a card as i coliseum

topps continued their 'evolution' insert set in series 2 this year, and i was at first disappointed that the scoreboard insert didn't include dodger stadium's 'diamondvision', which was the first of its kind in the majors when it was installed in 1980. that would have been a good benchmark from which to begin the evolution to the monstrous high-definition screens we see at games today.

instead, topps opted for a very simple scoreboard shot from, of all places, the los angeles coliseum!

the coliseum, best known as the host of olympics and usc trojan football, housed the dodgers when they first moved to the west coast in 1958 until 1962 when dodger stadium opened.  this scoreboard was way out in right-center field, a distance of about 440' from home plate.

the coliseum was a standard background for many 1959 topps dodger cards, and it is nice to see it again. on this card, i was intrigued by the information conveyed on the scoreboard. thankfully, we know that it comes from game 5 of the 1959 world series. that 1-0 score in the favor of the southsiders would hold (sandy koufax took the loss thanks to a run scored on a double play), but the dodgers would come back to win game 6 in chicago and claim their first world series championship of the los angeles era.  other than the line score, there is room for the batter information, the count, the number of outs, and in a quirk - the attendance from the three world series games hosted by the coliseum.  interesting how they were able to squeeze in more people as the series went on. a three-game total of 277,750 is pretty incredible.

topps chose the busy-ness of the left field scoreboard at comerica park for the modern scoreboard example on the back:

not a bad choice, but i was hoping it would have been a dodger stadium videoboard just to keep the evolution in the same franchise.  at least al kaline collectors have a new card to add to their collection!

(i also picked up the umpire evolution card from series 2 because it shows the memorial patches they wore last year. you can see it in my most recent umpires memorial patches post).