i see london, i see france, i see willie hernandez's undershirt. and i also see dodger stadium

before we get to willie/guillermo hernandez's undergarment, let's pause to appreciate john candelaria's 1983 fleer card.

that's just a thing of beauty with the dodger third base coach lurking in the background as the candy man is in the middle of his windup.  you know what's next - let's figure out when this picture was taken.  a check of baseball reference tells me that candelaria didn't pitch at chavez ravine in 1982 or 1981.  so, fleer used a photo from 1980, which means that danny ozark is the guy hanging out in the coaching box.  

in 1980, candelaria started two games at dodger stadium - losing 3-0 to jerry reuss on july 30, and getting a no-decision on may 16 (jerry reuss won that game, too).  thanks to the field level scoreboard, we know that the pirates were outhitting the dodgers 6 to 3 when the photo was taken.   in the july 30 game, the pirates mustered only 4 hits off of reuss the entire game.  on may 16 on the other hand, the pirates had 4 runs on 5 hits through two turns at bat, while the dodgers had a dusty baker single and a bill russell home run in the bottom of the second.  lee lacy singled in the top of the third inning to bring the pirates' hit total to 6.  they were held hitless by reuss after that until the 6th inning.  the dodgers on the other hand got a leadoff hit from reggie smith in the bottom of the 4th inning for their third hit of the game.  two outs later, ron cey got another hit off of candelaria, but was thrown out trying for a double.  so, the photo was taken on friday may 16, 1980, while reggie smith was on first base, and either dusty baker, steve garvey, or ron cey were at bat.  that's pretty cool.

here's another card with a view of the scoreboard on it from 1983 fleer - it's bill buckner!

and his teammate willie hernandez

standing in front of the old dugout seats while shilling for nike.  i wonder if nike provided clothing for cubs players the way companies do these days, or if willie purchased the shirt himself.  i first remember seeing nike shoes around 1981, but i don't recall when i first noticed that they were also making t-shirts.

another dodger stadium card from 1983 fleer - larry biittner

who doesn't look too excited to be having his picture taken.

moving ahead a year, here's dale murphy from 1984 fleer

i have previously determined that some 1984 fleer braves cards feature photos from the rj reynolds game.  if this is one of them, this could be a photo of murphy admiring his 3-run home run off of rick honeycutt in the 3rd inning to put the braves up 3-2.

here's doug sisk on his 1985 donruss card

and bill russell on his 1986 fleer card

both feature the right field pavilion and the scoreboard, just like biittner's card.  here's another card from the 1986 fleer set - the pete rose superstar special

rose is holding a collectible gartlan plate with the dugout seats behind him. then, in the 1987 fleer baseball all-stars set,

he opts for a bat on his shoulder.  that's the left field pavilion and diamondvision screen behind him there.  i was on diamondvision once, at a game against the reds.  it was fairly new, and the dodgers used still shots not video.  i was wearing my steve garvey shirt and stadium giveaway helmet.  unfortunately, my dad wasn't fast enough with his camera to get a picture.  my brother made it onto diamondvision later in the same game.  as far as that plate goes, you can buy a signed version of it on ebay these days.

this next card is from the 1993 mother's cookies nolan ryan farewell set.

astros unis look good in dodger stadium.  that's the stadium club restaurant behind the windows over his shoulders.  i've never been in there, although i have had tickets a few times that would have allowed me access.  i'd rather have a dodger dog and a cool-a-coo.

rod beck makes a dodger stadium appearance that was captured on his 1999 fleer ultra card

there are lots of cards with cool dodger stadium images in their backgrounds in the 1999 fleer ultra set.  i am a big fan of those murals that used to adorn the outfield wall.  so much better than the advertisements we see these days.

finally, here's larry walker sliding into third base on his 2011 topps update sp variation

not sure which dodger is lurking there, but i'm thinking it's of the lenny harris/mike sharperson era.

i enjoy seeing dodger stadium on cards.  prior to this summer, it had been six years since i had been to a game there.  that was the longest stretch away from chavez ravine of my life (i attended my first game when i was 3), and seeing the stadium on pieces of cardboard helped me weather my absence.

lurking coaches

too often coaches get the shaft when it comes to baseball cards.  i don't think topps has officially recognized coaches in their flagship set since 1974, and there have been precious few coaches cards in other sets.  usually, the only time a coach shows up on cardboard these days is in a team set designed for a stadium giveaway or fan pack, or, in the case of ron perranoski in 1987 and again in 1989, when there's a crowd.  here are a few cards upon which some coaches have managed to make an appearance.  and the cards are better for it, in my opinion.

first, danny ozark is walking into position in the background of billy grabarkewitz's 1970 topps card.

this scene continues to play out on jeff torborg's 1970 and 1971 topps cards, by the way.

next up, we have joe amalfitano coaching over at third base as mariano duncan takes a lead on his 1985 topps traded card

amalfitano last made an appearance on a topps card in 1973, i believe, as a member of the giants' coaching staff.  he's back with the giants these days in some capacity, and duncan is no longer a dodger coach either.

here's a cool card - it's actually the back of armando reynoso's 1992 upper deck card

that's dodger coach joe ferguson in the background, headed down the right field line in chavez ravine.  fergie coached under tommy lasorda from 1988 through 1994.

for a long time, mark cresse was the dodgers' bullpen coach.  that's him sitting down in the background of cory snyder's 1994 ud collector's choice card

which also features foreground lurker jody reed.  cresse served under managers walt alston, tommy lasorda, bill russell, and this next lurker, glenn hoffman, who finds a spot on jim tracy's 2004 topps card

hoffman took over on an interim basis after bill russell was fired in 1998.  cresse didn't last long under hoffman's regime, as he was fired along with hitting coach reggie smith and pitching coach glenn gregson shortly after hoffman took over.  hoffman himself was replaced as manager by davey johnson in 1999, but he stayed on as a coach under johnson and his replacement, jim tracy.

