remembering fernando still

one year ago today fernando valenzuela passed away. the dodgers have continued to honor him with a jersey patch throughout the 2025 season, rather than just wearing it during last year's world series (like they did with jim gilliam back in 1978). i think it was a nice touch by the franchise that benefited so much from fernandomania.

this card

from 2024 topps black & white might have been my favorite dodger card of 2024 had i picked it up last year. instead, i came across it early in 2025. it's still a fantastic card showing the stages of fernando's signature windup (at least from the stretch).

that is not the only card of his that i have added this year. here he is at another stage of his windup on his 1994 donruss card

it's fun to find cards of fernando as an oriole. here's his 1994 topps stadium club 1st day issue parallel

and here's another parallel - a 1995 upper deck electric diamond card

that not only shows him as a phillie, but also at the plate! he won a couple of silver slugger awards during his career.

most of his non-dodger cards come from his time with the padres, and that is due in large part to the proliferation of card manufacturers in the latter part of the 1990s. here are some more parallels from that era - 1996 upper deck collector's choice gold signature

1997 fleer ultra gold medallion edition

1997 pinnacle museum collection

he's been showing up in more and more modern releases as well. this is a 2017 topps new era version of a 1987 all-star card

that is similar to what was included in 2017 topps series 2, but the 30th anniversary stamp is not foil and i believe this was only available with a hat purchase.

here's another card from last year - 2024 topps archives black foil

i will always appreciate more fernando dodger cards, but couldn't topps issue at least one showing him during his (very) short stint as an angel?

it's also fun to add some oddballs from his playing days, like i did with this 1985 all-star program "insert"

it's hard to believe that it has been a year.

defense

prior to this past weekend, only twice in my lifetime the dodgers had won back-to-back national league pennants - 1977-78 and 2017-18. neither of those instances presented an opportunity for the franchise to repeat as world series champions - in fact, the dodgers lost all four of those world series matchups. the franchise has only had two opportunities previously to repeat as world series champions - 1955-56 and 1965-66 - but fell short each time. this year, the dodgers will once again truly be able to defend their title and perhaps join a short list of franchises who have successfully done so.

the yankees, of course, but also the blue jays, reds, a's, and red sox have repeated as world series champions, and in the divisional era, you can remove boston from that list. 

anyway, on saturday morning i looked through my scanned folder to see how many dodger cards i had showing people playing defense. non-pitcher dodgers, as subject of the card, wearing a fielding glove, basically. out of 199 scanned cards, these are the ones that fit the criteria (save 1 or 2 that will show up in future posts with specific topics)

2013 topps chrome yasiel puig refractor

sure, the game's over, but puig has his glove

2021 topps cody bellinger 1986 all-star

2020 world series excitement from cody!

2021 topps mookie betts 1952 redux chrome

mookie is actually making a defensive play!

2022 topps tribute justin turner

third base defense in action!

2023 topps big league mookie betts wrapper redemption

one of the five tools on display from mookie!

2023 topps flagship collection max muncy

another actual defensive play on cardboard

2023 topps x j-rod mike piazza

definitely playing defense here

2024 leaf press pass premium retro base reflector prismatic blue

could be a shot from between innings warmups, but still. this one is numbered to 20

which is a high print run for leaf releases these days.

2024 topps chrome mookie betts all-etch

another mookie card brings us to the grand total of ten cards. that is fewer than i expected, but hey, chicks dig the long ball and card companies prefer swings.

the world series starts on friday, and i am sure i will have another post or two before then. but just in case, here's a 2003 topps tribute world series edition steve garvey gold parallel

i picked up recently. it's one for the dodger collection, meaning i now own 2% of the print run

63 is not meaningful in terms of garvey, but it is a year that the dodgers won the world series (by sweeping the yankees). a couple of weeks from now we will know if the dodgers were able to defend their title successfully or not!

a duo of dodger double dippers

the latter part of the 2025 season brought a couple of familiar faces back to the dodgers (no, not amed rosario again). first, the club swung a trade with the twins to reacquire brock stewart. i made note of it back in this post wherein i also mentioned that i did not own any cards of stewart's from his first dodger run.

i remedied that, although there aren't too many to choose from. i wound up picking up this 2017 panini chronicles signature series autograph card

showing brock as a member of "los angeles". 

i don't have any cards - and i don't know if there are any to be had - showing stewart with the twins or the blue jays (the two teams he pitched for in between dodger stints), and i don't think he is included on the update checklist this year so it may be awhile before we see more brock stewart cards. he's currently injured and set to become a free agent after the season ends.

