Tandem Random Fandom: Prologue

I recently received my second trade package from Nick. It had a little bit of everything, and all of it to love. As he said in his note: "We Randomites have to stick together."

You want Random, Nick? Let's play...

I used to watch classic television shows on Nick at Nite. One of those shows was Mr. Ed, about a talking horse. I once saw an episode of Mr. Ed that featured Don Drysdale.

Nick sent along a copy of this Drysdale card in his trade package.

1990 Topps Glossy All-Stars Don Drysdale Team Captain LAD #11

Saturday Night Live was also one of the shows that used to appear on Nick at Nite.

Speaking of night, Nick's Dime Boxes was one of the first blogs that I began to follow regularly before this half-assed attempt of my own. The other was Night Owl Cards.

Bill Murray got his start on Saturday Night Live. But not the SNL. His first television gig was on ABC's Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell.

Last Saturday night was a Card Night for me, and that's when I joyously opened Nick's trade package.

Howard Cosell once said, "Sports is human life in microcosm."

Nick's trade package is my baseball card collection in microcosm.

Bill Murray costarred in the 1998 film, Rushmore, which was Jason Schwartzman's film debut. Schwartzman played a college student.

Nick is a college student.

Mount Rushmore depicts the likenesses of four U.S. Presidents.

Nick really enjoys collecting cards of U.S. Presidents. (Send him some.)

The "Mount Rushmore" of my first childhood Dodgers teams consisted of their record-setting infield.

Nick sent me some great cards of those four players, among the gaggle of other fantastic cards. And I will now use that quartet to help introduce the contents of the trade package.

¡Viva la Random!

2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Steve Garvey LAD #133
2003 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Andre Ethier OAK #9

Talk about symmetry. These two cards arrived on this planet in the same year, although they depict players from very different Dodger eras. In some ways, I think Ethier is the best match for Garvey among Dodgers to come after him. They both have that clean-cut look that seems to draw in the female fans. And, especially in 2009, Ethier seemed to always get the big game-breaking hit, the way Garvey used to. As for the cards, they are two of the finest samples from Nick's "Bat Barrels" mini-collection. As I told him last year when I received my first trade package from him, I think it's cool to get cards from him that fit his collections. It's his calling card, and it gives a trade package a personal touch.

2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Dave Lopes LAD #136
2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Johnny Podres LAD #111

I love these All-Time Fan Favorites cards. And Davey Lopes certainly qualifies for me. He's my favorite of the infield quartet. I was thrilled when he returned to LA a couple of years ago as a coach. As with all of the players on the 1981 squad, I'll always have a special place for Lopes in my collection for being one of the players to finally lead the Dodgers to a championship over the Yankees after coming up short in '77-'78. If I'd been alive at the time, I would have felt the same way about Johnny Podres, who beat the Yanks in game seven of the '55 Series to finally give Brooklyn its first and only championship.

2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Ron Cey LAD #63
2013 Bowman Platinum Prospects Corey Seager LAD #BPP41

The Penguin, Ron Cey, shows up in one of my favorite sets from 2013. I wasn't aware of that until this card showed up in Nick's trade package. Though he was probably underrated at the time, in retrospect a solid argument could be made that Cey contributed the most out of the infield quartet to the Dodgers' success. He was certainly a stable presence for many years at the hot corner, something that the franchise has otherwise not enjoyed (Adrian Beltre, aside). Perhaps Corey Seager will someday add his name to the short list of long-time star Dodger third basemen. He's playing shortstop now, but he's a big guy with some pop in his bat, so a move is certainly possible. You just never know with prospects.

1971 Topps Bill Russell LAD #226
1971 Topps Manny Mota LAD #112

Take Bill Russell, here, for example. A 20-year-old outfielder when this picture was taken (1969, as indicated by the MLB 100th Anniversary patch), Russell would go on to become an all-star shortstop, the longest-tenured member of the Dodgers' record-breaking infield, and the man who would succeed Tommy Lasorda to become just the third manager in LA Dodger history. All of that from the least-celebrated of the quartet. Although he didn't begin his career with the Dodgers, Manny Mota also became a Dodger lifer. A National League All-Star for the Dodgers in 1973, Mota would settle into the role of pinch hitter, eventually setting a record in 1979 with his 146th career pinch hit. He would be named the club's hitting coach for the following season, and he remains an instructor with the Dodgers to this day.

