a common thread of collector generosity

earlier this fall, i received three different mailings from three different collectors. a common theme? dodger stadium.

first, i received an email from andy at stadium fantasium who previously sent me most of the dodger giveaway sets from 2018. this time, he let me know he was sending these cards:

those are four of the five dodger 2021 topps national baseball card day cards produced by topps, but represent the full set that was distributed at a dodger game in august (trevor bauer's card was held back by the club). they are rainbow foil-ish and i am happy to have them.

next, i received a package from brian of highly subjective, completely arbitrary. in it, there were a couple of cards - a 2021 topps mookie betts 1965 chrome insert

and a 1991 juan samuel

o-pee-chee

card. oh my!

but the main contents were a dodger stadium guide

and their 2021 yearbook!

world champions yo!

as usual, there was lots of great stuff in the yearbook. some of the larger articles centered on the 40th anniversary of fernandomania

and the passing of tommy lasorda

nice to see lasorda with steve garvey and ron cey there. i would also like to see the tommy lasorda photo at the bottom right of that page make it on to a card at some point please and thanks.

lasorda also led off the "in memoriam" segment of the yearbook, with don sutton and vin scully's wife following

this section also included tributes to stan williams, ben hines, ron perranoski, norm sherry, jimmy wynn, dick allen, guy wellman, sweet lou johnson, jay johnstone, and three staff members who passed.

another item i will show is the gallery photo of the dodgers' alumni group that makes appearances on behalf of the team. let's remember some guys:

i think al ferrara might have been one of the inaugural members of this group, along with joe moeller, but i can't be certain. great to see so many players from the team of my youth, but this page is proof that time waits for no man.

finally, reader and fellow garvey collector alex reached out a while back noting he was filling out a comc order with one of my top non-dodger wants, a 1992 classic update white travel edition royce clayton card. well, the card finally arrived, and alex passed it on to me

obviously, i wanted this card because of the dodger stadium background - not because of the giants player.

i am very thankful to each of these collectors for thinking of me and sending these items, all tied to dodger stadium - blue heaven on earth!