one does not simply post random cards on friday

unless one lacks inspiration for a proper post, and there are still a bunch of cards sitting idly in the scanned folder.

such is life.

2002 topps tribute zach wheat

wheat actually had 476 career doubles, which was still about 300 shy of the all-time leader (tris speaker) when he retired.  speaker is still on top of the list, with wheat way down at 81st all-time (and about to be passed by torii hunter) now.

2004 topps heritage don newcombe flashback

newk won exactly 20 games in 1955 (as he had in 1951), but was 27-7 in 1956 to win the cy young and mvp awards.  he lost game 1 of the '55 world series, so i guess that's why the flashback card references the 1955 regular season.  always good to see don newcombe cards in newer releases!

1985 donruss ken landreaux

i liked '85 donruss at the time. definitely more than i liked '85 fleer (and i am a fan of the 1970 topps gray border set).  landreaux here is swinging away in dodger stadium, while delino deshields is in vero beach on his 1996 upper deck card

1996 upper deck got a little too fancy for me.  there are some nice cards in the set, but all the gold foil didn't do much for me so i bought very little of this back then.

2002 topps chrome davey lopes refractor

that's a shiny card of the former dodger second baseman who was fired by the brew crew 15 games into the 2002 season.

2002 topps chrome traded brian jordan

i don't know if the chrome traded veteran cards are short printed, but i was pretty ticked that topps did that with the regular traded set that year.

2010 upper deck jonathan broxton biography insert

broxton was indeed 6-0 after june 5, 2009 with 13 saves to his credit to boot.  after the game on august 18, 2009, broxton was 7-0 with 26 saves.  he took the loss the next day.

2010 topps cards your mom threw out 1953 topps johnny podres

this is the 'original back' version

at some point between 1953 and 1978, people stopped using the phrase "pulls a rock". i had not heard that until reading the back of this card.

2005 topps carl erskine 'dem bums' insert

oisk is trying to run away from this post as fast as he can. i don't blame him.

cash in the mail

yes, norm cash came to me by mail with his hand out.

it actually helped me out, as this was one of the cards i needed for my 1974 topps set.  it came from scott at sport cards ate my brain, and it didn't arrive alone.

i also received this all-star card of amos otis and cesar cedeno

the equivalent of which today would be, what? adam jones and andrew mccutcheon?  the cool thing about this card is that when their careers were all over, otis and cedeno sat atop of each others similarity scores on baseball reference.  how serendipitous.

did you know that todd worrell was a competitor?  well, 1997 topps finest wants you to know

i consider worrell to have been the dodgers' first real 'modern' closer - no offense meant towards the likes of jim gott or jay howell or roger mcdowell or any of the other guys that did the job in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  worrell was the first dodger to record over 30 saves (he recorded 32 in 1995), and his 44 saves in 1996 stood as the team record until this guy came along

that would be eric gagne on his 2000 pacific private stock card.  gagne saved 52 games in 2002 to pass worrell on the team's season high list, and then he saved 55 games in 2003 for good measure.  his 45 saves in 2004 also gets him the third spot on the list.

andy pafko doesn't show up on any team leader lists, but his iconic first card of the 1952 topps set gets a lot of replay.  this is from 2001 topps archives

and may well be as close as i get to owning the real thing.

gil hodges' 1952 topps card was also reprinted by topps, although this one is from 2002 topps chrome

and isn't necessarily enhanced by the shiny.

here's a 2004 playoff honors parallel card of hideo nomo

and a short print of his fellow countryman kaz ishii from 2004 topps heritage

i wonder if ryu hyun-jin will get the sp treatment like ishii did.  i will guess that there will be some interest in his cards, so i expect he will.  speculators will speculate, i guess.

finally, here is a 2009 topps finest james mcdonald blue refractor

that's a good bunch of cards, and there were more in the trade package.  thanks for the trade scott!

a money saving trade with dustin

a while back i completed a trade with reader dustin.  it was a good trade - he sent a bunch of cool dodgers.  in fact, he sent a card that i had been wanting for a while and was almost ready to 'bin' on ebay after watching a storefront listing for a couple of months.  it's this 2004 topps heritage duke snider insert

which commemorates his 4th home run of the 1955 world series (the second time he had hit 4 home runs in a single series).  it's even cooler because it has jackie robinson and gil hodges lurking with their hands extended in congratulations for the silver fox.  awesome card, and i didn't even know it was coming in advance.

speaking of jackie, here he is on one of his 1997 upper deck cards

nice and shiny!

staying with the brooklyn theme, here's a 1993 leaf studio eric karros heritage series insert

the back says that this is a 1911 uniform 'and bat from that era'.  1911 was the first year the team was called the dodgers, so that's cool.  i'm glad they ditched the pinstripes though.

2003 topps traded brennan king gold parallel

king made it to aa with the dodgers in 2002, and played in jacksonville through the 2004 season.  he then moved on to the royals and phillies systems, making it to aaa for the phils.  it looks like he peaked there, with 2008 being his final year in pro ball.

1993 leaf raul mondesi

i don't know what is going on here.  i had no idea mondesi was ever a switch hitter, but it's not a reversed negative so he clearly thought he could go lefty.  i suppose it's a good thing he gave it up, but who knows - maybe he raked?

1997 bowman joe lagarde

joe here has a unique look about him.  not quite sure what it is that strikes me as odd.  anyway, he pitched in the dodgers' system for 6 years, first as a starter and then as a reliever.  he made it to aaa in 1996 and 1998, which was his last year in pro ball.

1994 topps finest mike piazza

this card was tough to come across back in 1994.  i don't think i even tried.  it's nice to have now, though.

1987 tcma greatest teams ed roebuck and clem labine

roebuck and labine shared the 'closer' duties on the 1955 dodger team.  roebuck had 12 'saves' while labine had 11.  in the series, labine won game 4 and 'saved' game 5, while roebuck made one relief appearance and gave up no runs in two innings.  it's nice to see these guys on a card instead of the usual boys of summer.

thanks for the trade dustin! it is much appreciated!