continuing the search for logo overload

it's been over four years since this post, but i have never stopped looking for more four-in-one logo cards. let's see some logos!

first up is a sticker from 1990 publications international that features the dodgers' hat logo

that is the logo that is most likely to show up on a card multiple times simply because it is the hat logo.

this 2001 topps ismael valdes gold parallel

that i bought earlier this year has four logos, but they are not all the same. topps sometimes uses teams' official logos, which in the dodgers' case is the script and flying ball design. the club still wears "dodgers" in script on their sleeves, but only with jerseys that say "los angeles" on the front. the jersey that valdes is modeling is one of the worst dodger fits of all time.

i also bought this 2014 topps ricky nolasco camo parallel for the dodger collection

it features three "la" logos, and if yasiel puig had been holding his hat the other way, we would have had four. with two players, however, it would not have counted towards a four-in-one. here's the back of the card

showing the serial numbering to 99.

topps switched to the hat logo in 2013, and they stuck with it for the most part (2021 and 2023 were the exceptions) until this year. still, i found no four logo cards. here are some three logo cards - kenley jansen's gold parallel from 2015

a rainbow foil parallel of alex verdugo from 2020

a 2022 topps chrome trea turner prism refractor

and a 2022 topps update turner manufactured relic

if only the card design included the logo as well...

tyler glasnow's 2024 topps chrome prism refractor

and tommy edman's 2025 topps holofoil parallel

are two more recent examples. there are many more dodger cards that include photos with three logos because of the sleeve logo, so it's not as big of a deal as it used to be.

i did get sort of excited by the tyler glasnow/blake snell combo card in 2025 topps update

that is the holiday foil parallel, of course, but here we have five logos! with two players, it's not much to write home about, however.

as for other teams, i found some recent-ish releases to share. 

this 2020 bowman robel garcia card

has four "c"s on it. not all are the same logos, however.

this 2022 topps kurt suzuki card

has four "a"s on it, although the one on the jersey (part of the "angels" text on the chest) is obscured.

thankfully, i was able to find a card that rivals the 1984 fleer mike vail card featured in the post linked above.

jarrod dyson's 2019 topps card sets a new standard for a four-in-one logo card! of course, i would prefer the player to be wearing three of the logos, but this is a very logo oriented card!

of course, one could cheat, like with this 2000 topps tek pattern 5 card of shawn green

or this 2024 topps jonny deluca team color border parallel

but they don't count in this endeavor.

last year i did find and purchase a dodger single player four logo card - it is james outman's 2025 topps golden mirror variation

had james' left arm been forward in the photo, we would have seen five "la" logos on the card! here's the back:

which features another logo. 

i am hoping that 2027 topps goes back to the hat logos with the card design. regardless, the search for logo overload continues!

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - giant slayer edition!

clayton kershaw made his sixth appearance of the 2025 season saturday night against the giants at dodger stadium, so i am pleased to be able to post another edition of the k is for kershaw kountdown as we track his progress to the 3,000 strikeout milestone.

coming off his best start of the season, kershaw registered another solid outing, going seven innings without allowing a run (matching the best outing by a dodger starter this season) and striking out five giants in the process. those 5 nocal's he k'd bring his season strikeout total to 20, and his career total to 2,988.

in honor of his performance, here are five cards (not seen on this blog before) from my collection to represent strikeouts number 2,984 through 2,988.

2,984 - 2024 topps finest

2,985 - 2014 topps wins leaders walmart blue parallel

2,986 - 2018 topps big league nl whip leaders gold parallel

2,987 - 2019 topps heritage 1970 scratchoff

2,988 - 2019 topps high tek

kershaw's night included allowing only three hits and just one walk to go with his five strikeouts. he faced the minimum number of batters through the first two innings (thanks to a walk-canceling double play) and then registered a strikeout in each of his last five frames. it was a low stress outing, as the dodgers piled on the runs early, and the giants did not mount any sort of rally against kershaw whatsoever.

kershaw's performance saturday night also reclaimed solo possession of first place in the national league west for the dodgers after they lost the series opener to the giants on friday and fell into a tie with their division rivals. it's worth noting that kershaw has struck out more players pitching against the giants than any other team, although that's not really a surprise given the old unbalanced schedules that teams would play.

here are some non-kershaw cards - starting with a 2007 topps moments & milestones russell (russ) martin card

martin was the catcher for kershaw's debut back in 2008. i would like to see kershaw asked to name the starters who were behind him that day because i sure as heck didn't recall a dodger named luis maza who started that game at second base.

seeing the 2019 topps heritage insert above referring to kershaw as "team captain" got me thinking about austin barnes. i recently read a quote from mookie betts - it may have been on a card back - that barnes (who served as kershaw's unofficial personal catcher for a few seasons) was the team captain of late. of course, he was recently released by the club. here's a 2021 topps big league rainbow foil parallel that features barnes and company as they celebrate the 2020 world series win

that is barnes, of course, in the catcher's gear. he is part of a very short list of dodger catchers (john roseboro, rick dempsey, and will smith are the others) to catch the final out of a dodger world series victory.

of course, you can't mention dodger catchers and kershaw without thinking of a.j. ellis. here is his 2013 topps gold parallel card

that features kershaw prominently.

