what have they done to my fair stadium?

beach volleyball.  kiss.  nhl hockey.  these things will be taking place in dodger stadium on january 25th, and construction of the rink and other associated items is well underway.  i don't have any problems with that.  i've been to a couple of concerts at dodger stadium, and i contemplated going to the exhibition outdoor game that the nhl staged in las vegas several years back.  i know the folks here in the twin cities are hoping for the nhl classic to come to target field or the gophers' football stadium (where the golden gophers will play ohio state in some big 10 hockey action tonight in below zero wind chill).  still, here are some cards featuring walter o'malley's gem, the third oldest baseball stadium in the major leagues, as it was meant to be seen - as a baseball venue.

this card is from the baseball stadium facts inserts in 1969 fleer cloth sticker packs

yes, the playing field is symmetrical.  big deal. wanna fight about it?

here's ed whitson dealing from the dodger stadium mound on a 1989 fleer card

and here's nolan ryan hanging out in the bullpen.

that's a 1989 topps box bottom card, by the way.

here's a card back featuring the visitor's dugout area - orlando merced's 1991 upper deck card

and here's kenny lofton's 1992 upper deck card

i started to look at the lofton card a bit closer and wasn't completely sure that it was dodger stadium because the railing looks a bit dark.  however, wes chamberlain's 1993 upper deck card

gives a similar angle, and the railing looks the same.  lofton played in 2 games at dodger stadium among his 20 as an astro in 1991, so i say yes - that's dodger stadium in the background.

here's the back of chamberlain's card for good measure

there's no doubt that andujar cedeno's 1993 upper deck card features a shot from dodger stadium

that looks like juan samuel sliding in.

same goes for gary sheffield's 1994 upper deck card.  dodger stadium, not juan samuel.

those are the old low railings near the right field bullpen that have been replaced with a solid panel short wall.  the back of sheffield's card shows the full height outfield wall

complete with a championship banner.  this must have been opening day - the dodgers only bring out the banners then.

1997 fleer ultra todd hundley

i've never been to the stadium club restaurant at dodger stadium.  that's the area directly behind hundley with the window panels between the orange (loge - as in lower general admission) and blue (reserve) levels.

this is a nice card. it's from the 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game set - the first gotg release from fleer

i'm not sure if jerry royster is a true great of the game, but he is a former dodger and that is a nice photo of him playing short at chavez ravine.

last, but certainly not least, is a card of another former dodger.  wilton guerrero's 1998 fleer tradition update card

complete with his brother vladdy and the left field pavilion and diamondvision in the background is one of the best dodger stadium cards around.

enjoy the hockey at dodger stadium, but no tractor pulls please.

'o' no another group break

no surprise - i took the dodgers in ryan's latest group break at 'o' no another orioles blog. the cool thing is that i knew that i was guaranteed to get the entire dodger team from the 1998 fleer tradition update set, all of which were new to my collection.  here's my favorite of the bunch, adrian beltre's rookie (or is it x-rc?) card

i like cards that feature shots like this.  i may start a new type collection.  stay tuned.

here are a couple of the other dodgers in the set - mike metcalfe

and jeff shaw

metcalfe made his big league debut in 1998 by way of pinch hitting for juan castro in a september game against the giants.  robb nen struck him out.  he made three more appearances that season, all as a pinch runner, and had two stolen bases as a result.  he returned to the big leagues in 2000, when he collected his lone big league hit, an infield single off of jamie moyer.

ryan also busted some 1999 topps chrome, and i received this roger cedeno card as a result

looks like roger is breaking up a double play here.  very nice.

not so nice was kevin brown, but this 1999 upper deck hologrfx card is not too bad.

in fact, it's ausome, apparently.

2002 upper deck mvp was a favorite set of mine when it came out.  here's andy ashby

and some guy with the last name 'rookie'

no, that's victor alvarez.  i don't know why upper deck didn't stick with the player's name like the other cards. if only that silly rookie card logo had existed back then, maybe we would have had a consistent card design.

my second team in the break was the indians.  here's the worst card of the bunch - 2010 upper deck progressive field card

do you think they even bothered to roll down the window as they were driving by?

ryan also did me a favor and included this 2012 bowman dee gordon parallel that i coveted

thanks for the break and trade ryan!