lack of focus

i had never seen fernando valenzuela's 1994 panini sticker before i ordered it from a sportlots seller not too long ago. 

it's a great oddball addition to my fernando post-dodger collection, and it is doubly of interest to me because of cal ripken jr lurking there in the background even if he is out of focus.

i went looking through my fernando collection to see if there was a card from his dodger days showing steve garvey in the background since ripken and garvey were once right next to each other on the all-time consecutive games played streak leaderboard, but i couldn't find one. at the time of the photo, ripken was still a couple of years away from catching lou gehrig, but he was well past garvey.  

i think it's an interesting note that fernando played with the two iron men of the post-war era - one more iron than the other, of course.

here's another oriole fernando card for my collection that is interesting in a different way

it's a 1994 pacific card - the prisms insert with a print run of 8,000 as i understand it. and, while i'm at it, i suppose i'll show a 1995 pacific card in the same vein, although this one is a dodger - henry rodriguez to be exact

and since this has somehow become a post of pacific cards, here's a raul mondesi insert from 1999 pacific omega

looking at the backgrounds of those three pacific cards, i am surprised that no card company created cards with a magic eye image in the background. seems like a missed opportunity to me.

this started out as a quick post to show the panini sticker and now i am thinking about seinfeld. better stop here before i post some keith hernandez cards.

a quick plug for my most wanted list - if you have a 1996 collector's choice #299 fernando card (he's a padre), let's trade!

my most wanted cards walked the plank

i recently sent some cards that i'd been stacking to matt at bob walk the plank. he returned fire by trying to single handedly obliterate my nefarious 9 list of most wanted cards that i keep on the sidebar of my blog. he also mentioned that somewhere in his collection lies a joc pederson card with my name on it. can't wait!

the first card i'll show is one of the non-dodger bonus cards that i list as an appendix to the nefarious 9.  matt found the 1986 leaf dusty baker card

i assume with relative ease. currently, my most wanted non-dodger card is 1995 score #361 brian anderson. it's for my lurker collection.

the main focus of the nefarious 9, however, are dodgers. sometimes, they are cards that will complete a team set, like this 1994 fleer roger mcdowell card

and this 1994 pacific henry rodriguez card

other times, they are cards that i have in parallel form, and i feel weird not having the base. that was the case with this 2019 topps big league kenley jansen card

i had actually ordered the card from sportlots and the seller sent me the gold parallel instead. so the base version went up on the most wanted list.

sometimes, i will add a card that i thought i had but don't. this 2001 topps chrome shawn green card fit that description.

i was a pretty serious green collector in the early 2000's, and thought that i surely would have had at least one of his 2001 topps chrome cards. when i saw that it was on my want list, i double checked and was surprised to find that it was indeed a need. on to the most wanted list it went!

matt sent some other chrome cards from my regular want list - these are from 2001 bowman chrome

a nice 4-pack of vets that whittled my needs for this team set down to a couple of rookies. maybe they will show up on the nefarious 9 in the future.

matt attempted to knock off one more of my most wanted cards, but sent the optic version

instead of the regular 2017 panini donruss jose de leon card. somewhere between those two releases, panini followed de leon to tampa bay. it's an easy mistake to make, and matt still gets an "a" for his efforts.

thanks matt! the list has been refreshed if you (or anyone else) wants to take a run at it. you will be rewarded!