once upon a time in echo park

at the start of the 2020 pre-season, one of the things i was looking forward to the most was the return of the mlb all-star game to dodger stadium, forty years after the first and only time it had been held there. of course, stuff happened, and the game wasn't played. dodger stadium was given the 2022 game and so i had to wait for what i knew would be an onslaught of dodger stadium cards to collect.

before we get to the all-star themed part of the post, i will share a couple other cards i picked up last year showing the stadium in the background. these two cards 

come from a 2021 release in conjunction with espn's 30 for 30 episode "once upon a time in queens". strange that they used a photo of gary carter almost as far away from queens as can be for this card, and stranger still that black and white parallels were deemed necessary.  i will also take this moment to remind you that one of my custom card creations was used in the glenn burke 30 for 30 a few years ago.

and now on to all-star stuff.

here's a 1982 all-star game program "insert" of robin yount

that features the brewer shortstop in action during the 1980 midsummer classic. pretty sure it is a double play turn, too, but i only have the one copy and it goes in the dodger stadium collection. it is likely that the lower left corner shows a minute amount of keith hernandez sliding in.

the beauty of modern cards is that there are a lot more cards to count on, and update will probably always pad its checklist with all-star game cards. in 2022, we had both topps update and chrome update provide all-star game inserts. i decided only to collect the ones that show the all-stars in dodger stadium, as there were a few cards of players who wound up not appearing at the game, such as bryce harper and nolan arenado. i will still list those players as i go through the full 50 card set(s).

here we go:

1. mike trout

2. mookie betts

3. vladimir guerrero jr

4. shohei ohtani (batter)

5. willson contreras

6. alejandro kirk

7. paul goldschmidt

8. jazz chisholm jr

9. jose altuve - not an all-star game card

10. albert pujols

11. miguel cabrera

12. manny machado

13. rafael devers

14. trea turner

15. tim anderson

16. shohei ohtani

17. ronald acuna jr

18. joc pederson

19. aaron judge

20. giancarlo stanton

21. xander bogaerts

22. jose ramirez

23. george springer - not an all-star game card

24. byron buxton

25. kyle tucker

26. julio rodriguez

27. yordan alvarez - not an all-star game card

28. freddie freeman

29. nolan arenado - not an all-star game card

30. pete alonso

31. dansby swanson

32. kyle schwarber

33. juan soto

34. starling marte

35. shane mclanahan

36. nestor cortes

37. alek manoah

38. clayton kershaw

39. sandy alcantara

40. corbin burnes

41. luis castillo

42. corey seager

43. tony gonsolin

44. joe musgrove

45. justin verlander

46. gerrit cole

47. bryce harper - not an all-star game card

48. ian happ

49. william contreras

50. austin riley

there are some real dodger stadium beauties in there for sure.

i also picked up a couple of examples of the all-star stitches cards - liam hendriks

and manny machado

because those cards also feature the pavilion in the background. here's mookie betts' card

for good measure.

one of the packs i bought back when update came out included a blue parallel of gerrit cole's card

and i decided to keep it even though dodger stadium is all blurry in the background.

topps also issued a "now" card of the national league's starting pitcher that i picked up

seeing as how it was clayton kershaw.

unfortunately, i was not in socal to attend the game. back in 1980, some friends of the family went to the game and they regaled me with tales of all of the stars of the game back then and ken griffey's home run off of tommy john. i was pretty jealous.

i was jealous, too, of fans who attended fanfest and received some all-star game themed cards like this mookie betts

i was able to find the betts card for cheap, but jackie robinson's card hasn't come down to a price i am willing to pay yet.  and, i have only seen one version of steve garvey's fanfest autograph card 

come up for sale

it would be nice to have, though!

i also wish topps would print some of their digital only cards for us old school hard copy collectors. they issued quite a few 1980 all-star game themed cards last summer, including one of the garv

topps did, of course, issue a factory set again in 2022 with the all-star game logo foil stamped on the cards, and i picked up kershaw's card

plus the factory bonus mookie betts card

i will wait to find others in repacks or on sportlots. however, those last few cards aren't dodger stadium cards, so let me get back to the point of the post.

speaking of repacks, i found a couple of new to me dodger stadium cards recently after a stop at walgreens, and they are both braves.

1989 fleer tom glavine

and a 1990 woolworth's dale murphy

complete with dodger personnel hanging over the railing.

another braves card i have added to my collection also features a photo from dodger stadium and it's this 1998 donruss signature series javy lopez autograph card

but i have this card in my lurker collection thanks to todd zeile there in the background.

i have picked up some actual dodger cards for my collection, as well as some duplicates for the dodger stadium collection, including this 1997 upper deck home team heroes card of hideo nomo and mike piazza

it's oversized like a lot of upper deck stuff was in the late 1990's, but provides a bird's eye view of the stadium and right field pavilion in particular.

i will always want to add cards to my collection, and hopefully also the dodger stadium collection, that show the murals in the background, and i've done that with cards like this 1999 topps chrome darren dreifort refractor

and these 2000 bowman chrome kevin brown cards

base and refractor, as well as a nice 2000 topps stadium club chrome refractor card of devon white

great stuff.

dodger team cards are a good source for dodger stadium cards, and the 2001 topps 

and 2004 topps

gold parallels are good examples of that. i also grabbed a second 2009 bowman clayton kershaw card

for the dodger stadium collection. it captures the short amount of time that the bullpen doors had yellow padding on them.

i have been paying less and less attention to topps now in recent years, but i did take a look at some cards last year and bought this mookie betts card

which also netted me a nice blue parallel

but the main reason i wanted it was for the back

because it shows some of the retired numbers up on the dodger stadium facade, including the newest number of the bunch - gil hodges' number 14. hello to don sutton's 20 as well.

i also decided to pick up albert pujols' card

celebrating his 700th career home run

which happened at dodger stadium, although the card is in my name/number on the back mini-collection. with some of these topps now purchases, i qualified for the september card of the month

which celebrated aaron judge and pujols and their home run exploits.

here's a 1998 upper deck special fx card that i've added to my vladimir guerrero collection

that features a dodger stadium background, although it is obscured by the "fx" treatment. and here's one from 2003 topps stadium club

that i bought in duplicate so i could put one with my vladdys and one with my dodger stadium cards. it shows eric karros' mural behind the hall of fame outfielder.

just one more card to go in this post, and it's this 1989 topps baseball talk card

that celebrates the greatest moment in the history of dodger stadium, but features the cover of the 1988 world series program on the front, rather than a photo of the event.

not a dodger stadium card, per se, but one that belongs in my dodger collection and my "games i attended in person" collection, too.

i know i am biased but i really do consider dodger stadium to be the best baseball stadium in the game, and my visit there earlier this week confirmed that stance. stay tuned for tales from those games!