variations are the theme

i stopped being a team collector in 2012. that's not entirely true, obviously, but the focal point of my team collecting, up until that point, was my topps flagship and traded/update dodger collection. every year since 1980 or so, i would compile the team set with the players in alphabetical order (team card was in the first slot of the page), combining cards from series 1, 2, and/or traded and update sets in a binder separate from the rest of my dodger collection. even as i went back and completed older dodger team sets - they went in this binder that eventually became two binders. it made it easy for me to flip through the progression of the players for my favorite team.

in 2009, topps started including "legends" variations of base cards, and i went along picking up these short printed cards of jackie robinson and pee wee reese and others. all was fine until 2012 update was released. in that set, topps decided to super short print the players that were involved in the blockbuster trade between the red sox and dodgers. that meant that cards featuring nick punto, carl crawford, josh beckett, and adrian gonzalez would show them as dodgers, but they would be ridiculously difficult to find. i was ticked, as i was really looking forward to that first a-gon dodger card. this meant that my annual ritual of completing the full run of topps flagship "base" dodger cards was over.

here we are, thirteen years later, and i still cannot claim that i've completed my dodger team set from 2012 update. it's the only blemish on my record from 1954 up until that point, and it still annoys me. i did find the beckett card 

for a good price a few years ago (i can't believe i didn't post about it, but i guess i didn't), and then about a year ago i won the gonzalez card

here's the back:

i've told this story before, but i was in los angeles when the trade went down. i remember seeing the crawl on the hotel tv that the dodgers had claimed gonzalez on waivers, but i figured nothing would come of it and that the red sox would pull him back. my son and i went to the dodger game that night, and a guy sitting next to us claimed to have some inside information out of boston and said that there would be a trade. the next night, gonzalez was in chavez ravine.

after adding the gonzalez card, i set up alerts for the punto and crawford cards, but there's been only one hit and it was for an outrageously priced crawford. annoying, but at the same time i decided to look at other dodger topps variations that had eluded me over the years. 

there are still quite a few i am missing in addition to the crawford and punto cards from 2012, although the post-2012 active player short prints and super short prints are different, as they feature players who have a base card as dodgers. so, i could give myself a break but then there are still the legends, who don't have non-short printed cards. i should note that, in 2013, i got caught up in the yasiel puig bliss and wound up buying every photo variation of him and the other dodgers, so that year is complete. 2014, not so much, and not any year since, save for 2015, either. 2022 is close, but still not complete. note that i don't count the variations like the "sparkle" or sabrmetric backs or factory set - just the photo and legend variants from flagship and update packs. here is what i am missing:

2014:

331b yasiel puig future stars

400a clayton kershaw throwing

400b clayton kershaw celebrating

2015:

complete

2016:

150 clayton kershaw blowing bubble

2017:

5 corey seager horizontal

50 clayton kershaw hat off

375 jackie robinson

582 julio urias stretching

597 sandy koufax

597 kenta maeda horizontal

us50 cody bellinger pointing in gray jersey

the 2017 update variations (other than that bellinger ssp) were and are easier to come by than the series 1 or 2 variations. going forward, it seems like these variations (aside from the few ssp) were printed in greater numbers than in previous years.

2018:

42 cody bellinger warmup shirt

350 clayton kershaw t shirt

550 corey seager batting cage

550 corey seager celebrating

599 justin turner blue warm up

this kenta maeda variation

and this sandy koufax variation

are recent additions as i peck away at these needs.

2019:

10 clayton kershaw crouching

10 sandy koufax

41 corey seager blue shirt

178 jackie robinson

507 cody bellinger sliding in outfield

507 pee wee reese

658 max muncy horizontal

665 duke snider

us199 will smith yelling

the legends listed above are ssp.  here's walker buehler's variation from 2019 topps

with some action from the 2018 world series with the green screen advertising panel. muncy's is similar, but with less panel.

2020:

50 cody bellinger horizontal

120 sandy koufax

129 jackie robinson

235 dustin may horizontal

292 gavin lux blue shirt

381 sandy koufax

416 jackie robinson

420 mookie betts hoodie

420 mookie betts horizontal

432 walker buehler batting

432 walker buehler running bases

681 edwin rios holding bat up

u63 jackie robinson

u80 cody bellinger tuxedo

u80 cody bellinger

u90 sandy koufax

u100 david price hard hat

u234 gavin lux in dugout

u234 gavin lux back of jersey

u237 clayton kershaw at podium

u268 mookie betts hard hat

i really dislike the 2020 topps design so maybe that is why i haven't made a bigger dent in this list beyond the couple of variations i have.

