love that minneapolis sound

first things first - i know that the minneapolis sound has nothing to do with ed lover or doctor dre, but this 1991 pro set muicard of the hosts of yo! mtv raps

was sent to me by fellow twin citian brian at highly subjective completely arbitrary. he sent it my way due to the fact that doctor dre (who is not that dr. dre) is wearing a dodger hat. ed lover is repping the raiders, which is fine by me, too. i used to root for them as my afc team back in the late 70's and early 80's.  anyway, the minneapolis sound is the style of funk and r&b pioneered by prince and propagated by his proteges and producers like jimmy jam and terry lewis.  there are a bunch of rock/punk/post-punk/alt-rock bands from the twin cities, too, like the suburbs, suicide commandos, information society, soul asylum, husker du, the replacements, and trip shakespeare, but they are not part of the general definition of the minneapolis sound.

that's a long way to go to simply say that i received some cards from brian that included a music related card. maybe i should start this post over, but it's too late to turn back; here we go.

i received these cards in part due to our ongoing swapping of cards through the mail (looking forward to swapping in person once we both feel comfortable attending the monthly local card shows again), and also because i won a contest he held on his blog a while back.

here's the big gun first, a maury wills certified autograph

from 2020 topps archives signature series and featuring his 1962 topps card that should have been as featured in the 1987 topps set.

here's another autograph that was in the package:

that's a 2015 bowman's best chase de jong autograph. de jong was the blue jays' second round pick in 2012 and was acquired by the dodgers via trade in 2015. the dodgers traded him to the mariners in 2017, and he's appeared in the big leagues for seattle, minnesota, and houston since. he's currently in the pirates' organization.

here's a guy who has pitched for the dodgers in the majors, mitchell white

on a 2018 bowman prospects card. white pitched in a couple of games in 2020 and was just called up for the first time this season earlier in the week.

this next guy is one of the dodgers' more successful pitchers

that's a 2002 donruss originals don drysdale. i have copies of that card in my team binder, my dodger stadium mini-collection, and my name/number on the back mini-collection. someday i'll share a post about that last mini-collection.

another successful dodger pitcher is next - derek lowe

on his 2005 donruss zenith museum collection parallel. i say lowe was a successful dodger pitcher due to the fact that he led the league in wins as a dodger in 2006 and won game 1 of the 2008 nlds against the cubs, largely thanks to james loney's grand slam. i was in a bar watching that game and pretty much lost my shit when loney hit that home run against the mighty cubs.

next up is a guy who has done lowe one better and won a ring as a dodger - dustin may

on a 2021 topps heritage high numbers rookie performers insert. an appropriate card for today, i think.

now we are in the 'before they were big leaguers' portion of the package. here's eric young

on his 1990 star florida state league all-stars card. the only difference between this card and his 1990 star vero beach dodgers card is that the front of this one says "national" instead of "infielder". i think these uniforms are some of the happiest around - you've got a grapefruit on the hat and a hibiscus flower on the sleeve. how can you not be happy wearing something like that?

here's a real dodger uniform on this card

that's a 1992 classic update white travel edition carlos hernandez card, with raul mondesi on deck. i suppose by this time, hernandez had played in the majors during parts of two seasons. it's worth noting that he was the first of (so far) four guys named carlos hernandez to make it to the majors. they've all been from venezuela, too.

similar to hernandez, here's tom goodwin

on his 1992 score glossy rookies card. goodwin had already made his big league debut before this card was issued, but he didn't lose his rookie status until 1995 when he was with the royals. he was one of three players that the dodgers selected in the first round of the 1989 draft. they took kiki jones with the 15th pick, goodwin with the 22nd pick, and jamie mcandrew with the 28th pick. jones and mcandrew were compensation for losing steve sax to the yankees via free agency, so goodwin was the dodgers' "real" pick. right after the dodgers selected him, the red sox took mo vaughn. 

thanks again brian! hope to see you soon!

free investment advice

i suppose people (hello, fred wilpon) have received worse investment advice than that found on the back of this 1992 baseball card magazine ramon martinez card

admittedly, i did take advice indirectly from beckett back in the late '80s and early '90s and so i had a decent stash of rookie cards for folks who didn't pan out. today, the more interesting information on the back of that card is related to ramon's younger brother, pedro "who could be every bit as good". yeah, if only ramon were every bit as good as pedro.

here's the front of ramon's card

plus another from the set - eric karros and tom goodwin

these are just a couple of the cards that i received a while back from arpsmith.  thanks adam!

classic thorzul

i didn't 'trade him anything' this year as i have done in the past, but i did take advantage of thorzul breaking up a 1991 classic iii set to snag a dodger team set.  i sent off a sase (with a lone brewer just because it was here on my desk), and soon thereafter received the five dodger cards i had requested.  the team set consists of juan samuel

eddie murray

orel hershiser

tom goodwin

and pedro martinez

classic had to remove the 'b' from the hats of goodwin and pedro who spent time with the bakersfield dodgers in the high-a league.  i suppose their hats also could have had the interlocking 'gf' of the great falls dodgers of the rookie league, as well.  no matter, these are dodger cards regardless of what is or what is not on their hats.

the best thing about these cards, other than having an instant dodger team set added to my collection, are seeing the personalized wristbands/forearm bands that eddie murray is wearing.  seeing them reminds me of those baseball patches from the late 1970's

imagine if steve garvey had run around wearing that on his forearm.  although, he did wear the mcdonald's logo on his wristbands at some point, so maybe a self-portrait wouldn't be so bad.

thanks thorzul.  maybe i'll trade you anything next year...