a quick trip to tatooine

with the trade of juan uribe to the braves, i would expect alex guerrero to eventually settle in at third base. at least until hector olivera is ready.  however, most of guerrero's playing time of late has been in the outfield, since both yasiel puig and carl crawford are injured.

last year, topps included guerrero in many of its sets, and listed him as a second baseman.  that made sense then, but he has yet to play at second in the major leagues.  here are three of those cards, with guerrero turning two to boot.

2014 topps walmart blue

2014 topps chrome purple refractor

and 2014 topps mini pink parallel

notice that the cards show guerrero throwing to first without a lick of grass in sight.  that's what makes a tatooine card a tatooine card.

here are some others from my mini collection

1994 donruss bobby bonilla

1995 upper deck luis lopez electric diamond parallel

1996 upper deck brady anderson vj lovero showcase insert

2000 topps stadium club bobby abreu

2001 fleer tradition corey koskie

2011 topps carlos beltran

and 2012 topps emilio bonifacio

i am guessing that there is all kinds of mischief one can get into at mos eisley spaceport, so the vegas code probably stands - what happens on tatooine stays on tatooine.  unless you're luke skywalker bragging about taking out womprats to a group of rebel pilots.

mural, mural on the wall...

i've been meaning to do this for a long time.  i took a quick look at the evolution of the dodger stadium outfield wall in a previous post, but i didn't take the time to document what the theme of the murals were.  some years it was obvious - retired numbers - but other years seemed more eclectic.

i was a big fan of the murals, even though i was not able to attend too many games during their presence.  i mostly remember the outfield wall looking like it does on this 2000 mlb showdown card

featuring wayne kirby, and a non-controversial quote from reggie jackson.  really, everybody does like ice cream.

sometimes, usually (only?) opening day, the dodgers would get out the big world championship banners and put them on the walls. in 1998, however, they began using photo murals in the outfield.  there was a different theme for each year from '98 through 2004.  i thought i had a pretty good bead on what the murals were each year after some research, and dodger historian mark langill was kind enough to confirm things for me via email.  thanks mark (he's got the greatest job in the world).  on with the post.

1998 world championships/retired numbers mural

that 1999 fleer tradition derek bell card shows off the don drysdale (number 53) part of the mural, which was next to the 1981 world championship image featuring the three steves - howe, yeager, and garvey - in their celebratory embrace.  here's a photo from getty images that shows the mural a bit better.

if only bell had fielded that ball a few feet to his left...

in 1999, the dodgers added their hero patches to their uniforms, and the mural honored those players who were included in the patch selection.  here's a 2000 topps stadium club devon white card

that shows kirk gibson and the right ear of pee wee reese (i believe).  reese's teammate gil hodges' part of the mural shows up on derek jeter's 2000 upper deck card

darryl kile's 2000 fleer ultra card

has a good part of the mural in the background. that's jackie robinson and don drysdale, with rauuuul mondesi at the plate.

ray lankford's 2000 topps gallery card

is not to be ignored, with lankford spiking mike scioscia's image on the wall.  that's a great card and all, but here's a photo that i would have rather made its way onto cardboard (again from getty images)

it's a picture of ken griffey junior and don newcombe and scioscia - this time you can see his face.  as for the garv, he was on the wall again, but i couldn't find any cards featuring his part of the mural, unfortunately.

in 2000, the dodgers went with the theme of great moments in dodger stadium history, including the saving of the american flag by then cub rick monday, and this moment

i believe that gibson's home run was voted the greatest sports moment in los angeles history, by the way.  i don't know if garvey was on this wall, as i didn't get to chavez ravine in 2000 and there certainly isn't any cardboard that i've found with any of the mural in the background.

for the 2001 season, the dodgers revisited their retired numbers, doing so in a more formal fashion.  this 2001 upper deck gold glove card of darin erstad

has him in front of the '2' in walt alston's '24'.  the 's' near erstad's right arm is the 's' at the end of 'los angeles dodgers'.  there are other cards featuring this mural, and my favorite is probably the 2002 upper deck marvin benard card.  i like that card so much, it was the first non-dodger card ever featured on this blog in what was the third post in this blog's existence.  sadly, steve garvey was not part of this mural, as his number 6 will not be retired by the dodgers unless he is voted into the hall of fame by the veteran's committee.

2002 was the year that the team celebrated 40 years of dodger stadium, complete with comemmorative patches on their sleeves and a new mural on the wall.  they used a different player from each even year from 1962 to 2002.  tommy davis was '62, shawn green was '02, and steve garvey was '76 (as seen in this getty images photo)

sweet.  if only it were a card...

