i threw this one back

about ten months ago, i stumbled on a listing for a willie mays autograph from 2004 topps originals signature edition (i am on the lookout for a dodger card signed by rick sutcliffe from that release). the price was decent, so i "bought it now" and was excited about adding another mays auto to my collection.

once the card arrived, i was less excited.

while the card was advertised as being from the 2004 set, it was not in the original sealed case that came with cards from that release. that's not necessarily a deal breaker, especially with the topps hologram sticker on the back

but when i looked at beckett's online database, this card should have only been numbered to 5

still, perhaps the checklist is wrong, and there were actually 50 of these signed. i figured i would check with topps and see if they could verify the number on the hologram. after a couple of tries, i got through to someone who told me that they no longer have the database that included these autograph certifications. that is crazy to me, but topps will topps i suppose.

is it real? is it a fake? i don't know.

in the end, i contacted the seller to see if they had any additional information on the card, but they did not. to their credit, they accepted my return and i felt better than i would have had i kept the card. buyer beware.

something to look forward to

i was all set for this post to be a nod to blue jays fans and collectors with what they could expect to see in 2026 and beyond from topps until all of the strange and "you might never see that again" plays from games 6 and 7 of the 2025 world series transpired. so, now this post is about cards that i and other dodger fans and collectors can look forward to.

2025 topps chrome world series champions refractor

there are 16 cards in this insert set, but this is the one i wanted most. limited to 50 and, as a result, wildly priced on the secondary market, i had to act fast to buy this one that was undervalued by the seller. here's the back:

these cards were "new" this year and limiting them to 50 copies sucks. i would have loved to be able to complete a set, but there is just no way.

it is possible that topps returns postseason cards to the flaghip set in 2026. i think the last time they did that was 2021 - here's one of the world series highlights cards from that set (it's a yellow parallel)

topps has stayed true to the heritage sets, so there will be singular cards for the world series and the league championship series in the 1977 design next year, most likely.

blue jay fans can look forward to cards like these title clash inserts from 2024 topps dynamic duals

that feature al and nl champs. a shohei ohtani and vladimir guerrero card would be pretty nice.

of course, world series champions are an easy go-to for topps when coming up with inserts, like they did back in 2009 with their flagship and update sets. this one features duke snider

who won a pair of rings with the dodgers.

2014 topps update included another ring focused insert set

this commemorative ring card isn't anything that topps seems to be doing these days, but maybe they bring these back? 

the rings are certainly gaudier these days and would provide some interesting fodder.

traditionally, there have been world series champion relics in flagship each year, although i don't think they were included in 2025 topps. the first year i remember seeing these was back in 2004 and i think they were in update. i pulled a dave roberts relic card which was pretty cool. today, they are less interesting but sort of hard to come by. i added this 2021 topps walker buehler example

earlier this year. it's numbered to 99 which i think is the highest print run of these things. here's the back:

nowhere near as interesting as the johnny podres fake ring card.

this year, perhaps in lieu of relic cards, topps introduced world series champion autographs. i was sure to pick up buehler's

because of his series ending role. here's the back:

the only other two i have are justin wrobleski and tony gonsolin

the buehler and gonsolin are numbered, but the wrobleski is not. i couldn't find any info on non-numbered cards for some reason. the backs are the same as buehler's

these are sticker autos but still pretty pricey. the wrobleski and gonsolin cards were outliers that the sellers put buy it now values between $20 and $30.

and then there are the cards in the future where a world series title is referenced. i picked up this 2025 leaf metal inscription autograph of 1981 world series champion steve garvey

in part because the inscription is "81 ws champs", but also because it's numbered 6/10

garvey also showed up in 2023 topps update with another world series themed commemorative insert set

this is the gold parallel that i tracked down a few months ago. garvey is the guy who gets the most mileage out of that 1981 title, although it would be nice to see some others like ron cey, steve yeager, pedro guerrero, or fernando valenzuela on cards like these.

at least it's nice to see the commissioner's trophy on a card that is sort of easy to find. topps has taken to reserving it in 2025 for semi-rare parallels like a bunch of dodger golden mirror cards. case in point, here's edgardo henriquez's golden mirror parallel

i had to wait for quite a while for one of these - featuring any player - showed up with a decent enough price. here's the back:

henriquez pitched in 3 games for the dodgers in the 2024 regular season, and then 3 more in the postseason, although none of those were in the world series. this year, he pitched in a couple of world series games. i might target his 2026 golden mirror card to keep the set going.

i am hoping that 2026 brings more cards like these, but that they are easier to find. give me a stadium club base card showing clayton kershaw with the trophy like we had in 2021 rather than the golden mirror card we got this year, for example. to the champs go the spoils and i can't wait to add more world series themed cards to my dodger collection in the future!

