so a guy walks into a card shop...

i've got some more cards to show from my most recent lcs visits.  normally, the cards i pick up are dodgers, double plays, or cards that fit in other collections of mine.  sometimes i will pick something up even though it doesn't 'fit'.  like this 1992 megacards babe ruth card

the best thing about this photo, other than it being of (most of) the first hall of famers, is babe ruth's droopy socks.  i actually have an 8x10 of this photo framed, i think it is so cool.  no dodgers, unfortunately.  also unfortunately, megacards identified one of the game's greatest players incorrectly.

in 1936, five players - ruth, ty cobb, christy mathewson, honus wagner, and walter johnson - became baseball's first hall of famers.  in 1937, they were joined by nap lajoie, cy young, and tris speaker.  also voted in that year was connie mack (one of 13 19th century figures that were added to the hall between 1937 and 1939). the lone 1938 inductee was grover cleveland alexander, and in 1939 - the year that the hall officially opened - george sisler, eddie collins, and willie keeler (there's a dodger!) joined the ranks.  that means that there were 11 living hall of famers in 1939 (mathewson and keeler had passed away), but the photo, taken at the opening of the hall of fame in cooperstown, only has 10.  let's see what the back has to say about that

poor cy young.  according to the card, he wasn't in the photo.  in reality, he is seated to mack's left.  it's ty cobb, the one who received the most votes for induction, who is missing.  the way the story goes is that cobb either arrived too late for the photo due to poor planning, or he chose to be late out of spite for kenesaw mountain landis.  it should be noted that lou gehrig was also voted into the hall in 1939, but his election came in a special ballot held in december of that year, so he was not a hall of famer at the time of the photo.  anyway, that's a great card.

i picked up another from the same set, this one with the babe wearing his brooklyn hat and singing alongside kiki cuyler (if the back of the card can be trusted)

the card back features a story told by ruth's old teammate bill dickey that involves some locker room hijinks.

i grabbed a few 2006 upper deck cards of dodgers, including one of a guy in a phillies uniform

and another of a dodger in a red sox uni

plus one of a devil ray in a dodger uniform

and then there was a 1987 woolworth's don sutton card that i had not seen before

that highlighted sutton's 300th career win.

i am not sure why, but i also grabbed a 'rookie of the week' card that topps put out in 2006 of george brett

i was disappointed that there were no dodgers in the set, nor were there any 1978 topps styled cards included.  i thought that maybe mike piazza would have been featured, or that eddie murray or paul molitor would have had their '78 cards restyled.  no such luck.

speaking of rookies, here are some rauuuuuuuul mondesi cards i rescued from the bargain boxes.  1994 donruss triple play

1995 topps stadium club

and 1998 upper deck collector's choice starquest insert

i picked up a bunch of other dodger cards, too.  that means there is one more lcs post on its way...

topps panders to the team collector and serves up variations - a side by side comparison of the 2006 dodgers

for the most part, the blister team packs that topps has been selling for the past few years offer little other than a point-of-purchase distraction at the local target.  at least that was what i thought, although topps did start to market them as having an 'exclusive' card the past couple of years - be it a mascot or a manager card or whatever.  at any rate, i wound up buying the dodger sets more as a completist than anything else.  i am happy to say that there is more than just a different number on the back.  let's have a look at the 2006 dodgers.  i'll put the regular topps card on the left, and their topps dodgers team set card on the right.  we'll go in the order of the cards in the team set, starting with 'lad1', eric gagne.

eric gagne

the cards are the same, except topps, for some reason, moved their logo over to the right side of the card for the team set version.  what a variation!

rafael furcal

again, topps on the left, topps dodgers on the right.  but you can't really tell since they are the same.  right down to the airbrushing, which is actually an anomaly for topps as we shall see when we get to bill mueller.

jeff kent

here's another one where there is no difference.

cesar izturis

ditto cesar izturis.  at this point, i am wondering why i bothered.

kenny lofton

that's why.  lofton's regular topps card kept him as a phillie, and his topps dodgers version shows him nicely airbrushed into the dodger road unis, right down to the blue cleats.  topps did issue a card for lofton in the update & highlights set

which is different from the topps dodgers card.  i like it - the more variety the better.

jd drew

back to boring, which is fitting for jd drew.  just the movement of the topps logo on these cards.

