trea strange

i like acquiring trea turner dodger cards. it doesn't hurt that he wears number 6, but even if he wore a different number, i would still be happy to add cards of him as a dodger. so, i was excited earlier this year to add this card from 2022 topps heritage

it is the "blue sparkle" parallel, although it is not really a parallel since turner, for some reason, doesn't exist in the base heritage set.  here's the back:

card number 434 in the base set is (now former) dodger matt beaty.  beaty does not have a blue sparkle parallel.

i sort of understand topps holding clayton kershaw back from base heritage in favor of (i hope) heritage high numbers, as there was a chance he was going to be on a different team for the 2022 season. turner, on the other hand, wasn't going anywhere for 2022. and, i hope he will be back with the dodgers for 2023 and beyond.

it will be interesting to see what turner's card looks like in heritage high numbers - will it be this same photo or a different one? i am hoping it's a different one, although i will be happy to add another turner dodger card to my collection regardless.

dusty-nation cooperstown?

i am going to guess that most of you reading this are familiar with the idea of a "coaching tree", most likely the bill walsh coaching tree. that was the first coach to whom i heard the concept applied back in the early 2000s or maybe even late 1990s. i liked the idea and immediately thought of the baseball equivalent. being a dodger fan of a certain age, i went straight to tommy lasorda.

during his tenure as the dodger skipper, lasorda managed a number of big league players players who went on to manage in the majors, including two of my favorite infielders in bill russell and davey lopes, as well as mike scioscia, johnny oates, glenn hoffman, ron washington, ron roenicke, kirk gibson, phil garner, willie randolph, and even juan samuel. those managers have begat major league managers of their own and so it goes.

the most successful major league manager to come from the lasorda tree is, of course, dusty baker. earlier this year he was credited with the 2,000th victory of his managerial career, and of course i bought the topps now card that was created as a result

manager cards are not too plentiful these days, and this is a welcome addition to my dusty baker post-dodger collection. that collection, combined with my dodger collection, essentially means that i want all of the non-braves dusty baker cards.

case in point, i recently picked up a couple of these cards

one for my dodger collection and one for the steve garvey collection. it's a 2022 topps dynamic duals online release. there are parallels and a dual sticker auto version which would be nice to have, but they haven't popped up too often and are overpriced when they do.  i still can't believe there's never been a card with all four of the 1977 dodgers who hit 30 or more home runs that year, but two out of four ain't bad. it was great to see those two former teammates at dodger stadium last night - dusty managing in the all-star game (even if he was on the visitor's side), and garvey alongside billie-jean king handing out the mvp award to giancarlo stanton after the game. 

managing the winning side in the all-star game is another (although largely sentimental) milestone in baker's managerial career that has me thinking about his chances for enshrinement in the hall of fame. as the card states, only 11 managers reached 2000 wins before him, and of those 11, only bruce bochy is not in the hall of fame. i think most expect bochy to be enshrined thanks to his three world series championships, however. for baker, who now sits at ninth all-time in managerial wins, the world series title has been elusive. his teams have won two pennants but lost in the fall classic each time. he has a decent shot at a pennant again this year, and depending on who the national league champion is, i just might be rooting for him to get that ring.

love is a bottenfield

usually when i host one my "almost free stuff friday" trade posts, i prefer to receive cards directly from my want list. many of my mini collections are subjective as to cards that i would want to add, and i only have "have lists" posted for them. my want lists are cards that i want (to varying degrees) but definitely need for dodger team sets or player collections or what have you.

bo did not send cards from my want list in exchange for the cards he claimed, but i couldn't be happier with the cards he sent.  here is the big gun:

that is a 2001 fleer triple crown kent bottenfield card. he sent it for my dodger stadium mini collection, as bottenfield is standing out in right field at chavez ravine. i know this because of the mural behind him.  now, i would have sworn that i looked through the entire comc inventory of fleer cards from 1998 through 2005 - including sold out cards - looking for cards that featured the murals in the background, but i never saw this bottenfield card.  

