an invitation from steve garvey and more via jaybarkerfan's junk

i don't know how he does it, but wes from jaybarkerfan's junk continues to find some great stuff to send my way.  he recently sent me an oversized package that contained this gem

i had never heard of sports america club, but i figure i would have signed up if i had been aware.  of course, that's when i thought it was a 1981 or 1982 endeavor, due to garvey showing up with a dodger hat on the front of the letter and the choice between donruss, topps, fleer, or 'other' as my favorite card manufacturer on the back.  however, it turns out that this was a thing in 1988 - the year after garvey retired.  here's an image of an actual sports america club kit that i found on ebay

note the presence of 1988 cards around the inset photo of garvey in a dodger helmet.  knowing it was from '88, i can say that i would not have joined, even though i was promised a personalized, signed photo of the garv himself.

wes also included a (sort of) bipping of kevin gross cards - four 1991 fleer cards

and a singular 1992 upper deck card

there was also a legitimate bipping of 2007 tristar prospects plus chris withrow cards

that's one - here are the other four

my collection went from zero of these cards to five in the matter of one package.

rounding out some of the more notable cards wes sent, we have the fantastically sunglassed steve yeager on his 1981 fleer card

pedro guerrero's last dodger card from 1988 topps

which may have been included in a sports america club kit, now that i think about it

a 1992 topps stadium club mitch webster

because nobody else is showing you mitch webster cards

a target red parallel of hanley ramirez's 2013 topps card

and a 2013 topps museum collection hyun-jin ryu

which actually did the traditional korean last name first thing. a tip of the cap to topps and to wes for another great package of dodger goodness!

random notes about random cards

it's time for that sort of post again - a random assortment of cards that have been languishing in my scanned folder for various amounts of time.  excited, aren't you?

random card: 2001 fleer greats of the game carl erskine

random fact: the dodger logo on the card is from the team's los angeles days.  although oisk did pitch for the dodgers following their move to la, both the card's photo and team affiliation refer to him as a brooklyn dodger.  it's better when all of the features of the card match, but i still really like that 2001 greats of the game set.

random card: 2006 upper deck jeff kent

random fact: the player behind kent is jason repko. repko had a card in the 2006 as well, but it was the same number (283) as another player's and seems to be a bit harder to find.

random card: 2011 bowman chris withrow topps 100 insert

random fact: withrow needs to work on his 'suttoning' pose.

random card: 2013 bowman chrome jeremy rathjen mini parallel

random fact: rathjen seems to be looking at the same thing withrow is staring at.

random card: 2014 topps adrian gonzalez spring fever

random fact: gonzalez has mastered his jeremy rathjen pose.

random card: 2014 topps yasiel puig spring fever

random fact: dodger stadium is the only big league stadium with an in-house arborist.  if you've never been, it's worth giving yourself time to enjoy the landscaping, including the abundance of palm trees. that last sentence was a random opinion.

random card: 1982 topps joe ferguson

random fact: this card uses the same photo that topps featured on ferguson's 1981 topps card.

random card: 1985 7-up cubs coaching staff, featuring a member of the 1978 topps dodgers (johnny oates)

random fact: the only start of bill connors' pitching career came against the chicago cubs in 1967.  bet you thought i was going to give you a random oates or zimmer fact, didn't you?

random card: 1990 fleer baseball all-stars canadian steve sax

random fact: the only thing that makes this a canadian card is that it was printed in canada, and i am not sure that there is an american printed version, so it's not even a variation.

the star of 2014 topps update is justin turner

in 2011, it was dee gordon.  in 2012, adam kennedy.  last year, nick punto's topps update card was my favorite.  this year, i am getting a kick out of justin turner's card.

that's some good double play turning right there from one of the best free agent signings of last offseason (the best after phil hughes and nelson cruz? or better, since he signed as a minor league free agent?).  oh, there are better cards in update - kurt suzuki has a couple, and i do like pat neshek's all-star card, too - but if there were a card i would chase a rainbow of this year, it's turner's.

after finding only chone figgins and scott vanslyke cards in the update stuff i bought, i went ahead and ordered (most of) the other dodger base cards from sportlots.  have a look.

erisbel arruebarrena

his name didn't fit on the card properly.  still seems weird to see a dodger other than manny mota wear number 11.

dee gordon

if not for jose altuve, i am guessing he would have been the littlest all-star.  nice gatorade cameo, by the way.

zack greinke

not a fan of the all-star caps, except for the teams like the twins and padres who actually have worn caps like that during their existence.

clayton kershaw

almost reminds me of the 1978 topps rick monday card where mo seems to be wiping mustard off of his face.

chris perez

and hello lurking juan uribe

yasiel puig

i hit as many hr derby homers as he did…

chris withrow

now i realize that i forgot to order a paul maholm card.  anyone have an extra?

i did pick up a couple of turner parallels - gold

and red hot foil

i could use another red hot foil for the dp collection…

here's kershaw's red hot foil parallel

and one of the inserts - a fernando valenzuela world series heroes card

el toro was 3-1 in 5 starts in the 1981 postseason, but made only one start in the world series - he threw a complete game in the dodgers' game 3 5-4 win over the yankees.  i had hoped to see a ron cey/pedro guerrero/steve yeager card in this insert set instead of fernando, if i'm being honest.

meanwhile, justin turner parallels and paul maholm have taken over the nefarious nine (see list at right on the web version of the blog).  please, help a blogger out!

loneys from heaven

i have been lax in doing trade posts this year.  it's not because i don't appreciate the cards that have come in to my possession, it's more laziness on my part.  with the year half over, it's time to get busy posting about trades.  here are some cards i received from cardboard heaven a while back

the main card of the trade was this 2003 bowman james loney autograph

james was just a kid in 2003, and the dodgers brought in fred mcgriff to man first after trading eric karros to the cubs.  add in a transplanted shawn grene, a season of hee seop choi, and a year of nomar, and you get to big game james in dodger first base lineage.  here he is all grown up on a 2010 bowman chrome card

i also received a 2005 topps updates & highlights matt kemp card

at one of the dodger/twins games this week, a guy in front of me was touting kemp as the next triple crown winner.  i think it is possible, though not likely, but wonder whether that guy bothered to vote for kemp in the all-star voting. probably not. the fact that kemp is not in the top 3 outfielders in terms of voting is pretty crazy.

here are a couple more youngsters - a 2010 bowman pristine chris withrow

and jerry sands

i was a bit disappointed sands got sent down.  i was looking forward to seeing him in minny, but the way tony gwynn jr played, i guess i can't complain too much.
i'll end the post with a 2011 topps andre ethier toppstown card

i still don't know what the purpose of toppstown cards are, but it's nice to have dre in my collection.

thanks cam!