go longo

tomorrow, the tampa bay rays will retire number 3 in honor of evan longoria. that means i get to add a card to my retired numbers collection, and i've chosen longoria's 2018 topps card for the honors

longoria was the 2008 american league rookie of the year - the first roy in devil rays/rays history - and helped the club reach the postseason and the world series for the first time in their history that season. overall, in his 10 seasons with the club he won three gold gloves, two silver sluggers, and was a three-time all-star. he is all over the top of their offensive category franchise leader board, and was one of the first home-grown stars that the team developed and held on to for a lengthy period of time.

the club recognized his retirement last year with one of those "one day" contracts, but i believe that since they weren't playing games in their home stadium, they postponed the number retirement (and team hall of fame induction) to this year.

when i think of longoria, i think of the advertisement for new era hats that ran early in his career. it's probably one of my favorite baseball product commercials, right up there with "bo knows", "chicks dig the long ball", and some of those early sportscenter promos (in the immortal words of charlie steiner, "follow me....follow me to freedom!").

variations are the theme

i stopped being a team collector in 2012. that's not entirely true, obviously, but the focal point of my team collecting, up until that point, was my topps flagship and traded/update dodger collection. every year since 1980 or so, i would compile the team set with the players in alphabetical order (team card was in the first slot of the page), combining cards from series 1, 2, and/or traded and update sets in a binder separate from the rest of my dodger collection. even as i went back and completed older dodger team sets - they went in this binder that eventually became two binders. it made it easy for me to flip through the progression of the players for my favorite team.

in 2009, topps started including "legends" variations of base cards, and i went along picking up these short printed cards of jackie robinson and pee wee reese and others. all was fine until 2012 update was released. in that set, topps decided to super short print the players that were involved in the blockbuster trade between the red sox and dodgers. that meant that cards featuring nick punto, carl crawford, josh beckett, and adrian gonzalez would show them as dodgers, but they would be ridiculously difficult to find. i was ticked, as i was really looking forward to that first a-gon dodger card. this meant that my annual ritual of completing the full run of topps flagship "base" dodger cards was over.

here we are, thirteen years later, and i still cannot claim that i've completed my dodger team set from 2012 update. it's the only blemish on my record from 1954 up until that point, and it still annoys me. i did find the beckett card 

for a good price a few years ago (i can't believe i didn't post about it, but i guess i didn't), and then about a year ago i won the gonzalez card

here's the back:

i've told this story before, but i was in los angeles when the trade went down. i remember seeing the crawl on the hotel tv that the dodgers had claimed gonzalez on waivers, but i figured nothing would come of it and that the red sox would pull him back. my son and i went to the dodger game that night, and a guy sitting next to us claimed to have some inside information out of boston and said that there would be a trade. the next night, gonzalez was in chavez ravine.

after adding the gonzalez card, i set up alerts for the punto and crawford cards, but there's been only one hit and it was for an outrageously priced crawford. annoying, but at the same time i decided to look at other dodger topps variations that had eluded me over the years. 

there are still quite a few i am missing in addition to the crawford and punto cards from 2012, although the post-2012 active player short prints and super short prints are different, as they feature players who have a base card as dodgers. so, i could give myself a break but then there are still the legends, who don't have non-short printed cards. i should note that, in 2013, i got caught up in the yasiel puig bliss and wound up buying every photo variation of him and the other dodgers, so that year is complete. 2014, not so much, and not any year since, save for 2015, either. 2022 is close, but still not complete. note that i don't count the variations like the "sparkle" or sabrmetric backs or factory set - just the photo and legend variants from flagship and update packs. here is what i am missing:

2014:

331b yasiel puig future stars

400a clayton kershaw throwing

400b clayton kershaw celebrating

2015:

complete

2016:

150 clayton kershaw blowing bubble

2017:

5 corey seager horizontal

50 clayton kershaw hat off

375 jackie robinson

582 julio urias stretching

597 sandy koufax

597 kenta maeda horizontal

us50 cody bellinger pointing in gray jersey

the 2017 update variations (other than that bellinger ssp) were and are easier to come by than the series 1 or 2 variations. going forward, it seems like these variations (aside from the few ssp) were printed in greater numbers than in previous years.

2018:

42 cody bellinger warmup shirt

350 clayton kershaw t shirt

550 corey seager batting cage

550 corey seager celebrating

599 justin turner blue warm up

this kenta maeda variation

and this sandy koufax variation

are recent additions as i peck away at these needs.

2019:

10 clayton kershaw crouching

10 sandy koufax

41 corey seager blue shirt

178 jackie robinson

507 cody bellinger sliding in outfield

507 pee wee reese

658 max muncy horizontal

665 duke snider

us199 will smith yelling

the legends listed above are ssp.  here's walker buehler's variation from 2019 topps

with some action from the 2018 world series with the green screen advertising panel. muncy's is similar, but with less panel.

