2025 brings balance to the franchise

i was pondering the upcoming 2025 baseball season last winter and did some quick math in my head regarding some dodger milestones. it will be the 70th anniversary of the team's first world series title and the 60th anniversary of their fourth. it will also be the 135th anniversary of their inaugural season as a member of the national league. as you likely already know, while the team existed for a few years prior, brooklyn officially joined the national league in 1890 and later moved to los angeles following the 1957 season. 

partly inspired by the fact that the a's were heading to sacramento after having been in oakland longer than they were in philadelphia, i pondered the dodgers' multi-city status and realized that with this being their 136th season in the major leagues, 2025 will mark their 68th season as the los angeles dodgers, matching the 68 that they played in brooklyn. franchise symmetry! (note that the giants still have seven years to go to reach this franchise fulcrum, as they began play as a national league team in 1883).

in 1957, topps gave us this team card of the brooklyn dodgers

but despite '57 being their final season in brooklyn, we got one more brooklyn dodger team card in 1958

since these were always "last year's" team photos. topps left off the city for the dodgers (and the giants) which was out of step with the other team cards. seeing roy campanella on the card makes me even more disappointed that topps did not give him a proper final tribute. finally, it's worth noting that topps not being able to color the numbers on the front of the dodger jerseys correctly is not a new phenomenon.

in 1959, topps gave us the first los angeles dodgers team card

and they got the red numbers right!

the last single player brooklyn dodger topps card belonged to don elston in 1957

and the first los angeles dodger topps card belonged to charley neal in 1958

around the first of the year, i took the opportunity to complete a couple of sets that span both cities. first, the 1980 tcma all-time dodgers

which features more brooklyn folks than los angeles ones. this 1991 line drive set

reverses that trend. i had a few of the tcma cards previously, as well as the garvey from the line drive set, but found it easier to buy the sets than piecemeal the missing cards.

i have plenty of other cards from my scanned folder to show today that play on this theme, including a couple gil hodges cards

that's a 1949 bowman reprint (chromified) from 2001 bowman chrome, and this is a 2002 topps 1952 world series insert

while hodges played for the dodgers in both brooklyn and los angeles, he's representing brooklyn in each of his cards in this post.

here's hodges' teammate in both brooklyn and la, duke snider, on a 2005 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary lineage insert

duke has his brooklyn hat on here, but is repping los angeles in the all-time dodger set above.

another dodger who played in both cities is jim gilliam, seen on a 2023 panini donruss pennants insert

his helmet has no logo, but the card makes it obvious that he is representing the brooklyn dodgers here. the brooklyn dodgers won nine pennants, but just one world series.

one great who didn't make the trip to los angeles with the club is jackie robinson. here he is on a few cards - 2024 topps mega box 1989 all-star

2024 topps allen & ginter mini chrome parallel

and 2023 topps archives 1969 single player foil insert

that really makes the case for brooklyn.

don drysdale, seen here on a 2008 donruss threads baseball americana insert

pitches for brooklyn, but the big d shown here on a 2022 topps gypsy queen short print

pitches for los angeles.

here's another sandy koufax card, this one from 2024 topps

it's another mega box exclusive parallel. koufax, of course, also spanned the franchise's time in brooklyn and los angeles, and he's wearing the latter on his chest here. he led the club to three world series titles in the first 10 years of their existence on the west coast and is still revered by the dodger faithful today.

once the 1970's arrived (represented here on a 2020 topps update decades' best blue parallel)

the club won three pennants, but lost each of the world series in which they played. the card above features a photo from the 1978 world series, which was especially heartbreaking for young gcrl who assumed that the dodgers would win since they lost in 1977. it was their turn!

the 1978 season did cement steve garvey as my favorite player, and i was far from alone in that regard. here's the garv on a 2024 topps allen & ginter gold mini parallel

while the perennial all-star didn't lead the dodgers back to the postseason in 1979, the 1980's brought two pennants and two championships to los angeles, represented by this 1989 mother's dodgers card

but then came some lean years. there were some bright spots, as a number of rookies of the year, including mike piazza seen on a 1994 ultra pro card

gave us hope. that hope petered out with two postseason sweepings in the middle of the 1990s. then came the jim tracy years. here's tracy on a 2004 topps gold parallel

his tenure included the dodgers' only postseason single game win since 1988, but also included a number of interesting player personnel decisions. one solid player who was there for part of the tracy era was shawn green, seen here on a 2005 donruss classics team colors insert

that is most decidedly "la".

