dodgers, ensemble!

back in 2006, i heard about a high end product from upper deck. ultimate collection, they called it. there were two cards that featured steve garvey, and they were both multi-auto cards. i don't think i saw any surface for quite some time. fifteen years later, i have had the quad auto (numbered to 25) in my collection for quite some time, but i don't think i had even seen the version with five signatures (appropriately named "signatures 5") until just a few months ago.

now, it's mine.

yay. it's numbered to 15, and my version happens to match up with steve garvey's jersey number. that's just by coincidence. upper deck took the quad version, which featured garvey, ron cey, don sutton, and dusty baker, and added maury wills to make this card. while i am always happy to have another maury wills signed card, having him and baker on the same card is a bit off as they were never teammates.

speaking of baker and teammates, i also added the black parallel version of what was my favorite card from 2020

that's the decades' best card from 2020 topps update that celebrates the team of my youth with a very small part of baker, along with cey, lee lacy, tom lasorda, and bill north on the front. the back of the card has the serial number

which matches baker's jersey number. again, a coincidence.

where did the summer go?

i had plans for summer 2020. i was going to kick it off with a run along pch in big sur and then meet up with friends. among other things, i had circled several baseball games on the calendar - the dodgers were coming to target field! - and had planned to catch a game in a couple of new stadiums to boot. and, there were plans to get to dodger stadium to check out the renovations and see a dodger home game for the first time since 2012.  well, we all know what happens when we make plans, especially in 2020.

instead, i stayed home and used some of the newfound time to go through neglected monster boxes of cards in my basement. the result was finding more cards for some of my mini collections. although i didn't make it to dodger stadium (or any stadium in 2020), i did find more cards to add to my dodger stadium collection. brace yourself - there are a lot of images in this post.

1995 pinnacle milt thompson

i was not sure that this photo came from dodger stadium, which is why it wasn't already in my mini collection. however, this summer i took a closer look and am pretty sure that it is given the fencing that existed in front of the speaker equipment. plus, what other stadium is more associated with beach balls than dodger stadium? finally, milt thompson did play center for the phillies in a game at dodger stadium in 1994 - one of the few times he played that position. i have never taken a beach ball to dodger stadium, but i have participated in knocking one around.

some cards i didn't find in my monster boxes, but rather went and bought duplicates of cards that were already in my dodger collection because they were good examples of dodger stadium goodness.

1971 dell's today stamps duke sims

1975 hostess steve garvey

that one is the third copy i have

1977 topps tom lasorda/dodgers checklist

1975 topps charlie hough

1975 topps lee lacy

1976 topps tommy john

those last four cards are also in my evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers collection. i've lost track of how many copies of each of them i have at this point.

back to the monster boxes to salvage more cards now.

1993 score bob ojeda

1996 topps stadium club todd worrell

1998 upper deck todd worrell

that one could also fit in my lurker collection, thanks to lee smith making an appearance.

1999 upper deck eric karros (back)

2012 panini cooperstown tom lasorda

2013 panini cooperstown duke snider

2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts tommy davis

i've looked at those last two cards a bunch of times, but it didn't click for me that the photos were from dodger stadium until this year. full disclosure - i forgot to scan the davis card so i pulled the image from the internet.

and here are a couple from 2015 topps stadium club - clayton kershaw

and deion sanders

the yasiel puig card from that set has been firmly entrenched in the dodger stadium card collection since i first laid eyes on it, but i failed to add these two until just recently.

i was digging through my old player collections and found another 1990 upper deck larry walker rookie card

that features dodger stadium images on the front and back

yes - i put two copies of this card in my dodger stadium collection.

more from early 90's upper deck - 1990 neal heaton

todd frohwirth

tommy herr

and 1991 freddie benavides

a few more from my abandoned player collections -1992 fleer ultra award winners ozzie smith

1994 upper deck orel hershiser, who's warming up in the bullpen

1994 upper deck collector's choice fred mcgriff

1999 topps ryan klesko (back)

2001 topps randy johnson league leaders (trust me, dodger stadium is in the background)

2002 donruss todd helton

here's a duo from a 2002 topps total stockpile i had - adam eaton and kaz sasaki

both with mariano duncan lurking in the background.

