the almost daily dodger - matt kemp

here's a quick post for this leap year day - it's one of my favorite dodger players on a 2007 topps gold parallel card

indeed, matt kemp was my favorite dodger from 2007 through 2014, and i was pretty excited when he returned in 2018. he was also my favorite non-dodger in 2019 and 2020.

kemp is now rejoining the dodgers as a special advisor and that makes me happy. i like the idea of former players staying connected. not a lot to say about the card except that i like 2007 topps in gold format. the chunky border gives plenty of gold goodness! and seeing this card in my scanned folder reminded me that i am working on a larger scale gold parallel post, so stay tuned!

more 24 to adore?

i mentioned in my first post about 2024 topps series 1 that i had a hobby box on the way. it showed up and i opened it up early last week. i was out of town in texas when it arrived, and it just so happened that i also bought a blaster of the stuff while i was away. the cards are all mixed up between the box and the blaster now, but here we go with my second look at 2024 topps.

my first purchase didn't yield any elly delacruz cards, but in one of the first packs from the box i found a 1989 insert 

of the reds' number 44.  the first 1989 insert that i found, however, was clayton kershaw's

so there's my first kershaw of 2024. i was hoping it was a good omen for the rest of the box, and what i found in the last pack made me think that it might have been. that last pack included jackie robinson's 1989 insert in black parallel form

these are still numbered to 299

this might be the first card that i've noticed i have number 123 in the print run.

another dodger parallel that i found (this one in the blaster) was brusdar graterol's holiday foil card

but let's not forget about the base. between the box and blaster i was able to almost complete my dodger team set. here are tony gonsolin

fredeie freeman on a league leader card

bobby miller, freeman, and emmet sheehan

and the dodger team card

what i didn't find was mookie betts' base card (anyone have a double)?

i like the dodger team card because we get to see a couple of the bat boys plus mark prior makes his return to cardboard. the dodgers' ssp golden mirror team card shows a scene from jackie robinson day, as does at least one other team (the guardians, i think), but the tigers are shown wearing number 42 on their regular old base team card

i was very happy to see this and add it to my 42 collection.

one of the tigers there on that card is miguel cabrera who also got a base card this year, thankfully

i like the image of cabrera waving his cap in acknowledgement of his pending retirement, but why include the two cameramen on the card? he raised his cap in every ballpark he went to last year i am sure. just an odd photo choice in my opinion, or at the least an odd cropping choice.

at least the back has his full career stats

like a final tribute card should. it's nice of topps to include 1b as his position on this card, although he played only one-third of an inning there last year (in his final game). i would have liked an image from that game where he made the putout unassisted before exiting and recognizing the detroit crowd as his career came to an end.

the bigger series 1 set this year means that i don't have to wait for series 2 to get my hands on card number 350 for my flagship 350 collection. this year, matt olson

gets the spot on the checklist

i am glad it wasn't another astro.

my other flagship minicollection is just a representative card, and this year i chose julio rodriguez

to fill that spot. i pulled the rodriguez base in my first blaster and found no additional ones in any of my later purchases.

i am happy to see that the twins plan to redeploy byron buxton in centerfield this year. he remains my favorite non-dodger, and i've put his 2024 topps card

in that minicollection already. i was not sure what to do about my favorite dodger for this year, but now that kershaw has signed with the club i will be able keep him in that slot and hope he is able to get back on the field later this summer.

i found two home run challenge cards - buxton

and bryce harper (not shown), and my twins success continued with the lone royal blue parallel i've found in either of my blasters

jordan balazovic is a 6'5" canadian pitcher who just recently cleared waivers and was sent to the twins' triple-a club in st. paul.

i also found a gold parallel of twin (now former twin) jorge polanco, but i suppose my real luck has been with the orioles. i pulled a vintage stock throwback card of jordan westburg

that i like very much. i think the removal of the neon treatment and addition of the black bar at the bottom is a nice touch with these, and the design stands pretty well on its own. perhaps the team name is a bit awkward but otherwise i really like how thoughtful topps was here. here's the back

good ol' gray cardboard!

less interesting is westburg's 1989 insert

but his was the only autograph

that came from my hobby box. i am not a fan of sticker autos but i understand why they exist.

the biggest oriole hit, however, came from the texas-purchased blaster, and it was this jorge mateo card

that is his golden mirror ssp. here's the back

which is the giveaway to these things. i actually think his regular base card

is better, so i'm glad topps chose the better photo for the more common card.

one of the other 1989 cards i found was that of curtis mead

which gave me a chance to see what rays cards might have looked 35 years ago.

more stars of mlb from my retail purchase, and it seems to me that there is a higher rookie content in this insert set than last year. here's tyler soderstrom

with the vida blue memorial patch visible, and here he is again on a hobby box exclusive gold foil parallel

i hope the a's keep the kelly green uniforms wherever they wind up.

the hobby box came with two silver pack packs. here's what was in the first one

a mix of old and young there. the second pack was all hall of famers

including birthday buddies frank thomas and jeff bagwell.

the second hit of my box was a plain white swatch of bobby witt jr

and the third was a city connect swatch of eury perez

could be worse.

topps was able to sneak elly onto a base card other than his rookie card - this checklist

that also features matt mclain and bally sports guy jim day, but i was happy to also get one of his actual rookie cards

i also pulled one of jasson dominguez

interesting that on the backs

dominguez is mentioned in the same sentence as shelley duncan, while delacruz gets the mick.

one more card for the post - elly delacruz' blueprints insert

there was a time when i would have chased this insert set, but not now. still, i can smell the ammonia!

ok, bring on heritage and series 2!

double b double 2

before clayton kershaw came along, perhaps the dodger most associated with the number 22 was johnny podres. i, however, tended to think of a couple of guys with the initials b.b. first.

bill buckner

and brett butler

both wore number 22 during their dodger playing days, which for buckner included an appearance in the 1974 world series as noted on his 2003 topps tribute world series edition card. butler's 1993 king b disc doesn't show his number, but he wore 22 during both of his dodger stints (he also wore 12 for a short time when he first rejoined the dodgers in 1995). 

it should be noted that neither bob bailey, bob bailor, billy bean, nor bobby bonilla wore number 22 during their time with the dodgers. 

