I bought a new card this week three weeks ago.  Thought I would let some of you research experts try to find out what game this image is from.  Some clues...

Dodger Stadium.  Giants.  Day Game?  Attempting to steal third?  Safe or out?  #42 playing third or at least covering third?

The auxiliary scoreboard has some more info for you.  Is the picture from a game in 1962?  Maybe, maybe not.    

Previously in the countdown, you can see 10 years later when Topps re-visited this record again. 

I would like to see if someone can solve this, don't let me down. 

Here it is...  1981 Topps Traded Fernando Valenzuela.  1981 Topps is pretty hard to come by in PSA 10 form.  Only 15% of the 37,000+ cards from this set have been graded as a 10.  I have had this card for about 5 years now.  When I came across this card on ebay I had to have it no matter the cost.  It was the only PSA 10 that existed at that time.  Since then one other has been graded PSA 10.  There have been 74 Valenzuelas submitted for grading.

I paid for the card with paypal, and had the seller pay for extra insurance.  This card was that important.  One week, two weeks went by and no card.  Seller said he sent it and gave me confirmation numbers. Another week went by, post office said they could not help me.  Another week, they told me to forget it.  It was lost.  Another month went by.  Still no card.  I was devastated, and had the seller go back and file a claim to get my money back.  How could the only PSA 10 in existence be lost?  Who had it?  Did they even know what they had?  The very next day, the mailman at my work came up to my desk with a package to sign.  It was a little bubble envelope addressed to me and there it was.  Fernie.  I was so excited that he was finally home. 

So why did I have to have this card so bad?  Because there were no PSA 10's of the regular Topps edition Which Fernando shared with Scioscia and the great Jack Perconte.  There still are no PSA 10's.  608 of these have been submitted with none good enough to be a 10!  You can see below that the centering is not perfect and is probably the only thing holding this back from perfection.  I hope the first 10 for that card will not be as difficult for me to buy someday.        

I take my Don Drysdale collection very seriously.  You can see here on the PSA Set Registry that I have the #4 Don Drysdale collection in the WORLD!  Once I do finally win the lottery I will be #1.  Here is a beautiful 1957 Rookie card of Don.  Not very often you see a picture of him in Brooklyn gear and he is so young here.  I really enjoy the 57 Topps set because finally we have great close-up images of the players with a real life background.  I like the simple white borders and the simple two color font.  I saved up for an entire year for this card.  It was so worth it to me.

 More Don after the jump...

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Is he smiling?  Is he irritated?  Can't tell.  1964 Topps loved Mr. Koufax, and I will show you all of the cards that he was featured in.  1964 Topps was a pretty boring design.  The closeup shot of Sandy here makes up for it.  

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This card right here is probably the most beautiful card I have ever seen.The profile of Gil is striking.  The closeup look at the uniform is so cool.  I like the style of the sleeves showing off the pipes.  But let's get serious.  The image of one of the most iconic images in Los Angeles is in the background.  I love the Coliseum, and I have so many great childhood memories of being there.  Of course they are all Raider related.  The game at the Coliseum in 2008 was special for me, just to imagine what it was like to witness baseball there.  If you wanted to pick one of these up for yourself, this card in this condition would cost around $50.

Since we are talking about 1959, Gil hit a pretty big homerun in the World Series.  Topps commemorates that for us here.

And for more Coliseum porn for you, in 2008 in the Topps Heritage set, I have a good image in a Carl Erskine card for you here too.

I wanted this to be all about Roy Campanella, but I just could not leave the other cards I have from this set behind.  What a creative design from Bowman this time.  A color television set, with images of the players and the name.  Each picture is more like a portrait because of the drawings used instead of photos.  At this point, they are still 2 years away from using photos on cards.   I like how the name on the image comes across like a graphic you would see on the screen.  Everybody's eyes stand out so much on the cards.  Podres looks like he is staring right through you.

Another interesting part of this set is that they actually have umpire cards too.  They are very rare in good condition and highly collectible.

