a different chrome priority

back in march i shared my prioritization of picking up dodger chrome parallels from topps heritage releases. since then, i have focused on other chrome pickups - primarily the topps all-time fan favorites refractors issued from 2003 through 2005.

i had some of these in hand already, but over the past few months i have brought my collection to the brink of completion concerning these parallels numbered to 299. let's take a look at some of them.

2003

ron cey

i scanned the backs of some of these cards - here's cey's

i appreciate that these cards show just the dodger stats. 

tommy john

interesting that topps used a 1976 photo for john on a 1979 design card.

the what happened? question there is the same one that was on john's actual 1979 topps card.

don newcombe

i don't know, or don't recall at this point, how topps chose designs for players in this set. newk, of course, was the 1956 cy young award winner as well as the mvp of the national league so this design makes some sense as a choice for him. 

tom lasorda

i remember being disappointed when this set was released that topps didn't make this a manager card instead of a pitcher card. they used photos of lasorda from his managing years, so it would have made sense. there were some manager cards in the 1954 set, so it wouldn't have been outside of canon.

johnny podres

both podres and lasorda are rocking los angeles dodger hats on brookly dodger-era card designs

so is duke snider

the 1955 design makes sense for the duke, who had a strong case for mvp that year. having him shown as a brooklyn dodger would have made more sense. here's his card back:

someone at topps can't do math, as his "dodgers life" stats don't reflect his actual franchise totals. for example, he had 1,995 hits as a dodger, to go along with 389 home runs and 1,271 rbi. those latter two numbers are more in line with what you would expect from a franchise's all-time leader (which snider remains).

don sutton

he's suttoning!

topps ignored sutton's return to the dodgers in 1988 in terms of the text on the back of the card, but acknowledged it as part of his statistical record. 

maury wills

wills' actual 1970 topps card features him wearing a hat. this is not an improvement over that card.

i realize that stolen bases weren't a card back stat in 1970, but in wills' case it would have been nice for topps to make that add.

steve sax

classic saxy

the other dodger in this set (not shown) is steve garvey (with a 1973 design card), and while i have a refractor as part of my garvey pc, i am in need of another one for the team set. 

all of the players featured above are shown on card designs for which there were already real-time dodger cards issued. i would have preferred to see wills as a dodger on a 1968 design, or cey on a standalone 1973 design card. missed opportunities by topps to fill in gaps in some players' records.

2004

brett butler

butler was a dodger in the 1991 topps traded set. 1991 was good for butler - he led the league in runs scored and walks that year. and times caught stealing, if i am being fair.

kirk gibson

1988 would have been a more obvious choice for gibson's card

orel hershiser

bulldog did get the 1988 design for his card. what i like most about this card - the base version especially - is roy campanella (partially obscured) in the background.

duke snider

topps advanced duke's card design by a year, but put him back in brooklyn where he belongs on a 1956 design card. they even kept his unique black/orange color combo!

don zimmer

this image would have fit right in with the rest of the 1957 topps set. here's the back:

topps went with zimmer's brooklyn totals rather than his dodger totals. he played with the los angeles dodgers for a short time in 1963. a dodger double dipper!

maury wills

all of the cards we've seen from the 2004 set (and the next one, too) feature dodgers who already had dodger cards from the year of their fan favorites design. this wills, however, puts him as a dodger whereas he was a pirate in 1967.

reggie smith

reggie's was the last one i needed to complete the team set.

the dodgers won three pennants with smith on the roster, but i suppose he didn't contribute a whole lot to the 1981 pennant due to injuries. still, he was the right fielder of the team of my youth and deserves more respect from topps!

davey lopes and charlie hough are the other two dodgers in the 2004 team set. i had both of their cards in my collection well before i began this pursuit. for the record, steve garvey was a padre in this set, but sadly not shown on the 1988 card design (1984 was used).

2005

roger craig

i assure you that craig had two arms and two legs, despite what you see on the card above.

bob welch

this card gives 1982 topps dave stewart vibes

johnny podres

podres on a 1955 design feels right. here's the back:

in the text on the back, topps forgets that podres pitched for tigers and padres at the end of his career.

steve garvey

it doesn't feel right to have an in-focus photo on the 1974 topps design for the garv. this is one of two of these cards i have in my collection. here's the back:

garvey did not, in fact, have 2021 hits in 1978, nor did he have 2001 hits in 1980.

joe pignatano

pignatano was a bit of a surprise to me when this set came out, but i like it. his actual 1959 topps card is a nice one, with the los angeles coliseum in the background. here's the back:

the comic is the same as on his 1959 topps card, but the text justification here is much wonkier.

tom niedenfuer

this is the most recent refractor i have picked up for this effort. i sometimes joke about niedenfuer (he's a pitcher the dodgers "niedenfuer" games) but he was a solid reliever over the balance of his career.