22 days until 2024 regular season baseball!

the almost daily dodger - russell martin

dodger double dipper russell martin was in the news a couple of weeks ago when it was announced that he will be inducted into the canadian baseball hall of fame later this year. here are a couple of serial numbered parallels of martin that have been hanging out in my scanned folder for awhile.

2008 upper deck a piece of history red

and 2009 bowman orange

the latter card is a good example of the high quality photos that seemed to find their way on to a large number of martin's cards over the years.

martin is the top canadian-born catcher in a number of offensive categories, and within the top ten regardless of position. longtime blue jay pitcher jimmy key will also be inducted this year as martin joins several other former dodgers, including jackie robinson and tommy lasorda, as members of the canadian hall.

congrats russell!

also, thanks to brett alan for alerting uni-watch to my post from last night. it's been awhile since the last time i had something linked there and i appreciate the extra exposure!

rolled reuss?

back when i was playing baseball (mostly in the 1980's), uniform day was a much anticipated milestone. one thing that got a lot of attention were the stirrups.

there were lots of things to consider - do you stretch them or not? if so, how much of the top of the stirrup will you show? and, the more you stretch, the more material closer to the knee, and with that there was the question of whether you fold or roll that material. and remember -  we wore socks, covered by "sanitarys", and then the stirrups. three layers of material that contributed to the mass that needed to be dealt with. some of my teammates used tape to try to keep it all in place, but a lot of them rolled it down.

it looks like jerry reuss was a "roller" based on the image used on his 1982 topps sticker

but i reached out to him to get the scoop:

My older brother tutored me on the proper sock roll. I don’t know where he came up with the method but it sounded right to me. Put on uni pants with bottoms near your ankles. Then pull sanis as high as you can get them, followed by the stirrups (preferably 7”) riding same height. Pull up pants and fold all three layers together to desired height. If the socks were striped, I made sure all stripes were visible.

that's great big league advice right there! you can see examples of the stripes he refers to on his 1972 topps card (cardinals) and 1976 topps card (pirates).

i can't tell what pedro guerrero's tendencies were from the photo on reuss' sticker, but he clearly stretched his stirrups! his 1985 topps sticker 

doesn't show any bulk near his knee, so maybe he didn't have to roll or fold?!

one guy who i am pretty sure didn't stretch his stirrups was steve garvey, as you can see a pretty standard approach on his cards including this 2004 donruss world series blue card

it's hard to tell, however, if garvey rolled or folded. i assume folded, but his left leg shows some bulk. still, it looks folded to me. as an aside, i folded, and my league issued stirrups looked like garvey's in my little league days. if you go back to the first post on this blog, you will see that i stretched them out a bit as i moved on to babe ruth baseball.

in earlier decades, i think the stirrups were slightly different, with less actual stirrup. case in point, jim gilliam's 2002 topps superteams foil parallel card

shows very little of the sock underneath the stirrup.

in recent years, after a preponderance of long pants that showed no sock, sanitary, or stirrup for many players, this has been replaced by socks with designs, like cody bellinger is wearing on his 2022 topps pristine refractor parallel

even more recently, these socks have evolved to include a stirrups design! you can see this on jj bleday's 2023 topps stadium club card

looks like he pulled those socks up a bit higher than intended!

thanks to number 41 for his insight on the topic, and no matter whether they are stretched and folded or rolled or just printed on socks, i enjoy seeing the stirrups!

byproducts of the retired number collection

i've been posting cards weekly from my retired numbers collection, and i've been enjoying preparing those posts. i also enjoyed looking through my collection for cards that would fit the collection, as well as slogging through comc to find cards for players whose inventory i already owned fell short. inevitably, i found cards that fit better into other parts of my collection.

this 1993 ted williams etched in stone roberto clemente card

features the same photo that topps used in 2022 on a turn back the clock card. in the end, i decided to use a different clemente card for the retired number collection, and i put this one in the name/number on the back collection.

same goes for this 2016 topps stadium club catfish hunter card

this 2007 upper deck roy halladay card

and this 1994 score burger king cal ripken jr card

this card is interesting in that it makes no reference that i could find to burger king.

the angels have not retired reggie jackson's number (for good reason) but i pulled this  2004 topps all-time fan favorites card

from a dark corner of my collection to put in the name/number on the back binder.

during my search for michael young cards to use, i came across his 2006 topps heritage card and promptly bought one for my 42 collection

i am not really sure why the rangers were wearing 42 back in 2005, and i guess i am not 100% sure that young is wearing 42, but i have convinced myself enough to put it in the 42 collection.

finally, this 1992 topps kids card of roberto alomar

was the card that i had in my retired number collection until the blue jays unretired the number and thus eliminated alomar from that collection.