Mota would have eight more pinch hit at bats for the Dodgers after becoming a coach, hitting .375.

This reminds me of another famous coach with the initials M.M., Minnie Minoso, who became the oldest man to collect a big-league hit at the age of 50 in 1976.

And that reminds me of the oldest player in major league history, Satchel Paige, who tossed three scoreless innings for the 1965 Kansas City Athletics at the age of 59.

Which reminds me of the big fish from my first trade package from Nick. It was a Satchel Paige card that I had bought on eBay for my Grips collection, only to be told that it had been listed in error so I wouldn't be getting it... until it popped out of Nick's package the very next day.

We'll be seeing Ol' Satch again as we continue to look at what Nick hath wrought. But I have a feeling there's a new big fish in town. You might even say a white whale. Stay tuned,

¡Viva la Random!

John's First Trade Packages Hit the Spot

A few weeks ago I got an email from John of Johnny's Trading Spot (formerly known as "My First Blog"), asking if I'd like to do a little trading. Seemed innocent enough, so I said sure, why not?

A couple of days later an envelope arrived... then another... and a couple more... and yet another arrived last week  If I hadn't asked him to ease off the gas pedal a little bit, John assures me that a steady stream of similar envelopes, which are already packed up and ready to go, would have continued to flow in my direction. As much as I hated to slow him down, I'm a serious slow-poke when it comes to digging cards out of my semi-organized collection to send in return, and I get seriously neurotic about getting too far behind on my end of a trade bargain.

I managed to get one envelope out his way last week, and will be working to get others out as quickly as possible. Although I don't want to get too far behind, I also don't have the willpower to wait much longer to get at the rest of those cards he's got waiting for me. You're about to see why.

2001 Topps Archives 1960 Topps 1959 World Series Game #4: Hodges' Winning Homer #224

John's winning packages included this winning card, along with a sumptuous sum of similar Dodgers Topps Archives gems. And I love 'em. I will probably own the original of this card someday. Unlike some of the others ('52 Topps Hodges? Not gonna happen), this card is reasonably affordable. And it's special to me because one of the most important people in my life, my cousin Craig, was actually at that game. Until I come up with the real thing (and even after I do, for that matter), this is one happy-dance card that John managed to send my way.

But wait, there's more... to say the least...

2001 Topps Gallery Adrian Beltre LAD #88
2001 Donruss Classics Adrian Beltre LAD #56

I let John know that I was like 99% of the collectors out there, in need of stuff between the junk wax era and about 2007. Players like Adrian Beltre, who debuted right after the junk era ended, have about a gazillion cards out there that I don't have, and have never even seen. Thanks to John, I can check these two off of the list that would have existed if I knew they were out there.

1998 Score Paul Konerko LAD #234
1998 Score Rookie/Traded Hideo Nomo LAD #RT26

This year I've become a big retro-fan of 90s Score products, and these are no exception. Dig the colors and the dated (but interesting) card designs. More importantly, any card of The Tornado is welcome, as are Dodgers Konerko cards, despite the reminder of what might have been.

1986 Sportflics Dave Righetti/Fernando Valenzuela/Rick Sutcliffe Tri-Stars #72

Going father back, John takes me back to my childhood. This blog is no Baseball Card Breakdown, but I'm pretty happy with the way this card scanned. Fernando is barely intruded upon by Rick Sutcliffe (though he does impose a Cubs logo on Fernando's sleeve as well as giving him a third leg...).

1992 Action Packed All-Star Gallery Steve Garvey LAD #64
1981 Fleer Star Stickers Dusty Baker LAD #62

John sent me more heroes from the '81 Championship club. You never forget your first. I love those Action Packed cards. With all of the foil and refractors and sparkly parallels these days, something as old-school as embossed 3-D effects are a novel diversion. The Dusty sticker is sweet, too, coming from Fleer's first year back in the baseball card game.

