this will do for now

i know - this makes two topps now posts in a couple of weeks. 

this one features more current cards than the bobby abreu card i showed earlier in the month, as i've made some purchases of 2026 cards so far this season. the first one was from opening day when the dodgers unveiled their 2025 world series championship placard at chavez ravine.

here's the front

which features dave roberts and shoehei ohtani, along with the first appearance of kyle tucker as a dodger on cardboard. i was not as much of a fan of the dodgers "gold" jerseys (and the hats? ugh) this year as i was last year.

here's the back:

i wound up buying three of these cards so that i could feed the dodger collection and the dodger stadium collection. these placards don't ever show up on cards, so this is a unique view of a dodger stadium element. before 2024, these were actual pennant shaped placards and way back in the o'malley days, they only had banners that they would attach to the outfield wall on opening day to celebrate the team's titles.

the third copy of the card goes in my steve garvey collection, as that is the dodgers' first baseman of my youth unveiling the 2025 placard along with fellow legend of dodger baseball, jaime jarrin.

a couple of other topps now purchases i've made this year include an impulse buy of konnor griffin's first card

interesting that topps capitalized "baseball" in the middle of a sentence. as for the card, it was the first one i saw that showed the bill mazeroski memorial patch (the "9" on griffin's left sleeve) but i am sure there will be better cards for that purpose in this year's update. i'll stash this card away and watch it lose what little value it has over the years to come. 

finally, i made my annual jackie robinson day purchase(s). first up is the jrd card which features aaron judge and shohei ohtani on the front

and andy pages on the back

i bought two copies so that i could have one in the dodger binder and one in my "42" mini-collection. i thought about a third card for the dodger stadium collection, but even though that is the chavez ravine outfield grass with the 42 mowed into it, i decided not to go that route.

one other card caught my eye from april 15, and it features padre (boo) jackson merrill. he made a nice catch and then had a big hit or something. on the bright side, we wound up with a card featuring 42 on the front

 and back

i've been to a couple of major league games recently, so perhaps there will be another topps now update in the future. stay tuned.

hip hip jarrín!

when the checklist dropped for 2020 topps opening day (it wasn't until a day or two before it was supposed to hit the shelves), i was shocked to see a "ballpark profile" insert set that included, of all things, broadcasters!

no vin scully card (of course), but his dodger spanish broadcast equivalent did get a card and it is glorious

i am pretty excited to have this card in my collection!  jaime jarrín has been with the dodgers since 1959 and won the ford c. frick award in 1998 (hence the "hof/98" inscription on the card.

i first became aware of jarrín in 1981 when fernandomania was upon us and he was tabbed to be el toro's interpreter. he even found his way on to a baseball card back then

that's him in the background between fernando and gary carter on a typically strange 1982 fleer card.  these days, fernando is one of jarrín's broadcast partners. maybe we'll see him on a future 'ballpark profile' card - i sure hope topps keeps this as an annual insert going forward!

empty stadiums on opening day

today was supposed to be opening day for the 2020 major league baseball season. unfortunately, the season has been postponed indefinitely, and the stadiums are empty.  empty like the left field pavilion at dodger stadium behind kazuhisa ishii on this 2002 fleer focus jersey edition card

ishii is posing following a pre-season press conference at chavez ravine that formally introduced him to the masses as a dodger.

the dodger stadium seats are also empty behind jose canseco on this 1991 ballstreet card

although there are at least a couple of people behind him on the field. this photo was taken before either game 1 or game 2 of the 1988 world series, which brings back some good memories for me.

you probably recall that the orioles hosted the rays in a game played in an empty camden yards back in 2015 as a result of civil unrest following the funeral of freddie gray, a 25-year old black man who died after being injured while in police custody. that was a game that followed the postponement of the first two games in the series. however, there are no plans that i am aware of to proceed with any slate of games in 2020 without fans.

since it is opening day, here are a few cards from this year's topps opening day set that i am happy to have in my collection.

the orlando arcia double play turn on tatooine

and a normal double play turn courtesy of carlos correa

plus two of the cards that i really wanted from this set, and i am happy to have them in hand!

team traditions & celebrations jackie robinson statue

or is it "jackie robinso"? odd bit of photo cropping there by topps, but i am glad that they included the dodgers in this insert set this year!

opening day ballpark insert of dodger stadium (courtesy of brian at highly subjective completely arbitrary)

full of fans! can't wait for that to be the case again!