kazmir confusion

i took part in one of the affordable group box breaks hosted by colbey at cardboard collections recently. it was for the one and done 2017 honus bonus release.  i had actually opened a couple of packs of this when it came out (the packs were included in an ebay purchase from a seller that i used to buy a bunch of loose packs from) but i had found no dodgers in those packs.

i wasn't able to join any of the subsequent breaks, so i requested shipment of the cards.  when they arrived, this was the card that was showing on top.

scott kazmir pitching in san francisco threw me for a loop. my first instinct was "these are the wrong cards". i had completely forgotten that kazmir was a dodger in 2016. the lack of logos didn't help, but the next card put me in the right mind.

that's a clayton kershaw silver foil parallel.  the rest of the cards from my haul were normal, recognizable dodgers:

it's a colorful black & white set.

colbey also threw in some cards, perhaps from a different break? these were 1995 topps bazooka cards, and among the dodgers he included were these two guys

tim wallach and billy ashley just happened to be the two dodgers i was missing from my team set! i had not expected to complete a team set with this break, so this was a very pleasant surprise.

i encourage you to watch colbey's site. his affordable group breaks feature some fun releases, and they are quite affordable.  thanks colbey!

a pared down 2016 topps flagship vs. dodger team set comparison

i used to do a post each year comparing dodger cards from the topps flagship and team factory sets. i didn't do that last year, and in fact, just recently picked up the 2016 topps dodger 17 card set.

the factory sets had lost their luster for me after a couple of years without a stadium card or manager card, and just one or two photo variants.  however, the price i paid for the 2016 set was low enought where i figured it made sense to pick it up and have another corey seager rookie card in my collection.

i decided not to compare every card as most are the same between the two sets.  instead, i'll just show the ones that are different.  i will list the full checklist, however, starting with

lad-1 clayton kershaw
lad-2 carl crawford
lad-3 joc pederson

flagship (on the left) identified joc as a 'future star', while the team set just lets him be.  the result is a differently cropped photo.

lad-4 yasmani grandal

see what i wrote about joc? ditto for grandal.

lad-5 adrian gonzalez
lad-6 frankie montas

so here's a decent variation. for flagship, topps photoshopped montas from white sox duds (in detroit, i believe) into the dodger, um, home grays? at least they got the red number in there.  for the factory set, topps used a photo from the same game, but correctly photoshopped 'los angeles' text onto the gray jersey and added the pant piping. but then forgot about the red number.  as it turns out, montas never pitched in the bigs for the dodgers due to injury and then on account of his being traded to the a's in the rich hill deal.

lad-7 chase utley
lad-8 corey seager
lad-9 justin turner
lad-10 andre ethier
lad-11 yasiel puig
lad-12 hyun-jin ryu
lad-13 kenley jansen
lad-14 brett anderson
lad-15 scott kazmir

kazmir's flagship card came along in series 2, with a photo of him from spring training wearing the 'd' hat.  topps couldn't wait for that photo for the factory set, so they photoshopped him into the away uniform, but without the red number.

lad-16 alex wood
lad-17 scott van slyke

and that's it.  four variations, but really only two.  it would be great if topps went back to adding a unique player or subject to the factory set, like dodger stadium or dave roberts or even farmer john.  unfortunately, i took a look at the checklist for the 2017 factory set, and it's similar to this one.  and, with no free agent additions as part of the checklist, i'm guessing there won't be any variations.  i'm not sure that will be enough to keep me away, however, so stay tuned...