Dodger-centric Stack from the Night Owl

After Greg, aka the 'Night Owl' lost his want list (tragic) and worked on recreating it starting with 2017, I figured this was an opportunity to send out a handful of recent cards that might make it there before others beat me to it. A few days ago I found a package in my mailbox with the note below.

By the way, a handwritten note is appreciated in any circumstance. And yes, these cards put a dent in several areas of my want list.

While a good number of the cards in this stack were Dodgers, I'm going to start by sharing the non-Dodgers. A trio of Braves Heritage cards means I'm about halfway through collecting the team set for 2017. Vizcaino is having a strong season in relief so far. Jace Peterson went down to AAA for a little while but is back with the big-league club after straightening some things out. Wisler's spent most of his season in AAA but has appeared in seven games for Atlanta.

A program is a neat idea for an insert, and I appreciate Teheran appearing in an insert set, regardless of design. I couldn't have imagined Kemp playing as well as he has since coming over from the Padres. He's become one of my favorite Braves.

So much Green on this Freeman from Opening Day. Even one of few doubles for me was still a need, as one goes towards the team set while the other goes in the Freeman player collection.

And the last of the Braves cards I'll share... You'd think a Braves fan and collector would have cards from the early 90s of stars like Glavine already in my collection. But I wasn't collecting baseball cards at this time. Until I started this blog, basketball cards were my main collecting interest. I'm playing some major catch-up and I'm glad to add this Glavine to my binder.

Now we move into the Dodger part of the package. Three Kershaws, all from 2011 Topps products. Opening Day, Series 1, and Update series are all represented. They also instantly become the oldest Kershaws in my collection, a product of getting into baseball card collecting in 2014. Kershaw may be the best pitcher in the game, but his teammate, former Brave Alex Wood, surprisingly has a lower ERA so far this season. I'm sure the Night Owl is pleased with that development.

Sharp design on this 2013 Bowman Kershaw. I prefer this one to designs of the last several years. The Topps 72 mini is from 2013 as well and is the second mini Kershaw in my collection. Would be a fun set to put together.

I was so excited to see Cesar Izturis as the most represented player in this stack. I have around 20 or so cards of Izturis, a key player on Dodger teams from 2003-2005. He won a gold glove in 2004 and made the only All-Star game of his career in 2005. Unfortunately that season was cut short by injuries in the second half.

One of my favorite memories is from going to a game at Dodger Stadium with my Dad in 2003 as part of a family trip out West. The Dodgers beat the Cardinals, with Rickey Henderson hitting a home run. When that happened the place just exploded. Really neat moment. Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Edgar Renteria all homered off Kaz Ishii, but the Dodgers prevailed 8-5. For several years after that I followed that group of Dodgers pretty closely, but the only one that's remained in my list of player collections is Izturis.

What happened to the Bowman Heritage brand? Did they run out of old sets to copy the design of? If so, who would oppose picking that up again starting with '89?

I'll wrap this up with the 7th Betts card added to my collection featuring this design. The one is the Holiday edition. Looks like there's a metallic snowflake parallel as well, because of course. 

Thanks Greg- really enjoyed going through the package. I'm glad to be a landing spot for duplicate Kershaw and Izturis cards!

Logo-less Chrome, I mean Optic

What's one way to make Donruss better? Chrome it up. 2016 Donruss is a set I haven't picked up too many cards from. I'm not likely to bust many packs of Donruss Optic with some other new sets being available, but picking up singles of the Braves and a few others definitely interests me. I picked up a half dozen from Just Commons recently. 

Some base cards of the heart of the Braves order right now, who are suddenly playing much better and have won 10 out of 14 games as of Tuesday night. I will have to settle for a San Diego Kemp for now until he gets some Braves issues. Mookie was recently named AL player of the month for July.

And a few refractors, I mean Holos, the regular versions for Freeman and Betts, and an Orange parallel of Freeman #'d out of 199. The Orange Freeman is pretty sharp, although I wouldn't have identified it as Orange out of the pack necessarily.

Based on seeing these in person, I would imagine the Diamond King cards from Optic would look great. The Markakis will go on my wantlist.

Kemp to the Padres

Baseball moves are happening left and right, with the Dodgers and Red Sox making the most. I mentioned visiting Dodger stadium about 10 years ago which led me to follow the team through the years. While they fall below the Orioles and Braves on my favorite teams list, I do have a few small player collections of certain Dodgers such as Shawn Green, Cesar Izturis, Paul Lo Duca, Andre Ethier, James Loney, and Matt Kemp. 

By now you've probably seen that Kemp was dealt to the Padres earlier today. I don't know much about the guys the Dodgers are getting in return, but I do know that without Kemp the Dodgers are lacking power in their lineup. It looks like the players coming in return for Kemp may not remain with the Dodgers anyway.

But as we've seen the last of Kemp in a Dodgers uniform for now, I thought I'd share some Kemp cards from my collection. 

We start off with a pretty card from Bowman's Best, #'d out of 499. The back shows some power stats from his days with Single A Columbus. In 2004 he hit one homer for every 24.9 at-bats, compared to the Single A average of 48.1 at-bats. Fun fact, Matt Kemp and I are the same height at 6 foot 4, according to this card.

Turkey Red is a favorite set of mine. I opened a box of the basketball version of this set, pulling cards of some of the all-time basketball greats. Glad to have this Kemp rookie in my collection.

Wasn't going to make it through this post without showing a card from Heritage, this one from 2007. This Heritage card says that Kemp is just 6 foot 2. Hmm.

I probably could have ordered these cards better, as now we are back to a First Year card from 2005 Topps Update. 

My favorite card of the bunch is easily this Allen & Ginter relic from 2010. Just a beautiful card, and one of the few relics in any of my baseball player collections. 

The back of this Topps 52 Kemp from 2006 notes his hot start after being called up from Jacksonville. Kemp hit .375 with 7 HRs in his first 16 games with the Dodgers. 

His totals in 9 years with the Dodgers: 182 HRs, 648 RBIs, 170 stolen bases (most of which came between 2008-2011), 1188 hits, and a .292 average. Will be strange to see him in another uniform, particularly one in the same division. 

We will see what the pieces end up bringing back to the Dodgers.