bill mueller

here's another decent variation.  unlike furcal's card above, topps kept mueller in his former team's jersey (red sox) and just changed the team affiliation to the dodgers in the flagship set.  in the dodgers' team set, however, topps airbrushed the jersey and the hat to make it a little more official.  sadly, there was no update & highlights card for mueller as his career ended due to injury in may of 2006.

jose cruz jr

no difference.

brett tomko

here's the double variation - tomko is airbrushed (appropriately) into a dodger road uniform, and topps moved their logo.  tomko did pitch in the phone booth for the dodgers twice in 2006, but obviously this image ain't from either of those games.

like lofton, tomko got a card in the update & highlights set with a completely different image

i might actually like the airbrushed card better.

derek lowe

speaking of guys with card images from san francisco, here's derek lowe, whose subsequent topps cards were all about pitching on the road in at&t park.  sadly, there is no variation here.

brad penny

brad penny gets the topps logo treatment, and nothing more.

odalis perez

gets nothing, and probably doesn't like it, but nobody cares.  it's just noise at this point.

jayson werth

werth is also left out of the variation party.  on a side note, is there anyone other than don wert whose last name is in order on the standard 'qwerty' keyboard?  i will guess not thanks to most of the vowels being placed next to each other on the top row.

nomar garciaparra

finally, with card 'lad14' we get to the best of the bunch.  nomar goes from a cub in the flagship set to a dodger in the team set.  it's not as good of a job airbrushing as the shadows are different and nomar was put into the dodger home whites.  topps even airbrushed the cubbie in the dugout although they didn't put a red number on the guy's jersey.  it's basically the same card that was in the 2006 opening day set, but i still appreciate it, as it's one of the last nomar topps cards made.  he did get a card in the u&h set thanks to his all-star status

and that was it.  no more nomar.

so, of the 14 cards, we had 4 topps logo variations, 3 team variations, and 4 airbrushing variations. not bad.

we'll see what 2007 brought in a few days.

the evolution of the center fielder, part 3

it's been a while since the last post, so here's part 1 and part 2 if you want to catch up.  i'll wait.

the dodgers were looking for a new center fielder in 1999 so raul mondesi could move back to right field.  enter devon white.

devon white (1999)

white, shown above on his 1999 topps stadium club card, was coming off a pretty decent year in arizona, although his best years were well behind him.  still, kevin malone signed him to a 3-year, $12 million contract.  white started 121 games for the dodgers as their center fielder, and hit .268 with 14 home runs.  known for his glove, white made just 4 errors in 280 chances, although his range factor was down.  white began the 2000 season as the dodgers' man in center once again, and was playing pretty well through april when he was injured and forced out of the lineup.  as a result, todd hollandsworth wound up leading the team in center field starts in 2000.

todd hollandsworth (2000)

holly, seen above on his 1999 keebler dodgers card, took over for white in early may and made a total of 55 starts for the blue in center.  he was hitting just .234 for the dodgers, and they bundled him in a trade deadline deal that brought tom goodwin back to la from exile in colorado.  goodwin took over in center, but did not eclipse hollandsworth's number of starts.  for the dodgers in 2000, their center field merry-go-round had hollandsworth at the top with the aforementioned 55 starts.  next was goodwin with 46, white wound up with 35, fp santangelo had 22, and the field had the rest.

prior to the start of the 2001 season, the dodgers traded white to the brewers for...

marquis grissom (2001)

that trade was interesting in hindsight, because white and grissom are essentially the same player (grissom is 4th on white's baseballreference most similar list).  grissom, shown on a 2001 topps traded relic card, played in 135 games for the dodgers in 2001, including 83 starts in center.  he hit .221 with 20 home runs, and while he stayed with the club for the 2002 season, grissom wasn't the answer.  after the 2001 season, the dodgers brought in another guy to play center.

dave roberts (2002-2003)

dave roberts is enjoying his re-signing with the dodgers on his 2003 upper deck vintage card, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.  in 2002, roberts played center in 115 games and hit .277.  he also stole 45 bases.  as the card above indicates, roberts was back in center for the dodgers in 2003.  that year, he hit .250 and stole 40 bases as their main guy, but he was not seen as the long term solution.  he played all three outfield positions for the dodgers in 2004 before they traded him to boston and he went on to postseason glory. the dodgers bucked their trend and went for a younger player to man the position.

