hand me downs that fit my collection perfectly

i used to receive hand me down clothes from my cousins in the late 1970's.  that was a dangerous time for hand me downs due to the many strange fashions of the time. these days, my hand me downs come in the way of cards, and night owl's unwanted cards are among the ones i appreciate the most.

thanks to the large number of folks who send cards to night owl, he accumulates lots of cool dodger doubles, and so i wind up with some nice hand me downs. should i say hand me downs again, or just show some cards?  right.

2011 topps roy campanella cognac parallel

the mustache was not a good look for campy.  my favorite thing about these retired player short print cards in 2011 was the dirty/aged baseball topps used behind the logo.  it was a nice touch.

2011 topps jonathan broxton diamond anniversary parallel

i must have missed the trade last year that sent broxton from cincinnati to milwaukee.  it's good to see his k/9 ratio is back up with the brew crew, but so is his era, unfortunately.

2008 topps chrome andruw jones xfractor

even andruw jones dodger cards are welcome.  i'm not entirely sure night owl had a double of this one - he may just have wanted andruw out of his house.

2011 bowman platinum prospects allen webster xfractor

webster was part of the big 2012 trade between the dodgers and the red sox. he started 18 games for boston over the 2013 and 2014 seasons, and is now in the diamondbacks organization.

it's not all parallels and shiny stuff that comes from night owl - there are other cool cards like this 1989 jj nissen superstars orel hershiser oddball

jj nissen is a bread company, by the way.

i even accept junk (or is this just trash) cards like this 1995 fleer ramon martinez card

it's still a dodger card, and it might just be one that i need.

here's a 1998 fleer metal universe card of catcher henry blanco

actually, blanco never caught for the dodgers.  he made his big league debut with the dodgers in 1997 and hit a single in his first at bat and a home run in his third, and played third base and first - not catcher.  he spent 1998 in the minors and then began a ten-team journey through the major leagues that lasted through the 2013 season.

here's another backstop who actually did catch for the dodgers - todd hundley on a 1999 upper deck victory card

hundley had two stints with the dodgers, the second of which was pretty bad.

2003 donruss diamond kings odalis perez silver foil parallel

perez was actually worthy of being a diamond king following the 2002 season. he posted the best numbers of his career, winning 15 games with an era of 3.00 and a whip of 0.99.  he also gave us a ball during a game in anaheim in 2006.

2002 topps roy campanella 1952 reprints

and so the post comes full circle, although this is a clean shaven campy.

i've got more night owl hand me downs to show some other time, and i'm pulling together some of my own to send back his way.  thanks greg!

plays at second base from play at the plate

i recently alluded to a big ol' box of cards that i received from brian at play at the plate.  it was mostly pacific cards with some 2002 upper deck vintage thrown in for good measure.  that was what i had requested when he put the spoils from a recent 5000 card box purchase up for grabs.  luckily for me, brian also fished out some double play cards and added them to my haul.  let's have a look at some.

1999 fleer tradition ricky gutierrez

ricky is joined on the card by a lurking matt luke, former dodger outfielder and double dipper, so that's nice.  he also demonstrates his awkward double play lean.

that lean is not shown on another gutierrez double play card from the bunch, this one from 1999 topps stadium club

but it does surface on his 2002 fleer ultra card that was also included

on to the non-ricky gutierrez cards

here's carlos baerga turning two on a 1999 fleer tradition card

the indians did the right thing by trading baerga when they did (during the 1996 season) as he experienced a pretty significant drop off when he joined the mets.  the indians received jeff kent and jose vizcaino as part of the return from the amazin's, and then parlayed them into matt williams for the 1997 season.  williams helped the tribe get to the world series, and then they traded him for travis fryman, who was a mainstay for a few seasons with cleveland.

1999 fleer tradition damion easley

and 1999 fleer tradition aaron ledesma

here's ledesma's teammate, miguel cairo, turning two on a 1999 topps stadium club card

as are mike lansing

and tony womack

there were some parallels in the box, too, like this 2002 fleer ultra gold medallion edition adam kennedy card

and quite a few ruby parallels from 2000 pacific.  among them were some double play turns like miguel cairo

who makes his second appearance in the post;

rey ordonez

who should have more double play cards than he does;

and miguel tejada

who may well have more double play cards than anyone else.  now, 2000 pacific had a black & white version of the card's front photo on the back, and since there were two tejada's sent my way, i'll add his back to the dp collection

this next one, i am considering to be a double play card because of jay bell's airborne state, and because why else would brian send me a 1998 fleer metal universe card of a royal?

you can't really see because of the scan, but bell is leaping over a butte rather than a sliding player.  it makes for some variety in the dp binder.

i'll showcase a few more dp cards from the patp box later...

a black armband for richie ashburn

hall of famer richie ashburn passed away on september 9, 1997, and for the remainder of the season (just a few short weeks) the phillies wore a black armband with his number '1' on their left sleeves.  the lateness in the season meant that i had a hard time finding a card to show the memorial, but i finally came across this 1998 fleer metal universe scott rolen universal language die-cut insert.

rolen is also wearing the jackie robinson patch, which you will see a whole lot more of tomorrow.

at any rate, ashburn was one of the phillies' whiz kids.  he finished second in the 1948 rookie of the year vote to alvin dark, for whom he was later traded.  after 12 seasons with the phillies, ashburn spent two with the cubs and then a final season with the expansion mets.  after his retirement, he became a phillies broadcaster and served in that capacity until his death.  he was 70 years old.

e-7?

if this topps chrome card from 2011 featuring rafael furcal scanned more clearly, 

you would see that furky is turning two in the phone booth, which must be quite a trick from the outfield.  yes, topps, for some reason, changed furcal's position on his card.  they had it right in the flagship release, and i don't know how it came to be changed for the chrome issue, especially since the photo is the same.

that card (and the ones that follow) came my way from night owl quite a while back. in fact, i have already posted about a more recent trade that he and i completed.  that's bad trade post blogging.

this john cummings card is from 1996 fleer

and has a matte sort of finish, while this greg gagne card is from 1996 fleer

and has a glossy finish.  the gagne card is actually from the team set that was (i assume) sold separately.  cummings was a pretty effective reliever for the dodgers in the latter half of the 1995 season, and gagne was a newcomer to la in 1996.  i am pretty sure that the photo on his card is shopped, as he was number 7 for the dodgers, not 21.

greg included another one of those 1997 upper deck jackie robinson cards for me

which is not to be out shadowed by this 1998 fleer metal universe ismael valdes card

the card shows a curvy stretch of road behind valdes, which i assume is supposed to represent southern california.  i can't tell if it's from pch or the ortega highway, but maybe a photo of the stacked and backed 405 would have been more appropriate?

here's another card that doesn't scan very well - a gary sheffield upper deck ultimate victory card from 2000

that's all i have to say about that.

finally, here's adrian beltre on a 2000 topps stadium club card

beltre is making a funny face in dodger stadium against the angels.  pretty sure this is an interleague game during the regular season, and not part of the (used to be) annual freeway series since it's obviously a day game.  and look at that jersey!  i hope the dodgers regret ever wearing those blue jerseys in a real game.  if i recall correctly, davey johnson wanted to mix things up.  well, the yankees would never have worn a black jersey in order to mix things up.  i also hope the dodgers regret playing musical chairs at third base since beltre's departure.

thanks for the cards, greg.  i don't regret receiving them.