j.d. drew had a good run

j.d. drew hit the majors with a bang in 1998 when he slugged 1.436 in 14 games for the cardinals. those high expectations were hard to measure up to over the course of a full season, and eventually drew was dealt to the braves. after putting up a career year there in what was a "walk" year, the dodgers signed him and now we have legion cards of drew in dodger blue.

i noticed that the ones i had in my scanned folder all showed drew running.  

here's his 2005 upper deck update card

which used a donruss design combined with a blackberry device. really strange.

here's his 2006 topps bazooka blue parallel

and his 2006 topps gold parallel

those two topps produced cards certainly show images captured within seconds of each other. here's one more - drew's 2006 topps chrome black refractor parallel

that is, of course, identical to the flagship gold parallel.

drew did more than run as a dodger, even though he was injured for much of his first season with the club. the second year, 2006, he played in a career high 146 games and drove in 100 runs for the only time in his career helping them get to the postseason. i recall being hopeful when drew was signed, disappointed when he was injured so much in 2005, and then content with his performance in 2006.

i was even more hopeful when the dodgers decided not to re-sign drew (or kenny lofton) after the 2006 season, as i figured that meant matt kemp would be an every day outfielder. however, the dodgers went and signed juan pierre and luis gonzalez and kemp was left to wait a bit longer.

cards from nick always make me smyly

yet another trade with nick at dime boxes is in the books, and as always, it was a good one. nick responded to my call for some 2024 topps series 2 base needs, including drew smyly's card

which is a welcome departure from the other cards in the set. i wish topps would find a balance between candids and action shots and not lean so heavily in one direction or the other.

nick included several other base needs from the latest flagship release, and also threw this thing in there

it's not the meijer purple parallel but rather some sort or purple holofoil parallel. not sure where these are found (and not going to bother to look it up) but it's appreciated nonetheless.

some other dodgers that nick sent include a james outman 2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary card

it's a card that would have been much more popular if it were actually released in 2023.

nick is always good for some new to me vladimir guerrero cards, and this time there were a bunch. two of my favorites are this one

(which is not, in fact, from 2004 topps, but rather a 2006 topps walmart exclusive insert!) and this one from 2003 fleer ultra

that refers to his team as "mon expos" which means "my" expos but is really just a strange way of abbreviating "montreal". i would have expected "mtl".

nick is also good for some new to me double play turns, and there were four this time around.

2017 topps jason kipnis rainbow foil

2001 fleer ultra barry larkin

2000 pacific edgardo alfonzo

and 2004 mlb showdown edgar renteria

these next two were my favorite cards of the bunch. the first one is a 1996 upper deck hideo nomo highlights card

it's a duplicate, but one that i was able to find a home for in my collection because of the back

i was at the game referenced on the back and got to see nomo's performance that night along with an on-field division clinching celebration by the dodgers, and i shared my experience (along with another card that tangentially references nomo's performance that night) in this post. because this card directly references the game i was at, it goes into my "cards featuring games i attended in person" mini-collection.

the other card that i want to share is this one

a 1960 topps don drysdale all-star card! it's one of nick's bargain finds at a recent show and was a bit of a surprise to see among all the newer cards.

if you're not trading with nick i don't know what to tell you.

thanks nick!

wilson!

over 14 years ago i discovered that my 1990 topps dodger team collection was missing mike davis' card (sorry mike!). history repeated itself earlier last summer as i was entering my dodger collection in to tcdb. when i got to the 1992 score set - a set that i had marked "dodgers complete" - i found that i was missing steve wilson. and, unlike the 1990 topps davis card, i did not have a bunch of 1992 score wilson cards sitting among my dupes.

i quickly added a wilson card to a sportlots order

and now my team set is complete.

similarly, i found that i had a promo version of this card

from 1992 donruss triple play but not the actual card. that, too, has been rectified and tcdb has been updated.

speaking of tcdb, it has taken me awhile to get to entering cards from my mini-collections, but i have been able to add most of them. there are still some i haven't entered, including my dodger stadium and my double play collections. i keep adding cards to those collections, however, including this fantastic 2001 topps fusion card

that nick at dime boxes turned me on to. it features one of the great moments in dodger stadium murals - manny mota's, in fact - that i love to see on cardboard so much. i don't know how i missed this example back when i was scrutinizing cards from the early 2000s for any sign of the murals.