milton bradley (2004-2005)

the dodgers acquired bradley prior to the start of the 2004 season, and i immediately embraced him.  i hadn't cheered for the name on the back of the jersey (figuratively speaking, as the dodgers removed the names from the backs around that time as seen on the above 2005 topps turkey red card) as hard as i did for bradley during his dodgers' tenure in a long time.  in '04, he played all three outfield positions but started 91 games in center.  he hit .267 and scored 72 runs with 19 homers and 67 rbi. he even had 8 outfield assists. he helped the dodgers get back to the postseason for the first time since 1996 and hit .273 in the nlds against the cardinals.

in 2005, he started all 73 of his games in center and hit .290 but the dodgers fell to 4th place and they grew tired of bradley's outbursts.  they went back to their old ways of acquiring a veteran center fielder for the 2006 season.

kenny lofton (2006)

the 2007 upper deck card above is actually a rangers card, but you get the idea.  lofton had a great year for the dodgers in 2006.  he hit .301 with 32 steals in 129 games (114 as the starter in center field).  the dodgers made it back to the nlds, but lofton hit just .077 in 3 games against the mets.  he was allowed to leave as a free agent after the season and had a comparable year for the rangers and indians in 2007.  his departure opened the door for ned to give the starting job to one of the youngsters in the fold - the only question was whether it would be andre ethier, who had been acquired for milton bradley, or dodger farmhand matt kemp.  ned tricked us all when he went out and signed juan pierre.

juan pierre (2007)

pierre, shown on his 2008 topps card (with mariano duncan lurking in the background), continued his consecutive games played streak for the dodgers in 2007.  he played in all 162 games, including 160 starts in center, and led the league in singles with 164.  overall, he hit .293 but the team underachieved, so ned and frank mccourt made some changes. 

out went grady little, in came joe torre, and for no good reason whatsoever, in came andruw jones.  pierre moved to left to make room for jones, who stunk it up pretty badly.  i still don't know how he managed to make 55 starts in center.  saner ideas prevailed, and the bison wound up being the dodger's primary center fielder in 2008.

matt kemp (2008-present)

matt kemp is my baseball salvation.  so far in his career, he is averaging 23 home runs and 86 rbi with a .285 batting average over 162 games - and he's only 26!  there has been no doubt as to who the center fielder for the dodgers is the past two years, and i hope kemp reigns in center longer than the duke. 

so, there you have the end to 60+ years of dodger center fielder evolution.  maybe next i'll look at the third basemen the dodgers have employed over the years.  that should take about a dozen posts.

more out of place guys

wlecome to the third installment of the 'evolution of the dodgers' out of place guy'.  the first installment covered about 20 years, from skowron to stanhouse, and the second got us about 16 more seasons, from belanger to bonilla.  i realize now that i should have included don sutton and eddie murray and their second tours of duty with the dodgers in 1988 and 1997 to the last list.  really, how many people remember that they ended their careers in la?  that is truly out of place.

anyway, due to the higher frequency of free agency and trades and one year contracts and all of that stuff, this post won't even get us to the present day.  we'll start in 1999 with the 1997 world series hero, craig counsell

i believe that this 2000 pacific crown collection card is the only one of counsell as a dodger.  that's how out of place he was.  even the card companies don't want to recognize his tenure in la.  the dodgers acquired counsell halfway through the 1999 season from the marlins, giving up a minor leaguer.  in 50 games with the dodgers, he hit .259 with just 6 extra base hits (all doubles) for an ops of .626.  the dodgers released him during spring training 2000, and the diamondbacks picked him up.

did you remember that kevin elster ended his career with the dodgers in 2000?  that makes this 2001 topps card a final tribute.

elster's old manager, davey johnson, was leading the dodgers and convinced elster to come out of retirement (he missed the second half of the 1998 season and all of 1999 after being released by texas), presumably because he was scared of an entire season of alex cora at short.  in his 5th game back, elster helped to open the giants' new stadium (pac bell park, i believe it was known as back then) with 3 home runs to lead the dodgers to victory.  another candidate for out of place guy from the 2000 dodgers was geronimo berroa, but that is too obscure of a player even for me to address.

in 2001, james baldwin was a dodger and was only sort of out of place, and in 2002 marquis grissom came aboard.  i would have added grissom to the list, but he actually played in la for two seasons.  you can't be out of place if you hang around that long.

