and now for the tale of disappointment that i expected from a repack

hot on the heels of the pleasant repack experience i had recently (and posted about earlier today), i found myself in target a few days later and bought another one.  i again chose one that showed tim lincecum in one of the windows.  i should not have done that.

here's what was inside, starting with that 2008 topps chrome target t205 lincecum

1989 upper deck ellis burks

1994 fleer ultra glenallen hill

1993 leaf kurt manwaring

1992 donruss triple play albert belle

1989 upper deck tim flannery

1981 donruss keith moreland

1990 donruss terry kennedy

2010 topps tyler flowers

1989 topps glossy all-stars mark mcgwire

1981 topps marty pattin

1996 fleer ultra curt schilling

1981 topps andy hassler

1998 fleer metal universe hideki irabu

1981 topps dick tidrow

1992 classic four sport phil nevin

1981 topps steve stone

1994 topps tony gwynn

1991 upper deck dave bergman

1988 fleer mike moore

1988 fleer mike moore

1992 fleer bj surhoff

1988 fleer earnie riles

1992 fleer eric king

1992 leaf kevin reimer

1985 topps whitey herzog

1987 topps bobby valentine

1989 donruss tom brunansky

1989 topps keith hernandez

1982 topps lee mazzilli

1991 leaf jack armstrong

1991 leaf dwight evans

1987 topps terry kennedy

1991 leaf gary gaetti

1991 leaf barry jones

2006 fleer ultra huston street

1991 leaf greg harris

1987 topps rob wilfong

1991 leaf randy milligan

1991 leaf howard johnson

1991 leaf darren daulton

2004 fleer hot prospects omar vizquel draft edition

2010 topps brett anderson

2010 topps cliff pennington

2010 topps angel pagan

2010 topps kansas city royals

2010 topps casey kotchman

2010 topps toronto blue jays

1989 topps glossy all-stars andre dawson

and the last card of the first pocket, 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts luis aparicio

the other window had this 2012 topps heritage doug fister black border parallel showing

behind it were these cards

1989 topps glossy all-stars ryne sandberg

1991 topps andy hawkins

1991 topps joe boever

1988 score dave engle

1989 upper deck tony armas

1991 donruss jim clancy

1990 fleer award winners ozzie smith

1984 topps darrell brown

1989 donruss bill long

1984 topps rafael ramirez

1991 upper deck brian downing

1987 donruss john shelby

1987 donruss frank viola

1990 upper deck lance mccullers

1991 donruss wayne edwards

2000 ud victory ken griffey jr 

1990 donruss pascual perez

1987 donruss howard johnson

1991 score mike henneman

1990 upper deck bill swift

1989 fleer bob kipper

1991 upper deck norm charlton

1989 score scott terry

1989 upper deck gary green

1993 upper deck jose uribe

1994 topps jimmy key

1991 upper deck alex cole

1992 topps scott aldred

1987 topps pirates leaders

1988 topps john wathan

when's the last time you saw a manager wearing a helmet?

1990 topps traded bobby cox

very poor airbrush job

1995 ud collector's choice ray mcdavid

1989 topps bruce hurst

1991 upper deck brian barnes

1989 topps greg gross

1988 donruss bill buckner

1988 donruss gene garber

1987 donruss brian downing

1988 score mel hall

1988 topps jeff stone

2012 topps addison reed

1989 topps larry parrish

1990 donruss lance johnson

2009 upper deck first edition alex gordon

2009 upper deck first edition jeff samardzija

2009 upper deck first edition alex rodriguez

2009 upper deck first edition josh hamilton

2009 upper deck first edition jj putz

1989 topps glossy all-stars will clark

and the last card of the repack, to put me out of my misery, 1996 fleer ultra frank thomas checklist

i don't think there was even a sniff of a dodger in there.  this repack will probably sour me on buying any more for a few weeks, i would guess.

i'm a fan of jaybarkerfan

i didn't win the world cup of trading hosted recently by jaybarkerfan's junk.  i chose a card from the group of death and my return was slaughtered by the generosity of bob walk the plank.  still, wes sent me some stuff - just not the gary redus trophy.

instead, i received a bunch of dodgers, including my favorite player of all time on a 2003 topps retired signature card

even steve garvey was not immune to the 'wear your jacket under your jersey' trend that was prevalent in the early 1970's.

here's a 1986 fleer pedro guerrero

from when he was one of the 5 best players in the league.

speaking of best players in the league, here's a 1995 score mike piazza hall of gold card

piazza never did win the mvp, but he finished 2nd twice in a row to go a long with a few other top 10 finishes

here's a card i had never seen before - a 2005 topps pack wars milton bradley

i had heard of pack wars as an event at card shops, but didn't know there were specific cards created by topps presumably for the event.  and, it features a photo from tatooine as well!

this is a 2011 topps pee wee reese 60 years of topps insert

it's been nice to see pee wee get some love from the card companies over the last few years.  i assume that topps will ride sandy koufax and jackie robinson and duke snider for as long as they can, but it would be nice to see some gil hodges cards, too.

