i started 2024 with a 20/25

one of my first pick-ups in the new year came via sportlots, and it's not the kind of card i usually find there. as i do maybe once every six months, i searched the site for steve garvey cards on the off chance that a seller added an uncommon parallel to their inventory, and i was surprised to find that exact scenario had played out!

a seller had a 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia spectrum gold card listed and i scooped it up

there in the middle of the back you can see that it is numbered 20/25. this sort of low number parallel is fairly rare on sportlots, at least for garvey cards. the price wasn't bad either - much less than i would have been asked to pay on ebay.

here's the front

spectrum parallels are shiny.

of course, with sportlots there is always the temptation to add cards to maximize value of shipping, and this seller's rate for 10 cards was the same as for 2-4 and not much more than the rate for a single card. so, i added 9 more dodgers to the order and paid with credit that i had from selling a 2023 update set on the site.

i didn't scan all of the additional cards, but i did scan these two 2019 topps allen & ginter ginter greats cards of clayton kershaw

and sandy koufax

that completed the dodger team set for me. i also added a few cards from 2017 topps allen & ginter x, including jackie robinson

not a bad start to the year for my steve garvey and dodger collections!

who's coming to dinner?

i recall reading back during the second bush administration that the president arranged for a lunch or dinner at the white house that included a number of baseball hall of famers. i believe he made it an annual event and so was able to spend time with a large number of the greatest baseball players from the 1950s through the 1990s. there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that i would do the exact same thing if i were ever in a position to do so.

it's a play on the old question of who you would invite to dinner if you could invite anyone. sometimes, the "dead or alive" option is granted, and i think i will apply that to this exercise.

like michael scott, let's say that i only have six wine glasses so here are the five baseball dignitaries i would invite to join me for dinner.

vin scully

this is a no-brainer. scully would serve as the emcee - keeping the conversation going while staying quiet when others are carrying the conversation. and, he had stories for days about the game.

pete rose

i was at a couple of hot stove dinners that rose attended back in the late 70s and early 80s, and i remember him commenting at one of them that it had turned in to a mild roast. the other players were sharing some benign stories about rose, and i would love to hear his side of those stories as well as others that probably weren't fit for a hot stove crowd. one of my favorite pete rose quotes comes from george will's "men at work" where pete says during a moment of severe turbulence on a team flight something along the lines of "we're going down but at least i have a .300 lifetime average - what do you have?" it would be a blast, i think, to hear more stories from rose.

steve garvey

another no-brainer for me as a fan, although they say never meet your heroes. i would definitely run the risk with the garv. i would love to ask him about a few things and maybe even bring up don sutton or the 1981 world series mvp announcement that initially had him as a co-winner and not steve yeager.

jackie robinson

robinson would bring some gravitas to the dinner, i think, but i would want to focus on the on-field activities and hear about playing in the 1950's. sometimes i wonder if because of who he was and what he represented, jackie's playing experience and record lacks the level of respect it deserves.

lou gehrig

gehrig would bring the pre-war perspective to the party. i've been a fan of him since reading a biography back in elementary school. he may turn out to be a boring guest, but i would take that chance.

others i thought of in the first minute or so of this exercise

dusty baker

rickey henderson

old ross hadbourn

joe jackson

ty cobb

sandy koufax

tommy lasorda

and did i consider inviting jim tracy

just to ask him what the heck he was thinking with his lineups back in 2005? yes i did. these days, i don't care so much about tracy and his band of ja(y)sons, but 18 years ago he may have made the invite list.

not sure if this is "bat around" material, but i'd be interested in hearing your ideas for baseball dinner party guests. happy thanksgiving no matter who your dinner guests are!

let the leftys have their day

it's international left handers day. i am not left handed, although i hit left handed well enough - or at least i could a few years ago. ned flanders can assure you that left handed folk living in a right handed world face an array of challenges, so i suppose they can have a day for themselves.

topps played on the left handedness of some all-time great pitchers back in 2001 with this combo card:

the mullet is strong with the big unit. the card comes from 2001 topps chrome. i bought it recently when i decided to turn my attention to topps chrome dodger team sets. i am still in need of some base cards, but i couldn't pass up a cheap insert like this one that features randy johnson, warren spahn, steve carlton, and sandy koufax. 

speaking of koufax, here's a 2019 topps allen & ginter card

that was, at one time, one of my most wanted cards.

