box bottoms, blank backs, belcher, bulldog

it's not quite "bears, beets, battlestar galactica", but there is a common thread here in this post that made me think of that scene from the office.

tonight is the night that the dodgers retire fernando valenzuela's number, and i realized that i had failed to add this card

to my post the other night. it was the card that was going to tie the post together, as the title of the post (if you've got a sombrero, throw it to the sky) was a quote from vin scully and his call of fernando's no-hitter - the no-hitter that is the subject of the card! the card comes from 1991 fleer (obviously) and it is a box bottom card. unfortunately, the back of the card is blank:

that reminded me of another card that i picked up sometime in the last few months - yes, it's another 1978 topps steve garvey card

except this one has a blank back!

now, i don't know if this is a printing error or if it was cut from a sheet or what the story is, but it is a nice "parallel" oddball of my favorite card of all time.

back to box bottoms, here is a 2003 topps kazuhisa ishii box bottom card

with a standard card back

the card is identical to his regular base card, which is pretty lame.

i also picked up the one 1990 fleer box bottom card i was missing from my dodger collection

that would be tim belcher, who shares panel space with the giants' logo, tony gwynn, and kevin mitchell. i didn't scan the backs, but these have the standard card back text and stats. at least the photo on the front is different from his base card.

the other dodger who has a 1990 fleer box bottom card is orel hershiser, and while i already had that card, his 1989 fleer box bottom (white back) card still sits atop my "nefarious 9" most wanted cards list. to be honest, i am not sure that it exists, but it would be weird if it didn't.  and, while i am writing about hershiser, i want to share this image that i screenshotted while watching the reds pummel the dodgers on july 30

hershiser was inducted in to the dodgers' legends of dodger baseball the night before, and they had his monument up behind the left field pavilion. i was happy to see them show it on the broadcast so that i could see what card they used. obviously, that is the bulldog's 1987 topps card - not a more recent topps insert or archives release (here's a link to my post that included the other legends of dodger baseball monuments and cards).

i am hoping to see whether fernando gets a new monument with his number retirement - i'll be watching!

letter rip

seeing fuji's now not so recent post got me thinking about how i would represent my blog name with players and cards. his post was in response to nacho grande's original post that used board games. as fuji said, "challenge accepted"!

c - ron cey (2005 playoff prestige al east champions)

a - walt alston (2005 topps dem bums)

r - bill russell (2014 topps archives fan favorites autograph)

d - davey lopes (1981 topps)

s - steve garvey (2022 leaf in the game used sports hall of fame caliber silver relic)

a - don aase (1991 fleer)

s - reggie smith (1978 topps)

i - kazuhisa ishii (2003 playoff absolute memorabilia tools of the trade)

s - don sutton (2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary)

e - andre ethier (2013 topps archives day-glo parallel)

e - scott erickson (2005 topps total)

t - derrel thomas (1979 o-pee-chee)

h - charlie hough (2018 topps archives snapshots)

e - aj ellis (2013 topps)

m - rick monday (1979 topps)

yes, that ethier card really is the orange parallel. also, i was happy to get clayton kershaw in there, even if it was just as a lurker on aj ellis' card.

if i went all last names, don drysdale and duke snider would replace lopes and garvey up top. i can get duke in if i were to apply this challenge to my first blog's name:

g - steve garvey 

a - walt alston

r - jackie robinson (2010 topps turkey red)

v - fernando valenzuela (2017 topps 1987 all-star)

e - andre ethier 

y - steve yeager (2004 upper deck legends timeless teams gold)

c - ron cey

e - scott erickson

y - eric young (1999 upper deck)

r - bill russell

u - julio urias (2019 topps chrome sapphire edition)

s - reggie smith

s - don sutton 

e - aj ellis 

l - tom lasorda (2001 topps tribute patch)

l - lee lacy (1976 topps)

l - davey lopes 

o - al oliver (2005 donruss throwback threads throwback collection)

p - mike piazza (1996 score big bats)

e - bruce edwards (1951 bowman)

s - duke snider (1980-87 sspc baseball immortals)

fun stuff. thanks for the inspiration nachos and fuji!

still hunting heritage

many of the sentiments that i saw after the announcement of topps losing its licensing from mlb and the players association centered on the future of topps heritage. we should have a couple more years of the brand, but for folks like me who were looking forward to seeing late 1970's design (especially the too often ignored 1978 topps design) the ramifications are potentially disappointing. we will see if fanatics buys old topps designs as many have surmised.

in the meantime, i am still slowly pecking away at my 2001 topps heritage set build. i usually buy these to fill out sportlots orders, although i have had some good luck at recent card shows digging through 5/$1 boxes. and then, of course, there are the other sets from which i still have team needs.

here are some recent 2001 topps heritage additions, starting with adam kennedy and the disney angel uniforms:

kennedy's card is not a low number short print, but it is one of the mid-series cards that was for whatever reason only printed as a black back. i believe most of the mid-series cards are red back only. whatever. shenanigans abound with this set, with the first 80 cards shortprinted and printed in both red and black backs, and the last 97 cards also shortprinted. here are some more, some of which are short prints and some are not.

adrian gonzalez was three years and one team away from making his debut as a padre in 2004.

i also took steps to get closer to a team set from 2021 topps heritage

the hernandez card is a short print. i still have some work to do to finish this team set, however.

hands down, my favorite insert set from heritage is then and now. probably due to the fact that dodger players feature regularly. here are a couple new additions for my team set:

those are from 2006 heritage. cool that clem labine and johnny podres were featured - labine for the second year in a row!

i still have some other dodger team sets in progress, and this 2007 heritage andre ethier

means that i am down to needing just three (all sp) cards.

of course, topps also issued bowman heritage cards in the early to mid 2000's. here's a 2002 bowman heritage kazuhisa ishii card

i like the printed name - there were some cards like that in 1954 bowman.

here's a 2005 bowman heritage russell martin mahogany parallel

and a 2006 chrome parallel of martin's bowman heritage card

as well

remember wilson betemit? well, here's his base 2006 bowman heritage card

the last card in this post did not come from sportlots, but rather a dodger lot i purchased on ebay

that's a chuck essegian real one autograph card from 2008 topps heritage. i purchased that lot on a whim based on a couple of cards shown in the images - this was one of them. i'll have a separate post about some other cards i found as a result. stay tuned!