bringing team sets into focus

long gone are the days where it was possible to collect all of the cards of any given player, let alone team. and, while i've tried to finish off a dodger junk wax year (1989) there are still a few oddballs that i haven't tracked down yet - partially due to a lack of focus - and there are probably other dodger cards from that year that i don't know about.

over the last year, i've tried to be a bit more focused when looking back and picking up dodger cards from past years and i've had some success doing so. whether it's targeting a specific team set, insert set, parallel, or something that spans both of the latter, i've been able to fill some holes in my collection that are more meaningful to me than random cards here and there. 

to illustrate that point, here is the first 1952 topps card i have purchased in a long time.

phil haugstad's card gets me one closer to that dodger team set, although i know i will never complete it. i only have one of the high numbers (at least it's jackie robinson) and i still need seven from the lower series. by the way, when it comes to topps flagship sets, only the 1952 and 1953 dodger team sets are incomplete in my collection, but the remaining 1953 cards (jim gilliam, johnny podres, and even dixie howell and bill antonello) are daunting.

as for my full set builds, i only have high numbers to go when it comes to the 1952 homage that is 2001 topps heritage. i finished the low numbers a couple of years ago or so, and the only card i've added since is old friend ramon martinez's

with 85 high numbers still missing, i doubt i will ever finish this set, either.

insert team sets are far easier to complete, and this 2024 topps update sandy koufax autumn tales card

finished off my 4-card dodger team set.

there were only three cards in the 2024 topps around the horn insert team sets, and mookie betts'

was the last one i needed.

as for actual team set base cards, one of the more recent ones i completed was 2001 topps fusion

those two cards were the last ones i needed and i don't know what took me so long to pick them up. it helps to focus, i suppose.

i even went and tracked down the last three cards i needed to complete the 2013 topps target red border parallel dodger team set. the zack greinke and carl crawford cards

came quickly, but the luis cruz card

had me at the mercy of a saved ebay search for several months. finally someone posted a bunch of these parallels for all sorts of players and i was able to finish the set. i still have several missing from the 2013 topps update release, but having this (and the walmart blue border) team sets for the flagship cards is still something.

even better, this 2013 topps update yasiel puig card

was the final emerald parallel i needed to complete my full run - flagship and update - of dodger cards of that particular parallel. puig is as excited as i am to have this completed.

it wasn't too early for the bargain box

i went to the monthly card show here in the twin cities in february. it was the first time i had been to the show in its new location (it was the second month being held at the bloomington armory), and i am glad i got there when it opened. by the time i left, the place was packed - elbow to elbow inside and no parking available in the lots. i also was the first person to roll up to a dealer with a bunch of 2023 topps inserts.

2023 topps series 1 had only been out for 3 or 4 days, but i was hoping to find some to dig through. after learning that the dealer whose bargain boxes i typically check out first was not there, i walked up to a table that had two monster boxes filled with 2023 topps inserts. the post-its on the front of the box said "2/$1". 

i started on the side that had the 1988 inserts, and quickly found that, while the seller had removed all of the adley rutschman, michael harris, and miguel vargas cards, there were plenty left behind. i found a blue parallel of julio rodriguez's 1988 insert, along with a couple copies of his base

the blue cards are limited to a print run of 600, although they are not numbered.

there were a few of the blue parallels to be found, so i also grabbed an aaron judge

among others.

i picked up a couple of the regular versions, including shohei ohtani

i think the angels' city connect uniforms are my favorite so far. i am looking forward to seeing the twins' in person this season, however.

i also grabbed a couple for my double play collection - wander franco

and brendan rogers

i think that most reviews of 2023 topps that i have read note the "all aces" insert set as the best in the group. i like them, too, and picked up a few including nolan ryan

i could have easily built this set from the box, but decided not to. i did build the "aces of the diamond" insert set from 2000 pacific invincible, but won't be building this set.

more insert sets to represent! i picked up a few of the 2022 greatest hits cards, including mike trout

plus a couple of the blue parallels including rafael devers

i realized when i got home that i only picked up one "base" version of the welcome to the club inserts, instead grabbing a few of the blue parallels including trout again

i wound up grabbing all of the colored foil inserts as i do like the look of them. there were maybe 10 of them, including this red foil parallel of royals' pitcher scott barlow

i considered using this card in my memorial patch collection, but ultimately decided not to. i'll have a post about the 2022 memorial patches in the near future.

the seller was actually selling these cards for a friend who opened multiple cases of hobby jumbo packs. as a result, there were a bunch of the gold foil parallels available. one of the non-dodger parallels i grabbed was this josh smith card

for the double play collection. looks like byron buxton sliding in there!

i was able to add three cards to my vladimir guerrero collection, including the silver pack card

speaking of which, i also picked up fernando tatis jr's silver pack card to represent him in my "favorite non-dodger" mini-collection.

i am not completely sold on tatis being my favorite non-dodger much longer, but will wait and see how he does when he returns from his suspension. he's still on my fantasy team, so i will be paying close attention!

i did buy a few non-2023 cards from another seller, including this 1994 upper deck american epic card of steve yeager

ok, reggie jackson is on the card, too. this one is the "food issue" version which just means the number on the back is different from the regular card that i already have in the lurker collection.

back to 2023 and the insert guy. i joined a hobby case group break for the dodgers, but it hadn't taken place before this show so i didn't know which inserts i would wind up with. i decided to pull a bunch at the show just in case. 

