerrero card

i am a little annoyed at panini for taking the red out of vladdy's expos uniform but leaving it in on the on-deck batter.

i am pretty sure the cards that the ethiers and grammer replaced on the list were a 2015 topps heritage high number joc pederson rookie performers insert

a 2008 upper deck piece of history andruw jones stadium scenes insert

and a 1999 grandstand san bernardino stampede steve yeager coach card!

those three cards actually came from a comc order earlier in the year.

so, the list has been mostly purged but is now repopulated.  the list is dead, long live the list:

1 - 2007 topps chrome takashi saito blue refractor

2 - 1989 fleer box bottom orel hershiser (white back)

3 - 2003 bowman #39 odalis perez 

4 - 2004 fleer greats #101 babe herman

5 - 1990 topps hills hit men #13 eddie murray

6 - 1995 topps finest #228 hideo nomo

7 - 1988 topps big #154 mike davis

8 - 2001 upper deck mvp #218 kevin brown

9 - 2011 topps opening day superstar celebrations #25 matt kemp

bonus non-dodger cards - 1982 o-pee-chee #305 don sutton

as always, any help is appreciated - you will be rewarded!

100 words a post habit

robert at $30 a week habit sent me five cards from my want list in exchange for one hundred words.

here's one that would be much better without a cub in the middle.

here's one that is shiny and sparkly and frankly rather distracting in its design.

here's one that would be much better if it were able to show the dodger logos.

here's another one that suffers from not allowing logos.

and yet another that is also of a strange size.

but they are all cards that i want and/or "need" and so they are very much appreciated.