the almost daily dodger - andre jackson

today's dodger is andre jackson, featured on a 2022 topps stadium club red foil parallel:

i chose this card because i am reminded that 2023 topps stadium club still hasn't been released, and it will likely include cards of dodgers who are no longer dodgers.

jackson was still a dodger when this card was released, but he finished the 2023 season in pittsburgh. he was released just before christmas, and i don't think he's signed on with anyone yet. i have to give the dodgers credit, as the pitchers that they have traded away or released in recent years haven't blossomed - think of jackson, mitch white, dennis santana - although i am a bit concerned about what clayton beeter and ryan pepiot might do in the coming years.

not as advertised

we may well see the 2023 baseball season come to a close tonight if the rangers can win another road game. seeing corey seager continue his strong play in the postseason makes me a bit wistful for what might have been if he had decided to remain with the dodgers, especially given the diametrically opposed results for the two teams this season.

first up here is a 2011 topps heritage advertising panel that i picked up recently

with the back 

that has nothing to do with the front as you would expect from an ad panel. i show it only because it sort of fits with the title - the dodgers weren't as advertised once the postseason began.

the dodgers won the west (again), just like they did back in 2013 - a title which warranted a mural on the outfield wall that showed up on yasiel puig's 2014 topps photo variation card

before the dodgers went full advertising on the outfield wall.

i picked up a couple more variations from 2014 topps featuring hyun-jin ryu and hanley ramirez

celebrating in ways that i was hoping to see more of this year.

i was hoping to see another pennant which would have made this 2023 panini donruss duke snider card

much more relevant.

same for these 2017 topps update sandy koufax cards - heroes of autumn

and storied world series

that could have been used to draw a parallel to the performance of some other postseason participant wearing the dodger uniform.

finally, i was hoping that this 2022 topps stadium club clayton kershaw trophy hunters card

would have stood in for a different trophy that the dodgers would have hoisted.

back to "wait 'til next year" i guess. in the meantime, i can live vicariously through old friends nathan eovaldi

and corey seager.

what the heck, i may as well give the guy his due and recognize him as a ranger

he may well win his second world series mvp trophy tonight!

these cards just fit

i don't really recall, but i am guessing at some point back in the early 1980's i separated the pieces of one of those donruss puzzles and actually put the thing together. maybe it was 1984 and i assembled the duke snider puzzle - i bought a ton of '84 donruss so this seems most probable to me. it might also explain why i don't currently own the complete snider puzzle.

typically, i don't pay much attention to those sorts of things (which are exceedingly rare these days). i just collect cards that fit in my collection, no pun intended. however, last year i decided to complete the dodger team set of stadium club triumvirate inserts. featured were clayton kershaw, mookie betts, and trea turner:

their cards fit together nicely

but not perfectly - the interface between betts and turner is off slightly. such is the danger with these sorts of things, i suppose.

i also recently sought out one (actually two) of my most wanted non-dodger cards - 1988 panini album stickers:

steve lombardozzi and frank white in some sweet double play turning action that looks even better when the stickers are laid together

these stickers are a great addition to my double play collection, and they are not the only nefarious 9 cards i have picked up in recent months (future post foreshadowing). be sure to check out my current list and let me know if you can help a blogger out - you will be rewarded!

some other cards have come in to my collection that are great fits, too - although they don't fit together like the ones above. reader derek (collectortbnl on tcdb) reached out and sent this card my way

it's a 2003 upper deck leading swatches relic card of hideo nomo from his second stint in dodger blue. it was great to see nomo have a bit of a career resurgence with the dodgers in 2002 and 2003, and it was great of derek to think of me!

i've also received a couple of pwe's from kerry at cards on cards that have taken awhile to be recognized here. sorry about that, kerry. he's been a great source of dodger goodness over the years, and the latest cards he sent continue that trend.

from 2022 panini capstone, here's a trea turner card

and a clayton kershaw deja vu insert

even though it's a padre who is in color and at the forefront of the card, this is still a dodger card to me. 

this 2023 topps big league kershaw insert

is a bit more dodger centric. i think it shows kershaw as out of this world? the betts insert from this set is the only one i've seen that makes sense because it shows betts bowling. speaking of mookie, kerry included a few of his cards, too.

