my favorite cards of the year - 2022 edition

you may recall that i have a mini collection focusing on my favorite cards from each year that i've been a collector. the basic gist is that i wanted to create a space for the cards that i most appreciated having in my collection in the year that they were released. these were cards that i acquired in the year that they were issued, and that i considered to be my favorites at the time. i have disallowed (most) cards that are already in other mini collections in order to avoid having a mini collection consisting of more steve garvey, double plays, and dodger stadium cards.

with 2022, that was a tough rule to follow as there were some great garvey and dodger stadium cards. plus all those 1978 design cards from archives! i went ahead and completed that subset, so i didn't consider any of them, either. 

this is one of my favorite cards of the year, 

but it went in to my "name/number on the back" mini-collection instead. please take a moment to remember roberto clemente who died 50 years ago today working to serve others.

favorite non-dodger card of the year: 2022 topps byron buxton

i think my favorite non-dodger card that was released this year could have been dusty baker's card from 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary, but since that was technically a 2021 product i decided to not consider it. still, buxton's card might have won out anyway. i was also excited to see andruw jones' card from 2022 topps stadium club, but it goes in to the dodger stadium mini-collection and didn't quite make the same impact on me as buxton's card did.

i was really hoping to see buxton play in 145 games this season. he is so talented yet is so injury prone. he only played in 92 games in 2022, but that still is the second highest total of his 8 year career. he hit 28 homers, including a big one in the all-star game, and played errorless defense in center field for the twins. his 2022 topps card appealed to me greatly because it showcases his athleticism, but it also serves as a representation of the 2021 season and the realities that we must face as a society. 

the photo comes from a game on may 4, 2021 - just a few weeks after daunte wright was killed by local police during a traffic stop. in the background, you can see the large mural that was placed on the outfield wall at target field prior to the start of the 2021 season. it said "justice for george floyd" in large font, with the names of numerous other african americans who were killed unjustly including emmett till, philando castile and breanna wright. this banner replaced a similar one that was in the stadium during the last few months of the 2020 season following floyd's murder in minneapolis and was itself replaced by a different memorial shortly after this photo was taken.

favorite dodger card of the year: 2022 topps now clayton kershaw

i already have two of this card in other placed in my collection - the dodger collection and the games i've attended in person collection - but it represents such a highlight in my dodger fandom that it has to represent 2022 for me.

here's a link to my previous post about this card and the events of that day, but to summarize, i had never seen clayton kershaw pitch in person before, and so was just happy to see him on the mound at target field on april 13, 2022. what he did that day was beyond my wildest expectations - 7 perfect innings and 13 strikeouts! it was a joy to watch, even though it was a cold day in the ballpark.  having a card as a souvenir of that experience easily makes this my favorite dodger card of the year.

i didn't set any collecting goals for 2022, and i am not going to do so for 2023, either. i will say that i had hoped to have my full dodger collection catalogued on tcdb by the end of the year and i am going to fall just short of that. i have part of 2021 and all of 2022 to enter yet, but i am now atop the leaderboard for dodger cards. who knew?

looking forward to more great cards in 2023. happy new year!

waiting for duff-man

danny duffy had a few cards in 2022, but the ones i saw - flagship and heritage - still showed him as a kansas city royal. that was odd because he had been traded to the dodgers during the 2021 season. the back of his 2022 topps card even mentioned the trade in the "how acquired" line, but he was still all royal in terms of team affiliation.

i found this card

at the lcs and figured it was worth the nickel they were asking. it's a 2021 panini contenders optic card, and it identifies duffy as a player with "los angeles". this may wind up being his only dodger card as he wasn't in this year's update, and his option for 2023 was declined by the team.

duffy never did pitch in a big league game for the dodgers due to injuries and rehab which is too bad. he is a semi-local guy who grew up near my hometown, and i always like to see those players wear dodger blue - not just on cardboard.

celebrating the spirit of giving

merry christmas!

'tis the season - and it has been the season for a while - for giving and receiving. here in the blogosphere i have been the happy recipient of cards from a number of traders and bloggers. let's take a look at some of the cards i've received....

starting off, of course, with the holiday custom card created by gavin at baseball card breakdown

gavin modified a 1991 fleer update gary carter card and added the artwork overlay showing the hall of fame catcher prepping to add the tree topper to the ol' tannenbaum. very creative and festive and a great addition to my custom card binder. thanks gavin! i'll have to see if i can find something to send your way.

a month or so earlier, i received an envelope from rod at padrographs

that's a 2004 upper deck padres davey lopes card that the former dodger and padre coach signed through the mail. i was happy to see that rod was looking for some help on a 70 years of topps project so i could send something back his way. check it out and see if you can help a blogger out!

