Saturday Night Five: The 2024 World Series Champions

Last night was our first dance of the year.  About halfway through it... one of my students came up to me with tears in her eyes.  She was absolutely heartbroken that her boyfriend wanted to hang out with his friends instead of her.  I let her vent... and eventually her friends came along to cheer her up.  I was grateful for that, because I'm not exactly an expert on middle school romance.  Now had she had her heart broken by a sports team... then I could definitely relate to that.

I had to deal with the fact that the A's were leaving Oakland the entire 2024 MLB season.  More recently... I had to deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers delivering a gut punch to the San Diego Padres.  Not gonna lie... that really hurt.

Heartache is just part of being a fan... and it's something that we all have to deal with.  But that's not the focus of tonight's post.  Tonight I wanted to honor, celebrate, and congratulate the 2024 World Series Champions and their fans by ranking my five favorite Los Angeles Dodgers from this season.

#5:  Yoshinobu Yamamoto

2021 Topps NPB #128

The Dodgers have a way of landing Japanese pitchers.  Nomo.  Kuroda.  Maeda.  Darvish.  Ohtani.

2024 Topps #553

It's not surprising that Yamamoto ended up signing with them too.

#4:  Mookie Betts

2019 Topps Chrome Refractor #50

I was a fan of Mookie when he was in Boston...

2024 Topps #250

and my fanfare has followed him over to the West Coast.

#3:  Freddie Freeman

2024 Topps #102

The same can be said of Freddie.

2020 Topps 206 Piedmont Back #7

But honestly... I prefer seeing him pictured with the Braves.

#2:  Clayton Kershaw

2013 Topps 1972 Mini #TM-23

I've got a thing for lefties... and for a decade or so, Kershaw was one of the best in the game.

2024 Topps #351

It didn't take long before I started following him and collecting his cards.  And for the longest time, he was my favorite Dodgers player.  Until this guy showed up...

#1:  Shohei Ohtani

2020 Topps 1951 (Blake Jamieson) #16

Are you surprised?  He might have struggled against the Yankees... but his popularity is higher than ever.  

2024 Topps #500

Ohtani is one of those generational guys who is both exciting and likable.  He's easily my favorite current Dodger and right up there with Fernando Valenzuela as my all-time favorite Dodger.

Speaking of heartache... I'm guessing my student will recover from her boyfriend ditching her before any of us are finished mourning the loss of El Toro.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #165: Two Months & Four Trips Pt. 3

Today is the day I share my Top 5 flea market finds of September and October.  Not gonna lie... there aren't any baseball cards featured (sorry Night Owl).  But there are some pretty cool items from the 70's and 80's that have a direct link to my childhood.

If you haven't seen the first two parts of this series (which do contain baseball cards), you can click on the following links:

Part #1:  #22 to #14

Part #2:  #13 to #6

Part #3:  #5 to #1

Before we get into the goodies... I just wanted to remind you that the twenty-two flea market purchases I made in September and October took place over the course of four days at two different flea markets.

Normally I write about each trip individually, but things got a little backed up... so I decided to cover them all together.  Unfortunately... I'm not a fan of super long posts, so I chopped up the purchases into three tiers.

And I have saved the best for last.  Let's get into it...

#5:  Rare Pack of Cards $1

Flea Market:  De Anza on September 7th

Remember the guy with the skateboarding cards from Part 2?  He also had this opened pack of 1987 Astroboyz Surf Cardz.  Back in the 80's, I was really into surfing.  Not actually surfing, but watching surfing competitions and reading surfer magazines.  Yup.  I was one of those posers.

Anyways... I would have totally been into these cards had I known about them back then.  But I never saw them back in the day.  And based on eBay listings, they're pretty rare and some of these singles sell for a decent dime.

When I flipped through the pack I immediately recognized this guy who happened to be one of my favorite surfers:

Tom Curren won three World Titles back in the mid 80's to the early 90's.

Here are the cards in the pack:

The Mark Gonzalez card is also pretty cool:

In 2011 he was named The Most Influential Skateboarder of All-Time by Transworld Skateboarding magazine ahead of legends like Christian Hosoi, Tony Hawk, and Rodney Mullen.

#4:  Some Sentimental Singles $3

Flea Market:  De Anza on October 5th

A guy with tons of toys from the 70's, 80's, and 90's had a 100ct. box containing 1977 Topps Star Wars Series 4 and 5 cards.

I'm sure most of you already know this... but in case you don't... I'll write it again.  1977 Topps Star Wars were the first packs of trading cards that I remember opening and collecting.  That's why I just can't walk away from adding more to my collection if the price is right.

Considering the condition, I was excited to pay 50¢ each for these:

1977 Topps Star Wars Singles

My focus were the character cards... but I was just as excited to add these two George Lucas cards to my collection.  If this guy is set up again this weekend, I will go through this box again.

#3:  Pee-Chee Folders $10

Flea Market:  Branham on October 19th

How often do you see these featured on a card blog?  It's gonna sound crazy... but I was more excited to see these folders than any baseball card I saw that day at the flea market.

I was one of those Trapper Keeper kids... but sometime around 5th or 6th grade... I switched over to those flimsy plastic binders and Pee-Chee folders.  Year in and year out... I'd decorate them in the same way.  I'd draw a microphone in the lead runner's hand, a mouse under the batter's foot, and extra hairy armpits on the guy shooting the basketball.  There were a few other things I'd draw/write... but they aren't very school appropriate.