2020:

50 cody bellinger horizontal

120 sandy koufax

129 jackie robinson

235 dustin may horizontal

292 gavin lux blue shirt

381 sandy koufax

416 jackie robinson

420 mookie betts hoodie

420 mookie betts horizontal

432 walker buehler batting

432 walker buehler running bases

681 edwin rios holding bat up

u63 jackie robinson

u80 cody bellinger tuxedo

u80 cody bellinger

u90 sandy koufax

u100 david price hard hat

u234 gavin lux in dugout

u234 gavin lux back of jersey

u237 clayton kershaw at podium

u268 mookie betts hard hat

i really dislike the 2020 topps design so maybe that is why i haven't made a bigger dent in this list beyond the couple of variations i have.

2021:

13 mookie betts pointing

13 mookie betts headset

50 cody bellinger batting practice

256 keibert ruiz helmet off

302 jackie robinson

347 jackie robinson smiling with two bats 

450 corey seager trophy

650 trevor bauer camera

us76 victor gonzalez kneeling

us200 albert pujols arm on bat

us200 albert pujols with fielding glove

us294 roy campanella

us309 jackie robinson 

us309 jackie robinson signing autographs 

it's funny - the year after the dodgers won the world series, this walker buehler variation

is one of the only two (seager's is the other) that represents that success.  here's the jackie robinson variation from series 2

the other 347 jackie listed above is an ssp.

2022:

41 clayton kershaw white house podium

50 mookie betts smiling

442 jackie robinson

550 trea turner yelling

us42 jackie robinson signing autographs

us330 freddie freeman batting practice

those needs above are all ssp cards. i made a push to finish off the sp versions over the summer.

cody bellinger

mookie betts

walker buehler

clayton kershaw

max muncy

albert pujols

jackie robinson

and jackie robinson again

that one is an ssp that was priced as just an sp

max scherzer

corey seager

will smith

trea turner

julio urias

those are all from series 1 and 2. here are a couple from update:

roy campanella

jackie robinson

this is another one of those collecting endeavors that will never be completed, and i'll have to be ok with that. in fact, the more variations that were released, the less concerned i became, and with the golden mirrors that started in 2023, i don't care. i'll chase the ones that i want, sure, but the thought of even trying to complete the team set hasn't crossed my mind.

to be truthful, i do consider my flagship teams complete without any short prints, but those 2012 update cards really bothered me. i still have my dodger team sets from flagship and traded/update intermixed in separate binders going up to 2011. eventually i will separate those cards out and put them with the other cards from those respective years, but i'm in no rush to do so. and, if i find those crawford and punto cards, maybe i will wait even longer.

a vintage chase of a different sort

with only two cards to go in my 1955 bowman set build, i don't have a lot of vintage to chase at the moment. i thought about reinstating my "sampler sets" of those topps flagship sets that i have not completed (1952-1956, 1958-1964, 1966-1969) and i just might do that although i think i still have most of the cards that comprised that part of my collection so there probably aren't a whole lot of cards to chase there either - mostly dodgers that migrated to my team collection.

what i have done is seek out some topps vintage stock cards for my collection. after seeing some from 2025 topps series 1, i was intrigued enough to pick up a couple of examples. here's clayton kershaw's card

just like last year, topps reimagined the current design for a simpler time. here's the back:

kind of christmasy.

i also picked up chris taylor's card

because it uses completely different colors than kershaw's, although the back is the same

and then i had the opportunity to add one of the checklist cards

that had another color scheme. here's its back:

which happens to be the only one of the three that is readily legible.

i also went back and found some vintage stock parallels from other topps releases for not a lot of money. here's a 2018 topps brandon mccarthy card

and a 2020 topps update terrance gore card

while i was happy for the short-timer gore to get a dodger card, this is probably one of my least favorite dodger cards in recent years because of the photoshopping and the design. but, i turned a blind eye to that fact when i found the vintage stock card for a very low price.

from 2022, here's tyler anderson's 2022 topps update card

in vintage stock form, and here's a dodger checklist card from 2022 topps flagship

that came from sluggo quite a while ago. that card is interesting because it appears that topps played with the image to make it look like an older photograph. vintage, if you will, in terms of irregular exposure. 

of course, 2024 was the first year that topps took vintage stock parallels in a whole different direction, and i recently added another example to my collection by way of jason heyward's card

i'm still annoyed by the addition of his number 23 to his jackie robinson day jersey.

another vintage pickup of mine has been a couple more dodger vintage embossed buyback cards from 2003 topps all-time fan favorites. you'll recall the 1979 steve garvey card i acquired, and now here is a 1975 topps roy campanella card (with yogi berra)

that includes the non-foil stamp. here's a photo that tries to show it in more detail

love seeing the "la" cap on campy!