2001 Upper Deck Decade 1970's Maury Wills LAD #63
1985 Topps Woolworth All-Time Record Holders Maury Wills LAD #39

We slip further back in time with Maurice Morning Wills. The groovy thing about these two cards is that Upper Deck is celebrating the 1970s with that set, yet uses a picture shot in the '60s. The Topps card honors the records Maury broke in the '60s... and shows a photo from the '70s. Let's see if we can do something about that...

Works for me...

Back to the trade package. Let's wrap up the Dodgers stuff with a few more from the Archives.

2001 Topps Archives 1952 Topps Roy Campanella BRO #88
2001 Topps Archives 1972 Topps Ron Cey LAD #67

John sent a good chunk of these things, and I couldn't be happier. After all, am I ever going to own a '52 Topps Campy? No. Probably not. And I know I'll never have a '72 Topps card featuring just Ron Cey. Mine also includes Ben Oglivie and (the first) Bernie Williams. For collectors like me, who sort by player, and keep multi-player cards separate, these solo versions from Topps Archives are really nice to have.

John isn't just concentrating on Dodgers, though. He also shows he's got an eye for my mini-collections. As usual, and as it should be, the Grips are the stars.

2001 Donruss Studio Bartolo Colon CLE #61
1998 Fleer Tradition Scott Eyre CHW #197
1998 Fleer Tradition Dan Serafini MIN #261

Chief Wahoo and I both approve of Bartolo's grip. You know Scott Eyre figured they'd be cropping out his untucked shirt. I'm glad they didn't. That's a top-notch addition to the collection. Dan Serafini also knows how to get that grip in your face. Nice stuff.

I'll be getting all of John's great mini-collection hits up on their appropriate pages later in the week, but we'll take a look at some more of the highlights here.

1998 Donruss Vladimir Guerrero MON #140
1991 Upper Deck Eddie Murray LAD #237

Mmmmmm... Doughnuts! John fed all four mini-collections, actually. That Vlad is great, not only for the doughnut, but also because I want any and all '98 Donruss cards, and simply because it's Vlad. And Steady Eddie's got a nice doughnut-eating grin going.

1998 Fleer Tradition Darren Bragg BOS #55
2003 Fleer Fall Classic Early Wynn CLE #14
2000 Fleer Ultra Mo Vaughn ANA #10

John's envelopes contained plenty of Turtlenecks, too, ranging from bench-warmers trying to keep warm themselves, to Hall-of-Famers like Early Wynn (who apparently didn't have quite so much neck to cover). Finally, there were a good number of Grandfathers from the 42 collection. Mo Vaughn makes for quite a sight in his Disney Angels uni against that bright purple backdrop, doesn't he?

The best part of John's attentions toward my mini-collecting habit, though, was the plethora of turn-o-the-century cards featuring the great Mariano Rivera.

1999 Topps Mariano Rivera World Series Highlight NYY #228
1999 Pacific Crown Collection Mariano Rivera NYY #196
2000 Fleer Skybox Mariano Rivera NYY #162
2001 Fleer Ultra Mariano Rivera NYY #90

The pictures on the flip sides of these include a couple of 42s and a grip. But even if they hadn't, I would have been thrilled to receive these. Mo is high on my list of all-time favorite non-Dodgers. Never hesitate to send along cards of Mo, Jeter, David Wright, Bob Gibson, David Eckstein... hell, who am I kidding, send 'em all. I'll even take your Barry Bonds cards. Come to think of it, I got a couple of those from John for my mini-collections, as well.

I'd better get digging for more Braves, asap...

2001 Topps Archives 1959 Duke Snider In Action LAD #218

I know more thrills await me from the prolific trading spot. I can't wait! Thanks for these, John. Hope you find something to like in what I send your way.

Celebrate Good Times (With Cards!)