So which of these cards do you like the best?

So why is this card #6 on my list?  It is all about the chase for the PSA 9.  I know i will not be able to afford a PSA 9 of his rookie card anytime soon with those sensitive black borders on the 1971's.  So here you have the next best thing.  the 1972 is a high number edition as you see with #686.  Topps used to roll out the cards as the season went along in different series, and I think this was the last of the 6 series.  Since it was the last series, and it comes out late in the season, they do not produce as many, and the cards are a bit harder to find.  For example, in 2011, Topps will have 2 series, and a traded/update set later.  Series 2 comes out in June.  

I had a PSA 8 card forever and I always wanted a 9.  I held that 8 for almost 5 years, and when card prices tumbled a couple years ago, cards that used to sell for 3-400 were now available around 200.  That is when I jumped in, and have this great card.  Although the card is quite ugly in design, it has a great picture of Steve, and the stripe on the sleeve is visible.  I love that blue stripe on the uniform.  

What stadium do we think that is?  Riverfront?

This is really one of my favorite cards.  It is an upset that it did not end up higher in the countdown.  1954 Topps is a beautiful set, with many different color options as the backgrounds.  I love how busy the card is and how it comes together.  Big portrait, little black and white posed image, signature, Dodger logo, and it all looks great.  They have a little more room to work with, as these cards are a bit larger than the standard size you see in the years to come.  It has been a couple months since I last updated the population, but at last check there was 125 PSA 8's with 11 graded higher.  

I added the back of the card today, because I had to show all of you the crazy story on the back.  I am amazed I have not heard Tommy tell the story about this fight 100 times already.  Also noticing his 1953 line on the back, he appeared quite lucky with all of those walks and hits allowed.  When you see the greatness of 1954 Topps you can tell this is truly a case of "they don't make them like they used to."

Clayton deserved a better card than this for his big rookie card.  What a boring design.  This is the Blue refractor edition, numbered to 150.  Hard to imagine that he looks so young in the picture since he still is so young.  Even in a spring game the Dodgers did not give him a really high number because they knew he was coming soon. I only hope that if I make this list again in 20 years it moves up to number one. 

So this card is obviously cool.  I got this card because... It is Kershaw.  I like USA.  It has an autograph.  It is numbered.  It is a PSA 10.  Other than that, I have no idea what this card is about.  I never found on the interwebs anything about a tournament he would have played in, or any other games played with the Junior National Team.  If you have info, please share.   

I love this wood bordered 1962 Topps.  Here is a beautiful PSA 8 for you to see.  This was Snider's last Dodger card, and he already looked like someone's Grandpa in the pic.  Even though he only played 80 games in his last season as a Dodger in 62, he still was great when playing, with an OPS+ of 149 at age 35.  Interesting note you may not know...Topps has always made the cards of the best players numbered on the hundred. Here is the 1962 rundown.

100- Warren Spahn

200 - Mickey Mantle

300 - Willie Mays

400 - Elston Howard

500 - Duke Snider

The wood border has returned a couple times.  25 years later, it came back with 1987 Topps.  Here is a cool Turn Back The Clock card of the 1962 NL MVP.  They show a 1962 Topps within this card, but that card did not even exist!  As I previously mentioned in the Wills post, he did not have a Topps Card until 1967.  

Topps came back again with 2011 Topps Heritage as another remake of the 1962 set, but there are no Dodger cards that have my interest, so it appears nothing from this set will make my collection.

1963 Topps.  These are 3 of the greatest pitchers the Dodgers will ever have, all on one beautiful card.  I do not really have much else to say about this, except that it is great.  I have always wondered what stadium the shot was taken at.  I want to say Wrigley, but not sure if there is/was a building like that outside.

I really like these Topps Retired cards, and I am happy to say that this is a very rare refractor version.  Numbered to only 25.  There are a lot of Podres autographs out there, so I had to get a rare one.  Interesting that there are so many cards out there where Podres had a big smile on his face.

