singer sing me a song

i have r.e.m. on my mind currently as i have recently purchased tickets to see the michael shannon/jason narducy r.e.m. tribute show for the third consecutive year, and the post title comes from a line in their song "king of birds". i also have dodger baseball on my mind, and the title fit this card

as a young bill singer is shown in dodger stadium on his 1989 smokey dodger greats card. dodger stadium, and california in general, always brings its siren song out when i return for a visit. maybe someday i will move back, but that would be several years out yet. 

i've had that singer card for quite some time, but recently acquired a second copy so i can add one to my dodger stadium collection now. same goes for this 2021 topps chrome update max muncy all-star game card

muncy was the starting dh for the national league in the game. note that the card uses a photo of muncy that is not from the game - 2022 was the first year that these inserts were made to be game specific (except for the few subjects who did not attend the all-star game festivities). behind muncy is one of the static billboards shaped to mimic the two scoreboards over the pavilions. this particular advertisement is for estrella jalisco which is a mexican pilsner that i have not tried. when it comes to mexican beer, i've had dos equis, corona, and tecate. i've also had a beer called chihuahua, but i think that is an american beer. next time i'm at dodger stadium, i will give estrella jalisco a try. hopefully that is sometime in 2026.

all of the stars

it's all-star game time!

this used to be such a highlight for me when i was younger and didn't have the opportunity to see as many games featuring all of the teams as i do these days. i did watch the full game in 2022 since it was at dodger stadium, but i would say that it is no longer "must see tv" for me. 

i still like to see all-star things on cards, however, and was excited about the 2025 topps all-star game release a week or so ago. most of my excitement was in regards to this card

as steve garvey has not been included in some of the more recent all-star themed insert sets, save for having autos in 2024 topps series two's 35th anniversary all-star insert release. there have been "perennial all-stars" inserts and others over the years that have not included one of the few two-time all-star game mvps, so it was nice to see him get a card here.

the card features a more recent photo than 1974, but the back is all about his first all-star game which occurred that year

i don't have any of the parallels or any of the dodger base cards from this set, but i understand that they are, of course, all foiled up. this is a 2024 topps clayton kershaw all-star game card

which i believe was released in complete set form?

with 2025 topps series 2 out, we get the 35th anniversary all-star treatment, and i've added a few to my collection. i'll start with kershaw's silver pack chrome card

and then show the regular insert

regular is a relative term, as that is the red version. here's the blue

which was the national league color back in 1990.

other blue varieties i have added include sandy koufax

and hideo nomo

whose presence was a terrific surprise. i see topps is also making noise about chan ho park signing autographs for future releases. can the return of ismael valdes to cardboard be far behind?

i will be looking forward to chrome update this year, assuming that they continue the tradition of including refractor parallel all-star game inserts, like this one for chris taylor from 2021

and this one of kershaw from 2023

however, i much prefer my all-star designations in the next year's flagship. that doesn't happen anymore outside of heritage which is ok, i suppose.

speaking of heritage and all-star designations, this is as good a time as any to show my real one autographs from 2024 topps heritage high numbers featuring the aforementioned 1974 national league all-star first baseman steve garvey

more blue and red shenanigans.

garvey's 1975 topps card is not my favorite, but at least they referenced his full name (steven patrick garvey) correctly on the back. with the heritage autos, topps went a different direction, twice

good ol' steve patrick. 

anyway, here's hoping for a good game tonight with a nl win and another dodger mvp.

it's good to know a guy

i had been occasionally checking the local card collector club's website to see when the next church show was going to be held. they are typically held once in the spring and once in the fall. however, there was just a glaring "tbd" on the site for months. running into brian at the monthly club show in august had me thinking about the church show again, and thankfully i got an email from him letting me know that the church show was happening on september 21. better yet, brian and a couple friends were setting up as a vendor.

it turns out that the reason the club website wasn't being updated is that the church show was scheduled for the same day as the monthly club show and they didn't want to publicize the competition. for me, with brian selling, it was a nobrainer to eschew the club show and head to church!

brian had told me that he was going to have two 5000 count monster dime boxes, and when i approached the table, he put the first one down. there in the second row was this card in front

i told brian that having a 1982 donruss steve garvey diamond king in front was a smart move. he said it was all about knowing his customer. of course, i couldn't leave the garv behind.

the first block of cards that i looked at included a bunch of 2024 topps aqua parallels, and i told brian that i was a sucker for those sorts of parallels, too. here's a "color match" fernando tatis jr card

to represent the stack of these that i added to my pile. there were a host of other parallel types that i took, including a 2017 topps fire brooks robinson flame parallel

there were a boatload of straight up inserts, too. here's a 2022 panini prizm vladimir guerrero jr illumination insert

i suspect that the holo version is more "illuminated" than this base insert version.

here are a couple of topps heritage inserts that caught my eye - a nolan ryan card from 2015

and an ernie banks card from 2020

there were some attractive base cards, too. this 1994 upper deck ken griffey jr card

is one of my favorite base cards of all-time so i had to grab one of the two that brian had for sale. and i am not sure that i had seen this 2014 topps stadium club roberto clemente card before

so i took it, too.

i felt that it was worth a dime to acquire this 1974 topps hank aaron card

even though it is in rough shape. as brian noted, "it's 96% intact!"

as for dodgers, there were plenty even though brian has provided me with a steady stream of cards featuring the boys in blue over the years. here's a 2017 topps gypsy queen jackie robinson short print

that i needed, and here's a 2021 topps chrome max muncy all-star game refractor insert

that was also a need. these seem to be less prevalent than the 2022 counterparts, but that may not actually be the case.

