a boxscore from the team of my youth and other cards from hsca

there were plenty of cards to like in the package that brian from highly subjective and completely arbitrary sent my way as part of his group trade break, even before getting to the trade break bounty.  i've shown some of them already, but there are more.  like this card, which comes from the 2004 topps world series highlights insert set

that's dusty baker pounding a home run in game one of the 1978 world series against the yankees.   the back is even better, as it shows the box score from the game.

it's great to see that lineup on the card.  it's a bit different than the batting order i remember from my youth because of the designated hitter, but the starting lineup of lopes, russell, smith, garvey, cey, monday, baker, and yeager is the lineup that i consider to be the definitive lineup of the team of my youth.  as an aside, davey lopes should have been featured thanks to his two home runs in this game.  it's still hard to believe that the dodgers won this game and game 2 (thanks bobby welch), but then lost four in a row to lose the series.

on to the group trade break stuff - 1996 pinnacle tim wallach

and ramon martinez

i like ramon's card a lot.

here's his brother, pedro, on a 2002 topps gallery heritage insert

plus a couple of base cards of shawn green

and hideo nomo

from the set.  the nomo card makes it look like he's a giant standing in a farmer's field near the coast.

paul loduca is definitely in dodger stadium on his 2003 topps stadium club card

while franklin gutierrez is in vero beach's holman stadium on his

that's a gold parallel, by the way, as is this sean pierce card

pierce never made it out of the minors, but gutierrez went on to win a gold glove and set a record for errorless chances in the outfield for the mariners in 2010.  after missing the 2014 season due to illness, gutierrez is currently in triple-a for the m's trying to work his way back to the bigs.

here are a couple more cards that weren't part of the trade break, but they are shiny so they get some time on the blog.

2015 topps heritage clayton kershaw holofoil

and 1992 upper deck denny's grand slam kal daniels

daniels hit four of his five grand slams as a dodger, and was only 28 when his career ended. if only he had good knees!

thanks brian!

anybody remember franklin gutierrez?

he's the guy the dodgers traded to the indians to get milton bradley (they also sent andrew brown to cleveland in that deal). that means that the blue essentially traded gutierrez for andre ethier. anyway, franklin signed and returned a 2003 topps card for me last season.

he had since moved on from the indians to the mariners, where he had a breakout year in 2009 with 18 homers, 70 rbi and a .283 batting average as the m's center fielder. in 2010, i expected big things, but his production faltered although he won a gold glove. this year, he has been limited to just a handful of games and is hitting around .250. i wish him well, but i think the deal worked out better for the dodgers.

as far as andrew brown goes, i picked up this 2003 playoff absolute memorabilia card from sportlots recently, cashing in some 'points'.

they used to let you use points as credit against an order, but not anymore. now they have a selection of cards (vintage, relic, numbered, etc.) that you can choose from to redeem your points. this one cost me 300 points, i think, which probably relates to about $30 spent. was it worth it? meh. i'm on the fence.

brown, who was originally acquired by the dodgers from the braves in the gary sheffield deal, appeared in a few games for cleveland in 2006 before joining the a's after a stop in the padres' organization. oddly, brown's trade from san diego to oakland marked the second time he had been dealt for milton bradley. in oakland, brown appeared in over 30 games as a reliever in both 2007 and 2008. he has since been part of the nationals and cardinals organizations, but currently is not affiliated with any big league team.