a good time to update the frankenset

it's been about seven years since i last updated my dodger frankenset. you may recall that i dedicated a blog to the page by page construction of this 726 card set featuring an assortment of dodger cards, and that i used the 1990 target dodger set to fill some holes when no other card would fit.  shortly after i completed the set, 2016 topps heritage high numbers was released, and ross stripling's rookie card showed up as card number 720 on the checklist, bumping mike sharperson's target card from the set.

last year, clayton kershaw's heritage card 

was held until the high numbers release, and it turned out to be card number 725

in the set.

that spot had been held by john shelby's target card since the inception of the set, and now it makes way for kershaw. as a reminder, it was never my intention to update the frankenset with newer cards, except where the target set placeholders could be replaced. 

after updating the last sheet in the set with kershaw's card, the only target cards remaining in the set are: 

572 don newcombe

659 jerry reuss

663 paul richards

well, in 2022 topps put max muncy 

at number 572 

in the flagship set. 

and way back in 2020 (when i wasn't paying much attention i guess) alex wood 

was number 663

in heritage high numbers.

and so, with those three cards now in the frankenset, and those other two pages updated, i will wait with baited breath for the high numbers checklist this year. will a dodger - kershaw, perhaps? - show up at 659? here's hoping!

have a happy halloween!

justin verlander is in my hall of famer collection

justin verlander is a member of the 3,000 strikeout club, which means he is also a member of my hall of famer collection. several months ago, i added this card to represent his membership:

that's a 2007 upper deck goudey sport royalty autograph card. here's the back:

verlander doesn't have many on-card autographs to choose from, so i went with this one even though it is not standard sized. maybe after he retires he will start signing cards and i will be able to add a shinier card for my collection, but it better be as a tiger because i don't want to see him as an astro.

verlander is currently second among active players in career strikeouts, trailing his former teammate max scherzer by 25. his 3,342 strikeouts are good enough for 12th all-time (tied with phil niekro), and i would bet he passes niekro, scherzer and greg maddux on the all-time leader board before he is done. verlander is also a member of a very small group of pitchers who have won the rookie of the year, most valuable player, and cy young awards (hello, don newcombe), and verlander has won the latter three times. 

he is definitely one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history and i had hoped to see him as a met here in the twin cities this season. unfortunately for me, he was traded back to houston before the mets made it to town and after the astros had visited. maybe i will be able to see him pitch in person in 2024.

as a reminder, you can see verlander and the other members of my hall of famer collection here!

all in a day

it's a special friday night post here, as i have the perfect card for today:

that's a sepia parallel of a 2008 topps triple threads triple relic combo card, featuring reggie jackson, steve garvey, and willie randolph. the particular connection here is the 1981 world series, although these three faced off in the 1977 and 1978 fall classics, too, and the fact that there are two yankees to one dodger on the card makes me a bit surprised that the card celebrates the series that the dodgers won.

as a sepia parallel, it's numbered to 27, and my card happens to be number 10, so it's an october 27 card - as i said it's the perfect card for today. there was no world series game on 10/27/81, but the next night, the dodgers beat the yankees in game 6 to claim the title, the first in my lifetime for the blue.

lion eyes

this post is a couple of months out of sync, as it is based on the fifth sign of the zodiac - leo - which governs from july 23 through august 22. i had it all laid out and i guess forgot to hit publish. keep that in mind as you read on as i had planned to show this card back in mid august:

it's a 2022 topps gypsy queen gq gems insert featuring walker buehler who was born on july 28, 1994, and is therefore a leo. represented by a lion, leo's gemstone is something called peridot, but this card shows a ruby. based on a quick internet search, leos also "respond" to rubies.

i am not a leo, but seeing that card got me thinking about what other dodgers could be represented on a card like that. here are a few:

nomar garciaparra

that's a 2007 fleer mini die-cut card of nomah, who was born on july 23, 1973.

don drysdale

shown on a 2008 donruss sports legend museum collection card, was also born on july 23, but in 1936. it's interesting to me that they scrubbed drysdale clean of logos and the dodgers' script. on other 2008 cards they didn't go to such extremes.