...well, garvey made the mural in 2003 and a card the following year as the team recognized dodger record holders on their outfield wall.  the 2003 mural included the likes of sandy koufax's 382 strikeouts in a single season (still a modern national league and left-handed pitcher record), as well as the team's record setting infield of garvey, cey, russell, and lopes.  that's the mural that made it on to preston wilson's 2004 fleer ultra card

with steve garvey representing!  very thankful to fleer for making this card!

garvey had no chance at the 2004 mural, as the dodgers honored their cy young award winners that year.  here's 1974 winner, mike marshall on carlos beltran's 2005 fleer card

orel hershiser on derek jeter's 2005 fleer ultra card

(with a cameo from eric gagne's arm), and, of course, fernando valenzuela on steve finley's 2005 fleer ultra card

you didn't think i'd get through the post without showing that beauty, did you?

lord, i miss the murals.

a number memorial for the yankee clipper

joe dimaggio, teammate to lou gehrig and mickey mantle, died at the age of 84 on march 8, 1999.  he had played 13 years in the majors for the yankees (with 3 of his prime years spent in the military during world war ii), earning 3 mvp awards and 9 world series rings.

in response to his passing, the yankees added dimaggio's retired number 5 to their left sleeves for the 1999 season.  there are plenty of examples of this memorial, including the following cards:

2000 fleer tradition derek jeter alcs

2000 fleer ultra tino martinez

2000 topps stadium club ricky ledee

2000 topps chili davis

2000 topps bernie williams

2000 topps david cone

2000 topps derek jeter

2000 fleer gamers bernie williams

and this 2000 upper deck victory darryl strawberry

i'll take off on a tangent here.  in addition to giving us a close-up look at the number memorial thanks to the inset photo, this card also serves as a final tribute to strawberry's career

those are strawberry's final career stats - a far cry from where most people thought they would be when he retired based on his potential and his first few seasons with the mets.  strawberry played in about 150  fewer games than dimaggio, but he struck out almost 1000 more times than did joltin' joe.

here are the two cards i have in my collection for dimaggio's memorial - a 2000 upper deck mvp alfosno soriano scout's choice insert card that shows the white number memorial the yankees wore on their spring training jerseys

and derek jeter's 2000 fleer ultra card that shows the memorial on the yankee pinstripes

dimaggio was considered to be the 'classiest' yankee, and was perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak in 1941 and his short marriage to marilyn monroe. for the last 30 years of his life, he was also known (officially) as 'the greatest living ballplayer'.  here is dimaggio's obituary from the new york times which obviously expands on his life and impact far better than i could here.

indeed, 'joltin joe has left and gone away.'  so, (i know it's not the actual lyric from the simon & garfunkel song 'mrs. robinson', but…) here's to you, joe dimaggio.

double plays abound

jay bell is turning two at dodger stadium on his 2000 upper deck card.

this may well be a play from the first game of the davey johnson era - opening day 1999.  if so, that would be mark grudzielanek sliding in.  this was the game in which raul mondesi tied things up with a 3-run blast in the bottom of the 9th and then won the game with another homer in extra innings. 

here's mickey morandini turning two on his 2000 fleer ultra

and 2000 topps stadium club cards

not to be outdone, i've got three fernando vina double play turns to show - 2000 pacific (ruby parallel)

2000 topps chrome

and 2002 fleer ultra

however, this last one is more likely a stolen base attempt, i am afraid.

these last three are dp turns for sure, though.  2004 fleer platinum ray durham

1999 fleer tradition andy fox (warning track parallel)

2006 upper deck tony womack

all that's missing on that womack card is the 'now with reds' text.

in the year 2000

i used to watch conan every once in a while, and i recall the first time i saw his 'in the year 2000' bit.  it was in late 1999 and he predicted that in the year 2000, zombies would feast on human flesh and when they got hungry later, they would go to olive garden.  i found that to be quite funny.

this post has nothing to do with conan or his skits, however.  instead, i give to you a few cards that were produced in the final year of the 20th century.

2000 fleer focus jeff shaw

on which we clearly see the don drysdale hero patch.  i think of cards from this set as fleer's knockoff of 1981 topps.  oddly enough, upper deck would bring the cap design element back to cards in 2006 under the fleer banner.

2000 topps jeff shaw

the first topps gray border set since 1970.  it was a nice break from two years of gold borders.

speaking of gold, 2000 upper deck gold reserve kevin brown

aside from the full bleed, there were some similarities between the topps card design and the upper deck card design in the year 2000.

2000 upper deck sp authentic

there were a heckuva lot of kevin brown cards in the year 2000.

2000 pacific angel pena

pena is wearing the roy campanella patch, as any catcher should.  note that paul loduca wore the mike scioscia patch.

2000 pacific paramount devon white

yes, devon white was a dodger in the year 2000.  and in 1999 as well, when he wore the jackie robinson patch.  here's the back of his 2000 topps stadium club card

looks like devo played his best at dodger stadium.  he finished his career with 34 leadoff home runs, including one hit for the dodgers in the year 2000.

2000 skybox dominion adrian beltre

beltre was 21 in the year 2000, and he hit 20 home runs for the first time.  he's about to turn 35 and is about 600 hits shy of 3000.  i wonder if he will make it.

i really liked that skybox dominion set when it came out, but my favorite set of the year 2000 was the fleer greats of the game release.  fleer had put out the first gotg set in 1999 as a sports illustrated fueled set, complete with an autographed card in every pack.  that was cool, but i really liked the look and feel of the 2000 set over the gloss of the 1999 set.

here are a few of the dodgers from the set - tommy john

al lopez

preacher roe

and fernando valenzuela

the set featured on card autos, too.  not of fernando, unfortunately.  had there been one, it might well have been my favorite card of the year 2000.