a few years ago, the dodgers' starting rotation was 80% leftys, with hyun-jin ryu, rich hill, alex wood, and clayton kershaw each starting at least 24 games. here's a kershaw insert card from 2020 topps

and a 2016 topps bunt card of a current left starter, julio urias

that card came from the collector as part of his recent basketball pwe swap. thanks chris!

here are a couple of cards from cards on cards featuring the other lefty in the dodgers' current rotation, david price. this one is from 2020 topps update

and this is from 2020 topps chrome update

thanks kerry!

i bought this 1999 fleer si greats of the game tommy john autograph card

many months ago. john was one of the leftys on the team of my youth. 

tommy john never did win a world series, but the rest of the guys in this post all know the feeling conveyed on kershaw's 2021 topps stadium club card

so let them have their day.

paired up

earlier this year, i complete a trade with brad's blog. i got rid of a number of phillies inserts, parallels and the like, and brad returned the favor with a bunch of dodger cards.  i've scanned some of the cards he sent, and paired them up, at least to start.

those cards are a 2018 topps archives clayton kershaw and a 2004 topps all-time fan favorites reggie smith. both use the 1977 topps design with much success.

there we have two cards from 2015 topps, although they are the purple toys 'r us parallels of brandon league and carl crawford. both of these guys had their best years before joining the dodgers, but they also had some decent moments in dodger blue.

buybacks! the best use of 1989 topps cards of orel hershiser and mike morgan since they were issued in 1989. these are from the 2017 rediscover topps series of buybacks. hopefully there are still enough 1989 topps cards to buy back for 2038 heritage. i am sure that there are.

here's another pair, although it's only one card:

i somehow missed a couple of these 2010 topps legendary lineage cards, including this one of duke snider and andre ethier.

next up is a trio of mike piazza cards, starting with a 2019 topps grapefruit league greats insert

followed by a 2019 topps allen & ginter ginter greats card

and finishing with a black bordered mini

also from 2019 topps allen & ginter.  piazza has been getting some love from topps in recent years as you can tell.

here are a couple of sandy koufax cards - one from 2019 topps allen & ginter

and one from 2015 topps

that last one is a gallery of greats gold parallel insert. it's purty.

one more pair of cards, both from 2017 topps chrome

a couple of xfractors there that look pretty sharp when scanned. the checkerboard is a classic design - reminds me of a pair of vans i had as a kid.

the last card i will show is just a single card and doesn't really fit the theme of this post

still, it's a short print of world series champion walker buehler from 2020 topps heritage. interestingly enough, his pants were still a bit loose back when this photo was taken.

thanks for the trade brad!

remember the astros?

earlier this year i completed a trade with bru, whose site used to be call 'remember the astrodome' but now oversees a much more personally named site.  anyway, the trade went so well, that we are in the midst of another one as i type this in early november.

it's always nice to get some brooklyn boys - pee wee reese, gil hodges, and duke snider

all were needs/wants. it was nice to see topps bring gil hodges back in to the fold last year. i see that hodges fan steve garvey has appeared in a couple of releases late this year, which is hopefully a sign of things to come.

i did not buy any 2019 topps holiday cards last year, so i am thankful (i guess) for those i receive in trade packages, like this cody bellinger 

i do appreciate the design of the 2019 holiday cards more than those of previous years.

here's a 2020 panini donruss rated rookie card of gavin lux

lux will turn 23 in a couple of days, so he has time to live up to the hype. it's a bit crazy that there remains a premium on his cards though as he has not looked up to the task so far.  

here are a couple of clayton kershaw cards - 2019 panini leather & lumber and topps stickers

topps left the open fly on the sticker.

here are three cards of world champion max muncy

2019 topps allen & ginter, 2019 topps stickers (back), and 2002 panini donruss. muncy wound up doing better in the postseason than he had in the 60-game "regular" season - he had an obp over .400 in the last three series which was nice to see.

here's a lot of sticker backs from the 2019 topps sticker set - kershaw, aj pollock, justin turner, bellinger, walker buehler, and kenley jansen.

world champions, all! now, i would have preferred the dodgers to have beat the astros back in 2017, but what happened happened. i am glad that the two teams didn't meet again in 2020, because who knows what damage george springer might have wrought.  thanks bru - looking forward to more!