similarly, here's a 1978 topps tommy john card with the stamp

with a photo for your benefit

the placement of these stamps seems to have been pretty willy nilly. for the record, the campy is listed as having 11 copies and the tommy john is listed at just 10. rare vintage adjacent pickups for my collection!

i really do doubt that i will chase any more vintage sets to completion. i would like to finish my 1953 topps dodger team set, but even needing only four cards (255 dixie howell, 258 jim gilliam, 263 john podres, 272 bill antonello) might be too much. luckily there are "other" vintage forms to keep an eye out for!

card show date to church

back in may i went to the semi-annual card show at a suburban church. it's held in a gymnasium that seems too small to me to function as a gymasium, but i am not an elementary school child so that might be the issue. anyway, i bought cards from four dealers and found some fun stuff.

the first guy i bought from is a regular at the local shows. i picked up a couple of 1955 bowman cards for the set build, along with this dandy

it turns out that these world series pennants were inserts in the 1961 fleer baseball greats packs. there are then only two dodger world champions pennants (1955 and this one) and i bet that the 1955 version is pretty spendy. cool vintage oddball pickup for the collection for sure.

the next seller i picked up cards from was another regular - the guy who always has bargain boxes with a seemingly neverending variety of cards. i found these three legends variations from 2009 topps update

a yasiel puig variation from 2018 topps

and some numbered dodger parallels from 2022 topps uk edition

turner & turner at your service.

he also had a box of autos and relics that were marked at 50% off sticker which meant most were a buck or two. i took a black parallel of victor gonzalez' 2021 topps update 1986 autograph

and a couple of dodger relics

from his inventory.

this 2009 bowman draft derek jeter card

goes in my name/number on the back collection, and this 2010 topps cards your mom threw out 1969 reggie jackson card

is an original back version

and probably the closest i will come to owning the real thing.

i am not familiar with paw patrol (i can tell you all about the wiggles, however) but i still picked up this 2024 topps update aaron judge thing

did he make a guest appearance on the show? not sure what the crossover is supposed to be.

finally, i chose to buy this 2023 topps mike trout city connect manupatch

i actually like the angels' city connect uniforms, although you don't get too much of it on this card.

there was another seller with a 50 cent box that i stopped to check out. i wound up with a few cards, including a desecrated 1975 topps pete rose card

and a beat up phil garner/keith hernandez rookie card from the same set

i mean no disrespect to bob sheldon and tom veryzer, but those top two guys made this card a hot commodity back when i was trying to complete the oakland a's team sets during the early billy ball days.

i also grabbed this 1979 topps lou brock card

even though i don't have a need for it. it's just such an iconic card from my childhood - seeing the same person as the all-time and season record holder was pretty cool to young gcrl. and it's still cool, even though the player on this card would be different today. looking forward to 2028 topps heritage!

finally, i was on my way out when i saw some monster boxes set up near the doorway. there was a kid - probably late teens - who was set up with a table of toploaded and slabbed stuff. the monster boxes were on the side and clearly not the main thrust of his set up. i didn't want to spend too much more time at the show, but i started looking through one of the boxes.

i wish all sellers were like this one. he came over and told me that he would give me a deal on the singles from the box. i pulled this card out - a 2024 topps holiday shohei ohtani variation 

and asked him how he would price it. he said that it was a variation, and so i was ready for the $5 to $10 price tag. instead, he said a buck or so. um ok. i'll keep digging.

i wound up with quite a stack of cards - parallels and inserts - from various 2023, 2024, and 2025 topps releases. finding a 2024 topps chrome cosmic mookie betts extraterrestrial talent insert

was fun, but most of the cards in the one box i looked through came from topps flagship releases. clearly this person was buying a variety of release formats and looking for the big hits. here's a 2025 topps ohtani 8-bit ballers insert

and a 2025 topps rosie red insert

that both came from the celebration boxes. 

i was able to add the one dodger themed first pitch card to my collection

(that's usc trojan juju watkins) plus some other dodger parallels like a 2023 topps freddie freeman silver pattern foil card

from a collector's box, and some 2024 topps aqua parallels from fanatics packaging - freeman on a league leader card

and walker buehler

as well.

i didn't limit myself to dodgers, as i will always go for a miguel cabrera final tribute parallel

and i also couldn't pass up the color match on the padres team card

the last card i added to my stack was this 2024 topps chrome update jackson holliday stratospheric stars insert

i asked the seller to price the stack and figured i was looking at about 20 bucks. he came back with 10 and it was such a pleasant surprise. i hope to see him at future shows, although he hasn't been at the couple i've attended since then, and i won't be able to get to the next church show.