2003 brought a bevy of out of place guys, starting with the crime dog, fred mcgriff

mcgriff joined the dodgers as a free agent with 478 home runs.  having hit 30 in 2002 with the cubs, i sure thought he would get to 500 with the dodgers.  he didn't.  instead, he hit 13 dingers in just 86 games leaving him 9 short of the milestone.  the dodgers released him after the season and he went home to tampa to play for the devil rays in 2004.  unfortunately, he hit only 2 homers there and is forever sitting on 493.

joining mcgriff on the 2003 dodgers team was jeromy burnitz

the dodgers got burnitz in a deal that cost them a minor leaguer and two diazes.  it was the second time the mets had traded burnitz away.  for the dodgers, he performed worse than he had performed for any team in any season in his career.  he hit just .204 with an ops of .643.  he went to colorado for the 2004 season and i am sure he would have won the comeback player of the year award if chris carpenter hadn't been so good after missing all of 2003 and/or if burnitz hadn't (allegedly) been on steroids.

rounding out the triumverate of 2003 dodger out of place guys, we have rickey henderson.

rickey is a throwback out of place guy, like frank robinson or hoyt wilhelm.  a hall of famer who hit tinseltown for a short time at the end of the line, or in frobby's case - close to it.  rickey was 44 when the dodgers signed him to a contract in july of 2003.  he wound up hitting just .208 in 30 games with 2 homers and 5 rbi.  he scored 7 runs and stole 3 bases without getting caught.  his final career home run was, what else, a lead off home run - the 81st of his career.

2004 brought steve finley to town for 58 games.

he managed to win his 5th gold glove (he made just one error with the dodgers and just 3 overall in 2004) but is better known for his walk off grand slam against the giants on the next to last day of the season that gave the dodgers the nl west crown.  finley signed with the angels as a free agent for the 2005 season.

in 2005, the dodgers had a lot of no-names who weren't so much out of place as they were just not very good players.  norihiro nakamura?  jason grabowski?  come on.  i would love to say jd drew was out of place, but he stuck around (barely) for more than one season. 

then, in 2006, kenny lofton became a dodger.

lofton had one of the best years ever by an out of place guy.  he hit .301 with 79 runs scored and 32 steals as the dodgers' primary center fielder.  his 2007 season was pretty good, too, but he was back in the american league then as the dodgers didn't re-sign him.

those blue jays of spring

before i moved to minnesota, the blue jays were my american league team (except in 1979 when i rooted for the angels). now, i still have a soft spot for them and would like to see a twinkies/jays alcs. i was happy to see a blue jays centric blog (blue jays cards) appear a few weeks ago, and even happier when charles offered to send me some dodgers in exchange for some blue jays.

here's a sampling of what he sent:

2009 upper deck first edition starquest manny ramirez this card kind of reminds me of the donruss threads release from last year because the logo on the helmet is obscured. here, it's because of pine tar, not photoshop.

here's a bunch of the base cards from 2009 upper deck first edition, including a former dodger, takashi saito.

if cory wade can stay healthy the rest of the year, i don't think i will miss sammy.

greg maddux - a final tribute!

still, it's kind of weird to see a maddux card now. i figured the later releases wouldn't bother.

james loney.

i'm waiting patiently for some of those doubles to turn into home runs.

andre ethier.

i like these cards better than the flagship upper deck because of the use of the logo. however, i don't like the 'first edition' bar, and i find it hilarious that the holograms are missing on the back. now, i don't think anyone is going to go out and counterfeit these cards, but the hologram was one of the impetuses behind the creation of upper deck! it's like their hallmark. crazy.

charles also sent some 2006 goodies, including:

2006 upper deck greg maddux.

this is from his first dodger go-round. he went 6-3 for the dodgers down the stretch, but had a forgettable start against the mets in the nlds.

2006 upper deck kenny lofton.

this was when kenny was going 'one and done' for several teams. he played for 9 different teams in the 6 seasons after leaving cleveland for the second time. his year with the dodgers was pretty good, too, but ned replaced him with juan pierre. nothing against pierre, but i would have rather kept lofton for one more year before handing things off to kemp and ethier. hindsight, i guess.

finally, ol' mr. grumpy gills, jeff kent on a 2006 bowman heritage card.

i actually like the red background here. it would look even better if you could see more of the red uniform number.

thanks charles! here's hoping the jays stay atop the al east wire to wire. and be on the lookout for your cards - they should be there soon!