i went back and forth about picking up this 2022 topps now turn back the clock card of jim palmer

but finally relented. it shows him pitching in dodger stadium during the 1966 world series. long gone are those low-rise paneled railings, but they are a dead giveaway for dodger stadium with pre-mccourt era photos.

as for double plays, i've added a 1985 topps sticker showing the dp combo of alan trammell and lou whitaker eliminating luis salazar

during the ninth inning of game three 1984 world series. not shown is tony gwynn who grounded to whitaker to start this play. gwynn made it safely to first base, but then steve garvey flew out to end the game.

more current twin killings include a 2006 topps marcus giles gold parallel card

a 2020 topps jonathan villar gold foil parallel card

a 2023 topps chrome vaughn grissom card

and a 2023 topps heritage jonathan india card

i am assuming mookie betts will get some double play cards in 2024 and i am looking forward to those, but first i want to get the rest of my mini-collections loaded in to tcdb. wish me luck!

no national for me, but some card show and shop experiences nonetheless!

even though i am not too far from chicago, i haven't been to a national since the 1990's when it was held in anaheim. i am ok with that, although i did look in to a proxy shopper this year. what i asked this attendee to be on the lookout for were cheap dodger inserts and parallels (assuming dime and quarter boxes still exist at the national) plus a couple of specific vintage items. i exerted no pressure, of course, so have no expectations surrounding the request. i'll just wait and see!

i saw fuji post about a bba started by matt at cards over coffee and figured i would share some cards of my own as part of the exercise. i noticed in fuji's post that he showed off some autograph cards, so i'll show one that has been in my scanned folder for a while - 2022 topps archives pedro guerrero fan favorites

topps hit the nail on the head last year by including petey in the checklist. he has an attractive autograph and truly was a fan favorite for many dodger fans back in the early and mid-1980's. here's the back of the card:

his 1985 season was monstrous.

back to the card show angle, i did attend the local monthly club show back near the end of june. one of the regular dealers who has had some tremendous bargain boxes was there again, and i spent most of my time digging through his stuff. it wasn't nearly as fun as previous shows have been, as it seemed a bit picked over as far as inserts and parallels were concerned. there were a lot of clumps of cards featuring certain stars - frank thomas, ichiro, mike piazza, ken griffey jr, vladimir guerrero, etc - and i picked up a few vladdys for my collection, including these six:

it was nice to find the 2011 topps heritage all-star short print for a quarter, and the two 2007 topps cards weren't regular old base...

...they were the red text back variations

remember that lame deal?

i kept digging and found some 2006 topps rookie of the week cards

i remember getting a couple of these in real-time from a cards/magazine shop in downtown minneapolis back in '06. the brooks robinson is the worst of the bunch since they used old man brooks on his rookie 1957 card design.

it is quite possible that i have passed over this card in dime boxes many times.

it's a 1997 fleer mike piazza goudey greats insert. i always thought these were from 1998, and so there is a good chance i thought that piazza was shown as a met here. this time, i saw the "la" on his helmet and realized his blue jersey was not that of a metropolitan at all!

i did find a bunch of cards similar to those that i was hoping for my proxy to find in chicago - dodger inserts and parallels - and here is a taste

it's sort of weird to me that a.j. pollock was featured in some insert sets, but i guess that's good?

i enjoyed finding a few walgreens yellow parallels from 2019 topps update

and i continue to think it is shameful that russell martin didn't get a true final tribute in 2020.

my favorite find from the show was picked out of one of those ichiro card "clumps"

name/number on the back photo variation from 2015 topps for a quarter? yes please!

fast forward a few weeks, and i stopped at one of the lcs in a twin cities suburb one morning to dig through their bargain boxes and maybe find a pack of 2023 topps chrome. i struck out on the latter, but found a few interesting cards while looking through card singles.

the best one, in my opinion, was this 2021 topps gallery modern artists mookie betts blue parallel

it's not too often you see teeth like that on a baseball card. it's numbered to 99 and i paid $2 for it.

most of the cards i grabbed were from the nickel boxes, including a dodger stadium card - 2019 topps chrome lorenzo cain

and a 2022 topps chrome ben baller josh donaldson

those ben baller cards from 2022 are pretty sharp, but i only found donaldson and one other twin in the box. not sure what i am going to do with it - maybe send it to brian if he's still collecting - but i couldn't leave it behind for a nickel.