pee wee reese

was another dodger born on july 23 - in 1918. he's shown on a 2019 topps stadium club red foil parallel, so that would be a card that was issued over 100 years after pee wee was born.

max scherzer

was born on july 27, 1984. his card here is a 2021 panini contenders base card that includes a photo of him from his short stint with the dodgers.

chad billingsley

is two days younger than scherzer, having entered this world on july 29, 1984. his 2007 topps chrome white refractor features fellow leo garciaparra in the background. i've added quite a few chrome parallels from 2007 and 2008 in the past year. they may be two of the best years (along with 2003) for chrome parallels, in my opinion.

ryan pepiot

is also a leo on the later end of the spectrum. he was born on august 21, 1997. that card is a 2022 topps update red foil parallel, by the way. pepiot was only 10 when that card of nomar i showed earlier was released. zoinks.

and then there are randy wolf

and jeff weaver

shown on a 2009 topps walmart black parallel for wolf, and a 2009 topps update target throwback parallel for weaver. both of these guys were born on august 22, 1976, and they were dodger teammates in 2009.

of course, it's been done before as don sutton and reggie smith were dodger teammates for several seasons and they shared april 2, 1945 as their birthday. that makes them aries, which would be a separate post if topps had used a dodger to represent that sign instead of nolan arenado. it probably would have made for a more interesting post since their birthstone is the diamond which translates well to baseball. however, with the demise of gq, we probably won't get any more inserts related to the zodiac unless a&g steps in, but they already did a birthday related insert set in 2010. 

happy (belated) birthday to these (and all the other) dodger leos!

not the most fun i've had in the sun

i bought some 2023 topps allen & ginter recently and found this insert in one of the packs

has anyone else been parasailing? i did it once when i was in the keys and sure, it was sort of fun at first (close to the boat like the people in the photo), but once we got to peak position, i was ready for it to be done. i was white-knuckling holding on to the straps like the person on the right, and my companion was just like the guy on the left. i don't think it was a heights thing, but i realized that i enjoyed being on the boat more than being in the air, that's for sure!

maybe next year ginter will have an insert set that focuses on other things i haven't enjoyed like driving in snow storms or mowing the lawn.

custom card completed

you may recall that i took a shot at creating a card for the warhol rose infinite parallel project. gavin from baseball card breakdown commented on that post about a collaboration and soon thereafter i received some cards in the mail.

gavin completed the card that i had begun (i just inserted a bunch of steve garvey's in the background using the image from rose's record breaking hit) and continued the 4192 theme to great effect:

and there's a back!

a 1/1 wripp custom that was printed on the 38th anniversary of hit 4,192. awesome!

of course, gavin had some other customs to share like this mashup between 1988 donruss and 1988 topps

that is stamped on the back

'88 donruss has some pretty decent cards in my opinion, but i didn't always feel that way because of the design. if the right photo is used, the design works. lasorda in his golf cart would work with pretty much any card design, i think.

here's another 1991 fleer "white" border modification 

great to see fernando represented in this project!

i will admit, when i saw this next card it took me a moment to realize what was "off" about it

that's steve garvey's 1986 topps card, of course, but the "padres" text has been "whitened". it was originally the same yellow as the background of the position circle. garvey no longer has to shield his eyes from the bright yellow text!

gavin complete the return with another version of the wripp card, this one including a 1985 donruss design 

super creative and i appreciate the attention to detail with the lowest garvey and the red striping. thanks for completing these cards gavin!

my retired number collection - 3 is a magic number

this is the fifth post in a series that shares the cards i have in my retired number mini-collection. you can find the links to the previous posts down at the bottom of this post. if you're eager to learn more right now, you can check out the full list of retired numbers along with what this collection will entail over at my want list site.

without further ado, here are the seven people for whom the number 3 has been retired:

3 babe ruth (retired by the yankees in 1948) 2009 topps legends variation

the babe's number 3 was the second number retired by the yankees after lou gehrig's number 4. it was retired on june 13, 1948 during the babe's final visit to yankee stadium. there is a famous image from that day that has shown up on cardboard before that would have worked here as well, but i have one already in my name/number on the back mini-collection. i've had that legend variation rattling around in a monster box since 2009 so it's nice to be able to place it in a meaningful spot in my collection.

ruth retired as baseball's all-time home run leader and was one of the hall of fame's inaugural class voted in by the writers in 1936. he was a seven-time world series champion, and led the american league in key offensive categories numerous times. he is still atop or near the top of the all-time leader board in most meaningful offensive categories today. strangely enough, the yankees put ruth's number 3 back in circulation in 1935 following his departure from the club, and kept it in use even after they created the idea of retired numbers in 1939. the last yankee to wear number 3 was cliff mapes, who switched to number 7 (another iconic yankee number) after ruth was honored.

3 harmon killebrew (retired by the twins in 1975) 1974 topps

the twins retired number 3 for killebrew on may 4, 1975 prior to a game against killebrew's royals. it sounds like the event was fairly poorly executed, but killebrew, who had played for the senators/twins for the first 21 years of his career, hit a home run in front of his former hometown fans. killebrew retired following the 1975 season with 573 home runs, good for fifth all-time, and he was inducted in to the hall of fame in 1984. because he was with the team when they were still the senators, and the twins did not reissue his number after he signed with the royals, killebrew is the only twin to ever wear number 3.

that 1974 topps card is one that i have owned since 1979 or so. it has been with me through countless moves, but it was in too poor condition for me to use it in my 1974 set build. i think it looks great here in this collection.

3 earl averill (retired by cleveland in 1975) 2001 topps tribute

averill played from 1929 to 1941, spending most of his career in cleveland. he was a six time all-star and finished in the top five of the mvp voting three times. he amassed some pretty good stats - a .318 lifetime batting average, 2,000 hits, 1,200 runs scored, and 1,100 runs driven in - but his first ten seasons were quite strong as he now shows to have finished in the top ten of the american league in offensive war eight of those ten years, 

averill's number was retired on june 8, 1975, a few months after he was voted in to the hall of fame by the veteran's committee and a couple of months before he was inducted. averill used his speech at the induction ceremony to call for the hall to induct joe sewell, another top player of his era that had been overlooked for many years. two years later, sewell joined averill in the hall. as for the number 3, woodie held was the last active player to wear the number for cleveland, back in 1962 even though his 1964 topps card still shows the number on his sleeve.

3 bill terry (retired by the giants in 1983) 2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts

former giant player, player/manager, and manager bill terry had his numbered retired by the team on april 6, 1983 in a ceremony at candlestick park. as a player, terry could hit. he had a .401 batting average in 1930 to lead the league, and his career average was .341. he became the club's player/manager in 1932 and promptly led them to a world series championship the following year. he won another pennant in 1936 which was his final season as a player, and then led the giants to the world series the following year as a full-time manager.

even though terry stayed on as the team's manager following his retirement as a player, the number was redistributed starting in 1937. it remained in use pretty much through the 1940's and then didn't show up again until 1969 when ozzie virgil wore it. in between there, in 1954 in fact, terry was elected to the hall of fame by the baseball writers. mike sadek took the number over from virgil and wore it until 1981. john rabb and jeff ransom both wore the number for the giants in 1982, with rabb having the distinction of being the last giants' player to do so. 

3 harold baines (retired by the white sox in 1989) 1997 upper deck

baines is considered by many to be at or near the low bar of the hall of fame. elected by the today's game committee in 2019, his counting stats are pretty good. he compares closest to tony perez which makes some sense to me. still, baines has many wondering (myself included) about some other "hall of very good" players who may yet have a shot at cooperstown.

the white sox retired baines' number 3 on august 20, 1989 while baines was very much still an active player. they had traded him to the rangers a few weeks prior, and in his first return to comiskey they held a surprise ceremony to honor him. of course, he made two more stops in chicago before his career was over, so he (like billy martin and earl weaver) got to wear the number after it had been retired as he is doing on the 1997 upper deck card above. however, even before his two return stops with the chisox, he was the last white sox player to wear the number.

