award show

as i eagerly await the arrival of my box of 2022 topps update to see what, if any, cards feature images from this past summer's all-star game at dodger stadium, i'll use this time to show off some cards related to a couple of mid-summer classics.

first, there is no burying the lede here - i puchased a 5-pack of 2022 topps now turn back the clock card of steve garvey directly from topps, and was once again rewarded with a low-numbered parallel:

the white ash parallel is numbered to 3, and is a great addition to my collection. this card celebrates the garv as the 1974 all-star game mvp and features him with his hardware in three rivers stadium.

there is more hardware handed out during the all-star game festivities these days, including the home run derby champion dual bat trophy. this year, juan soto won the contest, and i bought a single of this card through a third party

there's not a lot of dodger stadium visible behind him, but we get a couple of palm trees plus the upgraded "diamondvision" - is it still called "diamondvision"? - scoreboard.

as for the actual game, giancarlo stanton took home the mvp honors, and he got a card, too

this one features a photo with the right field corner in the background. a while back, the style of award has changed to a bat instead of a trophy. now, i was really hoping for a wider shot, because the guy who presented the award to stanton was none other than steve garvey. oh well, the tbtc card certainly makes up for that.

speaking of which, here is the base version of the card

and the back:

this may be the first time i have ever seen something reference garvey's performance in the 1974 all-star game without mentioning the fact that he was a write-in starter.

here's the full picture topps used, which included commissioner bowie kuhn and some nice old-man sideburns

four years later, kuhn and garvey would reunite (along with bob uecker)

as the garv picked up his second all-star game mvp.

with five of the card in my possession, i put one in the dodger collection, one in the garvey collection (along with the parallel), and i decided to send one to garvey to sign. i used pastpros for the first time, and it worked pretty well. i am assuming athletes are more apt to return cards that were sent using this service, but i don't know for sure. anyway, the card came back and looks great

i also asked him to sign a 1978 o-pee-chee card for me, and he did

at one time i had thought about making custom cards featuring dodger award winners and their trophies, but decided not to since there aren't images for all of them. thanks to topps, i at least have one garvey award card!

custom built heroes

well, that was a disappointing postseason for dodger fans like me. looks like this team was more like the 2001 mariners than the 1998 yankees. i am happy for the padre fans - i know a few - while at the same time sad for my fellow dodger fans. this was a very good team that just didn't hit in the last two games. one hit with runners in scoring position? well, only one hit that drove in any runs, anyway. that's not going to get it done.

in my 46 years of following the dodgers, i have been disappointed 43 times - to varying degrees, of course. i would put this year's disappointment behind the 1978 and 1985 seasons, and possibly 2017, but it is definitely top 5.  wait 'til next year once again!

moving on - i stumbled upon an ebay listing for a dodgers heroes patch a couple of months ago. the listing was pretty vague in that it didn't mention the year of issue, among other details. it also gave the size of these patches as slightly larger than standard baseball cards. they looked pretty good and the price was decent, so i went ahead and ordered a few:

of these six patches, i have the full size, original issues of steve garvey, ron cey, and kirk gibson (i also have a bill russell patch, but there wasn't a version of it offered by this seller). i've seen the tommy lasorda and fernando valenzuela patches for sale for reasonable prices, but the jackie robinson patch always has a larger price tag on it.

i knew going in that it was unlikely that this seller stumbled upon a cache of unknown and undistributed patches, and when i received my order i confirmed that they were customs. sure, i could have done that before i ordered, but i don't mind having some customs in my collection - especially when they are something like this that i really enjoyed seeing back during the 1999 season (and on cards in that and subsequent years).

i scanned the new patch (it's the one in the middle) together with my known-to-be official garvey patches:

you can see that the red background is different on the mid-sized patch (the smaller one is the known "mini" patch produced in 1999 along with the standard jersey sized patch on the left).  also, the blues are different. the big giveaway for me, however, is the stitching. the custom has shorter stitches, and the direction is different in the beige portion at the left of the patch.

i did a bit more research and found that someone had even made a vin scully patch using this design

which made me wonder why he wasn't included in the set back in 1999 - he was certainly a franchise icon by that time. i've mentioned before, but i'll say it again - the set included 24 different subjects, including longtime trainer bill buhler. sandy koufax was in the set, but he objected to the use of his name and image, and so there were very few of his patches sold to the public.  here's the complete set:

heroes indeed.

i did buy a different patch to add to my dodger jersey - it's the vin scully memorial patch:

i already have the full size garvey heroes patch on one sleeve and the jackie robinson 50th anniversary patch on the other, so this went on the chest. now i just need to get to a dodger game to wear it.

bringing old man brooks to the archives!

topps did not disappoint with my most anticipated card from 2022 archives - it's old man brooks!

seeing this card was enough to get me to break out of my once a week posting and prepare an ode to this set.  kudos to topps for using an age appropriate photo of the hall of fame third baseman on his 1978 topps design card from 2022 archives. why did it take 45 years for this to happen ?!