2022 panini chronicles zenith

2022 topps update black gold

2023 topps big league roll call

and 2022 topps stadium club master photo boxtopper

i actually had this boxtopper in my hand at a monthly card show this past summer but put it back when the guy asked for $5. i am glad i did because kerry's envelope showed up just a few days later. it's great when things come together like that!

when the card comes second

sometimes i will give more weight to a random card at a shop or show that i am on the fence about purchasing if it is in a semi-rigid holder. in fact, there are many bloggers and friends of blogs who have cards in your collections partly because i saw a cheap vintage card of your team or player in a semi-rigid holder at a show or shop. i prefer semi-rigid holders to toploaders because they are easier to ship cards in using envelopes. back when i was doing a lot of ttm, i was always on the lookout for semi-rigid holders, and if i were vacillating about buying a card from the vintage bargain bin or not, a free semi-rigid holder would usually tip the scales in favor of the sale. heck, i even bought a binder of cards at a card show for cheap because the cards were in ultra pro platinum sheets. the cost of the thing was less than the sheets alone were worth! this opening paragraph will hopefully make sense later on...

i made an unplanned stop at one of the local card shops for a few minutes in mid-january and had just enough time to pull $42 worth of singles, for which i was charged $35. this included just over 40 nickel cards - most of which were cards from 2022 topps cosmic chrome. there was only one dodger in the bunch, however - this walker buehler

the other nickel dodger to be found was a 2022 topps holiday freddie freeman

card, who was joined by a holiday double play turn courtesy of jonathan india

i found a couple of 2022 stadium club parallels in the one nickel box i dug partway through, but was most pleased to find a regular old buster posey 

for the final tribute collection.

the majority of the other cards purchased were hall of famer singles priced at a quarter each and some dodger and braves insert and parallel singles that were also 4 for a buck. there were some highlights there, including a hank aaron insert 

numbered to 50 

and a fergie jenkins gypsy queen mini from 2013 numbered to 99

there were a good variety of dodger inserts that i brought home, but i didn't scan them all. i did scan this 2020 panini prizm numb3r5 game insert of cody bellinger

so that will have to do. i also added a fifty cent joc pederson blue chrome refractor from 2021 to my stack. big spender. those 63 cards came to a total of $16.

the rest of the cards i purchased came from the 50% off auto/relic bin. one was a dodger prospect auto, and i found a couple of 2022 dodger relics, plus a couple of triple threads relics for some trading partners. the last card i added to the stack was this one:

i did not know who jahmai jones was, and i didn't (still don't) know of anyone who is looking for a 2021 topps gold label gold framed autograph of him, but the fact that the card was in a thick one-touch convinced me to pull the trigger. it turns out that jones is in the dodger organization now, rehabbing from tommy john surgery and expected back possibly late in the 2023 season.

i didn't use one-touch cases until i started my hall of famer collection, really. now i have all of those cards in one-touches along with a few of my steve garvey cards. i know i can use this case for one of the thicker garvey cards i've acquired recently, and so the autograph card was just a bonus.

i was pretty pleased with what i walked out of the store with given the limited time i had. no cards in semi-rigid holders this time, but there's always next time. hopefully.

