We all know Rogers Hornsby's famous quote about what he does during the offseason: "I stare out the window and wait for spring." Well, cards are as good a window as anything.
My notes say this trade package from All Trade Bait, All The Time arrived around the 4th of July. So this is a long overdue post. And there are plenty more overdue posts to come.
1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #436 Henry Rodriguez |
The foil on these isn't just silver; it looks a little like the 2014 Stadium Club Rainbow Foil cards. Slightly less sparkly, slightly more noticeable. The back is unchanged, and has another posed shot of Rodriguez decked out in Dodger blue warm-up gear. UD was going for a Studio look with this card.
1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #266 Cory Snyder |
The lanky outfielder is shown standing on a base, flanked by the Cardinals' Luis Alicea on his left, and an unidentified Cardinal on his right, possibly first baseman Gregg Jefferies, who is sharing an intimate moment with Snyder's right leg.
It's pretty difficult to make out on this card, but we can just barely see the memorial patches that the Dodgers wore in the '93 season. On his right sleeve is a patch remembering both Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella, who both died in midsummer 1993. And on his left sleeve is a black patch of #52 for Tim Crews, a teammate who died in the same preseason boating accident that took Steve Olin's life. 1993 was a dark year for the Dodgers organization.
2011 Topps Lineage Diamond Anniversary Refractors #59 Duke Snider |
The card back doesn't have any photos or stat lines, just a bold color and a quick paragraph. Snider's mentions his membership in the Hall of Fame, in the context of the superstar New York outfielders that were his contemporaries, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, both of whom made it to the Hall before Snider.
2012 Topps Gold Sparkle #253 Tim Federowicz |
Federowicz and Matt Kemp were traded to the Padres shortly after the 2014 Winter Meetings, and the Dodgers got longtime catcher Yasmani Grandal as part of that trade. Grandal just signed a one-year deal with the Brewers, opening up the catcher slot in LA for Russell Martin to return. It seems that Federowicz will keep bouncing around the league as a third-stringer.
2015 Topps Update Chrome #US280 Mike Bolsinger |
1997 Topps Awesome Impact #AI-6 Todd Hollandsworth |
What we're seeing here is an insert card from 1997 Topps Awesome Impact. There are all sorts of shapes visible in the background, and a larger-than-usual Topps logo. He's even wearing Cory Snyder's #28 from a few cards back. There was another Dodgers commemorative patch for '96, which Hollandsworth has on his left sleeve. It marked the 35th season the Dodgers played in Dodger Stadium, beginning in 1962. They played in the LA Memorial Coliseum for several years after leaving Brooklyn, which hosted an NFL playoff game just yesterday, where the LA Rams beat the Dallas Cowboys.
That blows my mind a little bit. I'm turning 35 this year, and it doesn't really seem like that much time. In my mind, the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn was ancient history, but 1996, the 35th year of Dodger Stadium, feels very recent. It's also surprising when you look at the context of this set, which featured top young stars like Scott Rolen, Derek Jeter, Andruw Jones, Billy Wagner, Chipper Jones, Mariano Rivera, and more. The checklist looks more like this year's Hall of Fame ballot than a list of up and comers.
That's the Awesome Impact for me right now, realizing how long ago the mid-'90s were. Even Todd Hollandsworth's time as a Rockie is coming up on two decades ago.
1999 Black Diamond Triple #42 Chan Ho Park /1500 |
It doesn't really jump out at you, but there is a large black serial number on the back, #675 out of 1,500. It's a nice card of the first Korean player in the Majors.
1999 Flair Showcase Row 1 #15 Kevin Brown /1500 |
At the time, Kevin Brown's mark of 46 postseason strikeouts in 1998 was an all-time record, according to the card back. It's been eclipsed a few times since then, most notably by Curt Schilling in 2001. What's even more interesting about this card is that it compares Brown's stats through 1998 with Don Drysdale's through 1963. They had surprisingly similar statistics in their careers, though Brown pitched into his 40s and Drysdale hung up his spikes at just 32. He retired young, just like Sandy Koufax. One wonders what would have happened if guys like Drysdale and Koufax got the benefit of modern surgical techniques.
2000 Metal Talent Show #TS15 Ben Petrick |
The Cardsphere has a healthy appreciation for Ben Petrick, and it's surprising how often I see his cards. Not a ton of other Rockies from this era show up in my mailbox so consistently besides the obvious ones like Larry Walker and Todd Helton.
2018 Topps Heritage #348 German Marquez |
The card back uses some archaic terms, sort of like that Don Newcombe card I got from Night Owl. We're told that Marquez "emerged as a reliable moundsman in 2017". Spellcheck does not recognize that word, nor have I ever heard anyone refer to a pitcher that way. But by leading the Rockies in strikeouts, clearly his "slants" are solid.
We're less than three months away from the baseball season, and I can't wait to see this moundsman challenge his own record for whiffs in 2019.
Love that 1999 Flair Showcase Kevin Brown! Normally I prefer simpler cards... but this card is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot going on with that card, isn't there?
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