Although I'm on a self-imposed blogging hiatus, of sorts, I don't plan to slack when it comes to giving generous bloggers their due for contributing to my portion of our shared habit. Fittingly, December was a nice month for that kind of generosity.

Topher celebrated the fifth birthday of his blog, Crackin' Wax (and Bustin' Packs), by giving away cards. I was one of the lucky PWE winners, receiving some fab Dodgers.

2012 Topps Red Andre Ethier LAD #303
1989 Upper Deck Orel Hershiser CYA LAD #661

I had originally thought that I was a big fan of Wal-Mart blue-bordered Dodgers cards. Well, I am, but I've come to learn that I actually prefer the red-bordered Target versions better. They still match the team's secondary color, and the contrast of the red sets off the Dodger Blue better than the powder blue on the Wal-Mart versions. So I was pretty happy to see this Ethier pop out o' the envelope from Topher. And I'm always jazzed for a Bulldog sighting. This '89 UD sample could serve as Exhibit A in the farcical event that Orel is ever accused of using PEDs. I also got a couple of other 2012 Topps Dodgers: Nathan Eovaldi and some guy named Clayton Kershaw. But for pure aesthetics, this was the winner of the bunch...

1989 Upper Deck Alejandro Pena LAD #137

Any card that shows that much of Dodger Stadium rocks. The color of the grass, the red clay of the mound, the '76 logo and the auxiliary scoreboard are incredibly evocative to me of that era (and my teens). Plus, because I didn't appreciate the Upper Deck upstarts at the time (being a crusty old Topps traditionalist by the time I got my first driver's licence), '89 Upper Deck is not among the junk wax sets that I have a gazillion of lying around. If I had to guess, I'd say that I'm only about 75% of the way toward set completion.

Thanks for cards worthy of celebrating your blogging milestone, Topher.

T.J., The Junior Junkie, had another reason to celebrate. November 21 was Griffey's 44th birthday. Which, of course, meant free cards for lucky bloggers like me, who will recognize the sweet floating-head note below. This one was fun because I got to pick the cards from a really nice selection offered up by T.J. I may have been beaten to the punch for the '96 Pinnacle Jeter that would have been my first choice. But even though I picked behind a good bunch of people, I miraculously managed to land my second and third choices!

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Steve Carlton PHI #109
1997 Upper Deck UD3 Eddie Murray Homerun Heroes BAL #20

The Murray is particularly sweet because the Orioles uniform is no exercise in post-career nostalgia. Steady Eddie actually played for Baltimore again for the second half of the 1996 season. T.J. even threw in the (apparently unclaimed) '90 Fleer David Justice. Thanks for celebrating The Kid's big day with generosity, T.J.

Speaking of generosity, Chris from View from the Skybox recently sent out a good number of PWEs, with one of the reasons being a desire to solicit more help for the Philippines in dealing with the aftermath of last November's horrific typhoon. To that end, Chris has put together the 2014 Typhoon Haiyan Relief Super Mixer Baseball Group Break. I'm really surprised at how slowly this is filling up. It's a great selection of cards, for a really good price, and for a very worthy cause. And there are some pretty big-name teams still up for grabs. If you haven't already, you really should go check it out!

Even though my wife, Cathy, and I were the first two to sign up back in November, Chris didn't leave me out of the PWE fun.

1995 The National Pastime Phil Rizzuto's Baseball Cartoon #61

Chris sent me a Jake Beckley card from this set the last time I'd received cards from him, and he knew how much I'd enjoyed its Randomness. So he ratcheted up the Randometer readings even further with this Random-rific sample.

2006 Fleer Top 40 Jeff Kent LAD #T40-40
1995 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Ismael Valdes LAD #223

Of course, the bulk of the PWE was a Dodger-fest. It was an interesting reminder that team collecting doesn't always mean collecting cards of people you like. Jeff Kent is a prime example of the kind of person I don't want to have anything to do with in "real life." Ismael Valdez (then known as Valdes) shows up in the Mitchell Report. I can't remember why Raul Mondesi comes up short on the respect-o-meter. I think he was accused of dogging it a bit during his career. And he struck out a lot. He's currently the mayor of his hometown in the Dominican Republic. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. One thing about which I am sure is that I love having these cards, whether I like the dudes all that much or not.