another highlight of those years was "game over". eric gagne's prowess at saving games was highlighted on this 2006 upper deck epic epic events insert

gagne won the cy young award in 2003, and the dodgers didn't have a pitcher win another until clayton kershaw came along.

here's kershaw on a 2009 topps unique red parallel card

kershaw's arrival coincided with a run of team success. in fact, in kershaw's 17 seasons, the dodgers have missed the postseason only three times. here's a 2015 topps limited edition dodger team card

showing the 2014 squad celebrating their regular season success.

it wasn't until the dodgers added mookie betts, however, that their postseason fortunes changed. here's betts on a 2021 topps 70 years of topps insert

betts led the dodgers to the world series title in 2020, and he was aided four years later by freddie freeman and shohei ohtani (shown on his 2024 topps archives card)

who went 50/50 during the regular season.

of course, perhaps the greatest dodger and the real bridge between the franchise's time in brooklyn and los angeles, was vin scully. here's a 2013 panini cooperstown matrix parallel

of the longtime broadcaster.

i am excited to watch this team as it reaches its equilibrium this year and as it tips the scales to los angeles in years to come. i am very happy that the stateside opening day is tomorrow!

not so random grab bag

jay from card hemorrhage recently posted about 25-card grab bags that he was selling as a way of paring down his collection. one of the cards shown in his post was this 1977 topps ed goodson card signed by goodson himself!

being the collector that i am, i asked how likely it would be that my grab bag included the goodson, and jay said he would make it so. following on the heels of my recent post regarding goodson signing a 1978 topps card for me, i was very happy to add this card to my collection. i also have a signed 1976 topps card, so i have the full topps run of goodson dodger cards signed by the man himself.

the pack was fun to open and wade through, and came with vintage as advertised:

even some dodgers/orioles who would become dodgers or were previously dodgers

powell would have been a teammate of ed goodson back in 1977. the tommy davis comes from the 1976 sspc set (copyright 1975). i have called it 1975 in the past but i think someone corrected me.  jay guaranteed cards from that set, and in addition to tommy davis, i received cards of art howe and ross grimsley

i recognized grimsley but not howe.

here's a 1981 donruss paul householder card

that reminded me of my dad. he collected householder cards from 1981 through 1984 or so. someone had told him that householder was the next mickey mantle i think.

here's a 1981 topps dave bristol/giants team card.

i was not a fan of the combo manager/team cards that topps used from 1979 through 1981. my opinion was based on the 1978 set which had them separated. it wasn't until later that i realized the '78 set was the anomaly from 1975 - 1981.

greg minton hot pack! here's a 1981 topps sticker and 1989 topps card of the righthander:

sadly no 1978 topps card, although jay does use that as his avatar.

there were some more modern cards in the package, but i'll show just a couple of them. here's a 1994 topps gold parallel of tim bogar

with a joe oliver sighting.

and here's another parallel - a 2020 topps update brock holt walgreens yellow card

lots of fun cards for sure! check out jay's post and pick one up for yourself!

350 is a magic number - splitting 8s

a few weeks ago i noted that i was pondering the idea of adding a number type mini-collection to my collection. of the options i considered - 190, 272, 350, or none at all. thanks to all who weighed in with their thoughts! as i mentioned in the post, i had already decided what i wanted to do, and that was to go with 350. so, here is what i am up against:

topps flagship #350 type collection

1957 topps eddie miksis       
1958 topps ken boyer           
1959 topps ernie banks  

1960 topps mickey mantle      
1961 topps ernie banks
1962 topps frank robinson  
1963 topps bob purkey         
1964 topps willie mccovey  
1965 topps mickey mantle  
1966 topps mel stottlemyre
1967 topps joe torre             
1968 topps hoyt wilhelm     
1969 topps richie allen         
1970 topps roberto clemente            
1971 topps billy williams      
1972 topps frank howard    
1973 topps tom seaver        
1974 topps bob gibson         
1975 topps bobby murcer   
1976 topps lefty grove         
1977 topps larry dierker       
1978 topps steve garvey      
1979 topps garry templeton              
1980 topps  george hendrick               
1981 topps j.r. richard          
1982 topps thad bosley        
1983 topps robin yount        
1984 topps george foster    
1985 topps wade boggs       
1986 topps jack clark            
1987 topps keith hernandez               
1988 topps will clark             
1989 topps andy van slyke  
1990 topps bret saberhagen              
1991 topps glenn davis        
1992 topps gregg olson        
1993 topps joe carter           
1994 topps jim abbott          
1995 topps barry larkin        
1996 topps jay payton          
1997 topps kenny lofton      
1998 topps chuck carr          
1999 topps larry walker       
2000 topps jose cruz jr.        
2001 topps bruce bochy      
2002 topps oakland athletics             
2003 topps post season highlight     
2004 topps mark prior|kerry wood 
2005 topps albert pujols|larry walker            
2006 topps joe nathan                         
2007 topps chase utley        
2008 topps mark teixeira     
2009 topps dustin pedroia  
2010 topps prince fielder|ryan braun            
2011 topps francisco liriano
2012 topps evan longoria    
2013 topps albert pujols      
2014 topps carlos gonzalez 
2015 topps yasiel puig          
2016 topps kris bryant          
2017 topps david ortiz          
2018 topps clayton kershaw

