stadium club comin' at you!

2023 stadium club has been out for 10 days or so, and i received the two "compact" boxes i ordered about five days ago. i had already seen many of the card images online, but it was fun to open packs and see some that had missed my perusals.

there's something about randy johnson's card (this is the red foil parallel)

that made me look twice. i know the ball is on its way to the plate, but it doesn't look like it is very far from johnson, who is well into his follow through motion. i think it's just because he is such a big human that he looks close to the ball.

far and away, my favorite card of this set is thurman munson's. 

i didn't find any munsons in my boxes, but i had ordered some from sellers on ebay, including the base above (for the garvey collection and another for the lurker collection) and parallels like the sepia

and the black, red, and purple foil parallels

this is such an awesome photo to use, and the fact that steve garvey is the lurking player makes it all the better. garvey is on his way to being tagged out in game 1 of the 1977 world series here. the dodgers were up 2-1 and the garv tried to score from first on a glenn burke base hit. right after he was called out, willie randolph hit a home run to tie the game, and the yankees went on to win in extra innings. i have previously noted that there is another photo following the tag that would look great on a stadium club card. maybe next year?!

i did find some dodgers in my boxes - clayton kershaw

noah syndergaard

and freddie freeman

but that was it.

there were a couple cards for my mini-collections, like derek jeter turning two

andrew vaughn playing on tatooine

reid detmers' card features a lurking mike trout

and hank aaron's features fellow all-star and hall of famer ron santo

there were only two black parallels - one per box - so i guess they are scarcer than the reds. i found ozzie albies

and andres gimenez

and i was left wondering why these aren't more obvious, like the red foil cards. speaking of which, in addition to the randy johnson above, i found these parallels of hunter greene

keith hernandez

among others not shown.

i did find one compact box exclusive purple foil parallel - daulton varsho

these are numbered to 75

i also found only one chrome parallel, that of xander bogaerts

there were two "chief fantasy professionals" inserts, one of which was shohei ohtani

and i was left to wonder if this is the last non-dodger card of ohtani i will pull from a pack.

topps is really forcing alliteration with their inserts sometimes. case in point the "virtuosos of velocity" cards. i found pete alonso and austin riley

plus a fairly scarce red foil parallel of julio rodriguez

i think this insert set is all hitters who hit the ball really hard, but there's no reason why it couldn't also feature hard throwing pitchers.

i got one triumvirate card - bryce harper's

at first glance it looked like he was wearing a stadium club belt buckle.

each one of these boxes is guaranteed to contain an autograph card, and this year, it seems that topps has leaned in heavy to the rookie autographs. the two i found were brewer hicklen and stone garrett

i see what hicklen was doing with his signature - using the bottom of the b to cross his h, but it looks like he was interrupted and forgot to finish signing. as for garrett, perhaps he signed "stony"?

there were some other base cards that i found interesting, including these three oldtimers

the colorization that topps did on these three is pretty goo. the people in the backgrounds aren't just monocolor blobs. of course, i have no way of knowing if the coloring on ott's uniform is correct, or if the tab of cobb's belt was really blue, but i have some hope that the people doing this work are trying to pay attention to that sort of thing.

hahahahahahahahaha.

here's george springer's card

with a whole bunch of stuff going on. obviously there has been a walk-off win, but everyone on this card is headed and/or faced in different directions. chaos.

cal ripken jr

on a 1984 corvette is fun. i was a big fan of the new corvette model when it came out, but i was only 13. i swore i would get one when i turned 25. i bought an explorer instead.

cal's teammate eddie murray is focused

i had teammates in babe ruth who wore their hats under the helmet like murray is doing here. i never did, even with the older helmets without a lot of padding that rattled around on the old noggin.

joe mauer's card

gives a glimpse of the old metrodome. just above the "joe" is the runway that leads to the clubhouse. on a tour of the metrodome, the guide took us through there and pointed to an extended run of stairs. he said that only two athletes had been able to take the full stair in one leap - cal ripken jr and pat mahomes. weird the things that come to mind when looking at a baseball card.

kirby puckett

with a bat flip! 

ted williams

with a bat he can't splinter

nolan ryan

with a bubble and is that a green dumpster behind him? or a green building on the other side of a batting cage?

carlos rodon

with a joe dimaggio quote. you know, i could say "i want to thank the good lord for making me a yankee, but i would have much rather been a dodger" and you could take the quote out of context and post it in the yankee locker room. that's one reason why wanting to thank is meaningless. if you want to thank, then thank. anyway, the rodon card is way better than the lame signing press conference photos topps uses sometimes (see jacob degrom's card in this set). get those new signees to an iconic spot in their new home ballpark and use those photos instead.

finally, there is the barry larkin card

no sign of marge schott's st. bernard.

there will be more stadium club showing up as i obtain more dodgers from the set, you can count on that - even with 2024 topps series 1 coming out soon. stay tuned!