the other recent dodger double dipper is andrew heaney. he was added to the roster and made a start at the very tail end of the season, cementing his status. here's his 2022 topps stadium club chrome card

from his first go-round with the dodgers. i suppose 2025 marked his third time with the franchise, but the first time he was only a dodger for a day or so in the offseason after being acquired in a trade with the marlins and before he was traded to the angels.

heaney has plenty of cards showing him with the rangers (that's who he played for immediately after leaving the dodgers). he was a part of their world series championship to boot. unlike stewart, he will get a card in update this year showing him with the pirates - the team he signed with prior to the start of the 2025 season. it's unlikely he will get another dodger card as he is a free agent at the end of the season, but here's hoping i am able to bookend this dodger double dipper.

i used to be a lot more diligent about keeping a running list of these double dipper guys, but i've slacked off in recent years. this post about kiké hernandez has the most up to date list(s), and you can add rosario, stewart, and heaney to it.

(i didn't want to see) apathy in the uk

i was in the uk for a couple of weeks last month, and i decided to keep an eye out for trading cards. i didn't have to wait too long before i spotted some, as there was a significant display of 2026 topps premier league cards in a grocery store in porthmadog - in fact, two different displays

and again in the window of what i would consider a neighborhood market

i didn't purchase any of these cards, but it was interesting to see them and note how visible topps is making them.

i later spotted some tobacco cards displayed on the wall of one of the english pubs we went in. 

as far as i could tell, these 1937 player's coronation series: ceremonial dress cards are actual cards - not a promotional or modern poster. it's a partial set (there are 50 total cards in the set) and they don't seem to be worth too much, but i would guess that the cards have been in place there for decades.

i found no topps baseball uk edition cards which is no surprise since the last issue of those cards was in 2022, and i understood that it was an online product, not necessarily available in brick and mortars. speaking of which, i found no hobby shops that carried cards. there were a couple of shops we discovered on our adventures that looked like they could have had sports cards, but they drew the line at funko pops, apparently. the last time i was in britain, i saw some pokemon cards at a convenience type store, but i didn't see any of that this time.

i do have a couple of recent uk edition pickups to share from that last release to show off:

walker buehler black parallel

these are numbered to 125 which is different from the flagship black parallels

freddie freeman and mookie betts base cards

and a clayton kershaw big ben parallel

which is numbered to 99

this is one of the more unique parallels in uk edition, but i feel that i should remind everyone that big ben is the bell inside the tower, not the tower itself which is formally named "elizabeth tower". 

i think i would like to find a union jack parallel but i haven't done so yet. i do regret that these were not purchased in the uk. sadly, i believe the last cards i have purchased in person outside of the united states were o-pee-chee cards in the early 1980s or perhaps some hockey cards in the early 90s. 

i didn't see a whole lot of baseball things of any sort while we were there. a few dodger hats - one person wearing a dodgers shirt - but when i said "go dodgers" to one of the people wearing a hat, they looked confused. several yankee hats were noted, but were largely worn by what i assumed to be tourists from asia. i did see an older gentleman at the british museum wearing an expos hat which made me smile. i didn't even see any of the wbc gear for great britain. i wouldn't have minded picking up a shirt with the classic default font. it's worth noting (because it relates to this post) that i came across a couple of old tour posters featuring the sex pistols, from whom i took inspiration for the title of this post.

at the conclusion of our trip we flew from london to boston before returning to the twin cities, which sort of stunk because of the layover and having to go through security again after clearing customs, but it did afford me an opportunity to say hello to pedro martinez in the tsa precheck security line at logan. not sure where he was headed, but that quick moment was better than any card i might have found abroad.

as rick steves says, "keep on travelin'!" to which i will add "keep on collectin'!"

bonus content - happy 37th anniversary to kirk gibson and his game 1 walk-off

i've had that black parallel of his 2013 panini hometown heroes curtain call insert in my scanned folder for not quite a year waiting for tonight!

not in as much (double) trouble as they could have been

i can laugh about it now, seeing as how the dodgers hung on to win the game, but trying to digest max muncy's near grand slam turning into a "grounded into double play" last night in game 1 of the nlcs was difficult. it was just unfathomable if not understandable as to how it played out. 

in honor of that crazy play, here are a pair of muncy cards from 2024 topps - his rainbow foil and gold foil parallels

i must admit that i was shocked to find out earlier this morning while preparing this post that muncy has only 36 gidp during the regular season over the course of his career, and last night's unorthodox gidp was just his fourth in the postseason! i thought for sure he had a lot more of these rally killers to his name.

