Heaven sent

If you're a Dodger fan, you've already heard the news about Ivan DeJesus Jr. He's done for the year after breaking his leg during a play at the plate. DeJesus likely would have played much of the season in Albuquerque, but a season-ending injury to the Dodgers' minor league player of the year from last season is not the best omen.

Bad news isn't supposed to happen in March. Spring's coming, right? Hope springs eternal and all that flowery stuff? I didn't hear anything about broken legs in there.

In times like these, it's best to focus on the positive and some great cards sent to me from Ryan of I Heart Halos, the Angels fan. These came my way because, once again, I saw a card I wanted, the Darryl Strawberry '92 Stadium Club. So, I brought out the squeaky wheel. And Ryan sent me a whole pile of grease. But instead of actual grease, which would have been messy and gross and given my mail carrier an actual real reason to despise me, I received some cool Dodgers!

Along with the Strawberry card came several other '92 Stadium Club Dodgers that I needed. It's interesting that I collected quite a few Stadium Club cards in '92 (I collected quite a few of everything in 1992), but didn't come up with that many Dodgers. That's probably because of the collation issues that Ryan pointed out in his post, and also because there were 900 flippin' cards in the set.

I didn't want to show this card, but I need to so I can mention something that I come across all the time. And that is: I hate this card, yet I must collect it.

It's a Dodger, but it's also a Diamond King, which I'm not crazy about. But the part that makes it even worse is this one looks like some junior high art student painted it. I can see it hanging, with the rest of the class' creations, on one of those display boards in some shopping mall next to the food court.

More cards from the era of overproduction, this time 1992 Score. But I need every last one. It's kind of embarrassing.

Here's another one that I've seen everywhere, but I've never owned until now. If you don't look close enough, it appears as if Billy Ashley and Eric Karros are holding hands, which makes their half-smiles even creepier than they already are.

This is a reprint of the 1974 Topps Dave Lopes card that was in the 2005 Rookie Cup Series. It's kind of odd seeing this card not on actual cardboard (what are baseball cards printed on these days anyway?)

Ryan also sent the regular Rookie Cup base card, too, which is cool. The photo appears to have been taken around the time of the '74 card. It's an odd pose. If you're fielding a grounder and you're looking up like that, you're asking for a baseball right in the larynx.

I always like a shiny, shiny card of Shawn Green. This is from the 2002 Leaf Certified set. I recently grabbed four Dodgers from this set from John of Old School Breaks, so the Green is a nice addition.

Lastly, an industrial-strength shiny, certifiably crazy thick J.D. Drew bat card from Donruss Zenith. And Drew appears to be wearing some sort of baseball uniform that doubles as a space suit. I know you can't see any of this on the scan, but I assure you it's all true. It's so shiny that you barely realize there's a bat remnant there. Which I don't think was Donruss' intent.

These are very nice cards, Ryan. Thanks a bunch.

Go Halos!

Wait, I didn't mean that.

Go Blue!