that escalated quickly

i have always liked the cards that link the past to the present like the donruss passing the torch cards from the 90s, and so i was interested in seeing the 'past and present' cards offered up by panini in their 2018 diamond kings set.

i actually opened a few packs and found a mickey mantle/mike trout card, as well as a craig biggio/jose altuve card.  i had assumed that any dodger card would be gil hodges (a diamond kings favorite) or perhaps eric karros (from one roy to another) and cody bellinger, but was holding out hope that steve garvey would get the call.  instead, panini went with adrian gonzalez.

this is akin to a wally pipp/lou gehrig card as bellinger took the first base position directly from gonzalez in 2017 when the latter went on the disabled list.  through last friday, both of these guys were batting .239 on the season, but bellinger seemed to be breaking out with a surge in power.  and then at the end of the week, the mets released gonzalez.

gonzalez was the dodgers' first baseman for about 5 years, replacing james loney who had served for about the same time.  loney's reign had ended a patchwork group of first basemen that followed the departure of the aforementioned karros.  they may not share a card, but bellinger may be able to give karros a run for his money, both in terms of longevity as a dodger first baseman and in career los angeles dodger home runs.