2012 topps heritage andre ethier black border parallel

i believe ethier is the longest tenured dodger - he debuted in 2006 a couple of weeks before matt kemp. he is also the odd man out in the outfield.  i am slowly becoming a proponent of adding the dh to the national league, and that would certainly help ethier's situation. i believe that there is no chance that the american league will ever dump the dh, and i think it is silly that there are two sets of rules for the same game.

wes included a 2003 playoff piece of the game kevin brown jersey card

times kevin brown wore a dodger uniform in the playoffs, however, equals zero.

there were also two autos in the package, this 2011 bowman chrome prospects blake smith card

which features a former 2nd round pick who has been converted to a pitcher in the dodger system, and this fantastic jaybarkerfan/hamburgler auto

that goes in the binder right next to the fuji auto!

thanks as always wes.  good stuff.

a memorial patch for harmon killebrew

harmon killebrew, 'killer' as he was known, died in may of 2011 as a result of esophageal cancer.  the twins were quick to add a number 3 patch to their right sleeves in his honor, and i believe they also wore their 1963 throwback uniforms at home for the remainder of the season.

here's ben revere's 2012 bowman card which displays the patch  

as does danny valencia's 2012 topps opening day card

and liam hendrik's 2012 topps allen & ginter

and 2012 topps heritage cards

since they use the same photo.

here's a 2012 topps red bordered card of joe mauer, courtesy of minneapolis-based target

as well as a cognac parallel of franscisco liriano

and a regular ol' base card of matt capps

also from 2012 topps, each showing the patch.

i believe that the patch the team wore with their blue alternate jerseys had a white border that the other patch did not.  so, i have this 2012 topps luke hughes card in the memorial binder.

as for the more frequently worn jerseys, i knew right away that i wanted a card of jim thome to represent killebrew's memorial patch in my collection, and this 2012 topps golden moments insert didn't disappoint

but this thome highlight/checklist card from 2012 topps is even better

thome and killebrew developed a special friendship during thome's short stay with the twins - the slugger passed killebrew on the all-time home run list during his time in the twin cities - so it seems fitting for this card to be in the binder.  the card celebrates thome's 600th career home run, a milestone that killebrew fell short of, although his 573 roundtrippers were good enough for fifth all-time when killer retired following the 1975 season.

as anyone who ever approached killebrew for an autograph will tell you, he was a gracious man.  i had the opportunity to speak with him briefly a couple of times, and he left me with the feeling each time that we could have talked for hours.  rest in peace, harmon.

the mike flanagan memorial patch

mike flanagan, the 1979 american league cy young award winner who won 141 games for the orioles in 15 seasons with them, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in august of 2011.  the team, for which flanagan had also been a broadcaster, coach, and executive, wore a memorial patch in his honor for the remainder of the season.

manager buck showalter wore the patch on his pullover windbreaker as shown on his 2012 topps heritage card

and here it is on the actual uniform jersey of troy patton on a 2012 topps update card

the orioles wore a slightly different version of the patch when their black jerseys were in play.  i don't have a card showing that version, but here's a photo of jj hardy that shows the patch outlined in white.

flanagan was a member of the 1979 pennant winning orioles, as well as the 1983 world champion team, but was traded to the blue jays during the 1987 season.  flanagan returned to the orioles in 1991 and finished his playing career with them in 1992.  he was the last orioles' pitcher in the history of memorial stadium, and also got to pitch in camden yards.  following his retirement, he joined the orioles as a broadcaster and then served two stints as a pitching coach before joining the front office as the executive vice president of baseball operations - a position he held from 2002 to 2008.

i did not realize that it was flanagan who gave don stanhouse the nickname 'stan the man unusual', nor did i know that his nicknaming abilities may have been what inspired chris berman.  i did realize early on in my baseball fandom, however, that flanagan was a good pitcher, winning 19 games in 1978 and then his career-high and league-leading 23 in 1979.  later, i learned that wins weren't the best barometer, but i still knew that flanagan could pitch as i rooted for the blue jays as my american league team in 1987 and flanagan threw 11 innings in game 161, trying to stave off the tigers.

flanagan's suicide has been attributed to despression, which he struggled with for a long time, according to his widow.  he was 59 years old.

is he back?

