Good karma (the blue kind)

I've given a little too much publicity to the Rockies recently and that's just not good for a Dodger fan like me. It can't be good for the team I root for, can it? Karma and all that?

Yes, I said, "karma." At this time of year I actually believe what I post on my stupid blog has an effect on how a team plays 3,000 miles from here. I believe anything at this time of year. Tell me that I need to boil an eye of newt to produce a Dodgers victory, and I'm at the newt store.

So not wanting to upset the apple cart too much -- it is apple season, you know -- I thought I'd play it safe and post some Dodgers right now. These are some more goodies from Max. He sent me about two-thirds of the 1984 Donruss set, but that wasn't enough for him. He had to send me some more '93 Upper Deck for my set needs there, AND some Dodgers. Max, you're too much.

So, aside from the Russell Martin SPx card that I got from Max, let's see what I received on the day the Dodgers clinch the NL West:

Two more Hideo Nomos for the collection. The first is a 1996 Bowman's Best, during what was card collecting's true Golden Era. The second is one of those 1995 Collector's Choice "Play With This Card" thingies. I don't know what the title for this set is. I'd search for it on Beckett, but that site irks me.

Here's a 2005 Updates & Highlights card of a super young Blake DeWitt. Blake has a bat on his bat. See? Get it? A bat? On a bat? Oh, that's just wacky. The photographer made him turn the bat toward the camera like that, didn't he? You know that wasn't Blake's idea.

Eric Karros is ripped. Oookaay. Moving right along.

Among the many '84 Donruss cards I received were four or five Dodgers that I didn't have, including this Rick Honeycutt card, which features a nice view of Dodger Stadium. Honeycutt is one of those players who won a league ERA title, but didn't finish the season in that league. He had a 2.42 ERA with the Rangers in 1983 and was traded to the Dodgers in midseason.

I saw this Topps Pristine card on a blog recently. My thought was: where would I put this card if I had it? It's not a Dodger card, and any Cey card on the Cubs or A's does not get preferential treatment. Then I received this from Max, and now it's my problem. I'm thinking it goes with my Dodgers. Because the back of the card is all about the Dodgers.

This is better. Cey in a Dodger uniform, and he appears to be doing something productive against the Mets. This card replaces one of much lower quality in the Dodger binder.

Awesome. A Burger King set card. Have I mentioned before how much I wanted these cards as a kid? This is a different pose of Lopes on a set that looks very much like the 1980 Topps set, right down to the All-Star logo! Cool.

The back is cool, too, because it's red instead of the usual blue used on the 1980 Topps backs.

Lastly, I'm showing a fantastic 1964 Topps card of Dodgers infielder Dick Tracewski. The card is a bit crooked because it's somewhat warped. I had a heck of a time getting it straight so I could scan it. I think I might know the reason:

It apparently was used as a drop cloth to catch paint spatters! But look -- the trivia question still hasn't been scratched off. That's got to make the card worth something? Right?

Funny I should end it with a card that might have been used for a very un-card-like purpose. Because I've got an un-card-like purpose in mind for a Rockies card, should Colorado -- perish the thought -- win tonight.

I pulled so many of this card out of 2008 Heritage last year that I really got sick of seeing this guy. But I'd rather not destroy it. Don't make me ruin my good karma, Todd. It's your turn to whiff four times tonight.