I am not the biggest Donruss fan, but I have always liked this set.  You can also get a Duke Snider or a Don Sutton from this edition.  There is a more rare version with Sandy wearing an LA hat.  I had that one for a time a few years ago, but sold it in the chase of a more expensive Upper Deck Sandy autograph I wanted to get graded a 10.  I did not get that card as a 10, sold it and came back around with this one instead.  The card is numbered to 2000.

These cards are a little bit controversial.  For a while now, the card companies have been putting out cut autographs of deceased players.  They take autographs from old 3x5 cards, canceled checks, pictures, whatever they can authenticate and put it in the card.  This big beautiful autograph is on a regular piece of paper inside the card and it appears to be a receipt of some kind with a small copy of Don's 1968 Topps card on it.  

I do hate when I see a photo or a canceled check cut up and put in one of these cards, but I am not upset when I see other items in the cards.  I mean, would you rather have an index card with Babe Ruth's autograph on it, or have it incorporated into a card like this?

Topps Retired was around from 2003-2005.  It was an odd mix of autographs in these sets.  You could end up with a Hank Aaron or Willie Mays autograph when you opened these packs.  If you had no luck, you could end up with a Jimmy Key or Atlee Hammaker card.  I have been interested primarily in the 03 and 04 editions, not the 05 because it was an ugly card.  Orel Has not signed many cards, and I would have no collection if I could not have an autograph of this legend.  He signed for Donruss for a couple years, but those were sticker autographs.  The Topps Archives cards in 2001 are really cool, but never found one in good shape.  The autograph cards in this set come in a plastic, sealed case so they are supposed to be "uncirculated" and are likely to be in great shape.  Love the big clean autograph and the picture of a baby faced Orel with the 84 Olympic Patch on the sleeve.  

Topps also had a pic of Lopes with a commemorative sleeve patch for the 1980 ASG as well in this pic below.  It is a pretty cool theme if that is what they were going for.

So I will be starting the Top 10 next.  Just for a preview, 9 of the 10 are old, so we will really get into that part of the collection and it will be fun.  

Well, to give you an update on Matt - to celebrate his upcoming season I went ahead and upgraded from X-Fractor to Blue refractor.  Card seems a little bit off-centered left to right, but whatever, PSA still calls it a 10. 

I can see where people get frustrated with baseball cards.  Here you have a great card of a young prospect, but there is so much more than meets the eye here.  First off, Bowman Chrome sets aside about 30-40 prospect cards each year, and all of the cards issued for that player are autographed and they are within the regular set.  Not a subset.  But there are different versions of each card, with each different version more and more limited.  These are the 2005 options.

Regular Chrome Version - maybe 1000 copies?

Refractor (Rainbow effect) - 500

X-Fractor (Pictured Above) - 225

Blue - 150

Gold - 50

Red - 5

Gold Super-Fractor - 1

I guess you can say that there are different versions based on how much you want to spend, but the days of just having one rookie card to chase are long gone.  I always wanted the Blue one, but they always look off-centered and a PSA 10 seems hard to come by.  This is the only PSA 10 X-Fractor of the 7 that have been graded. 

I like seeing these pics of kids wearing crazy uniform numbers.  Reminds us that they were all young once.  Like seeing Piazza wearing #60 in 1992 Donruss.

Topps was a little confused in 1972.  According to BB-REF Cey never even played an inning in the OF in the minors, but here he is on the card.  Ogilvie was a pretty nice player, The Original Bernie Williams not so much.  34 cards graded 9, 6 Graded as a 10.  There is so much Holman Stadium in these early 70's Dodger cards.

Topps must have realized they made a mistake, and fixed it in 1973.  Here he made it on the Rookie 3B card, with the greatest 3B of all-time.  Also, nice glasses John Hilton(-100OPS+ in 1975!!!).

Schmidt already looked like he was 35 years old, but this card is one of the most sought after cards of the generation.  There are 930 of these PSA 8's, with 158 graded higher.  This is good enough for me.  

