Sometimes Dodgers

Let's take a break from all the Allen & Ginter talk and discuss the problem that arises for a team collector when he or she is offered a mess of cards of one particular player. The days of competing for one team an entire career are long gone. So what the team collector ends up with is a few cards of said player wearing the correct uniform and a bunch of others in which he is wearing some inferior garment.

This is the gamble that you take being a team collector in a player collector world. As you may know, Mark of Stats on the Back has been offering select key cards, as well as various star player collections. The players are mostly stars of the '80s, and just about each star is pictured in a variety of uniforms.

In exchange, you have to send him some Mets or want list needs. He'll even take one solitary card from you in exchange. Really. But I don't know if I can do that. I have an envelope ready for him that I believe contains six cards. How about six, Mark? Is that OK?

Anyway, I recently received a group of Eddie Murrays and Don Suttons from Mark. Both are Hall of Famers and both played for about a half-dozen teams, including the Dodgers. Even though I collect just Dodgers, I jumped in because I like both players and there was a chance that I'd get a Dodger card I didn't have.

I did get a Dodger card I didn't have. One card for each player.

Here is the Dodger Murray:

This is a 1990 Donruss Baseball's Best card in Dodger Blue, which looks so much better than that red thing that we're all sick of from that year.

And here is the Don Sutton card from '05 Throwback Threads, another Donruss semi-atrocity. At least Sutton is at the top of the card. And everytime I see Cone, I can think of 1988 and everything is OK.

But I really should show some of the other Murrays and Suttons from the lot. If you're interested in these two guys, most of these cards are available and there are several others that I'm not showing that are, as well.

Here are some of the key Suttons:

OK, this card is not available. I need this one for my 1982 Topps set, which I am completing at the rate that Boston used to put out a new album. Sadly, there are a bunch of you who don't even get that reference.

Don is a talker. That's what makes him such a good broadcaster. But, unlike many broadcasters, he really has something to say. Listen to him.

All right, this could have been a sick scoreboard card. Except I think it's also a "sick beer advertisement card" and a "sick dorky pitching pose card" and a "sick white Afro guy in 'an 80s uniform card." The scoreboard has too much competition.

One day we are going to tell our ancestors that in the 1980s people could play major league baseball well into their 60s and we will show them this card as proof.

On to the Murrays:

I really like this card and I don't know why.

The charm of the SuperStar Specials cards is three-fold:

1. Two star players with no obvious connection.

2. Embarrassing 1980s duds.

3. Most of all, ballplayers in the '80s must have been under the impression that camera flash captures their soul as not one player in a SuperStar Special card is looking at the camera.

This card is not up for trade either. I like 1995 Topps too much. What is happening here? Is Murray recycling a baseball?

This is not Eddie Murray. It is Harold Baines. Apparently, Baines snuck his way into the Eddie Murray stack that I received in hopes that he could absorb some Hall of Fameness.

Hey! There's the Murray Young at Heart card. I knew Mark would pull through.

A classic card with a classic Murray, power sideburns and all.

But the best part of getting this card was getting this with it:

Mark has the Sketch Card Fever!

That's pretty darn good. It took 5 minutes, he said. I'm a decent drawer, but I can't even draw a line in 5 minutes.

Mark also sent some Eddie Murray Mets cards. But we don't need to show those here. It's holiday time. Think of the children.