i think everyone has noticed that tom from angels, in order has returned to active blogging thanks to a few giveaways. i wound up claiming a couple of cards from one and he included this gem in the envelope

that's a 1982 fleer stamp fernando valenzuela box "card". tom was kind enough to note what it was on the back:

now, i used to cut out "cards" from boxes all the time in the early 80s and even later, so this is definitely something that fits in my collection. thanks tom - i hope the cards i sent are still needs of yours.

nick from dime boxes also held a giveaway recently, and he offered up some dodgers that i needed, like this 1994 upper deck collector's choice orel hershiser silver signature parallel

this 1995 score rafael bournigal gold rush parallel

and this 2005 upper deck flyball eric gagne

the gagne brings me to one card remaining to complete this oddball set, and it's giovanni carrara. i've added it to my nefarious 9 list of most wanted cards, but it is such an oddball of a largely forgotten player that it may be difficult to track down.

it turned out that i already had the bournigal card, so i put the dupe in my lurkers binder thanks to the presence of italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza on the card.

the fourth card i requested was this 1995 upper deck collector's choice special edition fernando valenzuela silver signature parallel

i've recently toyed with the idea of reestablishing my post-dodger fernando pc. he has so many great cards from his time with the orioles, padres, cardinals, and phillies, including this one. for now, this card sits in my dodger stadium binder.

it wouldn't be an envelope from nick without a double play card, and this 1994 select carlos baerga card

was a new one to me.

a couple more dodgers just because - 2021 topps archives mookie betts 1963 peel off

and 2022 topps update hanser alberto gold parallel

once again, i will ask topps to identify the sets that cards come from on the backs of all of their cards like upper deck used to do and like panini does. i spent a lot of time figuring out what set that betts belonged to, thinking it was heritage. thank goodness for comc, and thank goodness for nick and his generosity. i am looking forward to continuing to swap envelopes with nick in 2023!

another thing i am looking forward to in 2023 is the next installment in thorzul's "trade me anything". this year i sent him something and he sent back these cards that i requested, all from 2022 topps update:

will smith silver pack

jose miranda silver pack grey parallel

joe ryan generation now insert

ronald acuna jr all-star game insert

the acuna is part of my near-complete set of the all-star game inserts. i only wanted the ones that used photos from the actual game, and i will show those cards off in another post.

finally, i'll show some cards from cards on cards. kerry/madding has been probably my most frequent trading partner through 2022 and i hope it continues in 2023. these images have been sitting in my scanned folder for varying lengths of time and represent a number of envelopes received.

1986 true value pedro guerrero

actually, this is a sealed "pack" and so also contains cards of steve garvey and eddie murray. i already have the garvey so i left it sealed. a great addition to the dodger collection for sure.

2021 topps allen & ginter tommy lasorda mini

it's been nice to see lasorda in ginter sets recently, but i could really go for some bill russell cards if topps wanted to recognize a different former dodger manager. i know that won't happen as russell is nowhere near as checklist worthy as lasorda, but i would rather see some former players get a shot at the checklist in lasorda's place. i know this year steve garvey finally got a base ginter card (although it's a short print) and you'll see some of those cards in a different post, but how about reggie smith or orel hershiser or in a year or two matt kemp?

i am not going to do the rest of these cards justice, but i will show them nonetheless

if there were one panini product i would like to see more of, it's the obsidian subset of chronicles. those cards, like the mookie above have been pretty sharp looking the last couple of years.

thanks to all who have and continue to trade cards with me - it is appreciated! 

these garveys are gravy

i do not know what the delay was that kept 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary from hitting the market in a more timely manner, but i am happy that it was resolved. for the first time in a long time (19 or 20 years depending on whether you count release years or actual years), steve garvey got the chrome treatment in a base set. the last time was 2002 topps chrome traded when he was given a "who would have thought" card.

anyway, here's his base card from the 2021 release:

and here's the back:

i am happy he was featured in the set as a dodger and more grateful after seeing that the yearly stat lines on the back are all from his padre tenure. it would have been easy for topps to put him in his taco bell uniform for sure.

of course, we know that this set offers a ton of parallels and i didn't shy away from them.  here's the base refractor:

the aqua wave refractor:

the prism refractor:

the blue prism refractor:

the xfractor:

the black & white mini diamonds refractor:

the blue mini diamonds refractor numbered to 199:

the red atomic refractor numbered to 100:

the green/yellow 70th anniversary refractor numbered to 99 for some reason instead of 70:

and the rose gold mini diamond refractor numbered to 75:

by my count there are six more refractor parallels that i do not own, including the superfractor 1/1.

while i am pleased to see garvey in this set, i wish topps had chosen a different photo. this is a zoomed in version of the photo that was used on his 1972 topps card, and we saw it again in 2016 on the 1979 design as a short print in that years' archives release. that said, a young garvey works well with the 1952 design.

