belated greetings from los angeles

here is a very appropriate card from 2022 topps archives

as i recently spent a couple of days in los angeles myself. of course, the postcard insert would have made more sense had i posted this while i was in la, but oh well.

here's another postcard, by the way, featuring hall of very good pitcher tommy john

it's from john's first year with the club - 1972 - and features the three sisters palm trees out near the left field pavilion. i added this postcard to my collection a few months back.

anyway, i went out west with a buddy who wanted to see dodger stadium. we wound up taking in the game on mother's day against the padres

and the game the next night against the twins

it had been almost 11 years since i had been to dodger stadium, and there have been a bunch of changes in that time. so, i made sure we got to the park as soon as the gates opened on sunday so we would have plenty of time to look around. 

i had a special shirt to wear that day

and i got a few comments on it as i walked around the stadium. they have done a great job of enhancing pretty much every entrance to the stadium and connecting the outfield and pavilion areas to the rest of the park.  i've got another post in the works that will expand on some of the elements on display, so stay tuned.

you may have noticed that the monday night game ticket included access to the stadium club. this was my first time in the semi-exclusive area down the right field line. there were plenty of displays to admire in this area, including some original volpe artwork from the 1960's, various trophies and murals, and some framed blowups of yearbooks. i took a shot of the 1995 yearbook

because this is a baseball card blog and the yearbook features the rookie of the year set that was distributed to season ticket holders. i finally picked up a set of my own a few years ago and shared it on this blog last year. i did not see the 1980 yearbook on display, which is another one that prominently features baseball cards on the cover, in that case it was 1980 topps.

here's another card photo - i remembered to take a photo of my wallet card on monday night

the card is definitely more credit card shaped these days.

the dodgers shut out the padres on sunday, and the monday night game went in to extras, with the dodgers winning on a walk-off walk. and yes, we stayed until the end.  i wasn't quite ready to be done, however, so i stayed an extra day to go to the tuesday night game

this was in large part due to the fact that clayton kershaw was making the start. unfortunately, the dodgers dropped that game to the twins.

one of the things i was most interested in seeing at the stadium were the statues of sandy koufax

and jackie robinson

they are both situated beyond centerfield where there was a lot of action taking place before the sunday game.

unfortunately, nothing significant enough happened to warrant a topps now card from any of the games i attended (even including a game i went to at target field a few days before heading to la). had trayce thompson got a hit in the bottom of the 12th inning instead of a walk to drive in the winning run, i bet there would have been a card. i am still able to tie a topps now card to this post, however, as the back of the annual jackie robinson day card this year featured the statue of the trailblazer

dave roberts took the team out to the plaza to see the statue on april 15, and that's jason heyward in the foreground speaking to his teammates. this is a great addition to my dodger stadium collection.  of course, i picked up two copies so i would also have one for the 42 collection. here's the front of the card:

that's aaron judge, brayan bello, and ke'bryan hayes for those of you keeping score at home.

the dodgers did warrant a topps now card for their game on jackie robinson day courtesy of david peralta

who drove in james outman and miguel vargas

with a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth to beat the cubs 2-1.

this next card has nothing to do with dodger stadium or jackie robinson day, but it's another topps now card that i picked up, so it seems appropriate to tack it on to this post

yes, topps made a card of mookie betts playing shortstop and turning a double play in wrigley field. here's the back:

and, because i bought five of these directly from topps, i came away with a blue parallel numbered to 49

the parallel thing isn't guaranteed, but i like to think topps looks out for the small orders when so many of these cards are purchased in bulk by resellers.

anyway, it was great to be back at chavez ravine for a few games. can't believe i had been away for so long!