the second most interesting card (well, cards, really) i picked up were some sga cards featuring various kansas city royals. this one is going in my name/number on the back collection

here's the back:

i knew the cards weren't from 2012 despite the design because of the inclusion of whit merrifield as well as the reference to the 2015 world series title there on the back. it turns out these are from 2018 and are kcp&l (kansas city power & light) police cards. decent oddball.

while i was in the store, no fewer than five individuals came in to have someone look at their cards and potentially make an offer. three were pretty much turned away, while one guy said he was just looking to see if the store was interested in what he brought in because he had a bunch more at home and was looking to reduce his collection. he noted that he started rebuilding his collection after returning from vietnam and finding that his cards had been thrown out. i inferred that he had a lot of vintage - i think what he brought in were a couple of complete sets of topps football cards from the late sixties plus one from 1970.

the other guy was quickly ushered in to the shop's back office which shares a wall with where i was digging through boxes. i could hear the shop owner explaining the current market and talking about vintage - and then he started talking about a 1952 mickey mantle. the guy had either walked in to the shop with a 1952 topps mantle or a 1952 bowman mantle, but i am assuming topps because that is the definitive "'52 mantle", right? anyway, the shop owner came out of the office a few minutes later and told the other guy working that he had just bought a '52 mantle.

and to think, i didn't have to go to the national to be in the presence of the holy grail!

this collector is on sapphire!

i suppose it will be a pack of 2023 topps that i will purchase at some point later this year that will make things official, but with the calendar turning i can say that 2023 marks the 45th anniversary of my first card pack purchase, and is therefore my 46th year as a baseball card collector. you could even say 47th year as i was given a pack of 1977 topps cards back in the summer of sam and star wars.

of course, the first packs that i bought with my allowance were from the 1978 topps set, and i have held that set near and dear to my heart ever since. i am always on the lookout for cards featuring the design as i try to assemble some sort of "master set". one of the first custom card efforts i undertook after purchasing photoshop was to complete my 1978 topps dodger set with cards that i thought were missing from the actual set, along with a couple other cards that would never have been but i appreciated seeing.

although topps seemed to ignore the 1978 set for a long time, they couldn't hide from it in 2011 when they celebrated 60 years of topps.  here's what they had to say about the set then:

i don't know if it is truly one of the "most adored issues of the '70s" for a lot of collectors, but it certainly is for me.

the front of that card is a reprint of gary carter's card from the 1978 set

which features a candid - not posed - photo of the kid. there are quite a few of each type of photo in the set, and i hope in 2027 that heritage gets it right.

as for that "master set" i mentioned up top, i figured i would go through the checklist of cards that i have compiled and completed. the checklist itself is not complete in terms of all non-1978 topps cards that feature the 1978 design, and it only focuses on cards that are different from the actual 1978 set - different teams or photos. so, for instance, there are only a few cards from the 1978 topps burger king sets represented, and i do not include any direct reprints (other than the carter card above which i include more as a header). so, here is what i have in my "master" 1978 topps set:

1978 topps zest #5 willie montanez

1978 topps burger king astros # dave bergman

1978 topps burger king astros # jesus alou

1978 topps burger king rangers #5 jon matlack

1978 topps burger king rangers #8 fergie jenkins

1978 topps burger king rangers #10 reggie cleveland

1978 topps burger king rangers #17 al oliver

1978 topps burger king rangers #21 john lowenstein

1978 topps burger king rangers #22 bobby thompson

1978 topps burger king tigers #7 jim slaton

1978 topps burger king tigers #13 lou whitaker

1978 topps burger king tigers #15 alan trammell

1978 topps burger king tigers #16 steve dillard

1978 topps burger king tigers #6 jack billingham

1978 topps burger king tigers #8 jack morris

1978 topps burger king yankees #10 rich gossage

1978 topps burger king yankees #11 rawly eastwick

1978 topps burger king yankees #16 jim spencer

2001 topps archives #305 lou whitaker

2001 topps archives #80 jack morris

2003 topps all-time fan favorites #78 jim rice

2003 topps all-time fan favorites #99 jack clark

2003 topps all-time fan favorites #118 ron guidry

2003 topps all-time fan favorites #123 mark fidrych

2003 topps all-time fan favorites #ffa-dde doug decinces autograph (no base card)