back to some cards that i didn't really need but bought nonetheless, here's a 1970 topps dodger team card

and a 1987 topps bill russell card

that i chose to take with me.

one player specific card that was new to me was this 2022 panini donruss vladimir guerrero orange holo

parallel.

i found a lot of cards for my various mini-collections, too.

double play cards like a 2002 donruss originals jeff kent 

and a couple of 2022 panini donruss ryne sandberg cards

the base version is a dupe of one i already had, so it goes into my lurker collection thanks to tony gwynn showing up.

here's another one for the lurker collection - a 2016 topps stadium club manny machado card

featuring cal ripken jr.

brian was wise to have this 2012 topps gypsy queen willie mays glove stories insert in one of the boxes

because i will purchase pretty much any card showing "the catch" for my name/number on the back collection. that's where this 1992 leaf jon olerud card is headed

as is this 1998 donruss collections leaf eric davis card

and this 2019 topps stadium club mookie betts card

i have kind of shied away from adding too many tatooine cards lately, but i did choose this electric blue parallel of jazz chisholm's 2021 topps big league card

as well as this 2021 topps stadium club jose ramirez card

that photo really should have been saved for 2022 topps heritage, as it has 1973 topps written all over it. i see the first base coach's head, the first baseman's arm, the second baseman's leg, and the umpire's arm all disembodied. it's chaos!

at some point while i was digging through the boxes, brian laid out a couple of cards he had set aside for me specifically. this is a 2001 pacific private stock shawn green game gear card

and this is a 1998 topps interleague matchups mystery finest card

that hasn't been peeled. here's the back:

so, does the card front feature mike piazza, eric karros, jim edmonds, or tim salmon? i didn't peel it, but based on the comparison of the impression underneath and images online, i believe this to be jim edmonds' card.

brian also had somehow acquired duplicates of a baseball card breakdown 1975 hostess clayton kershaw custom

so he handed one over to me.

after all was said and done, i had pulled around 460 cards from the two dime boxes. after settling up, brian handed over this 2015 topps stadium club yasiel puig gold foil parallel

it is a beaut of a card.

finally, i had added an unopened pack of 2003 topps opening day to my pile

of course, i opened it when i got home. the mini insert was mike piazza

and the cards were your standard early 2000's variety of guys -todd helton, carlos lee, cliff floyd, and mike sweeney. the floyd card offered a nice view of the ted williams memorial that the red sox wore. i thought it appropriate that the last card in the pack was this one

a sweet minky card from a fellow twin cities card collector. thanks brian!

and, if anyone out there is looking for a pair of john candy's pants, i know a guy who knows a guy.

kiké hernandez, dodger double dipper!

back at my first blog, one of the running features was dodger "double dippers". these were players who played for the dodgers, left to play for a different team (at the big league level), and then returned to play for the dodgers again. there were 97 installments for 97 different dodger double dippers:

brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom, maury wills, dazzy vance, ray hayworth, zack taylor, john cronin, art herring, brian falkenborg, bill reidy, john anderson, vito tamulis, wally hood, jim bruske, bill dahlen, patsy donovan, jamey wright, watty clark, andy messersmith, rocky nelson, newt kimball, hank behrman, jimmy sheckard, jake flowers, goody rosen, and chin-hui tsao.

here at cards as i see them, i haven't been as vigilant with these posts, so i haven't captured all of the qualifying players over the last seven or so years. these are the guys i am aware of that weren't featured on the old blog:

matt kemp, alex wood, trayce thompson, jake reed, daniel hudson, joe kelly, adam kolarek, miguel rojas, and the subject of this post, kiké hernandez.

hernandez first joined the dodgers way back in december of 2014. he was acquired in a trade with the marlins that had, among others, miguel rojas heading to florida. he was a fan favorite pretty much right away, playing all over the field and exuding positivity.  his biggest moment as a dodger came in the 2017 nlcs when he hit three home runs in game 5 to propel the dodgers back to the world series for the first time since 1988.

here's a card from his first stint as a dodger - it's a yellow parallel of his 2019 topps card

hernandez is one of those guys who seems to pretty much always show up on cardboard in an interesting way. it's probably due to the number of different defensive positions he plays, with his style of play being a big factor, too.

here's his 2021 topps card that shows his with the boston red sox

the bosox signed hernandez as a free agent in february of 2021, so the image on the card above is actually hernandez as a dodger photoshopped in to red sox duds. here's an card showing hernandez as an actual red sox (sock?) from 2021 topps chrome update sapphire edition

he is featured there with former dodger teammate alex verdugo, and they are wearing the city connect uniforms that nike developed for boston.

hernandez played all over the diamond for the red sox in his two-plus seasons there, except catcher and pitcher. he played most of the time, and did about as well as you would expect at the plate. the red sox had him playing a lot of shortstop in 2023, and his defense wasn't quite up to par. still the dodgers and other teams valued his positional flexibility, and in late july 2023, the dodgers sent a couple of players to the red sox to reacquire kiké.

here's a card from his second stint with the dodgers:

i didn't expect him to be in update this year, so it was no surprise when he was left off of that checklist, however, topps did get him in to their 2023 holiday release, so i have a card to bookend the double dipping with! this is reminiscent of 2021 when trea turner made his first appearance as a dodger in the holiday set.

you may recall that in 2020 one of my favorite dodger cards was hernandez's base card. i went out pursuing as many parallels as i could find, and somewhat recently added the mini version 

to my collection, too. i sure hope the dodgers re-sign him this offseason so we can be treated to more great on-card action.

welcome back kiké!