I always wanted this card, but got suckered into it.  My local card shop in Lomita never ever has any cards I am looking for in the condition I want.  I was in there to buy a Beckett, and he asked if there was any card I was looking for at that time.  Thinking he would never have it, I said Cey/Schmidt in a PSA 8.  Unfortunately for me he said hold on, went in the back and brought one out.  Called my bluff, and I had to buy one from the local guy at his price and pay tax!  Oh well, if I had to overpay, at least it was for this one.

I can also throw out an autograph specifically for you old-timers who remember the classic battles of 77,78 and 81.  Ron has a nice autograph, and he better with only 6 letters.  There are a lot of Cey auto cards out there, so I went for something different here with a dual auto of another great 3B.  Drawback - both autos are on stickers, but it is OK with me.

So not all of my cards are cool.  I have regrets, and the demise of Russ has made these 2 a poor investment.

2005 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor, numbered to 50.  I had visions of the next Johnny Bench when I purchased this card.  I bought it raw, and had it graded myself, so I did not get cleaned out on this one. 

 So...  I wanted an autograph too.  The problem is that I bought this super rare card after he already started to suck.  I knew he was not going to come out of it, but I bought it anyways, and hoped.  Fail. 

I guess my only hope is that he has some magic in a World Series for the Yankees and crushes 4 homeruns in one game to make history and then somebody will pay me for these cards.  Because he sure is not going to do anything good in the regular season.  So long, Jerk!!

1993 Finest.  What a great photo.  This set was a serious wow when it came on the market as it was the second attempt of a premium product by Topps after Stadium Club came out in 1991.  I think this was the biggest new item since Upper Deck's 1989 debut that we all know about.  Allegedly only 299 of these refractor versions exist.  People have surely been serious about this card because 216 of them have been sent to PSA for grading and another 11 have been sent to Beckett as well.  There are 165 of these PSA 9's and 6 graded as a 10.  Card 199 was the last card in the set, and he must have been a late addition because of the breakout season he was having. 

The card is not some regular card with foil on it.  it is on a very thick high quality paper, and even the back have a nice gloss to them.  These refractor versions have a slight rainbow effect against the light when you move it around.  With only 199 cards, they are of mostly the great players of the day, and the PSA 10 refractor versions can sell for hundreds of dollars.    I am still on the hunt for one of Mike's PSA 10's.  I would also really like a Ramon Martinez PSA 10 because he was my favorite player of that era, and his only really nice card.

Today we celebrate the back to back batting champ Tommy Davis.  Below we have his League Leader cards to commemorate his great accomplishment, never done since by a Los Angeles Dodger.  Likely not done anytime soon either. :(

I always like to find excuses to bring in non-Dodger HOF players into my collection.  Here Davis is lucky enough to be on a card with some of the greatest hitters ever.  Musial, Aaron and Frank Robinson.  1962 was a pretty good season for the Dodgers with Maury Wills MVP, Drysdale's Cy Young and Davis' batting title.  Davis batted a whopping .346 when the league average was .261.  This card is supposed to be hard to find in good condition because it is #1 in the set and they say that kids would rubber band them in order and the top cards are usually damaged.  There are 94 examples as a PSA 8, with only 3 graded higher.  Floating heads on cards always make me smile.  

More Hall of Famers!  Clemente and Aaron on this card with Davis.  Another great Dodger season in 1963, with a WS Championship and Davis being the offensive anchor again.  Batted .326 on his way to the batting title when the league average was only .245!  Love that picture of him at Wrigley Field, looks very imposing.  This one has 109 PSA 8's with 14 graded higher. 

Since Eric does not like autograph cards, this one is for him.  This 2008 Topps Heritage set was made to look like the iconic 1959 Topps set which we will discuss later in the countdown.  Funny they picked him for this particular set because in 1959 he had exactly one game with one PA.  As far as I know, this is the only set that Davis was ever featured in with an autograph card.  So naturally I had to get the rare version with the red ink, and it is the only PSA 10.  Very nice autograph too.