of course, topps didn't quite get it all the way right, as robinson's pre-1964 stat rows are missing from the back

still, the card goes in to my final tribute collection along with past archives offerings such as a 1975 design al kaline and a 1980 design jim hunter.

i'll back this post up a bit - here's my box that arrived on thursday from steelecity collectibles:

and here's the boxtopper postcard i received:

and here's the full boxtopper with the packs exposed:

decent job at replicating the 1980s pack design.

first pack (top pack, lower left) yielded a hit:

jorge posada autograph! it's not a fan favorite auto, but instead a 1992 mlb debut autograph. not a bad pull, though. of course, before i got to that card i geeked out over the adalberto mondesi card. it's the first "base" 1978 card i've pulled out of a pack in 17 years (2005 topps all-time fan favorites). i enjoyed the moment, for sure. i haven't studied the cards too closely (is the stitching on the ball correct?) but i do know that the color schemes for mondesi's royals card and emmanuel clase's guardians card match the schemes used in 1978 for the kansas city and cleveland teams.

there will be more to say about the background on clase's card later on. also, it's weird to see a 1987 card in a pack that is not an insert.

i did ok with dodgers, picking up all but trea turner from the 1963 design portion of the set

of those three, jackie robinson's card looks the most authentic, but that is because his photo is closest in time to the original 1963 set. even though he's not really outside, muncy's card is pretty similar to some of the dodger cards from 1963 with a blue background and just a bit of something around the shoulder level. i am pretty sure kershaw's photo is also a studio shot superimposed on a netting background. there are other cards in this set that have the netting, too.

some other 1963 design cards that i thought turned out great are the reggie jackson, rickey henderson, and paul molitor cards

that molitor, however, should have been on the 1978 design - it would look perfect in that set as a solo rookie card that should have been.

speaking of which, topps did put ozzie smith on the 1978 design

but showed him as a cardinal rather than give us a look at what rookie ozzie would have been like in the 1978 set. i didn't pull an eddie murray card, and i am anxious to see what it looks like. he really should have been on a different design (although we've seen him on both 1963 and 1987 designs before) because his real 1978 card is such a classic.

i found half of the dodgers from the 1978 subset, including mookie betts

and duke snider - not pictured. i'll be sure to scan duke when i follow-up this post when i complete the subset (hopefully). if those clouds look familiar, that's because they are the same ones as on clase's card above - more on that later.

some of the 1978 cards that i think are spot on include:

randy johnson

complete with the yankee stadium background and marlboro sign

jose abreu

pretty standard pose for the 1978 set, although most of these poses don't include eye contact

don mattingly

there we go. look past the photographer like donnie baseball! mattingly always looked like a 1970's player so this card is really great.

here are four more - roberto clemente, john smoltz, mike trout, and albert pujols

i do wish topps had snuck in a managerial card, though. dusty baker would have been a perfect subject for this set, as the "then" part of the manager card could have been the image from his 1978 topps card. opportunity missed there for sure.

and i realize when the sell sheets come out, there are disclaimers that card designs/images are subject to change, but i was still surprised to see this vladimir guerrero jr image

which is markedly different than the one on the sell sheet. that one had a decent 1978 vibe to it with his pose, but i'm not complaining.

in addition to the cody bellinger card in the first pack, i found julio urias' 1987 design for my collection

the bright background is a little jarring, but i could see this image in 1987 topps. bill swift's card, for example, has a similar vibe to it. speaking of 1987, i think this willie mccovey card

is a great example of a card that would look right at home in the original set.  this next one, too, even though i don't know why topps gave us jack morris on a 1987 card, but they did

and it's really not too different from his first except that here, he's in tiger stadium.

i did find some parallels, including a nice looking keith hernandez red parallel (shown next to the base card for effect)

as well as a rainbow foil 1978 design card of trevor rogers

the online checklists said that these were numbered to 150, but they are really numbered to 199

while we are seeing a back, the main difference between these card backs and the original 1978 backs is that these have the city listed with the teams. 1978 topps only had the team name. in that regard, the angels cards (such as mike trout's card in this set) are the truest representation of the 1978 design.

the last variation i'll show happens to be a 1978 design color swap

the normal version is on the left, and the one on the right switches the border and team name colors. i see that the rc logo is also moved. at least that's not a separate variation. i don't plan to chase all of these, but i was happy to find one in my box, especially of a player such as torkelson.

the base set is extended again by a series of short printed subsets, the first of which is a riff on the 1955 scoops design applied to 2021 highlights. i got my 1:6 packs

but not the chris taylor card i had hoped for.

i also got my correct allotment of 1961 mvp style cards

that showcase various 2021 award winners.

also coming in at 1:6 packs are the 1992 mlb debut cards. i got a couple of good ones with bobby witt jr and tony gwynn

plus a couple of other guys. the clouds on that cj abrams card are the same as the clase and betts clouds. more on that in a bit.

my 1 per box 2005 draft pick short print was of a former padre

he was hurt just before he was traded to the nationals and wasn't able to rehab enough to get back to the majors before the season ended, unfortunately.