1996 Pinnacle Raul Mondesi Hardball Heroes LAD #283
1986 Fleer Star Stickers Fernando Valenzuela LAD #123

The other thing I'm sure about is that the Fernando sticker is my favorite of the bunch. I can't think of any reason not to be a Fernando fan. I had the good fortune to become afflicted with Fernandomania in my very first full (though strike-shortened) season as a fan, when I was 11 years old. As great as his rookie year was, though, this sticker portrays El Toro at his peak. Lean, experienced, and talented enough to win ballgames even with the likes of Pedro Guerrero back there pretending that he can play third base.

Thanks again, Chris! Can't wait for the big break. Should be a blast.

Other bloggers haven't been the only ones showing me their generosity of late, though. I've also been kind to myself! The way I show my self-generosity is by Feeding the Habit. I have to say that Panini really stepped up and got my attention this year. Prizm is a pretty average offering (though I love those Pulsar parallels). But I really like their Pinnacle and USA Baseball sets, and I love Hometown Heroes and this year's Cooperstown sets. In this lull between Topps offerings, it has been Panini who has delivered my favorite hits lately.

2013 Panini Cooperstown Matrix Satchel Paige Kansas City Monarchs #17 (267/325)
2013 Panini Prizm Rookie Autographs Redemption Card Shawn Tolleson LAD #10

The scan doesn't do it justice, but these orange "Matrix" parallels are sweet. As is any card of Ol' Satch. I particularly like this one because the dark orange of the card matches the color scheme of some of the old KC Monarchs' uniforms. So it's a nice bit of synchronicity.

So is pulling an autograph redemption card for... a Dodger! Okay, so it's only Shawn Tolleson, who's now in the Rangers organization, by the way. But it's a Dodger card. And since Tolleson's tenure with the club was short and uneventful, there's a good chance (if it doesn't somehow look really terrible) that it will end up being the card representing the pitcher in my PWMD set, despite the overindulgent shininess and lack of logo.

Thanks me! More importantly, thanks to Topher, T.J. and Chris for their generosity. And thanks to John, too. Stay tuned for the next exciting post to find out why John deserves thanks (not to mention who John is).

Catherine Ann Peterson (1926-2014)

As I explained when I launched this blog, its name came from my Grandmother’s insistence on calling my serious collecting passion, “playing with my cards.” I chafed at the characterization as a kid. I embraced it as an adult. The one thing that remained constant throughout my first 24 years as a collector was my Grandma’s support for my habit. She bought me baseball cards from the very beginning of my addiction to the hobby (though she mostly encouraged me to work to earn my own money to feed the habit). And she enjoyed buying me cards so much on our walks (with me pushing her in her wheelchair) over the past few years that I had to often refuse so that she wouldn't spend too much of her money on me.

After battling and defying doctors’ expectations for years, she passed away earlier this month. I have never known a kinder, more generous soul than my Grandma. I will miss her.

The time seems right to shift my priorities a bit. I don’t plan to slow down as a collector at all. In fact, I want to devote more time to my getting my collection in order. I do plan to make this blog less of a priority, however. I’m not going to abandon it. I still plan to write occasional posts, particularly regarding my interactions with my new friends in the blog world. But, like I said, most of my time is going to be devoted to sorting these little pieces of cardboard in order to be in a better position to do some trading. Knowing what I have and what I need turns out to be an important aspect of being a good trade partner.

I also certainly plan to continue to be an active blog follower, so I won’t be disappearing completely. You’re stuck with me. You just won’t have to deal with a bunch of lame posts about my Dodgers, at least for a while. Thanks for all of the support that many of you have given me and this blog (as well as Top of the Topps) in its fitful first year. I hope that with time it will evolve into something even better. But, for now, it’s time to rest and reflect.

-Ethan