something about wolves and sheep and clothing

actually, the biblical reference to false prophets is not the right allusion for this post. this is more about masqueraders. you all know how much i treasure the o-pee-chee team variations, and i enjoy finding other similar type cards to add to my dodger collection.

case in point, i discovered while entering my dodger collection on tcdb that i was missing a card from my checklist of dodgers included in the 1986 true value super stars set - bill madlock's card:

once i saw that it was, in fact, a dodger card, i couldn't obtain it quickly enough. he is clearly a pirate, but also a dodger.

similarly, eric davis' 1992 topps kids card

uses the old o-pee-chee "now with" angle. eric the red dodger!

this 1994 donruss triple play delino deshields card

is decidedly more "dodger-y", thanks to the logo being front and center on the card, but it is also overwhelmingly "expo-y".

manuel barrios became a dodger thanks to the mike piazza trade, and donruss was able to get some text on his 1998 donruss card to reflect that status

barrios pitched in one game for the dodgers before he was dfa'd and claimed by the marlins. i seem to recall that interim gm tommy lasorda may have taken some heat for barrios' departure (on a procedural level) but barrios never pitched in the big leagues again, so no harm no foul.

kevin brown is all padre on the front of this 1999 upper deck ovation card

but i assure you that on the back, there is a nice looking dodgers logo. just like the one on the front of this 2007 upper deck first edition juan pierre leading off insert

fun juan pierre trivia - he played in 821 consecutive games (a streak that ended during his dodger tenure) which is in the top ten all-time, except in one of those games he appeared only as a pinch runner so i guess mlb says it doesn't count and instead he has two streaks of 386 and 434 consecutive games played. doesn't make sense to me - he played in the game so it should count.

here's one where upper deck tried to make a card more of a dodger card than it really is

that's a 1998 upper deck collector's choice starquest insert of eddie murray, who was back for his second stint in la. he is wearing an indians or orioles uniform however, although the name and number on the back have been colorized to blue.

i also include cards of "outbound" dodgers in my dodger collection such as this 1998 donruss todd zeile card

which is a perfect companion to the barrios card above.

and then there is this 2005 donrus throwback threads card of hideo nomo

who is officially listed as a tampa bay devil ray.

here's another one - a 2006 fleer flair showcase wave of the future card of cody ross

who is a dodger playing in cincinnati.

i also recently picked up this card from 2009 upper deck a piece of history for the collection

it shows manny ramirez as all dodger, while matt holliday is straddling the line between colorado rockie and oakland athletic.

there are other cards that are quite sneaky and escape my knowledge for decades before i become aware of their dodgerness, like this 1971 dell todays ted sizemore

definitely a dodger on the front

but a cardinal on the back. the dodger album features al downing as a brewer as far as the photo goes, but dick allen is shown in a dodger uniform so i just assumed that sizemore would have been shown wearing the cardinal get up. i was wrong and just happened to stumble upon an image of this item a couple of months ago.

speaking of allen, he was included in the 1971 kellogg's set

while sizemore was not. in this set, allen is still a cardinal until you turn the card over!

that's a dodger card for sure.

joy of a complete roy set

today is the 103rd anniversary of jackie robinson's birth, so i figured i would show some cards that are associated with the annual award named in his honor - the rookie of the year award.

the cards make up a 14-card set from 1995 given to season ticket holders that celebrates the dodgers (through 1994) to be voted as the rookie of the year in the national league (or in jackie robinson's case, the rookie of the year in major league baseball). using relatively new chrome technology, the set included jackie robinson (1947), don newcombe (1949), joe black (1952), jim gilliam (1953), frank howard (1960), jim lefebvre (1965), ted sizemore (1969), rick sutcliffe (1979), steve howe (1980), fernando valenzuela (1981), steve sax (1982), eric karros (1992), mike piazza (1993), and raul mondesi (1994).

let's see the cards!

that last one there is just a blank back header. 

thanks to the uncertainty surrounding rookies regarding the remainder of their careers, there are some guys included here that don't have many cards. in fact, these may be the only post-career cards of jim lefebvre (as a player) and ted sizemore outside of the 1990 target dodgers set. plus, any newer rick sutcliffe cards most likely don't show him as a dodger.

it took me about 20 years to pick up this set although i think i only knew about its existence for a couple of years before i found one on ebay for a very nice price. i think the purchase came when i was between blogs, so i never featured it in a post, and i don't think i've ever seen it featured on any other blog.

i would imagine the set was issued at least in part as an effort to reward season ticket holders while the players' strike was still going on. whether it was issued prior to the start of the 1995 season or not, it certainly was issued too soon to include 1995 rookie of the year hideo nomo, and i don't believe there was any sort of update made. of course, since then, the dodgers have also produced rookies of the year in 1996 (todd hollandsworth), 2016 (corey seager), and 2017 (cody bellinger).

i am not sure what the deal is, but you can see some blotchy spots on some of the cards. there is no surface damage to the cards, so i guess it is just reflective of the chromium holochrome technology of the times.  here's a glimpse at the back of jackie's card:

the card backs are different colors, but have the same information.

it was a source of pride to me as a young dodger fan to have four consecutive rookies of the year from 1979 to 1982, and i was secretly disappointed in greg brock that he couldn't bring the award home in 1983. of course, a decade later the dodgers were on their way to five straight rookies of the year which was fun to witness.

this has to be my favorite dodger produced set (even when considering the massive aformentioned target set), and it would be great to see an update someday with those four (or hopefully more) subsequent rookie of the year award winners.