baseball reference doesn't show niedenfuer on the franchise leaderboard for era (i assume too few innings) but i do know that he has fallen at least a couple of spots from fourth-best ever by a dodger with 300+ games thanks to kenley jansen and clayton kershaw. 

i still need two refractors to complete the team set - carl erskine and clem labine - but i have the other four not shown here. those belong to dusty baker, rick monday, pedro guerrero, and duke snider.

out of all of the cards from the three year run of this release, only the 1967 maury wills card features a player with the dodgers when they were shown with a different team in the original release. again, i think this was a missed opportunity.

there are other chrome cards i've added to my collection over the last several months. one of them is this 2002 topps traded & rookies chrome steve garvey refractor

it's the only refractor parallel i have from that set (and it's the second one in my collection) but i always like bringing a new garvey card into the team collection.

i did complete the 2013 topps chrome refractor parallel dodger team set by purchasing these three cards

and i completed the 2015 topps chrome pink refractor parallel dodger team set by adding these three cards

plus clayton kershaw's card

kershaw's prism refractor 

was also the last one i needed for that parallel dodger team set. i still need four of the sepia refractors, so maybe that will be the next pursuit.

finally, here are three random-ish cards from 2024 topps chrome update - gavin stone refractor

jack flaherty prism refractor

and kevin kiermaier raywave refractor

i am a long way from completing any of those team sets, but i'll keep picking away at it as opportunities arise. stay tuned!

a memorial patch for scott littlefield

rangers' player personnel special assistant scott littlefield passed away on september 19, 2025 during the team's road trip in houston. spending many years as a scout, littlefield's impact on players and the organizations that he worked for was significant, and the rangers quickly added a memorial patch to their jerseys for the remainder of the season. 

given the short amount of time that the club wore the patch, i was thankful to find this 2026 topps finest jose corniell finest autograph card

it features the black circular patch with littlefield's initials there on corniell's left sleeve. corniell appeared in only one game for the rangers in 2025 - on september 28, to be exact - so there likely weren't too many photos for topps to choose from that didn't feature the patch. here's the back of the card

which is pretty devoid of information.

corniell was signed by the mariners in 2019 and acquired by the rangers in a 2020 trade, so i'm not sure if littlefield scouted him at all. it's highly likely, however, as littlefield was heavily involved in professional, amateur, and international scouting during his 16-year tenure with the rangers (and for 14 years before that), and would have also contributed to player evaluations related to trades.

it's not often that a team recognizes an off-field member of the organization in this manner, so littlefield was obviously well thought of and considered a prized member of the franchise. from what i was able to find, two of his kids are involved in scouting at the big league level, carrying on his legacy.

detroit rock city

up until this past june, i had been in detroit just once in my life. it was early fall in 2000, and i never left the airport as i was only connecting through. this time, dtw was the destination for a work related event, so i found myself in the motor city smack dab in the middle of baseball season. 

i can't win at everything, as the astros were the team visiting the tigers when i arrived, but i still made sure to get out to comerica park to take in a game. since this was my first time seeing the tigers as a home team, i am now able to add this card

to my "stadiums i've seen games in" collection. it's from the wildly disappointing 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee set. for the record, the tigers are the 26th franchise that i've seen as the home team, and comerica park is the 27th big league stadium i've seen a game in.

i'll get right to it - i loved this stadium. it's hard to believe that it opened in 2000 as it feels on par (at least) with some of the newer stadiums i've been to. the concourse is easy to traverse and encircles the entire stadium. i entered in left field and walked all around, taking in views from several different vantage points prior to the start of the game. brace yourself for a lot of photos!

this is the first photo i took

and i quickly realized that my seat along the first base side was going to be in the full sun all day.

it's not the motor city without a corvette on display!

i am guessing that these are fully insured for home run damage.

i appreciated the detail on the end of the row seat rail

it's a nice vintage touch.

one thing i do in every stadium i visit is look for the retired numbers. in detroit, the numbers are easy to find in left-center and right-center field on either side of the batter's eye. here's the left-center side

and here's the other side

jim leyland's number 10 is the newest addition.

i'd alway wondered why the numbers were staggered the way they were at comerica, and it finally made sense to me why the numbers are stacked like that - the upper row of numbers and names correspond to the statues right above them on the left side. it was tough to get all six of the statues in one image, but i tried

here's a photo i took from the other side later in the game

and here's a closeup of ty cobb's statue

i would have expected the spikes to be higher in the air

i appreciated the old english d in center field

nice photo op prop, but i prefer a cursive capital d.

i headed into the concourse between the foul poles. here are some more photos.

i looked - there were no cards at the meijer market

note the 1910 banner in the upper left. more about those in a bit.

there were a number of murals throughout the concourse, which i enjoyed seeing. here's one featuring ty cobb

and here's one that serves as an advertisement

and here's one that is largely used as a backdrop for photos from what i saw

lots of logos plus the spirit of detroit statue represented!