2022 memorial patches on display

there were a handful of memorial patches worn during the 2022 season, and i've found them all on cardboard, with the exception of the umpire memorials. those are tough to find these days as the umps don't get a lot of card time.

i may wind up swapping out some of these cards for 2023 issues that show the patches a bit better, but for now, here's a look at who was being remembered during the 2022 season.

jerry remy - the patch that the red sox wore for remy is visible on this 2022 topps archives trevor story card

it looks like the red sox moved the patch to the right sleeve when they wore their city connect jerseys, as shown on this 2023 topps nick pivetta card:

remy was a boston fixture. he played for them for the last 7 years of his 10-year career and he moved to the broadcast booth a year or two after he retired as a player in the mid-80's. remy was inducted in to the team's hall of fame in 2006 and continued to broadcast - aside from a few leaves of absence - until shortly before his death in october of 2021. it was no surprise to me that the team honored remy with a patch.

kimera bartee - the tigers wore a patch on their right sleeves in memory of bartee. it can be seen on this 2022 topps now spencer torkelson card

but the cards i have in my collection for the patch are this 2022 topps update eduardo rodriguez

and 2022 topps archives akil baddoo

cards. the tigers continued their tradition of color matching the patch to their road uniforms which is a nice touch. i like the rodriguez card because we get a glimpse of some of the tigers' retired numbers in the background.

bartee spent four fairly offensively forgettable years as a player with the tigers in the late 1990's but was serving as their first base coach when he died in december of 2021. while he coached in a couple other organizations, 2021 was his first year with the tigers. based on what i have read, he was very well liked by the players and staff, which explains why they recognized his passing with the patch.

art stewart - the royals wore a patch on their right sleeves to honor stewart, a front office executive who passed away in november of 2021. you can see the patch on this 2022 topps now bobby witt jr card

like the tigers, the royals had two versions of the patch. one was the blue one you see above and on this 2022 topps update witt jr card

coupled with the home whites, and then again on this 2022 topps now nick pratto card

which shows the patch with the away grays.

for their blue jerseys, the royals switched to a white patch which is visible on this 2022 topps stadium club witt jr card

featuring the away royal blue jerseys, and this 2022 topps throwback thursday witt jr card

which shows the home baby blues. i have the latter four cards in my memorials collection. maybe in 2023 there will be a witt jr card feature the grays and i can make it a clean sweep of witts.

stewart joined the royals back in their expansion year of 1969 and served as their director of scouting for many years. starting in 1998, he was made an assistant and later advisor to the general manager and remained in that role until his death. obviously, one of the longest tenured royal employees is deserving of the memorial patch!

ray fosse - the a's recognized the passing of their former player and longtime broadcaster with a patch worn on their right sleeves as seen on nick allen's 2022 topps update card:

i've gone for the chrome update version for my collection, however

fosse may be best known for being bowled over by pete rose in a play at the plate during the 1970 all-star game while he played for the indians, but he joined the a's in time for the last three years of their four-year pennant run in the 1970's. fosse won rings as a result in 1973 and 1974, hitting a homer off of don sutton in the latter fall classic. he retired after another stint with the indians and limited stops in seattle and milwaukee.  

after retiring he eventually returned to the a's in a front office/public relations capacity before moving to the broadcast booth in 1986. he remained a part of the a's broadcast team for the next 35 years before passing away in october of 2021, so it was no surprise that they wore the patch in his honor. as far as i can tell, they only wore the patch on their home whites, however, so i was very happy to find this card with the patch so prominently shown.

roland hemond - the longtime baseball executive passed away in december of 2021, and the diamondbacks wore a patch on their right sleeves during spring training in 2022. you can see the patch on this 2022 topps fire alek thomas card:

i figured i would have to wait for 2023 bowman or topps heritage to find a spring training shot with the patch, but there it is in fire.

hemond began his career as a big league executive with the boston braves in 1951 and stayed with the club as they moved to milwaukee, winning a ring with them in 1957. he later joined the angels in their inaugural year of 1961 to become their scouting director and then took a job with the white sox after the 1970 season to become their director of player personnel. he left the white sox to join the commissioner's office in 1986, but returned to the team life in 1988 as the orioles' general manager. he left the orioles to join the diamondbacks in 1996, and left them after the 2000 season to return to the white sox. then in 2007, he left the white sox to return to the diamondbacks and it looks like he retired in 2017 at the age of 88. whew. what i am saying is that hemond was a baseball lifer.

