where in the world is my wallet card? - it wasn't at mardi gras...

the junior junkie has had his wallet card on display recently, enjoying the revelry that is to be had in new orleans, while my wallet card was in my wallet.  so, i let my 1974 topps steve garvey card hang out amongst the bounty that tj sent my way recently as part of his monster mailday.

a bit of vicarious living, if you will.

there were some beads, two blocks of cards and a couple of msa discs in the package. here are some of the non-dodger highlights.

double plays!

1992 classic best robert eenhoorn

this card is fantastic. a minor league dp, from a guy named eenhoorn, and with a expo minor leaguer who is wearing a generic expos jersey with the team's name instead of his own on the back.

also from 1992 classic best, here is jose olmeda

and a guy named carey sliding in.

1992 donruss mickey morandini

yes, tj sent me a card from the 1992 donruss set and i am glad for it!

1994 topps stadium club rey sanchez

1998 upper deck alex gonzalez

this card features a double play turn on the front…

and the back!

1999 pacific damion easley

not as nice as his 1996 pacific card

2004 upper deck bj upton

you know you play in a crappy stadium when the area upper deck chooses to highlight is the sign for the party area.

2008 upper deck first edition wilson betemit

hard to believe that betemit was at one time a dodger.  speaking of dodgers, there were a few of those int he package, too.  i'll show some of them later to prove it.

i received congratulations from bob walk the plank

yes, matthew from bob walk the plank sent me some congrats recently.

those, of course, are the backs of three baseball cards - a 2014 topps mini bill buckner autograph,

a 2001 fleer greats of the game ron cey autograph,

and a 2007 upper deck ultimate collection chad billingsley autograph

that wasn't all.  here's another card back

that's the back of a 2014 topps archives bill russell gold parallel autograph card

the shortstop for the team of my youth! numbered 6/50 (that's garvey's jersey number and one-third of russell's jersey number - got to be a 1/1, right?!?).  this will pair well with the base and silver autos i already owned.

but wait - there was more!  i noted on a recent bob walk the plank post that i regretfully did not own a john candelaria autographed card featuring the candy man in dodger blue, having been rebuffed in previous through the mail attempts.  here's the back of the last card matthew sent

yes, that's a 2004 donruss recollection collection 1992 donruss card, signed by candelaria himself

matthew, did we just become best friends?

thanks for the congratulations and the autos!  i'm working on another package to be heading your way soon!

1991 braves memorial for gm john mullen

a couple of weeks ago, i shared some cards that showed the braves' black armband worn following the death of their de facto general manager roy lucas.  today, i'll show some cards featuring their memorial for the man who took over the gm role following lucas' death.  john w. mullen began his career with the braves' organization in the late 1940's when the team was still in boston.  he moved with them to milwaukee and was the head of their farm system from 1960 through 1966 before he was lured away by the astros to serve in their front office. mullen returned to atlanta to succeed lucas as the braves' gm in 1979.  using players drafted by lucas, as well as some acquisitions of his own (including brett butler who was drafted by the braves just a month or so after mullen took over), mullen was in charge when the braves won the 1982 nl west crown and qualified for the postseason for the first time since 1969.

mullen held the gm position until he was replaced by bobby cox prior to the 1986 season, largely due to the (then) monster 6-year/$10 million contract mullen gave to bruce sutter in 1985 that was considered to be a bust after just one year.

mullen remained with the team in an advisory capacity, a role which he maintained until his death on april 3, 1991.  later that year, with mullen's initials on their sleeves, the braves returned to the postseason for the first time since 1982.  in fact, this 1992 topps stadium club lonnie smith card captures a memorable play from the '91 fall classic with the initials memorial quite visible.

the memorial is seen on this 1992 leaf steve avery card, too

but i use this 1992 donruss card of neon deion sanders to represent the memorial in my collection

it's got the initials front and center.

mullen was 66 years old when he died in his hotel room at the braves' spring training home, about a week before the regular season was to begin.

i collect what steve garvey items i can, and what i can't, i can

over the course of a couple of packages, reader mark sent me an eclectic mix of cards - dodgers and double plays and players from the team of my youth that were no longer dodgers.  however, the coolest thing he sent was a 1977 rc cola can

i used to drink royal crown cola, but i had forgotten what cans from back in those days were like.  steel and sturdy and sometimes with ballplayers on them.  this one features one steven patrick garvey.

now, this posed a dilemma for me.  i have, at times, owned some oddball, non-card items featuring the garv, but i haven't held on to all of them.  that mainly has to do with storage.  i do have a couple of bobbleheads, but i decided that the best thing to do here was to dismantle the can.  more on that later.

