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. 

something about wolves and sheep and clothing

actually, the biblical reference to false prophets is not the right allusion for this post. this is more about masqueraders. you all know how much i treasure the o-pee-chee team variations, and i enjoy finding other similar type cards to add to my dodger collection.

case in point, i discovered while entering my dodger collection on tcdb that i was missing a card from my checklist of dodgers included in the 1986 true value super stars set - bill madlock's card:

once i saw that it was, in fact, a dodger card, i couldn't obtain it quickly enough. he is clearly a pirate, but also a dodger.

similarly, eric davis' 1992 topps kids card

uses the old o-pee-chee "now with" angle. eric the red dodger!

this 1994 donruss triple play delino deshields card

is decidedly more "dodger-y", thanks to the logo being front and center on the card, but it is also overwhelmingly "expo-y".

manuel barrios became a dodger thanks to the mike piazza trade, and donruss was able to get some text on his 1998 donruss card to reflect that status

barrios pitched in one game for the dodgers before he was dfa'd and claimed by the marlins. i seem to recall that interim gm tommy lasorda may have taken some heat for barrios' departure (on a procedural level) but barrios never pitched in the big leagues again, so no harm no foul.

kevin brown is all padre on the front of this 1999 upper deck ovation card

but i assure you that on the back, there is a nice looking dodgers logo. just like the one on the front of this 2007 upper deck first edition juan pierre leading off insert

fun juan pierre trivia - he played in 821 consecutive games (a streak that ended during his dodger tenure) which is in the top ten all-time, except in one of those games he appeared only as a pinch runner so i guess mlb says it doesn't count and instead he has two streaks of 386 and 434 consecutive games played. doesn't make sense to me - he played in the game so it should count.

here's one where upper deck tried to make a card more of a dodger card than it really is

that's a 1998 upper deck collector's choice starquest insert of eddie murray, who was back for his second stint in la. he is wearing an indians or orioles uniform however, although the name and number on the back have been colorized to blue.

i also include cards of "outbound" dodgers in my dodger collection such as this 1998 donruss todd zeile card

which is a perfect companion to the barrios card above.

and then there is this 2005 donrus throwback threads card of hideo nomo

who is officially listed as a tampa bay devil ray.

here's another one - a 2006 fleer flair showcase wave of the future card of cody ross

who is a dodger playing in cincinnati.

i also recently picked up this card from 2009 upper deck a piece of history for the collection

it shows manny ramirez as all dodger, while matt holliday is straddling the line between colorado rockie and oakland athletic.

there are other cards that are quite sneaky and escape my knowledge for decades before i become aware of their dodgerness, like this 1971 dell todays ted sizemore

definitely a dodger on the front

but a cardinal on the back. the dodger album features al downing as a brewer as far as the photo goes, but dick allen is shown in a dodger uniform so i just assumed that sizemore would have been shown wearing the cardinal get up. i was wrong and just happened to stumble upon an image of this item a couple of months ago.

speaking of allen, he was included in the 1971 kellogg's set

while sizemore was not. in this set, allen is still a cardinal until you turn the card over!

that's a dodger card for sure.