Pulled Some Dodgers At The Quarry

Recently, in the blog world, we have been blessed with a lot of group breaks.  Group breaks are a great way to stock up on your team needs.  Johnny of the Rockies blog, Cards From The Quarry, hosted a very cool group break.  This break was really good to me.  I didn't have too many Dodgers from the 03-04 Bazooka sets.  Johnny was nice enough to pull some base, parallels and inserts for a fellow NL Wester.  Johnny also pulled a lot of 1998 Bowman cards for me.  He also opened up some 2008 Upper Deck Documentary cards.  As you all know it is very hard to have dupes from this set.  So, getting a stack that I needed from this set along with some parallels was totally helpful.

Johnny and I also worked out a trade.  I picked up a nice Todd Helton GU with a pinstripe at a local card show.  I sent it his way and he sent a gem over to the Platter.

One of my minor PCs is collecting cards of Japanese ball players.  Johnny sent me this 2011 Topps Kosuke Fukudome GU for the Helton that I sent his way.  I really like the 2011 Topps game used cards.  I love stats and rankings.  The Topps 60 game used and insert sets display a top ten list on the back of each card.  This Fukudome card states that he the top batting average in 2010 batting from the 2nd spot.  He batted a robust .353 from the 2 hole.  I like how Topps picks a lot of random categories for the Topps 60 cards.  I may have never known that Fukudome was a beast batting out of the 2nd spot in the line-up.

I actually have a burgeoning Fukudome game used collection.  This is my third relic of his.  That may not sound like a lot to some bloggers out there but, for me this is a pretty high amount for a non-PC player.  I definitely have more Fukudome game used cards than Ryan Braun or Ian Kinsler game used.  Very odd.

Johnny pulled a bunch of 2008 Upper Deck Documentary cards for me in his group break.  I didn't have any of the gold parallels from this set before.  I was able to get a few from this break.  Also, being able to get a Clayton Kershaw rookie card that I didn't have is always a welcome addition.

One of the reasons that I chose this break was the years of the boxes being broken.  1998 Bowman had a lot of Dodgers that I needed such as Mike Piazza and Eric Karros.  Also, 2003-2004 Bazooka had some cards of players that I collect.  I was lucky that I got a some Bazooka cards that I needed.  The paralells from this set looks good.  The border is kind of purple and also kind of red.  The base cards also look cool.  They have a retro look and feel to them.  These cards will look great signed. 

Cesar Izturis was one of my favorite Dodgers from the early to mid 2000s.  I didn't mind that he wasn't much at the plate because he could dazzle with the glove.  When Izturis was teamed with third baseman, Adrian Beltre, the duo was a joy to watch.  Nothing got by those two on the left side.  Bazooka captured a great shot of Izturis turning a double play against the Braves.  Thank you for the cameo, Marcus Giles.

The Adrian Beltre card is from 1998 Bowman.  He was a young kid in the minors when this photo was taken.  The Dodgers signed him as a teenager in the 90s out of the Dominican Republic.  Beltre was a bonus baby and much was expected of him.  The Dodgers rushed him through the minors and he had to learn on the job at the big league level.  He struggled in his first few years with swinging at bad pitches and injuries.  But, I will never forget the 2004 season he had.  That year, he slugged 48 bombs and had an OPS of 1.017.  I remember him getting clutch hit after clutch hit as he led the 2004 Dodgers to a division title.

Johnny was very kind to pull me the Shawn Green pop-up insert from 2003 Bazooka.  I am very tempted to actually pop Green out and put him on display.  But, I must resist and place him in a binder.

This was a very fun group break.  Johnny picked some boxes with a lot of Dodgers in them and I thank him for that.  Also, I thank him for the trade.  The Fukudome relic is a nice addition to my collection.