smooth sailing out of los angeles

as a team collector, i don't typically avoid dodger cards in bargain bins unless i am certain that i already own them. i do pause, however, when i find parallels of guys like dennis santana, which was the case at a show last year. i wound up bringing home these 2019 panini donruss optic and 2019 topps parallels

but i would have preferred them to be of a current dodger. 

santana seems to have found his groove in pittsburgh which makes me happy. the dodgers in recent years have been quick to jettison young talent that they have developed in exchange for other teams' talent. in santana's case, they dealt him to the rangers for a minor league pitcher who toiled in the dodgers' minor league system through last season, and is now a free agent. i get that they are dealing from a surplus, but i still appreciate the older dodger way that allows me to collect and cheer for "homegrown" players for an extended period of time, as with clayton kershaw or will smith.

other dodgers whose departures i understood but to some degree regretted include joc pederson 

that's a 2016 topps update 500 home run futures club insert. spoiler alert - joc won't get close to 500 homers, but he hit some big ones for the dodgers and i am glad he is no longer in the national league west so i can root for him a little more.

cody bellinger, seen here on a 2022 panini prizm illumination insert

and a 2022 topps 1987 insert black parallel

was another one that was tough to see move on in free agency even though his performance with the dodgers in his last years had not warranted a big contract. i hope he has a nice season for the yankees but is at home in october. i do think the game is more fun when the yankees are good, but i really want the blue jays to get another crack at a title.

i was ready to be a ryan pepiot fan, but adding a proven starter in tyler glasnow was a deal too good for the dodgers to pass up. pepiot's 2022 topps chrome update purple refractor

was the last one i needed for that dodger team set of parallels.

just a couple of weeks ago, it was announced by the rays that pepiot was headed to the il and replaced on the 40 man roster by michael grove, seen here on a 2023 topps chrome sepia parallel

grove is also injured at the moment. i was ready to be a fan of his as well, but now all i will have are random cards to find at shows.

another example of a short time dodger that had a lot of cards available for me to collect is miguel vargas. this is his 2024 topps yellow parallel

and i am sure i will be finding vargas dodger cards in bargain boxes for years to come. will i buy them? time will tell. adding tommy edman and michael kopech in the trade that sent vargas to the white sox was a great move by the dodger front office, so i hope that vargas finds his way in chicago and lives up to a bit of the hype that surrounded him in his earliest dodger days to pay back that championship level deal that is currently a bust for the sox.

gavin stone, seen here on his 2023 topps chrome update refractor

and landon knack, shown on his 2025 topps gold parallel

are still dodgers as of now. they are both on the injured list, and who knows what will happen once they are healthy. there's not a lot of room on the pitching staff at the moment, so it's possible that these two become trade bait once they prove themselves healthy. i hope not, especially knack who i like, but i get it if it is the case.

and then there are guys like dalton rushing. 

his 2025 panini donruss card is one of many that i already have of him, and who knows how long he will be a dodger? blocked by his fellow university of louisville alum will smith, who is signed to a long-term deal, and too good to be in triple-a, he's not getting a lot of playing time. so far this year he is playing very well when he does play, but is it just enough to entice another team to make an offer that fills a different dodger need later in the season?

we will have to wait and find out who will join the likes of santana in the former dodger makes good elsewhere camp, and then subsequently haunts the bargain boxes and collections of team collectors like me.

spirit of 76

it's independence day today, and if all went well i was at the ballpark watching the twins and tigers. i last went to a fourth of july game in 2013, so it had been awhile since i celebrated our nation's birthday with our nation's pastime.

i will be on the lookout for some topps now cards tomorrow, but of course there are cards to share today, including this 2020 topps hyun-jin ryo independence day parallel

that i found in a bargain bin some time ago.

the design topps used in 2020 was pretty elaborate compared to what they were using when 2022 topps update came along. i found this ryan pepiot independence day parallel

in a pack or team break, and the design really isn't much different from the money grab factory set gold star parallels that topps put out the same year.

the first two cards are numbered to 76, of course, to go along with their designs.

panini doesn't number their independence day parallels, and they are pretty consistent with white stars on blue backgrounds, or blue stars on white backgrounds. i found these next cards in various bargain bins sometime within the last year.