just wow

game 7 was an absolute classic. it would have been perfect for either team to have won - i would have had no complaints if it had gone the other way, and i truly mean that.

up until last night, miguel rojas was probably going to be remembered as the guy who made a great play to preserve clayton kershaw's no-hitter back in 2014 during his first stint with the dodgers. he didn't even warrant a card when he was first with the team, and his subsequent years have seen him with only a small number of cards. here's a 2023 topps royal blue parallel

that i've shown before (i try really hard not to show cards more than once unless it's germane to the post). he's going to get a few more cards i would say after his game 7 performance. now he will be remembered for his unlikely home run in the top of the 9th to tie the game, as well as his the drawn in defensive play to preserve the tie in the bottom of the 9th. this all overshadowed his crazy short-hop pick to end game 6!

will smith, whose 2025 topps major league material card i picked up at a mall show in mid october,

will be celebrated for his game winning home run in the 11th inning, but he also gets credit for that force play at home in the bottom of the 9th - a play that could have been overturned on replay, it was that close.

and then there was max muncy

who made it a one run game in the 8th with his solo blast. i had been saving that 2022 topps photo variation card for a different post, but game 7 heroics warrant showing it now.

mookie betts (this is his 2023 topps flagship card)

struggled in the series, but he scored a run on a shallow sacrifice fly and then turned the game ending double play with one of my favorite plays to make - the 6-3 double play where you take the ball to the bag yourself. so fun.

i don't have a new card of andy pages to share, and the only kiké hernandez card i have in my scanned folder is this 2023 topps wbc card

but the defensive play pages made while knocking kiké down was incredible. then, they teamed up in the top of the 10th for some more drama, with pages hitting into a force play at home with the bases loaded and hernandez nearly reaching on an infield grounder when the pitcher got his feet turned around at first. just a crazy sequence of plays in the late innings.

the game also marked the official end to clayton kershaw's career. this is his 2025 topps confetti parallel

it was stressful to see kershaw warming up in the bullpen at one point. i had hoped for a blowout (either way) so that kersh might get into the game without any pressure. he delivered in game 3, but...

speaking of the pitching, shohei otani battled but wound up making one bad pitch too many. this is one of his three 2025 topps 2024 greatest hits inserts

we should get a bunch of pitcher ohtani cards in 2026.

justin wrobleski (2025 topps sandglitter parallel)

relieved ohtani and contributed to some drama and a surreal dugout/bullpen emptying hbp of the blue jays' number 9 batter. no way he was trying to hit andres gimenez but three pitches up and in were a bit curious. 

after wrobleski, dave roberts fully committed to "all hands on deck". he brought in tyler glasnow (2024 topps chrome refractor)

who had earned the save in game 6. glasnow gave up what seemed like an insurance run that the blue jays were going to cash in for a title courtesy of gimenez of all people. i was surprised that roberts left glasnow in to face dodger nemesis george springer after that happened, but he did and glasnow got springer and two more outs after that.

glasnow was relived by emmet sheehan, seen here on his 2024 topps gold parallel.

he left after getting the blue jays out in the 7th and issuing a lead off double in the 8th, and was relived by blake snell.

snell (here's his 2025 topps stars of mlb card)

hadn't replicated his playoff success in his two world series starts, but got the dodgers out of a jam thanks to muncy's quick reactions and two strikeouts. he left with two on and one out in the bottom of the 10th and was replaced by yoshinobu yamamoto.

before the game, i assumed that yamamoto would be the only dodger pitcher not available. i was clearly wrong. here's his 2025 bowman chrome card (which i was saving for a different post but oh well)

yamamoto created some drama of his own by hitting the first batter he faced to load the bases. that set up the force play at home from rojas to smith and then the deep flyball that pages caught over kiké's lifeless body. he then worked around the leadoff double by vladimir guerrero jr to start the bottom of the 11th and collected his third win of the series. just a classic, epic game regardless of who won.

as the later innings went on, i was less and less concerned with who would win and more concerned that it not end as the result of an error or some other sort of miscue. i suppose the only other thing that i really didn't want to see was george springer 

as the hero.

i tentatively have plans to head to toronto in april to catch the dodgers when they visit - plans that were begun back when the 2026 schedule was released. if these plans hold, i'll be sure to appreciate both teams just as i did throughout the entire series. i may never see another matchup of my favorite teams in the world series, but if i do, i hope that it is as entertaining as this one was. after all, that's the whole point of this as a fan. and wow was i ever entertained by game 7.