#2:  BART Button $5

Flea Market:  De Anza on October 5th 

I'm sure most of you are scratching your heads about why I'd put a button (that isn't even sports related) so high on these rankings.  Simply put... BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit and it's how got to the Oakland Coliseum for the vast majority of the A's games I attended over the years.

I honestly had no idea that their first day of operation was so close to the day I was born.  That was a very cool bonus.

#1:  1977 Star Wars Lunch Box $55

Flea Market:  Branham on October 19th

I've purchased a lot of cool stuff over the years while wandering around my local flea markets.  This one will be up there among my favorites for years to come.

Just like 1977 Topps Star Wars were the first packs I ever opened as a kid... this lunch box is just like the first one I carried my lunch in when I was in kindergarten.

I've thought about buying one of these on eBay for years... but was always afraid of excessive rust.

This one is far from being mint, but it's pretty clean.  I might do is buy another Thermos, because the one it came with is faded:

But that's not high on my priority list... since I have no plans to actually use it.  Right now... it's the newest piece to my Star Wars display:

Well there you have it.  My five favorite flea market finds of September and October.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this post... as well as the other two.  

De Anza is on Saturday.  The plan is to make it out there and get back on track with my Flea Market Finds posts.  But we'll see.  If you see one next week, then you know I'm back on track.  If not... another combination post might show up again.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Terro and El Torro

I'm not a fan of ants.  About twenty-five years ago I had a really bad encounter with them.  It was back when I was working two jobs (teacher during the day, card shop employee at night).  After a long day at work, I came home and eventually settled into bed.

I had bought a bag of powdered sugar Hostess Donettes a day or two before... and was looking forward to eating a few before bedtime while watching whatever was on the boob tube.  The room was dimly lit.  The light from the television was bright enough for me to see the bag... but not bright enough for me to see the trail of ants going into the bag.

Anyways... long story short... I popped one into my mouth and quickly realized something was wrong.  I ran to my bathroom, turned on the light, and ants were everywhere: on my hand, on my face, and obviously in my mouth.  Now whenever I see them... I kill them instantly.

Last weekend... while scanning my newly acquired flea market finds... I started noticing one every couple of minutes.  I'd kill it.  Two minutes later another one would show up.  This went on for over an hour.  The next day... the same exact thing.

The last time I had a problem with ants, I bought some Terro liquid ant bait and it did the job.  I had some leftover, so I put one on my desk on Sunday night.  The next day, I came home from work, headed up to my office to work on some stacks of cards, and was greeted by thousands of ants.

I thought about busting out a can of Raid... but didn't want to damage any cards out on my desk.  Vacuuming them up was another possibility... but I wasn't sure if the bag would contain them.  The last thing I wanted was to just transport them to another room in my house.  Ultimately... I decided to go all-in and put out three more liquid ant baits and hope for the best.

As of this morning there's still a trail of ants.  However... it's smaller than yesterday and only a tenth of the size of Thursday's trail.  I'm not sure if that's because they've eaten most of the food or if the colony is slowly dying off.  Hopefully... the latter, because I'd like to get back to cleaning my desk, sorting some stacks, and scanning some cards.

Speaking of cards... on Wednesday I learned about Fernando Valenzuela passing away from a comment left on one of Night Owl's posts.  As I left in my comment, El Toro played a huge role in getting me into the hobby.

1981 Topps #302

The year Fernandomania was born... was the year I started opening up packs of baseball cards.  I don't remember if I pulled, traded for, or purchased his 1981 Topps rookie card, but I know that was the first card I owned of his.

1981 Fleer #140

Later that year, I added the 1981 Fleer rookie to my collection when my parents bought me the complete set on a trip up to Seattle.

Over the years, I have picked up a bunch of his cards.  I may not be a Dodgers fan, but I've rooted for plenty of their players.  Fernando is right up there with my favorites.  Here are a few of my favorite cards that I have sitting in my scan folder (sorry... due to the ant issue... I cannot scan any new cards right now):

2014 Five Star Autographs #FSA-FV

On-card, pack-pulled autographs are one of my favorite things to collect and some of the cleanest looking designs were the ones pulled from Five Star boxes in the mid 2010's.

Here's another certified auto of Fernando:

2005 Sweet Spot Classic Signatures #FV

This was his first pack-pulled autograph and one of the most common and available to collectors.

Let's switch gears and check out some oddball issues:

1988 Grenada Stamps 

1986 Topps Box Bottoms #P

1991 Fleer Box Bottoms

1981 Dodgers Police #34

1982 Dodgers Police #34

 Moving along... here are a pair of base cards I really like:

1983 Donruss #1

Not sure if Donruss or Dick Perez created the Diamond King checklist each year back in the 80's... but Fernando kinda got snubbed in 1982.  Glad he got to be card #1 in 1983.

1991 Upper Deck #175

One of my favorite base cards of Fernando is his 1991 Topps card, but I don't have it saved in my scan folder.  His 1991 Upper Deck is a fine surrogate.  Who doesn't enjoy Upper Deck multiple exposure cards?

And I'll wrap things up with this cool relic card:

2002 Stadium Club World Champions Relics #WC-FV

Down two games to the New York Yankees in the 1981 World Series, the Dodgers started Fernando in Game 3.  He went 0 for 4 at the plate that day... but pitched a complete game and got the Dodgers back into the series.

Unfortunately... if you look closely... Topps highlighted the 1988 World Series on this card.  The Dodgers won that series as well... but Fernando didn't pitch against the A's that postseason.

Well that wraps up today's post.  Let me know if you have any hints on getting rid of ants.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!