i dutifully completed most of the early 2000s fleer retired player sets, and found a dodger stadium card in my dupes - donn clendenon from 2002 fleer fall classics

i also found an extra 2013 topps chasing history reggie jackson insert card for the collection

and a 2016 topps stadium club phil niekro card

for the collection. that niekro would have been better off being shown in this post, but oh well.

here's the most recent pick-up for this collection, cody bellinger's card from 2020 topps stadium club chrome

it doesn't scan the best, but it gives a good view of dodger stadium behind bellinger and (i think) alex verdugo.

the last card for this post is actually from a pack in 2020 - a gypsy queen will smith card

that features smith pitching in dodger stadium as a brave, which didn't actually happen in 2020. maybe next year.

my favorite cards of the year - 2020 edition

even though there is a month and a half to go in the year, i'm calling it. i know what my favorite cards of the year are.  i couldn't wait to show off this card

but more on that in a moment.

i recently introduced my mini collection focusing on my favorite cards from each year that i've been a collector. the basic gist is that i wanted to create a space for the cards that i most appreciated having in my collection in the year that they were released. these were cards that i acquired in the year that they were issued, and that i considered to be my favorites at the time. i have disallowed (most) cards that are already in other mini collections in order to avoid having a mini collection consisting of more steve garvey, double plays, and dodger stadium cards.

favorite non-dodger card: big league javier baez

sometime before the end of the year, i should have a topps now card featuring the president-elect and vice president-elect, but as happy as i am to have that card featuring joe biden and kamala harris, i still like the javy baez card from big league more.

i had a lot of fun opening my box of big league, and this card made me do a double take. i didn't see much of baez this year, but guys like him (and mookie betts and fernando tatis jr and many more) are just plain fun to watch. this card captures some of the joy he brings to the game, and with the cardinals' retired number murals in the background, it made for a great card.

favorite dodger card: topps update decades' best 1970s dodgers

oh man. when i first saw this card about a week ago, i nearly swooned. i knew from the update checklist that the dodgers had a team card in the decades' best insert set, and that they had already had ones featuring the teams from the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s, and 2010s, so i figured this one would feature the 1970s. i wondered what photo might be used, and hoped for one featuring the four dodgers to hit 30 homeruns in 1977 (steve garvey, dusty baker, ron cey, and reggie smith). this photo is almost as good!

it is a photo from game 3 of the 1978 world series, taken during player introductions.  tom lasorda is shaking hands with dusty baker (you can just see the tip of his nose and cap) as ron cey looks on. lasorda also gives us a glimpse of the jim gilliam memorial patch which is the reason i started looking for those patches and eventually put together a mini collection of cards featuring them.

the real highlight for me, however, are the other two players featured - lee lacy (!) and bill north (!!!!!!). this is the first card featuring bill north as a dodger that i have seen in 30 years or so. just awesome.  he's not in the original photo, but garvey would have been somewhere to the left behind where cey and baker are standing.

this card beats out the flagship kiké hernandez and stadium club sandy koufax cards, both of which at one time i considered to be locks for my favorite dodger card of the year. just goes to show you how powerful cards featuring players from the team of my youth can be.

let's "play ball" to see what might have been in game 3 of the 1978 world series

in the 1978 world series, the dodgers won the first two games against the yankees, and this young fan was certain that they would complete their revenge against the team that had denied them a championship the year before.  i've mentioned many times that the 1977 world series is really my first baseball watching memory, and i was all-in for the 1978 season.  game 1 of the series was a bit of a blowout, and game 2 had ended with the dramatic bob welch strikeout of mr. october, and as the series shifted to new york i was confident.

the yankees took an early lead on a roy white solo home run off of don sutton, and extended their lead to 2-0 on a groundout by bucky dent.  the dodgers cut the lead in half in the top of the third thanks to a bill russell rbi single.  the score stayed that way until the bottom of the 7th when the yankees scored three times, and that was pretty much the game. the next day, reggie jackson stuck his hip out and the dodgers lost in 10 innings.  after that, the series was over, and the yankees closed it out by winning games 5 and 6.

i'd like to see what would have happened if the bottom of the 7th and top of the 8th innings of game 3 had played out the way topps intended.  i have not done this before, so i don't know how it will turn out.

