the one where saturday morning errands included a stop at the card show

while there is no official twin cities sports card collectors club show in july, they promoted a show set for a july saturday on their website that was held in the town in which i live. while the regular shows aren't too far away, this one saved me some travel time for sure. with it being so close, i was able to wrap a visit into some saturday morning errands pretty easily.

i wound up with 25 new to me dodger cards from just two sellers. the space in the "mall" was fairly narrow, and the one regular seller with the good bargain boxes was set up across from the busiest part of the mall - a restaurant bustling with weekend brunchers. anyway, here are my top 5 pickups from the "hometown" show:

5. 2006 upper deck epic brad penny

i have never seen too many cards from this set out and about. the few cards i have from the set have been targeted relics or inserts, so it was nice to find a "base" card that was listed for a buck. i consider this card to have been a freebie, however, as i will explain later.

4. 2015 topps joc pederson career high autograph

this was in the $2 box that the regular seller had out on his table. it's a rookie card that, for some reason, lacks the rc shield. even though it is a sticker auto it was a good find for the collection. and, for what it's worth, the career high ops value there is a minor league stat for joc.

3. 2024 topps heritage clayton kershaw highlight black border parallel

i doubt that this card would have been in the dollar box if it were actually numbered to 50 (the print run), but i am not complaining. there were a couple other black borders in the box that i took home with me, too.

2. 2017 topps archives jackie robinson photo/no signature variation

a jackie robinson variation in the $2 box was another nice find. i don't know how this seller continually updates his inventory but i sure do appreciate it.

1. 1997 bowman chrome hideo nomo refractor parallel

it's not adrian beltre's refractor, but the nomo card is still a very nice pick up. it was marked at $40 but placed in a 75% off box by the same seller who had the brad penny card up top. i offered $10 for both and the deal was done.

the pederson, kershaw, and jackie cards all came from the regular seller, and when all was said and done, i had spent an average of $0.75 on each card i took from his boxes.

in other news, i am pleased to report that i will be attending the national this coming sunday. it will be the first national i have attended since the late 1990s when i went to one held in anaheim. it would be cool to connect with some folks so shoot me an email if you will be there and we can introduce our wallet cards to each other.

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!

orange you wondering why i didn't post anything about gil hodges and the hall of fame?

gil hodges was officially enshrined in cooperstown last month, and the dodgers retired his number 14 as well.  these events made me a happy fan, even if i didn't have anything to say about it when it was happening.  i was disappointed that vin scully wasn't able to attend the number retirement which gave me an inkling that he wasn't doing well.

anyway, i had celebrated hodges' pending enshrinement earlier in the year with a hall of famer collection post. you will see in that post that the card representing hodges in my hof collection is a 2006 upper deck epic relic card - the green parallel to be exact.

i believe there are 11 parallels for those materials cards, and in addition to the green, i have the hodges in teal and now dark orange:

the other parallels are blue, gold, grey, purple, orange, red, dark green, and dark purple. strange that upper deck doubled up on some colors, but i guess that's one way to manipulate the print runs of variations. even stranger that the orange and dark orange hodges cards are both numbered to 39.

anyway, congratulations again to the hodges family and dodger and met (and maybe some senator) fans everywhere!

gil hodges is in my hall of famer collection

i was surprised - happy to be sure - but very surprised nonetheless to find that gil hodges had been voted in to the hall of fame earlier this month. i've added this card to my hall of famer collection as a result:

that's a 2006 upper deck epic epic materials teal parallel, numbered 98/99.  here's the back:

i don't have any gil hodges stories as he passed away before i knew what baseball was, but you can't tell the story of the brooklyn dodgers without a large helping of hodges. he was the favorite player of my favorite player, so that certainly carried some weight with me as a young fan.

hodges began his career as a catcher, but moved to first base as roy campanella took over behind the plate. 310 of his career home runs came in the 1950's when he was at his peak - a number that was second only to fellow boy of summer, duke snider. hodges still ranks highly on the dodger franchise leader board - he is (once again) only second to snider in home runs and rbi - and by all accounts is still revered by the team and fan base. of course, hodges spent the last two seasons of his playing career with the mets and then went on to manage the senators before returning to the mets as their skipper. he led the 1969 team to their "amazin'" world series upset, and was still at the helm when he died in the spring of 1972 from a heart attack.

i was definitely biased, but i didn't understand why he wasn't voted in to the hall by the writers or by earlier versions of the veterans' committee. whatever the reasons, i am glad that he has been finally recognized, and am looking forward to his induction!

by the way, i've updated my hall of famer collection on my want site - i decided not to show it in its entirety as part of these posts anymore.

a five barrel salute to my steve garvey collection

steve garvey is officially being inducted in to the 'legends of dodger baseball' club tonight at dodger stadium. this is a way for the dodger organization to recognize 'hall of very good' players, as their uniform number retirement criteria has long required hall of fame induction (except for lifelong dodger jim gilliam). it's not perfect, but i know that the twins do a similar thing - they have a 'twins hall of fame' which includes the likes of joe nathan, jim perry, frank viola, etc, while they have a different criteria for retired numbers.  alas, i'm unable to attend the game, but it seems like a good reason to show off some big garvey additions to my collection.

just over a year ago, i added a 2017 topps museum collection steve garvey bat barrel 1/1 card to my collection.

this is the second bat barrel card of the garv in my collection, although it is the lone solo barrel card.

the other one, also a 1/1, is from 2006 upper deck epic and features not just garvey, but manny mota

and a couple of other steves - sax and yeager.

pedro guerrero's left arm makes an appearance around yeager's neck for good measure.

this is the good stuff.