Monday, September 6, 2021

another summer come and gone

i know summer isn't officially over for a couple more weeks, but i've always associated labor day with its end. that's because of back to school, of course. these days, the days, weeks, months, seasons just sort of roll along.  anyway, baseball is the primary summer sport, and we are heading towards the end of the regular season. i am happy that i was able to get out to a few games and stadiums this year, but sad that dodger stadium wasn't one of them. i plan to be in los angeles next month, so maybe there is a chance if the dodgers are still playing in the postseason.

this post is going to feature a bunch of cards that contain images taken in the confines of chavez ravine, and i'll kick it off with a 1983 donruss nolan ryan card that i culled from my dad's collection:
i spent some time going through some sets from the 1980s looking for dodger stadium cards that i had to give up to the set build back when we were opening packs, and i found quite a few that i then pursued on sportlots for my dodger stadium collection.

1984 donruss charlie puleo

1985 donruss luis aguayo

1986 donruss vince coleman
hubie brooks
ken oberkfell
jose deleon (the original)
steve kemp
jody davis
leon durham
eddie milner
and tony perez
davis and durham look like they could have been standing next to each other.

i looked through some fleer sets, too, and found some more to add.

1983 fleer atlee hammaker

1985 fleer update dave rucker
herm winningham
mickey mahler
joe sambito
calvin schiraldi
rick schu
gary carter
hubie brooks
dave lapoint
and jeff calhoun
obviously those update cards were part of a box set that i never broke rather than packs. easy and cheap pickings on sportlots now.

i went through the 1986 fleer update set as well, and found this jim deshaies

plus a couple from the flagship set - bill gullickson
and scott sanderson

back to update for this 1987 fleer update dave dravecky
and dave meads
cards. 1987 was the last year i added the boxed fleer update sets, so i went to comc to see images from later sets. i found this 1989 fleer update randy kramer card
plus a few from the 1990 fleer update set to add:

dave hollins
luis salazar
dennis boyd
mariano duncan

there were some dodgers, too, that i hadn't yet added to the dodger stadium collection, such as this 1986 donruss bob welch

and some fleer dodgers, like a 1981 fleer mickey hatcher
1981 fleer star stickers davey (davy) lopes
1983 fleer candy maldonado
1985 fleer update al oliver
and 1987 fleer mike scioscia

i also found some oversized cards to add, like this 1984 donruss action all-stars willie mcgee
and these 1987 donruss all-stars cards of glenn davis
and mike krukow

moving to the 21st century, i added a 2001 topps chrome dodgers team card
to a recent sportlots order so i could put it in the dodger stadium collection, and i also picked up a 2017 topps javy baez card
in a lot of cards i recently purchased. with the full playoff crowd it's somewhat hard to tell that he's in dodger stadium, but he is. many of these cards are not necessarily the best examples of dodger stadium backgrounds, but oh well.

the last two dodger stadium cards i bought haven't arrived yet, but i'll share the images. they are both from 2021 topps now, and are turn back the clock cards. here are vladimir guerrero
who moved in to first place as far as expo home run hitters while in dodger stadium back in 2003, and ernie banks
who became the first cub player to have his number retired back in 1992. of course, the ceremony was held in wrigley field, but topps opted for a photo of banks hanging out by the batting cage in dodger stadium. i'm not complaining.

bonus card:
it's not dodger stadium, but it is a site i have visited on a couple of summer vacations. devils tower in wyoming was featured on the 2016 topps allen & ginter natural wonders insert checklist, so i figured i would add the card to my "meaningful and just because" mini-collection. it reminds me of yet more summers come and gone.

4 comments:

  1. You have a great eye for Dodger Stadium. I was able to identify some of these... but most of these I would have had no idea.

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    1. it's a learned trait, i guess. some are tough and i could be wrong, too.

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  2. Fuji's right. I'm really impressed by your ability to ID Dodger Stadium on so many cards. On some baseball cards when I was younger, I'd have a hard time discerning between Dodger Stadium and Shea Stadium.

    And when you come out to SoCal, we've definitely got to meet up somewhere (even if it's at the Dodger Stadium Top of the Park gift shop, which is open practically every day).

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    Replies
    1. i used to stop at the top of the park on random days when i was driving by the stadium. even ate lunch sitting in the seats on some off day.

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