Look at this young fresh faced kid.  It was a long hard chase to get this card in a PSA 10.  1997 Bowman Chrome International Refractor Edition.   There are 6 of these PSA 10's.  This card has the usual Chrome technology, but this card is another refractor that gives it that rainbow effect against the light.  It is also the International version because it has the home country flag of the player in the background.

Beltre was the last player I would call my favorite.  Even when he was not playing well, I stopped to watch every at bat like he was Barry Bonds.  If I ever had the chance I would love to ask him the emotions going through his head playing in the bigs at such a young age.

BBREF lists his correct age as April 7 1979.  The back of the card shows him as April 7 1978.  Adrian was one of the many players to have a false birthdate with the hopes of getting to the bigs early.  How impressive is it to play in the majors at age 19?  Here is the list of position players.  Adrian was the last guy to do it. Min 200PA. 

I have new toner in my printer/scanner, so now it will allow me to scan, and we can continue the countdown with the so colorful 1975 Topps set and Don Sutton.  This blue/green combo is appealing to the eye, but it is still a pretty bold and ugly design.  I love how the blue/green matches the sky and trees, and the detail on the uniform is great too.  Would it be so bad if the Dodgers added this piping and sleeve cuffs to the unis today?  97 PSA 9's and 3 PSA 10's have been graded. 

I do not know a good reason on why they would ever want to make them, but this is also the only year that Topps experimented with a Mini card.  It is 20% smaller than the original version.  These were only released in California and Michigan according to legend, and have a smaller print run than the regular set, so they are obviously more scarce. One collector named Charlie Conlon bought up hundreds of cases of these in the 1970's and as he slowly sold off his stash over the years, more and more high quality cards were available on the market.  There are 22 PSA 9's, and no PSA 10's.

You can see below that many years later... Don's autograph barely changed from the facsimile autograph on the old Topps cards. 

I can see where people get frustrated with baseball cards.  Here you have a great card of a young prospect, but there is so much more than meets the eye here.  First off, Bowman Chrome sets aside about 30-40 prospect cards each year, and all of the cards issued for that player are autographed and they are within the regular set.  Not a subset.  But there are different versions of each card, with each different version more and more limited.  These are the 2005 options.

Regular Chrome Version - maybe 1000 copies?

Refractor (Rainbow effect) - 500

X-Fractor (Pictured Above) - 225

Blue - 150

Gold - 50

Red - 5

Gold Super-Fractor - 1

I guess you can say that there are different versions based on how much you want to spend, but the days of just having one rookie card to chase are long gone.  I always wanted the Blue one, but they always look off-centered and a PSA 10 seems hard to come by.  This is the only PSA 10 X-Fractor of the 7 that have been graded. 

I like seeing these pics of kids wearing crazy uniform numbers.  Reminds us that they were all young once.  Like seeing Piazza wearing #60 in 1992 Donruss.

Bonus Card this week!!

Can I just say that this card is really fucking cool?  I hope to look back at this card in 20 years and say wow, Topps got this dual auto card right.  Two perfect, clean on-card autos, and great artwork.  Topps is attempting to pay tribute to the old Chicle brand cards from the 1930's with this set.  Only 25 of these issued.  

The long anticipated return of the countdown takes us to Davey Lopes.  Topps gave us a Davey Lopes rookie card, and made him share the card with 2 other guys.  The card design is very lackluster.  White background with blue and black font.  Three nice, tight little face shots of each player is about all there is room for.  Another rarity, graded PSA 9.  There are 11 of these, with only 2 PSA 10's. 

Gotta love these hats, right?  The ugliest Braves hat in their history combined with the boringest Brewers hat in their history.  Blanks and Garcia were just as bad as those hats in their playing careers.   Davey by far had the greatest career of these 3 players. 

If anybody can think of a worse 1970's era hat than that Braves hat above, please put your pick in the thread!