2019 panini donruss manny machado

2021 panini donruss dale murphy

2022 panini donruss manny machado

2023 panini donruss ichiro

the first of those four i chose because it's a dodger card. the other three because i have little will power when it comes to bargain boxes and parallels.

this last card came from the show i went to in houston and set me back a buck

that's an independence day commemorative patch card from 2017 topps, and topps matched the photo to an actual 4th of july game.

whether you are at the ballpark or doing something else today, happy 4th of july!

dime box giving above and beyond

looks like mike piazza is striking a pose for the camera, and the card is giving all the glitz

just after christmas last year i received that glorious mike piazza parallel, a 1996 pinnacle summit above and beyond parallel to be exact, from nick at dime boxes. it's one of a few model-esque dodger cards that i would use to put on a baseball card fashion show if i were ever to do a post with that as its theme. anyway, dodger cards - especially parallels like that - are always welcome here, but the card i requested from nick as part of his anniversary giveaway was actually this 1986 scott cunningham broder steve garvey card

it wasn't a need, but i saw the garv sitting there unclaimed for awhile so i figured i would put in a request. it's not a bad card as far as things go - it's almost a mother's cookies card with a better photo - but it is a broder.

nick sent another garvey along for the ride - this 2005 donruss throwback threads century stars insert

you can tell donruss was running out of ideas here, as they signed off on a design that just repeated text over and over and over and over and over.

seven years earlier, in 1998, they confused the heck out of collectors by releasing parallels of (i believe) their entire line of products under the "donruss collections" banner. this is an eric young card from that set

to make things even more confusing, i believe this is the "prized collections" parallel of the "collections" parallel.

here's a 2017 topps chrome parallel of kenley jansen

it's a prism refractor to be clear. 

next card is not a parallel. its a 2023 panini chronicles gavin stone luminance

card from a set that encompasses even more designs than donruss collections did back in '98.

nick sent the only orange parallel card from 2023 topps big league that i've seen in person

it's former dodger ryan pepiot.

as for non-garvey non-dodgers, nick sent some of those, too. here's shawn green's 2023 panini donruss card

that fits in my nob collection.

i know that nick, as a fellow collector of vladimir guerrero cards, will always include some vladdys in his mailings and this time was no exception. i wound up with several new to me cards, including these six

another collection i have in common with nick are double play cards. he sent me a new one for my collection - 1996 upper deck mark loretta

that has somehow evaded my grasp for the last 18 years.

i've also recently picked up some double play cards from other sources, such as this 1997 pacific crown collection jose hernandez platinum blue parallel

this 1999 just minors ron belliard

and this 2021 topps chrome carlos correa pink refractor

thanks for your generosity nick!

grab some bench

there is one recent card pick up i've made for my half-arsed effort at completing the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams autograph parallel set that i did not show in wednesday's post.

johnny bench certified auto! it's the second one in my collection, and the first from this set. i was a steve yeager fan but sure did appreciate the talent of bench.

i added another bench for my dodger stadium mini-collection around the same time:

that card is from 1975 tcma national league most valuable player set. i had no idea this set existed (primarily because they didn't include steve garvey) and only learned about it because this card

showed up in my mailbox. that is maury wills' card from the set, and it forced me to go to comc to find out what it was. it was there that i saw the bench with the dodger stadium pavilion roof in the background. what a great find!

the wills card was sent my way by nick of dime boxes in one of our latest card swaps. i know there will always be some great variety in a package from nick and this proved no exception. here are just a few of the cards nick sent that prove that point

2001 topps jackie robinson through the years

even though i own 1952 topps #312, i enjoy having standard sized versions, too.

