a very pleasant leaf card for you, wherever you may be

i really don't know why topps has been unable to put vin scully on a non-autograph card.  i used to think that he wouldn't allow the use of his likeness, and that is why we got cards from topps of ernie harwell, bob sheppard, and even joe buck, but not vin.  however, fleer put him on a card (with steve garvey) in 2004, and panini put him in their 2012 and 2013 cooperstown releases earlier this decade.  i don't think topps put vin on a card until 2016 with their transcendant and mint releases - both of which were low-numbered autograph issues.

there have been good reasons in recent years to give vin a card - he finally retired following the 2016 season after 67 years in the booth and he was given a spot on the dodgers' ring of honor during the 2017 season (and helped throw out the first pitch prior to one of the 2017 world series games) - but topps has fallen short.

i was happy to find a 2017 leaf national sports collectors convention card recently

showing vin as he appeared during the announcement that he would be the grand marshal of the 125th tournament of roses parade in 2014.  it's a final tribute of sorts, as it was issued the year following his final season, so i may just track down another copy for that mini-collection.

i picked up a magenta printing plate while i was at it

even though it is not a 1/1. it seems that leaf had used multiple sets of plates to create the card, so maybe that is one way that topps is doing things better than leaf.  still, i'm ok with these sorts of shenanigans if it means more vin scully cards!

the other steve that i collect

steve yeager was the primary catcher on the dodger teams of my youth.  he was a dodger for his entire career up until december of 1985 when he was traded to the mariners.  i already collect his dodger cards as part of my dodger collection, but i also collect cards of him as a mariner and other post-playing career non-dodger issues.  

such as this 2005 grandstand jacksonville suns card

it's a fairly short list (here's the link), but any help is appreciated, as i seem to have misplaced some of his more widely available mariners parallel cards, although i do still have the 1986 mother's mariners card.

such an odd look for the catcher of the team of my youth.

i'll take obscure autographs for dodgers, alex

p-town tom recently sent me some cards for a couple of reasons. i sent him some cubs and a 2013 team usa shawn green card, and i helped him identify a mystery autograph related to the recent collection that he was gifted.

tom asked for help and offered cards as a reward. i was fortunate to see the post fairly quickly after it was published, and soon thereafter submitted my guess of kevin koslofski.  looking at the auto, i assumed it was a 'kevin k'.  i first looked at signatures of kevin kennedy and kevin kouzmanoff.  koslofski was the third guy i looked at, and it turned out to be correct.

a week or so later, tom sent me a 1992 fleer card signed by the man himself

it was fortuitous for me that tom had not stumbled across this card before he asked for help in identifying the signature on the ball!

tom also included some dodgers that i needed, many from 1999 fleer tradition.  here's an adrian beltre card that was a need

it's hard to believe that the dodgers could have had the longest tenured third baseman in their history if he hadn't had such a monster year in 2004 - his free agent season.  i like justin turner, but beltre has been a great player for 20 years now.

thanks tom! let me know if you find any more mysterious autos!

it's daal coming back to me now

did you know that meat loaf has a version of celine dion's song "it's all coming back to me now"? i did not.  i did know that omar daal has been signing through the mail lately, and his is the latest card to come back after i sent out a request.

i used a card from daal's second go-round with the dodgers, and it looks great with the 2003 topps blue borders and the blue sharpie that he used.

thanks omar!

once, twice, three times in my collection

i have a few mini collections going on (and i am slowly updating my 'have' lists of each).  sometimes, there are cards that fit in more than one mini collection.  case in point, eduardo nunez's 2017 topps card

nunez is wearing the monte irvin and jim davenport memorial patches (that would mean the card is eligible for my armband and memorial collection).

nunez's card also features dodger second baseman chase utley lurking in the background (that puts the card in my lurkers collection).

finally, the action on nunez's card is taking place in dodger stadium (that means it belongs in my dodger stadium collection - link coming soon).

as it stands, i have only two copies of nunez's card since the giant memorial patches are already represented in my memorials binder by buster posey's 2017 topps opening day card, and three copies of the same giants card in my collection is probably a bit much.

same goes for this next card that also could sit in the same three mini collections

as it is, i'll keep two copies (still need one) of this george springer world series "highlight" for the dodger stadium and lurker (hello, austin barnes) collections, but put a different card in the memorial collection (that's the 'houston strong' patch that recognizes those lost in the flooding as well as the community's resolve to recover from it).

anyone else have multiple copies of the same cards in different mini collections?

a billy bean through the mail success

yesterday i showed a bill bene through the mail success (thanks william), and today it is jose gonzalez billy bean who is showcased following a return of the 1991 topps card i sent his way earlier this year.

this is the "b" version of jose gonzalez's card that shows bean at the bat.  the only true dodger card of bean's comes from the 1990 target set, unfortunately.

i was happy to see bean, now the ambassador for inclusion for major league baseball, appear in last year's topps archives set, but he was featured as a padre. hopefully he gets his name on his own topps dodger card someday.

thanks billy!

fair bene from foul bunt

i saw that william at foul bunt had a successful ttm experience with former dodger prospect bill bene. i asked william for the address, and he told me that he had a double of bene's 1989 topps card.  

i sent him a 1987 topps tom brunansky card that bruno had signed for me through the mail, and now i have one more signed dodger card for my collection!

bene (well, actually the dodger organization) left me disappointed when the dodgers picked him 6th overall in the 1988 draft.  i was really hoping that they would take robin ventura (he went to the white sox at 10).  the dodgers redeemed themselves when they won the world series four months later.

bene averaged just over one k/ip for his minor league career in which he reached triple-a in both the dodger and angel organizations.  he never did crack the majors, unfortunately.

thanks william!