the almost daily dodger - luke prokopec

i was watching the last series of the regular season between the dodgers and rockies, and one of the games had the rockies starting cal quantrill on the mound. he is the son of former major league pitcher paul quantrill, who had a couple of pretty solid years pitching out of the dodger bullpen in 2002 and 2003. in fact, quantrill was the first dodger pitcher to lead the league in games pitched since mike marshall set the record at 106 games in 1974.

anyway, one of the guys that the dodgers gave up to acquire quantrill was luke prokopec, seen here on his 2002 topps chrome gold refractor parallel

these cards are pretty nice in person. 

making his debut in september of 2000, prokopec was the second australian to pitch for the dodgers, following jeff williams by a year. in his first game, prokopec entered a lopsided affair, and the left fielder was paul loduca, the first baseman jim leyritz, and his catcher was chad kreuter, whose 2002 topps chrome gold refractor i also own.

i don't know how the dodgers could have put more catchers out on the field at one time.

after the 2001 season, quantrill and cesar izturis were traded to the dodgers for prokopec and chad ricketts. an australian, two canadians and a venezuelan - there's probably a joke in there somewhere.

i hope it's a classic

looks like the world baseball classic kicks off next week. a couple of months ago, i thought it would be interesting to see how many of the 20 participating countries are represented within my dodger collection. i am not referring to players who hail from those countries, but rather those countries being represented on a dodger card. make sense? let's see how my collection fares!

the teams are divided in to four pools of five teams each. advancing teams in pools a and b will eventually face off (those teams are playing in taiwan and japan), and the advancing teams from pools c and d will square off in the united states. the final is scheduled to be held in miami on march 21. i'll link to the current team rosters in the text below.

pool a 

chinese taipei is represented by this 2008 topps update card of chin-lung hu

hu received a ton of cards in 2008 but never panned out at the big league level.

cuba is represented by this 2014 bowman yasiel puig international parallel

puig famously (and perhaps nefariously) defected from cuba to mexico before signing with the dodgers. puig is not on cuba's roster, but former dodgers onelki garcia and erisbel arruebarrena are. i hope the other players protect their ears!

the kingdom of the netherlands is represented by this 2009 topps chrome kenley jansen wbc insert

jansen, a native of curacao who joined the dodger organization in 2004, was a catcher back then. jansen is on the current roster, too, and bert blyleven is back as a coach. i know bert wasn't a dodger ever, but he's a bit of a favorite of mine so is worth a mention.

italy is not represented in my collection. i don't know of any dodger players who played for italy in the past, and there are no dodgers on their current roster.

panama is represented by this 1996 upper deck collector's choice roberto kelly silver signature parallel

when i think of baseball and panama, rod carew is the guy who comes to mind. panama is one of the teams that was not automatically included in the field - they had to qualify through a separate round of games. old friend javy guerra is on panama's squad this year.

pool b 

japan is represented by this 1997 bowman's best hideo nomo international inssert

the dodgers have had a fair number of players from japan suit up for them, but nomo is the one i think of first. i didn't see any dodgers - former or present - on the roster for japan.

korea is represented by another 2014 bowman international parallel - this one featuring hyun-jin ryu

ryu is injured and so is not on the roster. i didn't recognize any of the names on the roster from a dodger perspective. of course, chan ho park has several cards that i could have used here as well.

australia is featured in my collection thanks to this 1999 bowman chrome luke prokopec international refractor parallel

that is, of course, the sydney opera house behind him. no dodgers on the aussie squad, i am afraid, however there are a few recognizable major league names on the roster/staff.

china isn't represented in my collection, although former dodger jim lefebvre managed their team in the olympics one year as i recall. 

the czech republic is making their first appearance in the wbc, and there are no dodgers on their roster. tough to have a card in my collection to show when that is the case.

pool c 

the usa is represented by this 2022 topps pristine clayton kershaw pristine borders insert

i have plenty of other dodger cards that could have been used here, but the kershaw is the newest. kershaw is no longer on the team usa roster, but fellow dodgers mookie betts and will smith remain. dino ebel is the third base coach as well.

colombia has former dodger jolbert cabrera at the helm, but i don't have any cards in my dodger collection that reflect his nationality.