with davey lopes back in town, i am always on the lookout for a glimpse of him in the background of a card.  unfortunately, it's third base coach tim wallach who is lurking on jerry sands' 2012 topps card

still, an arm of wallach is better than pretending that the coaches don't exist.  here's hoping that all of wallach or lopes or trey hillman or kenny howell or whoever replaces dave hansen shows up in the background on some 2013 cards.

if i had some padrographs for you...

something to remind me.  i wouldn't spend my life just wishing..

ah, good ol' flock of seagulls.

i don't have any padrographs for you, or for rod from padrographs abner to zimmer either for that matter.  what i do have are some padres cards and oregonians to send him after he sent me a package of dodgers cards.

i will now admit that trying to tie a flock of seagulls, baseball cards and a collector in oregon all together was probably a bad idea.  here are some of the cards i received.

1982 donruss mike scioscia

a nice way to start - dodger stadium, the angels' manager, and coach danny ozark lurking in the background.

speaking of lurkers, here's a 1994 pinnacle jim gott card

with the strongest man in socal, italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza sharing space with gott.

there was also a 1994 upper deck jim gott

again with a lurker of some sort.  my guess is that this is from the annual hollywood stars game and that's some sort of "celebrity" that would show up at those events like rodger lodge or corbin bernsen.  it kinda looks like christian slater, but i don't know that he was on that circuit back then.

another jim gott, this one a 1992 pinnacle

nice that they identify him as a 'relief pitcher'.  i didn't know.  cool how the photo is framed so that the ball is tucked nicely inside the upper corner of the card.

kind of like this 1984 fleer steve sax card that rod sent

or this 1990 score card of alejandro pena

pena also gets labeled as a 'rp'.  maybe this happened more often than i realized in the 90's.

here's another 1990 score card, this one of mike huff

huff is making his first appearance on the blog.  born in honolulu, he is at least the 4th hawaiian to have played for the dodgers (charlie hough, sid fernandez, and carlso diaz being the others i can think of off the top of my head).  huff played in a total of 12 games for the dodgers - all in august of 1990.  in his first major league at bat, he pinch hit for mike scioscia and singled off of tom glavine.  just over a week later, he hit his first big league home run, a solo shot off of future dodger dennis cook.  huff was claimed in the 1990 rule v draft by the indians, and he spent the rest of his career in the american league.  but we'll always have this 1990 score card to remember him by.
finally, i'll show this 2010 topps allen & ginter jonathan broxton 'this day in history' insert

it looks like broxton wants a paper, but the newsie is not paying any attention to him.

thanks for the cards rod, i'll get a package to you soon!

just pretend this is a flip book

here comes dodgers' coach danny ozark with a bag of balls and a couple of bats.

so what if some guy is trying to take a photo of billy grabarkewitz for his 1970 o-pee-chee card? 

next we have ozark preparing to hit some fungoes

as jeff torborg smiles unknowingly on his 1971 topps card

and ozark again sizes things up as an infielder returns a ball to him

all the while torborg is unaware on his 1970 o-pee-chee card.

it's a shame, really, that topps didn't select more photos from this session.   we could have had ozark in midswing or even spitting.

some cranky dodger cards to assist my pursuit of dodgers-ness

i (not that) recently received some cards from jack at pursuit of 80's-ness.  i have watched with pangs of jealousy as many of you have posted about the cards you have received from jack, and i was not disappointed when my package arrived. all i had to do was send him some red sox and one or two 1980 topps cards for:

1957 topps charley neal

charley is looking pretty sullen, even though he is surrounded by that great 1957 color.  even though the card design is pretty simplistic, i really like this set because of the great color and vintage photography feel.

1961 topps don demeter

another sullen looking guy.  this photo is from wrigley field as evidenced by the scoreboard in center.  don got off to a rough start in 1961 for the dodgers, and was traded to the phillies in the jim bunning deal in may of that year.

1970 o-pee-chee manny mota

manny doesn't look too happy either, even though the dodgers saved him from his montreal purgatory.  i love that i received a card printed in canada from a guy in the uk.  awesome.

1970 topps jeff torborg

jeff isn't smiling either.  this photo is from the same shoot as the one used for his 1971 topps card, complete with danny ozark lurking in the background hitting fungoes.  1970 would be torborg's final year with the dodgers, and he would make it count by catching bill singer's no-hitter in july.

1972 topps jose pena

jose is at least showing some teeth, although he doesn't look too happy here.  pena was plucked by the reds from the mexican league in 1966, and the dodgers acquired him in the rule v draft in 1969.  after spending the 1970 and 71 seasons with the dodgers, pena was sent down to albuquerque after just 5 games with the dodgers in 1972.  baseball reference would seem to indicate that this photo is from 1970, as pena is wearing number 49.  he apparently wore 29 in 1971 and 72.

1981 fleer gary weiss

another irritated-looking dodger.  weiss is known (by me anyway) to be the last dodger to wear number 1 before it was retired in honor of pee wee reese.  weiss made 8 appearances in 1980, all as a pinch runner late in the season.  he was back with the dodgers at the end of the 1981 season, but was not included on the post season roster.  he walked in his first major league at bat (against al holland of the giants), but didn't collect his first major league hit until his 14th at bat (a single against mario soto of the reds).

1981 fleer pepe frias 

finally, a smile.  or at least a grin!  like weiss, frias played for the dodgers only sparingly in 1980 and 81.  frias had one career home run in his 9 years in the majors, a solo shot off of john candelaria in 1979.  i am left to wonder whether or not that is jerry coleman lurking in the background.

thanks jack for the great cards!