1978 topps was the first set that i collected and completed. i opened a ton of packs that year, my first as a collector.  it just so happened that that was the year that topps eschewed the cartoons on the backs of their cards and instead printed different plays from a game, with the idea that you could play a game using the card backs. robin yount

will present the rules:

i remember playing games using cards with my neighborhood friends a few times, and my yankee collecting friend seemed to have paul blair batting first for a leadoff home run

each time.  i was suspicious. anyway, let's find out what happens.

don sutton

was pitching for the dodgers.

the aforementioned dent

led off the bottom of the 7th.  here's the back of his card:

ground out - one away.  in the actual game, dent singled to left. next up was mickey rivers,

who also singled in real life.

he singles here, too.  one on, one away, and that brings up roy white, who happens to have a fantastic 1978 topps card.

i should note that paul blair

will not bat in this inning, as he replaces rivers on the base paths just as he did in the actual game.  turns out, it doesn't matter.

ding dong. two-run jack.  white hits a dramatic home run here, too. white had grounded in to a force out against sutton in the actual game, but here gets his second homer of the game.  so now it's 4-1, yankees. still just one out, with thurman munson

coming up.

he walks (he had singled to drive in the first run of the inning in real life) to bring up reggie jackson.

i don't like where this is heading.  this is where i take sutton out, just as lasorda did, and replace him with lance rautzhan.

here's the pitch:

yes, i recall reggie's back is a single. my neighbor friend was disappointed at the time that it wasn't a home run.  anyway, reggie also singled in the actual game (driving in a run, too).  now there are two on and still only one out. next up is lou piniella.

i once ran in to piniella in the minneapolis skyway when the devil rays were in town. he was getting his shoes shined. seemed like a nice guy, but i was not a fan when i was a kid thanks to his yankee status.

uncle lou doubles. i'll say that munson scores and it's second and third with one out, and the score is 5-1 yankees. sound familiar?  piniella had an rbi groundout in the real game, by the way.  graig nettles

is up now.

ground out. i'm going to say the dodgers had the infield in and so no run scored.  nettles flew out to end the 7th in the real game, but here we have only two out, two on with chris chambliss

(who did not bat in the 7th inning of the real game 3) coming up.

rautzhan records the strikeout to end the inning.  three runs on four hits. 5-1, yankees. just like the actual game.

ron guidry

pitched a complete game for the yankees, so he was obviously still pitching. the dodgers' lead-off batter in the top of the 8th was dusty baker

who had singled that night.

not today. one up, one down.

lee lacy was up next.

back in 1978, he erased baker by grounding in to a double play. let's see if he can start a rally.

nope. two outs.

that brings up bill north,

who was an athletic in the 1978 topps set.  let's see if he can do better than the groundout that he hit in the real game.

well, at least he's consistent.

for the record, the dodgers had joe ferguson,

davey lopes,

and bill russell

batting in the 9th. i'm not going to check to see what the yankees would have done in the bottom of the 8th, but that part of the dodger lineup would have

doubled (he struck out in real life)

doubled (he grounded out)

walked (just as it was in the real game 3). that would bring up reggie smith

who struck out to end the game back then, but

grounds out here.  now, in my simulation, it's one out with one run in (lopes' double drove in ferguson) and runners on second and third, as i believe reggie's ground out was actually a hot smash that nettles dove to stop and only had a play at first.  hey, that's fairly close to reality!

next up for the dodgers would have been steve garvey.

don't get excited, i know what the back of his card is.

at least i'll say it was an rbi ground out.  5-3 yankees, two outs, bill russell is on third and ron cey

coming up.

i'll pretend that he took guidry to the warning track, at least.

so, it appears that the dodgers were destined to lose game 3 and the series.  i have a theory that they will beat the yankees this year, though.  that's because the teams that the dodgers have beat in the fall classic are:

yankees (1955)
white sox (1959)
yankees (1963)
twins (1965)
yankees (1981)
a's (1988)

notice a pattern? they can't beat any other team until they beat the bronx bombers.  we'll see.

by the way, this post will be my entry in to it's like having my own card shop's contest, under the 'put together an entire inning of a baseball game just using baseball cards' category.