1978 Clinton Dodgers

Here is a vintage minor league set produced by TCMA of the 1978 Clinton Dodgers. Check out the entire 33 card set here in my photo album. The Clinton, Iowa team was the Dodgers single A ballclub for only 3 years- from 1977 to 1979.

Overall, this was a fairly terrible team as they recorded a dismal 53-83 record. Not surprisingly, only three future Major League regulars came out of here- Mitch Webster, Brian Holton and Ron Kittle. Only former Dodger Mitch Webster has a card in the set. You can see it above on the top left. Also, I was surprised to find that Kittle was once Dodger property. I had no idea. He would have looked pretty good in Blue in the early to mid-80's.
One of the great things about these early minor league sets are some of the strange quirks within it. If you check the very first photo of the post, on the top right, you see the team operators- Mr. & Mrs. Bach. Here is a terrible looking B&W photo of Riverview Stadium with a great note about how it would soon be home to a TV shoot.
I bet nobody messed with Ron LeFlore on that team. And of course, I had to show the batboys card. Congratulations Matt Potts and Fred Lunett, you have been immortalized on cardboard.

Card of the Week: King of Beers

This Bud's for you, Jay Johnstone. He sure knows how to party. He's hanging out at good ol' Wrigley Field prepared for some wet weather and thinking about lounging out on the dugout steps with a cold one. Here is his 1984 Fleer Baseball card which is this week's "Card of the Week".

eBay: Billingsley Book Card

I wouldn't mind adding this to my collection. Here is a Chad Billingley book card that features a large Dodger script patch. Only 3 of these were made.

(eBay Auction Link)

Monty Sheldon: 1955 Brooklyn WS 55th Anniversary Art Card Set

I've been a big fan of the artwork of Monty Sheldon for some time now, and was thrilled to find out back in April that he was selling Sheldon’s Sketch Card Champions "1 of 1" art cards on eBay. If you haven't seen some of his work before check out this site for more. His painted Baseballs are very impressive.

Now, Monty is tackling the 55th Anniversary of the Dodgers first and only World Championship in Brooklyn. Check out the press release below.

Artist Monty Sheldon has been creating Sheldon’s Sketch Card Champions during the past two years, and in addition to the 2010 regular set, he will be releasing a sub set that will acknowledge the 55^th anniversary of the World Series Championship achieved by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955.

Sheldon’s sketch cards are made available weekly through E-bay auctions, and starting with card no. 106 and continuing through card no. 112 he will be auctioning off a 55^th anniversary set of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, who won their only World Series Championship in an exciting 7-game series versus their World Series nemesis, the New York Yankees.

Sheldon will be providing a sketch card that will correspond with each game played of the 1955 World Series. Included in the set will be Dodger team members that played a pivotal role in each of the games and each card will be signed and finished 55 years to the exact day that World Series game was played, making this a true 55th anniversary set.

Included below is a player checklist and the auction end date for each card. The scheduled eBay 7-day auctions will all take place at 19:55 (10:55 PM eastern, 7:55 PM pacific) and you can find Sheldon’s auctions by searching with his eBay seller ID -- rube77 .

Tuesday, SEPT 28 (game 1) - Jackie Robinson & Carl Furillo (card #106) - auction ends 10/5

Wednesday, SEPT 29 (game 2) - Pee Wee Reese (card #107) - auction ends 10/6
Thursday, SEPT 30 (game 3) - Roy Campanella (card #108) - auction ends 10/7

Friday, OCT 1 (game 4) - Clem Labine (card #109) - auction ends 10/8

Saturday, OCT 2 (game 5) - Duke Snider (card #110) - auction ends 10/9

Sunday, OCT 3 (game 6) - Jim Gilliam (card #111) - auction ends 10/10
Monday, OCT 4 (game 7) - Gil Hodges, Sandy Amoros, Johnny Podres (card #112) - auction ends 10/11

Go here to see the first card available for auction on eBay. Every day over the next week each card in the set will be placed up on eBay.

2010 Topps Triple Threads Dodger Inserts

Here are some of the cards Triple Threads collectors love to chase. All of the cards have three pieces of either a uniform or bat piece placed within windows that spell an important achievement. They also come in different parallel versions. In most cases, each player has several different phrases available. The cards below do not come close to showing all the different Dodger cards out there.

Here is Manny's "Mannywood." I've also seen "MLB", "15 Game LCS HIT STR", "MAN RAM", "9 TIME SILVER", and "PS HR LDR 29 CAREER".

This is the only Roy Campanella version I've seen- "8 TIME ALL STAR".

This is the only Jackie Robinson version I've seen- "415 '47".

Here is Manny Ramirez's auto bat relic card spelling out "MLB".

Here is Chad Billingsley's uniform relic card spelling out "NL WEST CHAMPS". I have also seen "MLB" and "1.04 NL DS ERA" versions.

Here is Duke Snider's "5X 40+ HR" autographed bat relic card. There are also "MLB", "HOF 1980", and "SILVER FOX" versions.

This is the only Clayton Kershaw version I've seen- "100 SOS".

Here is Matt Kemp's auto uniform relic card spelling "THE BISON". Others I've seen include "MLB", "2009 GG & SS", and "101 RBI".

Below are two of the Rookies & Rising Stars autographed relic cards of Clayton Kershaw and Andre Ethier.

Auto Collection: Kirk Gibson 2005 Fleer Classic Clippings

With the Dodger season quickly coming to a thankful close there is nothing left to do but to share some autographed Dodger cards from my own collection. As a new feature here I will share some of these cards here as often as possible. If you can't wait, feel free to check some of them out on my facebook page, here. I'll be updating that page often over the next coming weeks and months.

Here are the front and back of the 1995 Fleer Classic Clippings "Cut of History" autographed card of Dodger hero Kirk Gibson. It is serial numbered 9 out of 25. I often imagine Gibby glaring out to left field in the pic on the card as he takes Eckersley deep in the World Series. As Dodger Blues is want to say this was the last meaningful Dodger moment.