1997 bowman's best mike piazza best cuts

at first glance, i figured this card was from 1996 topps laser, but i guess topps held on to the "laser" for some '97 releases, too.

2008 upper deck ultimate collection matt kemp

numbered base cards are not too common 'round these parts.

2006 upper deck first pitch jeff kent

this card could pass for a panini insert except for the dodger logo in the background.

2023 topps big league ryan pepiot

and miguel vargas

big things were expected from these two in 2023, but one was injured for the majority of the season and the other never found his groove. maybe 2024 will be their year.

i can always count on nick to send me some new double play cards for my collection, and this time he sent a 1994 bowman mariano duncan

jay bell

and greg gagne

trio. not sure how i missed these!

same goes for this 1995 select jose lind

that gives prime real estate to mr. marlin jeff conine.

i already had a 2016 topps jj hardy card in my dp collection, but now i have his rainbow foil parallel

too.

one more new dp, and it's a good one:

that's a 1998 donruss damion easley card, featuring the kid.

this 2019 topps stadium club whit merrifield card

also features a dynamic player sliding in - mookie betts. i already had this card in the dp and tattooine collection, so this one is for the lurker collection. 

nick is also a fellow collector of vladimir guerrero cards, and he improved my collection by sending this 2021 topps update 70 years of topps card

and this 2005 topps bazooka comic

that also features mike scioscia if you want to be technical about it.

always great stuff coming from the land of lincoln. thanks nick!

lion eyes

this post is a couple of months out of sync, as it is based on the fifth sign of the zodiac - leo - which governs from july 23 through august 22. i had it all laid out and i guess forgot to hit publish. keep that in mind as you read on as i had planned to show this card back in mid august:

it's a 2022 topps gypsy queen gq gems insert featuring walker buehler who was born on july 28, 1994, and is therefore a leo. represented by a lion, leo's gemstone is something called peridot, but this card shows a ruby. based on a quick internet search, leos also "respond" to rubies.

i am not a leo, but seeing that card got me thinking about what other dodgers could be represented on a card like that. here are a few:

nomar garciaparra

that's a 2007 fleer mini die-cut card of nomah, who was born on july 23, 1973.

don drysdale

shown on a 2008 donruss sports legend museum collection card, was also born on july 23, but in 1936. it's interesting to me that they scrubbed drysdale clean of logos and the dodgers' script. on other 2008 cards they didn't go to such extremes.

pee wee reese

was another dodger born on july 23 - in 1918. he's shown on a 2019 topps stadium club red foil parallel, so that would be a card that was issued over 100 years after pee wee was born.

max scherzer

was born on july 27, 1984. his card here is a 2021 panini contenders base card that includes a photo of him from his short stint with the dodgers.

chad billingsley

is two days younger than scherzer, having entered this world on july 29, 1984. his 2007 topps chrome white refractor features fellow leo garciaparra in the background. i've added quite a few chrome parallels from 2007 and 2008 in the past year. they may be two of the best years (along with 2003) for chrome parallels, in my opinion.

ryan pepiot

is also a leo on the later end of the spectrum. he was born on august 21, 1997. that card is a 2022 topps update red foil parallel, by the way. pepiot was only 10 when that card of nomar i showed earlier was released. zoinks.

and then there are randy wolf

and jeff weaver

shown on a 2009 topps walmart black parallel for wolf, and a 2009 topps update target throwback parallel for weaver. both of these guys were born on august 22, 1976, and they were dodger teammates in 2009.

of course, it's been done before as don sutton and reggie smith were dodger teammates for several seasons and they shared april 2, 1945 as their birthday. that makes them aries, which would be a separate post if topps had used a dodger to represent that sign instead of nolan arenado. it probably would have made for a more interesting post since their birthstone is the diamond which translates well to baseball. however, with the demise of gq, we probably won't get any more inserts related to the zodiac unless a&g steps in, but they already did a birthday related insert set in 2010. 

happy (belated) birthday to these (and all the other) dodger leos!