i found quite a few rainbow foil parallels

they are nice, but the gold foil parallels are nicer

and i actually found more of them

i will say that the "gold-ness" seems to vary

the basic gold parallels are more consistent, and there were quite a few of them, too

there was only one other dodger parallel that i found - this tony gonsolin red foil

which is numbered to 199. so much parallel goodness for fifty cents a pop!

the other inserts were well represented, too. here are some of the dodgers' 1988 inserts:

with those same four players showing up on silver pack cards

i was surprised to find a james outman silver pack card in the box

and i quickly set it in my stack. the other silver pack dodger is miguel vargas, but his cards were not to be found in these boxes.

there was no james outman (or vargas) in the base 1988 checklist, but there was another dodger - julio urias

i even found a blue parallel of mookie betts' card

not quite dodger blue, unfortunately.

as for the other inserts, i picked up complete dodger team sets of the all aces

and the one-two punch

while it's nice to see a new zack greinke dodger card, i was hoping to find a sandy koufax/don drysdale card here. 

more team sets completed with the 2022 greatest hits

and home run challenge 

cards of betts and freddie freeman.

i will finish up with two more cards of that duo that came from a different seller

that's the complete dodger team set of the series 1 stars of mlb inserts. since these are retail only, the hobby busting guy didn't have them and i found them at the stall of a longtime dealer who i once saw in a target pack searching. anyway, the two cards wound up being fifty cents apiece (i purchased two other 2023 topps cards from him at that price as well). i made the purchase after initially including this 2022 topps stadium club clayton kershaw master photo box topper

in the deal. he told me that the kershaw was "a ten dollar card" but he would give it to me for six. ha. no thanks. i just asked him to price the other four cards and he asked for two bucks. i promptly went home and purchased the kershaw on ebay for $2.49 shipped. not all the bargain bins are at the shows!

i did get the spoils from my group break, but this post is way long so i will show the highlights (and there are highlights) of that haul another time. stay tuned!

big d is gone, please topps don't forget him

I was going through some dodger doubles recently, and stopped to take a closer look at this card

it comes from 2016 topps, and celebrates zack greinke's 45 and two-thirds consecutive scoreless innings streak from the previous season.  there are a couple of things i find interesting here, but let me begin by saying i was appreciative of topps including greinke in this insert set that also featured the likes of lou gehrig, cal ripken jr, babe ruth, ken griffey jr, and nolan ryan to name a few. greinke was a stud for the dodgers - maybe the drysdale to clayton kershaw's koufax?

speaking of big d, when his then-record of consecutive scoreless innings was reduced from 58 and two-thirds innings to 58, i recall him being ticked at elias sports bureau. this happened shortly before orel hershiser broke the record with 59 scoreless innings in a row, so the issue went away, and it was great to see drysdale on hand to interview hershiser in san diego after the record breaking performance ended.  

however, when i saw the number on greinke's card, i immediately wondered if pitchers were once again being credited with partial innings even if the opposing team scored in that inning (this was the issue with drysdale as he gave up a run after recording two outs in the inning and the elias statistician said that he would therefore not get credit for a scoreless inning or part thereof).  since greinke didn't pitch in relief at all as a dodger,  i figured partial innings were back.

i flipped the card over to see if drysdale got his two-thirds of an inning back and found this:

not only did he not get that partial inning back, topps has completely wiped him from the record books!  drysdale and his 58 (at least) innings sits between hershiser and gibson on the all-time list (meaning greinke's was the fourth-longest of the post-expansion era), but topps left him out.  for the record, gibson's streak was at one time considered to be 47 and two-thirds innings as well, as he allowed a run with two outs in the first inning of a game against the dodgers to end his streak.

oddly enough, a recent post on mlb.com shows that greinke remains credited with a partial inning of scoreless pitching, while drysdale and gibson are not extended the same courtesy.  and, in case you are wondering, greinke was still pitching when that run scored to end his streak, so that wouldn't be the reason for the partial inning. statistics shouldn't be subjective. so weird.

favorite fabrics

my favorite relic set, hands down, is 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game.  perhaps i am biased because there is a strong dodger checklist featured, and i was able to obtain a fantastic steve garvey card numbered 6/6 (a 'jersey number' parallel) back when the set was first issued.

i will occasionally check ebay for dodger cards from this set, but with my garvey collection complete for this issue, there is not much of a priority here.  still, i recently found a seller with a bunch of cards for sale, and picked up four for my collection.

here is a don sutton 'century' parallel - that means it is numbered to 21.

this shawn green card is a 'jersey number' parallel,

so in addition to having the jersey number stencil over the patch, it is numbered to green's familiar 15 (a number which still belongs to davey lopes, by the way).

less rare is this don drysdale 'jersey number' parallel

as big d wore number 53.  i now own roughly 4% of the drysdale 'jersey number' card print run, as i have another in my collection already.  this new one shows the blue dodger patch a bit better.

finally, i also snagged a vladimir guerrero 'century' parallel

for my vladdy collection.

i'm a bit disappointed that none of these patches feature the red dodger number as my fotg garvey 'jersey number' and one of my garvey 'century' parallels do.  so, around the same time i picked those fotg cards up, i scratched that red patch itch with these fine cards:

2008 upper deck spx winning materials limited patch jeff kent

numbered to 99

2008 upper deck spx winning materials dual limited patch rafael furcal

numbered to 50

2015 panini donruss jersey kings studio dee gordon

numbered to 5

2016 topps museum collection meaningful materials prime relic gold zack greinke

numbered to 35

and 2016 topps strata clearly authentic autograph relic green parallel clayton kershaw

numbered to 75

red patch!