speaking of the 2005 draft pick design, my second guaranteed auto sported that design, but it wasn't wander franco

it's the first jarren in major league history! 

aside from the boxtopper and autographs, the only inserts to be found (in hobby boxes, anyway) are card sized versions of the boxtopper postcards. these are seeded at 1:8 and i got my three:

it's funny that the mike trout card says greetings from the angels because that translates to greetings from los angeles. i found that funny, anyway, even though there is only one team in los angeles and it's not the one trout suits up for.

i really enjoyed busting this box and i have a great start on completing the 1978 subset (want list here)! the only thing i really don't care for with this set is something that topps has been doing for a while now with heritage, and that is the fake backgrounds. enough with the clouds!  here we have max scherzer and whit merrifield's cards

they have the same cloud background, although whit's card is zoomed in a bit. even worse are these four with the same cloud background.

it's there in 1978, too, with these four examples (plus the clase up top)

and in 1987 with these three

and those are just some of the cards i pulled - i am sure there are others.  it really detracts from the set and topps should do better.

bring on 2027 heritage!

things done to card boxes (and, as a result, cards) plus archives is coming!

i have a good trading thing going on with a braves collector, but the usps must not be a fan of the packages we ship back and forth. back in july, i received a box from kevin that looked like this:

i don't even know how something like that happens. here's another view:

a full corner of the box had been ripped open. but what of the cards? here's how things looked when i opened the box:

so of course the damage occurred on the side of the box with the cards. you can see a good 10 or so cards there with corner and edge damage. there is one card with a curled corner on the opposite side of the box from the tear, which leads me to believe that the contents were spilled and put back in the box. i am hopeful that all of the cards kevin sent made their way to me, but i don't know for sure.

despite the damage, this was another fantastic group of dodger cards.

gavin lux took quite a bit of the hit from the damage, with four of his rookie cards getting some sort of punishment

the topps chrome xfractor came away with minimal impact, but the topps gallery card was pretty mangled.

same goes for a couple of cody bellinger cards

his 2017 topps update card was one of the worst conditioned cards, although the 2018 topps heritage high numbers action image variation was also beat up a bit.

perhaps the most damage was done to this 2020 topps chrome kyle garlick autographed card

it had/has a pretty strong crease running across the top right part of the card.

let's cleanse the palette with this 2022 bowman luis rodriguez chrome prospects purple wave refractor card

that made it through with just some minor damage. i say cleanse the palette because this next card was the biggest disappointment...

just a 2009 numbered clayton kershaw parallel - this one from upper deck spectrum. it got knocked about pretty good as you can see.

now, in no way shape or form am i disappointed with the trade. this is all on the usps and accidents happen.

here are most of the rest of the cards that seemed to come out of the box unscathed.

i've been on a heritage chrome kick lately, so the muncy was great to see.

the topps magazine card seemed out of place among all the modern and shiny cards, but it is no less welcome - another need crossed off the list!

a mike piazza sighting amidst some current and recent dodger studs!

lots of mosaic and prizm stuff, some of which looks great or is at least interesting. and some not so much.

a couple of justin turner cards there at the bottom showing him in full leprechaun mode.

those three 2021 topps gallery cards at the top were the first ones from that set i obtained. all parallels, too.

and there we have three inserts from 2022 topps, plus some jackie robinson and sandy koufax inserts.

i am always up for inserts, and dodger parallels, too. thankfully there were some numbered gold parallels from 2020 and 2021 provided:

while numbered higher than ever due to the increasing year, gold parallels seem to be harder to come by thanks to increased print runs.

those gold cards may be more scarce these days than relic cards, but i am still happy to find some of those, too

there we have some very standard jersey cards from 2021 panini donruss and 2022 topps. but those weren't the only relics in the box...

this is a 2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts debut bat card of eddie stanky

even though stanky is clearly shown as a new york giant in the photo (his team after he left the dodgers), this is a dodger card due to the team logo. and, as luck would have it, it was the last bat relic card i needed to complete the dodger team set from the debut bat cards subset.

the most interesting and unique card in the box was this 2016 panini national treasures pee wee reese card:

that's the front of it, as it's a booklet. open it up and this is what's inside:

a big swatch of some sort of fuzzy dodger item that pee wee supposedly wore. it sort of looks like troll doll hair. i know pee wee played with marbles as a kid, but not sure if trolls were around back then.

regardless, another great box of cards from kevin, and i am hoping we roll the dice with the usps again soon!

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today is also the day that 2022 topps archives is set to be released. i have a box on the way, and i already have my want lists up. not just the dodgers, but the full 1978 topps subset that i aim to complete in quick fashion. perhaps the highlight of the checklist is brooks robinson being included in the 1978 design, which will give us a proper final tribute (from a card design standpoint, anyway) and fill one of my most wanted "cards that should have been" desires. i just hope they use an age appropriate photo of brooks, unlike what they did with al kaline's 1975 topps design card a few years back.

anyway, send me all your 1978 design archives dupes - you will be rewarded!