here's another sort of oddball - a 1969 mlb photo stamp of one and done dodger shortstop zoilo versalles

after playing for the dodgers in 1968, he was selected by the padres in the expansion draft but was traded to cleveland before the 1969 season began.  this magic hat seems more dodger that indian, so i will classify this as a dodger stamp.  cool.

i could have sworn that i picked up a copy of this 1980-88 baseball immortals sandy koufax card

a couple of years ago after seeing it on another blog, but it appears that i was mistaken.  i am very happy that mark sent me this card.

i'm not quite as excited about this 1992 score jose offerman rising star card

but, as a team collector, you take the good with the bad.

here's a 1994 conlon tsn card of nap rucker

rucker spent his entire 10 year career with the brooklyn franchise.  they were known as the superbas, dodgers, and robins during that time, and in 1915 (the year represented by the card), they were the robins.  he finished his career with a 134-134 record despite a nice 2.42 era.  i guess the franchise didn't provide much run support even back then.  anyway, rucker may or may not have been the inventor of the knuckleball.

i am not convinced that this 1992 upper deck jose lind card features a double play turn

but i do know that it features dodger stadium's low railing in the background!

here's a card of one of the 1978 topps dodgers and another knuckleballer, charlie hough

i have kind of/sort of expanded my collection of players from the 1978 topps dodger team from just topps releases to all releases, so this card is welcomed even if it is just a 1992 donruss card.

so, now back to the garvey can.  i was able to open it up pretty easily, but it's not quite as flat and smooth as one would like.

still, it will fit into a binder pretty nicely.

mark - thanks for the trades!

double plays through the mail

i mentioned in the post earlier this morning that reader mark sent along some double play cards.  before we get to them, here is a 1970-72 fleer cloth sticker that was also included in one of the trade packages he sent.

i was thrown at first because all of the fleer stickers i have seen from that era have the 'la' logo on its side (along with a border surrounding the logo sticker), but a closer look tells me that the sticker here was likely removed and reapplied in its proper orientation.  it's pretty cool.  thanks mark.  and thanks for these new-to-me double plays.

1991 donruss ron oester

1991 fleer ultra greg gagne

i can't believe i haven't found this gagne in a dime box up here in twins territory.  same for this 1999 topps pat meares.

yes, i consider pretty much any 2nd base bag straddle to be a part of a dp turn.

just like this 1992 donruss jody reed card

although this 1992 donruss curtis wilkerson is easier to recognize as a double play turn

here's a nice 1992 upper deck card of tony phillips

on which he appears to have upended cal ripken jr who was just trying to complete the twin killing.

there's a dp turn on the back of bill doran's 1993 donruss card

as well as the front of marcus giles' 2007 topps opening day card

i've got some more stuff that mark sent to showcase later today.  stay tuned...

turning nickels into double plays and cards from tatooine at the lcs

it's cold outside, the time for layering like luis castillo on this 1998 donruss preferred card

that card is part of my double play collection since luis is straddling the second base bag and looking as though he is going to throw to first.  it's one of several dp cards i found in the nickel and dime boxes at my local card shops sometime in the last six months or so.

we've got two primary shops in the twin cities with a couple more stores where cards and supplies are also available.  of the two card shops, the one i've been to more frequently in the past year is in a suburb of minneapolis south of downton.  there are nickel boxes (if cards are sleeved, then they are typically a dime) that have proved to be a decent source of double plays and memorials.  the other shop, which i have only been to a few times over the past few years, is in a northern suburb.  it too has a few dime boxes set up in the front of the store that contains decent collection fodder.  unfortunately, i don't think i will be heading back to that shop again.  i'll tell that tale in another post.  meanwhile, here are more double plays that were new to my collection thanks to these stores.

1992 donruss ryne sandberg

not sure why i didn't have this card already, but i didn't.  i did have a parallel of this next card, a 1997 score ryne sandberg,

but not the base.  go figure.

2006 upper deck ray durham

at one time, i considered collecting cards with the chevron cards in the background, but then realized how many giants cards that would bring to my doorstep and i reconsidered.

2012 topps reid brignac

that's another card of which the base was more elusive than many of the parallels.

has juan uribe signed with anyone yet?  i forgot that he was once fairly agile, as seen on his 2004 fleer ultra card

flying over the twins' mike ryan

uribe also found himself sliding into home on tatooine courtesy of this 2009 topps card

i found this 1994 upper deck collector's choice tony phillips card during my most recent card shop visit

the first copy goes in the dp binder.  if i come across another, it will be added to the tatooine binder.

speaking of which, here are a few more that fit nicely into that binder - 2006 fleer ultra joe crede

2009 topps tom gorzelanny

and his pirate teammate, nate mclouth

as well as colorado rockie larry walker on his 1999 topps stadium club card

that walker would also fit into another one of my mini-collections, but i don't think i've revealed that one yet.

more cards from my lcs adventures to come - stay tuned.