a team set 30 years in the waiting

about three years ago, i came across this 1996 topps mike piazza card

here's the back:

if you are familiar with the 1996 topps set, you know that the card front and back are a mismatch. the "star power" subsets had a monthly breakdown of stats. here are the two piazza card backs from the 1996 topps set for your reference:

however, i didn't buy the card because of the back situation - i bought it because it has this addition under the topps logo

that graphic (which matches a jersey patch the dodgers wore) denotes the 35th season of dodger stadium which occurred in 1996 (note to topps - this is how heritage buybacks should be named, as this wasn't the 35th anniversary but rather the 35th year that the dodgers played in the stadium. saying a 1977 card has a 50th anniversary in 2026 is just wrong).

sorry for the rant. 

a little bit of research told me that this was a 1996 topps team topps dodgers card, from a factory sealed set! now, this predates the team sets that are sequentially numbered with a team related prefix by ten years, and i was very unaware that this set even existed.

since finding the piazza card, i've had a couple of ebay searches running with no luck until late last year when someone in alaska of all places listed this 

for sale. still sealed! i placed a bid and wound up being the only bidder, winning the set for less than the current blister team sets sell for.

i did consider keeping it sealed, but ultimately opened it to reveal the full set within:

the backs are identical to the flagship backs - here's nomo's card back

with just those two piazza backs being swapped. 

i took a photo of the back of the packaging, because it held more information

the package contained a 16 card team set, plus a bonus 15 card pack and a bonus "big" topps card. here are the team set and the bonus card pack - front:

and back:

even though there are rockies on both sides of the bonus pack, it's not a rockies team set. there are just 13 random cards from 1996 topps in between with no additional logos. in fact, only a few teams were given these team sets - braves, orioles, cubs, white sox, indians, dodgers, yankees, mariners, and rangers - according to tcdb. each set had a special logo (some have a team specific logo like the dodgers and some have a "team topps" logo). to make things stranger, these were sold only at walmart (again, according to tcdb).

here's a scan of the cardboard insert

with a checklist of sorts on the back

so where is this big topps card? i was thinking it would be nestled in there somewhere, but no - it was the back of the package

so it's just a normal nomo card printed on a bigger piece of cardboard. weird. here's the back:

what an oddball thing.

assuming there is a 2026 topps factory dodger team set, i think i will add this to the running list of team set posts i've made. now if only i could find a complete set of the 2004 fleer dodger team set - the one with the blue design....

the almost daily dodger - todd worrell

when i started following the dodgers, charlie hough was their "closer" with 22 saves. that wasn't something i understood at the time, but looking back now it's pretty crazy to think of a knuckleballer closing out games a la hoyt wilhelm. soon it was terry forster who was the closer (he matched hough's total in 1978), and then steve howe came onto the scene and i had a better understanding of bullpen hierarchy. still, the 22 saves that hough and forster registered tied jim brewer for second on the team's single season leaderboard. brewer was also on top of that list with 24 saves in 1970. it wasn't until 1989 when jay howell passed them to set a new team record with 28 saves.

where i am going with this is that there were no dodger relievers with more than 28 saves in any season until todd worrell joined the club and recorded 32 saves in 1995. i've had his 1998 score artist proof parallel

scanned for quite some time. it's such a fancy parallel!

worrell also had three 30 save seasons for the cardinals before joining the dodgers, who were the last franchise to reach that mark other than the rockies who were just in their third year of existence. even the marlins (who entered the league with the rockies in 1993) had a 30 save season before the dodgers.  

worrell also had the dodgers' first 40 save season when he recorded 44 in 1996. he followed that up with 35 in 1997 which turned out to be his final year in the majors. only kenley jansen and eric gagne have saved more games in a single season for the dodgers than worrell, and i am thinking it may be awhile before there is another dodger who reaches 40 saves given the way dave roberts is managing the bullpen.

where there's a worrell, there's a way

it's been a while, but i am finally showing some cards that have come my way over the past few months. first up are some goodies from daniel of it's like having my own card shop. he posted a photo of some 1995 score platinum team set cards and offered some up to those who chose a team that was included in his stash. i spied todd worrell's leg in the photo and claimed some dodgers.  here's the worrell card

that also netted me a jim gott card

plus cards of henry rodriguez, delino deshields, dave hansen, and chris gwynn

plus the rookie subset cards of darren dreifort and garey ingram

these cards are really shiny and sparkly and were a redemption set.  thanks daniel!

next up, tom from angels, in order sent me some minor league cards from my want list. these are 1991 fleer excel cards, and i scanned a couple of triple-a cards - butch davis and carlos hernandez - plus a couple of double-a cards - braulio castillo and mike white

davis had already been in the majors for a couple of teams when his card was issued, but he only made one plate appearance as a dodger. i last saw him coaching for the twins a few years ago. hernandez was a backup catcher to mike piazza for a few years, and castillo wound up in the bigs with the phillies. as for white, he was another dodger first round pick who never did make the majors, peaking at triple-a with the mets in 1992.

and then there are cards from night owl, which i have previously referred to as hand-me-downs. it's a great thing when the preeminent presence in the blogosphere collects the same team as his doubles have to go somewhere...

one of my favorite cards he sent in these last two envelopes is this 1987 tcma 1955 brooklyn dodgers card of pee wee reese and jim gilliam

i also liked the two cards from the 1992 classic update travel blue and red set. greg sent ramon martinez

and dave hansen. i scanned the back of hansen's card

to show the marc okkonen uniform figure, which is the same as you will find online as part of the uniform database linked through baseball reference.

from 1996 upper deck, here's a die-cut mike piazza run producers insert

that i had not seen before.

kaz ishii was the darling of card companies back in 2002, and fleer provided this ticket to the majors card from their authentix release

nice to see maury wills making an appearance on the replica ticket stub embedded in the card. the dodgers did feature players on their stubs, but fleer didn't use actual tickets for this set like topps would in 2009.

here's a 2002 upper deck 40 man of dodger double dipper giovanni carrara

there aren't too many cards of carrara, and i could not track this one down for the post i linked to above. i did find his 2003 40 man card that came from his time away from the dodgers and i certainly overpaid to get it for the post.

greg and i both have a lot of clayton kershaw cards, but he was able to send a couple that were missing from my collection. first, a 2017 panini national convention vip prizm card

and then a 2022 topps royal blue parallel

i sure do hope kershaw returns in 2024.

there was some nonsense included in the way of this 2020 topps update mookie betts baseball collectible coin

that exists just to have something exclusive in blasters. i didn't buy any blasters of 2020 update (at least i don't recall finding any of these coins) so i am glad to have this one in my collection.

and last but not least, greg included one of gio's custom cards - a 1978 topps dodgers card featuring the 30 home run teammates:

as always, fun to go through envelopes sent my way. thank you!

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.