3 dale murphy (retired by the braves in 1994) 1979 topps

murphy is one of those "hall of very good" players that could benefit from baines' induction. he won two mvp awards and to this young fan who followed his career in real time, was a shoo-in for the hall. he transitioned from catcher to first base early in his career (as shown on that 1979 topps card above) and hit his stride offensively at the same time that he moved to the outfield. he was a seven time all-star and won five gold gloves as a centerfielder in the 80's, but his production tailed off at the end of the decade and he finished out his career with some forgettable stints with the phillies and rockies.

the braves retired murphy's number on june 13, 1994 - about a year after he had played his final big league game. at that time, he was atop the leaderboard in many offensive categories for the atlanta iteration of the braves, including home runs, rbi, runs scored, and games played. he was the last brave to wear number 3.

3 alan trammell (retired by the tigers in 2018) 1995 pinnacle

trammell entered the hall of fame in 2018 after being voted in by the modern baseball era committee, and on august 26 of that same year, the tigers retired his number making ian kinsler the last tiger player to wear the number.

trammell was a four time gold glove winner at shortstop, was the 1984 world series mvp, and finished as high as 2nd in the 1987 mvp voting. trammell compares pretty closely to barry larkin in terms of stats, which is probably a pretty good comp in my opinion. measuring his value using modern metrics such as war, trammell sits ahead of larkin (just barely) and other hall of fame shortstops, and is even higher on the list when peak war is considered.

i am tracking a few things as we go, even though the information is already available elsewhere.

retired numbers by team (through the five posts so far):

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4

giants - 3, 4

pirates - 1, 4

guardians - 3

red sox - 1, 4

phillies - 1

cardinals - 1, 2

reds - 1

braves - 3

astros

mets

orioles - 4

dodgers - 1, 2, 4

twins - 3

white sox - 2, 3, 4

brewers - 1, 4

tigers - 1, 2, 3

cubs

royals

padres

athletics

angels

expos

rangers

major league baseball

rays

diamondbacks

blue jays

rockies

mariners

retired number frequency:

1 - retired by 9 teams

2 - retired by 5 teams

3 - retired by 7 teams

4 - retired by 8 teams

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 36

running total of non-hall of famers: 5

any differences this year?

with 2023 topps update out, i can finally get this annual post posted! it's the comparison between topps flagship dodger cards and their counterparts from the factory team set.  mookie betts' team set card looks like this:

it's distinguishable from the flagship set thanks to the white topps logo as well as the numbering on the back:

topps also added "team set" below the number. they are getting better about distinguishing sets, but i wish they would expand this practice to inserts like upper deck and panini used to do, or still do in panini's case.

anyway, here we go. flagship on the left, team set on the right.

lad-1 mookie betts

outside of the difference in logo coloring (which i don't consider a real difference), there is no difference here.

lad-2 j.d. martinez

logo placement switch for no apparent reason.

lad-3 gavin lux

nothing to see here

lad-4 julio urias

nada

lad-5 freddie freeman

nope

lad-6 clayton kershaw

negative

lad-7 tony gonsolin

again, no.

lad-8 michael grove

rookie card logo relocation. again, no obvious reason why whis would occur.

lad-9 noah syndergaard

ok here we are. syndergaard got a dodger card in update that uses a real photo of him as a dodger. two photos, actually. it is a vast improvement over the photoshopped team set card that showed him wearing fernando valenzuela's number 34. big difference between these two cards!

lad-10 austin barnes

back to no difference

lad-11 james outman

another rookie card logo relocation

lad-12 max muncy

nothing

lad-13 chris taylor

nothing again

lad-14 will smith

again, nothing

lad-15 trayce thompson

even more nothing

lad-16 miguel vargas

not only is there nothing different, the rookie card logo didn't move

lad-17 walker buehler

and we end with...nothing.

i miss the years where there were at least a couple variations or even players (or managers or stadiums) that didn't show up in flagship. i hope we get a return to that in 2024.

anybody else buy team sets for other teams? any differences in those?