Righting a wrong

Roberto Clemente as a Brooklyn Dodger. Wow. Somehow, the mere act of issuing a card listing Clemente as a Dodger makes me feel a little better about the Dodgers blowing the chance of having one of the greatest right fielders in history playing for their franchise.

If you don't know the story, Clemente was signed by the Dodgers and sent to their minor league team in Montreal for the 1954 season. He played 87 games for Montreal, but batted only 148 times, mostly because the Dodgers were trying to hide him. You see, at the time there was a baseball rule that said any player who received a $4,000 bonus had to be on the major league roster within a year, or another team got to draft him. The Dodgers were victims of their own success as they didn't have any room on their roster for Clemente with such a packed lineup. The Pirates weren't tricked by the Dodgers' hiding tactics and snapped him up in November 1954.

It just shows the Dodgers didn't make all their dumb-ass moves in the 1990s.

Anyway, this is one of those Topps Archive cards (they sort of drive me wacky because there is no copyright date on them and I have to guess as to the year they were printed). It was part of an ecclectic group of Dodgers sent to me by David of Topps Tribe. He really did his homework with these cards.

Because not only did he send the "don't worry everything's all right now" Clemente card, but he sent this card:

Konerko as a Dodger! I know this isn't the only card featuring Paul Konerko as a Dodger, but it's the first one I have. I liked Konerko way back when he was with L.A. I'm not sure what Jeff Shaw is doing now, but I know exactly where Konerko is. He's with the White Sox, sharing a spring training site with the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch in Phoenix. So that tells you how that trade went.

So again, this card doesn't alter reality at all. But at least I have proof now. See? Konerko was a Dodger. And Clemente was, too!

David also sent a couple other Topps Archive cards, including one of Don Zimmer. I found out on the back that Zimmer was married at home plate in Elmira, N.Y., which is not far from where I grew up.

And here's a card of another baseball lifer, Billy Herman. The Dodgers have produced a lot of baseball lifers in their existence.

This is the part where David went all Sesame Street on me. This card is BIG, as in the 1984 Topps Super Baseball cards, featuring 1 Giant Picture Card per pack. It's a 5-by-7 card, and I remember buying one in 1984 at the Greek corner shop near where I lived. The card was Al Holland. And I said, "Well, that's enough of that."

And continuing the theme, here is SMALL. These are those micro cards, I believe. I was way too old for these things when they came out. They're 1-by-1 3/4 inches. These cards probably get lost more than any other. Do they have sheets for cards this small?

I'm showing this card just because I like the old Dukes uniforms.

And here is some more Southwest baseball. Living in the Northeast, the concept of fall leagues or winter ball is completely foreign. Even spring training games seem like they're played on another planet. It's about 5 degrees outside right now where I live.

This is a nice, clean photo of Mike Piazza. Another study I'd like to do: was Mike Piazza featured on more checklist cards than any other player in the mid-1990s? It sure seems like it.

I'll end it with the 1989 Topps Traded Eddie Murray card, the last card I needed to complete the '89 Traded Dodgers set. Yeah, I know it's only three cards. I'm still proud.

The 1989 set reminds me of being on my own, out of college, and with seemingly endless money to spend on baseball cards and my girlfriend.

Not a bad way to end the post, huh?