he was named the executive of the year twice, including in 1989 which makes sense as that team won 33 more games than they had in 1988 and finished just 2 games out of first place in the american league east. he was also awarded the buck o'neil lifetime achievement award by the hall of fame in 2011. i think it's great that the diamondbacks wore the patch in his honor, even if it were just for spring training.

vin scully - this one really hit me as a lifelong dodger fan. scully passed away on august 2, 2022 and the dodgers were quick to add a memorial patch to their right sleeves. you can see it on this 2022 topps now mookie betts card

but it is more visible on this 2023 topps miguel vargas card:

the vargas card is the one in the collection for this patch. i picked up the mookie card because i wasn't sure how many cards would be produced showing vin's patch on its own, since the dodgers added another patch in mid-september...

maury wills - the dodger great and 1962 national league mvp passed away on september 19, 2022 and the team added a patch to honor him as well. it is visible below scully's patch on this 2022 topps now miguel vargas card

i have written about scully and his impact on the game and my fandom many times. he was simply the best. similarly, i don't feel the need to write a bunch about wills, as i've featured cards of his over the years with plenty of narrative. i will note that he was the fourth member to be added to the "legends of dodger baseball" group, an honor that is just short of a number retirement (an honor that would become automatic were wills ever enshrined in cooperstown). wills is the second of the now five members to pass away after being so honored, following don newcombe who passed away in 2019. newk also was honored with a jersey patch.

i also wanted to note that i've upgraded the card that i have in my collection representing the patch the yankees wore for whitey ford during the final game of their 2020 postseason run. i found this 2021 topps gypsy queen gerrit cole card

that shows the "16" patch (above the patch for hank steinbrenner) better than the aaron judge card i had in the collection previously. plus, i used a cole card to show the 2021 version of the ford patch, so there's some consistency there.

back to 2021 - i mentioned up top that umpires also wore patches to honor a couple of their ranks who passed away. they wore the standard square patches on their left sleeves for terry cooney (tc) and bill haller (bh). cooney retired back in 1992 (he was one of the umps that was on the field for the dodgers' 1981 world series victory) and passed away in march of 2022. haller was the brother of former dodger tom haller, and he passed away in august of 2022 after being retired from on-field activity for almost 40 years.  these patches were worn inconsistently and only for a short time - perhaps so as to not draw attention from the ftx sponsorship patches.  here is some getty images photographic evidence of the cooney patch

and the haller patch

i haven't seen any cards in 2023 topps series 1 that show either of these patches, but i'll keep an eye out.

i do have a few cards that i don't think i've shown before in a memorial patch post for other umpires, however.  this 2021 topps stadium club ozzie albies card

shows the "ec" and "rr" patches that umpires wore to honor former umpires eric cooper who passed away in october of 2019 and rick reed who passed away during the 2020 season. 

and this 2021 topps heritage albert pujols in action card 

shows a couple of the patches, including the "cm" worn for the late chuck meriwether who had also passed away in october of 2019. i am still keeping an eye out for a card showing the patch that was added in the postseason that year to honor derryl cousins.

cousins passed away during the world series, so the "dc" patch was only worn in a couple of games.

the umpires wore the "dc" patch again, along with a "ps" patch for umpire paul schrieber, during april of 2021

this was before they added the ftx advertisements to their shirts. those ftx patches show up plenty, but i haven't seen any cards showing the two memorial patches, unfortunately.

speaking of ftx, i wonder what impact, if any, additional sponsorship patches that the owners choose to add to players' jerseys will have on memorials in the future. i've seen the padres and their motorola patch on the sleeves (it looks like all the sponsorship patches go on the sleeve representing the players' dominant hand) in spring training this year, and the nike patch is already clogging up the front of the jersey, although chest patches are usually worn on the left side. maybe we will see a return to black armbands as a result. we will see once the regular season gets going, as i expect to see memorials for bruce sutter, sal bando, tim mccarver and others who have unfortunately passed during the offseason.