my favorite cards of the year - 2018 edition

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.

this one is pretty easy given that i had previously identified my favorite card of 2018 as part of p-town tom's annual contest.

favorite non-dodger card: topps gallery ian kinsler

you can read why i chose this card here, but basically, it's art!

favorite dodger card: topps archives tommy lasorda

i also posted (briefly) about this card before, too - saying "it's great". i can expand on that a bit here. to me, the norm was for managers to have their own card. this was because i began collecting with packs of 1978 topps which featured the fantastic then and now photos of (almost) every manager in the league. so, when i saw cards from 1979 lump the manager in with the team photo, i was bummed. i later discovered that 1978 was somewhat of an anomaly, as topps had combined the manager and team photo card in 1975, 1976, and 1977.

1977 was the first full year that lasorda managed the dodgers - he had taken over at the tail end of the 1976 season following walter alston's retirement, but all the 1977 topps set had to offer was a tiny photo of tommy on the team card. so, i was happy to see him get a solo card in the 1977 design in 2018. so what if the photo is from 1992.

up next, 2007 - stay tuned!