2019 topps nick markakis    
2020 topps pete alonso       

2021 topps d.j. lemahieu

thanks to my duplicates, ebay, and sportlots, i am already just about there with these cards. i think i'll post cards from the same year of each decade, and since steve garvey's 1978 card is the first card i knew of at number 350, we will start with the 8s.

1958 topps #350

ken boyer kicks us off. he had a fairly pedestrian season in 1957 prior to this card being issued, but was more productive in 1958. he'd go on to win the nl mvp in 1964, and he had some other seasons which were worthy of mvp consideration. i don't think topps had embraced the hero number concept fully in 1958. sure, mickey mantle got card 150, but the big gun - ted williams - was still at card number 1. 

1968 topps #350

hoyt wilhelm, as the card back states, was a full-time reliever when this card was issued. his last start, in fact, came in 1963 although i would say he was really only a starting pitcher during one season and that was 1959 when he led the league in era. he also led the league in era in his rookie year of 1952. his sparkling era for the white sox in 1967 might have led the team, but he didn't pitch enough innings to qualify for the league title. instead, teammate joe horlen claimed the title with a 2.06 era. wilhelm didn't win any major awards during his career, but he is in the hall of fame.

1978 topps #350 

steve garvey was the 1974 national league mvp and helped the dodgers win the pennant in 1977. he was hugely popular when this card was issued, and would continue to start at first base for the nl in the all-star game for three more seasons before being supplanted. he was second in the 1978 mvp voting to dave parker.

1988 topps #350

will clark followed up his 1986 rookie campaign with a solid season in 1987. he was fifth in the mvp voting that year, and finished 5th again in 1988. in 1989, he would lead the giants to the pennant and finish second in the mvp vote.

1998 topps #350

chuck carr is one of the more confounding members of the 350 type collection. topps adhered to hero numbers in series 1 - mike piazza was card 100 and randy johnson was card 150 - and started strong in series 2 with roger clemens at card 300. carr, however, seems to have been assigned 350 randomly. in fact, this card is a 'final tribute' as he didn't play in the big leagues after 1997.

2008 topps #350

mark teixiera didn't quite make it a year in atlanta as he was acquired on july 31, 2007 and was traded away to the angels on july 29, 2008. he did, however, play in 157 games for the braves across those two seasons, and he put up solid numbers. splitting the 2007 season across leagues probably prevented him from getting any mvp votes that year, although he did garner some in 2008 even though he was only with the angels for a couple of months.

2018 topps #350

clayton kershaw had won an mvp and three cy young awards when this card was issued. he finished second in the 2017 cy young voting, done in by max scherzer. kershaw had more wins and a better era than scherzer, but scherzer pitched 25 more innings and struck out 66 more batters. i'm ok with that result, although i still disagree with jake arrieta getting the 2016 cy young over zack greinke. at any rate, kershaw helped the dodgers reach the world series in 2017 - their first trip since 1988 - and they were a kenley jansen mistake in game 2 away from winning the title (although other factors played in...).

i was going to track a few things in an effort to find any consistency with number 350, but you can already tell that there is none. oh well, i will still track these categories:

number of reigning mvps: 0

number of reigning cy young winners: 0

number of reigning world series champions: 0

number of reigning pennant winners: 2 (steve garvey, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 1 (clayton kershaw - wins, era)

number of repeat players: 0

number of dodgers: 2 (steve garvey, clayton kershaw)

frequency of teams: dodgers (2), cardinals, white sox, giants, astros, braves

i think this will be fun - stay tuned!