2021:

13 mookie betts pointing

13 mookie betts headset

50 cody bellinger batting practice

256 keibert ruiz helmet off

302 jackie robinson

347 jackie robinson smiling with two bats 

450 corey seager trophy

650 trevor bauer camera

us76 victor gonzalez kneeling

us200 albert pujols arm on bat

us200 albert pujols with fielding glove

us294 roy campanella

us309 jackie robinson 

us309 jackie robinson signing autographs 

it's funny - the year after the dodgers won the world series, this walker buehler variation

is one of the only two (seager's is the other) that represents that success.  here's the jackie robinson variation from series 2

the other 347 jackie listed above is an ssp.

2022:

41 clayton kershaw white house podium

50 mookie betts smiling

442 jackie robinson

550 trea turner yelling

us42 jackie robinson signing autographs

us330 freddie freeman batting practice

those needs above are all ssp cards. i made a push to finish off the sp versions over the summer.

cody bellinger

mookie betts

walker buehler

clayton kershaw

max muncy

albert pujols

jackie robinson

and jackie robinson again

that one is an ssp that was priced as just an sp

max scherzer

corey seager

will smith

trea turner

julio urias

those are all from series 1 and 2. here are a couple from update:

roy campanella

jackie robinson

this is another one of those collecting endeavors that will never be completed, and i'll have to be ok with that. in fact, the more variations that were released, the less concerned i became, and with the golden mirrors that started in 2023, i don't care. i'll chase the ones that i want, sure, but the thought of even trying to complete the team set hasn't crossed my mind.

to be truthful, i do consider my flagship teams complete without any short prints, but those 2012 update cards really bothered me. i still have my dodger team sets from flagship and traded/update intermixed in separate binders going up to 2011. eventually i will separate those cards out and put them with the other cards from those respective years, but i'm in no rush to do so. and, if i find those crawford and punto cards, maybe i will wait even longer.

1955 bowman complete through 304!

it's time for the penultimate post in my 1955 bowman set build quest! let's see who was confusing and frustrating kids looking for players they knew when opening these last series packs!

sheet 35, cards 289-296

umpires fully present on this sheet, with two guys who hadn't been seen in the big leagues for a bit, plus a coach and a rookie. here are the backs:

the backs are all biographical on this sheet. let's tackle the team personnel first.

i mentioned that there were a couple of players who had been missing from big league action here (neither hersh freeman or marv blaylock played in the majors in 1954), but the cards may have been issued late enough that kids might have recognized freeman, who was back on the scene in 1955 as a fixture in the reds' bullpen. he had pitched for the red sox sparingly in 1952 and 1953, and as his card suggests, began the 1955 season with the red sox before moving to cincinnati in may of '55.

similarly, blaylock was the phillies' primary first baseman in 1955 but had not appeared in the majors prior to that season since he made his big league debut as a pinch-hitter in a game for the 1950 new york giants. 

blaylock's hitting coach in philadelphia was wally moses, who had more success coaching the likes of ferris fain (with the a's) and richie ashburn, both of whom won batting titles with moses as their coach. he later went on to join the yankee staff and was there when roger maris hit 61 home runs in 1961.

the other person wearing a team uniform on the page is none other than bill virdon, who would be named the national league's rookie of the year in 1955. it was his first year in the majors, and i imagine some kids were pretty happy to find his rookie card in a pack. i appreciate virdon, because he is one of the only people (al dark is another) to appear in this set and my all-time favorite, 1978 topps.

as for the umpires...

arthur gore is noted to be of irish descent, married, and with no children as of the printing of the card. of more interest might be (according to a different source) the fact that gore was also a professional basketball referee.

frank dascoli was a bachelor of italian descent who, later in 1955, would be on the field as the first base umpire when the dodgers won the world series. dascoli was eventually fired by national league president warren giles in 1961 for not supporting other umpires (?) which might make sense given the fact that he was quoted as saying "they can't all be dascolis" regarding an umpire who made a bad call, and noting that giles forced dascoli's mentor, larry goetz, to resign. the quote and mention of goetz comes from a sports illustrated article about dascoli that is worth a read.

tom gorman was a former big league pitcher of irish descent, both facts that are laid out on the back of his card. in 1956, he was the left field umpire for don larsen's perfect game, and in the 1967 world series, he was behind the plate for bob gibson's 17-strikeout masterpiece. gorman also made an appearance in a mad magazine bit regarding interplanetary sports in the future, ejecting a player on venus. i still have my mad collection and might have to see if i have this issue. 

