this shouldn't be left unacknowledged

last thursday was national left handers day which is a day usually celebrated by night owl, who sent me some cards back in february. the scans have languished long enough; it's time to share.

first up, of course, is a lefty.

that's a 2022 topps rainbow foil parallel, and this is a 2019 panini donruss optic mvp insert

which is fitting for the 2014 national league mvp.

next up is a "hybrid" lefty - freddie freeman throws right but bats left, and this is a 2023 topps update black gold insert

freeman showed up again with his 2022 topps gallery card, and he was paired with full fledged righty andre jackson

jackson's 2022 topps gold label class 1 black parallel

was also included.

from 2022 panini donruss, here are a couple of rightys - walker buehler and mookie betts

the betts card is the holo red parallel, and not the "red" parallel which is actually red and white striped (and numbered).

righty betts is also represented by his 2022 topps stadium club trophy hunters insert

and he has had good success in hunting trophies indeed.

more rightys - 2021 panini chronicles albert pujols

2022 topps stadium club justin turner red foil parallel

2023 panini donruss andy pages holo orange parallel

2024 topps archives teoscar hernandez black foil parallel

and, to show that pitchers can have parallel fun as well, here's a 2017 topps gypsy queen jose de leon parallel

those are all parallels of base cards, but inserts get the parallel treatment as well. this is a 2022 topps fire trea turner en fuego gold minted parallel

and i'll end the haul from night owl with a "base" 2022 panini mosaic max muncy straight fire insert

muncy, obviously, bats left.

now, while night owl didn't send me the next card, he was responsible for it getting added to my collection

that's a 1992 topps pre-production tommy lasorda gold card. that lasorda card is among my favorite dodger cards of all time, thanks to the skipper jogging with gary carter, kevin gross, john candelaria, orel hershiser, and bobby ojeda. anyway, here's the back:

i did not know of this card's existence until night owl posted about it. apparently, there is another variation with an oval on the back instead of the diamond. i won't be chasing that, but i did add a second version of the card to my collection so that i could put one in my dodger stadium mini-collection.

here's the actual gold parallel as it was eventually put out by topps

and there was also a "winner" version available by mail-in

while the actual cards added the "manager" box above the "dodgers" box, the biggest difference from pre-production to production was the back

gone is the text and the larger photo of dodger stadium, and in are the stats and a smaller photo. a;so added to the final version are tommy's vitals - height, weight, and handedness. in case you weren't aware, he was a lefty.

meanwhile, i tracked down some other cards on my own of another certain lefty

that may look like a 1994 topps fernando valenzuela card, but it's actually the bilingual or spanish parallel

sort of an o-pee-chee card for mexico.

finally, here's a full-on spanish card of el toro - a 1997 pacific crown collection latinos of the major leagues insert

the back shows him at the plate, which is always nice to see

thanks to greg, kershaw, tommy, fernando, and ned flanders for celebrating leftys. and additional thanks to greg for the cards!

going for gold

the 2024 olympics are a few months away, so this post is about cards and not medals. i've picked up a few new topps flagship gold parallel cards recently and figured i would run through a full slate of these parallels now that 2024 series 1 is out.

the first gold cards showed up in 1992

i remember these being a pretty big deal, with one of my local shops offering a bounty for the barry bonds parallel. there was also a redemption offer in which you would receive these same parallels with "winner" stamped in gold above the team names. 

maybe one of the first "paraallel parallel" sets.

1993 saw a similar gold treatment

but with the addition of the "topps gold" logo

in 1994

there was only the name to make gold.

after that, topps took a break from the gold parallels. when they returned in 2001

there was full border foil, along with the names, and the cards were serial numbered (not shown) to the year of production.

the 2002 gold cards

aren't as obvious as scans because of the gold border that topps used for the base design. this was the first year that they added the "xx years of collecting", building from the "topps 50" logo on the 2001 cards. i've posted in the past about anniversaries vs. years of collecting so i won't bother to get into it again here.

in 2003

the names and borders were made gold, but topps left the remainder of the design blue.

2004

2005

and 2006

each had white border base designs that were changed to gold.

in 2007

the base design was black. there were no black parallels that year - instead topps used copper for the numbered "years of collecting" parallels

the next several years - 2008

2009

2010

2011

and 2012

had their white borders and names turned gold, but the "years of collecting" text fell off the cards in 2012

in 2013 

and 2014

topps applied the gold to the full design

after 2014, topps got more graphically creative with their flagship design. the golds were a pretty standard conversion in 2015

but in 2016 

the gold leaked into the photo as there was no border to color. same in 2017

and in 2018 it was all over the photo

partial gold borders were achieved in 2019

and 2020

and then back in full force in 2021

more of the same in 2022

but for some reason the gold cards in 2023

didn't get gold all the way around.

this year, 2024,

we are back to full bordered gold.

for my money the 2001 and 2007 gold parallels are my favorite, although i don't have  a lot of them. in fact, i've only completed the 1992 (and the 1992 "winners") dodger gold parallel team sets, although the last 1994 card i need is on its way to me. night owl just recently shared his complete 2008 dodger gold parallel team set, and i think i need to start making more progress in this regard - i mean just look how chunky the gold borders are on the 2007 topps dodger team card

my gold rush is on!