one dodger who does have a lot of them is steve garvey. here are two garvey "cards" that i've had scanned for a while

those are two acestate pre-production proofs from 2024 leaf vivid. i can appreciate the comic book styling of the one, and the dream version looks like it should also play some new age music.

garvey had 251 gidp in his career, 164 as a dodger. his career total puts him at 38th on the all-time list, tied with willie mays. there are a lot of big names on the list, as longevity plays into how many double plays one might hit into. the only player in the top 10 all-time who isn't either in the hall of fame or bound for the hall of fame is julio franco at number 10, and he played in 23 seasons.

number 1 on the list is none other than dodger legend albert pujols. here are a couple of 2022 topps parallels of the future hall of famer

pujols hit into 426 double plays during his regular season career (10 with the dodgers), which is way more than anyone else. in 2nd place is miguel cabrera with 364. as for the dodgers, carl furillo is the all-time franchise leader with 207, followed by pee wee reese with 176. there two los angeles dodgers ahead of garvey on that list. eric karros had 165 to just surpass garvey, but the all-time la dodger leader in that category is bill russell. russell, by the way, needs more cards made of him so i have some new ones to post!

final four like none before

this year marks only the second time that three of the four teams remaining in the baseball postseason are expansion teams, and it is the first time that two of the teams are from the 1977 expansion. ten years ago, the toronto blue jays (1977) faced the kansas city royals (1969), while the new york mets (1962) faced the chicago cubs.  this year, we have the blue jays facing the seattle mariners (1977), while the milwaukee brewers (1969 as the seattle pilots) face the los angeles dodgers.

there aren't really too many connections between the dodgers and brewers this year, with only a handful of players left on either team from the 2018 squads that faced off in that year's nlcs. here's a 2022 topps meijer purple parallel featuring pitchers that were brewers and dodgers

but have since moved on. this matchup also makes me think of the late don sutton who pitched in the world series for both clubs as well as guys like lance rautzhan, al downing, greg brock, rick dempsey, and willie randolph who suited up for both teams as well.

speaking of moving on, i will admit i was rooting for the tigers to advance to the alcs, but instead zack mckinstry

and his teammates are moving on to the offseason. 

the alcs will feature the two teams that were added to the american league in 1977

and i am hoping for the canadian team to return to the fall classic for the first time since 1993. 

there is the possibility, however, that we will have only the second world series in the division era that guarantees a first-time champion should both the brewers and mariners advance (1980 was the first). what a series that would be, with ultimate seattle bragging rights at stake.

i know it's hard to root for the dodgers with the stories that the other three teams can write with a world series win this year, but i am going to do so anyway.

let's play hockey! and to the game?

i really do appreciate folks who trade cards through the mail. whether it's through tcdb (i have yet to complete a trade that way) or through email or blog posts, it's not a small effort these days to pull cards and get them on their way. it's even more difficult to send cards into this country at the moment, so angus of dawg day cards deserves a hearty thanks for sending me some items in return for my "almost free stuff friday" event.

plus, it is now hockey season (although it's still baseball season in my world), and the local club started out the season strong with a shutout in st. louis. i'll get to the hockey content in a moment...

i really should have held off on my post showing some of the other returns i received, as these items were en route at that time and they really do bring the international flair i alluded to in the post. first up is a near complete dodger team set of stickers from 1992 panini

however, these are the canadian version of the stickers as you could probably tell by the french position translations. it's always fun to see "premier but" on baseball cards or stickers.

missing from the set are the dodger team logo/header sticker and mike scioscia's sticker. i will for sure need to track those down. the backs of the stickers invite you to "au jeu!"

which is how they have translated "play ball". based on my rudimentary french knowledge, i would have thought that "au jeu" would be "to the game" (and not to be confused with "au jus" which is "with juice"). with these stickers printed in italy, were there some further language barriers in place? i would be interested to know how a french speaking umpire would say "play ball", and now that i think about it "to the game" sort of makes sense.

the other card that angus sent was one of my most wanted non-dodger cards - a 2013-14 o-pee-chee luc robitaille card

minimal french, even on the back

but it's understandable as there is not really any room for a bilingual bio. robitaille remains my favorite hockey player and i was happy each time he returned to the kings. i've replaced this robitaille card with a ron cey oddball on my most wanted non-dodger list, but i would think luuuuuuuuuuuuuc would reappear on that list at some point. i really need to get the rest of my collection (including my robitailles) entered into tcdb so i have better access to what i am missing.

thanks angus for the cards and for avoiding strikes and tariffs!