back to the cards i picked up, which include the autographs, of course. here's the base:

and its back:

i also have the refractor auto, but i guess i didn't scan it.

here's the aqua refractor:

numbered to 150:

this is the blue prism refractor:

numbered to 99:

and here is the gold refractor:

numbered to 50:

i am missing six of the autograph parallels, including a 70th anniversary version that is, in fact, numbered to 70.

while i don't know why that set was delayed, i do know that 2021 topps big league was held up due to the action figures that accompanied some hobby boxes.  once the set was released, it was revealed that garvey was featured in the autograph subset.

i have only seen four or five of these hit the secondary market, and none of the supposed parallels. i was happy to snag the second one i saw for just less than what the first one went for.  and speaking of scarce, the 2021 topps chrome black garvey autographs are tough to come by, too.

i added that green parallel (numbered to 99) from comc a while back. it came without its case which was disappointing (and not noted by comc). all they said when i asked them about it was that they post images of all cards. i guess i should have noticed that it wasn't in its case.  according to the checklist, garvey has an unnumbered base auto in this set along with one numbered to 150. i have seen neither of those nor the versions numbered to 50, 5, or 1. i do also have the orange parallel numbered to 25 though.

each of these cards are ones that i count myself fortunate to own given the issues that surrounded their release or availability. they are great additions to my collection of my favorite player who just happens to turn 74 tomorrow. happy birthday to the nl iron man!

be my be my a-a-angel

i see that the cult is (or at least was) touring with black rebel motorcycle club. that would be a great show. i skipped their twin cities appearance, however, as i have previously seen both bands in concert (each as the headliner) at 1st ave, and i don't think my current aged ears could take the pounding.

lil' devil is a song form the cult's "electric" album, which was a shiny followup to their fantastic album "love". it's a catchy tune in which ian astbury implores his lil' devil to become his lil' angel, and that is where the title of this post comes from. what i am trying to say is that i recently bought a big lot of angel cards.

the reason i did so is sort of dumb (it had to do with combined shipping), but the price was right and i figured i would get some new vladimir guerrero cards out of the deal, which i did.

2005 donruss zenith vladimir guerrero epix orange play

these epix things are pretty neat. this one name checks another former favorite player of mine, don baylor, on the back:

2006 topps stars insert

2008 topps stars insert

so not a whole lot of new vladdy cards, but i did add a few other halos to various other parts of my collection.

for the double play collection a cognac parallel from 2011 topps

a base card from 2006 topps chrome

and a gold parallel from 2011 bowman

for the dodger stadium collection, a pair of parallel cards from 2011 bowman draft picks & prospects

for the name/number on the back collection, a couple of jered weaver cards from 2011 and 2012 topps update

and for the lurker collection, one from 2021 topps

featuring shohei ohtani in the background.

speaking of ohtani, the lot included an insert from 2021 topps big league

but not anything else of his. i am not surprised, although there were a fair number of mike trout cards. one of the more mundane is this 2021 topps update insert

there were a bunch more inserts of various angel players through the years, but there really isn't much of a market for anthony rendon or josh hamilton cards these days. i am glad that i salvaged a few cards from the lot.

i also received some angel cards from nick, who is a fellow vlad collector. he sent me a 2009 topps 206 card

i was all in and completed the 2002 206 set, including all the variations, but was not nearly as interested in the 2009 version.  he also sent a 2022 panini donruss card

that i think would look better if panini had stayed true to the original 1988 design.

my collection overlaps with nick's in other ways, as we both collect double play turns, and he sent along a 2022 panini donruss ryne sandberg card

plus a few others for me to add to my collection

the schoendienst card in the middle top is a sample, if i recall correctly.

and, of course, nick sent some dodgers. here's a mashup between 1988 donruss and 1988 donruss baseball's best featuring will smith

no logo catcher cards are generally the best of the bunch.

i already had this 2001 upper deck legends of new york jackie robinson card

but i wanted to show it to you because i just noticed that upper deck got the month wrong for jackie's debut which is ridiculous. inexcusable, really.

very rarely do i get dodger team issue cards in a trade package, but nick sent along a couple of cards from the 1989 dodgers smokey set 

wally moon and jim lefebvre are a couple of dodgers that i can appreciate for sure. 

finally, in addition to that angels lot i mentioned at the start, i bought a couple of additional large random lots for some reason. there was a lot of panini stuff, and i found a few cards to keep for my collection, including a pair of 2022 panini donruss jose altuve cards

for the double play collection, and a pair of bryce harper cards from the same set

for the name/number on the back collection.

the seller who sold me the angel lot doesn't seem to be selling anymore which is fine as i am trying to stay away from purchases like this now, but who knows if the mood will strike again.

ciao baby!