matt kemp's got his average up to .283 for the season, and in the last two weeks, he's hitting .391 with 6 homers and 13 rbi plus two stolen bases.  still, that's not necessarily 2011 matt kemp or even 2012 matt kemp, but it's better than 2013 matt kemp.  i am hopeful that the injuries are healed and the confidence is back, and that don mattingly doesn't overthink his four outfielder situation and just lets kemp play.  meanwhile, this is kemp's 1972 topps basketball design insert from 2013 topps archives

featuring the brooklyn dodger helmet and the la dodger sleeve patch.  must have been a photo from an april 15 game.  i've been meaning to show that card for about a year now, but i guess i've been waiting for signs of life from the dodger (former) center fielder.

let's take a trip back in time and visit some card backs.  this one is from 2005 bowman

so, the dodgers hoped kemp "would develop into a bigger version of…brian jordan".  kemp is just 29, and i would say that mission has been accomplished, aside from the nfl career.

here's the front of the 2005 bowman card

sadly, i don't have one of the chrome autographed versions.

here's another back, this one from 2005 topps total

so, it appears that matthew could excel at the high-a level?  27 home runs, 90 rbi, .306 batting average, and an ops of .918 in 2005 at high-a vero beach.  yes, he did excel at high-a.

here's the front of that card, with kemp sharing space with heath totten

totten got his k/9ip ratio up to 6.2 in 2005 at triple-a, but that wasn't enough proof that he could "mow down hitters" to earn a call-up from the dodgers.  instead, he wound up going to the phillies organization before eventually returning to the dodgers' minor leagues in 2008.

here's one more kemp - this one from 2012 topps heritage featuring the league rbi leaders from 1963 and 2011

the "then and now" theme plays well with kemp's return to form.  i just hope there is a lot more of his "then" in his "now".

the bob feller memorial patch(es)

bob feller, the legendary indians' hurler, passed away at the age of 92 in december of 2010.  the following season, the indians wore a memorial patch featuring feller's number 19 and a silhouette of his exaggerated leg kick.  you can see the patch on indians' third base coach steve smith's right sleeve as he congratulates lonnie chisenhall on the chiz's 2011 topps update cognac parallel card

you can get a better look at it on chisenhall's 2011 bowman draft picks and prospects card

the indians actually had a couple of different variations of the patch, although the design was the same.  with those blue jerseys like the one on the two chisenhall cards, as well as the cream jerseys like the one manny acta is wearing on his 2012 topps heritage card

the patch had a red border.  on the away grays like this 2012 topps chrome shin-soo choo refractor card

and the regular home whites like carlos santana is wearing on his 2011 topps marquee card

the patch is blue bordered.

for the 2011 all-star game, the patch was moved to the left chest, as seen on chris perez's 2011 topps update card

in yet another twist, the indians wore a completely different patch during spring training.  it was a simpler patch that just had feller's last name and his number 19.  it's there on chisenhall's right sleeve on this 2011 bowman chrome card

but you'll just have to trust me.  here's a photo of manny acta that shows what the spring training patch looked like.

feller was a dominant pitcher who entered the league straight from high school at the age of 17.  he threw two no-hitters, including the only one ever thrown on opening day, and had won over 100 games before his 23rd birthday.  he spent three years (from age 24 to 26) in the armed forces during world war ii, and had he not missed those three full seasons (plus part of a fourth) serving in the military, he most certainly would have won over 300 games and had more than 3000 strikeouts.  as it was, he was still a first ballot hall of famer, getting nearly 94% of the vote in his first year of eligibility.

a tiger memorial patch for sparky

sparky anderson wasn't out of a managerial job for long following his firing by the cincinnati reds after the 1978 season.  in june of 1979, he was hired to lead the detroit tigers, and he remained at the helm for 17 seasons.  in 1984, sparky's tigers went 35-5 to open the season and never looked back, winning a world series title for the first time since 1968.

like the reds, the tigers wore a memorial patch for sparky on their right sleeves during the 2011 season following his death in november of 2010.  you can see it on al alburquerque's 2011 topps update card

miguel cabrera's 2012 topps card

doug fister's 2012 topps opening day card

and alex avila's 2012 topps gypsy queen card

the card that gives the best look at it, however, is this 2012 topps heritage andy dirks card that i received from pat at hot corner cards

although the 1984 team was the only one of sparky's tiger squads to reach the world series, he also led the team to a playoff berth in 1987, winning manager of the year awards in both of those seasons.  his 2194 wins as a manager (863 with the reds and 1331 with the tigers) were the third most in history when he retired behind connie mack and john mcgraw (he has since been passed by tony larussa, joe torre, and bobby cox), and he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 2000.