There will be more Lopes, and more 73 Topps later on in the countdown........

In 1991 Topps released a special set to the troops overseas called Topps Desert Shield.  I have read that there was only 5000 of each card produced.  So the idea is that the card was sent over there, and came back to the US in such a way as to be still graded PSA 10 is improbable.  23,626 cards from this set have been submitted for grading, 2439 PSA 10's, approximately 10%.  In comparison 5037 from the regular 1991 Topps set were submitted with 1335 10's, closer to 20%.  5 of 79 Murray cards have been graded Gem Mint 10.  The image is great too.  Shows a strong, great ball player with a confident look.

Some lunatics have actually completed the set with all the cards graded by PSA.

There were rumors that many cards never went and sat in some warehouse.  Very possible back in a time when many were trying to retire off of flipping baseball cards.

So about Eddie...He was great in his only stint as a Dodger.  125 OPS+ for only 7.5 million!  I love whenever the Dodgers have had a City player on the roster.  Which is why I really defended GA for so long.

*I was in such a hurry to open the card the day it arrived in the mail that I scratched the case with a razor blade by accident while unpacking it.  The scratch across Eddie's face is on the holder, not the card.*

This is another one of a kind offering.  I am a sucker for cards where multiple players have signed them.  Especially if they are all Dodgers.  Upper Deck's SP Authentic is always good for some exciting autograph combinations.  The autographs are all on-card, so there are no stickers.  Getting it graded as perfect is hard to do since the card was handled by all 3 players, machinery, packing, myself, etc.  

Chad was featured predominately in this set.  He was also featured on these cards...

Dual Auto card with Gorzelanny and another with Buchholz

Quad Auto with Carmona, Blanton, and Gorzelanny

Quad Auto with Kemp, Loney and Hu

Back in 2008 when the card came out there were hopes of greatness for this trio.  It is still possible for at least 2 of them.  Even with Loney's struggles at the plate, I like his personality and he is one of my favorite players.  I hope the best for him, and I really enjoy this card.  

If you could make your own triple Dodger Autograph card among the current crop of players who would it be? 

This one was a close call.  Chuck Dressen was the Dodgers Manager from 1951 to 1953.  I like the card so much because he has the lineup on the chalkboard in the background.  I imagine there is no chalkboard in the clubhouse today.

Great card, but I want one in a higher grade, so it does not make my Top 25.  A PSA 9 sells for $900-1000 USD.  Out of my price range for just one card at this time.  The black borders make these cards extremely expensive in high grade because they are so easily damaged.  Steve looks so young and clean cut there.  Very hairy arms too. 

1962 Topps had a commemorative subset of 10 cards that depicted Ruth's life and career.  Ruth's Dodger coaching career is a pretty miniscule part of his career, so I am surprised that Topps decided to add this into the set.  It is well noted that Ruth tried and tried to get a job as a manager but nobody was willing to take a chance on him.  The Dodgers were abysmal in the 1930's, so they had nothing to lose with taking him on as a coach, or a novelty really.

You can search the Getty images for Babe as a Dodger here.  I originally thought they could have selected a better image of him for this card, but they really did not have many options.   I love the wood border of this 1962 set, I am sure we will come back to this set again later in the countdown.  330 of these have been submitted to PSA for grading.  89 8's with 10 graded higher. 

Let's go back to 1960.  Topps had a subset within the set with a card depicting the action of each game of the 59 WS.  On the back of each card was the box score and the line score.  This was the first Topps card that Maury was ever on.  He never appeared again until 1967 as a Pirate.  

Legend has it that Maury was such an underrated prospect that Topps did not sign him to a contract when he was in the minors, which was when they were usually signed.  Whether he held out, or they never approached him again I am unsure but you can find cards of him as a Dodger from 1970-1972.  Here is a link to Maury's website with a bunch of pics of his cards.  Funny if you look at that link, and see that his 67 card has shot at Dodger Stadium. 

There have been 228 of these submitted to PSA, 60 have come back as PSA 8 with only 9 graded higher.