mexico is represented by this 1998 upper deck karim garcia national pride insert

i guess it's no surprise that i don't have a fernando valenzuela dodger card to show here, as the country-focused subsets and inserts didn't start showing up until after his dodger career came to an end. i will note that i filled out a sportlots order last year with a 2002 donruss super estrellas ismael valdes nacion de origen insert

not remembering that he was a ranger by then. oh well. there are a couple of dodgers on mexico's roster this year - austin barnes and julio urias - as well as former dodger alex verdugo. former dodger pitcher elmer dessens is the pitching coach, too.

canada is represented here by this 2009 bowman draft picks & prospects russell martin wbc xfractor parallel

martin is a coach for team canada in the tournament this year, as is fellow former dodger paul quantrill. freddie freeman is the only dodger player on the squad.

great britain is making their wbc debut, so my collection comes up short for them, although maybe trayce thompson will be featured on a wbc insert later this year? note that i am not counting the topps uk edition cards i own that feature the union jack on the front for this exercise.

pool d 

puerto rico features a roster that includes former dodgers jose de leon and kiké hernandez. i was surprised to not find any dodger cards representing puerto rico in my collection.

venezuela is represented in my collection by this 2021 panini national treasures keibert ruiz international treasures autograph card

ruiz is not on the roster, but old/new dodger miguel rojas is.

israel isn't represented in my dodger collection, although i did recognize a couple of names on the roster. joc pederson, of course, and also fellow 2020 world champion adam kolarek. neither are with the dodgers anymore as i am sure you well know.

the dominican republic is represented in my dodger collection many times, including by this 2001 upper deck sp game bat milestone edition adrian beltre card.

the country's flag is burned in to the bat chip. keep their flag in mind for later, by the way. this year's dominican team is stacked, and includes one former dodger in manny machado.

nicaragua is the last of the three newcomers to the tournament, and i don't have any dodger cards to represent that country.

so, 12 of 20 countries are represented by cards in my dodger collection. that's not too bad, and i am hoping for some others to be produced as a result of this year's contest.

i do want to give an honorable mention to yasiel puig's 2018 topps update international affair black parallel card

that i pulled from a dime or quarter box a few months ago. his bowman international card up above is a better representation of his home country of cuba, however.

finally, let's never forget the time when upper deck messed up royally in terms of international flavor

and issued a couple of cards of raul mondesi, including the 1996 collector's choice card above, referencing the country of dominica, not mondesi's home country of the dominican republic, and i don't think they have the right coloring on the bird featured on dominica's flag, either.

on with the tournament!

quien es mas macho? a puzzle edition

did any of you get a jigsaw puzzle for christmas? we used to get one every year when i was a kid, and we'd put them together with our grandma. good times.

a year or so ago, one of my most wanted cards was this 2002 fleer ultra card

it features kevin brown and luke prokopec, and it completed my team set. it might even be a short print for all i know, and i didn't know the card was designed with interlocking puzzle pieces until it arrived in my mailbox. 

for those that may not recall, many baseball card sets in the late 90's and early 2000's were issued late in the year prior to their designation. ultra was one, so the back of this card has a copyright of 2001 even though it is a 2002 card. this has caused me a ton of frustration over the years as i try to date some cards through copyright dates on the back. thank goodness for the internet and the resources available these days!

while brown and prokopec were team mates (and i suppose, "team players") in 2000 and 2001, prokopec was traded to the blue jays in december of '01, right around the time this card was released. about eight years earlier, another trade took place that became the subject of another puzzle-design bearing card:

ah yes. the infamous delino deshields for pedro martinez trade that occurred in november of 1993. this card is from 1994 topps traded. the puzzle part of the design reminds me of how sometimes i would try to force two pieces together even though the images on them weren't a match.

i am on record as being optimistic of this trade when it happened - deshields was 24 with four seasons under his belt and seemed to be a solid, all-star type player. pedro was 21 and had turned in a very promising rookie season in 1993, but the odds of any one pitcher developing in to a generational talent like pedro are low and fred claire rolled the dice. kudos to the expos brain trust who landed pedro in return for deshields. in the end, i still blame jody reed.

ok, quien es mas macho?