what really amped me up was that the mural in the background features none other than steve garvey, who was being celebrated in 2000 for reaching the 1,000 consecutive games played milestone in a game at dodger stadium, along with other great moments in dodger stadium history.  it was a great surprise and one that impelled me to act further. more on that later.

bo also sent a new double play card for me - a 2003 upper deck ricky gutierrez card

and a 1995 upper deck sp edddie murray card

that goes in the tattooine collection.

back to bottenfield, i quickly added another card to my garvey collection

and then decided to add as many as i could.  i have permanently added this card to my nefarious 9/most wanted cards list, and am up to 10 of them as of this writing

they come in varying shades it appears.

the only other card that a clear view of a garvey mural appears (that i am aware of - please prove me wrong if you can!) is the 2004 fleer ultra preston wilson card. 

that's the gold medallion parallel, which i realized was lacking from my garvey collection. i also picked up a base and another gme parallel

for the dodger stadium collection.  and, like the bottenfield, these cards have also been made permanent residents of my most wanted cards list.  as of right now, i only have one extra base and two extra gme parallels

but maybe you can change that?  the mural that shows up here, by the way, is part of the dodger record setters murals, and this one in particular features the full gcrl infield. it shows up on a few other cards of pitchers, but is not as clear. i would love to find another 2004 fleer tradition dodger team set darren dreifort card, though.

i did see a new ichiro card that featured the 2001 retired number murals, and quickly snapped one up for my dodger stadium collection

this is from 2022 topps 587 montgomery club set 3 if you are curious. just a couple of hall of fame center fielders (that's duke snider on the wall if you can't tell) hanging out on the same card.

and then there are a couple more traditional dodger stadium cards that i've added over the last couple of months...

a co-worker gave me some cards which included a 1989 donruss dave meads card

with the right field scoreboard behind him. i had also thought i had scoured 1980s astros cards for dodger stadium backgrounds as they seem to have a lot - the stadium's color scheme worked well with the astro uniforms back then - but i missed this meads.

and finally, i somehow became aware of this 1990 topps rick reuschel card

featuring big daddy and the always popular dodger stadium pickoff move to first photo. the card is a box bottom, and i saw it thanks to one of my saved searches for the 1989 fleer orel hershiser box bottom card (white back version) which has sat atop my most wanted list for a long, long, long time.

and that is how you bring a post full circle - from want list to want list with some nice dodger stadium cards in between.  as always - help a blogger out and let me know if you have any cards i need.  you will be rewarded!

who's 350 this year?

some of you may recall that i have a collection going of topps flagship cards from 1957 through the present that fall at number 350 on the checklist. with series 2 released a while back, i was able to bring that particular collection up to date with this card:

a future hall of famer at 350 is ok with me. here's the back:

verlander is the first astro to get the nod at 350 since chuck carr back in 1998.

i ordered this card from sportlots, and added a couple of other series 2 cards to the order. both cards are reds - jonathan india

and tj freidl

india is up there turning a double play on july 4, 2021 with the joe morgan patch along with the independence day cap, sock and jersey patch merchandise on display.  friedl, on the other hand, is here because of trea turner's presence in the background. always great to see the red dodger #6 on a baseball card.

there was one other card from series 2 that had me curious - that would be danny duffy's. i thought maybe we would finally get a dodger card of him even though he hasn't pitched for the dodgers yet. his 2022 topps heritage card still had him with the royals, who dealt him to the dodgers in july of 2021. well, series 2 is no different.

here is a photo of the back of his card (a parallel version, anyway):

he is still a royal, but was acquired in a "trade with royals, 7-29-21". go figure.

that's all i've seen of series 2 so far - no dodgers yet. i might head to the monthly card show on saturday so maybe i'll pick up a few there. just not a danny duffy dodger card.