lee ballanfant, a belgian-irish world war i vet, is the last umpire on this page. he was with dascoli as an umpire for the 1955 world series, serving as the third base ump in game 7. a former minor leaguer who became an umpire after an injury ended his playing career, ballanfant was quoted in larry gerlach's book "the men in blue" as saying "i can truthfully say i never did like umpiring. i stayed with it because i had to eat". he later went on to become a scout for the cubs, astros, and rangers.

sheet 36, cards 297-304

another four umpires, a manager, and three more players, including tommy byrne with the most interesting background of the bunch. what if one of those yankee teammates behind him were known to be mickey mantle? i also want to recognize charlie grimm's card here. i am pretty sure that someone doctored up one of these cards for thorzul's old "nightmares on cardboard" contests. his name and pose make for an easy transition to the "grimm" reaper and i wish i were able to confirm my recollection, but alas, thorzul's posts are lost to us now. i went looking for a link and found that beardy's are still around, though!

here are the backs:

i'll start with the umps this time.

dusty boggess was of scotch-irish descent and, as a 16-year old high school ballplayer, was removed from his team after it was discovered that he was also playing professionally under the appropriate name of "bogus". he was the second base ump for larsen's perfect game, and also worked as a scout for the white sox and pittsburgh steelers following his retirement. umpiring was a last resort of sorts for boggess, who spent time as a minor league player, manager, and even owner, but lost it all as a result of the great depression.

lon warneke (no nationality given) might be best remembered as a pitcher for the cubs and cardinals from 1930 to 1945. he was the winning pitcher for both of the cubs' victories in the 1935 world series, and won 20 or more games three times for the northsiders. he is the only person to have both played in and umpired for a world series game and an all-star game. in fact, warneke scored the first national league run in all-star history in 1933. following his retirement from umpiring, he became a judge in his native state of arkansas.

the back of william (bill) engeln's card notes that he is of german descent and that he umpired in each of the pcl's all-star games, assumedly from 1936 through 1951 before joining the major league ranks in 1952. what it doesn't say is that during his tenure in the pcl, he was attacked by two female fans after making a controversial call during a game between the seattle rainiers and the portland beavers.

jocko conlan is a familiar name, as he is remembered as a hall of fame umpire. he played in parts of two seasons (1934 and 1935) for the white sox, and during the latter year he was asked to fill in as an umpire in a game between the sox and the st. louis browns. in 1936, he began his career as an umpire and went on to spend 25 seasons in the major leagues. i enjoy knowing that he also owned a flower shop in chicago.

as for the subjects on the right of the page, charlie grimm managed the braves to a second place finish in 1955, his fourth (third full) season at the helm of the club. he had won three pennants as the cubs' manager earlier in his career (two of those as a player-manager), but was not able to get the braves to the world series. he was replaced in 1956 by fred haney, who led the club to the world championship in 1957.

tommy byrne had a career year in 1955, returning as a full-time major league pitcher for the yankees. the back of his card is correct - he was "plagued by control during his first major league go-round" as he led the american league in walks three straight years (1949-1951). still, he had been an all-star in 1950 as the yankee offense was enough to counter his 4.74 era and make him a 15-game winner that year. in '55, he went 16-5 during the regular season and then was the winning pitcher in game 2 of the world series. he took the mound in game 7 against johnny podres and allowed two runs (one earned) to score which was all podres needed to claim brooklyn's first and only world series title.

frank malzone saw his first big league action with the red sox in 1955, and wound up playing for them for a decade as their primary third baseman. he won three gold gloves and was the 1957 american league rookie of the year runner-up to tony kubek. he went on to scout and perform instructional coaching for the red sox following his retirement. 

finally, harry chiti, who made his big league debut as a 17-year old in 1950 and later went on to be known as the player who was traded for himself. he was dealt by the indians to the mets early in the 1962 season for a player to be named later, and then became that player to be named later when the mets returned him to cleveland. some sources note that his contract was actually purchased by the mets and he was not acquired via trade, but that takes the fun out of the story.

one more post and two more pages to go. stay tuned!

grab bag - brag or drag?

i bought two team bag semi-mystery bags at the fall church show (as mentioned in this post), and i promised i would go through the contents in a subsequent post which, as you have guessed, is this one.  these were marked at $4 each which means i got them for $2 each. it turned out that there were 10 cards in each bag. i didn't bother to try to move the cards around to count or peek before i bought, by the way.

the first one had this card on the front - 2021 panini elite extra edition troy glaus all-time first round materials

and this one on the back - 2019 panini prizm manny machado blue hyper prizm parallel

neither of these cards really fit in my collection, but i was intrigued enough to add the bag to my stack. i assumed the other cards were parallels or inserts, but didn't know for sure. here's what was between those two cards