1955 bowman complete through 288!

big game tonight, but won't stop me from posting the next installment in my 1955 bowman set build. heading into the home stretch with the sharing of my 1955 bowman set build, we are deep into umpire territory, with seven of these next 16 cards featuring the arbiters of the game. 

sheet 33, cards 273-280

charlie neal represents the dodgers, with three american league umps and bookending cubs. here are the backs:

all of the backs are biographical. let's take a deeper dive...

bubba church's big league career was over by the time this card hit the market as he made his last appearance on may 1 of 1955. you don't see the word "acquitted" on the back of baseball cards in any context these days. church supposedly had a hand in keeping joe namath in school at alabama, and is a member of the alabama sports hall of fame.

jim delsing was a solid outfielder, but baseball trivia buffs know him best for being the player who pinch-ran for eddie gaedel after number 1/8 drew a walk in his only major league appearance.

the back of bill greive's card notes many of his notable games served as an umpire, but fails to mention that he served in the new york state assembly in 1936 or that he was a world war i veteran who was a member of one of the companies that comprised the "lost battalion". it does note that he is "scotch-irish" though.

ivan (known as ike) delock's card back features some of the largest font in the set, and the text is fairly benign as delock spent all of 1954 in the minors after stints with the red sox in both 1952 and 1953. he did hit his stride for the red sox once he was moved to the bullpen full time in 1956.

ed runge is a name that i am familiar with, but it's because of paul runge who was ed's son and also an umpire. ed runge was working the right field line for don larsen's perfect game in 1956 but what i really want to know is what is his ancestry? seriously, though, how about him being a professional roller skater?! runge was also the other umpire involved in the blackmail scandal i mentioned back when bill mckinley's card came up in the set.

like chico hernandez last time, i am guessing kids ripping packs in 1955 were confused about seeing charlie neal's card. he didn't make it to the majors until 1956, but i am sure he gained some fans quickly as he helped the dodgers return to the world series.

hank soar is the last umpire on the page, and we are informed that his ancestry is "english-swedish". the best information given here is that soar played in the nfl with the new york football giants and scored the winning touchdown in the 1938 championship game against the green bay packers. he worked both don larsen's perfect game and nolan ryan's fourth no-hitter as the first base umpire.

last but not least we have clyde mccullough of the chicago cubs. some collector has noted that clyde's full name is "clyde edward", and they have also updated his stats to show that his lifetime batting average is .252. mccullough was done after the 1956 season, so this notation was made sometime after july 22 of that year. he became a big league coach and minor league manager for several seasons before passing away during the 1982 campaign while he was working as the padres' bullpen coach. i am not sure if this is still the case, but the padres named their pitcher of the year award in mccullough's honor at one time.

sheet 34, cards 281-288

some of the cards on this sheet are not in the best condition, but it's full. four more umpires, with mr. jackowski getting the brady bunch pose memo over a decade in advance.

here are the backs:

all bios, and each worth some discussion.

charlie berry's card notes his major league playing career as well as his entry into umpiring, but is completely silent on his football career. berry was a collegiate star who also played in the early days of the nfl, leading the pottsville maroons to a disputed title in 1925. here's a fantastic article about charlie berry, with more information about other cards of his including his appearance in the 1963 topps set.

phil cavarretta's card back blatantly calls him old although he was only 38 when the 1955 season began. he was a former national league mvp and was player-manager of his hometown cubs for a couple of seasons in the early 1950's.

nestor chylak was just starting his hall of fame umpiring career, and i don't plan on trying to upgrade this card as his hof status keeps the prices higher than i would want to pay. the back is silent on his ethnicity, but does mention his world war ii service. another source notes that he was injured in the battle of the bulge and received a purple heart. his career lasted until 1982, and he was notably behind the plate for sandy koufax's last appearance in the 1966 world series. he was also the crew chief who declared the forfeit during the indians' 10 cent beer night promotion and was subsequently hit with a chair.

bill jackowski is the first of these umpires on these sheets to represent the national league. he is of polish descent, and was also a world war ii veteran. like chylak, he was also working the 1966 world series, and both he and chylak were also working game 7 of the 1960 world series when maz hit the walk-off home run to beat the yankees.

walt dropo is the second white sox first baseman on the sheet, and, while the back mentions his time wit the red sox previously, it does not mention that he was the american league rookie of the year in 1950. after his baseball career ended, he started a very successful fireworks company and also found success in real estate.

frank secory's card is just trashed. clearly it was glued in an album at one time. it was part of the initial group of cards i had that kickstarted this set build, but i don't plan to replace it. i can read the back well enough - secory is of bohemian descent, and was a former major league player. as an umpire, he witnessed dock ellis' no-hitter as well as the first and 500th home runs of ernie banks' career.