Here is your bonus card...  this one was difficult to find as a PSA 8, took me about 2 years to find.  This card has a composite box score for the series on the back.  182 of these have been submitted, 48 graded 8, with only 3 higher.

The interesting thing is the picture selection.  Who the hell is the guy that they are dumping the beer on?  I have never been able to figure it out.   Maybe a coach?  He looks like he is about 60 years old.  Couldn't they find a pic of Hodges, Podres or Snider getting blasted with the beer?  Let me know if you can tell.

I have always tried to sneak in HOF players into my collection whenever possible.  Could not pass up an opportunity to get in one of the all-time greats in his only year in A Dodger uniform.

How did he become a Dodger? Traded by the Orioles with Pete Richert to the Dodgers for Doyle Alexander, Bob O'Brien, Sergio Robles and Royle Stillman.  Whatever.

Back to the card...  I guess Topps wanted us to know that he was surely traded with this huge TRADED stamp across the front of it.  Frank appears to have had his picture taken at some point in Florida during Spring Training. 

I never knew that the Dodgers wore a stripe on the sleeves until I started paying attention to this card.  There will be more examples soon as we will be visiting 1972 Topps again later in the countdown.  For the record, I like the stripe. 

1972...well I do not like the design of the card too much, but it is rare, and it is Frank Robinson.  547 of these have been submitted to PSA, 38 PSA 9's, and only 3 PSA 10's!  I assume Dimitri Young owns at least one of the 10's.

How could you not love both of these guys?  They both brought us so much joy over the years.  And here they are together.  We can all close our eyes and see Eckersley drop down to throw that back door slider, and we can all imagine the fist pump after another save.  

In 2005 Upper Deck went autograph crazy with the Ultimate Signature Edition set.  The great thing about this card besides the history is that they are two big, beautiful on card autographs.  Here is the only PSA 10 card from the Cy Young set.  UD paired so many cool players together on these autograph cards, both living and dead.  Let me give you a little rundown of the subsets and Dodger autographs with print run.

Signs of October

Duke/Mantle - 6

Eckersley/Gibson - 200

Garvey/Guidry - 250

MVP's

Wills/Larkin - 250

Musial/Campy/Schmidt - 1

Cy Youngs

Randy Johnson/Drysdale - 3

Carlton/Drysdale/Spahn/Seaver - 1

Newcombe/Ford - 125

Rookie of the Year

Jackie/Frank Robinson - 3

Piazza/Bench - 15

Jackie/Piazza/Newcombe - 3

Jeter/Piazza/Munson/Jackie - 1

If money was no object, and you could own one of these cards, which would you like to have for your Dodger collection?  I would choose one of the RJ/ Big Don cards.  Drysdale being my favorite dodger ever and Randy just so great.

 I decided to share with you all my favorite 25 cards in my collection.  I will show you some Dodger history, cool photos, technology, and some rare items.  Maybe it will spark an interest or relive some old memories. 

 Here we go with #25...   2006 Upper Deck Future Stars Andre Eithier Red Parallel

These cards are really cool because they are see-through.  It is serial numbered 27 of 35 with an autograph in red ink.  The red ones are the limited editions compared to the blue ink autographs.  Too bad the autograph is a sticker instead of on-card.  It has been graded 10 Gem Mint by PSA.  There have been no other Either cards submitted for grading, so it is the only one of its kind. 

I also have another card from this set that is really cool, a PSA 10 triple autograph of Chad, Hamels, and some guy named Alay Soler.  Too bad he sucked. 

And one final note for Phil.  Topps actually mastered this technology in 2002 with its Topps Pristine set.  I was foolish enough to spend a few dollars for this autograph.  Back when he was called Irvin.

The Facts –

1993 - Impressive in his 91 PA debut with 4 homeruns, and a deep bomb in everybody’s favorite 1993 game on October 3.

