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. today it's 2009's turn...
favorite non-dodger card: upper deck o-pee-chee alex rodriguez
even though i was disappointed with this set from an o-pee-chee standpoint, it was a breath of fresh air from upper deck among the glossy issues of the late 2000s. there were no text or team variations (although i made one of my own), and they had to change the design to avoid legal consequences, but i still collected the set. it took me a while to complete it thanks to some short prints, but complete it i did. of course, my set includes some black border parallels in place of regular base cards because i didn't care to chase more cards.
anyway, this alex rodriguez card was one of the first that caught my eye, as a-rod gets a hero shot as he warms up in angel stadium under a clear blue orange county sky. it's also the second 2009 o-pee-chee rodriguez card i have in a mini-collection, sort of. my memorials collection includes his "preview" card which also shows the black armband he is sporting for bobby murcer, albeit with a different photo.
rodriguez and the yankees would go on to win the world series in 2009, and i was actually happy for a-rod - of course, some of that was because they beat the phillies who had dispatched the dodgers in the nlcs. as with pete rose, i make no apologies for rodriguez, but i really did enjoy watching him play, most of the time.
favorite dodger card: topps unique jim thome
the dodgers picked up thome from the white sox at the end of august, 2009. it was a weird acquisition as he was pretty adamant that his fielding days were behind him, and of course there was no designated hitter in the national league. i figured i wouldn't see a thome card until update (if then, due to the late season trade), but then i am joe collector announced that something called topps unique would be included in one of his group breaks. i bought in and was rewarded with a bunch of great looking cards from this one-off release, including this card of thome.
there was no thome card in the update set that year, although he did make it in to a couple other late-year sets (heritage high numbers and upper deck signature stars). while thome's tenure as a dodger was forgettable (4 for 17 as a pinch hitter with 3 rbi, plus a small number of at bats in the postseason), this card was an immediate favorite and remains such today.
both a-rod and thome will appear again in future editions of 'my favorite cards of the year' posts, but next up is 1995 - stay tuned.