2004 topps all-time fan favorites #33 keith hernandez

2004 topps all-time fan favorites #97 eric gregg

2005 topps all-time fan favorites #44 dusty baker

2005 topps all-time fan favorites #110 rick monday

2005 topps all-time fan favorites #132 bob boone

2006 topps walmart blaster insert #wm47 carlos delgado

2012 topps archives fan favorites autograph #ffa-gf george foster

2012 topps archives fan favorites autograph #ffa-gl greg luzinski

2013 topps archives #226 larry bowa

2013 topps archives #239 dave parker

2014 topps future stars that never were #fs-3 eddie murray

2017 topps throwback thursday 1978 topps record breaker design #122 cody bellinger

2017 topps throwback thursday 1978 topps record breaker design #123 giancarlo stanton

2017 topps throwback thursday 1978 topps record breaker design #124 aaron judge

2017 topps throwback thursday 1978 topps record breaker design #125 edwin encarnacion

2017 topps throwback thursday 1978 topps record breaker design #126 j.d. martinez

2017 topps throwback thursday 1978 topps record breaker design #127 joey gallo

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #1 mike trout

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #2 bryce harper

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #3 mookie betts

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #4 kris bryant

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #5 francisco lindor

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #6 aaron judge

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #7 jose altuve

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #8 clayton kershaw

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #9 carlos correa

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #10 manny machado

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #11 buster posey

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #12 chris sale

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #13 adrian beltre

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #14 gary sanchez

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #15 charlie blackmon

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #16 jacob degrom

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #17 corey kluber

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #18 george springer

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #19 luis severino

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #20 noah syndergaard

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #21 andrew mccutchen

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #22 paul goldschmidt

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #23 shohei ohtani 

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #24 rhys hoskins 

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #25 christian villanueva 

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #26 walker buehler 

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #27 ronald acuna 

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #28 gleyber torres 

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #29 ozzie albies 

2018 topps on demand inspired by 1978 #30 juan soto 

2021 topps 70 years of topps #70yt-28 shohei ohtani

2021 topps 70 years of topps #70yt-28 cal ripken jr

2021 topps update 70 years of topps #70yt-28 carlos correa

2022 topps archives #101-200

that last group is card number 200 (vladimir guerrero) along with the design variation card of spencer torkelson and a numbered parallel of trevor rogers.

a couple of notes on the 2006 delgado above. as far as i am aware, that is the first card to be issued after 1978 using the design that didn't fall under the archives/fan favorites umbrella as well as the first card using the design to feature a player who was not active in 1978. heck, even eric gregg was umping back then. with all of that, the first thought i had back when i first obtained the card was that the topps logo certainly seems out of place! 

i know that topps used elements of the 1978 design on the backs of the super home team release in 1981 as well as the squirt cards from 1981 and the cracker jack cards in 1982. i have the dodgers from those sets, but don't count them as part of this "master" set endeavor. the 2018 online set is pretty much where i draw the line.

to be clear, the cards listed and shown above are the cards that i currently have in this "master" collection, in addition to the complete 1978 topps and o-pee-chee sets themselves.  i am ignoring the 1978 burger king cards that were identical to the flagship topps versions and the 4-in-1 rookie cards that were short printed as part of the 2018 on demand set along with the parallels and inserts from that set. same goes for the refractor inserts and autograph parallels from fan favorites (aside from a couple of dodgers and a mark fidrych auto that i pulled from a pack) and all the parallels and variations from 2022 archives (other than the two shown). just too much to try to track down. i also don't include my 1978 topps burger king dodgers that should have been custom cards (or those of others) in the "master" set - just official topps releases - although thanks to gavin and gio i have many 1978 customs printed and in sheets as well.

i know that other more recent uses of the design exist - in 2019 topps issued some autographed cards featuring the 1978 record breaker design as an insert to their archives release, but i don't think i will ever land any of those - the subjects included the likes of juan soto, ohtani, mike trout, and sandy koufax. there was also a 2016 throwback thursday set that featured the managerial design from 1978 in a "then and now" theme, and in 2019 topps again produced a throwback thursday set using the 4-in-1 rookie design. i don't have any of those cards, either.

i am fully aware that my tenure in the hobby is not as long or as fervent as others and i am not trying to make it seem as though i am in any way special or unique as a collector. this has truly been as close to a lifelong hobby as i will have, and i am glad that i stuck with it when others typically abandoned it. i do plan to scale back in 2023, although i have had those thoughts before. i anticipate good things from 2023 topps heritage and i will, as always, be on the lookout for new steve garvey cards, along with dodgers - primarily clayton kershaw - and cards that fit in to my mini-collections.

best of luck to all with your collections in 2023!