1994 – Ran away with unanimous ROY honors while batting .304 with 16 homeruns. (123 OPS+)  Raul was on pace for 22 homeruns in that strike shortened season.  Klesko and the great John Hudek had no chance in that vote.  With 16 putouts in only 112 games, he was opening eyes around the league with his defense. 

1995 – NL All-Star and Gold Glove.  Another great season batting .285/.328/.496.  We will not discuss his Homerun Derby appearance. 

1996 – Near duplicate season from 1995.  Third year in a row with OPS+ of 123. Smashed 24 homeruns and 40 doubles.  .297/.334/.495

1997 – What a breakout season.  Another Gold Glove.  Batted .310/.360/.541 with 42 doubles, 30 homeruns and 32 stolen bases.  140 OPS+, and became the first and only Dodger to join the 30-30 club. 

1998 – Overall production was slightly down but his power was the only constant during this forgettable season.  30 home runs and another 90 RBI’s.   

1999 – More power, more steals, but even less overall production?  Another 30-30 season.  33 home runs, 99 RBI’s and 36 steals.  He finally learned to take a walk with 71 total.  OBP of .332 made up for his falling average. 

6+ Seasons – Very solid numbers and a very solid player.  Career dodger totals of .288/.334/.504 with 163 Homeruns, 140 SB and an OPS+ of 122.  He brought home hardware, and played an exciting brand of baseball. 

El Cañon was by far the most exciting player I ever saw in a Dodger uniform.  Time does fly, and it is hard to imagine that he was here for over 6 seasons.  Or is it only 6 seasons? I just wish we had the chance to see more of Raul playing at his best in a Dodger uniform.  Mondesi was hailed by Lasorda as the ultimate 5 tool player.  Speed, Power, Hit for average, plus arm and great fielding skills.  He was Matt Kemp before there was Matt Kemp. 

Mondesi became my favorite player on April 23, 1994.  The Dodgers had a struggling 2B named Delino.  He was only batting .210 and was just terrible.  Raul saved the day for all Dodger fans by knocking Delino unconscious with his rock solid chest during a collision of which Mondesi caught the ball.  Mondesi’s heroics propelled the Dodgers to a three game winning streak where Jeff Treadway and Cory Snyder played a great 2B in Delino’s absence.

Opening Day 1999 was the huge matchup between free agent pitchers Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson at Dodger Stadium.  The pitching matchup did not live up to expectations as the game became the Raul Mondesi Show.  Trailing 6-3 in the 9th, Mondesi crushed a 3 run homer into left to tie the game and followed in the 11th with a dramatic walk off 2 run bomb to win it.  He finished 4 for 5 with 6 RBI on the day.

Unfortunately, that was not a sign of things to come.  The Dodgers stunk in 1999 and finished 23 games behind Arizona.  That seemed to be the story of the 90’s for this franchise.  Some great players, and great performances but it never came together.  I personally blame Karros or whoever decided he was good enough to ever play on this team, but we can leave that for another discussion.

I think that with more victories and any post season success, we would see Mondesi’s Dodger career in a different light.  Bhsportsguy makes a case for Guerrero with a lot of flashy numbers that is compelling, but Mondesi is right there with him.  If you compare Pete’s best 6 years 82-87 with Raul’s 6 years one could argue Mondesi was better.  Pete could take a walk, and had a better average, but Mondesi had him beat across the board elsewhere.  More homeruns, doubles, triples, SB, RBI and runs. We don’t even have to bring up the glove.  Mondesi was also a much more durable player when comparing games played.

The shame is that Raul flamed out at such a reasonably early age.  He had many documented personal struggles throughout his career that obviously affected his playing shape and led to his diminishing skills.  The Dodgers traded him at the right time for the right player after the 1999 season.

I will always remember spending my teenage years at Dodger Stadium screaming Raaauuuuul every time he made another great play.  He is not the automatic Lords of the Ravine pick like Koufax or Piazza, but the discussion is yours.

ED - Image from the excellent baseball card blog "Garvey Cey Russell Lopes"