2019 panini prizm carlos correa blue hyper prizm parallel

2022 topps pristine josh donaldson purple refractor parallel (numbered to 99)

2024 topps chrome adley rutschman ray wave refractor parallel

2021 panini elite extra edition calvin ziegler optic auto (numbered to 99)

2021 topps stadium club chrome max scherzer virtual reality insert

2021 topps stadium club chrome jacob degrom 1991 design variation refractor parallel

2023 topps chrome spencer strider future stars insert

2021 panini prizm robin yount carolina blue prizm parallel

so, not a bad lot of cards. the new york referenced on ziegler's card is the mets, by the way. he missed all of 2025 due to tommy john surgery so will see if he bounces back. the scherzer was a need for my dodger collection, so that was a happy surprise. 

there were, i think, four of these bags in the box, but i only bought one more. the other bag i bought had this card on the front - 2022 topps pro debut elijah tatis autograph

and this one on the back - 2024 topps chrome will smith raywave refractor parallel

so i knew i was adding a dodger card to my collection. i'll note that tatis is wearing number 23 on that card - that's a big deal in chicago given their history with number 23 on the bulls and cubs, and robin ventura was no slouch, either. doesn't matter, though as i don't think the younger tatis is active any longer.

just as before, here are the cards that were sandwiched between those two:

2023 topps chrome miguel cabrera sepia refractor parallel

2019 topps heritage minors tim tebow

2020 topps inception kris bryant purple parallel #/150

2019 panini father's day brandon lowe #/199

2022 panini usa baseball stars & stripes sean mclain jumbo relics #/150

2022 panini prizm yordan alvarez blue mojo prizm #/199

2019 panini chronicles blake snell obsidian prizm

2019 panini chronicles whit merrifield phoenix holo prizm

the sean mclain card presents a bit of a quandary for me. it could fit in my collection a couple of different ways - mclain was the dodgers' 5th round pick in 2022 (i've used this tactic once before with a team usa relic), and he also hails from tustin, california.

i have a mini-collection in the works that includes tustin (foreshadowing another future post). not sure what i'll do with this card as of now.

it had been decades since i had bought a grab bag at a show, but i am happy with these. not sure i am happy enough to try my luck again, but never say never!

still treinen to collect dodgers

at some point being a team collector becomes difficult. there are so many releases and parallels and inserts and cards. it's tough to keep track of, and even if you do, the time to check a have/want is not always available when digging through boxes or just browsing online. that's why i am thankful for fellow bloggers who look at want lists and send me cards that i know i most likely "need". one of the latest cases in point are these cards i received from night owl.

starting off with a 2020 topps stickers blake treinen item

this is the back of the sticker - the front is a cub if i recall correctly. there aren't a lot of treinen items out there and i certainly am not actively looking for those that are given how bad he had been in 2025. we will always have 2024, however, so i still have room for him in my collection.

i can probably count on one hand the number of trade packages that have included cards from 2002 upper deck 40 man, and greg sent me two cards i needed

alex cora and hiram bocachica. i remember bocachica fondly because he hit a home run late in the shawn green 4 homer game that helped advance the lineup so that green would later get a shot at homer number 4.

eric karros, seen here on his 1995 fleer flair, 2002 playoff absolute memorabilia, and 1996 score cards,

also played in the shawn green 4 homer game. he was eventually replaced by dave hansen who hit a home run right after green left the yard for the fourth time. i didn't even notice because my friend and i were still freaking out over green's blast. that score card is a dugout collection parallel, by the way.

here's a 2014 bowman chrome dual-ing die-cut card featuring 2012 first round picks corey seager and eddie butler

seager was taken 18th overall - he was the fourth shortstop taken in the draft after carlos correa (#1 overall), addison russell (#11), and gavin cecchini (#12). butler was taken with the 46th overall pick.

this 2024 topps mookie betts insert

is quite often listed as "fan favorites". i know because i have a saved search for dodger fan favorites on ebay, as i look for refractors and autographs. the card is actually "fantasy favorites", but the design hides a lot of the text behind the photo. not just for betts, either.

we've now reached the colored parallel portion of the post, with a 2024 topps yellow bordered jd martinez card

a 2018 topps gypsy queen green parallel clayton kershaw card

and a purple hot box chrome refractor of freddie freeman from 2024 topps heritage

it's always fun to get a 1975 design card from night owl!

last but not least is this 2018 panini donruss optic shock prizm clayton kershaw card

like i said up top, there are too many parallels these days (so many, in fact, i have pretty much stopped adding full panini checklists to my want lists), so i am glad that some others are looking out for me and my collection. thanks greg!