little caesars is present within the stadium which makes sense

but detroit style pizza is something different

i always go for a hot dog at stadiums - at least the first time i visit - and this was no exception

yes, i put ketchup on my hot dogs along with yellow mustard. i thought this was a pretty good dog.

one of my favorite things about stadiums is the history, and the tigers have done a great job in making their franchise's history accessible, with kiosks throughout the concourse. here's the 1900 kiosk

with that familiar image of hughie jennings affixed

the banners are also hung throughout the concourse, with multiples for each decade. here's a look at 1930 back to 1920

and here's the 1930 kiosk

which celebrates the 1935 world champs

1940 banners

and 1950 kiosk

the 1960 kiosk

uses dick mcauliffe's 1965 topps card as an adornment, which is nice.

here are the 1970 banners and kiosk (in the background) with a 1980 banner up close

the 1980 kiosk

celebrates the 1984 world series champions

chet lemon is featured on one of the 1980 banners

while kirk gibson shows up on the 1990 kiosk

gibson did return to the tigers during the 1990's but that image of him is from 1984. it turned out that this kiosk was a 1980/1990 combo.

finally, here's a 1990 banner

featuring dave bergman?

all of that tiger history took place while they played at tiger stadium, located at the corner of trumbull and michigan - known simply as "the corner". i went into a bar inside the stadium that had this display of significant events at the old tiger stadium

cobb, babe ruth, lou gehrig, joe louis, ted williams, hank greenberg, reggie jackson, nelson mandela, and kiss make for a lot of history to be sure.

one more pregame photo from the concourse

before i found my seat along the right field line. it was indeed in full sun, and i was in no rush since it was still early. i asked the usher a couple of questions, and before long, she asked if i was by myself. saying yes, she told me that there was an open seat (a padded chair!) in the shade and in the same section and that i could sit there unless it was purchased by someone. i took her up on the offer and we wound up talking off and on for about half an hour. she's been to all 30 stadiums and had a lot of stories. she was working on the first base side of the stadium for armando galarraga's (should have been) perfect game, as well as one of justin verlander's no-hitters. she later asked me if i wanted a "first game" certificate (i declined) and offered me some temporary tattoos and a postcard (she said the usher swag was in need of replenishment!). i declined the tattoos, but took the postcard.

always be nice to your ushers!

i walked around a bit more, and went into one of the team stores. they had some cards on display - all 2026 topps series 1 with a few mixed release tiger focused packages. 

i decided to buy a pack 

and do my first ever stadium pack rip, as long as you don't consider those mother's card giveaways as packs to be ripped. nothing exciting in my pack, although i did get these two cards back-to-back.

my usher had told me that she had just met jose altuve earlier that morning. we agreed that he was not a tall man, but she had a better idea of just how tall he is. she also noted that tim kurkjian is not a tall man.

the tigers looped video on their scoreboard for current players. the starting pitcher for this game was dodger world champion jack flaherty

and i also took note of former dodger kenley jansen

spoler alert - jansen would wind up taking the loss in extra innings.

here's the game's first pitch from flaherty to jeremy pena

in the second inning, old friend zach mckinstry hit a home run

to give the tigers a 2-0 lead. they went up 3-0 before the astros came back to tie and force extras.

like many other teams, the tigers have a race between innings. their race, at least on the day i was there, featured characters from the toy story movies

i think bullseye "ran like the wind" and won the race. the claw machine toy fell on its face shortly after i took the photo.

later in the game i did some more walking and took some photos from other vantage points

this photo from centerfield shows james outman at bat

he soon thereafter defied the odds and hit a single.

i was still walkling around when the astros tied the game with a lead off home run in the 8th. after a scoreless 9th from jansen and josh hader (although there was a lot of excitement in the bottom of the 9th as hader walked the bases loaded but then riley greene struck out to end the inning and strand all of the runners), the game went off the rails in the 10th. the top of the 10th had jansen coming out for a second inning of work which i knew to be a bad idea, and he wound up giving up four runs. the tigers were able to rally and bring the winning run to the plate in the bottom of the 10th, but wound up falling short. final score was 7-5 astros.

after leaving the stadium, i made sure to make my way to what i would think is the main gate

we've seen it on cards in the past, anyway. i appreciate the detail around the different applications of tigers, including the "gargoyles" affixed to the exterior walls

the ball in the mouth is a nice kitty-kat touch.

walking back to my hotel, i passed a card shop in downtown

it was closing as i passed, so i didn't bother to check it out.

in other baseball card news, topps deemed one moment from the game worthy of a topps now card. 

that's former dodger taylor trammell with raynel delgado who hit his first big league homer in the game to get the astros on the board and cut the tigers' lead to 1. here's the back:

even though it's an astros card, i am always happy to add a card to my "games i've seen in person" mini-collection.

i'll leave you with a photo of the stevie wonder mural a few blocks south of the stadium

i am looking forward to my next trip to motown someday - maybe the 2027 national?