kershaw is still in 20th place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there unless he passes john smoltz (or is himself passed). smoltz has a career strikeout total of 3,084 and so kershaw is now 96 k's behind smoltz, but just 12 away from the 3,000 milestone. for what it's worth, he has moved past smoltz on the all-time wins leaderboard and is now tied with mark buehrle and rick reuschel with 214.

kershaw should be back on the mound later this week against the padres. know that when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned! 

the almost daily dodger - chone figgins

today is usually the day that i post something about game 1 of the 1988 world series, but instead i have another almost daily dodger post. enjoy the change, or use the links to peruse past years posts if you like.

chone figgins is one of a few players that are angels to me despite having played for the dodgers. here he is on a target red border parallel from 2014 topps update

wearing bill russell's number, figgins was appearing in his fifth game as a dodger on april 8, 2014, with each appearance coming as a pinch hitter. for the third time in those appearances, he drew a walk with this one being a 10th inning lead off pass courtesy of tiger pitcher joba chamberlain. a couple of batters later, carl crawford doubled and figgins came home with the winning run.

the card shows a couple of dodgers of note in the background. i am pretty sure that's clayton kershaw running towards home in the pullover, but there is no doubt about aj ellis in the catcher gear or manager don mattingly hanging out behind the dugout railing.

 here's a bonus target red border card from 2014 topps of juan uribe - a former "almost daily dodger" subject

this card shows uribe as he scores from first base on a double by tim fedorowicz on june 11, 2013. he was the insurance run in a 5-3 dodger win over the dbacks that night.

i bought you back

when i shared my first thoughts on 2024 topps heritage a while back, i ended the post with a look at my boxtopper - willie crawford's 1975 topps card bought back and stamped

and since then i've picked up some others. 

my primary focus since 2019 has been to track down buybacks of the infield, and i've had mixed results. in 2019 (1970), only bill russell had a card and i found one easily. in 2020 (1971) i only found russell's card and i am not sure that there are any buybacks of steve garvey's rookie. in 2021 (1972) i found exactly none of the cards as russell, garvey, and ron cey all had high numbered cards in the psychedelic tombstone set. in 2022 (1973), i found russell and garvey, but not cey or davey lopes who were both featured on three-player rookie cards. finally, last year (1974) i was able to collect buybacks for each of the infielders, although garvey's card was only available as a "mvp autograph" buyback.

this year, i've seen exactly one steve garvey base card offered in buyback form and it went for about triple what i paid for his 1973 buyback two years ago. i did pick up his other two cards from the set - the mvp

and nlcs

subset cards - for what were decent prices. ron cey's card

set me back more than i had hoped, but there were others i saw offered that went for much more so i am not complaining.

bill russell's card

was the first i obtained, and was the cheapest of them all. here's davey lopes' card

to round out the infield. next year lopes will have three cards that could be offered as buybacks - his base, record breaker, and league leader cards - and i will take a shot at all of them.

had i not received crawford's card in my box, i probably wouldn't have allowed myself to purchase any other dodger. but i did and so i did. to date, i've added al downing

von joshua

andy messersmith

manny mota

tom paciorek

and world series game 2

featuring joe ferguson returning to the dugout after his home run. it's worth noting that garvey was just a few feet behind the dodger outfielder when the photo was taken as he was on first base when ferguson took vida blue deep.

that does it for buybacks, for now. i am keeping an eye out for another garvey and i was watching a don sutton card but the seller wouldn't budge from their high buy it now price. i did pick up sutton's "other" box topper - the oversized one

because it features a certain dodger first baseman lurking in the background.

in non-boxtopper news, i've completed the dodger team set, non-sp edition. here are some of the latecomers to my collection - joe kelly

shohei ohtani, who inexplicably does not get the bobby murcer all-star treatment

mookie betts

freddie freeman

walker buehler

bobby miller

and will smith

miller's card seems to have the background filter applied less liberally than the others, and looks more like clayton kershaw's short print highlights card

i still need freddie freeman's short print highlights card, but i did pick up his blue sparkle chrome parallel

along with that of emmet sheehan

and kershaw

i went a bit further with kershaw, addiing his chrome refractor

chrome base and chrome hot box purple refractor

as well. i don't understand why topps decided to shoehorn the serial numbering onto the front of the card this year. it doesn't fit. 

here's another hot box parallel of sheehan

and betts

for good measure.

this is our 25th year of heritage, and each year i look forward to the "then & now" inserts. it used to be because of the dodgers of the 50's and 60's, but now we are getting into the timeline where "my guys" might show up. until they do, there are two dodger cards to collect and i've added them both. 

shohei ohtani shares the card with fred lynn

celebrating the american league slugging percentage leaders

and he also appears with mike schmidt

on a card that recognizes the 1975 national league home run leaders and the 2023 american league home run leaders. reggie jackson led the al in '75 and matt olson led the nl in '23, so not sure why this card exists in this fashion. in fact, both cards celebrate feats achieved by ohtani as an angel so i am even less certain as to why he is shown as a dodger.

a couple more inserts i picked up include betts

and kershaw

mirroring each other as new age performers.

i already showed the dusty baker mini card i picked up, and it came with kershaw's

although i have no desire to complete the team set.

bringing the post back to buybacks, here's a 2014 topps 75th anniversary buyback of jimmie hall's 1966 topps card

i am really looking forward to the buybacks in 2027, but as i mentioned previously there will be some nice ones to chase next year as well.