ron mrozinski's big league career ended after the 1955 season, but he pitched for several more years in the minor leagues. i am always curious about random pen marks on cards. was the number "4" circled intentionally? was someone seeing if there was still ink in the pen? it's ponderous.

finally, dick smith of the pirates gets a card. like bubba church up top, smith made his last appearance in the majors on may 1, 1955. that was one of only four games in which smith appeared that season, but he did pinch hit on april 17 which also marked the debut of roberto clemente. smith - the first of three major leaguers known as "dick smith" - went on to work for penn state for several years after his baseball career ended.

only four more pages left to share in this set build - stay tuned for more tales of umpires and late set subjects!

the horror

colonel kurtz wasn't talking about trading cards, but goodness card companies continue to jump the parallel shark in my opinion. in honor of halloween, take a gander at this card

with the back

zombies and a jack o'lantern from leaf's 2025 metal halloween release, along with a auto sticker of steve garvey.

i didn't bid on or purchase this card, although, while it might be a bit too far out there for me now, a few years ago i might have blindly bent to the will of the pc. anyway, happy halloween and look out for zombies on your cards.

bringing team sets into focus

long gone are the days where it was possible to collect all of the cards of any given player, let alone team. and, while i've tried to finish off a dodger junk wax year (1989) there are still a few oddballs that i haven't tracked down yet - partially due to a lack of focus - and there are probably other dodger cards from that year that i don't know about.

over the last year, i've tried to be a bit more focused when looking back and picking up dodger cards from past years and i've had some success doing so. whether it's targeting a specific team set, insert set, parallel, or something that spans both of the latter, i've been able to fill some holes in my collection that are more meaningful to me than random cards here and there. 

to illustrate that point, here is the first 1952 topps card i have purchased in a long time.

phil haugstad's card gets me one closer to that dodger team set, although i know i will never complete it. i only have one of the high numbers (at least it's jackie robinson) and i still need seven from the lower series. by the way, when it comes to topps flagship sets, only the 1952 and 1953 dodger team sets are incomplete in my collection, but the remaining 1953 cards (jim gilliam, johnny podres, and even dixie howell and bill antonello) are daunting.

as for my full set builds, i only have high numbers to go when it comes to the 1952 homage that is 2001 topps heritage. i finished the low numbers a couple of years ago or so, and the only card i've added since is old friend ramon martinez's

with 85 high numbers still missing, i doubt i will ever finish this set, either.

insert team sets are far easier to complete, and this 2024 topps update sandy koufax autumn tales card

finished off my 4-card dodger team set.

there were only three cards in the 2024 topps around the horn insert team sets, and mookie betts'

was the last one i needed.

as for actual team set base cards, one of the more recent ones i completed was 2001 topps fusion

those two cards were the last ones i needed and i don't know what took me so long to pick them up. it helps to focus, i suppose.

i even went and tracked down the last three cards i needed to complete the 2013 topps target red border parallel dodger team set. the zack greinke and carl crawford cards

came quickly, but the luis cruz card

had me at the mercy of a saved ebay search for several months. finally someone posted a bunch of these parallels for all sorts of players and i was able to finish the set. i still have several missing from the 2013 topps update release, but having this (and the walmart blue border) team sets for the flagship cards is still something.

even better, this 2013 topps update yasiel puig card

was the final emerald parallel i needed to complete my full run - flagship and update - of dodger cards of that particular parallel. puig is as excited as i am to have this completed.

singer sing me a song

i have r.e.m. on my mind currently as i have recently purchased tickets to see the michael shannon/jason narducy r.e.m. tribute show for the third consecutive year, and the post title comes from a line in their song "king of birds". i also have dodger baseball on my mind, and the title fit this card

as a young bill singer is shown in dodger stadium on his 1989 smokey dodger greats card. dodger stadium, and california in general, always brings its siren song out when i return for a visit. maybe someday i will move back, but that would be several years out yet. 

i've had that singer card for quite some time, but recently acquired a second copy so i can add one to my dodger stadium collection now. same goes for this 2021 topps chrome update max muncy all-star game card

muncy was the starting dh for the national league in the game. note that the card uses a photo of muncy that is not from the game - 2022 was the first year that these inserts were made to be game specific (except for the few subjects who did not attend the all-star game festivities). behind muncy is one of the static billboards shaped to mimic the two scoreboards over the pavilions. this particular advertisement is for estrella jalisco which is a mexican pilsner that i have not tried. when it comes to mexican beer, i've had dos equis, corona, and tecate. i've also had a beer called chihuahua, but i think that is an american beer. next time i'm at dodger stadium, i will give estrella jalisco a try. hopefully that is sometime in 2026.